2025-07-21 School Board Meeting

001to order. >> The presence of a quorum has been established and the meeting has been duly called. We don't have anything from executive session at this time. So, as usual, we will start with the prayer and the pledge by Mr. Newsome. May bow. Our most gracious heavenly father once again will come to you thanking you for the God that you are. God, we thank you for the district tower independent school district and the individuals that work thy in. Lord, we pray that you will continually watch over them and bless them throughout the summer. Pray that they can come back with a renewed spirit that they can be ready to face the challenges that we're going to be facing this year. Lord, we pray that you will continually watch over them during the summer that they

002can have a safe summer, enjoyable and appreciative. Lord, we thank you for the board that makes decisions that help to shape the structure of this district. We pray that we will always make decisions that that is worthy of our children and that we can continually always put the children first. Father, we thank you for the opportunity of serving. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. Pledge 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. And now this time has been set aside for public participation. First we have Miss Carolyn Davis. Come on down. >> Oh, there we go.

003>> Uh, good evening, President Atkins, board members, and Dr. Crawford. I have three major topics. First one is immigration enforcement. The question begs to be asked, why has Tyler ISD not released a statement regarding your position and intentions surrounding immigration enforcement on school campuses. It's been five months since the initial request was made and three additional requests have been made since then. Some neighboring school districts have done so. Why not Tyler ISD? Why keep students and parents wondering in fear? Do what's best for the students and families you serve. Please release a statement before the new school year starts. My second topic deals with third grade star reading test the straight passing results. Number one, my number one concern. Why was a goal set for only about half of African-American students to pass the third

004grade reading star test? Number two, did you notice the goal and the passing rate for special ed students is closest to that of AfricanAmerican students than any other group. Think about that. Third grade math star test results. Number one, the goal for African-American students is even worse. It was worse. it was lower than the goal for a reading test. I've already said the goal was about half for reading. It was less than that for um math. Number two, did you notice the passing rate of African-American students is the same as the passing rate for special ed students. To me, that speaks volumes. At the last board meeting, a board member stated one uh the test results sound encouraging. One of the presenting administrators that was sitting there stated the highlights was the meets and masters

005part of the results. That particular person didn't think anyone really was satisfied with the results that some of which I just called out. Lastly, um, from the discussion at the last school board meeting, it seems most of you have come to believe in the need to hire non-certified teachers, and you are in agreement with that. Apparently, the Texas legislature disagrees and plans to put a stop to it by 2030 or before. As a matter of fact, I'm sure you're aware, uh, today was the first day of a special session, and it's very possible this topic will come up again. A Texas Tribune news article dated March 15th of this year states, "Lawmakers want to turn the tide on the growing number of unprepared and uncertified teachers by restricting who can lead Texas classrooms. House lawmakers

006are steadfast on undoing the loophole they created after new research sounded the alarm on the impact of unprepared teachers on student learning. Students with new uncertified teachers lost count them four months of learning in reading and three months in math. This is what the research says. uh they miss class more than students with certified teachers a signal of being disengaged in that classroom. I've been speaking against this for over 10 years. I have always thought there is a greater chance of a certified teacher being successful in the classroom from day one having completed the educational courses, one or two semesters of student teaching and passed the state exam. I'm almost finished. It is my continued hope and suggestion that over the next five years you use whatever incentives or stipens you can to create a

007desire in as many Tyler ISD students especially early college students to become Tyler ISD teachers. Grow your own teachers. Thank you. Thank you, Emily Panal. >> Good evening, um, president and school board members. Hello again. Again, I am a, um, Tyler SD, a parent, a new one. Um, and again, I just want to say it is incredibly upsetting that members of this community have to keep coming back and feel the need to call for a communication statement from the district. The communications role in this district is clear to inform families about changes that impact them, especially those resulting from this decisions that are being made at the state or federal level, and to do so in a way that both is both timely and accessible. This is not an optional responsibility. It is a core

008function that builds trust and supports in families in order for them to plan for the futures. Just as the superintendent provides legis legislative updates directly to the board, the communications team should be providing those same updates to families and staff. A few days ago, Long ISD released a clear and public statement detailing exactly how much of their funding has already been frozen. Not will be, but is frozen. They're actively working with their staff and their community on how to move forward. Their focus has been transparency and reassurance, two things that are solely missing in this board. Families should not be should not have to chase down critical information or wonder how decisions are made at the state and federal level that are impacting their schools and children. Communication should not be reactive and it should

009not be reserved for moments of crisis. It should be ongoing, honest, and rooted in respect for the people in this district. And that's what they deserve. And this is especially true for our immigration immigrant families. Families who often face additional barriers to information and who rely heavily on the district for timely, accurate, and culturally responsive communication. This district has a responsibility to show that it prioritized families by communicating clearly, planning proactively and building trust through transparency. That is how this district show is its values to families by keeping them informed, involved, and prepared for what lies ahead. And need I remind you all, most of you ran on these values when y'all ran for office for this exact position. And most of them who voted for y'all are waiting for that. And you all have

010access to my information. I have it on every um paper that I have to fill out when I come here. and no one has reached out or acknowledged that we've been here coming back and back and back. And what's frustrating is the only acknowledgement that has been received is by Cody. Yeah. Cody leverage um via text acknowledgement. But it's, you know, it's a full house here. And I'm not the only one with this sentiment that has been outreaching to y'all outside of this way that many of you are starting to communicate within each other saying that this is not how you address things. We shouldn't have to tell y'all how to do y'all's jobs as elected officials. That's the sad part. Thank you. >> Thank you, Matthew Bailey. Good evening, members of the board. Continuing

011now since February of this year, I on behalf of Tylerbased East Texas Monarchs make our demand to the Tyler ISD board to create and release a statement detailing its intentions on how it may protect the undocumented students on Tyler ISD school grounds. Though I find it obvious, it still remains in need of pronouncing that at the end of the day, no matter what each of us individually understand, we are speaking about the lives of children. The lives that they will continue as they leave this campus, go home to their family, go out with their friends in town, or stick around for an afterchool activity and the lives that they will continue when returning back to school the next day. Our fear stems from this life within the school and the relationship that each of these

012children children have with their parents as they go out about their own daily lives. Sane undocumented students parents are picked up by immigration enforcement and carded away to a detention center far from here. Who will pick up that child at the end of the workday? Who will be trusted and who will be a trusted and authorized contact? How and where do parents update their existing list of authorized contacts for handling their child? All the while, the child is left alone at the school, wondering where everyone they trust has gone as the sun continues to lower on the horizon. Furthermore, how would Tyler the intend to cooperate with federal immigration officials if and when they come knocking at the school door? Would confidential files be shared? Would HIPPA be used to be would be used to

013protect these undocumented students from federal federal officials wanting to seize their medical papers that describe their immigration status? And finally, how would the school intend on helping their students manage these new stresses of immigration crackdowns? As well as we have already seen one child not far from here take her own life, 11-year-old Joselyn Karanza, due to bullying and fear about her and her family's immigration status. Would counseling provided by professionals by the school or by some other trusted means be promoted to students and families? We find these questions and questions similar to these to be the most pressing here at Tyler ISD. We simply demand for transparency in these obviously trying times to help quell much of the anxiety and the fear spreading throughout our communities. A statement answering these burning questions would only be

014reasonable, respectful, and justified. Now, I understand that some of these questions might already be answered in the school handbook. However, it must be known that many people need help going through the mountains of papers within the hand. If if these questions have already been answered in this statement, it may be simply just to put and point out these certain sections in the handbook to where people are easily able to digest them and be able to understand them. This is what we ask. Thank you. >> Thank you. That's all for public announcements. Thank each of you for your comments. Now, we're going to approve the minutes. for May 19th, 2025, June 5th, 2025, and June 16, 2025. Could I get a motion? >> I move we approve the minutes. >> Second. >> All in favor? >>

015Any oppose? Moved and second. Continuous improvement student outcomes. Uh we get a report for competitive academic update. >> As part of your board monitoring calendar board, we have Dr. Kristen Walls, executive director of college and career to give you a spring update for competitive academics. We do a lot of reporting for extracurricular activities, band, athletics, uh academicians, and mathletes. We like to celebrate their success as well. Dr. Walls for your report. >> Good evening. >> Let me make sure I get this so you can hear me. >> Okay. >> Board President Atkins, trustees, and Dr. Crawford. Good to see y'all. Um, today I'm This is going to be short but sweet about the competitive academics um for the late spring. So, we're going to kick off with the elementary school UIL. Um this year we

