001I am here present. I will be a few minutes late logging into the actual meeting though. Very good. Mr. Pearson here. Miss Thompson, are you here? Here. Is here was required for the meeting and he's here. He's pass so that he walks in. His car took us hostage and on the wrong route. This might not be a bad plan on her. Okay. Is there any moving? No, we're doing the audit first. Correct. And then we'll go into close session. Is that correct? That is correct. Yes, there public comments. We have anybody for public comments? No public comments, sir. Review and approval of the minutes of September 27th. Has everybody had a chance to look at those minutes? Yes. approve. We approve those minutes. Rose Thompson, I move that the minutes of the meeting held on.
002We approve the minutes. We have a second. Sorry, Donald. I will second. Second vote on the minutes. Mick. I vote yes. Miss Pearson. Yes. Thompson. Yes. M. Yes. Chair votes yes. and code is presented. Okay, Mr. SS, are you with us? I am. Hello, everyone. We're ready for you. Okay. Uh I assume everybody's had a chance to uh review the audit report that was presented in the board packet. Uh I will I will start. Well, what I'd like to do is is if everybody will turn to the table of contents in the report a little bit. Uh I'll just kind of briefly go through what's actually in the audit report. I know y'all have looked at this before, but uh the certification obviously there for us for once we go through all this for the
003board to approve. uh the independent audit report. Uh I have we have issued an unqualified opinion on the financial statements. That's what it's referred to. Uh the financial statements on pages 7 through 18. Uh if you want to go to the if you want to go to the balance sheet uh which is on page seven. If everyone looks at that just just briefly uh if you have any questions as we go through go through this please let me know. Uh I've made a few comments related to the have a few comments related to the statement of financial position. Uh the school's overall assets exceeded liabilities by $15 million over $15 million which represents the net assets of the school. Uh the increase in net assets for the year were basically due to had an operating
004uh income revenue over expenses of $70,000. Uh the total assets of the 25 million 2057 uh had had an increase of $1.3 million from the prior year. Uh we had about we had about four almost $5 million uh related to uh CIP construction in progress that went up from the previous year. Obviously that was related to the the construction going on in Fort Worth uh Amarillo and Midland. Uh then we had a decrease in cash of $1.8 million. And then we had a in in the previous year we had what was called a uh operating asset related to operating rights to use asset. It's related to the leases that were on the books last year and we we have to book an asset and liabilities related to that. Uh the reason that's no longer there
005is because now with the construction going on, we've entered into short-term leases. So when there's less when we have leases less than a year though that that those that's not considered necessary any longer. So that's why that's gone from 936,000 down to zero. Uh total liabilities for the year were 10,137 which is an increase of about $1.2 million. A lot of that change obviously is is re due to the increase in the notes that we added to the books this year. uh any questions related to the statement of financial position. So now we can move on to the statement of activities which is the very next page. Uh the overall revenue exceeded expenses by $70,000 that I that I mentioned earlier. Uh overall revenues increased by $333,000 from the prior year. a lot of that
006increase because of the reduction we had in state foundation money. Uh as you can see there the difference uh from from one year to the next. Uh but a lot of that is due to another new item that now is required to show up on the charter school. It's called the it's it says there TRA but it's TRS on behalf of payments. Uh basically we're required now to show a revenue and a related expense uh and that represents what the state is obligated for to to put into the TRS on behalf of the employees. So that that's basically we've got a $486,000 revenue on the books and then we turn around and put a $486,000 expense on the books. So there's no effect to the bottom line for that item. Uh overall expenses increased about
007a million dollars this year. Uh again, most of that is related to an increase in payroll. Any questions regarding that statement? So if we go back to the if we can go back to the table of contents. So what we have here is we just went over the statements uh the statement of financial position position the statement of activities. Uh then you have the statement of cash flows which basically will show you will show you how the cash changed from one period to the next. And then of course there's the notes of the financial statements. Then we have all the supplementary information uh listed there as you can you can review those schedules if you haven't already. Uh then we get down to the compliance and internal control section. Uh we have a report uh
008a report on internal controls where we go in and we have to review internal controls related to the school and test those controls. Uh and then we have to note whether any material significant deficiencies and we did not note any. That's what that report basically says. Uh the independent auditors report on compliance. Uh we have to go in and test the compliance related to the major program. The major program this year was was the ESSER programs. Uh we reviewed all the we reviewed all the required compliance that we have to review and test. Uh again finding no no problems within that program. uh that if if you go to uh if we can go to page uh 33 this is this page is where it summarized everything that we basically issue opinions on. Uh it
009starts with the financial statements as you can see all the answers to those questions are no we had an auto we issued an unmod unmodified opinion. Uh the federal awards the same way we found no no issues and again unmodified opinion. It shows you there which uh which er fund that we tested. uh and then the audit qualifies as a low risk which basically means we didn't have any findings in the previous year so you qualify as a lowrisk audit. Uh that's really my comments and if you have any questions I'll be happy to try to answer them. Uh and yes the audit was very went very smoothly this year. Uh Tammy and Annabelle were a huge help in getting the things done timely. Uh so I appreciate all their work. Any questions? I don't
010have any questions. I just want to ask confirmation of a couple numbers and maybe ask a question about on page. This is page 33 on the financial statements. Mhm. 13 cash equivalents. Okay. At 5,670,387 cash equivalence that was uh at the close of the company period of time June 30th. That's uncovered cash. That's what that represents me. Yes, that that is the that is the cash as of 6:30 2024. Well, later on some discussions about budget. So that's a that discussion. So if you if you look at that if you look at the statement of financial position uh that that will agree to what we show as cash and cash equivalents on that statement. So that that is your cash balance as that as of that date. question on page 37 the uh I mean
011the budget schedule [Music] figure original final all the way across for the 59 twins federal revenues distributed to the Texas education at 4 million 376120 that includes the estra funds and that's going away. Is that correct? Uh bear with me just a minute. Uh what what page were you referring to? Mine is 37, but I have 37 and 22. So I'm not sure which one. You're talking you're you you're looking at the budget comparison. Is that what you're looking at? Yes. Okay, I'm sorry to ask you to repeat yourself, but which which uh you're looking funds the 4,376120 that includes the extra funds which is something north of $3 million that that that is that is correct. So the same report next year reflect something more like made some I don't know what big but
