001Meeting of the Tyler ISD Board of Trustees is called to order. The presence of a quorum has been established. The meeting has been duly called and the notice of the meeting has been posted in the time and manner required. This monthly meetings of the board are designed to conduct the business of governing the school system in public. Right now we have public participation. We don't have anybody listed but Dr. Prophet would like to have a few words. >> Uh just real quick, board, I'd like to introduce y'all to the the the new coordinator of superintendent board services, Margo Sanders, right here. Um as y'all know, Ms. Orr has alerted us of her pending retirement to come December. Uh Ms. Sanders has been chosen to replace her. We're going to give her a good coaching and
002a good training. Ms. Sanders uh has previously served as executive assistant, office manager, coordinator of all things at the Chamber of Commerce here in Tyler. So, I wanted to introduce y'all to her today as y'all will have a long uh and fruitful career working with her as your board secretary. There you go. >> Welcome. Okay, we are continuous improvement student outcomes. District of Innovation Teacher Certifications granted. >> Have uh Sherry Taylor, executive director of human resources, come up here to talk about the District of Innovation Teacher Certifications granted. Just a little preview of what she's going to talk about. Remember, board, we have spent uh the better part of a bunch of years talking about DOI. We know that the in the 89th legislative session, they put some deadlines on us to get those DOI
003folks certified. We've had discussions. Y'all have actually adopted the DOI um certification plan. Uh so, tonight certainly we'll welcome your questions, but you do have a lot of background information leading up to this meeting. Ms. Taylor? >> Yes, good evening. And I would like to say that the plan that was adopted was approved by TEA. So, we are moving forward with the plan. I will point out that the numbers of DOI did decrease a slight bit by 11. However, that's when I pulled the numbers. Now, we're sitting at 13 teachers have become certified since the fall. And since we rolled out the information that you have to get certified from the state, 10 of those are core content. So, we do have some non-core getting certified as well. And out of our core content certified
004teachers right now, we're sitting at 27 of them are TIA designated teachers. So, they We've had meetings. Principals had meetings with their employees this week and last week telling them the importance of your DOI and getting certified. Some of them even had conversations that your employee extension has been denied. >> And those are TIA teachers that >> No, so I just want to say that we have 27 TIA teachers that are DOI. >> Do we know how many of the I'm sorry to start asking questions already, but Do we know how They're going to ask questions. I'm going to give you a softball here. We probably don't know. You may know. How many of those 27 that are TIA Correct? >> Correct. >> Are any of those that we've had to inform that your employment
005agreement is expiring if you don't get certified? >> No, sir. >> Okay. >> No, sir. We're keeping the ones that are TIU right now and we are working with them on getting their certification. >> Okay. Very good. >> These were the ones that the ones that were denied, they've been doing this and they made no progress towards certification. So, any questions? >> There you go. I guess not. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Well, thank you. Okay, T-TESS. Walk-through evaluation update. >> Ms. Taylor's also going to provide you an update. We do this um every year at this time to show the progress we've made on actually measuring how well we're completing our walk-throughs. Um over the last decade or so, we've had obviously a lot of improvement in that. I'm not saying that any
006one person or one administration has had any improvement in that, but we used to not report this. It became evident that we needed to report this at the board level because what you report, what you measure gets improved. So, Ms. Taylor, please provide that information. >> Fantastic. So, just a reminder what T-TESS is. This is a growth model fostering communication between teachers and students and campus administration teachers. With that growth model, we want our teachers to grow each and every day, but also they want we want to improve the instruction and build teacher capacity within the instruction and this is the best way to do that. There are components involved with T-TESS. One is at the beginning of the year, they had to set professional goals and it's a professional growth and a student improvement
007growth. And then they meet with their evaluator throughout the year to see where they're at on meeting their goal. I'm sorry, I said growth goal, excuse me. And then the next is the evaluation cycle. And we always begin with let's talk about walk-throughs. They have to have a walk-through, they have to have a pre-conference, their evaluation, which is their observation, and then a post-conference to follow up. And within that post-conference, what they talk about is what's one thing that I can improve to get better, and what's one thing that I'm doing really well that I know I can do better. And they use the rubric as their guide, and they work through the rubric rubric as to here's what it can take to get to that next level. And then we have the summative. These
008are the numbers that we have right now for our walk-throughs. Our walk-throughs, our principals have to or campus managers have to do at least four, two in the fall and two in the spring. They can do more. We encourage them to do as many as possible because we cannot grow a teacher if we don't continually continuously go in their classroom. Our numbers are a little bit lower and that's because of me. I pulled the data earlier than I normally do, so I pulled it in the February, typically we do it in the middle of March, so I was trying to be proactive and get everything done sooner rather than later. But so these numbers are just a tad bit, they're not much, they're a little bit lower about 50. So our principals and campus managers
009are on track to meeting the their goal as far as getting all the walk-throughs completed. The next is our observation data. And again, I told you I pulled this data early, we're actually higher. So our campus administrators are going in those classrooms, conducting these observations, and working through any growth mo- any growth efforts that they need with the teachers. And it's giving them time with walk-throughs left over to see if they're meeting the advice that they gave them through their post-conference. And again, this is just the summary of what T-TESS is. The greatest way to increase student achievement is and growth is through building teacher capacity. And we have so many options for teachers we with training with our curriculum and instruction department, with our executive directors going and coaching principals up to where principals
010can go ahead and catch their teachers up as well. Any questions? I went through that kind of quickly. >> Any questions? >> Uh Mr. >> Thank you, Madam President. >> I'll call you first. >> You were saying call you second. >> Um so on the data here you're you're showing how many walk-throughs you've done, obviously. >> Yes, sir. >> Any correlation to teacher improvement as far as TIA or how these are correlating to teacher improvement or uh teachers no longer employed or >> Yes, sir. So, we utilize this um especially around this time of year we start looking at mid-year data and it the mid-year report cards that we give to our teachers and our principals, it has their T test, their growth with benchmark or whatever their mid-year data is along with attendance and