016had approximately the same number of students that participated. Um we start off in the elementary more or less just kind of having them get excited about competing in the academic realm. Um we don't take your first place, second place, third place for the different schools at that level. Um we just want them to participate. But we had a really good showing this year for middle school. Um this year we had 223 participants. And in first place more middle school, second was Three Lakes and third place Hubard. And so each of the schools did have participants that placed um all the middle schools, but then they calculate all the scores and the numbers of students who participate. So this year um that was the results. And then in the high school realm, um we had early

017college high school. Um there were 22 participants and I'm pretty excited about high school because we had 68 more students participate this year. Um overall for our high schools. So that's something that we've been working on. We had 16 regional qualifiers and two state qualifiers. Um one in spelling and one in science. Then at Tyler High, we had 46 participants. So that was definitely up from last year. Um they we had no regional qualifiers this year, but many were firsttime participants. So getting them excited about going in and starting to compete academically. And then at Legacy High School, we had 92 participants um about 50 more than last year. We had seven regional qualifiers and that was in persuasive speaking, current events, spelling, accounting and calculator. And we had one state qualifier which was Max

018Morales and he was in calculator um with with that component. So great job for our students. And then in CTSOs or career and technical education student organizations um we have state contest participants seven in future business leaders of America. Now we only have that CTSO at Tyler High. So all 17 went regionally and state. We also had six in DECA which was half and half. That was three legacy three Tyler High students. Two legacy students from Health Occupation Students of America. Um, Skills USA was split as well. We had fourth place and fifth place and in that realm at the state level and the TSA or Technology Students of America, we had 16 participants. Two placed in second place and that's Gavin Lden and Max Peneda. And he also placed in fourth place. So then

019we had three 10th place winners from there. That's a picture of them this year. Um, so TSA is has consistently been doing really really well. Um, health occupations this year they actually hosted the district level um here at Caldwell and Legacy High School and so exciting to see how many students were going to be participating in that. The competitive academics calendar, this kind of gives you an overview of the how we our year goes. Um mostly in fall we start recruiting trying to get as many students that want to compete academically. The UIL middle school district meet is usually in February then March. Um we start with elementary and then the high school district meets and they go all the way through May. So this is kind of a late um report because it it

020finishes out at the end of May and then national contests are usually in June. And that is my very brief report. Do you have any questions, >> questions, comments? >> One question in regards to legacy, the number that doubled almost or you said 50 plus students. How did they achieve that in in one year? What what do you think they did different than >> There's a new coordinator. Ah, >> so she was she contacted me and she said, "I'm really really going to be focusing my efforts on getting as many students as we possibly can." Same thing at Tyler High. So, I've seen some differences in uptick. And then when I spoke with Early College High School, they said the same. They've been focusing on getting more and more students excited about competing. >> Yeah.

021>> Great. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. business, legal, finance, consent agenda. We have the approval of the 2425 amended budget and conversation about that. Good evening board, President Atkins, Dr. Crawford. I'm going to talk to you today about the budget proposal for 2526. So, you have two things with you. This is the presentation that's going to go over increases and decreases in revenue and expenses compared to the current year. And you also have a packet that's going to describe total revenue, total expenditures, and we'll talk about that a little bit after the presentation. So, there's four revenue sources for the budget. State formula makes up 53.4% of the revenue and local property tax makes up 43.2. State formula revenue is up 2% from last year and local property is 2% lower

022from last year. And we'll talk about why later. Federal revenue makes up a very small amount and then there's some miscellaneous revenue as well. I do want to say there is a big disclaimer for local property tax revenue. Um, we had to estimate some of these numbers. We got with the appraiser on how to estimate. There's some things coming out of the legislature that makes it hard to estimate. So, the numbers we gave you, they're good estimates, but they're not perfect. We're going to get property values by the end of this week. And so, we'll have better numbers next time we talk. So, state formula, one of the biggest drivers of our revenue is our average daily attendance and weighted average daily attendance. That is up from the prior year estimation, 250 students, which equates

023to $1.3 million of revenue. We also have the aotment for basic costs. This is brand new with House Bill 2. It was um an attempt to give schools more money for those fixed costs that are rising with inflation, such as insurance, utilities, those kind of things. That's $2 million. And there's other formula changes. That's about $700,000. A big portion of that is called the support staff retention aotment and we are spending that requirement on the 5% increase for repair professionals and manual trades. Another increase is the local share has decreased because of the homestead exemptions that we'll talk about. This is an increase of $3.6 million in state revenue. So there's a relationship with property values and state funding. When property values go up, our tax effort goes up and our state funding goes down.

024But what's happening we think this year is that our property values are going down, our tax effort goes down and our state funding goes up. The next three things, these are kind of flowth through items. You have revenue that perfectly equals expenses. So, the first is the teacher retention aotment. This is what we've talked a lot about with the raises for teachers. Uh, three or four years of experience, they get a $2,500 raise and five and above, they get $5,000. We're being perfectly funded for that. And that's about $5.5 million. And the teacher incentive aotment, you guys know about that. Um, it's gone up $2 million because the program has expanded both in those who qualify and who have earned the award. TRS on behalf. This is a percentage of salaries. So when we see

025salaries go up, we see TRS on behalf go up. So that revenue perfectly equals an expense on the other side. So overall state revenue is going up $16.1 million. Local property taxes, there's going to be two things that voters will approve or disapprove in November. There's a $40,000 proposed increase to the homestead exemption and $50,000 increase for the over 65 and disabled homestead exemption. If those two things weren't there, we would be proposing a 10% increase in values. However, we're going to say that they are pretty much offset and values are going to be flat, but the tax levy is going down, which is indicating a reduction of local tax revenue of about 3.6 6 mill and again this is subject to change. We'll definitely have more information. Then we have federal revenue. Uh the

026SHs program. This is our Medicaid billing. You may have heard some things about the Medicaid program. It is very different than it was when school districts first got into it. the requirements and the effort on the school's part where they have to actually go in and bill for these services has gone way up and the funding and flexibility has gone way down. So when we did a costbenefit analysis the cost way exceeded the benefit and so we are exiting the program which is a $1 million decrease to the budget. Additionally made up a big portion of some federal funds in the past. It was a we spent it all two years ago, but this past year we did have some residual indirect costs that were part of the budget. So overall federal revenues decreasing $1.1

027million. Then we've got some other revenue that's less material. Tuition income, this is for our preks. The rate has not gone up but enrollment has gone up. interest income slightly decrease in rates and athletic increased based on um activity. So a net decrease of $160,000. Overall revenue is projected to increase 11.34 million. So let's talk about where that revenue is being allocated in expenditures. So the biggest area is payroll and benefits. The first is teacher retention aotment. That's that raise for teachers. For non-teers, we've got 3% of the midpoint for professionals, 5% for paras and manual trades. And then for stipens, overtime and substitutes. This is an increase in our estimation of those costs, not a change in the rates. Then we have the teacher retirement above state minimum. I just have a interesting comment

028on this. Um, if you don't know what this is, the state requires you pay a minimum salary to teachers. A first year teacher is supposed to make $34,000 or a minimum of $34,000 and we pay above that. So we are required to pay a percentage fee sort of on the difference. So 52,000 minus 34,000 we're paying a percentage fee. They did not increase these state minimum rates for the same increase that they mandated teacher raises which means they are getting more revenue because every single district is going to have a bigger separation between the amount they pay above the state minimum. Teacher incentive aotment we talked about that increasing TRS on behalf as well and then finally unemployment claims um have increased slightly. This is a net increase of 11.3 million. And if you remember

029the amount that we said revenue was, it was 11.34. So 99.9% of the increase in revenue is being spent on payroll increases. This category, instruction and instructional support, there's an increase in campus aotments. This is not due to the amount per student, but an increase in enrollment. The regional day school for the deaf. This is made up of multiple school districts. So when Tyler ISD has more students in the program, it does cost the district more. And an increase in career and technology. This is because the CCMR CCMR aotment increased and it's due to rising cost and participation in certifications required for accountability. Overall, that's costing about $181,000. Then we've got the department operating budgets. Uh technology contracts. That's not due to an elimination of anything we're offering. Just it's how the contracts worked out

030this year. They cost less than last year. Utilities and property insurance increase, but not as much as they we were expecting them to. So that was a positive. Um the SHs admin expense, that program is eliminated. So we no longer have that expense. preventive maintenance fund since that is three pennies on our tax rate. We talked about local property property taxes going down. So, our preventive maintenance fund um increase will go down as well this year. Um there's an increase in facility maintenance due to um lawn care contract that came out after the budget was proposed last year and then a decrease in non-payroll state comped. So with this legislation, they changed the requirement on state comped spending. They said that state comped was meant to be like a cake, the extra the something really

031good and special, but they realized that some of the districts were missing the meat and potatoes. And so they want to give us some flexibility to pay for the the basic instruction that um that was maybe missing. And so we aren't changing any of our um supplemental offerings, but it does give us flexibility in that in this department category. Overall, that's a decrease of $173,000. So the total proposed expenditure increase is $11.34 million, which is exactly the increase for payroll, a balanced budget. So now I want to talk about the packet that you guys have. We're not going to go into detail on all of the the things within it, but I do want to point out where you can find some more information if you do want to dive in and have any questions.

