April 29, 2025 RGCGISD School Board Workshop

001I'm going to use a mic. It might be too much. I don't know. Uh how do you all feel about the mic or do is that fine? Okay. Uh it is now 6:30. Welcome to our first budget workshop. Um I'm sorry I called it a budget workshop. No, work our board workshop number one. Um I want to acknowledge of course our madame president uh for being here today, Miss Garcia, uh Mr. Pñena and Mr. Solis and legal and everyone else who is here this evening. Um I will go straight into uh item number four finance and under finance we have finance finance reports item one report on tax collections for the month of April 2025th. At this time, I will uh let you all know board members that we we do close on these um

002on these reports until April 30th. Therefore, we will not have these reports. And that's going to be for item one. Item two, report on budget balances for the month of April 2025. And item three, report on monthly check register for the month of April 2025th. All three reports will not close until April 30th. Therefore, the reports will not be out until May 2nd. They will be on the board agenda for the board meeting next week. However, at that time, if you have any questions, please call me. If there were no uh actually we don't need to put that event on the agenda. Okay. Well, yeah, there's no action. There's no action for reports. This will be in the consent. Okay. All right. Thank you. We'll move into item B. consider and take possible action on

003pay application 14 June from NM Contracting LLC for the real Grandandy City High School Welding Shop. And if we take a look at that board members, that is a total amount of 17,146 with 11 cents. And that is dated back as of June 30th 2024. I did ask that question both to our director and Mr. Garza. Um we do have uh as Miss Danna Robles also um uh you know discussed with me we have allocated for those bond funds. We do have the monies. The only thing that happened here in my understanding is that for some reason this amount got pushed back because the projects were being delayed and therefore they were not paid out. But it is now that they are asking that this be paid out. And again, we do have the bond

004funds to be able to pay that. So, if there are no questions, we will be adding that item to consent agenda. What is the completion rate in the voting shop? It should have been already, Mr. Gart, that is 100%. We had already paid out in the last board meeting, but these were items that had been left out and now are being requested for payment. Okay. Okay, so there are no questions. We will be adding this to consent agenda. Good. I'll be moving on to item C. Consider and take possible action on pay application number 15 August from N&M Contracting LLC for the Rio Granny City High School welding shop. And if you take a look, that is in the amount of 2475. That is again as of August 2024. And that is the same thing.

005We do have uh allocated funds and um this the the same reason uh that got pushed back and we are ask they are asking for payment. Now if there are no questions we will also put that in consent agenda. Okay. I'll move on to item D. consider and take possible action on license agreement for temporary staging area between between real granny city Gurua ISD and A Texas Delaware Corporation AE and I'll take a quick look at that. I know there were some maps that were made available but I couldn't make out. Yeah, I located at I did ask Mr. Mr. PA. And if you look at exhibit A, I that that's the exhibit that I was not able actually no, that's the one. No, that's one that I was not able to see, but I

006did ask Mr. Gonzalez and did he he did reaffirm that that is the parking lot in front of Little Lions in front of the jaw r Sanchez stadium. That is for exhibit A. That's one. And then we have exhibit A and that is that will be where preparatory for early college is at in Ringo Middle School. How long will they be faced? It just depends on how catastrophic event is and how widespread the outages are. I guess people centralized location. Correct. It's a centralized location in case they do need it for emergency services to restore services to our community. Now, if in here you also see that we attached and I also sent that to legal a license agreement that is up to 5 years unless legal has anything else to add to it. The

007only thing that I did see is that we do need to change our district name. They have RGCCISD. So we will be requesting that they change it to RGCGISD unless legal. Did you find anything on that? What what will be staged there? What is it that will be staged there? Trucks have you will be all the location out. Correct. That will not have any impact on school operations. maybe school operations any any liability like not to my knowledge because it's supposed to be like we have majority like the increase we had power for a long period of time so that be operational during okay go ahead and I believe it was something that is normally used you know in different areas right Mr. have done this. So I asked him the only thing that I

008also see there if you all note at the very bottom where it says comprehensive general liability insurance will be provided upon written request. So that is something Mr. um that we need to take a look at. If you look at it says that we'll be requesting we'll be requesting it. Okay. Yes. Yes, ma'am. So, if there are no questions, we will add this to consent agenda and we should have the updated contract by then. We move on to item E. Consider and take possible action on extension of back depository contact for 25207. This is a 2-year ex extension. Um, from what I did see, it had been board approved back in 325 2025. But in order to formalize, we need uh the attached extension contract. And I also shared that with legal. Correct. Yes, ma'am.

009If there are no questions, we will add that to clarification. What bank are we making this? Yes. And it should be Lonear National Bank. That is correct. If there are no further questions, we will be adding this to consent agenda. Next item, consider and take possible action on construction contract agreement. CSP number 24-57 safety fences phase three between real Grandandy City Guruya Independent School District and excellent offense cost for $212,5632. Uh is this grant money or is this coming up from our general fund? Mr. Pette, this is a grant money. This is from I want to say it's the safety safety first safe cycle first grant money. I did ask however because I was interested in the date that it had been a approved and that was back in October. So my question was why

010have we taken so long to move forward with this and um the answer was that there was some issues I guess of us not just signing the contract and I did then did I share that one with you sir? Okay I think I shared that one with you as well. Now, this one I also did ask uh where were the five campuses? Where are we putting these? What is phase three? And the five campuses, one of them was the old Gria Middle School. So, we're going to have to go back with the vendor and reconsider where else we're going to put that safety fence. The other one would be the Gria High School at the south and the southeast corner and we have Dr. Mayor Ramirez Elementary, Rogera Elementary, and Alberto Encela Elementary at this

011time. Are those black fences that are being those are the black fence? correct her for safety concerns. I saw that high school. Yes. Good. That is correct. And another note is that uh I I I did speak to uh Mr. Olivarees and he did mention that because we have taken quite you know quite some time that he does he will need to go back to the vendor so we can discuss again the locations maybe the pricing or anything else that has changed and of course as you see there we had one that we were going to put at Gria Middle School therefore we don't need it anymore so now we need to reconsider that okay correct so if there are no other further questions we will add that to consent event agenda. Yes, ma'am. Avenger

012before we have our next board meeting by the next board meeting that should be done. I will make sure of that, ma'am. Madam President. Yes, ma'am. I'll make a quick note. Correct. So, we'll have all those questions answered uh for the board before we bring that to the board meeting. So an item like that for example where they still have information to give that wouldn't make it we wouldn't make it consent agenda. Okay talk to you about that but you haven't got the information so the purpose of this is for you to review the item have no further questions. So then so then as noted uh item F will not make it into consent agenda until we get further clarification. Okay, I'll move on to item G. Consider and take possible uh action on budget

013amendment number 2025-7. And if you take a look at that, I'll go over that with you. Basically, in the maintenance department, we are we are moving monies in the amount of 200,000. Business office, we are moving amounts in the in the amount, I'm sorry, of 25,130. Athletics, it's 13,770. Business office, 100,000. And then we have another business office for utilities in the amount of 1,500. And it all it continues to the back where we have Ringo Middle School where we're re reallocating funds in the amount of 500 and another one for 182. And to the left at the bottom after the account codes, it does give you what we're going to use it for. For example, there it says to pay student meals. Then we have Laon Elementary at 135. Laon Elementary $90 and bilingual

014department 2734 to cover testing cost. Are these are these amendments being done to close off the year or is it for the following year as well? If I'm not mistaken, Mrs. Robles, uh it is to close off the year. close up. Yes, sir. Okay. Now, I know that the 13,770 are for floor floor gyms at or floor floor gyms. Uh where are these floor gyms being worked on or what is it they're doing? Mr. Robles, would you like to come? Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Mr. Gonzalez or Mr. Robles, whoever has the answer. So then I know I know that every summer they do the the the resurfacing and they do but I want see if we have what campuses are going to be affected uh at at this time now also at the fine

015arts I know it's for transportation expenses do we know what what expenses they're covering I mean it's for for $100,000 till now. Okay. So, it covered the the year round. Okay. And just for clarification, that people might pay $100,000 at the end of the school year. What are they using it for? To cover the year round transportation for our fine arts program. Fine. Correct. Thank you. I think at this time since we did have that question that we were not able to answer Mr. Pñena as to what gym floors were going to be um you know uh what uh I guess that we're going to be resurfaced. Thank you. Uh we will not put that item in consent agenda at this time. That allowed Yeah. I mean this is because you have questions that's what