011student surveys. So, it does help us have those conversations and those discussions and it can help determine whether or not we're going to extend do an extension with DLI. So, yes, sir, we do utilize this information. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Ms. Althea. >> Thank you, Madam President. On the um the walk-through data that you have and the observation, it seems like intuitively you have more reported in your elementaries just cuz you have more elementaries, right? It's not like they're inspecting and they're at a higher rate than they are at the other ones. >> Correct. >> If we go through the Which one of the two, the walk-through or the observation data, which one would you say is more thorough? >> That would be the observation because what we do with the observation is we
012have a pre-conference before they go into the classroom and then they are to they have questions that they ask and they discuss what are they going to be seeing when they go in and they give advice as to, "Hey, why don't you try this to help you within that classroom lesson?" Then they do all the observation and then they come back from a post conference and for that post conference the teacher has to submit a self-evaluation within 3 days of the observation. And then the principal and the teacher meet and then they discuss what did the principal see in the observation? What was recorded? And they talk about the writings at that point. And then they come up with a plan of, "Okay, this area you I need you to grow in. I need you
013work on and get better. This area you're doing really well, but I can see you improving by doing this." So you have an area of refinement and area of reinforcement. >> So the principal and the assistant principals are doing these or is there anybody else doing them besides the campus admin? >> Principal and assistant principal, yes sir. >> Is there a time allocation for these like um I'd say we have a principal that has 100% of the time that day and we say x amount should be allocated to teacher walk-ins, x amount should be allocated to student services, x amount to instruction, whatever. Is there a a rule of thumb as to how many a principal or assistant principal should be doing of these? >> Of observations? >> Yes, ma'am. >> No, sir. It's mandatory
014they have to do at least one that's announced which does the pre-conference. They can do as many observations they choose to do. Any other past the first one, those are unannounced. >> Do we look at other school districts to see what they're doing as far as okay, we've got a comparable school district that is doing x amount of elementary ones, x amount of high schools. The reason I'm asking is this these numbers are going to look different with our plans at Balder. If if we do the evaluations, well, it depends what counts as an evaluation or a walk-through because that model you're basically doing that every single day to a certain degree. Now, you're not doing the back component of coming in and saying, "Okay, this is what I saw." Separate from that, you're actually
015doing it hands-on in real time. Have we thought about that to say, "Okay, this is how much time we're spending. This is what other school districts are spending. How is this going to be affected when we put Bolter online with the new product?" >> know about time, but the measurement of instructional proficiency, get used to that term, is what will be occurring what you're speaking about at our ESE campuses. Obviously, Bolter's different because it's an ACE campus. Additional staffing, additional resources dedicated to that that campus. However, we've got that we've identified anywhere from six to eight other campuses as well that will be ESE aligned. In other words, they will be adopting the same structures to insulate the principal and one to two other administrators to be measuring instructional proficiency in real time. So, obviously
016obviously with those eight or nine campuses, that will look different than what a another campus would look like uh that's in good shape that might be A-rated. So, or a B-rated campus. So, yes, sir, that as far as time goes, no. But as far as the measurement of that about being in those classrooms and being able to report that at the board level is something that'll be happening every month. So, that's as close as we'll get to about that model. And yes, there are other school districts that are starting that. One obviously is Houston, but not too many other districts across the state that are starting to do that. Although, it's coming. >> But to my question is so where we're in there at the new new system at Bolter, for example, or any of
017the aligned schools cuz I know they can be aligned and and not be designated that way. And you have a teacher delivering the curriculum and you have the associate teacher and then the assistant one, and the principal's going door-to-door. I mean, the model we saw. Are those going to be counted as observations and walk-throughs or no? There's going to be an observation >> probably be a different measurement. I mean, you still have to do T-tests. T-tests is you have to adopt an appraisal system. >> Right. >> And that's what we've decided to adopt here in Tyler. Uh the old PDAS system for some of us old heads like Ron Jones. We did We and I did PDAS together, right? We did PDAS here. We adopted T-TESS. And so you've got to adopt those systems. These
018teachers that are going to be at your ACE campus or you're going to be at your ESE aligned campuses will also be evaluated via T-TESS as well. That will be separately reported. We'll have your formal observations. You'll have your your maybe maybe that's all we report there because they're going to be re- reporting the instructional proficiency data every month here at the board eyes for those 6-8 campuses. So you probably just get a couple of different measurement types that'll be going on. One will come from her shop. That'll be the T-TESS side of things. Probably Dr. Cureton's shop will be coming with that other one. That's what we're thinking, right? Because there's some statistical reliability on what you're trying to talk about there about the improvement of. >> Yeah. >> So there'll be two two
019separate systems. Uh not uniformity there, but you still will get a T-TESS evaluation every year regardless of what campus you teach at in Tyler ISD. >> I was just asking because if those new walk-throughs or whatever we're calling them are included at the new system, we're going to have an abundance of them. It's going to look like we're >> Spot checks. We won't We won't blend them in here. >> Okay. >> It'll be completely reported. We'll We'll keep reporting the same thing we've been reporting. That'll be new reporting. You start talking about the spot checks. Is that Is that right, Dr. Marcus? Is that the right terminology, spot checks? >> Spot observations, excuse me. Spot observation, there you go. Because we're measuring the instructional proficiency. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Nelson? >> Uh I had
020a question regarding the walk-through observation. Does the same principal or vice principal evaluate that teacher each time? >> It depends on the campus. So, we even encourage the campuses that both of them go in. One can have an observation and do a couple walk-throughs, but have someone else do another couple walk-throughs. But, it depends on the campus and what they choose to do. >> The reason I ask that is cuz it's somewhat subjective. You and the more people you have involved in that process, the more you're going to get a difference of opinion. So, that that's what I mean I ask regarding that. If it's if it could be the same person, I think it may be a little bit more consistent than if they have to change out. But, I understand that with schedules