012less for this car. so all the err fund money you're you're right is that was like I think the two err funds was around $2.8 million. Uh if you look at if you look at page if you look at the page nine uh or page if you look at page eight, excuse me, uh it'll show you uh exactly how much was received in ESER funds and it was around $2.6 million actually for the current year. Uh we had we had an SR2 fund last year. We had $1.2 million that we didn't receive in the current year. And now we've got the uh the 2.5 million this year that we only received $542,000 in the previous year. So yeah, those will be budget considerations for sure. Don't have any other question. Any questions, comments? No questions
013or comment. None from me. No, sir. Right. Well, thank y'all. Thank you all for your time and uh if that if there is any other questions that come up, I'll be happy to try to answer them and and in whenever they do come up. Thank you all. Thank you, Gary. Thank you. I believe that that's a comment I've heard for years and years. I don't know how many calls you get, but anyone ever wants to talk to you privately about something or ask you a question that might sound stupid in public, which be me quite often call. Yeah, anytime. Anytime I'm available. Uh, do we have a we accept the audit? We have to approve this. We don't have to like it, but we have to approve it. We don't like it, but I'll move
014that we uh approve the audit as presented. Do we have a second? Rose Thompson. Second. Have a motion second that we approve the audit presented. Uh, Miss Dick, are you with us? Yes, I am back full-time now and I vote yes. Uh, Miss Pearson, yes. Miss Thompson, yes. Yes. Chair votes yes. Audended and we have some deadline coming up by the end of this month to get this. That's reason for timing. Correct. um statutoily we have to have the um audit approved with the board approval letter um and the AFR data template uploaded by the 27th of November. Well, at the time RMA moved to fis year one, I was in favor of that. I thought it was the thing to do. But now that I'm sitting up here, I'm not so sure that I
015wouldn't like to move back slow anyway. Okay. The uh we are now move to close session to close government code 551071. Discussion regarding grow property protection code and government code 551.074 personel matters that session bankel matters. Yeah, we'll start with Okay, it's 12:40. We're coming out of executive session. Uh back hear me? Yes, we can hear you. We have one of the one of the business coming out of the executive station. Absolutely. Okay. Um I move to approve the superintendent evaluation goals for the 2025 spring year as amended. Okay, we have a motion to approve the super valuation billed. I'll second the motion. Second vote. Mr. I vote yes. Miss Pearson. Yes. Yes. Yes. Stop here. We We don't have the It's a foundation. I think I'm available. Um Carrie said she sent her a
016message. Um take days to push available says she um she won't be available until she Okay, we move on to the next uh item is Pearson. Um advocacy report. Oh, hi you guys. All right, let me let me one second. You can go ahead and present that as a presentation. Anyone want to add this? Yeah. One second. Yeah. Is that correct? Give me one second. Yeah. I was trying to find my notes on that. Yeah, that's that's fine. Okay. Um yeah, we can go ahead and do it. So, really quickly, we they just started this uh association basically where uh they you know, basically um board members are representing the Texas Public Charter School Association for speaking on that. So, just kind of give you a brief overview of what's what it is and what's
017going on. Uh TBCSA's mission is to support and advocate for a policy and regulation climate that ensures every student in Texas has access to every improving public school option. So there are cheerleaders for better words. Next um so yeah so basically TBCA their job is basic they're they go in there they tell the story and they make sure that you know they're fighting for for our for policies you know making things happen on our behalf. um making sure that laws are, you know, to our favor and things of that nature. But we make sure more people know about the great things happening at charter schools, enabling an in support of policy and political climate that allows charters to flourish. And it kind of gives you um kind of an overview basically of uh some of
018the households that have been that have been passed um by TDCSA uh over the past few years. And you know up here we're kind of the next one that we're that we're um going for is making sure that uh there's a maintenance bill and making sure they're trying to pass a bill in which uh and this would actually be very helpful to us but it will go towards maintenance of charter schools. You can go ahead and go to the next one and um there you go. So yeah, it just kind of goes it's an oversight there. We can go ahead and email this to you, but it's just kind of goes over u improvements and regulation that have been passed over the years, best practices, um you know, just the growth of charters basically throughout
019the state um and how we're able, you know, so they they truly lead for us in making sure that everything is um in compliance and making sure that we're also being treated fairly um for our TA schools, our students, teachers, and everyone involved. So now what they're asking basically is um having our board advocacy kind of go in there kind of like what what we spoke about here in the rec in the last few um um meetings that we had is making sure that our board is actually out there friend and speaking on behalf of our school. uh you know but we want to make sure that our charter schools is you know well one of the things that I want to make sure that it is still in existence and so what we have
020to do is kind of advocate uh there's always miscommunic misinformation consistently is spread uh there's anti-charter bills filed every session um so 19 in the session for example and then there's not a whole lot of support still so you have to remember that while we are actually RMA is a pretty big charter school um in the state of Texas um so we're very very thankful for that we want to keep it that way, right? But that's one of the things that we are kind of um they're in support of in making sure that charter stays alive um particularly in this climate. So there are a couple actually I mean this is how big charter schools are are not very popular uh but there's a couple of anti-tarter coalitions. I would ask my board to really
021start looking to your local politics um understanding um even local school board what's happening who's involved uh what organizations and coalitions are out behind and backing u our our education system as well um here locally for example aft is a big one uh and is very supportive of our local politicians so it's also something that you you know get involved and kind of just I mean if you don't get involved at least understand what's happening locally particularly in where areas in which our schools are at. So the charter school advocacy toolbox these are decisions about charter uh about public charter schools need to hear from charter community. Currently there are efforts from um you know from our charter school boards, our teachers, our parents or superintendent just basically all around making sure that we are
022advocating for our students and for our charters. So, one of the reasons they picked board members and part of our my job at least is as a representative is making sure that um you know that we we can speak on behalf that I can speak on behalf of everyone of of of us as board members. Um and we representing our students well as well in our schools. um you know there's uh aspects of legislation that they kind of need to hear about all the great things that are happening in our schools. So I always ask that if they have a great story to share do share it um I think it's something that we also need to keep the positivity and understanding of what's happening that um giving credits to our teachers and our students