016this is for because we end up coming to the board meetings and sometimes we don't have the answers. So this is a warning we know correct it's more of a discussion if we know it's for resurfacing I mean we should have and we need our directors to also learn that whenever they're going to ask for correct funds or transfer funds that they need to tell us what it's for and it need to be reformed or there be like a Okay. So, you know. Okay. Okay. So, you know, but but maybe it's good to have it detailed here. Yeah. And sort of and so so what this is kind of setting the stage for is that there seems to be an expectation that if you're having budget amendments, the board is going to be interested in

017knowing what the budget amendment is for, where it's going, what's it spending. And so that lets us as administration know that for the next workshop, this is the kind of information we have to have ready for you to be able to answer. Oh, there you go. Would you like to come a little bit closer? Yeah, you can come to the Yes, please come come over here. This is for you. Yeah. Thank you. That's what that table's for. So, whoever is answer the hot seat. The hot seat. Okay. So, yeah. So, so this one is for Randy City High School, Gria High School, Ringo Middle School, Veterans Middle School, uh gym floors, and it is to it says here screen track and apply one coat of finish. Um, and these are the campuses that it's for.

018Okay. Yeah. So, I would assume based off of past um other years services have been provided, they wax the floors. So, that's and these are the campuses that it's for in reference to that budget amendment that's being brought. If that answers your question, Mr. Yes. Thank you. So, if there are no other further questions, we will put this item in consent agenda. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Item H, consider and take possible action on bids agreements up for renewal. And if you take a look at that one, that one is mostly mostly for our special services. Um, we have the option to go up for an annual renewal or go out for bid. If you look at uh now that one has a bid number on top and it has an RFP. Is that

019an RFP? I don't know how. Okay. But is that bid or an RFP? Miss Diana Robless. I see bid number and then I have an RFP right next to it and I can explain what they are. It's just I need to know they're RFPs. Very good. So if you look at Thank you, sir. If you look at RFP 2406, that is for a ABC therapy incorporated, they have been with the district for about 13 years. We they approximately put out about 46,200 now. They have been effective and very compliant for the past 13 years. If we look at uh RFP 2407 that is for Mr. Roberto Duerta with orientation and mobility specialist services he has been providing services for the district for the past nine years. We pay out approximate 55,000 and that is based

020on the number of students that we do have needing the OM services. And then we have REP 2408 and that is for LSSP evaluation services. We do have LSSP within the district, but at times parents do ask for independent educational evaluations or IEES. Therefore, we do have to go out of the district and we go out to um LSSPs that are around here the Rio Grand D. And you see a list attached to there as well as to who we reach out to. These contracts are for 2425. If I read them correctly, let me go back. Uh September through June and on RFP 2406. I see that the district agrees to pay the provider $46,200 in a 10 monthly installment, but next to it, it says $426 uh on the contract itself. So, I don't

021know if that's Which one is that one, Mr. Pñena? Uh the one for uh contract renewal for ABC therapy. Okay. ABC therapy. That's going to be the first one. The second page of the contract. Okay. Mhm. I don't know what I mean. I get it as Michael but it is it's missing a zero. It's missing a zero. That is correct. That is incorrect. I think for contractual purposes we need to we need to be more aware of 4,000. It should be 4,2 correct. We are missing uh that is incorrect. And um you want to come up please Mr. G uh because I do see those dates as well. 2425. All three contracts are 2425. Correct. Because they are ending um they will they do have an ending date of if you look at the physical

022therapy of June 1st, 2025 and then the other ones are July 31st, 2025 and then again July 31st, 2025. But would you like to explain that? And that's why they're being brought to you right now because that's the whole goal. We want to make sure they have enough time to advertise for this and that we don't have an overlapping of of missing services if the board wishes for them to either renew it or go out for bids. But what we don't want to do is put the board in a situation to make a decision the meeting of when the services are being done and we don't want to put our purchasing department or finance in a position to be hastily doing bids for us if if that's what we want to do. So this is

023why we're doing this right now is to this is what we have. This is what we're looking at. These are what's coming up. Do you all want to renew? Do you all want to go off for bids to give everybody time to do their jobs properly? I mean, so long as the services that have been provided are on a timely manner and have been effective for for our students, I mean, I don't I don't foresee us not renew those contract services. Uh the only thing is that uh when we do look at contracts, we I think we need to be more careful as to what what we're signing uh and what uh what are the services that are being provided. And so and what we're doing now is that every contract that's being brought for

024approval is now being sent to legal first before it's at the actual approval. So let me Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, sir. This is already approved. That means that we should have been paying that amount since well if it's up for renewal that means there was already a contract in place from the initial inception of the services already being paid. We would not have to re review that contract because right correct. So this is for 2425. However, if we do decide to renew, we will have the new contracts for the coming school year. Correct. But that will be brought up to board as well. Correct. when once we get the new contracts because these are the old contracts we put just as reference. When you renew, you're renewing the same terms of the original contract,

025not a new contract. It is the original contract. Yes, ma'am. Supposed to be. I mean, that's good, right? We can go with the 46 25 or whatever it is there. But for example, if you were to not renew and go out for new services, that new contract would come to us. Okay? So because it is a renewal, therefore that it's the same same same original contract. Doesn't need to be. Go ahead, Mr. Solis, if you have a question. Amended. Amended. Oh, just because of that amount that's there. Can we amend that just because it's incorrect? The amount where it says for 10 million. It's a typo. Okay. I think it's a typo. It's a typo. Okay. So, we could just Okay. If there are no questions, then we will uh put this item in consent

026agenda. And for for purposes of what that means, it means that the lister presenting for renewals by you approving the item, it means they're going to renew all those services. So you can't come back and say later, oh, I wish we would have gone off the bids cuz that's why we're letting you know right now. This is what we're renewing right now. And if you don't want to renew, this is the speed now or hold your peace for one year until the next cycle. Mhm. I think they're recommended already by the director. She's already given us some information that there isn't any problems or events. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Yes. All right. Good. Move. Move on to the next item. Item I consider and take possible action on requisitions under task v policy ch local purchasing

027and acquisition. And uh do you have that copy? I do want to provide you all a copy. Um when we put this out there, I did notice that we did not have dates on it. Something that I have already uh talked to purchasing department to ensure that we have dates. However, I want to ensure you that our goal is to have zero under this item. Okay. Uh but for now, I did want to provide you I I have one. Thank you. Oh, you got yours as well. I want to provide you um with the per purchases and I do want to make a note because I'm sure that you will uh make a note of this and I want to bring it to your attention. Um we do have uh a quite a bit amount

028under am I? Yeah. Okay. Um under boreas we do have a total amount for boreas in the amount of 45,591 with 47 cents totaling. Now, of the past dues that go back to almost a year, that totals to 42,788 with 7 cents with 2,800 being current. And for Texas Chiller, again, these are past debts. Um, it is 18,032 with 5 cents. And then for Jon Stone, same thing. Pass debt, it is a total of 2351 with 40 cents. Totaling a past debt amount of 63,171 with 52 cents for those three particular companies. And so if it would have been like it always is without dates, we wouldn't even have figured it out. We would have just paid it without knowing that they're very very old, past past dues. And so I think one thing that

029the this new board has to clarify and has to uh let very clear here is that we will not be leaving unpaid bills. We don't do that. You have to pay your bills especially because this is um these are things for our kids, for our students, for uh district and um if these vendors provided a service or gave us you know a supply uh they need to be paid and they need to be paid in an orderly manner. we don't wait a whole year um to get these invoices and then to or to pay out if we have been getting these invoices in the past. So, I think that's something you're going to look into and see um did they give us invoices? What was it? Why weren't they weren't they paid? Um and all

030that other information. I believe that these are invoices without purchase orders. Uh so that is correct unauthorized which I recall the last meeting that we had uh we talked about this process that needs to be put into place where we will not be taking responsibility for any purchases that are made without any invoices. I think that it's very important to hold people accountable. Uh and I know you know the way it worked back then it's not going to work moving forward. So, I'm thinking that legal and uh our finance department will be working closely to put some type of process there. Uh you know, just a a a process there that will keep us from continuing doing this because then uh I feel like everybody's spending at will and we're not uh keeping track of