032So, the first page just table of contents. Um, page one, you've got all the salaries, other expenditures, and then down at the bottom, it shows total budget, those are expenditures of 191 million, and total revenue of 191 million. So those two things equal. Up at the top you see that payroll salary expense is $158 million which makes up 83% of our page two. This is just some some of the extra payroll costs calculation and increases. Page three. This is where you're going to find all of our schools, the um expected enrollment and the amount per student that each campus gets. The next page is where they actually fill out what they think their enrollment will be. In October, when we get snapshot data, we adjust their campus aotments to what their actual student enrollment >>

033so that if they have a crazy increase. >> Sorry, Miss Russell, you're saying pages, but do you know which page they are in our >> Oh, sorry. It says page 3A and I do think it printed that way in your packet. >> 23. >> Thank you. Sorry for that. >> I'm sorry. >> Yeah, I think there's like double page numbers on these. says 23 and then page 3800. Okay, >> this is where they actually fill out the amount per se or the enrollment and they're you want to be as accurate as you can because you know it you don't want to over over um estimate there. So page four through six, these are going to be department budgets that you can look into specifically if you have more questions. Page seven, this is we have

034revenue and far right column. That's going to be what was approved last year for the 24-25 budget increases and decreases and then where we are now adjusted. And then the far left column is going to be projected revenue for 2526. Page eight, this is the current year levy. Again, disclaimer, these numbers are very preliminary. the net taxable value up top 11.6 million that is the main number that we had to estimate. So when that number changes everything below it could also change. Right now we're estimating that the M tax rate will remain flat and INS will decrease by 3 cents. Um so the overall tax rate would be 88 cents but we will provide a uh tax rate for adoption later. Page nine is going to be all of the changes that we discussed in

035the slideshow. These are the details of each of those things we talked about. And then finally, the debt service budget. That top number 30 million is going to be our debt service payments in 2526. This drives the INS tax rate because we can only levy what we owe. So with that, that is all I have. If you have any questions, >> questions, comments. >> Got a couple. >> Go ahead. I I got an easy one. So, on the maintenance, you talked about it was an increase on due to the lawn care and stuff, but I thought we approved that last year in the budget. So, help me understand because I remember that. >> It was a an amended budget that we did. We didn't have it on the adopted budget. And so, this is all

036a comparison to the adopted >> to the original adopted. Okay. Yes, you're right. We did specifically call it out in the amended budget. >> Okay. >> That's is that because the bid split fiscal years? Well, I can't remember why it wasn't. >> They came in right after we had to do do the adopted budget. >> Okay. Yeah, we actually approved it before it was in the budget, >> right? But whatever. >> Question. Um, if you go back to the operating budget, so I think I spoke to you about this previously. We're This is stripping out salaries >> and this is on a yearly projection. >> No, fiscal year 81, I'm sorry, 91 to 831. >> So if I'm looking at this and I say, okay, I pick an item here like athletics, $1.6 million in

037athletics. This is not coaches salaries salaries. This is not assistant coaches salaries, not uh athletic director salaries. This is just operating expenses for that item. >> Correct. >> Can you tell me what school improvement support item 999 on the second page of that operating budget? What does that entail? >> That is >> I can kind of I can kind of guess what the athletics operating budgets are, but like that one, what would that entail? that is statecombed. So that's the decrease we talked about. This is going to pay for some of the curriculum contracts that identify um some atrisisk at risk students. We aren't changing the curriculum we're using, but that specific budget did decrease. And then just on page seven, the uh general operating revenue projections on the tuition summer/prek, the projected is uh

038590,000. Do you know what percentage of that is? Like your paid for prek, stripping out the summer school stuff. >> The vast majority. I'm not sure what the exact percentage is. >> Over 90%. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Uh, couple of things. On page seven, page 27, page seven, uh, you you did say S hs. Uh, we're not doing that. And you gave a reason. I missed the explanation as to why we're not. >> So, that is Medicaid billing. And so every single time that these teachers are taking these Medicaid eligible students to the bathroom, they're having to go and bill that they took the student to the bathroom. That is a very large burden on our educators. Um because I'm just giving one example of things they bill for. There's there's

039lots of things. And then on top of that, they've changed the way that you have to bill and made it more cumbersome. And so when when they when we do meet with them all, I know that they are going to be very very excited. they're going to feel a sense of relief and be able to focus on um education in the classroom. >> So, we're just going to eat the cost of that or >> Well, actually, it's a $1 million decrease from the proposed budget, but actually this year, our actual revenue is probably less than $300,000. They have come back and just taken money. They they've given us revenue and then come back and taken it back. Um, we actually have one that's under review at the moment. Um, because they they want to charge

040us I I can't think how much it is, maybe $ 250,000 and it's going to offset $250,000 of revenue and net to zero. So it to the budget it's a million dollar hit, but to actual revenue it is pretty small. >> Mr. Newsome, that's a federal thing. Uh, it's not a state thing. It's it's uh man, how many years ago did they come back in eight years ago possibly, maybe even more? They've done reviews and the feds have come back at Texas and said that things that we were counting for that can no longer be counted and actually asked for some payment back from the state. >> One was from I think 2011. They said you build for this in 2011 and we want that money back. So we're they're just nitpicking things. the service

041is still going to be provided to students. Okay. We're always going to make sure that we're doing that. So, you talk about Bow Shears. Bose shears was a heavy char whatever. Do we even have MAC anymore? >> We we did that. That's part of it. >> Yeah. Okay. So, it used to be this that acronym was SHARS and MAC. Think about Bo Shears and the severe and profound kids that we have over there that we continue to educate. We're going to continue to educate those. It's going to be the the cumbersome bureaucratic minutia that our teachers have had to go through. It used to be beneficial for us. It used to be fruitful uh for us. We did receive quite a bit of uh revenue off of that, but it's going away. And >> yeah,

042I want to say it was even just a couple years ago, we were budgeting three or $3 million from it. And now it's going to be less than 300,000. >> Right. Well, that's understandable. I know the individual individual Medicaid is a lot more complicated now than it was before as far as and compensation. They are recouping a lot of their funds after the individuals die. Uh so they've changed a lot. Have to be real careful about that. >> Anybody else? Did did um you mentioned that I guess our total federal revenue is.36%. Is that correct? >> So if people worry about wonder you know >> about losing something that the feds pur strings are on 36 of 1% is where we are. >> Yeah. the the the issue is the timing of um to be

043honest with you, I think that was the biggest surprise that that anything that anything that we're going to suffer with is just going to be in the planning and the preparation of and uh just just like anything else, we'll figure out a way to to uh to fill that gap wherever we need to with with local funding and state funding as well. There there was one other additional question in regards to the uh page 29 page nine uh looking at the payroll and benefit expenditures. There was a section for uh salary adjustment due to market change. We did not include that this year was that simply that to me it appears like it's a cost of living type thing that we put in under that particular payroll and benefits but we did not include that

044as well as the change in the F LSA that we had last year. At the moment there was one person that received an adjustment and so this is just the preliminary. If that changes and even if it doesn't we will put the one line in there and put that amount. This since this is just preliminary we didn't want to put that number out there before anything. >> Okay. >> Final >> look I have a new appreciation for public entities and the work that they do on uh these budgets. So, I just want to thank you guys for grinding on this and all the department heads for all the work that they do, too. I know y'all are looking at it and y'all are guessing sometimes. So, appreciate all the work. >> Go ahead. >> Just

045you you spoke of the base state salary schedule and whenever you adopt something above that that there is a fee to be paid to whom? >> TRS. >> I just want to make sure we get that out there. So you get penalized for paying above the state base. Is that essentially >> essentially um and the gap raised because the ceiling raised or the floor for salaries raised but this one didn't. So yeah, >> it only raised slightly. So >> was it ever talked about during session? I mean during legislative >> Yes. Uh TRS did ask for additional funding from the legislature. I don't think they received it. I'm I don't remember to be honest with you. >> Um it wasn't significant if if it was what they asked for. And if they don't get that,