023as well. Um, I have a lot of praises to give here in the last seeing the the whole implementation of the four of the four graduation dates that we have and seeing some of our students that have graduated here in the last month. It's really commendable and it's something that's really new that RMA is leading the way. But this is one of the reasons that again we are leaders and we have to be out there and speaking on our be on on on behalf of our school. But making sure that we share perspectives that are largely unheard from underutilized address lawmakers misconceptions about charter school board about about charter board members amplify advocacy for public charter schools in our local community and within our network of influence. And I go back mean for me here
024at least the community is very much about a networking groups they have. Um so the last in less in the beginning of what in the end of of August in August basically I went around um a lot of these networking groups it didn't take a whole lot of time it was a two-minute presentation talking about what RMA is how we help our students and really giving a understanding of where we are located one um and a story always helps on one of you know of one of our students but also that aspect of the four graduation you know of graduation dates is something that's really need for our district in particular here in Corpus Christie. Um, and I would say all over the state that we have to commend RMA about. It doesn't take much
025to really just kind of talk about who we are and making sure that we are present in our community. And then uh TPCSA is committed to advocacy design and they're designated a board advocacy chair to work collaboratively with TPCSA uh board advocacy chairs update or our job is to basically update the board at each board meeting and engage at an advocacy actions throughout the year. So just moving forward if there's any other aspects of you know bigger than just our district uh that impacts charter I mean this is something that we definitely want to keep the conversation alive and um you know also voice our have our voices out there as well and then if you're wanting to advocate at any time there are um significant opportunities to do so that's Thank you. Go ahead,
026M. I'm sorry. I would encourage that's thank you or to thank you get involved in the advocacy work you know um just if there's an event in your n in your area where the legislators are are having something whether it's a forum or whatever just to get in front of them and be able to share what RMA does. A lot of the times um we're told not to call when we go before legislators not to call oursel a charter school uh but to call a dropout credit recovery school. And you'll be amazed that legislators when they hear that they go, "Oh, you're doing God's work." But when you say we're a charter school, they don't take us kindly. So if you do your advocacy work, but getting out and meeting the s uh the sbes
027and the state legislators and and things like that and just sharing with them, inviting them to our campuses to see what we do um is is paramount to um the work that we do for our students. Thank you, M. Thank you, Miss Pearson. All right. Well, um, just to give you an update of where we are as a district, as of October 24th, our, uh, student enrollment was at 1596. We mentally broke 1,600 uh about what about a week ago on Tammy call. We broke about 1,600 for the first time and then um uh we purged some of some of the students out and it went back under 1,600, but we did hit 15 uh for a little while. So as you see there um we have a lot of parents that that are pending
028the completion of applications which is our largest number 183. I have asked principles and registars to reach out to those students. They have done in some cases um some have come in you know one or two or three or four or whatever. Um, but in other cases, uh, we can't get in touch with the student or the parent, but we are trying, um, I've asked them to send the SCCL's out to the home if they need to to try and locate and find those, uh, students. Um, that's out there. Um, one of the things that Carl and I have been talking about and going back and forth on is that the fact that there are no longer any boundaries uh, for charter schools. Um, and so we're still navigating that. We're we're waiting for some
029further guidance on what that looks like for um you know being a open enrollment charter school I guess if you will with no boundaries. Um and so we'll be updating you all with that information at the next board meeting what that you know what that looks like for for RMA. Um most of the surrounding cities where we serve kids we have boundary I mean we are able to accept them. um you know so it would be you know my only concern is you know if a student is 30 you know a 30 minute 40m minute drive from the school they enroll with us you know what is that attendance going to look like you know because they may not be able to get to school consistently so you know we're kind of looking at all
030of those things but right now we're we're um you know we we are trying to figure out where these boundary lines you know extend to and how all of that works right now TA hasn't given any real information. Deputy Jennifer, you all temper room, but they really didn't have any kind of qualifications as to if you have to have open boundaries, if you don't have to have open boundaries. So, it's just up in the air. Um, I will say that um some people have concerns about um you know, transportation issues for students and things of that nature. if you decide to take, you know, kids, you know, would you be on the hook for transportation or would you not be on the hook for transportation? So, there's different factors that go into that. Becky, Jennifer,
031did you all have anything to share about the boundaries that you uh No, I mean so from you know visiting with um with others they just um the paperwork right that it alleviates uh like for the rugurus uh for our teams um lays on you know and so on. And then two, just the possibility that the elimination of the geographic boundaries could definitely mean more students in our schools. So I just feel like it's going to be interesting to see once those reports can be produced if you know what kind of an impact are we having, you know, and it'd be great to see that we'd be, you know, with that possibility of getting more students in our campuses. Yeah. So that's what we're we're monitoring is how you know what what the requirements are
032for the different types of you know students that we would serve and you know all of those things. So it's a lot of factors that play into it. Um I do know that open enrollment ISDs that decide to have no boundaries they don't provide transportation. They don't have to provide transportation. That was a conversation I had with I think Joe Hoffer at the charter school conference was that ISDs don't have that obligation to provide transportation. Um so we'll see. Um so nonetheless the uh parents 183 and as you see if we got all of the students out of SOS we would have 18 potentially could have 1870 kids. So we're working it. It hasn't come to fruition in that regard because a lot of those 183 kids we can seem to either, you know, we
033get a few of them that we do reach out to and they come, but a large majority of them are uh hard to track down, if you will. Um, as you can see, the ADA is now at 79.2 from 81.5 um% and this was as of this was as of October 24th. So, and then retention is down by about 10% from where it was. It was at 90 and it's at about 80% 79.6 80% um as far as the retention rate goes. Um again, we are uh Dr. Given and and myself and the executive team, we have been emphasizing to the principles the importance of keeping the kids that they have um making sure that it's a welcoming environment, making sure that students, you know, are are uh treated with the utmost respect and that
034we're trying to provide the resources that they need to encourage them to stay in school. So, um that has been um you know a push and as of the 24th our enrollment is at 1596 which is up this time last year we had 1579 um uh and then in uh I don't know how I did la last month. Yeah, it's up from last month but last year we were at 1459 in October 2023 and we're at 1596 this year. So that's about almost 100 little overund 40 kids more than we had last year. So um and then Tammy will give an update on the financial um um workings of the district. But however, please keep in mind that we built our budget on a 1680 enrollment with an average daily attendance of about uh 79%.
