001This is [Music] ready. Okay. Hello everyone. I now call this uh meeting to order. It's a regular meeting of the Ro Grande Gurua ISD School Board. The time is 6:31 p.m. This meeting was properly posted on June 5th, 2025 at 3:30 p.m. We begin with roll call. Veronica Vera present. Mr. Pñena Rene Pñena present. Mr. Eduardo Ramirez, present. Mr. Noi Castillo absent. Miss Paty Garcia Okay, she's present. Okay. Mr. Jesse Solis present. Uh Mr. Celio Via Jr. absent and Miss Guadalupe Garza here. Present. Thank you. We'll now move on to section three invocation. Uh Mr. Pñena, can you lead us in prayer? Let's go ahead and bow our heads dearly. Father Lord, we just thank you for having us here today. Father, we ask you for guidance, direction, Father. We ask you for a clear
002path forward, Father, to move this district forward. Uh we thank you for everyone that's here uh representing tonight, Father, that you just give us once again the wisdom that we need uh to make tonight decisions uh in the betterment of our districts and our students. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thank you. And Mr. Ready, can you lead us with the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Section five, reports and information. Item A, discussion of financial benefits from a successful voter approved tax ratification election. Uh, presenter, Mr. Estad Noa, financial advisor, Dr. Los Santos. Thank you, [Music] Madame President, members of the board. Miguel de
003los Santos with Josea. Uh with me is Mr. Jose Silva. Uh Jose is uh lady of the valley and he is the most recent addition to our RGB team. Some of you may remember Anel Magayanes and Bobby Variel are part of our team. Uh and Jose is uh has been with us down in the valley for the last about 3 months or so. Previous to that, he was in the Dallas area and in Austin with a firm but learning the trade a little bit. Uh we met with a with a superintendent GPS and staff I don't know about a couple of months ago regarding a TRV. I believe you had a TR not too long ago, last year maybe that uh didn't go well. But uh we wanted to break it down for you to
004see if it's And by the way, start off with we don't have any financial interest. We don't make any money off of a TR and we don't have uh you know and what I'm going to present to you is is uh projections that we created for you and simply what why we're before you is because we see an opportunities whether we have an interest financially or not we feel an obligation to present them to our client and that's what we're doing with you this evening. So just to to go real real briefly over this uh presentation, if you look at the first page where it says tax rate, M tax rate, the way that the M tax rate is set up, and we usually don't break it down for for communities and most of people
005see the tax rate on their on their tax bills, but the way it's broken up, all districts have a compress pressed tax rate. And these are all state guidelines, by the way. They're not state law. It's not the district's doing or our doing. All districts have a compressed tax rate from the state and it's 6169. Some have a little bit higher than a compressed tax rate, others do not, but as far as the state is concerned, no one can go below that amount. Now, the state offers a little bit of leeway. They say, "Okay, you can we're going to give you more money if you increase your tax rate um by maximum 17 cents from those 61 cents. In your case, you already 8.25 above that maximum. I mean the compressed tax rate. So your
006tax rate right now instead of being 6169 is 69.94. Now through a TR the district is eligible to access approximately I'm going to say $5.4 million in M funding. But the state requires that those pennies, in your case 8.75, need to be approved by the voters. So you can't you can't just increase the tax rate. You have to go to the voters and get their approval to increase the tax rate in order to be able to access an additional $5.4 million approximately uh for your M fund. So we presented because I mean in terms of the uh climate of the school, climate of the community for a bond election or or for a Vader election, we call it Vader, voter approved or voter authorized tax ratification election, call it TR for for short. and uh
007we present it to you because it's an opportunity that needs to be seen by you and then a decision needs to be made uh whether to go for it or not. Actually I said 5.4 we calculated 5.8 uh now the next page shows you how that calculation is arrived at. You'll notice that the very the top box there, the top uh table line, first line across is your 2025. That's 2025, by the way, is always when they say 2526, that's a school year that you're in. The second year of of the school year. It's called a funding year. Uh 26 will be the 2526 school year. So 25 is right now right now your compressed tax rate MCR which means that's that's what the state minimum that you can have or rather minimum and maximum
008according to them other than through a increasing through tax to to an election. Now the state breaks down. They call this the tier two part of a tax rate. In other words, above that 61 cents, that's that's 61 cents. Everybody gets it. Tier one, everybody gets it according to your ADA. Tier two, how much do you want to tax yourself over the 61 cents? And they say we're going where they break down the maximum is 17 cents. eight pennies they call golden pennies and an additional nine pennies they call copper pennies. And the reason that they're described that way is u a little bit further down where we do the analysis. You notice where it says golden and then across in the second table. Golden and across for every penny $12942 times W. Some of
009you may understand what WA is. ADA is the average daily attendance. Weighted ADA is the average daily attendance times uh whatever. For example, a special education student doesn't get just get a one one credit, but they might get a 1.5, one and a half. Um, Kate student, career in technology, depending on the program, might get a 1.2 and so on. So, they add all these weights and the result is that your weighted ADA is generally considerable considerably larger than ADA. In your case, for example, if you look at the second column of that of the of the second first second column where it says water, you'll notice that your weighted ADA is 13,300. Your ADA is only 8,500. So, tier one is funded on the 8,500. Tier 2 is funded on the 13,000. So you
010can see how multiplying 13,000 times times uh $129 times the number of student uh times the number of students that you have times each penny can add up pretty quickly. The copper pennies are called that because they pay you a lot less. $49.72 per penny. So they go back to the first chart. We go across and your current tax rate is in yellow highlighted $116. That's what your tax rate is right now. What you collected taxes on for this current year. The second the second line is what we call projected. That's for 2526. In 2526, you'll notice that we included on the copper side, we went from quarter to 9 cents. So, we just included it for for education purposes. And as we go across, you'll notice that the INS is increasing also by one
011point one and a half pennies. Now, the INS you know, you're going to see some ups and downs on the INS that depends on your values and uh that depends on your state aid and so on. But for a year or two, you're going to see your INS stay there at the 48 cents and you're going to see a nice dip. But your tax rate would be going from $116 if the TRA was successful and in order to raise the 48 go to 48 cents. By the way, those 48 cents the INS is the money that you raise with those pennies is to pay the debt that you currently have. Other words, whatever is raised there is going to be used to pay your current bond debt. So your tax rate would go to approximately
012127. Now the calculation at the bottom will show you that when you multiply water which is the number of students per water times the pennies which is the 875 local copper times $49.72 will give you 5,792. You already have the golden by the way. You already have the golden pennies in your pockets. And then since you would be adding those those uh eight pennies to your tax rate locally based on your tax rate uh taxing your properties you would raise an additional $1.4 million. the state aid, the state part would be 4.392 and the total amount that that you would be able to increase your M funding by is approximately 5.7 5.8 million. So I have a footnote down there that says uh based on the current this is all based on current water current
013ADA and uh 100% collections which is probably not what you get so it would be a little bit less and uh of course state loss. The legislature just passed u the latest house bill. We don't have the final interpretations on it. So I'm not able to get to give you any new information at this time. Now you know the thing that the boards have to grapple with is tax rate increases, uh the climate of the community, the politics of the community, and those kinds of things that those are decisions that are that would be yours. By the way, we're not involved either in only thing we do is bring you the information any of you ask us, we'll help you develop uh PR plan to to to educate the community. But um from the decision
014that that the board feels like we want to move forward with this, then your attorneys kick in. They will develop the all of the it becomes a legal a legal process more than anything. on the next page, just as a matter of information, uh the tax rates historically for the district, and then we only took it from 21 to 25. I'm going to take it down a little bit further in a minute. Uh for the M, you see that actually for the U for the M, you you saw it from 21 go from 99 cents to 69 cents. 30 cents drop in the M rate and then you saw on the INS side go from 30 cents to 46 cents. Now, how'd that happen? Well, you had a major bond election for $65 million and
015that increased the tax rate by I don't know 68 cents or you have to pay for that new bond in addition to the bonds that you were already paying. So your total tax rate, the history of it is that from 21.30, you know, it u went down and up and down. Uh you're at $16 right now. So conceivably, you could say, you know, we'd be going to 2025 for a tax rate that we had three years ago and increasing our funding by $5.8 billion. Now, let's look at that 48 census that I looked at on the next page. It's very busy, but I'm just going to take you through the last three columns. When we passed the bond and we did an analysis for the school district, uh we realized that you were going to
016have to have a hike in tax rate up front. one to qualify for state aid and the other to uh to be able to pay your old debt and your new debt. But if you notice the third column from the right where it says INS tax rate right now it's 46.29. That's what that's what it took this year to raise enough money to to make your debt payments. We're predicting 48.43. 43. It could vary a little bit depending on ADA, depending on your new values that are coming out from the appraisal district. This is all based on what we know right now. So you would have an increase there about two pennies, which is the next column. Next year, the following year in 27, you would maintain at about 48 cents and it would be
017a negative a negative decline. But it would be and then the next year in 2028, you go down to 41 cents and which means you would be saving about would be going down about seven pennies. And then the following year in 29 you go down to 35 cents which is a total drop of about 10 12 cents. So as you as you develop a program to to educate the community they need to understand this. We're going to have a couple of years that we're going to maintain that rate, but in a couple of years, uh, we're going to be, and by the way, if if you were to do this and it was successful, when I'm talking about the u addition to your fund balance of $5 million, that's that's u perennial. It's for it's
018not like one shot and you're done. it become part of your it would become part of your budget for the for the next year. Okay. Now with reference to the projections I took a little bit further than 25 talking about those numbers that I just talked about in the chart right now. you know, your MO, your INS, and your total. And what we end up looking at is that although your tax rate in 2025, 26 and 27, which are the next two years, would be at 127, in 28 you'd be dropping 7 cents, and in 29 you would be dropping another 6 cents. So your tax rate by that time would be 113. So we got to look at the whole picture. Now it's something that you all need to look at and make a
019decision based on that. Now I said earlier the next page, please stop me at any point if you have any questions. The next page talks about your historical values. And a lot of what I'm talking about depends on what your values, your property values are because that's what the taxes are are held up against. And that's what raises money for you. In 2021, you had 1.8 billion. In 2022, you had two billion. 2023 went down to 1.9 billion. 24 it went up to two billion and 1.9 billion. A lot of that has to do with uh minerals. You know what happens? You really don't have too much control over it. Uh as far as homesteads and uh values on properties, um business properties and so on, you probably have. I mean, you have increases every
020year, but but it's not what's taking you up and down by those size of numbers. I don't know what it is going to be for this coming year. I know that that the business offices have preliminary values from the state, I mean from the appraisal district, but we don't know what they are going to be. So, we couldn't run numbers for you based on those. As soon as we get some confirmation on that, we will update all of this for you if it's your pleasure that we do so. And then your historical ADA is also very critical in your funding is uh you'll notice that you have had drop by the way Rio is not the only one throughout throughout the state and throughout the valley there've been consistent drops in ADA to the point
021that uh we were discussing yesterday with a district small district that's considering uh closing a couple of schools. Bronzeville ISD is closing schools. I think Westaco was also malenum hasn't mentioned it but but they're looking at the numbers in the schools. So u and that's the reason the reason is that ADAs have been going down. Birth rates are less you know um and and as a consequence you have less kids you know coming to school. But anyway, so on the ADA part, you'll notice that you've gone over 5 years, you've gone down from 93 to 83. Uh the constant drop of about two 300 students every year. The key to to solveny, if you will, is to do everything in your power to maintain the ADA, to do everything well, you don't have really any
022control over that appraisal district, but if your values increase, it helps you in terms of lowering your tax rate. In most cases, you'll get a little bit less assistance from from uh the state, but uh you you uh raise more money from your tax rate. So, it kind of balances out. I don't if I made any sense to you. If I didn't, please let me know and I'll clarify for you. I I know Dr. Los Santos Adana, I know that I believe the the homestead exemption or something like that went up to 140,000 instead of 100,000. Dr. Los Santo, will that have any impact on what we're currently seeing here? Uh, yes, of course. Uh, we didn't do for you an analysis on impact to the tax to the homeowner, right? But I'm going to
023give you an example. If you have a home that's worth $140,000 or less, and I'm sure that you have many like that, and you file for it for an exemption, and you you get an an exemption from the appraisal district, and all you have to do is take your By the way, I'm advertising for whomever's watching. And I've said to the I say to all the districts, you need to have some kind of a program to educate your community to make sure that everybody files for the homestead exemption because anyone that has that and and a and uh and the tax wise 140,000 below nothing zero zero school taxes. Now, let's say somebody has a house that's 240,000. Well, they're going to pay only on a 100,000 instead of 140. Your tax rate is a