046then obviously it does get passed on to the local school board to consider as part of its budget to adopt. But no, there was not an increase in TRS. One other question because it it was came to me regarding the feeding of our kids uh before school and considering the state and some things that's been said regarding feeding kids at school. What is our position on that? How have we addressed it within our budget? >> We continue to offer the program. Correct. Yes, that is paid for with the school lunch program fund, which is not part of this budget. All of this budget is just local um 199 budget, not our federal funds. >> Madam President, >> have we had a disruption in feeding kids this summer, Dr. Goble? >> Okay, that that's what I

047want. >> There you go. Okay. I know you're not asking that question. You're trying to get confirmation of what the local media, >> right, >> or others, maybe even Facebook, Facebook, uh, may be portraying out there. But Dr. Gro, will you can we've had a successful summer feeding program. >> Very good. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Nome. >> Yes. Uh, just a question on stipens and probably for Mr. Jones as much as anyone. on on page 51, mainly the teacher stipens that we do for bilingual, math, science, um those things. Are we staying competitive with those as far as surrounding districts? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. And and if a teacher uh I'll use coach for example, but but if they had had any other duty where they they did not teach, they have to

048teach a certain number of sections to get the full stipen. Is correct? But if for whatever reason, if they're teaching seven of eight or six or eight, is that stipen prorrated? >> No. But we used to prorrate them then. >> Okay. And why was that? Why do we I guess the question is do one, why did we do that? And two, do other districts prorrate our, you know, if we want to stay competitive with our surrounding districts, do they prorrate their stipens? >> That's a good question. I have no idea. For example, >> someoneistove as its >> so some were like getting the full stipen but not teaching the full class load. >> Uh maybe. >> So before if you taught what what is the requirement? How many sections to to get the full stipen?

049>> I think it's six >> 67 >> as the kids say. I'm sorry. >> Six of eight. And you you get the full stack. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. But if you taught But if you taught three, three, you wouldn't get that pr-rated down. >> That is correct. >> And that was budgetary. So how much of a budgetary and this may be for Miss Russell. What what would it take if we went back to prorating? How much did we save when we stopped doing that? >> That's not a number that I have at the moment, but it' be something. >> You weren't here. So Ron Ron mentioned budget. So uh Dr. Crawford told me long ago I could not would not be the CFO. I would have to get with Casey on that to get

050you a number on that one. >> Yeah, I would be interested in that number and how much I mean I can't imagine it happen all that often, but you know I I assume some of our coaches are math teachers and and and and science teachers maybe not. I mean >> I mean we that's one thing we've worked on. I mean that's that was part of >> and coach is the easy one to pick up but I'm sure that you know department chair or cheerleader sponsor or whatever that >> that would get an extra >> intuitively I would think if you're looking at this from a budgetary constraint you would want to do the proration the prorations would benefit you in the allocation of that money where it would be proportionate to what they're actually doing.

051So you got somebody who's doing six or seven you give them the whole thing. You got somebody's doing three or seven, you give them three of it. Am I following that or not? >> I I think you're right on that would make sense. Budgetary. What I have heard is that it is to incentivize those teachers that are really good in teaching these tested subjects to teach as many as they can so that we can have the most students benefiting from that instruction. And I know we have lots of great educators, but that's kind of I think it was more it was less budgetary and more getting those teachers to teach more sections rather than, you know, two or three. >> Okay. Well, Mr. Jones said budgetary. That was not CFO. >> I think that's one

052that that could be one of the reasons, but I think it it's both together. Um, but I do see what you're saying with the budget. It also allows for some competitive balance whenever you're looking for hard to hard to find teachers. >> Mhm. >> Right. >> I we've had speaker speak many a times about that. We we don't all love DOI certified teachers. We're not just in love with that. We would love to have fully certified teachers at our in our school system in front of every one of our kids. It doesn't take much to look at how many people are leaving the profession and how much are being pumped out out of higher ed and what we're stuck with. So whenever you start talking about stipens, somebody that's going to be certified that is

053that is already fully certified mathematics science, I don't think we put a restriction on them. Because I guarantee you that Troop and ARP and Bullard and Jacksonville and Lindel are not going to sit here and go, well, you only you're only going to teach five out of eight. You're only get 58 of a stipen. So I think that's is that kind of where you're going on that? I just want to make sure we're competitive with our and that you know we're we're recruiting and you get me to say we're recruiting science teachers and bilingual and those are are you know in and freshman algebra those are tough to spill fill spots >> right >> um and and even sometimes you can tell me if I'm wrong it's been a long time since I was in

054education you know a campus may not have enough sections to fill seven or eight maybe the only you know hire this person well we only got four sections of science so you're going to have to pick up two sections of of study hall or whatever, right? And so I don't want to penalize that teacher because there's not enough sections to to get them to stifle. >> Correct. >> So >> is that is that am I clear in just kind of what my thought process is? >> Oh, my understanding I think is the stipen is given if you're teaching it doesn't matter how many courses you're teaching within that area, academic area. If it's a stipen associated with it, you get that stipen for that amount. Right. >> Yeah. Not all stipens are prrated or or

055need to be pro >> bilingual teaching bilingual. You get your bilingual stipen. It's not going to be uh six of eight or or any of those things. So, it's not all stipens that uh that applies to. And you mentioned coaching uh being a part of that. You know, I'm I'm teaching uh four sections and then I'm coaching. Coaching uh brings with it its own set of stipens for the work that they do, right? >> So, they're not missing anything there. And then we have silt stipens. that was a part of it as well. Had um those that were teaching um maybe maybe four such sections of a math course then had an off period and then they were the silk um the silk member of the of the department and so there was a stipen

056associated with that as well >> campus instructional leadership team. So they were a part of that basically your department chairs uh on on your campus and they had an off period there uh as well. So that comes with uh money attached to it as well because if you're not before students then that's a that's a section uh there. And so all of those things went into the consideration uh when it came to uh prorating the stipens or not who was getting them what the outcome the desired outcome was uh to get those with the um expertise to teach more sections of that particular subject matter. So all of that went into the to that discussion. But when y'all are budgeting, do y'all assume every every science teacher is going to get the full stipen and

057then say, "Oh, well, now you're a department chair." I mean, do y'all y'all are y'all budgeting in in this budget? Is this budget assuming that everyone's going to get that stipen if they're a science or bilingual >> or I budget for it? I don't know about >> we we look at stipens kind of as a whole because there's so many different kinds of stipens and budgeting them exactly would take an entire week probably. And so we more so look at it from a big picture not down to the >> At the end of last year did you have money left over in the stipen budget? Did you use all of it or was there a little you know any left over? >> No. Uh that is why that we are increasing the budget for stipens

058this year based on actual activity in 2425. >> Okay. We have negoti or yeah negotiated u at the high school level. Just I give you an anecdotal example of a teacher that was a sponsor of a fairly important organization on a campus uh not receiving the full stipen and when given that the opportunity, hey, you can either give up that sponsorship and teach that extra period or two to get the full stipen or you have that one specific period for I don't know student council. It's up to you which one do you want. They chose the student council period. >> Okay. >> So, we we do go to the individually go to those and look at those and not just say thou shalt have the stopping. There are instances to where we've actually had to

059go back and do that. So, >> any more comments? >> Casey, I've got a comment publicly since Mr. Loper is in the audience. Mr. Oper 3 cents of our tax rate is dedicated towards preventive maintenance. Correct. >> When did we come up with that plan? 2004 one in preparation for the 2004 year because we started rolling into these building programs. Correct. money bond, right? And then we added a couple of pennies. within a couple years. >> Yep. Y'all, it's a that was done in 2020 2001, excuse me. Right. Correct. It's it's been, let's just call it a nice even number, a quarter of a century since we did that. The dollar is not the same now as it was then. So, I just I want to make sure that we're putting that I'm not trying

060to say anything other than we're making this very aware and very public that that is a quarter of a century policy that we've had here and it's it's it's it's a little tough. Now, you're going to ask me, Marty, should we add some more pennies? I'm going to tell you no, because we did not get a basic a lotment increase from the state this year. Everything that we got was pretty much attached to raises. Correct. >> 99.9%. >> There you go. So, it is something that we're going to have to contend with, not this year, not next year, but in the next three to four to five years that we will have to contend with in regard to looking at that preventive maintenance fund. And maybe there'll be some better legislation come down that does

061allow some flexibility at the board level for things on your M side, i.e. from the basic aotment. So, little school finance lesson right there, uh, that we're going to have to contend with. We're not in any bad shape right now. I don't predict to be in any bad shape, but knowing that that's been a quarter of a century since we adopted those three pennies, we're going to have to do some work on that. Tim, didn't we have some Didn't we also have a bond? Was the 98 bond? Did that go to like HVAC? And weren't there some paving? And it seemed like there was stuff in there that was that really should have been maintenance, but we had to force it off on a on a bond. >> Basically, that was the 1998 bond. Yeah.