035We're at the 79%. We're just not at the 1680 enrollment. So um and so we would be paid on uh 1327 students is what we built our budget on that we asked the board to approve. And so we're constantly um as you all are aware from our close session discussion we are constantly monitoring and looking at ways to ensure that the district maintains tries to get to a surplus and operate at a at a surplus versus a deficit like we did last year. Um as you can see the vacant positions um districtwide uh we are at 13 uh uh vacancies. Um you can see Colleen is fully staffed. Odessa has one opening. Lik is at uh fully staffed. Houston is three. Fort Worth is three. Corpus and Amarillo are fully staffed. Pasadena has three vacant
036positions. Midland and then central office has one. Midland has two. And um as you can see four campuses are at 100% in the breakdown by percentage. And then as you can all as you see um our number of certified staff is dwindling. You know in the past um we had um um 45% districtwide it looks like. That's that's um that was certified. Um and so we we used to be at like 60 it was around 64% last year. And so as you can as you all are aware certified teachers are getting paid more money in various uh cities. Uh you know Houston ISD is paying teachers very well. Um and uh some of the other towns in West Texas I know uh Ectctor County is offering quite a bit of money not as much as
037Houston. So it's very competitive um out there. And as you all have are aware, I've shared with you all my concerns about the pay scales and keeping us competitive with some of the local districts where we have students. Any questions about the enrollment numbers or just I'm sure you covered it. The budget's built on 1327 ADA power. Yes. And what the best current figure we have maybe Tammy the current ADA as far as Oh, as of the last FSP um report it was 1158. Um that's what the state has assess. So I think we just ended the second six weeks this week. I think So it'll be adjusted. The FSB will be adapted um in the next probably in the next cycle um since the 6 weeks report will have ended. But for the first
0386 weeks we were 1158. So we should be right around 1,200 then because I think you told me we were up by about 40 or something. I look at Sylvia's report um the report the most recent one she has us at 1210. Yeah. So so we're about 90 and 127. So 110. So that's what we're um so any other questions and then uh I wanted to share with you all um you have your the charts uh below. Um and as far as additional updates I wanted to share with you that the big push uh from TPCSA and everything has been the new chapter 100 rules which I've given you the link. You're welcome. It's a lot of reading, but I will give you the summary of the uh things that TPCSA they call them potential
039wins. Well, the potential wins became the wins. So, um, Jessica didn't have an updated slide, but the geographic boundaries, removal of geographic boundaries, um, as far as it charter school will no longer be required to, uh, identify or expand geographic boundaries, although it is allowable to identify primary and secondary enrollment boundaries to prioritize for lottery purposes. So, the boundaries went away. Um, also whenever we open up a new campus, uh, whenever charter schools open up new campuses, the school no longer used to have to, this charter used to have to mail out, poor Becky would have to mail out letters to every school district that was affected or impacted by our opening. So, if we designated eight boundary school districts, she had to send it out to the mainland and then those eight and they
040had to be certified and mailed out. But no longer is that uh charter schools will no longer be required to send out the notifications. Instead, TEA sends them out now. Uh and so they will send them out to the ISDs and members of the legislature for for the campuses. The other big thing that came in chapter 100 rule change was the non-expansion amendments. um are it says none expansion amendments are now clearly uh designated into the material or nonmaterial changes which basically means you can file them at any time now. Is that correct Becky? It's no there used to be a window. Tell me if I'm explaining this wrong but there used to be a window that you could file expansion amendments or or non-expansion amendments and that is no longer you can file them
041at any time. The expansion amendments I believe was from January. We're going to open up a new campus, right? From like January to March or something like that. We have like a short window. Now that window's gone. Yes, sir. But now the nonexpansion amendments though as far as that they uh the process and the timeline it says that the the changes separated separate process and timeline. Do you have any updates or what did you all get out of that? So on that what we learned is they have created two types of non-expansion amendments a material and a um material and a non material. Um and would you like me to talk about that now? Oh okay. So um so and y'all will hear about this later in the meeting today with in regards to the
042Houston relocation. We will be requesting the board to approve a material non-exual amendment. And so they categorize them under different things. So for example, non-material non-expansion would be like a campus name change um campus uh start date change a fiscal year change those would fall under non-expansion non a material non-expansion would be like a relocation of the campus bylaws articles of incorporation those would be classified under material. So there's different timelines for those two separated separating and then the commissioner with a nonmaterial he has up to 30 days within 30 days he will reply with an answer in regards to our request with a material they have up to 60 days and um and there you can see also the expansion amendment change which was a great one you can now request expansion amendments and
043they have three years basically to get that campus open 36 months um which was huge. So you could technically apply for a campus charter get it and you you used to only have 12 months. Used to have to open it up in 12 months. So if you got the charter you had to have it open that following year. Now it's 36. And so that was uh that was a really good one. Um or 18 months it looks like it says between January and March we up to 18 months to open. So now 36. So it was about a year and a half basically. Yes. And then removal of 50% in tested grade that basically um that the requirement to have 50% of your enrolled students in a tested grade u was was um uh the
044expectation in order for them to have to Becky I'm going let you talk about that one too. the 50% tested grade. Do you So in order to expand, I guess what I in order to expand, you had to have 50 like if you're going to add a braid, you had to have 50% of the students in that tested grade. Yeah. Sorry, sir. I don't believe that was something that was here. We're doing another workshop. Make sure I'm not missing anything. And then the last thing uh guys that I want to share was the training requirements. this affects the board directly and I do want uh Becky and Jennifer to talk about that because there was a rule change for the training requirement sections um and they've been streamlined and basically it it it uh ro
045specific training now so if you're the treasurer I don't know how that would impact do you all have any uh extra information on how that the training for ro specific requirements so Dr. Anderson they when we attended this workshop the uh rule chap the chapter 100 rule rewrite um unfortunately they didn't discuss that they didn't they did discuss that there were changes in the training requirements however they weren't specific and how that changed for each role um they probably did they did state that uh more information was going to become available as um all these changes kind of went into effect and um kind of test it out. Um so we should be receiving more information. We just don't have that right now. Well, we'll share it with the board once we get that, but
046it is going to be um more the train where it used to be you just had these buckets and you just had to get hours, but now it'll be more if you're the president or specific treasurer. I'm sure that it will be. So, we'll all find out. Yes, we will. And that's All right. I mean, you get you only stay generally for one year in a position. So, in three years, you'd get trained, you know, be well, all over the position. Never mind. And that's all that I had as far as additional updates was uh that the chapter 100 rule change had been released. And so, I put the link in there. you're welcome to go through and read it. It's it's a lot of information. And one thing I will say about uh they
047call it HPE. You may hear this term HPE, high performing entities. Uh the commissioner uh is really pushing to bring in outofstate high performing entities uh into Texas. Um it has been said that that the the the push is to really get rid of the smaller charter uh networks and replace them with the larger national uh entities that have basically figured out the prescription for high achieving student uh you know making getting high achieving students. Um and so you'll see more and more of that. you're going to start to see more and more charter schools be invited in because they can streamline the process. Uh the commissioner can streamline the process to help get the charters in and things of that nature if they're high performing entities. Um there's a way to a quick way
048to get in and start operating. So just you know if you hear HPEs that's what it means high performing entities but that is the push is to bring in big national uh charter operators into Texas that have proven results that includes dropout recovery schools too systems unless you have questions that report. Tammy financials. Um I have summarized some of the financial information um on the introductory page uh for the month of September for our financials. Um we have recruited 35 uh days of revenue out of 180 days um that we have for the current school year. And looking at the chart on the next page, um the enrollment data by month for the past three years is reflected here. And as of this, what's the highest day of enrollment that we've had in the month
049of September was 1560 students. And on the following page is our ADA for the month of September. Um we are at 78% attendance um which is a slight drop from last month um and slightly left from this time last year. However, we did budget at 79% so it's very close to uh that target budget is kind of where that is yours because the number I had Jim said 79%. Because you get yours from Jim like last week, right? Or Yeah, we're a month behind. Yeah, we're always a month behind. Yeah. So, um, my information is always lagging yours. Okay. And on page 8 through 7, this chart represents the foundation school payment revenue that is received versus the amount that we budgeted. So, based on uh the budget that we approved, it was 15.4 million.