031what is being spent. I know and and I know that they're not just going to spend it just on anything just to spend it. But I think the accountability and keeping track of what expenditures are happening throughout the year need to be accounted for and make sure that they went through the proper channels uh to be able to provide that service and justify payment at the same time. And what we'll be doing with this even so we're recommending your approval but it's still conditional on our audit for that. So just the way we audited a previous vendor for unpaid bills, we will be auditing these before a payment is released. So even though you're approving it, know that you're approving it conditionally to legal's audit of whether or not services were performed before payment is

032issued. But to your point, yes, um we have spoken about that and I did part of the conversation too. everybody's on board that this is something that we're going to work very purposely to pretail from happening. Correct. So there are no other questions. We will put this into consent agenda of course for that condition that legal just spoke of. With that we'll move into item J. Consider and take possible action on requisitions 5,000 and over. And the list is there for your review. Uh, no. GF Coast TJ. Uh, it's a maintenance department. It's a total of uh $136,880 today. Is this material for the custodial toilet paper towels? Is it for the end of the school year or is it moving on towards the next academic school year as well? Do you know? No. Or

033to finish off this that is correct. I had asked some people the same question. Can we have like just a little bit more specific as far as to we're not right now but maybe in the future where we know where now where everything exactly is going. We do have an estimate of this is how much we're spending in this school on dietary supplies versus this school so that we have an idea okay you know how much does it take to you know provide this the the material that they just put yes madam president I did talk to Mr. Gonzalez about that because I saw mo some of the things are just basically repetitive. Repetitive. Correct. So then I asked them how what is this procedure and I said is it that our head custodians request

034this and then we order it. Uh and but then I did also say we would like to know and I think the board had already requested that what campuses are they going to who is requesting this and that's all department and then we discussed something else about buying the door correct purchase and just store warehouse and distribute as needed and that's something that okay yeah and I know it's okay 14 campuses that we have so I know it takes a lot of uh our high schools are usually one that most especially the Yeah, it's understood. It's just uh you know uh kind of uh a little Yeah, when you see the amount, it like hits you in the face and and and and you wonder you don't realize how much it takes to to operate

035that campus in that specific area. Thank you. But definitely we do need to make sure that we're getting the supplies because I know that that has been a a complaint in the past that the custodians were bringing them from home or sometimes we were given the you know the materials needed. So it we're okay with spending this. We just kind of wanted a little more um accountability that so moving forward we will uh go ahead and and do that as requested. Uh so there are no other questions on this item. Uh this will make it into consent agenda. Let's move on to item K. Consider and take possible action or request for use of school facilities from real Grandandy City Parks and Recreation to host the Cinco de Mayo 5K run on May 3rd, 2025.

036and that you do have that attachment there. This is going to be their first annual real Grandandy City Cinco de Mayo 5K run. The event will take place on May the 3 and they are asking for the Fort Ringo grounds and track field for uh again those are the areas that they're requesting. So there are no questions. This item will make it into consent agenda. Good. Okay. All right. Let's move on to item five. maintenance department consider and take possible action on obsolete equipment items for auction. Uh there is a separate document that will be passed out to you. Um and again you're going to look at those obsolete items and when I had discussed it with legal of course it was said to us make sure that it has serial numbers make sure that

037it has and unfortunately board I will I will be upfront with you and tell you not everything has a serial number. Uh but moving forward, everything that comes into our district, we will ensure that it has the serial number that is needed. Uh and it is by department. These are um the the list that you see there are the items that we are requesting to take to auction. And I'll go into the contract and I want to say that's June 16. June 14. June 14th. June 14th. Okay. And we haven't had an auction in how long, Mr. um Gonzalez in a year. Think two years. About two years. Okay. A very good thing. You're going to declutter and get Yes, ma'am. A lot of stuff. Yeah. Because we usually have an issue, right? Because you

038do tell me that sometimes we've gone to auction and especially tires, uh they'll purchase, they only come for the good ones and they leave all the bad stuff behind. So we have a bunch of you know like you said along with teacher I mean student decks that are no longer correct usable or they're not we're not able to use them anymore because they're damaged and they'll just leave them behind. They don't buy them for scrap metal purposes or whatever and I guess they find out it's going to be difficult to remove the parts that they don't want just keep them metal so they just leave them behind and some of these things have been gone to walks maybe twice maybe even three times. That's what we were discussing. I said, "Okay, let's look at an

039area." And I think there's one next to the where Alberto and Selia that road with the county. I'm not sure that's a county or the city, but we are requesting. Correct. So, we can start decluttering tires. Correct. We have overwhelming amount of tires there. I I've tried searching everywhere and uh there's a place in in I don't know, Wester somewhere else. Uh, but they they charge you $5 per tire to go and so pick them up. Drop it out. We have to we have to load them and take them and drop charge $5 per tire. We never done it, but I just thought it was kind of like Have you been to the county? I know that the county had purchased some uh machines that will undo or I thought about that. So I'm going

040to when I reach out to them about the landfill, I'll ask that. That's correct. I mean, there's all these mulch that they use for playgrounds and stuff like that, but I don't Are there any other questions on that item? If not, we will move into consent agenda. We move on to item B and that is consider and take possible action on personal and chattel I hope I'm saying it uh right property auction agreement between Galindo Auctions LLC mission Texas and Rio Grandandy City Guri ISD the contract is attached for your review um I think if you look at the decision- making form it does state of course the date June 14th at 10:00 um it does say though and I also gave this contract handed over to legal a 15% of the gross sales total

041or base of 4,000 whichever is greater for which the property has been sold as compensation for managing uh and auctioneering and clerking the auction. So that is what they are uh charging us to get. Yes ma'am. It varies. is I mean I think the last uh auction we made um I don't know close to it was about 30,000 I believe we but we did have more items more vehicles and what have you and usually it's a buses that bring in the the bigger amounts and I think this time we only had one we have one on there so and do we how many uh vehicles do we have from transportation I didn't really take a look at that do you have any vehicles that was the only vehicle that was the only vehicle that we

042have we have three from the maintenance department three for maintenance okay and that does in bring back conditions. I'm not too sure. I didn't I haven't seen it myself, but it is I believe a 200 something 2001 model, something like that. And I'm sure if it's going to auction, we've already uh taken parts from it to try to fix other of our newer buses. It's in dire need of It's in dire need. Yeah. Um getting replaced. We try to do our best with the 2001 model, so it's quite old. 24 years. No, I'm not sure. I wouldn't be able to it's going out for if he's recommending yeah go out for auction I'm sure it's not probably just desktops 174 iPads all that stuff been spilled no yes that that was given to me provided

043to me by the um fixed assets department and I did ask because it doesn't provide like serial numbers or anything on that list and they do have it documented so we need it later we can we can provide it serial numbers for the fixed assets. Mhm. Okay. That but he just gave me I guess a summary of what he had already. He said he had all that documentation. Okay. Any questions on that? All right. We'll move that to consent agenda. Thank you sir. And before signing that contract I will ensure that you know legal has approved that as well. Okay. Moving on to item six board governance. We have uh approval of board minutes. Item one, special board meeting April 10th, 2025 begins on page 76 for your review. And we also have an item

044two, regular board meeting, April 10, 2025 begins on page 79 for your review as well. I will give you time to review. If there are no questions, we will place these items into a consent agenda. Okay. No uh questions that will be placed in consent agenda. Item B, discussion on matters related to board operating procedures. Mr. Eden. Good evening members of the board. So for this item, we're not going to put this in consent at the next meeting. we are going to approve it individually and that's because u before the end of the week when the agenda goes out you're going to be receiving a draft of what the board operating procedures are. Today I wanted to introduce what those mean and what they are intended to do. So board operating procedures are going to

045be a set of rules adopted by the board that govern how uh board members are going to do several things such as interact with administration, what your roles are, what your scope is, how uh you're going to be submitting items for the agenda if you want one. Uh it's going to govern the board workshops, what we expect from administration to have ready for you at the board workshop. At the board meeting as well, we move stuff to consent. So, for example, one of the things the board operating procedures will do is that you cannot take items out of consent if you a um didn't pose any of the questions to the superintendent uh before the board meeting or during the workshop. If you didn't make it to the board workshop and intend to go to