024$116. Uh the savings on that house on the same appraisal, the appraisal will probably go up, but on the same appraisal would be 16 times the math was 60. That would be like four between $4 and $500. Yeah. savings. Now, that is up for election in November. The voters have to approve it. I mean, we would be crazy not to, right? Yeah. But, uh, it's it's up for as an as an amendment to to be approved by by voters. So, going from 100,000 to 140,000 is approximately a 500 uh $500 savings on on $250,000. Thank you. That's going to give you some break even with values going up and so on, but we'll we'll we'll give you a table that shows it. Doc, doesn't the increase in the homestead, isn't it hold harmless like it
025was last year or the school district? That's one of those that's one you may be right. Yeah. So I understand that the increase to the homestead is hold harmless like it was the year before and or the the session before and so even though that the homestead exemption will go up the district should recoup that money through state funding u because it's hold it's a whole harmless sorry I misunderstood your question uh yes they're supposed to hold harmless I don't know of any district that has gotten the full amount from the state for what they would be held harmless what he's saying is that when you took $100,000 off of all homestead exemptions, you took out millions of dollars from your tax roles. So, the pennies that you're charging for, I mean, you you're not
026getting any money on those millions that you gave away. And what Mr. Ramirez is saying, the state said, okay, for whatever you're going to lose on the we're going to make you whole. And um they're supposed to theoretically there are some cases in which we have seen that it has not happened but uh so with increasing it by 400 by by from 100 to $140,000 that means another $40,000 are going off of values of houses. So they're supposed to make us whole on that. It makes it makes it difficult for business of for doing a lot of analysis on the tax rate and how much you're going to lose in values and the tax rate that you're going to put on those values and so on. Makes it complex, but you're right. You should you
027should come out okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much, Mr. Estrada. Any more questions? No. No. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other time would be happy to come back. Thank you so much. Item B, presentation on blue bonnet learning PD miss. Good evening everyone. I'm proud to present uh the blue bonded learning sessions that we've had. Um, they've been incredibly productive and insightful, equipping our teachers and our administrators with the tools, clarity, and confidence needed to implement the highquality instruction for 2526. These sessions have fostered a deeper understanding of the curriculum, strengthened instructional planning, and ensured alignment across the grade levels, setting a strong foundation for students in the school year ahead. So stand by for some testimonials of their learning. Blue Bunner curriculum is for all our students from
028our special ed students to our GT students. It was very important for us as professionals to see the connection between grade levels as we work with third, fourth and fifth. The blue bonnet sessions for me brought uh an important and valuable opportunity to learn that each grade level built upon each grade level. As a second grade teacher, it was a great opportunity to work alongside and collaborate with first grade teachers because we got to see the alignment from one grade level to the next and we can see how uh the foundation builds up in scaffolds. We actually had the opportunity to not only internalize lessons but also internalize the units which I know it's going to be very helpful for us. It has helped me greatly understand the curriculum. This way I can help our
029special students with their tier one instruction. I want to thank all our administration, our board members for letting us do this learning sessions. Uh getting the opportunity to work with other administrators, with other principles uh at the elementary level has really allowed me to see the curriculum as to how it is uh you know the the changes that are coming about with the new curriculum and how to we're actually looking in depth at what it is, how it how does it look, what do our teachers need and that will be that will help us help our teachers in the planning process in the internalization. process. The Blue Bonnet sessions for principles and administrators have been very helpful as we prepare to introduce the Blue Bonnet curriculum to our teachers and students this upcoming school year.
030So, we've been working with the new Blue Bonnet curriculum. Uh, and we've been learning a lot. It's going to help us once we go back to the campuses to be able to help our teachers and and feeling comfortable in implementing this new curriculum for our students and hopefully have a lot of success. These sessions have empowered us to support our classroom teachers and enhance classroom instruction. They have been very beneficial because it's given us an insight as to the minimal changes the curriculum will have. So I believe that uh these sessions must be ongoing so that we can better understand uh and support our teachers as well. So those you just heard from our teachers and from our um campus administrators. I'm sorry, I'm just a little sick. But, uh, they've had a wonderful, uh,
031sessions and I know we're having our final sessions with our administration team, but uh, they've been able to actually dig in into the Blue Bonnet curriculum and be able to um, understand what it entails and what it offers. So, it's been a great learning opportunity for all. Thank you. Yeah, man. I see that. I mean, just by seeing the video, there's a lot of the three or four principles that will not be probably at that capacity at at that point. Will new administrators that come on board after uh this this this new year, will they get the opportunity to get exposed to this curriculum and get the same training that the this new? Absolutely. And one of the things is that I know that uh that's what I have our secretaries checking on right now
032because we still might have some funding so that we can make sure that we bring them in in July. As soon as they get come on board, we'll do the exact same thing for them. Yeah. Because I think it's important that the new principle that are on board get this experience and this get familiar with the new curriculum that's going to be implemented at their campus. Yes, sir. We'll be on. Thank you, Miss Ayala. Item C, report on last cycle three second round awards strong foundations. So on this item, we are very pleased to inform our board that we've been awarded an additional $400,000 through the lasso cycle 3 second round for the strong foundations part B1 specifically to support K through5 mathematics and K through5 reading implementation. This award is in addition to our
033original cycle uh lasso cycle 3 grant that we were awarded earlier for $695,000 for blended learning instructional leadership and technology lending grant bringing the district's total lasso cycle 3 funding to $1 million 95,000 for the 2526 school year. So, these funds will support the continued implementation of highquality instructional materials and professional development, helping to ensure strong alignment, teacher readiness, and improved student outcomes across our elementary campuses. We appreciate the board's continued support in advancing our instructional priorities and strengthening the foundational learning districtwide. So, once again, we're really proud to bring in this extra award. That is awesome. Thank you to everybody that worked on that. Great job. Thank you. Item D, presentation of CCMR outcome bonus, Miss Gara. Good evening everyone. Uh my name is Roxan Garan. I serve as director of CCMR and I'm
034here to present on the CCMR outcome bonus report that was recently released by TEA for the class of 2025. It's just a little recap from the last time I was here but this is going to be focusing on the outcome bonus. Okay. So what is the outcome bonus? It is funding. and some funding incentive from TEA that is awarded to districts and depending on how the students are prepared for college college readiness, career readiness or the military. So that's how it's broken down. So what is deemed college ready? They have to have passed the TSI both the math and the ELR or earn an associates degree and enroll at a post-secary education institution immediately after high school graduation. That would be in the summer and the fall semester. Okay. So that would be college ready.
035But of course I want to emphasize have the TSI in ELR and in math. You have to have both career ready. Again both meet TSI in both ELR and math and earn an industrybased certification or earn a level one or level two certification. That is career readiness. And of course military. If a student enrolls in the United States Armed Forces or in the Texas National Guard, they are deemed military ready. So, the outcome bonus funding for our students, depending on their their social economic status. If they're they're disadvantage, they're economically disadvantaged, it's $5,000. Non-economic economically disadvantaged is 3,000. And if the student is enrolled in the special ed program, it's $2,000. And of course, the special ed student will be either economically disadvantaged or non-economically disadvantaged. So, some students might get up to $7,000 that
036we might earn up to $7,000 for a student that is in special ed and economically disadvantaged. So, these are the numbers. These are the numbers. Let me go over it very carefully with you all. You're going to be able to see that it's broken down into economically disadvantaged uh non-economically disadvantaged and special ed. And you're going to see the total annual graduates. These are the students that are CCMR outcome bonus graduates. Okay? So, we're going to have 676 students that are economically disadvantaged. We're going to have 50 that are non-economically disadvantaged and 61 that are in special ed. Those 61 are embedded through the the ECO and the non-eco. Okay. Then the threshold the threshold is set by the state. Okay. That is set by the state and that is based on uh performance standards
037that is set by the state. So for the non for the economically disadvantaged it's 11% non-eco is 24% and there's no threshold for special ed students. Okay. The number of graduates necessary to meet the CCR markcome bonus is going to be 74 for the economically disadvantaged 12 for the non-eco and of course zero for special ed. The total number of annual graduates who met the CE CCMR outcome bonus we have 138 with their economically disadvantaged 17 in the non-eco and we have four in special ed. So once you subtract what is the threshold from the total number you're going to see our number. So it's 64 5 and four. Okay. So that's what we got awarded for. So, if you go back and you go and look, you're going to see for the 64, we
038got 320,000. For the five, we got 15,000. And for the four special students, we got 8,000 for the total of $343,000 that was already uh should have been sent to the business office already in May. Okay? And that money is you, the district can use it for anything having to do with CCMR, for teachers, for students, for dual enrollment, AP exams, whatever we need to use it for for CCMR. that is what the money is available for. So the gaps and the financial impact. Okay. So we had 243 graduates earned an IBC, an industry based certification. These are our students that uh earned us an IBC through their CTE program. We had 159 from Rio High, 70 from Gurua High School, and 14 from early college. Okay. However, these students did not meet the TSI
039criteria in both ELAR and math. We had a lot of students that met the ELAR but didn't have the math and we have fewer students that met the math and didn't have the ELAR. Okay, so that's what we need to work on, right? So, an estimated 1.245 in potential CCMR outcome bonus funding due to non-compliance to TSI that we did not meet that. So, that's a big number, right? So, I know that's what we're focusing on and that's what we're targeting. So, of course, we're going to increase the college readiness by testing and supporting students before the senior year because, of course, you know, the trend has been we always wait till the senior year and we need to start focusing them at earlier. We need to start targeting the ninth grade level, right? And
040that's what we have. We have we have a plan. We have an action plan. And of course, we're going to we need to create a TSI culture where, you know, the teachers know about it, the parents, the students, everybody is is speaking TSI that we all support the TSI. And then of course we need to get our students uh tested a lot earlier. We're going to have um staff development. We're going to have intervention monitoring support. We're going to do all that to make sure that we increase our CCMR outcome bonus. Okay? And just remember that the CCMR outcome bonus is different from CCMR accountability. The principles and the high school staff do an excellent job in getting our CCMR accountability. We do an excellent job in that. We now we need to focus our
041shift to of course we have to continue with that. Of course, it's going to get a little bit harder with the completer status, but we need to focus on getting these kids TSI ready. And this was for what year that you're not 2023. It was just released from TEA. Okay. Mhm. It's lagging data, but this is what we're getting. I'm I'm looking on the online one that it says that in 2022, uh, we got $500, uh,,000. So, we actually got more the previous year more before. Do we? So it depends because it depends also on the thresholds what is awarded that year and of course TSI. Okay. As long as we know that you know what's going on why it decreased and we're working on it and Roxy, do you have a plan already for
042TSI as to how to improve these scores? I know it's either reading the reading or math that they're struggling with. Is there something in place or that do you all have a plan in place already for the upcoming year as to how we're going to address the reading and math ts? Yes, we are. We are. We are going. As a matter of fact, I'm going to uh that I can place a training tomorrow for the next two days. We're going to be going. I'm taking uh a math strategist that we're going to be uh he helps us a lot with the math TSI and of course one of my my proctors that's going to be helping. But we we do have a plan in action. We're going to meet where we're going to have our
043math strategist train our algebra 1 geometry teachers. We're working on ELR. We have the the uh results from EOCC for all the students have have uh mastered the EOCC. We need to make sure that they get tested. We need to make sure that we don't wait till the very end. The teachers that are teaching the C T C T C T C T C T C T C T C T C T C T C Tsi classes are teachers that are actually the your top-notch teachers or or is there It depends on the campus. It depends. I cannot tell you like it depends on the campus who they have. Yeah. Just to give an idea that that 2022 we took $500,000 and the 2.3 stayed on the table. 2.3 million. And it's, you know, we're
044always looking for funds for the district, right? And not only that, but this is really something great for our kids that we're letting them go like this is our job. Like this is what we need, right? And that's and that's what we have. And I just presented to you CTE. You know, we still have the students who, let's say, did dual enrollment and used EOCC scores. That's not going to be allowed anymore. We need to have TSI in order for dual enrollment. So, there's a lot of factors in there. I just showed you CTE, so you can see the big number that's available out there, but there's a lot of factors that go into to the to the CCMR outcome bonus. But yes, you are doing a great job. Um, but keep it up and
045let's just, you know, work together to I think it's a work in progress. It's a work in progress. It has to happen all the time. I think that about you guys going to trainings is very important to be up to date with everything you know how we can further uh help the our students and then also um educating like you said you educating the parents like there's a lot we don't know about these things until you know us going to a training they're in their senior year where they don't want to have the TSI class and so forth and they all the phone calls happen and you know but we need to have them ready. We need to target it before they get to their senior year. Yeah. All righty. Well, thank you so much.