021and everything else, but still consistency would be having that one person do that one individual teacher. >> And our campuses will work with each other on doing calibrations. So, the principals and assistant principals will go and do some to calibrate and see that they're all right in the same area. >> Okay. >> And a teacher can request a different appraisal appraiser, excuse me. >> Yes, sir. >> Correct? >> For the second observation, yes, sir. >> Can they request request someone not associated with that campus? >> It will be someone not associated with that campus. Anyone else? All right, thank you so very much. >> Thank you. We're going to discuss in the BO 456 transportation seat belts on buses. >> So, director of safety and security, Jeff Mill Sligel, will be making his way down
022to the presentation table. Director of facilities, along with all duties as assigned, Mr. Tim Loper, is also going to be assisting with uh this as well. Behind them in the second row, y'all know Brady Bettingfield, who is now serving as our transportation director, as chief operations officer. So, um we're going to turn it over to them to get y'all up to date up to speed on Senate Bill 546. Seat belts on buses. >> Thank you, Dr. Crawford. Yes, as the agenda says, this is an amendment to Bill 546 which requires school districts to equip all school buses with three-point hookups in in every bus. But, the requirement also first of all we are in compliance as today. But, this is part of the compliance requirements is to bring this to you all as a board
023member as a board and then also we have to turn in the minutes of this board meeting and Jeff is our liaison directly to the TEA and submits all the information to the portal the TEA portal. So, the Senate Bill Bill requires us to provide information to you all as to far as how many buses do we have with three-point hookups? How many buses do not have any seat belts? And how many need to have seat belt three-point hookups? And that means whether you have to retrofit the actual seat, whether you have to replace the seat, or whether you have to replace the panel in the floor that the seat sits in. I can tell you that we've got our mechanic shop have been looking and and looking at vendors and all of this to
024they've gotten all the information and provided them. We have the cost listed into the agenda item. And um basically um what the TEA didn't tell us is how to fund it. So, we're we're uh presenting those costs to you to fund it. And interestingly enough, um every school district and we've talked to quite a few are going through the same thing. Um fortunately, we've been buying all of our new buses since we have a 15-year replacement plan that we started I think back in 2017. And this this law um uh takes away the exception of those bought previous to 2017. So, we have 48 buses. And um basically, we're in a lot better shape than a lot of other school districts cuz we have that that plan. Fortunately, we put money in our budget to
025replace bus buses, which we've been doing for several years now. Um and of course, when we buy a bus, it's always with a three-point hookup. So, that's basically what this uh agenda item is. Uh and um we're providing you with that information. It's like $1.8 million to retrofit all of our 48 buses that don't have uh three-point hookups. So. >> Jeff, do you have anything? >> That's >> Yeah, Mills, what do you have to add instead of looking pretty up there? >> Oh, well, I appreciate that. >> Is that a daddy thing? >> No, uh it's TEA is doing this survey and it's required each month that we present this. So, this is already been presented to TEA, number of buses and how much it costs. So, tonight, once this is done, I'll present that
026tomorrow. And then the next month, we'll put in the meeting minutes from tonight and then however you guys vote as to how we're going to be able to afford this. >> Yeah, so the next meeting you'll actually in April you'll actually have uh an opportunity to to uh to to cast a vote about whether or not the district has the funds planned for that. Um obviously, the administration will provide a recommendation to that. Um our recommendation is going to be as we buy new buses on those cycles that that's how we will become in compliant with the law. Um especially since it looks like the legislature is no longer going to be funding the basic allotment that we've talked about. They're going to be funding more teacher compensation along with the uh special allotments coming
027out of TEA. Now, obviously, if you know, just like with the safety and security push that we had from the 87th legislature and then the 88th legislature, um a little bit more money in the 89th legislature for safety and security, if there's a transportation allotment specifically designed for the installation of three-point seat belts, uh that's something that we will obviously be aggressive in pursuing. Am I correct in saying that, gentlemen? >> That's correct. >> There's also I spoke with TEA uh last week. They were in town all week and there's potential grant money out there for this. >> Okay. >> Which we would apply for immediately. >> And while you're waiting to ask the question, how in the heck does a bus driver or administration ensure that every student that's on a bus is buckled
028into a three-point seatbelt? I'll have you have that thought in your in your mind while you think about other questions to ask. >> Any questions? Comments? Mr. Liskey? >> Thank you, Madam President. Um so if we total up the amount of buses that we have that have zero and two I guess is just like the strap and three is the one in compliance, we got 121 buses. Um is that all of our buses or do you have spare buses? Or is that just account for everything? >> That's all buses. >> That's it. We have 121 buses. >> That's right. >> How long does a bus last? >> We have 15-year plan. >> So a bus lasts you 15 years. Do you know how many we buy a year? >> Usually five. >> About five a
029year? >> But not every year. >> Yeah, not every year. So and and you know it some of the price varies. If it's a 77-seat bus, it's obviously a little more expensive than a 54 seat bus with wheelchair ramp. >> So if we have 48 buses left to get into compliance, it's going to take us 10 years if we go by this cycle roughly to get in compliance. Is that okay with TEA? I mean, or do they give us a deadline? Do they just say >> The statute and the rule-making behind this has it does not say we're going to force you to do this. It it did I think to be honest with you, I think it's a data gathering initiative for us to report the the 1200 school systems across the state so
030that they they could probably possibly attach a fiscal note to it or see if there's any type of political will to actually force school districts to spend their money that they're not getting from the basic allotment. So they could be an unfunded mandate, a hard unfunded mandate, or they could be using this as a way to maybe uh attach some revenue to it. >> There are two exceptions to it. And one of them if if the board determines that the district bus bus budget, I'm sorry, does not permit the district to purchase a bus that is equipped equipped with required seat belts or uh which if we purchase or retrofit a bus that it voids the warranty by putting three-point seat belts in there. And we are hearing some of that from manufacturers. A lot