046the board meeting, you won't be able to pull out of items out of consent at the board meeting unless you've taken the time to come meet with the superintendent if you miss the board workshop. So, if one of you misses the board workshop, for example, and you don't ask anything, you're not going to be able to come to the board meeting and pull everything out of consent to redisuss it again. The goal is to make sure that we are able to answer non-instructional questions uh in business here in the back. What we're trying to do is shift the board's focus at board meetings to be about student outcomes and students. That's ultimately why we're here. So, one of the things you're going to start noticing at the board meetings is that they're going to be

047heavily uh tailored towards bringing students forward to recognitions, recognizing uh staff members and students who are going and doing exceptional things for our school district, but we're also going to have all of our conversations regarding academics at board meetings. So now you're going to be getting data presentations from students. I mean sorry from your staff members specifically uh CNI about where your district is at, how we're benchmarking, what your scores are, where you're coming in, what's going on in the classrooms, what programs you're going to be doing, what curriculums you're requesting from you, what resources are going to be asking from you for. So the goal is to ensure that our discussions as a board are about students because that's ultimately why all of us here have a job. None of us would be sitting

048in this room right now, whether it's the attorney, whether it's a superintendent, whether it's the TV, if it wasn't for the children that are in these walls right now in the school district. And so the goal is to make sure that our board operating procedures reflect that our primary focus for this board moving forward is going to be to ensure the academic success of the students in here. And so what that means is that we're going to take care of all non-instructional business in a setting like this because these conversations around contracts, around uh auctions, around all that stuff, that's secondary to why we're and why we're supposed to be here. And so the goal is to discuss this here, get it out the way, get the questions you need answered because our board meeting

049is going to be about kids and it's going to be about scores. And so uh in an effort to encourage that, we want to make sure that our board operating procedures encourage participation at the board workshop for these discussions to ensure that our board meetings remain student focused. And so the board operating procedures when you go through them once you get your board agendas on Friday, you're going to see how these are governed, what the meeting is intended to do, what you're expecting from administration, how you can request an item on here when our own ad our own staff needs to submit items for the agenda to ensure that they're also held accountable and prepared for these kind of meetings to ensure that when we sit down in this room in this table and you

050have a question, the questions are answered because one of the things that I noticed coming in is that sometimes we didn't have all the answers available to you and you are the board and you do deserve all the answers to all these questions. You're approving these things and so our goal and I spoke to Miss Lupita about this will be to do just that. And so this provides the first platform to talk about these things. Like I mentioned earlier, it's also because it's fair not just to you but to our administrators and to our employees of the district. Right? If you want to go out for a new bid for something, we want to make sure that our finance department has the adequate time they need to go out and bid for that. If we

051want to make sure we want to go in a different direction with something, we want to give staff the ability to prepare for those changes and directions. And so, uh, the board operating procedures will cover a lot of topics like that. I encourage you all to look at to review before we approve them at the next meeting. We'll be able to discuss them at the next meeting as well, uh, both in executive session and an open. But that's kind of what we're going to be approving. Um, and in order to make our board meetings more efficient, in order to make our meetings more productive, and in order to ensure that ultimately at the end of the day, we're talking about kids here. Any questions I can answer about what's expecting or anything you might be

052curious about? All right, sounds good. That's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Ramirez. Moving on to item seven, budget workshop number one. Dr. Selenas will be presenting the 2526 district compensation plan. Get back here. Good evening, Madam President, members of the board. Miss Gotison, superintendent of schools. I do have a pass out for you and I do have a PowerPoint. So, it'll it'll coincide together, but thank you for the opportunity. And on the first slide, I'd like to mention um this is our agenda for tonight. What is the compensation plan? What is the history of practice and new initiatives that we're installing? House Bill 2, forecast and recommendations, proposed 202526 compensation plan. And of course, we'll open up for questions or discussions that you may have. And please feel free to interrupt me at any

053time. Um, what is a compensation plan? So, if you look at at what uh College Station ISD, you have pay and benefits, pay and benefits, salary bonuses, and stipens all included and provisions in salary advancement, which the board has made clear that that's one of the initiatives that we have for our employees is to eventually have those pay initiatives for our employees. Um, one of the ones we'll speak about tonight is HB2, which is early in the game, but we'll outline that for you. Next thing is that we have what we have our past practice, which by the director of our superintendent made it clear that we needed to amend and redirect what we're doing. And those of you who've been on the board for a while, you've heard us say April snapshot for a

054long time. That's basically what our captured data was for how many employees we'd move for the next fiscal year. And that's been amended. that's been amended to um a a system that we'll eventually show you tonight. Also, we have uh the FTEES that FTE means full-time employee. A full-time employee is an employee who will be asked to the board for approval for the next fiscal year. Obviously, the compensation plan is a large part of the budget, which Ms. Robles will present in a while and obviously present to you in June. Uh it's obviously a smaller we wanted to make it a smaller part of the budget. We're currently from mid 80s to high 80s. We want to bring that down and that alleviates some of that stress from the budget. The next slide we have

055um the proposed compensation plan. What is it? The history of practice. I went the wrong way with my clicker here. We have the proposed impacts tonight. What are the proposed impacts on possibly on the compensation plan? It's House Bill Two. On House Bill two, we're looking at possibly an increase from aotment per student at 6160 to 6555. And of course, this is an email that uh we received from Tasbo. We're talking about House Bill 2 must be back in the House before it begins two sides of negotiations. And we have a final decision, House Bill 2, which pretty much our chief financial officer, Miss Robles, and myself will look at with our superintendent to reflect current law. She will use current law to create a budget for the 202526 school year. With that being said,

056can y'all click? I I never figured out. So, with that being said, in your binder now, we can move over to what we have for you. And we start off with, you know, I did have a memorandum there basically explaining explaining what what I just went over with the PowerPoint. But on tab two, you begin our allocation request for teachers. And as you see that is 739 teachers broken down by campus and a total aotment of 42,744,495. On the next tab which is tab number three the admin. The admin tab please. Thank you. You see the admin tab here and you see on the far left you'll see a pay grade. We have a paygrade one. We have the title. Uh in between the pay grade and the job title you see the number of

057allocated FTEEs for that position. The the calendar days the employee works the cost and of course on a new hire scale you have a minimum a midpoint and a maximum point for for employees in that pay grade for that position if they were to be hired. As you can see, you have the positions in red, highlighted in red. Those positions uh bring a budget impact of either retirements, reduction in force or positions that we have uh looking to close by attrition. So those three initiatives as you can see if you bring the column F, you bring it down, you have a total that we would be asking for paygrade one for the 2526 school year. And we have column G which is the savings for that paygrade. And I'll bundle it up together at the

058end so you can see the impact it has. Like we can go through pay grade 2. Same concept titles number of FTEs we're looking to allocate number of FTs we're looking to save again by the reduction in force. We're looking at retirements and um attrition initiatives that we have going on. And if you can scroll down for me please. Thank you sir. And the same thing we have pay grade three admin 3. This is admin admin support. Paygrade four. Please board anytime you have any questions. So we have uh pay grade where we have the county supervisor and you see a different color code here. We have one allocate. We're asking for the board for one FTE allocation. We have a budget of a midpoint of 70,824. If the board were to approve this compensation

059plan at the budget meeting, then we would go out and advertise according to state law. So that's what the blue means that we would be adding that position. You go down, sir, please. What what would be the role of the accounting supervisor? So the accounting supervisor, Mr. Pena, we we've sat down with Miss GarcA, the Mles and I, and we've talked about the role here. We have two accountants currently that are in the district. uh we did have one by attrition that we've not asked for an aotment. The supervisor would be is responsible for the works of those two accountants and also carry a load of an accounting schedule. Uh we've had we've talked to Miss Garo about actually splitting the duties of one of the accountants into uh the the 101 which is your