046Any other question? Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. Um item E, report on preliminary spring 2025 assessment scores. And I feel we weren't like for 400,000. That's a lot. And thank you for that. And everybody that worked on it. It's a lot of money. And and everybody that worked on it like thank you so much. We didn't sound too excited, but we are excited and we're very grateful for that. We wanted the 1.2 and the 2.4. It's a work in progress. It's a work in progress. So, I'm going to present to you the preliminary scores for 2025 that we already received for our STAR and EOC. So, I'm going to go ahead and start with the elementary campuses. This these are our district scores as a district for third, fourth, fifth grade reading,
047third, fourth, and fifth grade math, and fifth grade science. I'll give you a few seconds to go ahead and look at that. And I did highlight our area of concern being um fifth grade science, which was one of our lowest scores this year. But I do want to highlight that compared to last year, we actually improved 11 points in fifth grade science, but it still shows that that's the area of concern and our area of target for this upcoming school year. In third grade reading, these are our scores for each one of our campuses. And the the pink uh bar indicates approaches grade level. The blue bar um signifies meat's grade level and above and of course our green is masters. We want all our kids to be at the meets grade level because that
048means that they are on grade level. But as you can see uh it's pretty even across. We do have a few campuses that um we're going to be working alongside to improve these scores. when it uh the this dotted line that I'm showing here in the pink bar that signifies the district average and as you can see we have quite a few campuses above the district average. Our district district average was a 79 and we have quite a few campuses there that are scoring above that. Also in the blue, the blue dotted line signifies our meets uh and above district average. That was a 56% and we also have quite a few campuses at above that grade level which ma makes us really proud that our third graders are performing a good significant amount of
049our third graders are performing at grade level or above. Then we have our green bar which is our um MA masters and that's a 21% and a masters are pretty high achieving and we also have quite a few of our campuses if not most of them scoring above. Our third grade math as you can see is also uh it fluctuates a little bit by campus. So I'm going to give you a few minutes to go ahead and look at that again. Um the pink bar represents our um approaches and above grade level which is at 73%. We have a few campuses there. As you can see we are going to work with the ones that are our areas of concern. I won't name them out loud but I do have about five campuses that we
050will be working with alongside this school year in the third grade math scores. for approaches. I mean meets and above we have a 48% and we have a few or if not quite a few of our campuses underneath that and we want to get them at grade level just like we do in reading. So that's our goal for next year and also we have a 22% at the district level for a masters and as you can see that's a work in progress for most of our campuses but our high performing campuses are definitely scoring high in approaches meets and masters for fourth grade in fourth grade early we have this this grade level by the way I just want to point it out they did incredible they they looking at all those bars just makes
051me really happy. We have a really strong fourth grade group going up to fifth grade. Um it's it's just amazing at seeing that a good chunk of our kiddos, if not most of them, um are at grade level as well when it comes to reading. Uh the district was at an 81% as you can see. Most of our campuses were there a little higher, but they got really close to that 81% average of our uh district. uh we were at a 50% average for our meets and again meets and as a reminder is at grade level. So at fourth grade reading level we have quite a few of our campuses performing at grade level or above which is really really outstanding. Oh we have a this is this a big applause in my opinion for
052all our fourth grade teachers. They did amazing. Um for masters 19% that's the district average at masters. This is where we need a little bit of more work. Again, it's uh we have a lot of our kids already at the grade level. It's just that's our focus now is going to be to get those meets grade level kiddos into the master's level because they're they're very very prominent in achieving a high scores. For fourth grade mathematics, we see a little bit of fluctuation, but we still have some really good scores. The average for the school district was a 75% at um at approaches. The average for the school district was a 53% at meets and a 26% at masters. In this case, everyone was able to meet the threshold with an exception of one campus.
053And again, these campuses there, you know, they're few and they're a few and it's by grade level. So it's not like the campus as a whole is suffering. It's just bits and pieces that we'll be working alongside with them. And for fifth grade reading, our fifth grade reading team here, as you can see, we also had uh some good c some good scores here. Our we had a 72% as a district. When it came to the approaches grade level, we had at least three campuses that were above the 72%. 50% was the average at um at mast's at meetats I'm sorry at meets which is at grade level or above and then we had 23% at mast's and as you can see in reading we're scoring pretty well uh for the most part with a
054good chunk of our um campuses we have I've identified at least four campuses here that we'll also be working close by uh closely with again this like I mentioned mentioned earlier, it's just it's a give and take with some campuses. Some campuses it's certain grade levels and it's also certain subjects. In mathematics, as you can see this also these bars uh we see the ones that are scoring really high and they have been very consistent across the the across every grade level for those particular schools. Uh we have a 71% at approaches and for the district. So we have at least three campuses that are way above that 43% at mass at meetats or higher and we have again those same campuses scoring at meets or higher and then 15% at masters and like I
055mentioned earlier that's our goal. Um, we have three campuses here most definitely that will need our support as we move forward into middle school because these kiddos are will be going over to our middle school. Fifth grade science as you saw for the district was one of our lowest, if not our lowest in the elementary grade levels. our approaches or above is at a 59% for the district and we have quite a few schools that were that um met that goal and we had 26% at meets or better at for the for the school district and we have four campuses there that are at that and we're at a 10% at the mast's I'm sorry at the masters our grade level. And so, um, we're really, um, again, I do want to I do want
056to emphasize that we had an 11 point. Thank you. We had an 11 point, um, increase in scores from last year in science. So, although it looks low compared to the other subjects, this is one area most definitely that we're going to continue to improve, this year. the science uh was uh they had embedded they had the overlapping teaks tested this year for the first time. So the new TEICs that came in so that we're streamlined and so this is still a great accomplishment for our fifth grade science group for scoring better than last year. I mean looking looking at the elementary scores I got to applaud the principles and the teachers. Absolutely. I mean being that they've gone through so many changes uh with their t star testing uh our kids have been able
057to maintain and in some instances even improve their scores. So kudos and applauds to those elementary teachers and elementary principles administrators that are you know uh holding the fort and and keeping the kids uh where where they're improving and not stagnant compared to last year. Um just again just to reiterate and then to agree with you Mr. um with our uh one two like five five areas were um increases from last year and we only had two areas that dipped but they dipped by like maybe two percentage points which is very minimal. So they actually did really really well for our middle school. Um, these are our middle school scores for the district. And I did highlight or um boxed out the areas of concern that we do have in our middle schools. Give you
058a few minutes to look at that. We're looking at seventh grade reading, uh, where we'll concentrate on our seventh and eighth grade math, and our eighth grade social studies. So, here are our three middle schools for uh reading language arts. So, for the district, we were at a 69% average and approaches. As you can see, our our sixth grade teams did pretty good there, getting close to that uh particular um percentage here at the meets level. We're at a 43% and I'm proud to say that two of our three middle schools were able to meet that uh percentage at meets um grade level or above. And for M's as a district, we were at a 16%. And again, this is an area where we want to fully move all our kids who are at the
059meats level over to our our master's grade level, which is very doable. But our sixth grade team did a fantastic job here in reading language arts this school year. For sixth grade math, we have a uh 66% uh for the average for our school district in approaches. And as you can see, they also did uh very well in that area. We had a 27% average for our meets and that we pretty much most of our our schools were at that particular level. But in our master's grade level, we were at a 7%. We had two that were at an eight. When we're at the master's grade level in single digits, that's our area of concern. That's where we want to make sure that our kids improve of again in the meats and in the masters.
060In seventh grade, the seventh grade reading language arts, we had one campus that was significantly lower than the rest. But at that on that um note we had a 60% average for the district at approaches we had a 37% average for the district at at the meets grade level and we had a 15% average at the master's grade level in seventh grade reading and this is the reason why I did put there that it was one of our areas of concern with the seventh grade reading For seventh grade math, our district average was a 54%. Our meat's average was a 34% and our master's average was a 9%. Um, again here it just is the same. Um, in this particular middle school, both seventh grade teams in reading and in math were the ones who
061scored low and that's been our area of focus. eighth grade reading. For the eighth grade reading, we have our district at a 74% and they did really good. They scored in the in the high 70s. Uh that particular middle school again um in the meets were at a 46% at the meets or greater and at the masters were at a 21%. So, in eighth grade, these kids did really well. I do want to point out in uh reference to Gria Middle School, this group was their lowest group last year. So, they actually did really well this year as eighth graders. For math in 8th grade, we took a little dip there. Uh 56% is our district average and we have 30% is our district average at the meats or greater and 8% is our average
062for the masters. That's in our eighth grade mathematics. And on this one was pretty surprising. Normally our eighth grade uh scores do really really good but again seventh grade was low in the previous year in mathematics. So uh the scores reflect that. We did have an 11 point drop from last year as a district. So most definitely this was an area to focus on. We also do algebra in our you need a cough drop or you got something. We also do algebra at our middle school at our ACE middle school. And uh this particular young lady that teaches our algebra does a phenomenal job here. And as you can see that the kids that take algebra in 8th grade um do very very well. um our average is an 82 but they she mastered 100%
063for all these kids that she services from Labria from a wrangle and for veterans middle school at the approaches and meets grade level and if you can see at the masters or above our average there was a 31 for algebra and she surpassed all of that. So, um, I'm going to say her name is Miss Cassandra Garca. She is our teacher at Ace Middle. She's also one of our TIA master teachers, just recently named and she's just an amazing young lady doing a great job with our algebra kids in eighth grade. So, kudos. Thank you, Mr. Ramirez. Yeah. And that's that's for middle school. Is that middle school algebra? Now, middle school, you have to understand that at least the trend has always been that sixth grade scores somewhat high at at at sixth grade.