062And it was all HVAC. It was electrical upgrades and it was roofs. >> Yeah. >> Um that had been deferred. >> Bathrooms too, like the outside the Moore gym and the Steuart gym and the balter the old those bathrooms for athletic facilities or something as well. Uh, they were the entire school roofs, re-roofing them. >> Okay. I thought there was those bathrooms were added. >> Um, there was there was at the middle school. You're right. >> Okay. >> And I remember them asking me why they cost so much, but that was prior me. They were $165,000 a piece then. >> Okay. >> They're a lot more now. >> But y'all had maintenance bond. >> It was basically all maintenance. It wasn't you couldn't look at stand at the curb and see what we had done.

063>> Yeah. >> Is basically infrastructure. >> You just didn't want to be in that position again, you know. >> No doubt. >> I mean, it just that's not that wasn't the way you run your >> Yeah. I can remember that back in that time, too. And that's that's why our schools was in such bad shape, unfortunately, because we didn't have a maintenance fund. We had to go to the to the public to get anything improved, >> and that didn't make sense. So the one cents was definitely a good start and I think the three cents is great but I agree with you once again it's been 25 years and maintenance has increased considerably so we are going to have to evaluate that and see if it's effective or not and make a decision regarding it.

064>> Yep. >> Y'all finished. >> Thank you. Do we vote on it? >> No, that's just the proposal. Okay. We need to talk about the approval of compensation structure. >> Anybody B? >> Yeah, we can just approve through. >> So, let's approve >> or A through >> A through E. >> Do we need to discuss any of those? >> He had I'm sorry, Madam President. That was just a presentation on the business legal uh finance consent agenda. I'd like to pull items number A and number B. letters. >> All right. Well, then I move we approve items CD and E. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposing? CDN has been approved. Okay. A >> on the same theme. I wanted to dig down a little bit, not too long. I don't

065want to go too long on this. Specifically on the uh two things. One was the I just want to make sure that this is explained to me again like I'm a third grader because I don't get it. Before we spoke about certified versus non-certified teachers, I'm I'm I got you. The state is now telling us that for a newbie, for a new teacher, we can def different differentiate $1,500, right? But >> we're required to differentiate between certified and non-certified teachers, but explain to me how does that go away by year number five? Well, actually you said it goes away by year number two. So you start off one teacher at 50,500 and then the certified one gets 52,000. So the next year the uncertified one gets a pretty big bump. Right. >> Right. If the

066if this were to stay the same next year. So the reason we're adopting it this way is because the difference in pay for a beginning teacher for non-certified teachers that that requirement starts next year. So if we were to raise that floor this year, we would be stuck then at a a higher floor and have to raise every single step again then. So if we do this this year, we are just doing the required and we can evaluate from there with all the other things coming out of the legislature that may change with the special session. So we're basically not getting ourselves into something before we have more information. So this is just for this year. Yes. >> So, um, this is coming out of House Bill Two, I guess, to be in compliance with

067that. >> Yes. >> And I guess this was more of a macro question for the soup. So, we're assuming that at some point in year number two, I guess they're phased out completely as far as what you can pay them. Do we have any U data that tells us, okay, we take an uncertified teacher, by this year, we expect them to be certified. By by this year, they're certified just like the rest of them. Do we have any of that data soup? Any programs data? >> Well, we try to have again I think we've had this discussion before three years getting married to somebody and that was part of our DOI plan too was we had proposed three years of probe when you came into Tyler ISD whether you were a tenure teacher or not.

068We compromised and I think got it down to two. Correct Mr. Jones? That is something that doesn't have any numbers attached to it. Fi financially, right? >> That is correct. >> Okay. Two years. So, we try to not get married to someone after that second year if we don't think that they're going to be able to do it. Now, there are exceptions to where we might give someone a third year probe. We handle this. We do the DOIs the same way. We want them to get certified by their third year. If they're not, they're typically not with us much longer, unless there's a caveat, unless they're performing. And we've got some, I think, that have actually scored on TIA. And you're you want us to run off someone who's growing kids just because they hadn't

069gotten certified yet? There's a balance there. Yeah. In five years, we're going to have to do something if the legislature doesn't have a better idea. Um, or if higher ed's not pumping out more certified teachers. So by the third year, we want them certified. If not, they're gone. >> So I guess what I'm asking for is not necessarily that. You've told me that. I think you've told me that repetitively. I want a number. And you don't have it today. >> I don't have it today. >> I want a number. I want to know we've got 100 uncertified teachers. And out of those hundred by year number two, 50 were certified. 32 left. 22 are still with us and they're doing great. and they're 80%. That's what I would like to see. >> Miss Taylor, Miss

070Taylor, when do you have your report? When do we give that? >> November. Okay. And we probably get you something before that. >> Okay. >> But we'll include that in the in the November report, too, because you'll see the strata on there on the the folks that we are DOIing and where they're at in their program or if they're out of state or if they're waiting on just to take the certification test. they've completed all the coursework and things like that as well. So, we can add that in there as well. >> Yeah. Now, that that's kind of what I'm wanting because we've got the legislature supposedly going to come and tell us at some point, hey, you've got to get to a certain percentage by this year. So, I'd like to get ahead of

071that. I'd like to say this is where we are, get a baseline, and then try to get ahead of that. So, that that's one thing on on that. And then the only other thing I had that I wanted to pull this was I wanted to look at the stipens. Uh, and the the stipen, this kind of goes back to the prior agenda item, but it is part of this one because it asks actually lists the siphons themselves. And I want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly. Again, I'm new to the board, but not new to a board. Um, if I'm looking at the stipen list for 25 through 26, it starts off with the extracurriculars. So, let's go in there and look at one and say, okay, so cheerleading sponsor varsity, that person gets

072or per sons gets a $4,500 stipen and that's a yearly stipen. >> Yes. >> Okay. And then we keep going on, you know, you go into the other the fine arts stipens and then you go into the bilingual stipens and got some special ed stuff. And I see some of these on the semianual. They're getting that twice a year, I'm assuming. So the $250 like campus translator, we get a $250 twice a year. >> Yes. >> I guess from a board level type of observation, and correct me if I'm wrong, looks like our big stipens are in extracurriculars. band director, drill team instructor, orchestra director, not in math. Are those harder to find jobs, soup, or is there a reasoning there on why we have bigger stipens in those areas? I mean, I think every

073school district has to look at what you want to provide stipens for, and yes, they are hard to find uh at times. Um, so you want to be competitive in things that you're offering that kids are associated with. And yes, sir, that those are some things that we do provide stoppins for. >> I would also say a lot of those that you're describing work very odd hours outside of the normal teacher day. I mean, they're having to travel on buses and don't get back home till late, sometimes 2, three in the morning. And um so I I think they do a lot of outside stuff that you know a regular teacher doesn't do. So >> Sure. >> Yes. I'll add to that all of these stipens for extracurricular don't get paid to hourly staff and

074so these are professionals that get paid their regular salary. So when they do get back at midnight they aren't getting anything extra other than this stipend. Isn't that just part of their salary? You sign up for high school choir director or head football coach. You know what's involved in that. >> That's a little different. Head football coach more like an administrator, >> right? But >> you're talking about an assistant coach. >> You sign up for the job. This is a job. You know it's going to be late hours and all that. Whereas, you know, when I taught, I taught and coaching was extra. So the stipen was four of those late nights. >> Correct. >> In addition to my teaching. But >> on some of these and some of I understand it is because of

075extra stuff, but you know, high school choir director, that's just the job. Why is it I guess why did we just pay the extra 6,000? >> I have an answer for that. >> Okay, >> so choir directors are going to be part of House Bill 2 was very specific on who got the raises. It was people that are in front of kids for more than 50% of the day. So, a math teacher and a choir teacher would both qualify for that. And so we have to put those teachers on the same pay grade in order to apply these legislative changes to their salaries appropriately. And so anytime they're doing something outside of the school day, we do that through stipens. So in theory, it would be great if we could do that to the salary,