050And currently with the enrollment numbers that we have, we are recording revenue at 13.43 million. Um, as we discussed just a minute ago, that's based off of our first six weeks data. Uh, our second six weeks data will be right behind that and it will be adjusted accordingly to the uh attendance reports that we submit. on the following page. Uh this is our days cash on hand and this calculation is done by breaking down our annual expenses into a daily amount and then you divide that daily amount by your cash balance that's available at the end of the month. So as you can see from this chart um we have 97 days cash on hand for the month of September. So we will be able to operate um if everything ceased today, we'll be able
051to operate um on just the funds we have in the bank for another 97 days. And on the following page uh we can see through the month of September that we have $4.3 million in expenses and $3.3 million in revenue. And on the following page uh 90 we are looking at the administrative cost ratio. Um the new calculation for this is we are comparing our administrative costs which are in function 21 and function 41. They're being compared to the overall district costs this year. And currently where we were at, where we're at as of the month of September, we would score six out of 10 points with that equation. And here we have the uh estimated charter burst rating. If the fiscal year ended today, these are the scores that we would have. Um we
052would score a meet standard with 76 points. um we did lose some points on that administrative cost ratio um which we just looked at and then our budgeted revenues to actual revenues um has been an issue for um the past couple years and um that's off by more than 10% and also our debt service ratio right now. Um but again this is based this is not based on a projection. This is based on um you know basically just um a month and a half of of school. So, we've got lots of time to turn this around. And on the following page, our income statement shows that most of our spending is either at or under budget for this time of the year. Um, we do see function 23 as being slightly higher than we would
053expect. Um but that is primarily uh due to the fact that we have had um a couple new principles come in this year and their salaries and all of their benefits are reported in function 23 and at the time that the budget was approved uh we were unaware of those new positions and where those positions would fall on uh the pay scale based on their experience. So that was just um an an unknown at the time that we went into the budget season. Function 61 um is more spending than we would see this time of the year u because the consulting services that are being provided for the RMA Foundation um weren't included there. So it looks like those expenses are slightly elevated for right now. Um function 33 is lower because um at this
054point we have not started our hearing and vision tests which would fall into that um function code for our students. And then function 52 which is security is also lower uh because um we really don't start spending for security guards until mid August when the students come back. So, um again, we we've not really utilized a lot of um of security basically since um school doesn't start until midway through August and the guards are there when the students are there. So, um we'll catch up on on that one. And function 51 is also a little lower than we would expect uh for contracted maintenance and repairs. Um, we'll just say we hope we can keep that there um for that one because function 51 is always um a little bit higher than we would like
055to be. So, we're good right there. And then um we are in a deficit right now. Uh as we do normally see for the first several months of the year, um if we do look back to the same time period of September of 2023, our deficit was 600,000 which is uh slightly less than where we see right now. But our revenues are consistent. Um so we can basically you know determine that a lot of things in the cost sector have gone up. Um you know that that hits us all on a personal level and it hits the school on that level as well. So we are seeing increased costs. Um everything has gone up and uh and that's just something that you know is is part of the economic issues that we're facing right now.
056And page 93 is our balance sheet which reflects assets and liabilities. Our net assets is reflected at the bottom of the page at 13.9 million. And that 13.9 million represents 359 days of operating expenses based on our current data. And page 94 is the summary of finance which is dated September the 20th. This is uh September 24th prior to the first six weeks attendance report. But when we look at the October summary of finance, we'll see that slight dump there uh in the refined ADA number um which was affected after that first six weeks of data and that is all I have. Let's see. Yes. Our January 30th meeting. Could we look forward to show four year history on the ADA for campus? I know we got a report, but it's for the district. Yes.
057Right. So you want to see it by campus. Yeah. If we get 88 rather than percent on a percent, we can kind of back input. If we get 88 for some period of time, some historical data, but sure what we do with it. Get some more data to look at and make decisions. Yes, I can prepare that um for the next board meeting. Absolutely. January. Yes. Absolutely. One time one off. Okay. Absolutely. See, we're gonna just quickly go through our facilities update on some of the projects that we have going. Uh we'll start with the Amarillo um relocation. As you guys uh know and from our our earlier discussion uh we're in the process of uh working with Frost Bank and making some decisions on how to proceed with the Amarillo. Uh one of the
058things that we're going to see later in the meeting today is a lease extension for Amarillo. As this project is delayed, we're going to need to extend the the lease another six months to be able to accommodate that that time period. Go ahead and we can just pause on these. Once again, uh floor plans uh are all done. Demolition's done on this project. Uh so we're ready to to move ahead should we decide to do so. One more. And in Fort Worth, uh same thing. uh this project has been uh I wouldn't say delayed, but it's uh it's been put on hold until we can decide uh which one we're going to move forward with. Uh or if we're going to proceed with both projects. So, um go ahead and scroll through these. This is
059go back to that picture. Uh just wanted to to show you the the pictures the the building in the the top part of the um would be the central office building and then the school complex would be on the the lower right hand side of the page there. So just to give you an idea what um Mr. Clemens was talking about earlier when he was talking about the road that divided the two properties. Um, so that's the the school is on the bottom right, the central office be on the top left. Okay. Uh, once again, this is the sort of the the school layout. We have some some different options um to to move forward with on that. Uh, the central office side, not quite as developed, but um, we're we're in the process of
060of getting that worked out. um Houston relocation. So, this project is actually on track. Uh we're in the process of construction. We're probably about a third of the way through on construction with this project. Uh Dr. Anderson and myself will be in Houston on Monday to uh actually do a walk of the the complex to see uh how construction is going. Um we're meeting regularly with the uh the contractor and the the brokers just to make sure everything is proceeding and um currently we're we're on track with this project. So we would be moving out over the course of the the holiday um in December and we would start classes um here on the 7th of January. Next picture. This is the um exterior of our existing building on the left and we just have
061some signage up that says that we're relocating and uh at the new location uh we have some signage up that that shows where you know the future home of RMA. Uh go ahead. These were some uh construction photos from last week. Uh all the walls are up. the the bit of concrete cuts there on the right are the restrooms. Um those have been filled and we should be able to to see those the the restroom area taking shape when we're there this next week. Uh love roof repair. Uh we have uh our insurance company has uh finalized all of their paperwork and so we're actually going to be moving forward with a a roof replacement in in um in love. We've uh finalized that with the uh a contractor that we've chosen through the the
062tips co-op to um to do that project. Uh that would um give us uh a a 10-year actually we're we're going with a a larger 20-year um replacement uh on that roof. We had originally planned for a 10-year replacement, but we're going with the 20-year replacement because our insurance claim turned out better than we had hoped. So, uh we'll move forward with that. Next picture. And you can see this is the roof that we're replacing it. It's quite a bit of ponding up there and quite a quite a few leaks. So, um we're looking forward to getting that replaced. And that's it for kind of a a quick update on our our projects. Questions, comments? forward projects further in between the closed and open sessions discussions. You sort of you're expanding some information on these
063forward to get us some numbers. We're gonna we're gonna get numbers for um breaking it out into pieces in Fort Worth and and uh comparing those to the Amarillo so you guys can make a decision. Um All right. Then as you all aware, we like to keep the board a breast of where we are in the 2023 2026 strategic plan. um and just so that you all kind of know where we are on um each of the pieces. So, I'm going to ask Dr. Given, are you on? Yes, sir. I'm on. All right. Would you run us through uh where we are on the postsecondary success initiatives? Sure. Hold one sec. get to that page. Okay. Uh, academics is on track on everything. Hold on one sec. What page is that? If you don't mind
064telling me so I can. Uh, that is going to be page 120. Thank you. Okay. Uh with our new partnership, we added a new partnership with Tarant Community College. Uh so far our sites with postsecary partnerships is now at 77% that is um what is it? Um six I mean seven out of nine of our campuses have that. We're continuing to work on the other two. Uh student participation in partnerships is at 30%. Which is on track. Uh increase in student graduating with CCMR is at 12%. Actually 92% of our term one grads had a CCMR credit. So we're definitely on track to increase our CCMR graduation rate. students taking a college prep course through Texas College Bridge is definitely on track. Right now we're at 55%. Uh it will be higher, but at this