064And then we have the trend where seventh grade goes down and then they should go up uh in eighth grade. This year for some reason we didn't see that happening in eighth grade, but it was due to they were the low scoring the the previous year as well. So I mean kudos to teachers and and and uh and their principles because regardless of how we look at it, as long as we're seeing improvement, I mean I think that we're moving in the right direction. I'm just glad the state didn't decide to change the test or even uh completely do away with it because I think we need to challenge our students and our teachers, you know, to continue on that trend of of challenging them uh daily, you know. So, congratulations to our middle school
065principles and teachers as well. And also just to add for math, I know we this is the first year we have the sixth grade advanced math courses in in uh our school district and across the state. It's it's it's one of the laws now and they're going to be moving on to seventh grade. So these particular kiddos will be eighth graders taking algebra as well. So we're looking forward to their great success. So we should see better numbers for eighth grade science. In eighth grade science at approaches grade level or above, we're at a 67% as a school district. And as you can see, we have um eighth grade we have two middle schools that um outperform the district average. And then we have an average of a 43% at the meets grade level which
066was great. Um and as you can see um two of our uh middle schools also surpassed that means a lot of our kids are at grade level when it comes to eighth grade science. And uh 15% were at the master's grade level for eighth grade science. And for eighth grade social studies, this became an area of concern also for us. In eighth grade social studies, we have a 54% um average for um approaches grade level. We have only one campus that did surpass that. And at the meat's grade level, we have a 31% and at the master's grade level, we have a 15%. I do want to add that this is the only subject we do not have a set curriculum for. So that is one of the things that we're looking into to ensure
067that we do have high quality curriculum for social studies. We've asked the state, they haven't put anything out there. So we're still um and we don't have any adoptions coming in soon. So that's what we're that's where we're struggling and but we're working really hard to try to get something for them. And and I have to say, I mean, being at the middle school, I've seen all the exams at at the middle school level, and history is a tough one. I mean, and to not have a curriculum for history and uh expecting these kids to score high uh would be asking for a miracle. I mean, I I that's my part on it. And we did take a 7 uh decrease from last year to this year. And again, we've also had an influx of
068teachers when it comes to the eighth grade social studies, but um we're looking forward in putting something together most definitely that'll be uh uniformed across the district so that we can move forward and improve our scores in eighth grade social studies. For our high schools, this is our district um average. These are the district averages for our high schools for all three high schools for English one, English 2, algebra, biology, and US history. And as you can see, our area of concern there has been and is it still is English one and English two. And again, we also don't have a set curriculum for English one and English 2. That has been our biggest struggle. I know the state started with Odell, Texas. They dropped it when it came to HQIM. So, we didn't get
069to follow up. So, we're really looking into something that they could have possibly have out there so that we can improve those scores. These are how our campuses performed in English one. As you can see, um our district average was a 52%. We have, of course, early college high school that scores really high. Uh we have Rio High that state at a 50% and of course Guru High was one of our lowest um scoring for English one 37% district average when it comes to the meats or better and for our masters we're at 8%. So as you can see um this is something that we've already started pulling together. We started already meeting with our high school principles and putting a plan of action together for these English courses and looking at their staffing to
070see exactly how we're going to move them forward for this coming school year. For English 2, our average for approaches is a 60% for the district. So you can see in English two, they score a little bit better, but we still can't be we can't we're not up there when it comes to the state. the state is already scoring at a high 60 and oh close to 70% and that's our goal. Um 44% at the meets uh and above and a 4% at the masters. So again um you heard Miss Roxan Garcia present on CCMR. So TSI is huge and we are looking at leveraging off of these kiddos for the master's grade level so that we can get them tested. But we still have some work to do when it comes to our um
071English one and English two. English one, English two. Is there is there some curriculum out there that that you all have looked into or have you even delved or talked to other districts that have been doing well and see what they've been implementing at their campuses or or it's just the a lot of districts they they pull from different resources at this point because they don't have anything really set. the state during uh during COVID the state released Odell Texas and that's something we wanted to look into but we didn't uh move forward on that one at the time and I know that the state of Texas still hasn't put it out there as an HQIM for high schools. So that's what hopefully that'll be their next step. I know that right now they did
072the K through 12 for mathematics when it came to TEA and all the instructional materials. So they're and they only did K through five for RLA. So, I'm sure they're looking at 6 through 12 as as we move. I think Miss Got said we can look at any of those additional resources. I know there's resources out there that other districts might be using that are effective with them. Uh if we can start researching that and seeing if we can start I mean at least have something, you know, because I know teachers struggle uh to teach the English one, English two. That's always been the case. So, we can find some effective resources for them, that would be great. And if I can just add on to that, I think this is has been something that's
073been very consistent and I go back since I was a dean of instruction at Rio High School. uh these these averages have been very consistent. We looked at different resources. We have good teachers teaching them. Um but we'll definitely look to see what else is out there. We've brought in several things throughout the years and the scores continue to stay consistent, but we will definitely reach out and see uh what else is out there. Uh for algebra one, uh like I mentioned earlier, at the high school level, we perform really well. They actually out um we outdo the state. U so we're really proud of that. We're at an 82% average for the district. We're at a 57% average for the meats and above and a 31% at the master's grade level. Um, but again,
074in algebra, we tend to do really well. We are honing in on all our kids who scored at the M's grade level at this point so that we can bring them in and get them ready and tested for TSI as well. For biology, in biology, we do we tend to do really well as well. We have an 88% uh district average and we have a 49% district average at the meats or above and most of our kids are at that great at that level, but we're struggling still a tad in the masters. So, I think we're getting to the point where our kids are at grade level when it comes to nth grade biology, but we want them to be at that master's level. So that'll be the focus in that particular subject for our
075high schools. For US history, we always do very well in US history. Um the our district average for US history is a 90% at approaches. We have a 54% at the meets um grade level or better and a 24% at the master's um grade level or above. I do want to point out that when in comparison to the state the states stayed the same in English one in biology. So there was they didn't have any increases there but they did drop in English two in algebra by three points and also in history in one and um our drops are very parallel to their drops. So, it's still it's still a good indicator that we're not the only ones that are suffering or that are dropping in some sense, but everyone is. So, are there any
076questions? Any questions? I mean, I think that uh in our part, we need to invest in our English one, English two. I think that's really hurting. And uh we want to change history. We've got to change we we got to change the the trend there. We've got to look for our kids deserve the best. So if we can find the best resources for English one, English two teachers, let's go ahead and start researching that and invest in that and move forward. Yes, most definitely. Thank you. Thank you, Missa. Item F, presentation of Lasso1 blending learning. Miss Oliver. Good afternoon everyone. I'm very excited to be here today to share with you a short video on a our district's journey with blended learning. And what blended learning is, it is an approach that we use to
077move away from the traditional classrooms and more into a personalized instruction where uh it's there's a mix of teaching and technology. Uh this work started back when uh in Gria Elementary and Gria Middle School and uh then thanks to the Lasso one blended learning grant, we were able to expand to all of the class all the elementaryaries and middle schools and um as we head into the 2526 school year. We will continue this work as part of as of our sustainable year with a support of blended learning grant three. We were one of three, one of 19 districts or out of 640 in the state of Texas to receive the lasso three. Um and um I would like to thank everyone right now that our superintendent, our school board, principles, teachers um and their students
078for the continued support because it is a big change. I know that um you know we're used to certain things when we come when it comes to teaching and then moving away from that is is you know sometimes a difficult change but we are excited about these changes. So we can go ahead and show our short video on August 7th 2023 that is when our district launched the cycle one of blended learning lasso grant a kickoff that started big changes in how we teach and learn. From the start, we took part in hands-on trainings that brought blended learning to life. We explored station rotations and began implementing them with high quality materials to make learning more engaging, personalized, and challenging. We also focused on device care and digital responsibility. To support classrooms, we provided teachers
079with resources such as whiteboards, markers, chart paper, progress charts, and student certificates. tools that made learning more interactive and meaningful. Thanks to the grant, we gave teachers and students powerful tools such as Chromebooks, iPads, Apple TVs, charging stations, and headphones. Our classrooms began to change. Students worked in small groups, used personalized learning programs, and teachers led focused instruction. Tools like Cami, Class Kick, Canva, and Class Dojo make le lessons more personalized and creative. We collaborated with educators across Texas through ongoing meetings with TA monthly meetings with our adaptive support providers and at the blended learning grant summit. Locally, we shared ideas with administration and teachers across grade levels and subjects in an effort to introduce blended learning across subjects. Our district tech coaches played a key role bringing digital tools to our campuses and helping
080both teachers and students. Programs like StMath, Boost, and Zern helped to support learning in math and reading during the day and after school. We've learned one important thing and that is that everyone learns differently and everyone has different needs and that is why blended learning works well. As cycle one ends, our work continues. This coming school year, we will focus on keeping it going and we're excited that we will also begin a large-scale rotation through the lasso 3 grant in some of the grade levels. We are proud of the progress we've made. We're inspired to continue learning and most of all, we're ready to keep moving forward. Any questions? Great job. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any questions? No, no questions. I mean, Telma and I is Telma here. No, Telma here. Elma and
081I were were the were the guinea pigs to blended learning back about 8 years ago and we saw a difference in the classroom and the kids were excited learning. The kids were engaged. Uh so it was an awesome experience. So I hope that we continue, you know, improving. I mean there's always room for improvement and the effectiveness of it. All right. Thank you. Can I talk about it? I'm just going to add something before we uh we go on and you know just to uh talk a little bit more about what you're saying, Mr. Pñena. you know, great things are happening in our district and greater things are yet to come uh in the next, you know, school years. And I just want to applaud everyone that presented tonight um and everyone else that had
082a part to uh bring these presentations to life tonight. And I want to thank of course our administrators, our teachers, our staff, regardless of what our district uh was going through, the hardships that we were going through, you continue to push forward and our data shows it. So, I want to thank each and every one of you. And I know that after meeting with you all, you have your plans. We're ready to go. We're going to get stronger for the next school year. So, thank you. and to our community. I just want to and to and to our staff. I want to tell everyone that this is the reason why we have and why we shifted uh to having our workshops and our um board regular board meetings is to always no matter what is
083be transparent with all of our data. Everything that is happening at our district. We want our board of course and our community to know regardless of what it is, we're going to grow together. We're going to get better together. So, I just wanted to uh to um kind of point that out that this is the reason we do it to continue with that transparency. And that's something that we'll continue to do uh as the years come along, you'll see not just the directors presenting, but you'll also see our principles presenting their data as well. So, we're excited about that. So once again, thank you to all and thank you everyone. All right, we move on to section six, public comments. Did anybody sign up? None. Okay, thank you. Section seven. For section seven, uh there
084are consent agenda items listed on agenda that were previously discussed and presented at the workshop. At this time, can I have a motion to approve consent agenda items A through O? Madam President, I move that we approve the consent agenda item seven uh items A through O. And do I have a second? A second. Mr. D. All those Any discussion and uh if not all those in favor raise your right hand. Um all oppose same sign. Motion passes. Section eight action items. Um first one is 8A. Consider and take possible action on travel request from real high school career and techn uh technical education department for uh one director teacher sponsor two students to participate in the USA skills national competition advancement in Atlanta, Georgia on June 22nd through the 28th of 2025th. Madame President,