076but then we would have to adopt probably a hundred different types of for pay. >> So I I get that. Again, my concern, not question, concern, whatever you want to label it, is we have certain core beliefs as toler. We have certain things that we say we're about successful student outcomes, but when a constituent asked me, "Why do you pay a $4,500 bonus stipen to your drill treatment instructor, but you're only paying your math or doctorate degreed person 1,500 or 4,000? How do I justify that? How do I explain that?" I think that that's a fair question to say if we really value education, our main job is to educate kids, then our money, our paychecks, our budget, you know, we can talk about values all we want to show me your budget. We're incentivizing

077people in areas in my opinion that we should not be. And I would submit to you that it is very hard to find math teachers, certified math teachers. And so I would like from a board perspective to look at that. What do we really value there? Is it extracurriculars? I'm fine with people who like football and stuff. I do too, but I'd rather have a good math teacher. I think on your stoppins that is part of the school experience, the student experience, the East Texas way. that's evaporating before us. So, y'all can give me some direction on that. I would be more than happy to take that direction and and serving at your pleasure. I can come up with a plan for that. But at the same time, I also know what this community uh

078wants for its students and it wants it to be involved in extracurricular activities. At least that's my understanding. If that's changed, I need to know and I can devise something different. Mr. Jones >> just wanted to to to point out that your um chair sponsor um unless they are teaching in a core area of six of eight or whatever the case may be, they are not eligible for a teacher incentive aotment. And we have opened up uh that door for a lot more of our um classroom teachers. So they're making a lot less than what our core curriculum teachers can make because they do have that a lotment. >> Absolutely. And like you said earlier that those uh people that uh do cheer drill uh the amount of time uh that they spend uh in

079the summer uh throughout the week and just putting up with the stuff uh is worth every penny that they receive for that. And that is a part of successful student outcomes if you ask me. Uh that um that we give those young people an opportunity to be a part of that particular organization and then have them out there to go and compete um and so that we are competitive um in uh our uh region uh whomever it is that we're competing against. So that's a part of it. It all goes together. >> And and are you still over cheerleading, Mr. Jones? Is that >> I I am indeed. Yes, sir. >> Yeah. You know, I think um also we we hired Marty and one of the things we told him to do was we want

080if we want to be great at everything. We don't pit one against the other. If you need more in a certain area, then let's figure out how to get more without taking away from some other program. So, we we'll lose students. We can't we got to be great at everything we do. Okay? So, I'm open to suggestions on helping areas that are lacking right now, but not at the expense of other programs that we're doing well. >> Yeah, I I totally agree with you, uh, Trusty Bergville. I I I have no intent of reducing those other ones. What I'm saying is we we've complained um year after year after year since I was on the board 12 years ago that we can't recruit bilingual employees. Not only can't we not recruit them, we can't grow

081our own, we can't hold on to them and and it makes us deficient in those subpopuls that we want to be proficient in. But we're paying them lower stipens than we do the other ones. a bilingual stipen is lower. So, I'm not pinning one against the other. It's it's a measure of where they are. That's all it is. It's we're paying this one more than the other one when we're complaining that the other one is harder to recruit, retain, or grow. And so, to me, naturally, intuitively, I would say pay them more. Let's pay them more. Let's get that up. Not taking from the other ones. Not saying that football or cheerleading or band or any of that is less important. I understand how that affects the kiddo in the classroom. If you have a

082child that's involved in athletics or any extracurricular, they are going to be a better child in that school because they have a reason to be involved. They got a pass number one to do it. So, I'm with you. I'm not proposing that. What I'm proposing is that we realign our thinking a little bit and saying, "Do we really have a problem recruiting bilingual, math, science, whatever teachers those are?" Yes. Okay. Let's pay them more on the stipen side. Let's let's really put that in our budget and in our checkbook. Let's show them that this is what we're serious about. >> Okay. I I I'm enjoying the discussion. And I think that we need to have a comprehensive workshop on how we're compensating our individuals including stipens and incentives. I think that the incentive program that

083we have, we are helping our teachers, the classroom teachers significantly if they are successful. uh stipens is a different category but I think it all goes hand in hand. I think we need to have a a complete understanding of how everything works together to make up that particular salary and I think that's where the the misunderstanding may be in some concepts. I you know personally I'm I'm I'm concerned about reading and math uh you know because we've done horrible uh at some grade levels and I can see stipens for that. We have incentive programs, but you know, we need to get those things up as well. So, I think we need to have a a comprehensive discussion regarding stipens and incentives and see what we can do to be creative to enhance those successful outcomes

084that we want. >> But all of those core teachers usually make more than a lot of these people on this stipen list, right? >> That's the point of the stipen is to at least give them something. So I I mean I don't know. So why would we give them a stipen when they're already making a really good salary for their 7:30 to4 job when we're looking for >> Well, I said I'm not comparing overall salaries. I'm not Lindsay. I understand what you're saying. You're saying uh a sponsor for this athletic abil uh uh deal makes considerably less than a math teacher and we're paying a math teacher stipen and we're trying to stipen the other. I I get you. I understand one's making more than the other. You guys know as well as I do.

085We go to all these trainings and and there are few levers that the board members have. There's a few levers. One of them is the budget. One of them is the budget. That's a big lever that we have as a school board. And if we are about successful student outcomes, I'd like to define that, but I think we ought to start putting our money where our mouth is on this and saying, "Let's look at it." I'm not saying throw out the old pay scale and bring in a whole new one. I'm not saying this one is flawed. I'm saying when I go out to my constituents and talk to some of your constituents, I'm sure they'd be willing to share it. And I and I tell them, hey, you know, we pay a diagnostician that's

086bilingual $2,000 more dollars as a stipen. That's great. You pay your band director $8,000 more dollars as a stipen. Where are your values? We're an education municipality. Extracurricular is just that, extra. I think if you really saw it on paper though, even though it says an $8,000 stipen, that bilingual teacher, I mean, I I don't I think it looks like they're just making so much more. And I don't really think that's the case. >> Yeah, that that's not my um interpretation of this. Probably it as a whole. >> Yeah, probably the the varsity cheerleader deal, she may make 50 or he may make 50 and the bilingual one makes 70. I I got you. I get you. But we're trying to get more math teachers, more bilingual teachers, more science teachers. That's what I'm saying.

087We want to get more of those. So, you got to incentivize it some way. We can't do it on the payroll. I mean, on the on the salary side, we've talked about that, but maybe this is an incentive place. I don't know. But I sure would like to have a robust, detailed conversation with the administration, maybe getting us the data on it. And if I'm missing the spot here, tell me. Madam President, >> go ahead. >> Uh, Mr. Jones, how are we doing on recruiting this year? How are we looking as far as the next school year? Are we full up, still openings? I mean, are we we filling our spots that we that we need to? >> We have our professional job fair. >> We're down to about 13 uh special ed uh openings

088uh right now. And we had the par profofessional job fair today. Great turnout. I heard uh the hubard crew that was there saying that uh their Wednesday is full of interviews to fill the remaining vacancies there. So I think we will be where we've been for the last couple of years uh at 100% staffed uh by the time we roll around uh 8:13. >> Good work. >> Anybody else? One last thing and I'm going to bring I'm going to beat this until I'm done. And I mean when I'm retired supply, we're talking about demand. Y'all, we are at a crisis and I know we we're man, we're going to go after grow your own. That's great. That's going to take a while to get there. There has been some neglect on the supply end of

089this thing. And I don't I don't want us to get away from the board dice without everybody shaking their head and saying that is true. And Tyler has had nothing to do with the supply issue. Nothing. It is a state of Texas thing. It is a is higher ed's gone all to the diploma mill for graduate degrees. Teacher production is what I'm trying to emphasize here. And I'm going to defend that. And I'm not going to make as an excuse. We need to do things to be as attractive as we can with whatever supplies available. But as we're heading towards this in five years of saying no more DOI, I'm going to ask this question. I'm going to pose this as rhetorical. Do y'all want 40 to 50 to 60 substitute teaching spots in the

090district and not a degreed person in those classrooms? >> No. >> I've already been there in this district. I've seen that. So, we we've all got to figure out a way to get get around this and compete. Uh, and and we will we will do so, Mr. Laya. Okay. >> Thank you, S. Great discussion. We all know teachers are underpaid. We all know that. And I worked for 38 years. I never got ESL stipen. I taught ESL, special ed, never got a special ed stipen. Reading, never got a reading stipen. And so, it's challenging and we need to do what we can do. and we might have to look into um retire rehire if we run short of teachers. So the the open it's open. It is open. And >> Mr. Jones, all those retired