060child nutrition. Maybe do those kind of in initiatives where we can do some type of split funding also alleviate some of the stress also on the 199. Yes sir. You can keep going please. Thank you. Thank you Sam. Appreciate you. As you can see pay grade here we have more of the initiative savings and you can see the column again you have 1.643 that we're asking yet we have a savings of 1.11844 in that pay grade. That is correct. Positions that have closed. Um like I mentioned with the initiatives of reduction force, we have retirements and attrition initiatives that we have. And the ones in blue just to just to clarify not all are new positions. Some of them are current positions that people have retired and we will be filling them. Correct. The blue

061positions are positions that we're requesting an FTE for next year. Um Okay. Yes. But were they in existence prior to uh this this year? So, so it's a combination. You did a reduction in force that required doing away with two positions but combining one. And so that new one position would be in blue. Correct. Okay. And you'll see the difference right now in numbers. So you can see that you're actually closing more than your own. It's a new consolidated or in some cases a complete just changing of titles like if you see here the assistant soups for example. Okay. They're what they're really doing is changing the titles to chiefs, but they're maintaining the same pay scale and they're and they're doing away one by one for the year. Correct. Correct. And also to note

062and Dr. Les, um all of these new positions are only getting one-year term contracts. So, we're not doing the three-year contracts that that were awarded last year. We're going to go to the one the way it should be, and they're going to be not contract doc specific. They're going to be the professional capacity uh description. Yes, that is correct. If we can go to the the tab four, which is your par profofessional tab, same concept here and again you look at at positions that are being done away with. We have a total there on the right side column. Uh we have the same Sam you could push a little bit to the to your right just so they can see the number of allocations if it does change. For example, you look at row 34

063you see 12 clerks at the elementary level at 183 days. That's the total aotment that we're asking from the board and basically it keeps going from paygrade 2 pay grade three. And just to reiterate, for example, you look at row 96 at if approved by the board this positions 10 secretaries at the elementary. That's that's our parameters for the year. Obviously, if we can stay under the 10, that's our goal. But if we obviously we we've had our first round of of staffing with with the superintendent and Miss Ayala and we are having our second round of campus staffing next week with or actually this week with the principal. So that's moving forward. Again, if one if approved, the board has set parameters for those FTEEs and ultimately the goal without hurting the operations of

064the campus or the department. We would like to stay under that aotment. I appreciate it, Sam. Thank you. Just if there's any questions, it's pretty the same concept. Okay. Uh, Madam President was saying that we used to Are we going to cut more people right now? And just to clarify that. Sure. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yes. That that is correct. No, we're not cutting anyone. We did identify positions that we could do away with by attrition. Uh, that's a natural retirement. Uh, someone leaving the district, not, you know, with any adverse action. Of course, there's recommendations that the principal will make at the end of the school year, which if he if he does a non-renewal, uh that would be uh taken into effect at the campus level. Correct. Which which we can't do. So, remember

065when the when when the board authorized the three-year contracts in 2024, we could no longer nominee anybody this year. We have to go for an outright termination. But not everybody got a threeear contract. Yes. only certain people. The only ones that did not are the probationary probationary and you're at wills obviously. Yeah. Your whole district got through your Yes, that is correct. And so I would want you to clarify that. Is that something that most districts is that something common that districts do? That is highly unusual. You're probably the only district in Texas that has done that ever. So for anybody out there wondering if not I had calls all the time, is this right? Can you do this? I called the attorney. The attorney told me It's a there were an agreement I guess

066with person and the district but it is not common and it is not something that we should have done. Um and so I just want to make sure it's coming from uh that were done that uh Sam can you click on tab teacher please real quick just so I can make one quick point that we discussed with with our superintendent. For example the board sets a parameter for 739 teachers FTES. These are the full-time teachers you're allowing our administration to run and and and we're working hard. I know there's a lot of initiative superintendent and her staff have brought for increasing enrollment and we run a staffing study you know right before school starts and we need to increase that FT then we come to the board ask you for that a lotment whether it

067be one two three hopefully it's a lot of them and uh you know due to the enrollment increase and that's that's the process that uh that we would follow if we do reach 740 plus and let me just say say this because I don't think Doc's giving himself credit with this the what you're doing and what he referenced in the first slide with respect to what you were doing in the past to what you're doing now is that back then you had no control to add positions. The it was the district was just adding if they needed a position and that was it. And then if they made it to the April snapshot, that position carried over for budget purposes for for next year. And so there was never a control over a fixed number

068of positions. And so in abandoning that system, what Doc and your superintendent are doing is that now you have a fixed number. Now this tells your superintendent these are the parameters of resources of people we're providing you work within those numbers. You're telling doc that's what you have to be paying people and you're giving Diana the opportunity to have a more predictable payroll budget because you're identifying the actual people and humans that are working in the district that are identified. And if you needed more people, right, then that compensation plan has to come back to the board for approval to update it. So now, Miss Lupita just can't go and randomly hire new people. You know what I mean? Because then that defeats the whole purpose of you having this compensation plan. Now, your district

069is going to be fine-tuned going into the school year. You're going to know exactly how many positions are available to use. Doc is going to know exactly what he needs to be paying and hopefully this helps Miss Diana figure out her budget based on what the numbers that we're providing. So now it shouldn't be unpredictable, right? Now you're going to enter a different conversation. For example, overtime, right? So sure, you have this amount of money scheduled for 40 hours from the full-time employees, but what about your overtime part? And how do you start calculating that and working through that? But what you have certainty of now is that 739, that's how many teacher contracts are available in your school district. What you're telling Lupita is work with that number, ma'am. And if she needs more,

070she needs to come tell you, hey, I need more teachers and this is why. And you have to approve that. She just doesn't get to go hire them because then what do we end up having? A similar situation to the rift. We're having overstaffing in some areas because I would potentially credit to a poor control of these mechanisms that now are tying. Well, very good. Yeah. because then we sacrifice, you know, and we live, you know, for risk. But with this, we're assuring our our community that we're not going to continue in the past that Yes, ma'am. Yeah. This initiative, we call it the fine focus. It's it's really right where it needs to be. Uh, can you click on the tab, the auxiliary stab? Oh, I'm sorry. had a question. But basically, it still

071needs to go when increase enrollment, increasing this number. But now it requires the board to approve, but to be clear in case the compensation plan can always come back to the board, the first one, and be amended if we need to. Yeah. But she won't be able to do it at her own discretion as to hiring additional teachers. And that's how we're going to hopefully control the overstaffing in the long run or that's not going to happen because you know exactly what positions you made available for the year. We look at the auxiliary tab that's tab five and just another example you see on pay grade one you have 93 custodians. We did sit down with our department head and um you know we we were operating about 82. We did tap into our attrition

072list and say, "Okay, we're going to ask the board for a 93 count." Again, being very careful before we hire anybody to make sure that we're staffed with the custodial staff as needed to where rooms need to be maintained, you know, as they need to be maintained for the conducive to learning. That's just another example. So, if there is an increase, uh, you know, we build another wing and we need another 14 custodians and obviously same concept, come back to the board, ask for the 14 aotments and move forward. But this area has always been a an area has faced pro problem in in in actually retaining our custodial and our maintenance staff. So I think when when you put it like this, I think that it gives you better ideas to and better enticement

073also for them to to stick around. Yes. Uh so hopefully we can work with them and and and provide them, you know, better quality of of of work, you know, compensation and work environment. Exactly. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it, Sam. Thank you. On the substitute tab, um we did present this during our our u our workshops throughout the year with our with our reduction in force and we talked about we had in the district we have permanent subs 260 and obviously this is one a future attrition. These these individuals are long-term subs in classrooms helping us out in special ed units. So, this is a a potential future attrition. Of course, people leaving on their own looking for for other other avenues, other work. So, that that's just want to include that. That's also

074in our compensation plan. And the other tab, if you look at uh the total, this is the total. You look at 24 on uh column B 2425 that's the teacher breakdown. If you run across just as the board made it very clear. You look at the savings there's none because we stayed the same as we mentioned. You look at the administrative administrative support which was our first pay system that we showed you in 2425. The aotment compared to the aotment we're requesting from the board and the total savings on column D. Look at auxiliary which the total allocation requested from the board in 2425 2526 and the total savings on column D paraprofessional so on and so forth. You see the final savings on column D. Stipens remain the same. There's no cuts there. These