085in a previous board meeting, we had um highlighted one of our students that won the state competition, and she will be advancing to national competition in Atlanta, Georgia, as the dates that you you just read out, June 22nd through June 28th. So, administration is asking uh for board approval. It was the young lady that did the makeup. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Uh can I have a motion to approve item 8A? So, move that we approve item 8A as presented. A second. Second, Mr. Jesse. Any discussion? All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Item 8B, consider and take possible action on donation to RGC um Guru ISD. I'm sorry. Uh yes. We're on item finance. Under finance finance. Yes. Yeah. Do I have a motion? I move that we approve item B uh as
086presented. But can we have the the owners actually read it out loud? I think they've earned I think it's I mean times are tough and people are still giving out money to the district and I think we stopped doing that somewhere along the line some somewhere along the way. Uh as well as that we still submitting letters to I know we used to give out letters to those who contributed to the school. Appreciate Jenna. Do you have the donors? We have it. Okay. Go ahead, Mel. Thank you. Good evening. Good evening. The following donations for the month of May were received by Gerlock Builders, Ombberto Gonzalez, Train, American Surveillance Company, Salasarat Insurance Company, Vencer Contractors, The Pedriatic Care Center, Lonear National Bank, James Antonio Falcone, Elid Caraban, Casabov, Melissa N. And Andrade, Dalinda Falcone, Dinda
087and Mari Garcia, Raina Holmes, Dr. Yeah, that's hard. JT Margo Grande Garbage Vida Reia Off-Road RGC High School Baseball Booster Club BFW LMR 956 LMR 956 VAIA Off-Road NBC Universal Media Tundo Law Office of Alex Martinez Gan has Foundation Simple Cafe Circle 7 Express DHR LTD the pediatric care dinner. Thank you. Thank you to for those donations to all those individuals and businesses. Now, can I have a motion to approve item? I had made a motion already. Okay. A second. Second, Eddie and N. And we said no discussion. Uh, all those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Item 8 C, consider and take possible action on tax refunds for the month of May 2025th. Madam President, those are there for your review. if y'all have any questions. If you don't, uh, we are
088requesting board approval. Can I have a motion to approve item 8 C as presented? So, move. And can I have a second, Mr. Jesse? Any discussion? I'll give you some minutes. Everybody good? Okay. All those in favor uh raise your right hand. And motion passes. Item A, consider and take possible action on contract delivery method for districtwide parking lot strip project. Mr. Lopez, if you could give us more information on that, please. Hello, Madame President, members of the board, superintendent of schools, Miss Gara. What this is is uh Miss Gara wanted us to work on a few initiatives here over the summer having direct impact at campuses. So, this is one of the ones that we want to go out with your permission, go out on bids and do a striping project where we sweep
089everything having to do with parking lots. We have a lot of debris. We have a lot of small rocks. So, where we sweep, where we paint all the lines, all the curves. Again, what we're hoping for with your permission is to get back when our uh staff, our students, our community, our parents get back to their respective campuses, it just looks, you know, appealing to the eyes. So, that's what we're hoping as to do with this initiative. It's a very, very good cause. Very reason and I think like I say, it's appealing. It's appealing to the eye when you see, you know, new striping, new new curbs being painted. I mean, and our campuses are nice. I mean, they're but but sometimes the parking lots make them look they dim them down. So, I think
090it's a good project to start with. I think I noticed some of the like fencing like the poles were getting painted and so I saw them red and I said, "Oh, that looks red. It used to be orange rusty." Uh so it's nice to see that you know some it some time is being invested into this and great point and the reason we want to go out for bids is right now our maintenance department we have wax crews going we have moving crews going uh our site maintenance going and that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to beautify uh the fences, the campuses, the fort. So that's one the reason that we want to go out for bids in regards to this project. Are we going to go in phases mine or are we
091going to go all in like the plan is uh go all in and do every campus from here to the start of the school year. Awesome. Yeah. Well, yeah. Well, that was one of my questions why we wouldn't have like our own people doing it. But I guess you know you answered that question. And the reason we don't have our own people is because we don't have the equipment. Okay. So to rent the equipment and what we want is by going out to bids that will be one of the uh requirements is that whoever does get the bid they have to finish by a certain timeline. Okay. Mr. Lopez, are you going to be overseeing the project overall? Yes, I will. All right. When when I know once you get out there, you start seeing
092other things, you know, potholes or fences that are ripped apart. Please make sure that they bring it to the attention of the superintendent because once you get out there, you'll start seeing other things. and and uh the principles don't let us get away with anything. They're on us and and they're here. No, they're they're here and they're not shy. He just said I can hold him accountable. So, please bring it up to his attention. That's why we're here. Thank you. And then we have daughters and kids that tell us, "Mom, there's bold or there's this or that's" and and um so yeah, we we need to make sure that everything is is taken care of. We we do have a lot of work ahead of us. We we are aware. Okay. Thank you. All right.
093And so do I have a motion? So move, Mr. Renee. And can I have a second? Second, Eddie. And no further discussion. All those in favor, raise your right hand. And motion passes. Item 8E, consider and take possible action on contract delivery method for districtwide fire hydrant replacement project. Okay, this is another one. We did have to refer to legal on this one because uh we have 15 fire hydrants districtwide that we're having issues with. Again, uh not major. They work, but they're not up to par. So, we have 15 that we that we need to address. We went out and got quotes, but in getting the quotes, the they it ended up being over 50,000. So we went back uh to business office and uh in talking to legal uh the recommendation is for
094us to go out to bid. Okay. All right. Um and I think these things actually that previous item and this are things that should have been kept up with throughout the years and so now you know we're having to invest. It sounds like a lot of money, but especially this uh we need it and we need to make sure that we if anything ever happens, we're part of we have it covered. So part of safety for All right. Um can I have a motion? So move for APE and a second. Mr. Jesse, any further discussion? If not, all those in favor raise your right hand. And motion passes. Item 8F, consider and take possible action on contract delivery method for district-wide playground sandbase preparation project. Okay, so this is the second of the initiatives that
095our superintendent wanted us to work on. The first one being the striping and this one being the 10 elementary campuses where we go. What happens is over the years as kids go to the playground with the wind we start losing the sand and the actual ground becomes real hard. So what we want to do is we want to go out there and again go and get bids where we have a vendor come in and address the 10 campuses with tilling with the sand uh with the border. In other words, have everything here ready to go when we start day one where we have all 10 campuses that have again a sandbased uh proper playground. Dr. Bara, can I add to that? Um, we also went out recently to all those 10 campuses. We went out
096and we looked at all the playgrounds um in person. And I know that not many to about a few years ago, I think our elementary campuses were given some playground sets. However, because that was another initiative that we wanted to do after looking at our budget, um I saw that we had close to about half a million500,000 um that where we could use to be able to repurpose our playgrounds at our elementaryaries. and seeing that they did have some, you know, some fairly new equipment. Nonetheless, we did see some equipment that was basically hanging and I'll say by the chains, right? Because we did have a lot of swings that were that that need of course uh that we need to fix them. And we have some of our playground sets that don't have any
097type of roofing on them either. So, we're going to use that money to be able to do that at all elementary campuses as well. Again, again, we personally went out there like Miss Gara says and and uh again, it's a little embarrassing to say uh they're not up to par, you know, not for something for our kids. We we want them to go out there excited, have that pride, that joy. Uh they need a lot of TLC. And again, I know the principles have been reaching out to us. So, this is a good time uh with your permission that we go out for bid to get this done. I think Paty was one of the ones selling me tickets. I don't know maybe a year or two ago for the PTO and p my patients
098uh because they wanted to buy some equipment for I think it was the ACE elementary ACE middle school I don't remember but they were selling and I think that's something that the PTO should not be in charge of. I think that we're responsible to keeping, you know, our playgrounds and our our facilities up to par. And that's a great a great point. Uh Dr. Barera, I I have had elementary principles that are gogetters and they go and they try and raise the money through their PTO. But again, I agree with you that that's not what they're there for. Again, this this should be coming from us. Yeah. Now, Miss Gar Mr. Lopez that were on this. I've noticed in the past years there's been uh issues with also uh snakes invasion into the especially the
099young kids uh playgrounds and only because of the sand they go under where there's shade and I know that we've heard of some instances where there had been rattlesnakes around the playground areas. Is there any way that we could look at some barriers some snake proof barriers at least for the little ones you know to be protected at least have some type of barrier to keep them safe from that? I know in talking to one of the vendors, uh, Mr. Pñena, I know that they said with the border, they go with the color black. First of all, there's not much. I mean, with with snakes, we we do have uh pellets. We we have what is recommended for us to put around the fence line, which we do, and then we go we always they
100tell us to go with a black border. Uh so again we do try to do as much and what is recommended what what is recommended out there for us to do but yes we do have some campuses that we do have some issues with snakes out the the ranch. Marin you said u Mr. on these playground soundbased preparation project that doesn't include the you're not looking for quotes for the for the not okay not for this one but Miss Gara was saying about the 500,000 we could get it from from there because I think that's important if those playgrounds they can be you know nice and everything but if they're in the sun I think kids are kind of going to want to stay out of the sun so if we could work something out
101where they'll h those will have shade, then the kids are going to be, you know, encouraged to go and play and, you know, with that additional funding that we found through title 4 and some of it title one, we will be able to do that. Yes, ma'am. But most of that work is done in house. I know that that Frankie Bar and them do the welding. They do their inhouse work for the the for the Yeah. And another option also again uh we're just asking for permission. If if you grant us permission, we can add that as part of the project. So that's not a problem. We can add a that a roof. Some elementaryaries have three, four different sets of playgrounds. So, we can make sure that if we do this, we do the
102sandbase and we make sure that we add a roof on top of that. So, we can make it part of the bid also. See how All right. All right. Um, can I have a motion to approve item 8F as presented? So, move. Can I have a second? Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor raise your right hand. And motion passes. Item 8G, consider and take possible action on change order request 031 from Gerlock Builders LLC for New Middle Gura Middle School. Uh yes, ma'am. That change order is basically they are requesting a total amount of,361 with 86 cents to be able to power uh the bleachers at Gura Middle School. Is it the teachers at the gymnasium? Correct. To power. To power. They're electric. Oh, okay. And it was something that wasn't already
103there. Like when they say it's going to have power preachers, uh, it wasn't. I'm not sure. Mr. Mr. Delfino Garcia is here. And the question was, Mr. Garcia, was that in the original plan for it not to have power since we're having to go back and pay? Provided that there were going to be power and that we uh Good evening. Uh yes, ma'am. U the uh the bleachers did have uh the the breakers for that power. But uh the motor on the on the bleachers was uh large and the breaker that was specified was a little small for the power that was required for the bleachers. And uh so this change order is to uh get a larger breaker to uh deal with the bigger motor on those bleachers. So an unforeseen uh change there.
104Okay. And is this coming from the betterment fund balance? It's a or is it another because it says it's another allowance or one of the allowances. Right now we have a betterment fund of 13,300, right? And uh this is $1,200. I hate to bother uh to interrupt you, Mr. Garca, but I am going to call um Mr. Roles, because after a conversation that I had with her today, that was not the amount I was given, and I just want to make sure that we're on the right page. Okay. No problem. Yeah, that's that's what I was asking. Yes. When I submitted the decision-making form, we were rushing to make sure that it made it to the board for approval. So, actually, we had already uh exhausted the betterment fund. And so this will be like
105an out-ofpocket expense. Thank you. We were back and forth with the contractor as that's I was going to head there because last time we said we have we were down to like a thousand or a couple of hundred bucks. So right. So there's no there's no more Betterment fund balance is gone. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Can I have a motion to approve item 8G as presented? So move. And can I have a second? I'll second it. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor raise your right hand. And motion passes. Item 8H, consider and take possible action on awarding the following bids. RFP 2535, the commercial combi ovens for real Grande City High School Cafeteria Child Nutrition Program. RFQ237 on call engineering service architect services and materials testing. RFQ2538 external auditor
106F RFP 2541 student accident insurance and bid 2604 computer and copy paper. We're going to have to Yeah, so first um I'm going to do a motion for RFP 2535. Was that the lowest bit? Is that the lowest bit or Good evening board members. So if you look at the packet, sure. There is the different vendors that submitted and the pricing. So the first two, Douglas and Federal Supply, they submitted only on one double stack. So that's why the amounts are what they are. So actually they are two. So if you multiply it by two, they end up actually being more than the price. So on Douglas Equipment, it ends up coming out to 97,000. On federal supply, the same thing happened with them. They only submitted on partial, so it comes out to 95,000.