031of manufacturers not that they'll void warranties, they don't want to touch installation because it's such a liability. >> Or they want you to buy a new, more expensive bus. >> Of course. And some districts are doing that. >> Okay. The um 1.8 million-dollar figure that you came up with, is that calculated on that strategy by saying, "Okay, we got a bus, we're going to take the components out, put new components in." Are you calculating that under the five under the the 15-year deal of we're going to acquire this many buses every year? >> calculating that under our 15-year. You'll see later in a board agenda that we have some purchases of >> So then that's cost per bus, not necessarily retrofitting them and and and putting in what they want. >> the cost per bus
032is around $39,000. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Wait a minute. Cost per bus >> retrofit >> to retrofit >> Correct. >> Yes. >> Not the purchase of it. I was going to say that's a heck of a deal on a bus for $39,000. Okay. Madam President, over. >> Wait a minute. I'm I'm the cost to retrofit one bus is how much? >> About 39,000. >> My God. Anyway. Uh so so TAA is requiring this, uh but yet again, they're not saying that it's absolutely mandatory. They're just suggesting that we spend the money to retrofit the buses, but but nothing requiring you to use the retrofit devices or anything like that. They just saying we have to do it. We have to spend the extra money to get them in there, but no other
033guidelines, right? >> Yeah. >> Okay, that's what I thought. >> Yeah. And you know, like requiring children to use them, that's a whole 'nother story. Uh especially if you have one driver. >> I know monitor. >> Mr. Chairman. >> Yes. So, I just little clarification. So, I heard you mention 1.8 million. But the agenda tonight is for 1.2. >> What what are you The What was last part? >> 1.8 million mean what? >> The agenda for tonight says 1.2 million. Am I reading that correctly? Or is this something else? >> It is correct. It is the purchase of new new buses. >> Okay. >> Item I and your business equal finance. >> Okay, so next month is when we'll have the agenda to either do the retrofits or is that >> Next month is the
034actual action item for y'all to to actually consider and vote. So, this this is like a first reading almost and then you actually have a second agenda item coming your way. >> be clear that you don't have it up as a budgeted item. Okay. Um seven Got you. >> Yeah, this >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> So, if we didn't spend this money on buses, what What do you think the administration would recommend we spend it on? >> You talking on on on item I and J tonight? >> No, the the retrofitting part. I mean, this that the the item the item on 31, that's that's just for >> That's the purchase of new buses. >> That's our regularly scheduled five-year purchase. >> Correct. >> But this to retrofit buses or buy extra buses or whatever,
035you know, if it's 1.8 million, we had 1.8 million to spend, what would you spend it on? >> Retrofitting buses. >> What's the next best What's What's the next best option? >> Are we talking buses or other needs of the school system? It's just What's the opportunity cost? What are we having to give up to retrofit these bus buses? >> Hold on, Marty. You're not recommending that we spend $1.8 million on seatbelt retrofits next month. You're not going to recommend that. >> Absolutely not. >> Okay. Okay. >> needs to understand >> Okay. >> Yeah, that's not going to be the recommendation. >> No, we just We We're providing the data for y'all on on what the statute says we're supposed to do, and that's get a report to y'all. >> Okay. And that That helps
036me out. >> to make a decision about whether or not you want to do that or not. >> These are two separate items. One is we're looking at the legislature and their fine ways telling us that we need to upgrade our buses. That's one item. And then the second one, if I'm reading it correctly, is the purchase of buses that we normally do throughout the year cycle. >> That's unrelated to this, but thank you for differentiating on that. I like I like the plan that we've had. Um we want to keep kids safe. There's no doubt about it, but enforcing that once you put them on there, that's going to be another big project to to undertake. >> And the new buses we are buying are those three-point then, so okay. >> Yes, sir. >>
037Yeah, got you. >> We've only been buying three-point harness buses since >> 2018 >> Yeah. >> So, we're we've been ahead of this game in getting that done anyways. It's just this new statute hit us hit everybody in public ed in regard to that. >> Yeah, and this is basically an amendment to an old statute, so that makes you retro back. >> Okay, any more questions, comments? Thank you, gentlemen. We appreciate you. >> Yes. >> Okay, we will now go into executive session, and if we have anything coming out we will discuss that. The meeting of the Child ISD Board of Trustees has previously been called to order. The The presence of a quorum has been established. The meeting has been duly called and the notice of the meeting has been posted. As a reminder,
038the monthly meetings of the board are designed to conduct the business of governing the school system in public. We do have an item coming out of >> After prayer and pledge. >> Oh, yeah. I was thinking about that. Okay. We want to make sure you all are on one accord. Prayer and pledge by Mr. Birkfield. Can we all stand? >> Let's stand. Our heavenly Father, we pray for your presence in this meeting this evening. We ask that your will be done by the actions of this school board and and administration. Lord, let us be guided by your word as it says in Philippians 2:3, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. consider others better than yourselves. Help us not to look out for our own interests, but also the interests of others. Lord,
039we specifically pray for the safety of our children, wisdom, patience, and understanding for our staff. Let this board be the moral light for the rest of the district to follow in every decision we make. And lastly, I pray for wisdom and clarity in this board meeting and its deliberations. Please let your son be seen through our actions and forgive us where we fall short. I pray this in the name of my savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. >> Amen. >> 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. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. >> Thank you, Mr. Burfield. The item out of the
040executive session is the Can I get a motion for the approval of the renewal of the one-year administra- one-year term administrative professional contracts for the '26 '20 '27 school term. >> Can I go on the floor? >> It's on page nine. >> Page nine in your books. >> We need two two separate >> Approve the uh administration's recommendation. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> Anyone opposes? Motion carries. We have the administrative recommendation for the renewal of non-certified administrative professional contract. Can I get a motion on that? >> I'll move we approve the administration's recommendation. >> Okay, I'll second it. >> Okay, all in favor? >> I. >> Motion carries. Okay. Got third one. Okay. >> Yes. >> The audit committee recommendation for the brutal board approval of the renewal of the non-certified
041administrative professional contract for 2016. I motion. >> I move we approve the audit committee recommendation. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Anybody opposed? Motion carries. All three have been approved. >> Very good. >> Okay, special recognition. >> Good evening board members and Dr. Crawford. We want to begin the special recognition part of the meeting by announcing our March district students of the month. The elementary student of the month is Shawn Dotson, a fifth grader at Orr Elementary School, and the secondary student of the month is Atley Caldwell, a sixth grade student at Hubbard Middle School. At this time, please join us in watching a brief video about these outstanding students. The heart of our hometown beats strong in Tyler ISD, where students are reaching goals, breaking barriers, and shaping the future. Their