075are all campus based auxiliary. I mean I'm sorry your your fine arts, your athletics, your your department chairs which we'll we'll show you in a minute. And then the long-term subs. As we said, this is a pocket of potential attrition that we're looking at, but also not touched with a total compensation plan that was requested from the board at 86,981 351,000 last year. With this year, we're looking at 82,044966 with a savings of 4.936385. At what percentage does the operation that's go? So, you're not going to have that just yet because I think Miss Diana is still working on the budget. You have to figure out what the revenues are going to be, calculate all that. But what you do know for sure is that at least comparing what active positions you had at about

076your snapshot in April versus the positions you're approving, you're at least having a $5 million savings right off the bat. What goal are we shooting for? Do we have a goal? We do. So in addition to those five, the initial staffing adjustment plan that was adopted by the board during the reduction in force includes about another 3 million in natural attrition that hopefully that can be achieved throughout this year. So as people leave this year, permanent subs, maybe probationary contracts, things like that that you're able to start cutting off, then hopefully we're able to catch those other 3 million through the natural attrition. And so hopefully by the end of this year you would have the five, six, seven, eight, almost $8 million uh in payroll savings by right sizing the district staffing packets. And

077just to clarify uh this is the only way that campuses would be affected by attrition uh only if they if they choose this to leave. Not that we're going to fire anybody. not that we're going to cuz there's there's there's people talking out there that there's a third wave coming along and there is no third wave. There's nothing like that whatsoever at all based on what view the board approved. So as you can see teachers have not been touched at all. Okay. You can see the column of savings of money coming from administration and administrative support up there. Okay. And so, no. And the only way we're keep saving money for this upcoming year is going to be through the natural attrition process as individuals begin to leave. And hopefully we can make up a

0783 million area there when you count the retirees from this year and the people who are going to be leaving throughout the year next year. Yes. Yes. Okay. The second compensation schedule. So I can explain to the board in in within your compensation plan that we just noticed we asked from the board for the FTEEs that were requesting for the 2526 as you as you mentioned there's no there's no hurting the campuses at all the compensation schedule if you can scroll through it this is our parameters for what we do with um stipens so I just wanted to show the board that obviously a teacher pay scale we're we're we talked about house bill two we don't know what's coming but obviously the board's made it clear and we're excited about what may and what

079mandates are scheduled for this salary scale. I know our goal is to get that starting salary 50. We we want it we want it there. We we need it there. Uh so those are the initiatives we're thinking about in the next couple of weeks that are coming with with the parameters on HP2 and obviously with some of the savings that we've shown you tonight. So it's and just to interrupt you, sorry, it's very likely that this will come back for an approval again if the money does come in and we have to make changes to the pay scales that'll be coming up for that. But the goal right now at least for purposes it's due in June and we don't know that the governor is going to sign all this off. we don't know if

080the conference committee is going to get it out before then is to plan on the conservative side because that means if you get the extra 500 per student that hopefully you get and if those full 500 are not attached to anything right then hopefully that means that you're going to have so much breathing room next year to be able to do stuff for your district. Yes, especially teachers. Yes. Thank you. Up next you see just that's the teacher salary. We see the the next section if you keep going Sam thank you is supplemental learning supplemental learnings you see the classroom stipens uh we're excited about keeping our master's degree for our non-content area and our degree content area uh doctorate this is all teacher-based special education you see the stipen for teachers um we are

081we did meet with the with the department head and and HP2 has uh thrown a little hint that they might increase that a lotment too with special ed so that's the case it's something like like Mr. Ramita said we'd bring back to the board and obviously look at that stipen increase that's the criteria must be followed bilingual our our department does a good job with that allocation also that's a career and technology stipen a teacher incentive aotment which is you know very exciting news as you saw in our banquet these are recognized teachers $3 to $9,000 exemplar 6,000 to 18,000 and the master teachers anywhere between 12,000 and 32,000 the good thing with TIA is that That's not a budget impact for you. Correct. That's money that comes in from the state. Correct. The other

082ones are budget impacts for you. Yes. These are your strategists. This year the the district retained the early childhood and bilingual uh strategist. Just go back very quickly and then we touch up on that point. National board certified the possibility of that. Thank you, Miss Garcia. So, we're excited with the We go down a little bit. I'm sorry. I I missed that right there. Okay. Okay. So, if you look at the national board certified teachers, I know uh Miss Nia Bonitz and and her staff have done a tremendous job. We have the potential of having anywhere from three to five nationally board certified teachers. And if you look throughout the valley, um there's not many. So, we're excited about that. The number we're proposing to the board tonight is a $5,000 stipen for a national

083board certified teacher. And if you look at the successful completion of the four certification components, which these teachers have gone through, they they've worked so hard, you know, considering everything they have to go through is an additional 1,900 stipen. And all this is coming back from the TIA reimburseable monies. As Mr. Ramas mentioned uh when TIA sends you an aotment I believe you get 10% for for for administrative operations. So exactly now the national board certified teachers are all through elementary, middle school and high school or is it just high school like content? Mhm. Okay. And we will find out in December. We're excited about that. That's That's So that's in addition to that EIA compensation. Yes. Yes. Wow. And we're excited about that. Thank you for for pointing that gar. If any anyone has

084any questions at any time. Now, the reason this is being shown to you again, it's because when you get asked, well, why do who makes so much money or how power stipens or what do you get paid for this? This is where that's found. So, when you ask yourself, well, what is a head coach for golf getting paid? That's what it is. For softball, that's what they're getting paid to do the extra. Yeah. And some of them of course coach multiple sports. So, it's so they can add multiple titans on their coaching multiple sport. That's correct. That's correct. And you see some have additional days added in addition to the stipen. So it's a stipen plus the value of the days. Now all of this is set by the board and I think that's what

085that's what I'm trying to emphasize here. You won't get to say hey can you bring us a different plan that includes a raise. How much would that hurt us? Yeah. like can you figure out if we increase this or we decrease this how does that impact us or not impact us that's the purpose behind the workshop is this is where you are getting the opportunity to view the numbers talk the numbers ask for Miss Lupita to bring you different scenarios figure out what that costs figure out if it's affordable or not affordable because Oh yeah yeah so that's why we're having this budget workshop because they're telling you that's what you have right now that's what they're recommending again but you can say, "You know what? I think we got a cut in this area,

086right?" Or, "You know what? Can you bring a different plan for a rain?" I don't know. I don't know if you know or not, Doug. But how comparable are we with the neighboring districts as far as stipens go? Yeah, I that's a good question. I would know. I need to look at that. If we can run a report through TASBY, you know, so those are the so those are so the question the board president's asking is, you know, why is the head coach for one earning 6,000 but the head coach for another one earning 9,000, right? What are the reasons behind that? It could be longer seasons, more students, less students. But the point is, yes, this is what this is for for you to ask these questions. Yes, and that is correct. If you

087look at our tennis coach and our golf coach, those are season year round year- round uh events. Now John, those that say all others are those that's because it's one per those or those include multiple sometimes. How many siphons are you authorizing? So for example, game duties all. What does that mean? This is a under which which tab can you go down? All other game duties all that they have to how many how many of those statements are available? Right. We should be identifying that as part of our because the goal is again for purposes for budget, right? This again lets the superintendent know you only have two of these types available. This lets Doc know that's the value and this lets Miss Diana know that she just has to budget for two. Got we'll

088do I will say that you all are among the most generous days. I very seldom see days added where you have stipens. So usually it's within their contract within their contracted day. within the well usually it's the stipen covers it that's what the stipen is for the extra days yes it's a academic UI and again these we would need like the numbers on the side right this many one per campus or whatever it That's why I was asking uh doc like how comparable are we uh with neighboring districts, you know, as far as the stipens come. That's a good question. You can task that's what this is for. You can task your administration tonight to say, "Hey, can you look at neighboring districts where they're at? How do we compare? I want that for budget

089workshop number two. Is there a way that you can run a report as to how comparable we are with neighboring districts? Same side. So I mean of course same size uh and see how we Yeah. Every every every year TASBY asks us to upload our survey data and that's just a matter of plugging in the data you want to pull out from those reports. We we we may find out that we're being more generous than some of the richest districts in the area and a district might show a larger stipen yet we're showing a smaller stipen with additional days and we pay at the daily rate which is makes it even higher higher. Yeah. So can we task we can task the individual or our HR to to to do that superend the superintendent to