107Then on Jean's restaurant, they did submit what we requested, so they're at 89,000. Mission Restaurant came in at 88.8 and Texas Chiller Systems at 85. So Mission Restaurant is the one we're recommending. They are not the lowest. As you can see, Texas Chiller would be the lowest, but they do not work on equipment for the cafeterias. So, they do more of HVAC work. So, based off of checking with references and checking with our um child nutrition program director, uh the recommendation is to go with Mission Restaurant because they do take care of equipment for food service. Mr. are are these ovens are they being replaced because the ones they have there, they don't work or or why are we why are we replacing ovens at Rio Grand City High School? So, it seems like just
108yesterday we built Re Grand City High School and we're already replacing ovens at the cafeteria. I know that we've got Gria Middle School without ovens and that's a brand new school. I just I mean I just I just I'm just trying to put that thought process in of course uh so after speaking to our director for CMP, she did mention that these are it was going to be more expensive to just keep replacing parts and parts and parts. So that's why we went now because these current ovens are not functioning how they should. Okay. And then also I think I had told Miss Gara to look into because I received a call last week after our board uh board workshop that we cannot use uh the child nutrition funds can for new for the new
109building for that new Gya Middle School. And so that's something we need to look into. Do you know anything about that, Miss Robles or you santo? That has not been mentioned to me. Okay. Well, it's something that we're going to Yes. I think that we put a memo out there and did we send it out to you? I think so. Where you we couldn't use it to build it the first time. Um but there was some stuff that were allowable expenses. It's just a matter of knowing which expense it is and we can and we can review it case by case basis for the but the kitchen has to be ready in order to move in. But that that cannot come out of the CMP fund. Yeah. To get it ready. equipment can't come out
110or or no no if it's a new building it has to be furnished it has to be ready in order for it to function as a kitchen but CMP cannot be funding those costs okay just so to answer your your concern since last time and then another thing is that we also heard that the GUA uh high school ovens are also in need of replacement because I believe they're not working on so that's something that Miss Garta is already going to look into because um it It came to our attention that that's also we also need ovens. Yes, ma'am. And I have spoken to them already and that is the case. Um we're basically doing the same thing at Guria High School, replacing parts that are very expensive. So at this time it is best
111to purchase new ones. So that is something that we will also be doing and make sure you get the best because now you'll be servicing Gria High School and Gria Middle School. That's correct. That is correct. All righty. So do I have a motion to approve RFP 2535? I also move and a second. Second. Um any further discussion? If not, all those in favor raise your right hand. And motion passes. Now RFQ um 2337 2537. Do I have a motion to approve RFQ? I do want to make sure there's eight proposals and the recommendation is to basically accept all of them and call them on an as needed basis. Pretty correct. That being the case, Madam President, I move. So move. Do I have a second? Second. And um any further discussion? If not, all
112those in favor raise your right hand. And motion passes. I'm sorry. Is it on? Yeah, it's on call engineering services RFQ2538 uh external auditor and for that one um we will um get your recommendation. Well, our recommendation is for the board to make a selection. All right. And we have two. We have one that came to present. Um I recommend or I I think that we should go with the one that came and presented. If everybody's okay with that or if any other discussion on getting the other ones, tell us now. The only thing I do want to mention and of course that does not change the decision you all make. Um the other auditor could not come because his wife uh was having a surgery. So that's why she couldn't come. But then again,
113that was what I was told. So it was easy then. Okay. So, um, Miss Gara, would you want to, you know, make the recommendation? Let me, let me ask this. Have you board us? We You've always, you've always dealt with Hernandez. We've worked with him for a while. Correct. That's the annual auditor, right? The external auditor. Yes. The one that we've always done. Which one has it been? It's been the other gentleman, Raul Fernandez. Okay. That's the one that we've that we've always used. And the one that came was the one for Burden, Mccumber, and Longoria. He made it seem like he was the one that would always do that. No, I think we've always worked with Raanda in the past and and I know it's and I know it's a board decision, but I
114was really hoping and I was pushing Mr. Robles to because you dealt because you dealt with them. You're the ones that going to deal with them directly all the time. So I I would love to hear your assessment or your recommendation, I believe. So I think this court is actually the same, right, Chris? On the on the assessment, it's exactly the same. Yeah. So, you've dealt with him. What What's your take? We work comfortably with Mr. Arnandez. Uh, whenever we have questions, he does advise as well. Uh, but I think it would be Mrs. Gara for her to make the decision. I just don't Well, let me ask you this question. Would you mind either one? Working with either one? No. No. Uh, we're here to do our jobs. And so I think that I
115think as a board as a new board uh I think that uh if we give a new individual or new company a chance to establish a new relationship with a new company that would be uh something we can do that and then Diana just uh Mr. Robles keep us posted you know on the next year um you know how things worked out and if one's working with both you have a preference then you do that recommendation. All right so then uh do I have a motion to approve Mr. Raul Hernandez and company? Oh, sorry. Sorry. The the Burden Mccumber and Longoria. It's the same cost. Cost was the same. Correct. Yeah. All right. So, do I have a motion? No more burden. So, move and a second. [Music] All those in favor, raise your right
116hand. And motion passes. Item 8H, RFP2541, student accident insurance. So, I had a question with Dr. McGuire because last time I thought it was a different insurance uh company that we're using, but it's it's now my understanding that it's it's actually the same one. No, I'm sorry. Can I just ask a question really quick? Is Dr. Maguire u associated with any of these companies? that is he is he is is he an owner of any of these businesses or or why or why are we bringing Dr. McGuire up? That's just a question because I know he deals with the insurance companies all the time. So I was curious to see what his take on it was. I I don't know madam president what you all decide. I'm just thinking because um I would like to
117we don't I don't have representatives from any other company either and if that would have been the case I would have liked you know to have representation from all these other companies as well but that would be up to there to table this and could we table this and have a presentation from each of the companies come in and and do presentation before uh the time one of them is from the first question is was were these published for to to receive bids or and then was there a published ranking sheet with sheet with that was there what a published ranking sheet or or criteria points criteria points and so that was ranked and you have a recommendation right correct so the board can only accept or reject the current recommendation table if you can't
118t you you can you can table it but even if you table it you can't hear from the rest of the people because you have a recommendation based on a published RFP so you either accept the recommendation or you decline the recommendation if you decline the recommendation we can republish it again if you want to have presentations. But right now, the only question for the board is either you accept the recommendation or you reject the recommendation. And the recommendation is student insurance. Student insurance. Student insurance. Student insurance. Although we have Claire's Health with a with a lower with a lower bid. It's just the only thing was that and had a higher Well, yeah, it was the second the second in line with a score of 83 over SIP with a score of 90. Uh
119I don't know and I'll just mention that SAP came in at 90 at a higher ranking only because of the simple fact that player sales does not have the in network for our players. So whenever let's say our student athletes something happens to them we cannot take them here locally they would have to go to the valley. So that you know becomes an issue. Also, the other thing was that we might have to end up paying or our parents of the students might end up incurring a cost, which we currently don't. So, we wouldn't want to pass that burden on to the So, right now, you're already using the the one you're recommending. No, we're actually the current one is the one next to it, Texas Insurance Service. Okay. That's the one we're currently using
120or we currently have with a lower with a lower ranking. But it's a lower ranking. Okay. All right. Well um my recommend my what I think is we should go with whatever it is that m you know Miss Diana and you are recommending I don't know whatever it is that you all any discussion on that question but okay do we have I mean let's we reject a bit but that's do still have time to look uh for uh to look for other bids or even uh if they rebid to come in and present to us uh within time. Well, if we reject a bid, they can we can we can we can do it rebidding again. And then how long would the process be to rebid? I know that we we're going into summer. How
121long does it Dr. McGuire? How long does it take, sir? If if we were to re and I know we have the option of rejecting the bid and rebidding again for it, uh would we be within the time frame uh to get this in place before the season starts? So, I think that's a purchasing current plan. I'm I'm sorry that that's a purchasing question. When does the current contract expire? Expire. Our current plan will expire at the end of July. July 31st is is when our current policy ends. We'll need to have a policy in place by August 1. And that's the first day we start for the new season. Now, right now for purchasing, would we have time to have that in place before August? So, if we were to reject it right now,
122we would advertise, of course, next week uh with y'all's permission and then we go out on break. So, as soon as we come back, we would have to open the bids and then bring it to the board meeting in July. When's our next board meeting? The the only thing is just an FYI is we we would not be available to answer any questions because we're out three weeks. Correct. And we also would not be able to publish a ranking. If the board wants to do the ranking, it'd have to be the board to do the ranking. Otherwise, you're in the same situation. Okay. Whoever does the ranking, you have to either accept or reject the rankings. Mhm. So everybody so that you understand what we're talking about the rankings is um based you know there's
123a point system and the SIP has a higher ranking point system they got a 90 and uh they have a lower um lower lower cost and so that's what we're looking at right now. So what was the question? So just we're I'm ready to move on if call I mean you you need a motion and a second for whatever y'all want to do either to accept or reject the rankings. All right. So do we have a motion to accept the ranking? I'm going to move to accept the ranking. All right. Eddie and a second. Do I have a second? Nobody. All right. show. Uh, all those in. So, you can't move on without a second. So, then just if you don't have a second, the motion dies. And not on and Paty can't vote cuz
124she needs to be on camera. Oh, never mind. She's there. So, in favor or against? So, no, not in favor against. So, right now you have a motion by Mr. Damitz. Oh, but we don't have a second. You need a second to proceed to a vote. So, do I have a second? Can you hear us? You're on mute, I think. So, if there's no seconds, then the motion dies. Dies. Okay. And you're back to the floor. You can create another motion for something else or you can keep asking for more questions for clarification. Bring up bring back a motion. Let let me let me ask for clarification. Right now, currently, who are we working with, Chris? What company are we working with? It is Texas Insurance Service. Texas Insurance Services, correct? And they're at 384.