042journeys may look different, but together, they are showing us that next is now. Let's celebrate their achievements as we continue leading the way in Texas education. >> As we spring forward to March, let's meet our district elementary student of the month. >> Hello, I'm Sean Dotson and I am the district's elementary student of the month. >> Sean is a driven student who brings energy, curiosity, and a strong work ethic to everything he does. He consistently excels in the classroom, showing a true passion for learning and a determination to succeed. >> It's a just a fun school to be at, bunch of friends, good teachers, amazing teachers. >> Yeah. >> This everything's amazing here. >> On campus, Sean stands out as a leader, serving on Cub Patrol, contributing as a Cafe Cub, and engaging in Young
043Men in STEM. His positive attitude, teamwork, and willingness to help others make him a standout fifth grader at Orr Elementary School. >> I noticed Sean when I first came to this campus. He's a great guy. He's got a heart of gold. He truly undersells himself. He is a leader in our Young Men in STEM Young Men in STEM group. He catches on to projects. He's just got an eye for certain things. >> Now, let's turn our attention to the district secondary student of the month. >> My name is Atlee Cottle. I'm the district secondary student for March. >> Atlee exemplifies the very best of the Hubbard Huskies through her kindness, respect, and strong work ethic. A model student in every setting, she approaches each day with a positive attitude and a quiet leadership style that
044constantly sets a strong example for her peers. >> Just be positive and kind all like kind to other people all the time. >> Beyond the classroom, Atlee is a level four gymnast who has competed in the Junior Olympics. She's an active member of Bible Club and her church youth group. She is someone who serves others with humility and care, whether helping a classmate or stepping in without being asked. Atli leads through her actions. >> She is a servant leader. So, whenever maybe a box of markers falls, she's the first one to go over there and fix the problem. And she doesn't do it because she wants attention or because she wants recognition. She's simply going over there and helping because she knows it's the right thing to do. >> Let's honor these remarkable students as
045we celebrate the outstanding achievements happening across our district. Their success stories remind us of the strength, dedication, and spirit that define Tyler ISD. This recognition is proudly brought to you by Christus Trinity Mother Frances Health System, partners in supporting the bright future of our students and community. And at this time, we would like to welcome the board to come forward to congratulate our district students of the month. Okay, Shawn, I know you're excited. It's time for you to come on down. Congratulations. Let's give him another round of applause. And now we would like to welcome Atley to the front as our secondary student of the month. Congratulations, Atley. Up next, we're going to congratulate the following Tyler Legacy High School students for competing and placing in the state swim meet. Up first, Madeline Petty, who
046won the 500 freestyle and finished seventh in the 200 freestyle. And she won back-to-back state titles in the 500. Come on down, Madeline. Up next, placing in the state swim meet, Ryan Mock finished 24th in the 100 freestyle. Come on down. >> Okay, up next we have a relay team that placed. We've got Ryan Mock, Alex Zen, Fisher Donahue, and Tucker Martin Martine Sorry, Martine finished 24th in the boys 200 freestyle relay. So, why don't y'all come up, Ryan, Alex, Fisher, and Tucker. Congratulations, guys. Why don't we get two of y'all on one side and two of y'all on the other side? No? Okay. We're going to go with what Dr. Crawford says. Now, we would like to recognize our elementary District Teacher of the Month, Kayla Whidden from Owens Elementary School here with a
047few comments from her principal. She sets high expectations while creating a warm encouraging environment where students are motivated to succeed. Her engaging student-centered instruction builds on both academic skills and lasting confidence, ensuring every child feels valued and capable. Beyond the classroom, she's a strong campus leader. As fifth grade team lead and student lighthouse sponsor, she guides students to grow as leaders through service, mentoring, and community involvement. Known as the peanut butter to her team's jelly, she keeps her team connected, organized, and moving forward. A dependable collaborator and mentor, she leads with professionalism, integrity, and heart, making a lasting impact on students and staff alike. Come on down. And let's give her one more round of applause. Congratulations. And our secondary District Teacher of the Month is Ruby Freeman Taylor from the DAEP. Here are a
048few comments from her principal. "Miss Taylor consistently demonstrates outstanding leadership and dedication as the high school ELA team lead. She works diligently to keep her team informed, organized, and equipped with the materials and support that they need to be successful. She also plays a critical role in communicating with home campus teachers to ensure that students have access to assignments in the system, allowing them to continue making academic progress while at the DAEP. Miss Taylor leads with a true servant's heart. She cares deeply about both students and staff and actively supports our program's mission each day. Her commitment, initiative, and compassion help ensure that our students have the support and structure necessary in order to succeed, making a meaningful impact on their campus and the students they are privileged to serve. Miss Taylor, come on down."
049>> And let's give her one more round of applause. And that concludes our recognitions for this evening. Wait, come on down. I totally skipped over one. My apologies. It was not in my script, but it is over here on this one. We would like to congratulate at this time Vera Banta, a senior at Tyler Legacy High School for earning the 2026 Texas All-State Choir honor. Vera was chosen through a competitive process held across the state at district, region, and area levels. All-State in the highest is the highest honor a Texas music student can achieve. Students are selected through a multi-level process that begins with about 60,000 students from around the state vying for this honor to perform in one of 18 ensembles. Vera, come on down. >> Okay, let's give her a big round of
050applause. Thank you for waiting. And now that that concludes our special recognitions for the evening. >> As everyone's quietly exiting the building, we are not finished. >> Not finished. So, so you said, we're not finished. >> So, I'll get out so we can get this. Okay, we are now at the scheduled time in our agenda for public comment. The board wishes to hear your thoughts and concerns and as per policy all speakers have submitted the necessary paperwork and we can listen, but we can't respond. At this time we have the Reverend Rodney Curry coming to um speak with us. >> If you don't mind, I want to wait so we can make sure I have everybody's undivided attention, if that's okay. In class we call that wait time. >> Okay. >> Don't close the door.