090do that. Superintendent can work with you all direct your yeah our I will say this is for purposes of budget and for purposes of to look this is low hanging fruit. this stuff you can very tangibly address. You know, I think I counted all the days the other day and I told you it was about $100,000 in days and I think it's a little more maybe because my math's not perfect, but I think just days there you're adding about a little over $100,000. And I know you're probably thinking, well, 100,000 isn't a lot, but you have 100,000 here, 5 million here, 100,000 there. I mean it adds up over the the whole course. Thank you Sam. I appreciate that. These are ancilliary pay structures. Uh these are separate pay structures that we carry in the

091district that we've been using. And for example, the first one we have is for our transportation department. We have a step it's a it's a it's an incillary pay scale from our pay structure. And this is u you know we like to maximize our our bus drivers at five plus. We do the same thing with our mechanics. And we look the same thing with with our staff in transportation. Yes. Not that we're going to do it right away, but I just have in mind that so that if you look at our our security department or our police department, we do, you know, we entice our officers to reach that bachelor's degree with a $2 increase per hour. And of course, we pay our rank with our corporals and investigators lieutenants. So there's an ancillary pay

092scale for our police officers. Where's your chief phone number? Chief is under admin pay grade three on the admin group. Yes, sir. Appreciate your help, Sam. Thank you. Any questions from the board? Miss Cara, thank you very much. [Music] Now, this one will go into consent. We're going to approve the first draft because what that means is that it lets administration start working at least with staffing patterns for hiring of next year. Doesn't mean that it's not going to come back the very next meeting with a with with with an update. But the first draft would be up would be approved so that you can post positions. you need to post, go through all that process, but if there's further changes required, it'll come back right at the very next meeting. Might even come back

093again at the very next meeting. I just want to clarify, we are able to post once the board after the board approves it, which will be on Tuesday. Then the positions will be able to work with them because they've already been given to you. These are not new positions. They are consolidated. Correct. Yes. Or retitling positions. Okay. just to make sure that they don't see that we're getting more. Yes, ma'am. Okay. For the next item, we have item B 2526 2026, I'm sorry. District budget uh workshop or presentation, I'm sorry, by Good evening. We're going to start with our district uh with our first district budget workshop this year. And the title of this workshop is school district budgeting 101 because I will just be introducing the most basic items uh for budgeting purposes or

094finance. So the first slide is just reflecting the big picture of the budget. Basically the budget is just our financial road map that outlines how funds will be allocated to support the priorities like programs, staffing, operations, facilities, etc. And so why does the budget matter? It matters because it should be reflecting of the district values and priorities. And so every dollar must be spent to support student success. The fiscal year is from July the 1st through June 30. Most school districts in the state of Texas run from September through August. In 2020, uh the district decided to change the fiscal year to July 1st. Now, there is also legal and policy framework for the budget and so we must follow state laws and TEA requirements. One of the first ones is and many people are

095not aware but the superintendent is actually the budget officer. Also, the budget must be prepared by June the 19th and adopted by June 30th for July districts, which it's our case. Now, why June the 19th and then adopted before June 30th? Why? because we are required to publish a notice within t 10 days of hearing of the hearing uh in a local newspaper that actually reflects the budget to discuss the budget and the tax rate. So that is why we need to have a budget completed by June the 19th, but then we have 10 days to publish the notice and so to adopt the budget by June the 30th before we start the new fiscal year July 1st. Also, the budget must be adopted before the tax rate. And then July 1st is a start

096date that districts July 1 start date. Districts like ours must not adopt a tax a tax rate until after the district receives the certified appraisal role in late July. So basically that is the final appraisal values in properties within the school district and the appraisal district uh in Stark County does not provide that to us until July. So for purposes of us creating the budget and adopting the budget, we will be using the preliminaries value that are issued by the appraisal district which we just received this past Friday. So we will be calculating or estimating our tax rate based on those values. Missa, is there a difference between the fiscal year starting July 1st and as opposed to other districts that start in it all depends on the district and what they want to do.

097And we go back to when Mrs. Dil Magara was a superintendent and she uh attended region one and so region one at that point was I guess promoting that districts do adopt a July uh first district and the reason was so that we could increase our fund balance by a couple of millions. Actually, it turns out to be that we increase the fund balance by by a couple of millions only on paper and on statement because you will actually have to um expense those funds either way. The reason that you accumulate or you increase your fund balance by a couple of million is because that first year instead of being a 12-month year, it's a 10 month. So, the expenses are the expenses are lower and revenues are higher. This next slide, uh, it shows

098a tax rate and budget adoption for July 1 districts or for our district. And so in April, like I mentioned, the Stark County Appraisal District or the um the Star Center appraisal district provides the preliminary property values, which they already did this past week. And then in May, we will be finalizing the budget based on those property values. We will publish the notice in a newspaper to discuss the budget and the tax rate. And we will post that summary of a proposed budget in our district website. And those are requirements that we need to follow. Then in June, we will have the public hearing to discuss the budget and the tax rate. And the board will be approving the district budget. However, we will not be able to adopt a tax rate. Why? Because, as

099I mentioned before, we cannot adopt a tax rate if we have not received the final appraisal values from the county or the appraisal district. So, in July, that's when the appraisal district submits their certified appraisal role. And then we will submit data based on those values to TEA. And then in August, TEA will release the maximum compressed tax rate or the MCR. And then we have until September the 30th to adopt the tax rate and to amend the budget if the tax rate is higher or lower than what we estimated to create the budget. So now, where does the money come from? And as you all know we do receive federal grants and examples of those would be title one migrant idea B among many others. Other sources are grants donations and interest that we

100have or that we acrew in our in our bank. And so then we also have the state funding and local revenue. So we are going to go over state funding. So the foundation school program or FSP is the Texas main funding system. That's what funds our districts. This system establishes the amount of state and local funding due to districts. And it also ensures that all districts regardless of the property wealth that they receive and substantially equal access to similar revenue per student at similar tax effort. So it doesn't matter how wealth of a property values a district has, the state is making sure that every school district has a similar access or equal access to that revenue per student. of course at a similar tax effort. So then this funding system or the foundation school

101program is has two main components that is tied to tax effort for every school district. Again tied to tax effort meaning that we need to collect taxes. We need to levy right on the properties that we have. So it's broken down into the operations funding and then facilities funding. Now operations funding this one assists the schools in financing maintenance and operations. Then this funding is broken into two parts. TR1 which provides the basic funding through several a lotments which are like the regular basic education, special ed, bilingual, CTE, early education and of course under this level or tier one of this funding comes the average daily attendance or ADA which as you all know it's the biggest driver of state funding. which means that fewer st fewer students less money. Now the second level tier

102two this one supplements the basing funding that comes in tier one and it includes enrichment funding based on local tax effort for each penny above the MCR which is set by TA. So the MCR is tied to tier one and then we also have additional cents or if we increase our tax rate that would provide additional funding not only from our property taxes that we collect but it will generate more funding in the state under TR2. Then under the foundation school program, we also have the facilities funding. And so this one helps the school districts for debt service related to funding school facilities through two programs which is the IFA or the instructional facilities allotment and the existing debt allotment. Those two programs provide funding for debt service payments on eligible bonded debt. Like whenever

103we issue uh school bonds in order to construct uh to construct uh any campuses, then this funding comes and aids the school districts to make those payments on those um bonds. And then we have local revenue and that the most common source of local revenue is property taxes which is based on local property values in the district. The higher the property values of course the more property taxes that we collect. And so under the property taxes we do have a tax rate. And the tax rate is composed of two parts which is the maintenance and operations or M which again it's funding the day-to-day expenses for maintenance and operations of the school district and is tied to the calculation of both tier 1 and tier 2 but it drives tier one. Right now our current

104M tax rate is at [Music] $69.94. And then we also have the interest in syncing which is the INS and that one is the rate that pays for the bonds or the debt that we have issued to finance the facilities or other capital expenditures. this uh tax rate or this component of the tax rate the INS this one tied to the calculation of the facilities funding and right now the current rate on in on the INS side for the school district is at 4629. So if we add the M tax rate and the INS tax rate, our tax rate or the total tax rate for a school district is at a dollar with 1623. And so that is how that tax rate is broken down into two parts. 116 for every $100. $100 per. Now