125SIP is at 356. Mhm. Um, this won't put any of our students like if we just if nothing happens. This won't put any of our students um at risk at risk. Yeah. Yeah. The thing will be they just won't the parents students will not have the burden of paying for it. That's why it's an RFP and we should be going with a lower cost but because they're not meeting our criteria that's why we go with the next best ranked or lower ranked. saying what I'm saying is like for example he mentioned this contract ends July or starts what July 31st yeah so in between that time the time we get any additional information yes we would not have any we would not have insurance insurance so it seems like we're at a at a at
126a at a pass here where Um well I wish you know there would be more information but I do not want to make I want to make sure that the students are taken care of. to approve you on this. I can do you can't I guess do I have a again do I had a motion by do I have a motion for um that RFP 2541 the student access insurance. Yeah, and I will say I will second it only for the fact not putting our kids at risk and not having insurance in time. But next time if we can have all companies present to us, Chris uh and and and let's have a better understanding as what we are going for and uh and uh I do it with reservation but I will I will
127second the motion. All right. Um all those in favor raise your right hand and motion passes. So just a quick question to know for future reference. Would you want everyone to come or only the one we're recommending? I I think that if a company is interested in our business, I think they should come and and and sell. So, so there's only sometimes we can do that. We can't do that all the time. So, there are some business uh matters that depending on how we publish are based on a ranking criteria based on the criteria that we publish. And so in instances where we publish, the employees of the district are the ones who revaluate, do the ranking and make a recommendation where a product or service is going out that you don't want that process
128to happen because you want a presentation. Then we need to know that ahead of time before we publish because once we publish, we're stuck to the publishing. And that's one of the reasons why we're working with the board workshops versus the meeting because we're giving the board the opportunity to give us over a week advance of what it is you all want to do with a product or service. The the only concern right now is that the ranking system is done by one individual. Correct. And and and that that kind of puts, you know, I I think it puts Chris in a position to where uh it gets people to think, well, maybe, you know, he's has a company of preference or and I wouldn't want to put him in that predicament. Sure. And so
129we did talk about that, the superintendent and I. And so we are going to be redoing the entire uh district purchasing evaluation ways. We're going to be creating a district purchasing steering committee. And that steering committee will be working on new scoring sheets for all the products moving forward. It's also going to have a policy that's going to demonstrate and show how we call a committee and who's involved in the committee. So moving forward, we're not going to have one individual do rankings. It'll be based on a full committee on a brand new ranking system. So to clarify, in our workshop, we found out I asked Mr. uh Cry Santo who's in charge of doing these rankings because these rankings come to the board and there's numbers of a point system and it recommends based
130on these rankings a company is recommended and so uh we found out that Mr. Santo is one person, an individual who's ranking and we feel as a board that we should have a committee and that's what he's working he's going to be working with Miss Garzan that we need to have a little bit more like it needs to be more of a committee to not put all this pressure or all this on just one individual. Um yes go ahead and for example it says here services provided and each of these companies has the same uh point assigned so the services are provided are the same see what I mean uh services provided are all the same so again there's no additional if all the services are provided same but one is still cost more yes
131so that's where but my hesitancy is leaving these students with a situation where god forbid something happens and as an athlete you're doing something all of a sudden something happens you know that was my concern so so I agree with what we're doing as far as making sure that more a lot of these things need to get elucidated a little bit more and I feel like u that is a good step forward it's just at this time I think we're doing the right thing and I did want to mention on that uh Mr. that that's what we have number four for meeting the the overall objectives. So I know the reason it's ranked 10 or they have the 10 points across the board on the services provided is because they do provide services forever with
132services if they're all the same then you see what I mean of course. Yeah. So we had a we had a motion and yeah we voted all we voted so we can move on. All right. Thank you. Uh now um bid 26. Thank you Dr. McGuire. Sorry. Uh, I don't know. He was still standing up there. So, I'm sorry. Sorry. I didn't see him behind though. Thank you. Um, bid 2604, computer and copy paper. Let's see. Do I have a motion to approve uh the recommended companies? So, move. We need paper. And do we have a second? Second. All those in favor, no further discussion. All those in favor, raise your right hand. And motion passes. And I think just to clarify why um right now we were, you know, debating whether to call people
133up. We are trying to establish where Miss Gara presents to us and gives us the information that we need first. and if she can't answer or she wants somebody from, you know, her staff to come up, then she will call up. And so that's just the reason that that um we were iffy if if somebody should come up, you know, and and um speak up here just to clarify. But thank you. Um item 8, I consider and take possible action on RFP 2526 security window film at all elementary schools and start center phase three renewal extension. So move. Do I have a second? If I may, I just want to mention that it's not a renewal extension. I know it reads it, but it's it's not a new extension. Renewal. All right. So, all those
134in favor um raise your right hand and motion passes. Thank you. We will move on to section eight um curriculum and instruction. Uh action items J through R. Consider and take possible action on approval of operations agreement with region one education service center for the 2025th 2026 school year and intend to pursue SB 1882 partnership for the 2026 2027. Madame President uh we're going to have Mr. Gatsa from region one administrator for school models and collaborations give a presentation on that. Thank you sir. Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh good evening, Madame President, Miss Gdisan, members of the board. Uh tonight, I'm here seeking um approval of an operations agreement with region 1 Education Service Center for the 2526 school year and the intent to pursue uh an 1882 SP1882 partnership for 2026 2027.
135So basically the purpose that we have uh the purpose is to enhance educational outcomes by leveraging innovative instructional models and operational flexibility through an SB1882 partnership. Uh back in December I know that uh I miss Gatsa and I spoke it was November December and we were talking about the rural pathways for excellence partnership and that got approved by the way. So we're excited about that. So at that point, Miss Scots reached out and says, "Okay, so what else do we have or what's out there that's innovative? We want something different, something that's going to, you know, uh like really motivate our kids to come to school and motivate our community to bring them back." So that's when we looked at the uh 1882. And of course, the goal is to establish a sustainable performancedriven partnership
136that improves student achievement, strengthens school performance, and pilots innovative practices. And that's our goal. So there is a phase in plan for the SB182 partnership. 2025 2026 for this coming school year. We are going to be working through an operations agreement. So this is where region 1 ESC partners with Rio Grandandy City Guya Independent School District and we under this agreement we assist real Grandandy City Gria in managing and supporting specific school operations. Uh this could include uh instructional support um uh improving in I'm sorry instructional support administrative functions performance improvement strategies etc. the focus will be to on stabilizing and improving outcomes uh especially in campuses needing support. So some of the campuses that perhaps are in you know needing assistance or support at certain areas we come in and continue to support that
137and at the same time looking at innovative practices that we want to uh have for at those at those campuses. So, uh, within this coming school year, we're also going to complete and submit an SB1882 application with the state as well as an SB1882 startup, excuse me, grant application. So, we'll submitting those two uh items to the state for approval in order to become an SB1882 the following school year. So in 2026 2027 we become an SB1882 partner and uh the me the partnership will evolve into the official SB1882 partnership with approval from the state and you will be involved throughout each of these steps there. Everything requires approval from the board. Uh under Texas 1880 SB182, Real Grandandy City Gria partners with region one to operate campus four campuses uh with increased flexibility and
138potential uh for additional state funding. Uh region 1 ESC becomes the operating partner responsible for decisions such as staffing, calendar, curriculum at designated campuses and of course the goal is to sustain improvement uh innovation and accountability. So basically what this slide is saying is that uh in order to become an SB1882 partner uh we have to go through a rigorous application process. So uh we have I have been privileged of meeting Mrs. Carmona and we've already talked about some of the things that we're going to be doing. We are with you the entire time. That's one of the reasons that we partner up with you this year so that we prepare for the following school year. It is rigorous. Uh it involves uh a lot of documentation. uh a lot of uh it's it's a
139probably about two five inch binders once it's complete and then uh there's also capacity interviews with the state but we're very uh positive that this will will uh come to fruition. So uh the operator and the district each retain critical rights. You as the district, you are the one that chooses the partner. Uh you also choose the length of the performance. you decide whether it's three to five years, maybe even 10. Our executive director, Dr. Daniel King, usually says, you know what, three years is good. Uh that gives the the districts enough time to say, well, this is working for us, not working for us. We don't want to extend that. So, we're looking at maybe or possible a three-year uh contract with uh Rio Gura. And then, of course, the performance and accountability requirements
140and consequences. You decide and you set the metrics for region one ESC. So you decide that you want growth in domain one specifically or you want a growth in overall performance that is your decision and at the same time you monitor our work through those metrics and then you decide the consequences you know this is something that we need to come to the table renegotiate or this is something that's not working we move on as uh an operator then what we need to do is if you're making us responsible then we need to have some input on staffing, you know, so uh as teachers are, uh, you know, are coming through and applying, we want to be part of the interview process, uh, to make sure that we have some voice in there. Uh, the
141other thing, the academic program, uh, authority over the academic program, including curriculum, assessments, and schedule. So, we know that you're implemented the HQIM, the blue bonnet. So, we're with we, you know, we're on the state side, so we're going to be doing the same thing. uh we would like to be involved in maybe perhaps even selecting something for English one and English two since we're one of the high schools is going to be uh one of the partnership schools and maybe even social studies at the middle school since we're looking at social studies in the middle school. I mean we're partnering up with the middle school as well. Uh the other thing is authority over the managing the campus budget. Once you approve the budget, our role is to come in and make sure that
142it's being spent the way the board approved it because as you know you are the ones that approved the budget. So we monitor and manage that as well. So performance contract, the performance structure basically says that uh pretty much the performance contract outlines what your role is and what our role is. As far as the performance goals, you set the goals. You say this is what we want to accomplish with this uh partnership and then we have to work towards those goals that you set for us. Uh as far as the duration of renewal, again uh our recommendation is three years, not longer. And then of course the accountability measures. So we're held to the same accountability system that you are. So we work alongside you to ensure that the schools are performing at high
143levels. And if again the performance management, we don't meet the performance standards and our two options are we sit as I mentioned earlier come to the table renegotiate or termination of the contract. You are always in control of an SB182. This is not like a subchapter G or D where they have full control. A subchapter C is an in district charter and you're in control of that. Um so a question that we normally get is uh what about our faculty and staff? They're still part of TRS like everything else. It's not it's not going to be any different. So uh the sample performance goals. So I just have uh just an example. Roger currently at 2425 they were at a 75% overall if I'm not mistaken. And then in 2526 for this this coming year
144we can set a goal of 78 since it's an operation year and then you set the standards for 2627 all the way to 2829. You tell us what you want and that's overall. We have some districts that decided to go by each of the domains we work with you. So uh the other thing is that uh information meetings are very important. Uh staff has to be u notified. We have to explain the step to the staff what we're doing. We also have to have parent and community meetings. So, just know that it's going to be very transparent going with with our board uh current is currently doing just being transparent. We're going to be just as transparent. We're going to follow your lead. Uh why partner with region 1 ESC? I know that um I'm
145sure that you've heard of all the things that we're doing, but we have spe uh access to specialized services and excuse me and resources. Uh so a lot of what we do is support and we do it through that uh expert professional development as you know that's that's our bread and butter that is what exactly what we do is a lot of professional development datadriven support and consultation we are constantly looking at the data and evaluating where we're at and if we need to shift anything we do it. We don't continue to do the same thing over and over again. If it's not working we stop and shift. Um the other thing is tailored pro programs and services whatever it is that you need because let's say within those four or five schools that we're
146getting here we know that the needs are different at every campus. So we tailor our work based on the needs of the campuses. Uh legal and compliance support uh we have the same um we have the same uh attorney so everything will be in the up and up. I know that then will keep us in check and we have support for school improvement plans. Uh again some of our schools do need I noticed on the data that perhaps we need to create uh you know improvement plans for some of the areas and we'll be there to support that as well. Fostering community and parent engagement. The biggest goal for us is to involve the parent in the community and then of course promoting continuous improvement and accountability as I mentioned earlier. So formalizing the SB1882
147partnership pretty much 2526. This is what we're getting approval for. We work on an operational contract. That's this year for all of the five schools that we've identified uh together with Mrs. Garrison. We're going to go over those in a bit. And then next school year we are a formal SB1882 partner. So really quick, will there be submissions that need to be uploaded uh to report to the state with this SB uh plan or not? There will be audits from the state and that that who takes care of the the region takes care of it. Both the region together with your um with your designated staff member here. Okay. But there will be uh periodic reports that need to become that need to be presented to the school board. Okay? like you need to know
148how we're doing based on the metrics that you set for us. So those those will be reported to you. Okay. So the schools that were selected and we're going to tell you this was not easy. Miss Gar, I can tell you we've been meeting discussing this for quite a while. Uh but to the school this the school I'm sorry the campuses that were selected were Alto Bonito Elementary School, Rogera Elementary School, Ringle Middle, Gurua Middle, Gurua High School, I'm sorry, and then we are starting a college and career center for students that are 18 to 26. I know that uh in speaking to Miss Gara, she thought this would be a great opportunity for those kids or those people in our community who don't have a high school diploma and can come in and get
149it. Uh and we have uh an awesome um program right now that we're uh actually working with uh EdCow Chelsa. Just to give you an example, we started this year with 50 students. Our enrollment right now is over a hundred. So we're excited about that when people hear. Oh, you know what? I can go over there and it's different modules that I can do at different times they want to do it. So that'll be a new school for um Rio Grandandy City. So we just need to once we're approved then Miss Garson and I will talk about do we need to start setting up a CDNC number now or you know for this coming school year or do we want to partner it with a existing school but I want to take you through Alto
150Bonito all the way across uh estimated per pupil amount is 60 uh 6,160 you know that it went up so we this is still based on before the uh hearings that we have been having over at the state and estimated ADA for for Alto Bonito we 360 students. So their estimated gross annual amount, this is what they receive currently. It's 4.2 million. That's what they're getting right now or that's what they're generating under a charter, an ind district charter, they are going to be generating 4.8 million. Okay? So that's a difference of about $559,295. So again, uh we ran the numbers based on the information that we have. We know there's going to be changes. U so just know that it may shift up or down based on the information that we get from the
151state uh based on the new um Senate bill hearing. So or decisions. So um that's pretty much what we have it. You're estimated. Okay. So let me go back up. So we also apply for a $900,000 startup grant. So the state gives you or funds you 900,000 to start up these uh initiatives. So, and that's 900,000 per campus. So, let's say we get all five, we get 4.5 million just to start uh the partnership. There is a lot of money at the state level for a charter. I think that you heard. So, this is one way the districts are doing then could tell you more about what districts are doing to get creative and thinking like what else can I do? Uh the other good thing about this is that starting at CalSA a lot
152of the kids who left to idea are now hearing that we actually have in district charters within the district. So now those kids are wanting to come back. So uh that's one way to get our kids back because we've seen an decline in enrollment and we want to make sure that goes up. So uh but this is uh the amount that we're thinking of that you will be getting will be like an added aside from 900,000 for first time. That's only a one-time deal, right? So that's the first year that summer we get that money and we start spending to prepare for the upcoming school year. Then every year annually you're uh probably generating about 3.2 uh million masomeos. Again once we get the actual figures we will be sharing those with you. So uh
153that's all we have right now. Any questions? Thank you for your presentation, Mr. Gara. Any questions? I I think this is something that started in conversation uh between Mr. and I uh just he called me for something else and say I said you know what don't talk to me go talk to our superintendent and uh she's very supportive and if it's going to help our community I'm sure she'll go full force with it. I didn't think at the time that it was going to get to this point this but man it's amazing uh the direction that she's taking the district and really being uh you know uh fighting for her kids you know fighting to get our students back. Uh that's that that's a that's a totally awesome initiative that she's taken. It's it's different.