091teachers that you've got in your trunk, >> unleash them. >> Let them out. Let them out. >> I might be on that. No, the legislature did the right thing. It actually allow allowed us to be able to >> negotiate those penalties on paying back because when you get out of TRS, when you retire and you get out of TRS, you that is something they want you to have to pay into. And so districts have been required to front all of that. That has been an issue and now it's negotiable. So that is something that will be coming uh for y'all to to contemplate. So I'm excited about that. Miss Atkins, you cannot teach if you're on the school board. >> Okay. >> Can't teach here, >> right? Anyway, I move the nomination for approving A

092and B. >> I move we approve A and B. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposing? >> Okay, let's move on. Do you want to pull anything from A through P? >> No, I'm I'm done pulling stuff. >> The curriculum instruction consent agenda. Anybody want to pull anything? I move we approve items A through P. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Anybody opposed? A through P has been approved. Moved and and approved. Let's go to superintendent staff report. >> Yes. A few legislative sessions ago, >> um, someone thought that the cooperative purchasing program in the state, these, uh, by boards and region service centers that allow competitive bidding, state competitive bidding, were making millions and gazillions of dollars. And so they put in law that each board has to get a report

093about cooperative purchasing fees. And on page 89 of your packet, if you're interested in those are those gazillions and trillions of dollars that that allow us to comp that are already competitively bid, state state competitively bid for resources and products. Now, what the public may not know is that y'all actually have a policy threshold of $100,000. $100,000 purchase needs to come in front of the board uh over that needs to come in front of the board for purchasing. anything under that we can actually buy off of these. Uh, one strategy would be to actually buy through a competitive purchasing program. So, on page I said 89. Is it blank? >> No. >> Oh, that's wrong page. Okay, there you go. So, there are your various fees. In fact, we have some partnerships and arrangements with

094that don't even charge us those fees. So, there's the list of those fees. I'm not going to read them to you, but um there they are down there on the various fees. Central Texas Purchasing Alliance is a $150 annual fee. Region 7 service center is a $5,400 fee. There's byboard from TASBY evil Tasby. $800 for purchase of buses to the use of back the the byboard contracts and the Texas comproller public accounts. So the comproller, he actually charges you a fee as well. He or she does. So, there's a $100 right there. So, there's the list of the fees. There's the superintendent report. Y'all are compliant uh compliant with receiving that. >> That's a great report. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Been doing >> FYI, you know who pays the fees. It's the people that's

095selling. >> The people that are selling it. That's right. Yep. Charge. >> You should know that, Mr. Leverage. I >> charge more when there's a co-op on it. >> There you go. >> Okay. Discussion. Local policy. FNC first reading, Mr. Johnson. And coming up to the microphone now, we've got director of the superintendent's office of constituent services, the longest title in the district, and that's Mr. John Johnson, along with deputy superintendent, chief of staff, Mr. Ron Jones. They're up here because uh they have discip discipline and the student code of conduct in their sphere of responsibilities. Gentlemen, do they present? >> President Atkins, trustees, Dr. Crawford, it is my pleasure uh to bring you this brief u overview of many of the changes that are part of uh the student code of conduct uh for

096this upcoming uh school year. And uh you have the full document uh before you uh for the first reading and we're just going to go over a few of the the highlights. I'm going to turn the the mic over to the uh the good deacon Dr. Reverend John Johnson here to let him uh get us started and I'll chime in as needed. Okay. Uh good evening board of trustees, madame president, uh Dr. Crawford. Um protocol having already been established uh we are here to discuss. Don't be asking. Don't be messing with me because I've been in the church. I could but uh but we are here to discuss student code of conduct and as you know uh we were waiting up until last week uh to get these updates and so they came in and

097and we jumped right on it of course. Um there are extensive changes but uh a few of them uh as you know of such as cell phones and and some of the other pieces have gotten a little more attention than others but uh just overall we've broken it down by house bills. I do want to caution you that uh because of the uh added text and moving of some of the some of the pieces that were sent to us, the page numbers will not line up right now. But as some of you know uh with the history of it, we'll have that all out and taken out by the time you do your second reading for approval. But I just wanted to uh mention that again for those who are not aware of that. But

098anyway, with the overview and overall purpose uh of this house bill, we wanted to start and start and show you uh here that it clarifies suspension length uh clearly defines the allowable duration of suspension to avoid. I will get on into those other pieces as we get through our uh additional uh changes and other miscellaneous updates that we're going to have. But also, we have the removal of uh the mandatory DAP placement for ecigarettes. Uh however, students that are found in possession are still attempting to sell tobacco products or do that, those placements will remain mandatory. Um, you'll also see that in there they have added uh wording to allow for 10day ISS placements, which like I said, I will get to the ISS portion shortly. Uh, but basically at this point before we won't

099move on right now, but uh, with the House Bill six, I'll just give you a quick overview of those pieces. House Bill 6 says that alter alternative assignment which deals with the actual alternative placement with sufficient documentation can be used uh in extenduating circumstances not used as a routine. uh for example out of school suspension which we already have implemented with 3-day limits uh that's staying the same but in in terms of ISS ISS now is limitless the only ruling is that you have to have a 10day review uh for academic and behavioral progress also uh Walsh Anderson also advises that we still make sure that we're adhering to special education 504 rules and law and art committee decisions. So that is a piece that is uh built in and in our current structure it's

100still good to point out that um as in previous years we are ahead of the game in some aspects and because we've been doing other steps. It makes some of these changes not as uh significant as they would be to a district who was not proactive uh towards discipline towards instruction and intervention at the same time. Um we've got the parental involvement uh statement uh that was chosen regarding adopting policy for parental involvement. We have stayed with our disciplinary process with placements that um outline the parents participation all the way from the disciplinary cons conferences that happen when when there is a proposed DAP placement and then it moves on into the parents abil ability to file an appeal if they do not agree uh with that placement and to be heard and go through

101the process. I'm sorry. >> Uh I'm almost ready for that next one. Just have one other thing here. Like we said, uh first time offense here under House Bill 6 with the nicotine delivery. Uh like I said, they can still go to DAP, but however, we will attempt that first at the first time. Uh and we're talking about not the ones that have THC. We're talking about regular uh tobacco product. And so we will be attempting to use the 10day ISS with those placements. Also before we move on to the next slide, harassment of school employees and volunteers. Uh the change from House Bill 6 now makes this offense a mandatory uh placement. Um assault against the school employee of volunteer. Uh revisions have been made because HB6 removed the mandatory expulsion requirement for retaliation

102against school employees and volunteers because it is founded mostly regardless of any motivation. it will still be found as a mandatory expulsion once it gets to that point. So, it was just a change in terminology. Now, we can go ahead and move. Uh this next one right here is very quick with Senate Bill uh 1569. Uh the short barrel firearm uh basically Senate Bill 1569 just removed it as a wording piece and so it has been added as the mandatory expulsion piece uh in there. We don't know why, but that's that was the instruction. So, >> we chose to present on it tonight. So, >> Yes, sir. >> I'm just saying. >> Oh, well, we did we we presented on it because it was actually listed as a change we had to make. So, we

103made it and so we're in compliance, but we listed it under the mandatory >> with school discipline and firearm. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Through. We don't we don't like that stuff. >> Yeah. So, we didn't, you know, we didn't we didn't we didn't play with it, but we did want to make sure let everybody know that we're in compliance and we did add it under mandatory explosion, which it would have hit that way. Anyway, uh here's the most exciting piece that I think everybody has been uh going on to House Bill 1481, which deals with the uh personal communication devices. And I'll let you quick >> just want to say the language uh that we are looking at is included in the packet on page uh 92. Uh that's the cell phone policy the language

104there. >> Okay. And we have that uh basically showing that with termin with uh technology it is from bail to bail opening bail of the school day device should be secured put away and backpack uh and then not dealt with again until after the final bail. First offense uh is a technology violation. Device will be confiscated and held. Uh parent pickup is required. Once again, that will start with $5, not a fee, but an assessment. Uh, second offense would be insubordination, and once again, device would be held with a $10 uh assessment. Third offense would once again be insubordination, moving to $15 uh dollars. And however, fourth and consecutive offenses could result in more severe disciplinary consequences as well as a device ban in general. Uh but there is a cap of $15 on the

105fee portion. Uh and so we would use the ISS and other things that the student code of conduct affords us if there's extreme non-compliance uh past that point. >> Acceptance right there. >> Yeah. And then then we have the uh exceptions uh listed uh certainly for those students who 504 and special ed and they have certain technology use such as apps and things that are ordered into their uh and added to their IEPs. >> Yeah. Uh and then you can go to >> Is this the time we talk about >> No, let's let's save that for >> Okay. Let's get through this and then let's go back and talk about the actual cell phone policy if y'all don't mind. Thank you. >> Yes. And so the final piece we have is the Senate Bill 326