051All right, ready. I want to say um good evening to everyone to this board and to Dr. Crawford, superintendent. Um I want to address again the um I came last time and uh in February and also back again this time to raise awareness uh in regards to the Bolter uh campus redesign. Um when we talk about systems, models, and changes, it may sound good on paper and I think that we are are in love with that sound, but uh on the campuses like Bolter and and all campuses, those decisions they have actual names, they have faces, they have uh consequences. Uh when we look back at what we've done at Bolter, what has been done I guess at Bolter, February the 9th, they were given the information that the campus principal had there's been a
052change. The campus principal, the new principal was introduced. Um then also they made the uh the announcement that this was going to be actually kind of run like an elementary campus. Um that all the teachers would have to reapply. Uh and so the the subsequent interviews have taken place. Some know that they're going to return. Uh there's been no criteria to actually explain uh why some are not returning. Uh and that has created an environment of havoc. It's created an environment of um hostility, a hostile work environment at a critical time um when we're now approaching testing. And so um I have to again ask the question, what made that uh the best decision to do that at this time? Uh now um parents have just been notified uh through an email that was sent
053out March the 19th, which was 30 uh in reference to what's going to {quote} take place. And so this has left weeks of speculating and a lot of hearsay. Um Bolter Middle School does not need another experiment. They don't need another experiment. If you're going to experiment, um why do we start with the schools on the north side? Uh we've closed Stewart Middle School. We've closed Hogg. We bulldozed and closed Dogan. Um what's left? Why do we have to create so much havoc on this side? Uh I'm not sure and really not happy about that. Uh this ACE model, this Evergreen uh system of excellence that's being integrated, um this structure of improvement, uh we could have done that uh had we just looked at the model that we were doing uh the way we
054were providing instruction at Bolter Middle School. We could have done that to circumvent uh using this model. Now, I don't want I want to be very clear that we understand the the need for change, the necessity for change. But regardless of how you package this uh this decision and I'm saying this to the board members as well as to the superintendent. This feels disingenuous and it will just disproportionately impact our Northside schools. And you may ask the question why did what I feel this way? Well, when you give this new principal the total autonomy seems like he's been given the the Tyler ISD American Express gold card to do whatever he wants to do as he enters enters this campus. That makes me feel this way because no principal has ever been given the opportunity
055to get whatever staff that he wants. Dr. Crawford, when you came here some 13 years ago, you didn't get the privilege or the opportunity to get what you wanted. You had to work with what you had to build that. And so also what makes me feel that way is that this this move is going to diminish the fine arts programs. It's going to also diminish our athletic programs. You didn't do this this this I guess this card access. You didn't give this to any other principal that has ever stepped foot in TISD. And so I'm concerned that this may be the opportunity that we're setting a particular person up for a success to move forward to do something else within the district which again and you got to look at too. We have let a
056lot of people go from this district that could do a great job, but they weren't given the opportunity, but so be it. I want to say that if we had had the money in this district to affect change and Boulter Middle School was in such bad shape. We had a money to affect the change and do something positive to get add more staff to address those instructional needs. We had the money to do that back in 2023, 24, 25, but we used that money in one fashion to to build a three plus million dollar golf course. Students will now possibly be relocating from Tyler ISD. They'll be relocating from our campus. We'll see a diminished and some board members may may like to see diminished, you know, fine arts programs and athletic programs, but we
057want our students to stay at home. We want them to stay here, be educated in in a high fashion as well as thrive and grow financially in in fine arts and athletics. So, I want to close in my closing moments, too. I was looking at Mr. Harper's video on YouTube and he said that he said, "Let's change the story of North Tyler." And I, too, agree with him. Let's change the story. Let's stop closing the schools in North Tyler. Let's stop experimenting with them. Let's give them a program that may just look like, you know, what they need for their school and it may not look like what it's other campuses. Let's change that story so that we can be committed to equity and fairness across all of our neighborhoods. And so, I'm asking that
058you would relook at this redesign before you all take a stand on causing even more havoc to the only primary feeder to Tyler High. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Curry. Okay. Continuous improvement student outcomes. CLI engaged update. >> As part of your board monitoring calendar, CLI engaged update will be presented. Dr. James Curdin, executive director of data and assessment data analysis. Data guy. And then, Rachel Sherman, chief of schools. One of our K-8 chief of schools. Dr. Curdin, Ms. Sherman. >> Good evening, board. Dr. Crawford. We're going to share a quick update on our CLI engage assessment, which is given to our pre-K and our Head Start students in the district. Just as a reminder, we do give this assessment three times a year. And all the skills that we assess, which you'll you'll
059see a subset of they're assessed one-on-one with the teacher. So here we put the six skills that are um that are the primary skills that are assessed in CLI Engage. You can see beginning to middle of the year comparisons. And almost across the board we saw improvement. Especially in rapid letter naming phonological awareness and math. We did see a little bit of a dip with social-emotional which I know most of y'all are familiar with. We've tried to start working a rubric in there to help kind of be more objective, especially early on in the year where I think we we just tend to score the kids based on what we know and we haven't seen the kids long enough to really have a chance to to interact with them. I do want to point out
060and there's a note there that says a writing rubric was implemented at the beginning of the year. And you can see now we've started moving in the right direction from beginning to middle. And hopefully we'll see that same improvement from middle to end of the year. When we break down those same skills by program, you can see how each program is doing. I did want to take a quick mention to Head Start. We saw Head Start get a little bit more of a bump this year which was which was positive and helped everything move move even more in the right direction. So I just want to make sure I point that out about Head Start. If you look at students by racial group you can see how we're doing there. So overall some pretty solid
061improvement compared to prior years. Especially in our African-American and and our white students. And we'll take any questions if you have them. >> Any questions? I'll show any emotional Yeah, we've we've been having problems with this for some time. Goes up, goes down. You implemented the to try to make it somewhat consistent and more objective. We have improved. I'll put it there. Okay, so are we still looking at ways to get this to be consistent as far as improving? >> Yes, sir, absolutely. That's a great question. I mean, we're trying to implement a rubric consistently. I think the I would I would say that I think really if we can get the beginning of the year to be kind of more objective from that lens, I think you would see the improvement over time. So,