154Yeah. And and everyone's excited. I know that Miss Ayala Rios is excited and so is Miss Carmona. Miss Carm is already asking me, "Are we going to visit schools?" I say, "We'll let it get approved first and then we'll go visit." But there are several existing uh partnerships throughout the state. We have a lot of in the San Antonio area, Fort Worth area. So, this is something that we could definitely do is go visit. Um but, uh it is exciting and it's exciting to work with Miss Gar. As you see her, the way you see her, that's the way I see her. She's full of energy and always excited about wanting to try something different and that's what we're here to do to support. So, whatever you all need, you know, we're here to support.
155Thank you very much for that. All right. Do I have a motion to approve item 8J as presented? So, move. And can I have a second? Second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. And motion passes. Item 8K, consider and take possible action on Strong Foundations implementation TA region one. Good evening again. Um on this item, um we're asking for uh approval to partner up with region one as our technical assistance provider for the strong foundations grant. Um like I said earlier, as one of the grants that we got awarded. So they'll be working with all our schools. That's a movement present. All right. Um, do I have a second? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, raise your right hand. And motion passes. Item 8 L, consider and take possible action on
156renewal of the DMAC software license agreement for the 2025 2026 school year. This is a renewal for our DMAC uh program. That's the program that we do use for all our data for TIA for T test for counseling for learning plans. So for anything and everything possible that is uh the software that we do use and this is just a renewal for next school year. Can I have a motion to approve item 8 L as presented? So move and a second. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor raise your right hand and motion passes. Item 8M, consider and take possible action on memorandum of understanding between Avanche Head Start program and Ro Grandandy City Guru ISD for the 22526 school year. So we're excited uh to also partner up with uh through region one
157with Avance Head Start. I do have some representatives here from Avancei. Uh so we're looking at bringing in possibly about a hundred uh preK students into our school district. So really excited about that. We'll be housing them at the um annex. They've already been there. So we're we're looking seeking approval of this memorandum so that that way we can move forward with this. Will this be just the Rand area or it's alto? Can I It's the Star County area if I'm not mistaken. It's a whole area. So it's all it's the whole it's it encompasses all the star county that avances has head starts in there. So, they're also uh looking at bringing in any excess students that they do have so that that way they can enroll in our school district. Where will they
158be housed? At the at the annex right behind the early childhood center, the early childhood building where they needed it for rooms. So, we already looked at at a hall. They already came to visit. So, um it's going to be a great partnership with them enrolling more of our kids. Good. Very good. All right. Could I have a motion to approve item 8 as presented? So move. A second. I'll second that. I'm going to say thank you for still being here. I know you had to hear a lot of other school stuff. Thank you for staying. I appreciate that. Yes. Thank you. Uh any further discussion? If not, all those in favor raise your right hand. And motion passes. Item 8 N. consider and take possible action on the interlocal agreement between the University of
159Texas at Austin and River City Blue GL ISD for the 22526 on-ramps program. Good evening again. It's for the approval for the UT uh onramps program. It's a dual enrollment program uh where our high school teachers work with the uh professors from UT and our students get credit if they pass the the course and it's also a CCMR. So they pass the UT course it falls part of CCMR and it's it's a continuation because we were already it's we've been doing it for several years and of course uh what we pay for it we pay for the teacher training and uh everything is free for the stu for for the students. There's there's no cost of books or anything like that, but we just had to pay for the the the training for the teachers
160and of course tuition for the students. But of course with a fast program, it makes it extremely affordable for us. Uh with a fast program for any student is is uh coded as free or reduced lunch. We do those students tuition is free. So this current year we paid $146. So I ask for your approval. All right. Can I have a motion to approve item 8 N as presented? So move. Okay. Second. Second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, raise your right hand. And motion passes. Thank you. Item 800, consider and take possible action on effective advising framework grant agreement for the 22526 school year. Okay. The the EF grants effective advising framework grant. It's uh it's deal with counseling uh getting our students ready with uh from fifth grade to 12th
161grade with with uh career tech. Of course, we focus on TSI. Uh this past year, we bought uh 36 laps for testing specifically for TSI, ACT, and SAT. We did have a district uh career fair for our fifth and eighth graders, which is a huge success. And of course, we're focusing on the programs of studies uh exposing our students earlier. We had on the district career fair, we had our students that are in the in the program of study through the high schools be the presenters. So it was a huge success. So of course the EAF grant we focus on those those parameters for our and of course CCMR. Thank you. Can I have a motion to approve item 800 as presented? So move. Can I have a second? Second. And if no further discussion,
162all those in favor raise your right hand. And motion passes. Item 8B, consider and take possible action on tech and learning budget and schedule for professional development. Good evening once again. Um as part of our commitment uh to instructional innovation, the educational uh technology department proposes a summer professional series uh focus on three key areas which are going to be blended learning uh back backward design boot camp and uh steam sessions. The series will equip our teachers with strategies to increase student engagement, personalized learning and support district initiatives like the lasso 3 and the steam summer program that we have right now. Uh the funding would be available through title 4 and we are uh approximately um saying it's it'll be about $40,000 that there is in in that in that funding. So we respectfully
163ask for your approval to move forward with this important initiative. So move. Can I have a second? Second, Mr. Jesse. If uh no further questions or discussion, all those in favor, raise your right hand and motion passes. Thank you. Item 8Q, consider and take possible action on teacher incentive aotment spending plan for 2024 2025. Uh, Madame President, before I get into into that item, I do want to say that Latia, thanks to everyone that has been involved with it, has been a great success in our district. And we actually have three of our directors right now representing our district in San Antonio um, presenting on RT success. So nice. I just wanted to to uh, you know, make note of that. Um, and with that, I I do seek or we do seek approval for
164the updated spending plan. If you want to take a few minutes and look at that plan, um we have included um you know more um I guess uh monies uh for our administrators, those that actually go in there and do the observations. And another thing that I do want to let you all know is that u after speaking um you know with with my cabinet and those that are are involved with TIA, we are planning on designing a PIA which is a principal incentive aotment as well for next year. So yeah, that's exciting for our administrators to also you know get a little extra. I think I think that that was a great plan on on making it available to your assistant principles and your principles because uh the majority of the work falls on
165them. I mean they've got to rush from September through January to get all those evaluations done because starting in February I know uh tas and then you know star is never ending. So uh thank you Miss Gasa for considering assistant principal and principles in this budget and hopefully we can continue with that. So I know what I know what that be good money enjoy it for the summer. I know what they're thinking. Why don't I just become a teacher and get TIA money because they do a lot of the work. You see, they laugh because they know they're thinking, but we're working on it. That's what we're trying to do because we know what you all do and I know you'll probably wonder, you know, everything everything going to the teachers, everybody else. But we
166want to thank our ministers because really you we know you are the first ones there and the last ones to leave and it's it's not about the money. I know. I know. We know it's not about the money because really you all uh do so much and um I'm glad that Miss Miss Garca is looking into this because it would be great for you all to get um an extra stipen or the incentive. All right. Can I have a motion to approve item AQ as presented? So move. Mr. D and a second. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor raise your right hand. And motion passes. Item 8R, consider and take possible action on renewal of application of contract for establishment of GROCC unit. Uh yes, ma'am. We ask for your approval as presented.
167This is basically just a renewal. It's a it's we do that every 10 years. Can I have a motion? A second. Second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor raise your right hand. And motion passes. Section nine. we continue to um discussion and possible action to amend board policy GKD local. So that one I'm going to ask that we move into executive session and then we're going to talk bring it back out afterwards. Okay. So for now we'll move it to executive. We will now move to section 10 executive session for items A through H as listed on posted agenda under Texas government code sections 551071-76 and 551082 through84. The time is 8:54 uh PM. We're now moving to executive session. Principal directors, thank you for being here. It's ugly when we talk
168to an empty room. So, thank you for being here tonight. We appreciate it. Have a good evening. So, do I do I have a motion? Okay, sounds good. I'm sorry. No, she's Yeah, she's gone. Yeah, she left before executive session. We went to executive She's no. All right. It is uh 10:03 and we're back in open session. Can I have a motion for the following action items A B C D E and F? Actually, madam A through E. Madam President, I move that we approve items A through E as discussed in executive session. Can we have a a second? Second. All those in favor raise your right hand. And motion passes. And now, may I have a motion to um approve item? It was F. We did F already. No. Okay. F. So, um, consider
169and take possible action to terminate the January 11, 2023 agreement, uh, between owner and architect with Design Group International. Madam President, I make a motion to I move to terminate the January 11th, 2023 agreement between owner and architect. Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. And motion passes. And on G. We have nothing on G. All right, the time is 10:04 and this meeting is adjourned. Uh, do we have any public comments? Uh, no ma'am, not at this time. Thank you. And so we're going to It's his last meeting. No, it's not. He has one more next week. Ah, I was going to Something tells me he's never going to be. Okay. All right. Well, uh, thank you everybody. Thank you guys for being here and everybody have
170a good evening. Thank you.