065point, you know, we we've only finished completed one quarter. Uh and then students completing a CTE program, again, we're on track. We're at 35%. Again, keep in mind that we've only completed one grading period. Dr. Given. Yes. Was asking if there are any questions, comments and Christina, would you share the school leadership your attention? Sure. Just the highlights if you would. So our average scores on our climate and culture survey it's about 56%. Um we contract those surveys through AHART and we will we do them in the spring. Um he reports similar clients to be about 76%. Um average staff level across all campuses. Our staff have an average tenure of about three years but they come to us or leave us with eight years of professional experience. the campus with network voter scores of
06650 or 50. Um again this is from our last culture survey. Uh we had one location that met that threshold and then decreased major attrition. Um we have seen a we're sitting at about 20% right now. We've seen a much higher amount of turnover starting in August of this year than we typically see. Um, I'm hopeful that that will kind of level out and rewrite itself, but it's it's just a little more than what we used to. And that's all I have. When the people are leaving, what would you say they're going? Are they leaving education or going to the schools or just um typ the ones who have um left us with notice um have been leading us to seek different opportunities with more dams? Uh so days cash on hand um for the
067end of September we had 97 days cash on hand. Just as a reminder it's up from last month. Correct. Um and just as a reminder 60 days is the target for TEA. So um we're good there on our budget. Our revenues are under by about 8% right now and but our expenses are also under overall by about 3%. We are at a meet standard for charter first and again that's as of September. So that's not a projected rating. It's where we stand currently which is very difficult to assess you know in the month of September for for the entire year. And then our charter school performance framework uh was 100 at the last um announced at the last grading that was announced. Oh and that's it for me. Sorry. Same color. I was going to
068keep going if that's you. you are right here. So, um on mine, the annual safety and security audits are on track. We have um scheduled audits uh for this year. Uh we have five of them scheduled and as a matter of fact, we had one of those uh take place in Fort Worth today. So, we're on schedule for that. um compliance with the drudal uh drill logs. We're on track with that. We're uh only 30% uh complete for for the year. So, um we're we're uh on track with our uh our drill logs. And then with our intruder detection audits, um we're going to say on track, uh we're at 11% because we've only had one out of nine of those audits. Uh those are the ones that are done by the local education service
069centers and we passed that with 100%. So that's where we're at. And last but not least, uh as far as the foundation, we were expecting an update. Um Miss um is connected, so she's ready to give an update. Well, once we finish every um but so she'll be given an update on that, but as of today, no money has been raised. Um we are still in the process of getting the foundation established and that any questions about the strategic plan. So we all ready for someone to report or not? Yes. Can we move through the Well, we're going to action items and come back. Action items would be next. Yes. Action items. Action. Okay. Board approval ratification. As you can see, the um uh contracts that I approved for this uh past time and I'm
070asking the board to ratify. Um I did sign for the tips which was for the roof in Lach um to have that repaired. Is that right? Called the tips for the love roof, correct? Yes. Yes. Um and so $2,500 um uh that I'm asking the board to graph. Then for the sign depot, um we had the $1,500 which was to um put up for the um Oh, was it Houston? The sign depot. Oh, yes, that was for Houston. Yes, it is. Yeah. So, for Houston. So, I'm asking the board to ratify uh those uh contracts that I have signed and we have no approvals. No approvals. consideration possible to policy group 2.206 regarding a grade of course it's one we have to approve these the raifications you have move to approve the contracts two okay
071we have a motion to approve the contracts to sign I move the board approve the contracts listed in exhibit one and ratify the contracts under exhib. Tim I will second the motion. Have a motion to second we approve the contracts as presented by Dr. Anderson. Mr. N vote yes. Miss yes. Motion carries to go to the meeting. I think this one we talked about. Okay. Yes. Talked about last month. Yes. Previous before Dr. Gibbons begins. Um let me make sure that we understand. We we met Becky and Dr. Gibbons and I we looked through this policy on this grade thing several times. Dr. Gibbons brought out a good point. Uh you'll notice in her recommendation and I support um a student should be only able to to retake the course once and and the reason
072I support that is because we don't get paid each time a student if a student takes a class over and over again we don't get any funding for that that after if they've passed it then we don't get any additional funding they would just be taking the course. Um and so we felt that it was in the best interest of the district that a student have one opportunity uh to take the course. Um and my my my uh recommendation is that we give them the higher grade. Um so if they take the course, if they decide they want to retake the course one time, they would get the higher grade. And that's that's my recommendation, but I want Dr. Given to give you all three options. And then the board will need to select the
073option that they support and would like for us to improve. And and Dr. Anderson, do you mind if I introduce our newest principle before I get started? If you would do the policy first and then we'll go. Absolutely. Okay. So um we are revisiting uh the um regarding repeating a grade for a course in which you have a student has already earned credit. Okay, I I want to earn you know emphasize the student already has passed this class. So, uh, the original stated policy is a student who receives a passing grade or who earns credit for a high school course shall retain or Richard Milburn's original assignment of a grade or award of credit when a student is ret is retained under this policy unless Richard Milburn adopts a policy. What? So basically what that
074means is if a student retakes a course they keep the original grade and that's the standard for the state unless we in this meeting decide to change that policy. So option one is to keep in place the original policy meaning you get the grade that you get even if you take it over. Okay. Option two, ready to receive an average of the two. I'm sorry. Option one is let me go to the bottom. Let me am I looking at this correctly? Okay, I'm look under suggested motions. Option one, I move that that the policy 2.106 be approved as currently written. So that's the original policy. Option two, Richard Milbour Academy will permit a student who re who has received a passing grade or earned credit for high school course the opportunity to re repeat the
075course once. Upon repeating the course, the student will receive the higher of the two grades. That's option two to receive the higher of the two grades. Okay. Option three is upon res repeating the course the student will receive an average of the two grades. So option one is the policy stays in place. Option two is the higher of the two grades. Option three is the average of the two grades. Before the chair calls for uh a vote, I'd like to have some discussion. and keeping in touch with national laws and what they do. I am in favor of number two for the reason is let's just say you take the LSAT. If you take the LSAT uh the second time, they will give you the highest of the two grades. And I think if we're
076going to flip-flop and we are at liberty to do exactly what we like to do as a district, uh that's why I am looking at option number two. Thank you. Donald Mimick. Um I concur with that. I also would choose option two. I believe that it's in the best interest of a of the kid to be able to do that. I mean, if they want to take the class over, get a better grade, I'm all for it and I think they should be rewarded for that. So, you're saying the average Mr. Neic or give them the higher grade? Higher grade. Option two. Your grade is option two. And that's in that's in concert with LSAT, DRE, and things like that. So I think we should stay in concert with what the nation is already doing
077if we're going to try to reinvent the wheel. Oh these options. I think our stocks Mr. Nimic option too. I'm good with thoughts do but I do question unless there's been a change in g how deeply they did down there county as to whether we get asked if students towards fire time as long as it comes on I think we get paid so they pass it then they don't have to be well there's unless we have all our seats filled and we don't have a seat put that Then we're getting penalized. As long as he's taken, as long as he's there, every time we be getting penalized, we had full attendance and we had to kick somebody out and clear up a seat to put that in so he practically we're not losing anybody. So,
078I'm gonna go ahead and say that I'm just I'm disappointed that we would consider giving um any of our students anything else than being able to um have a better opportunity in life. Um the aspect of it just being even an average or lower grade as it was suggested previously means that they could be disqualified from college application. they they can be disqualified from a scholarship. There's many aspects to that to it as well. Um, obviously I'm going to I'm in favor of making sure that you know what's best for our students and making sure that it is the higher grade of the two that they take. So you're in favor of option two? That's this option currently? Yes. Yeah. That's the one that gives them the higher grade as they take the course. Correct.