105the maintenance and operations tax rate components again it's broken down into two parts. The tier one tax rate which is the maximum compress compressed tax rate. This one's set by TEA. This will be in August. And in order for the district to maximize the revenue related to TE to tier 1 from the state, we need to adopt that tax rate. Now, tier 2 tax rate, this one supplements the basic funding of the first one of the MCR, which includes enrichment funding for each penny above that MCR. and we have up to 17 cents above that tax rate set by TEA for us to collect more money or to generate more revenue that will be coming in from the state. Now this year 2 tax rate is comprised again of two levels which is going to

106be level one the golden pennies. The golden pennies are the first eight pennies or cents above the school district's MCR and these generate the highest level of funding for the school district. And then we have the copper pennies. This is the level two. And these are any of the nine cents that exceed the eight golden pennies that are above the MCR. So, we should have the MCR plus the 8 cents plus 9 cents. And the only thing is that the copper pennies, they are called copper pennies. They're not golden because they generate a lower level of funding for a school district. And so now, again, as I had mentioned before, our M tax rate is at $ 69.94. And so the tier one or the maximum compressed tax rate that was set by TA last

107year in August is 6169. But remember M at 69.94. So that means that we do have golden pennies. And so our golden pennies for school the school district we are maximizing our revenue there because we do have eight pennies there. Now, we do have a quarter of a penny under the copper pennies. So if the district would decide that we need or that we want to maximize revenue uh under the tier 2 of the M tax rate, we would have to seek voter approval in order to attain those additional eight cents and 3/4 in order for us to maximize that revenue. Now we talked where the come where the money comes from. Now where does it go? And so all this money that is generated by either the M tax rate or the INS tax

108rate and the money that comes from the foundation school program either for the operations or the facilities uh funding. All this money either goes to instruction for teacher salaries, their benefits, classroom materials, supplies, curriculum, assessments. We also uh cover support services such as counseling, health services, the nurses, therapists, libraries. We also cover administration, central office and campus leaders, human resources, finance, legal services among many others. We also cover transportation, buses, fuel, drivers, repairs, maintenance and operations such as utilities, custodial services, maintenance staff. And then we have debt service under the INS site or the facilities funding which is used to pay off the funds for construction or any major improvements that we have in the school district. And basically just key terms made simple. M that means the daily operations that we have in our

109district. INS anything having to do with uh paying debt. ADA as I mentioned students attending school daily. The fund balance that would be considered our emer emergency savings and a surplus or a deficit. Either we have extra funds or we do have a shortfall. The challenges that we are currently facing enrollment changes. Remember ADA is the biggest driver of uh state aid and again declining enrollment means less ADA which means less funding. Legislative changes going on right now, new laws such as the bo voucher programs that have already been approved by the House of Representatives and the Senate and that is waiting um signature by the governor that can shift funding starting in 2627. cost increases. Inflation affects utilities, insurance, wages and supplies. Our fund balance uh health. We have been using reserves. We need

110to use reserves or the fund balances strategically and not for ongoing costs as we have in the past. Sustainability. We need to avoid relying on one-time money funds such as Esther. And then the last slide that I have is just showing campus allocations. And so in the past we've have had reduction from 30 to 40% in the campuses under the regular program. And so this year at a 40% reduction 30% reduction 20% reduction 10% then we have no reduction and a 10% increase. And so this year we had decided that we were not going to have any reduction um on the campuses. We decided that monies that were going to be strategically strategically used in the campuses and so we had decided that 100% of those funds were going to go back. Um however in

111uh meeting with Mrs. Garza, Dr. Selenas, we decided to go with a 10% increase under the regular program. Um, of course, that would be up to the board and whatever you think it's the best for students. Bilingual GT, uh, that's under general fund as well, but those were never cut in the past. And the reason is because we do have to meet a requirement that we need to spend a certain um percentage under those aotments. And so then we have title one which had been taken away from the campuses that is going back to the campuses as well. The migrant program and idea B that one we had been providing as well. So um all these uh allotments or allocations we're calculating using the snapshot enrollment uh for 2425 and that is it under this

112slide. I don't know if there are any other questions, comments, concerns. Well, I mean, I I like the fact that you're returning your budget to the campuses cuz that's something that we were focused on throughout our our our campaign, uh, if I can mention it. But, uh, that's something that was a must. As a former principal, uh, I know that, uh, when you lack the the necessary funds to operate a middle school, in my case, uh, it's tough. It's tough when you don't have the money to operate the way you're used to. Uh so by all means kudos to whoever made this possible and congratulations because this is uh goal number one. I think that's one was the priority and moving forward I think things will only get better if we are wise and we're

113good stewards of our uh citizens fund. To be clear I said we're not approving anything. No, these are campus education. But it is but it is a goal that the goal you're working toward. Yes. And so um I'm assuming that between now and then we'll probably have another budget workshop or two before the actual and we'll have more line items for you on what this looks like and how it's going and how you're spending this. This is music to the campus principles ears. Mhm. It's great that we're not cutting anymore, but that we're actually able to get back into Thank you, Mr. Thank you. You moving on to item eight, executive session, please. No. So, I I I I spoke to everybody here already about what I was going to talk to them about. Okay.

114But you all know that I talked to [Music] Just an item nine in case anybody signed up for public comments on all agenda items. I don't see anyone coming forward. So we'll go on to item 10. And basic that is closing business and adjournment. And under item A announcements for upcoming events. I do have several. Um on May 2nd, Friday, we have our very first empower fest at the stadium from 6:30 to 8:30. And that is of course to try to bring in uh you know more students to higher our enrollment and not only that but also to showcase what RGCG is all about. uh letting our community know that this is, you know, this is the place you bring your your your kids or your your children at is that we have so much

115more to offer than our our competition around our community. So, I think that is uh you know, Mr. Adrian Osuna is pulling this together and I can't wait to see it. I'm hoping that it's going to be a great event and of course that is with the help of all other directors and departments as well. Yes, ma'am. Wait. Uh, that's important because I still have people asking. I think I've seen like comments like what is this about? I've had people today lunch and they were asking me so what is it about? So, I think it's important that we're on the same page and that you are getting assistance from all the directors and the the the teachers and the administrators know um are you taking out your students and just getting making sure or getting

116help from the city getting help from more making it where we correct promote it a little bit more and I and I am constantly asking that do we have flyers out there? I know we put flyers out on the campuses. Whether we sent one to every student, I am not I'm not sure about that, but I can definitely inquire. Uh we definitely want to make it a big event. I know that we put it on our Facebook page as well. Um we can try the phone. You haven't gotten one. So, that's another one that we can do and I will note that that we can send phone messages out. Um and again, going back, we will have enrollment on the spot. So, if anyone wants to enroll with our district, we will have that on

117the spot, they can do so. that day. Uh like I said, showcasing extracurricular activities, our programs of study. We'll have food, we'll have prices, t-shirt giveaways, free haircuts for both females and males, and then we'll also be offering lowcost uh vaccines. If you have insurance, then that'll be free, free uh vaccines on that day. So, definitely, but we'll make more of an effort. I know that we have a few days, but I'm sure that my uh administration and departments can move on that and we'll get out there to vocalize it a little bit more. Okay. Yes, ma'am. And then, uh, we also have on, um, let me make sure, Friday, I'm sorry, Tuesday, May the 6th, uh, just, uh, you know, to advise everyone that we do have our rescheduled regular school board meeting at

1186:30. Again, like Mr. mentioned a little bit earlier, focusing on student achievement and we'll have different presentations honing in on student academics and staff development as well. Okay. And on May 5th, and I'm sorry I skipped that. May 5th on Monday, we also have the Guruya High Sports Banquet at 11 at here at the MPC. May 7th is reop. Correct. Correct. And I would have announced I'll announce like I guess as we get a little bit closer, but we have so many events, especially in May, right, that are coming up. So, as we will be announcing all um you know, all events that are taking place. Not only will we be announcing them here, but we'll also have them on our Facebook page and our web page as well, district web page. Any other questions?

119No. Well, thank you so much. That uh ends our our workshop number one for today. Thank you. Have a great evening. Thank you.