062we are going to continue to work on it and get it get it going in the right direction, absolutely. >> Yeah, I'm very pleased with all the others being consistent as far as improvement in most cases. I think that that's very positive. We have definitely improved since I've been here. I know I've been noticing that. >> Any other comments? Questions? >> Dr. Cureton Go back one slide, please. I guess one. Maybe the next one. Before that. That's fine. So, when you start talking about beginning of year and then the middle of the year obviously there's some fatigue there from the beginning of the year. Everybody's pretty excited, everybody's on their best behaviors, and all of a sudden it just kind of dips a little bit. That that's probably to be expected. How much variable is
063in here on just different kids from year to year as we measure these things? >> Yeah, that's that's a great question. So, we with Seal and Engage, we only give it to our pre-K and our Head Start students. So, we We have one year of data for that group of students. So, we don't have any true cohort year-over-year data. Uh we do track the cohort themselves longitudinally. So, from for example, from pre-K Head Start into uh kinder with M-Class. So, that was if you remember last year we adjusted our cut scores in CLI Engage. And part of that was because we wanted to see better alignment between this assessment that students take in pre-K and Head Start and the assessment that they take in kindergarten, essentially. So, uh within this assessment we can only measure
064beginning, middle, and end of the year, but as we move into kindergarten, we do track across assessments and over time. >> And even into year four. So, if it's pre-K key pre-K K one and two. So, when you get to that that fourth year, we could go back and look at how they started as pre-K kiddos. >> Correct. >> And how they're doing as far as maybe emotional resiliency and etc. that in that social emotional component, right? >> Yes, sir. >> Might be something to ponder here and get to y'all this summer. Take a look at maybe. >> Yeah. >> You send I can send it to you via email. It's still public, Mr. Newsome. So, I'm just I see what he's kind of saying and I'm my wondering is cuz the state loves measuring
065what? They love measuring apples against oranges. And we've kind of made a little different success rate here about measuring apples to apples and looking at those cohort. Y'all do some of that. But reporting that might be an an additional thing that we can provide the board. >> Sounds good. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Good. Okay. Thank you, all. >> Thank you. >> Okay, next we have the business legal finance consent agenda. Um you wanted to pull D. That was it, correct? >> Correct. I wanted to pull D. >> Okay, could I get a motion on A, B, C, E, F, G, H, I, J, K? >> I move that we approve the consent agenda A through K minus D. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Anybody opposed? Motion carries. Let's talk about
066D. >> On page 23 of your agenda and your board book, we have a resolution regarding wage payments during emergency closing school due to inclement weather. Um this is not talking about students. Students, the calendar uh they have enough minutes built into the calendar to where you're able to actually um not have to make up those instructional days or you would be looking at possibly bringing them back after Memorial Day. People like their Memorial Day break. We already had um time scheduled for staff to return after Memorial Day. And we also have two bad weather makeup days. These are to make sure that we satisfy contractual agreements with your employees, whether they're a custodian or whether they're a principal or we're actually not a principal, they were already here so um or a teacher. Um
067we had bad weather days on January 26th and 27th. And we should have come to school on the 27th, but the suit said no. Um and then we also I'm sorry, we should have we should have come on the 28th, but we also did not come on the 28th. The 26th and 27th are actually taken care of in the adopted calendar um for makeup days by staff. So they will have some actual um opportunity for work days in there as well. Maybe a little bit of professional development, maybe actually getting their vector training complete, right Dr. Groppel? That comes out of your shop. So you don't have to do it this summer. Um but the 28th is still hanging out there. So, the board's the board's option is this. We either bring the staff back,
068and most of it's just going to be the the teachers and the teacher aides on campuses cuz we kept them at home while we prepared the campuses on the 28th. So, you can either bring them back for an additional day or y'all can consider actually adopting this resolution regarding that and waving that additional day of them coming back. So, up to y'all. Bring them back another day or wave that day. >> Madam President, um I I move that we approve the resolution. Um, I think that the teachers have done their part and it'd be a shame to bring them back for a day for them to sit around and twiddle their thumbs. I think we have the authority within this board to fund this and to approve this. I'd like to make that as a
069motion. >> Just a point of order. Teachers never sit and twiddle their thumbs. >> Oh, thank you. >> Okay. Now, we can go with the motion. Can I get a second? All in favor? >> I. >> Opposed? The motion carries, which is so well deserved. >> Two Two days to get your vector training done, not three. There you go. Okay. >> Okay. Curriculum instruction consent agenda. Um, we agreed to pull G A G and and motion table H. Correct? Any more? A G and H. >> I'll move we approve items B, C, D, E, F, and I. >> All in favor? I need a second. Can I get a >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay, let's talk about A. >> Page 34 of your agenda book is
070we had annually adopt a calendar for the school year. The Texas Education Agency has actually allowed something now called an ADSY calendar consistent with all requirements set forth by TEA. ADSY stands for additional day school year to where you can actually get funding for a variety of things like an extra instructional days or summer school. So, in your packet is an actual example of that. I don't know if we can put that up on the screen or not. There you go. Perfect. That's Bolters. This is the ADSY school year up there. I'll explain the Bolter calendar here in just a minute. There's ADSY. >> Sorry. >> It's okay. So, additional day school year. What that is is you've adopted the calendar already. This is an an additional calendar for what would be submitted to TEA
071for any additional day outside of the school year to be used. So, obviously with your legend there with your color coding where you could see that there would be some additional days of instruction or experience here that TEA will now allow you to credit for actual revenue. So, in the past TEA would provide basic allotment dollars to a district to potentially use for a program like this or an initiative like this or or compensation increases or whatever. They've cut that off and they have now gone to these other allotments to allow you to petition to the agency to qualify for things. So, this is a an initiative, a strategy for additional day school year that we could potentially use again for extra days of instruction like we will have at Bolter for summer school needs
072at certain campuses or for like whenever we pay for mentoring alliance as well cuz that's still another summer program. So you actually can get anywhere from 50 to 75% of reimbursement for those days. They're not funded at a full daily rate, but we're also saying that it's probably not going to be a full complete 8-hour day anyway. So it doesn't make sense that anywhere from 50 to 75% could happen. So that's what the additional day school year is for. You would need to actually adopt this. Underlying of those additional day school year calendar at the calendar is the actual Bolter calendar that where where we're going to ace that school. We've talked about the personnel piece of it. The actual days of instruction, if you'll flip over to the Bolter calendar is what their calendar