079So, do we have a motion that we would I move that we that you all adopt option two from the board? I'll make a motion that we accept option two. I think we need a motion. Miss Thompson just made a distinction. Yes. Okay. We have a second. Uh Mr. Nikote yes. Miss Pearson. Yes. M Thompson. Yes. Yes. Votes yes. Motion carry. Approval of request to submit a material nonexpansion of inlet request form DA for relocation. I get you sad to walk the rest of the way. So the the material n non-expansion amendment that we're asking the board to to sign is our request from TEA to move our Houston campus from our location on Airex to our uh new location uh which would be done over over the holiday. Um so the the recommendation is
080that the board approve to submit a material non-expansion amend amendment request form to tea for the relocation of the Houston campus. Have a motion. Move that we uh approve the request metal material on extension metal request is presented by Carl for the Houston campus. Do I have a second? I'll second. We have a motion to second vote. Mr. Dick, are you there? Muts. I vote yes. Miss Pearson. Yes. Thompson. Yes. Yes. Resolution relocation. Okay. Uh, in conjunction with the previous agenda items, the Texas Education Agency also required the adoption of a written resolution by the governing body of the chart charter holder demonstrating that a quorum of the members voted in favor of amending the charter. Um the board resolution must accompany the material non-expansion amendment request uh form at the time of submission to
081the agency. So uh the TEA is requesting that you guys approve this this resolution to go along with the the expansion. We have a motion to that effect. approve the resolution in support to the superintendent or his do some required by second motion. Yes. Yes. Thson. Yes. Yes. How about yes? Motion carries. Carli Health and City blocks location from the existing location. One block. Yeah, it's literally right around the corner. 0.5 miles. Consideration possible action to extend the lease at 4106 Southwest 51st Street between 30 to 2025. Sorry, Carl. Yes, this is for our lease at the Amarillo location. Um we had extended it through December. um previously uh hoping to uh have moved forward with construction and um uh completion of that construction. However, uh due to our uh negotiations with Pros Bank on
082the financing, um we're going to need to uh extend that lease for um another six months uh until we either make a decision or um well, we'll have to we'll have to finish out the school year there irregardless. So, uh we we'll need this this lease extension to get us through the the end of the year. We have a motion that effect. This is the place extension for the campus. I move to extend a lease at 4106 West 51st Street um Emeralda, Texas to June 38, 2025. Under the terms and conditions outlined in the proposed third amendment that provides such extension motion. Do we have a second? Donald Ros. [Music] Yes. Miss. Yes. Thompson. Yes. Yes. I vote yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Do we have a before we do that if uh before Mr.
083Arures Dr. Given did would you introduce Dr. Phillips? I forgot to do that during my report. Um if you would introduce Dr. Phillips, the current the new principal of the Fort Worth campus. Yes. Uh I'm very happy to introduce Dr. Phillips. Dr. Phillips comes to us with a great deal of experience over 20 years experience and a and a great story to her her background. She started off as a teacher's assistant and worked her way up to become a teacher and then to become an administrator. She is a was also an ESL teacher and she was a adjunct professor at Longar College as an ESL teacher or ESL professor. And so I am very proud and very happy to introduce our newest principal at our Fort Worth location, Dr. Phillips. Dr. Phillips, if you could
084say hello and introduce yourself. Good afternoon everyone. I thank you for um giving me the opportunity to serve the forward at this forward campus. Uh there is a great deal of work to do, but I am built for this and I have amazing support with Dr. Given and Dr. Bonds and just the whole team and I am just excited and very grateful to be a part of this organization. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. I look forward to working with you. I'm here in the Dallas Fort Worth area, so I will make sure that we meet at some point sooner rather than later. Thank you. Hi everyone. Yes sir, I am here. How are you guys doing? I hope you are all doing very well. Um, am I able to share my
085screen? Um, I don't know if we can bring bring up what I had submitted. Yes. Did you want to start with your PowerPoint? Uh, yeah, we can go ahead and do that. And Miss Arendor, I will have to visit with you later. I don't have to leave, but um I I will get with you and get get the updates firsthand. Yeah, that sounds perfect. No worries. We can do that and it's all good news. I'm really excited. Um so, first things first, we did definitely um we worked together to create a new logo already. So, I put that in updated uh the presentation that they're pulling up. We also have a mission. We have a vision. So, and we have several applicants that are really, really ready to get this ball moving. Um, so happy
086Friday, you guys. We're ending the year, I think, in a great position for the foundation. And still two months to go, of course, but you know, everybody's already in the holiday mode. And I just wanted to say that I had a lovely time getting to meet some of the team and interact with them at the conference. So that was in San Antonio. That seemed amazing. looked like you got a lot of resources and I was able to get some leads on some potential um um donors partners there um all over Texas. So that is also already in the works building those relationships with potential donors. Okay. Is it up yet, Jennifer? Yes. Can you see my screen? Oh, no. We're not seeing it. You're not seeing it? Okay. Give me one second. Can you see
087it now? No. Okay. Can we get out? Yes. Yes, it's up. Um, so this is just a little introduction that I've been using to share information with the prospective board members. As you know, um, people need a baseline understanding of what a charter school is, how it operates, and things of that nature. And I was very fortunate that a lot of the team came together and your board members came together to share information on how they advocate for the school. So, um, this is just kind of based off of what y'all already kind of have for the school itself. And then I just go go through the main talking points and make sure that the prospects we're talking to are on that track of they understand that this is going to be a fundraising board.
088That is the whole purpose of it. But why are we fundraising, right? So, I want to make sure that they do have a good um fit for that role. You can you can go u to the next slides, Jennifer, and just, you know, sharing a little bit about where all of the schools are located, of course, and making sure that um those board members understand that they can play a significant role, not just for the school in their city and maybe do some extra things for that campus, but also they're going to be helping the whole district. So on the next slide, um is the mission and vision. And so I really wanted to play off of what is already set for the school district itself. Um, and making sure that they're in line together.
089So you can see the vision is going to be to expand programs through the choices model. I know the choices is really important for the district. So I want to make sure that all the board members do understand that, you know, we're here to mirror what the school district itself is doing. And so that's um where I really wanted to grow for the mission and vision. And then of course once we get all the board members secured we can review and revise anything if if necessary. Any questions or comments so far and then the next slide just talks about the choices and we just came up with the logo. So the presentation and everything doesn't mirror completely, but you know, it's pretty close. So we just came up with the logo. We had some other
090options, but I really thought that that logo was good. So we can start making everything very formal. Um, so there's the choices. And then on the next slide, I kind of talked to prospects about how this school program is different um and how it operates just so that they're more of an advocate, too, when they're creating partnerships. That's what a board member as you all know does right and then the next uh slide talks more about the school program as well so they can just understand everything that y'all do and here I start reminding people that you know when you have technology for one student that means dollar bills right if you're paying for a one device per student it just starts adding up adding up adding up so the foundation come in and can
091support some of these different programs as well as the focus on graduation. I let them know about all the schools being at risk and you know a lot of the students not being able not even not being able to afford basic necessities not to mention you know the graduations and how y'all do graduations four times a year. So it's very different. So the need to support students through the graduation is also important. paying for cap and gowns, things of that nature. And then the next slide, um, you know, then we start digging into, you know, what the foundation could do, um, support, grants, scholarships, and programs for students basic needs. Of course, everything can be developed even more, but I just give them a little bit of an example of what the top priorities are
092and where some of the top needs are. And then making sure that we do and of course the financial goal is flexible but making sure that we do have some financial goal set and of course with that goal in mind of getting students to their graduation day and doing everything in the power to support the teachers the teachers and the students and that's really it. So on the next page, if you can pull up Jennifer the word document, um we do have we've already had several applicants, our recommendations. I've conducted several introduction meetings with this presentation that was created and um we're still looking for maybe somebody from the Colleen area. Um, I do have a plan to maybe get to Colleen next month, but we do have some really good starts here and I'll
093give you a full profiles on them once we get all of the official um, applications turned in. Um, Fred Brown, the representative, has also been working with us to work across the state and send some recommendations. And then I've been working um recruiting and trying to find good matches for um the foundation. I think it'd be really great to have a 12 member board. And so we're we're getting very close. And so these are all introductions. Everybody's very much excited and on board. And so the next steps will be to get those official applications in as well as to create all of their commitment uh commitment information and then um let me see I think as far as a road map goes uh let's see I think by by December we could identify a registered
094agent so that by January we could actually do the state filing and continue the search for those additional members. And by February, I do believe that we're on the right track that by the end of the month, we could submit our federal filing if we just keep moving this truck along. So really excited. Comments. Can you repeat that? Thank you for the update. Yes, ma'am. And oh, sorry, Adriana, before you go, um, is there anything that we can support you? Um, I mean, do what what do you need from us? Sure. Um, so I Oh, for one thing, um, let me see. This is not directly related to the foundation, but we did find a grant opportunity that we sent out and let me see. I wanted to make sure it's this grant works a
095little bit different and it's for the school for the school itself. Um, let me see. So, sorry. And I wanted to make everybody has to vote. you have to do a um you have to vote online so that the Odessa school, the Levik school, and the Midland school are all eligible and you just have to vote online and everybody can vote every day. Um I'm sending this to you right now. I know Carrie has it so she'll be sending it to you all. Um, but I thought it was really really neat and um, it's a great way just to get exposure for the school and we really are trying to support um, the graduation initiative to help with caps and gowns. I think that could really spark interest in the community. So um, we definitely
096need the support if everybody can vote, get the word out. Um Carrie will be sending out some things on social media as well, working with the schools. So if you're the principles in those um schools, you know, making sure we just do everything we can to get the word out and vote online. Of our students can't vote, unfortunately. You have do have to be 18 to vote. So if your students eight are 18, they can definitely vote. That's the only little caveat there about about that. So, we're already getting a jump on um on getting some exposure, some community awareness, and potentially we could, you know, the schools could win. Um they're they're not lumped together. So, if you're going to vote for the school, you're going to do one vote for Odessa, one vote
097for Midland, and one vote for Lebec. But, uh we don't have any representation Miraa from Pasadena. I am working on Colleen, but if there's anybody that any of you recommend that I meet with I know I do have a few follow-ups um with some of some of the st some of the team members that I met there in San Antonio. They said, you know, they wanted to connect me here and there and the other by all means and send any kind of introduction email um that you want to send my way. I'm available by phone or text. Whatever is the best communication method, but anybody you want me to meet that you feel would be a benefit to the foundation, I'm open to meeting them. They don't have to be on the board, but maybe
098I can have a conversation with them and maybe they know somebody who would be a good fit. So, anything that you like that that you can do um would be very helpful. And then, um Adriana, sorry, I saw the email. Um, just to guys let you know, it's a $60,000 um, award basically for nonprofits and it is through uh, city with a Y bank um, for the area. So, um, for those that are in, uh, the West Texas region, it's going to be very helpful. Um, and just our staff to make sure just to at least vote once. We have enough staff to be supportive of that. Um, I'm a heavy believer in making sure that our students um, get the best that, you know, that their needs met. And one of my goals is
099to make sure that they get their caps and gowns, but also our teachers that they get um you know the ability to have the support as well, financial support, uh scholarships and things of that nature as well available. Um so that's one of the things one thing Adriiana that I was going to ask you basically uh I want to make sure that the focus is not on the board that it's not necessarily where the schools are but that there are board members that are really um committed to this. They could be anywhere in the state. U we just want to make sure that they're committed. Oh, definitely. I just know it always kind of feels a little helpful if somebody has strong ties in that specific community and then in addition to their role, they
100can make that one-on-one partnership and kind of like be there, see it, feel it, do it. But anybody that has a passion, especially for students that are in a dropout recovery, if dropout recovery hits home, if student advocacy hits home for anybody, you know, they don't have to live in one of these cities. They don't they could even be out of the state. It'd be maybe better if they're in state, but as Mir said, yes, that's not a requirement that they have to uh live in one of the cities, but um we do want to make sure we get some good representation. um across but it's going to all be for the same thing to support all the schools and all the teachers and all the students and all of the initiatives for sure. Thank
101you. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? I think that's the last thing on our agenda today. We'll see you everybody. Have a Thanksgiving and merry Christmas, a happy new year. All day long has been meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Goodbye everyone. Have a happy Thanksgiving.