073would actually look like. And we're getting there. Scrolling. There it is. So just to give you a little bit of an example of this, you would look at let's let's start in July to where they actually start school. Um that first those first four day two four-day weeks. You've got the 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th. Those are actual days of instruction taking those Fridays off uh to start out with four days. You know, five days are sometimes tough to start out with. And you get into August and you get four days of instruction again and four days of work and then on the 7th, that's actually convocation day. And then we actually start school um we will stay with school on the 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st, and so on. So, you go
074through the school year in there, take a lot of the same breaks that the rest of the school system is taking off. So, you've already had about I think it's Is it 15 days, staff? How many days at the very beginning of school instructionally for Bolter? >> 10 instructional additional instructional days at the beginning of school. And then you go through the school year. The only additional uh time that they'd actually be staffed are instructional given instruction is on the 10th and the 17th of April on Saturday. And those are not mandatory. Is that correct, staff? That'll be a very prescriptive Saturday school for kids that may need it. We've done this across the district before. Never been funded for it, but we've had this at some of our um elementary campuses that needed it
075the most. So, nothing out of the ordinary there. And then you actually get all the way um once school is out, you get into June, and there's some additional instructional days in there as well. Correct? Okay. So, again, the AZ calendar covers with the calendar before, not this one. Actually stacks on top of this. So, that we can actually provide some of these summer school instructional services and receive funding from the state for some of our ESE campuses that are aligned, our ACE campus obviously with Bolter, and then even any other summer school programming that we may have, including our high schools. Correct? Um along with uh things like Mentoring Alliance summer Mentoring Alliance summer. Rose City summer camp, there you go. Um to where we actually provide the instruction for those uh for those
076kiddos that choose to go to that camp. >> Is that in our packet? I don't even get the Bolter. >> The Bolter schedule was provided to you under separate coverage at your place. >> Okay. >> It's somewhere in your stack over there. Excuse me. It is not at your place. Okay. I will forward that to you when I get home tonight behind my computer. Okay. Gina will forward it to them. Okay. And that will be published in the in time and provided to the Bolter staff when? As soon as it's adopted here? Okay. Okay. Any other questions? >> Any >> to make the motion that we approve item A for the ad Z calendar. I think it's warranted, needed, and I like it. >> I can I'll second it. >> All in favor. >> I.
077>> Anybody opposed? Motion carries. G. >> Item G is a is a component as we try to transform and reform a lot of the things that we've got going on here so we can compete uh in the next uh next is now initiative. We've actually got a curriculum agreement with another school system uh to provide the curriculum products and and other technologies, learning technologies uh in partnership with Houston ISD. >> Any comment? Mr. Lee Ceya. >> Yes, ma'am. I I um I would like to make the motion that we authorize you on the behalf of this board to uh agree into that to sign into that agreement once the suit gets it back. I think we've all around this diocese seen the system. We're very familiar with the curriculum The component of it and the
078system and how it's in place. We've talked a number of times about fidelity to that system. So, for, you know, time being of the essence, I don't want to get this further behind. I want to move on this quickly uh to help those schools that need the help uh getting to where they need to be. So, I'd like to make a motion to approve this and authorize you to sign off on it when superintendent gets it to you. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carries. H >> Madam President, for item H, I would like to table that. >> Okay. >> Second that. >> All in favor? We don't have to vote on it cuz it's a motion to table. Okay, thank you. Okay. Staff report, superintendent. >> Yeah, you have
079your quarterly investment report that's in there every quarter. Ms. Russell, uh anything to report on investments, especially since the world has in been enveloped in chaos? >> Things have stayed Oh. Things have stayed pretty stable in our investments. Everything's pretty similar to how it was this time last year and last quarter as well. >> Incredible. Um any investments that we have in oil and gas? >> Nope. >> Not that we're aware of. >> Some of those hedge funds that probably put some money in the in the market for that, right? >> I'm not sure about that. We do have some pretty big restrictions on, you know, the types of investments and our advisers, they make sure that we are in safe investments. >> Good. And I know we can't invest with uh um countries that
080are We can't do business with countries that are deemed terrorists, right? Have to sign those agreements all the time. Okay, good. Well, thank you for that report. Always invigorating. Um, how would you just by interest, we haven't had this in a long time. Probably since 20 2009 when the when the housing bubble burst before you and I were in our positions, obviously. You might have still been in grade school. How would we alert the board of those things? The Would the Would Would our Would our partners in the investment like TCG Hub Would Would Would Dusty Trailer, our financial advisor, provide us some feedback in regard to that? I know he doesn't do a whole lot of investments. >> Yeah, he's more on the bond side and those things are pretty Those are set. But,
081TCG we have a very small amount in these, you know, more risky, you know, invested. So, ours are in um a lot of it's in checking for our payroll cuz our payroll is very expensive every month. And so, we don't have a whole lot. So, we would alert the board and you'd see it here. But, there at the moment there's nothing >> Okay. >> to talk about. What about um >> Yeah, that's good. That's fine. That's enough. I'm just trying to convey that the the the markets and the chaos that might be going on around is pretty stable with what we're able to do. We did have a whole lot of revenue, a lot a lot of funds whenever we sold our bonds. Obviously, as far as investing that money, that doesn't happen. We do
082draw interest off of that sometimes. And we're able to put that interest back into the actual projects, those bond projects, correct? >> Yes. We earned a lot in the the most recent bond, the 2020 bond right when we got all that money is when interest rates skyrocketed. So, we earned a lot, put it right back into capital projects, and it paid for, you know, the increase in pricing, you know, anything like that. >> delay >> Mhm. >> All the delay that we had, Mr. Loper, Mr. Banningfield, correct? Okay. So, there is a separation of that between investment dollars and then your bond dollars and what you can draw interest off of. You got to spend it on projects. You can't take that money and go hold on to it and not spend it and draw
083money off of it, even though we've already drawn all that down for the most part. >> Yes. >> Okay. Future business, the next board meeting will be April 20th, 2026. Do I need to announce the special if we have it or not? No, okay. Okay, could I get a motion to adjourn? >> I move we adjourn. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> Anybody opposed? The meeting has been adjourned. Have a great evening.