106which deals with anti-semitism uh which requires district to use the definition of anti-semitism provided by the government code uh section 44801. And then he gives us those examples that are referenced uh with behavior that uh is indicative of hatred of Jews through physical and rhetorical uh acts as well. >> Thank you. >> Okay. All right. >> Are there any questions? >> This is the first reading of the student code of conduct. Correct. >> That is correct. And so this will have to actually come back in front of the board just like we do every year uh for a second reading and actual adoption for this 2526 school year. Uh y'all were given some of the bigger highlights, but the biggest one is obviously the cell phone bill that we'll talk about here in just a

107minute. Any questions for these two gentlemen? >> So you said at the closing bail, so school's out at 3:45. The phones can come out as soon as the bell rings at 3:45 or 4:00 >> as they are getting on the bus. Yes. Maybe not. >> Can they have them during zero hour? >> All right, we're going to transition over into the actual cell phone portion of this. Do y'all need to stay up there or No, >> they might need to. >> Yeah, why not? >> We don't mind. >> Dang it. I've talked more today than I have. >> Okay, >> you're the chief of staff. All right, let's go ahead and get started on this. Uh first of all uh little bit of a mayor culp on this. We did release this out uh before

108it got to y'all. We did we did uh under my direction I did tell them that we needed to get something out to parents because we felt like the sooner the better on this and there's some school districts that aren't going to be able to get this out to their people until right before school starts. At least it's out there in the public. My apologies for getting that out there before y'all ever had a chance to discuss it. Um, but here we are um talking about this. I'll just go ahead and introduce some of this. I do have concerns about it. It's going to take a pretty big mind shift um from from parents, from educators, and from students uh to get away from these little devices in our hands. Um there are some intricacies

109on this thing because of the way that the that the law was written. Uh that's going to cause some difficulties in implementation of this. when you talk about certain times you do need to communicate with students during the day um that we've be become accustomed to. Um and lastly before we actually get into the meat and bones of this thing uh if you're an administrator in 2002 or 2001 or at the turn of the at the turn of the last of this century raise your hand. >> Do you ever fight a parent physically because of a cell phone or be or almost get assaulted from one? I did a lot of running. >> Yeah. Same thing with a student. Even back then, it's been 25 years almost. And so, you're the way that the law

110is built, the way that the law is designed, while it has great intentions, and it is an issue that we need to contend with and deal with and improve uh especially for the learning outcomes. It is going to cause your middle management administrators on your campuses, your assistant principles and your principles some uh some some degree of difficulty that that has not been there. And um I'll just say this, there are some districts that I've talked to their superintendents, they're going to practice some civil disobedience on this. And I don't encourage that, but at the same time, the way that the law is written and what y'all are about to discuss, uh I don't know how much flexibility you're actually going to have in there, to be honest with you. Um, the other thing that

111I will say before you get into this discussion, we don't want kids to have to spend any more time in in school suspension or out of school suspension or DAP over stinking cell phones than needed. >> Yes, that is your alternative. It it there there's not a whole lot of alternatives on this. And so, if we put a number on this thing and we we just talked about it and that's what y'all are probably going to talk about. Uh I don't know what else you can do besides that because we do need a lot of help from the parents on this. There is a lot of parental engagement on this about them retrieving the cell phone back. Uh I do think that was different than that that in the early 2000s we could actually hand

112this the phone back to the kid right then after that assessment had been uh procured. But that's not what we're going to ask for. We're going to ask for parental involvement on this. And I do think that's a good start. So the policy is in front of you uh for your discussion. It's fnce local and uh we can have that discussion. I'll get it started. I I'm with you. I support the theory of what we're trying to do here. I do think it's interesting. We went from encouraging kids to have phones to be able to do the coursework to now we're trying to take them away from them. My own kids, I can tell you now that they're gone are totally distracted by their phones, even with two parents trying to do the best they

113can to redirect them or to challenge them in other ways. And so my concern is, you mentioned it. How do we not bog down our classrooms, our administrators to where this is all they're worrying about or trying to do is control cell phones because these kids are they're all addicted. I mean, all of them that I know pretty much. So, um I you know, that's tough. It is. But I I mean I appreciate y'all putting this together. I um I think it's something that needs to be addressed, but it may be a process. I mean I think it's going to be >> there's no other way about it. You're not going to be able to wean these kids off these phones in a real quick manner. And uh you know I I appreciate y'all. This

114is going to be a challenge. It really is. But um >> yeah. Madam President, go ahead, sir. >> And you know, along those lines, I know um as it's set up right now where they can have them in their backpacks, but off that u I really think that's probably the best option. I mean, we could take them at the door and put them in those lock bags. What are those called? Yanders or is that what >> I just call them pouches? I don't know what there's a few vendors. >> Yeah, a few different vendors. Um you know, and and you lock it up and you can't open that till you leave. I I I think y'all went with the least kind of restrictive policy uh that you can, but I agree at high school um

115not not only the administrators, the teachers, um is you got plenty of stuff to deal with if it's, you know, as a former high school teacher, if it was me, you know, you're teaching young adults and you either listen to me or do, you know, as long as you weren't disturbing anyone else. I wasn't the greatest teacher. I could hold my own. But you know, if you wanted to sleep in class, then that's fine. Just don't snore and bother anybody else. But same thing with the cell phone. But you know what? Teachers, you can only fight so many battles as a teacher. And and some of them fight battles better than others. Um, and and maybe with the uh the ease in the rules on on vaping, that'll they they can use that free time

116to deal with cell phones now with not having to send kids to DAP, write that paperwork. >> And so we'll have uh that. Um, just uh comment on the fines. I would like y'all to look into that with the changes in the law. They removed as as I understood and legal. You can correct me if I'm wrong. They withdrew that language that had the fee. So, we're talking about pennies. You know what what three pennies was like in 2005 or 98 whenever they start that is $5. $5 is different, too. They took that language out. Does that mean we can we can charge any fee? Um, or do we need to keep it under $15 or, you know, if we're trying to change behavior, um, do we need to look it up in those fees

117or can we even charge them? doesn't say you can't. There's not a thou shalt. And that's why we we get to this point in the legislature where you get bills that are written that are not that don't have the depth that's needed to give us the guidance. Sometimes there's rulemaking that needs to come out. So, it doesn't say you can't. Um, they did strike that at one time. There's there's red strike through red lettering in there. I don't know what the intentions were that they could start out that way or if they were trying to put it in there to say that you couldn't, but it's not in there right now. And I think whenever we talked about this as an administration is is that some districts I led off with this, some districts are

118going just with the inschool suspension, out of school suspension, DAP penalty p piece of this. ours is kind of more or less let's get back in the classroom. >> And so that's kind of where we landed on this unless we want to drag I mean we're going to drag the parent up there every time that it happens anyways and that's going to be fun. >> Has the agency uh released their model policy? No, everybody's swamped right now. Um, and including them on trying to to get information out for for this upcoming year and and and accountability release and all that all that stuff that's going on. So, I'm sure over time there's going to wind up being some uh rule making. I mean, you saw one thing about the the limitations on inschool suspension. When

119Mr. Jones and I were in Dallas. That was a local locally derived policy. You could be up there for three weeks, I believe. 21 days. >> Yeah, it was 20 21 days. >> 21 days. And then all of a sudden, a couple three years ago, you couldn't be in there for more than just an arbitrary rule made from the agency. Cut that down almost in half. Correct. >> That's correct. >> So, I think that you're going to wind up getting some of this stuff's going to wind up being fleshed out as it as as we go along and this will be one of them. >> Yeah. President >> um couple things on it and I echo uh some of the concerns and comments that Trusty Birdfeld made. I I'm a no for whatever that's worth

120on the amounts. I think we're going to create a difference in the ones that can pay it and move on just like a fine. Some some people can get pulled over by the cops and pay the fine and it doesn't mess with their day. Some people cry all day because it ruined their day. And I hope we can go to a less restrictive thing. I'm not saying totally get rid of it. Maybe the first offense there is no fine. Maybe it's, you know, let's talk about this. We'll give it back to you at the end of the day. Maybe the second offense there is a fine. But there we're going to create a class of people who can pay. Daddy's going to say, "Here's a checkbook. Pay as many fines as you want and we'll

121get your cell phone back." So that that's one thing. One comment I would say is let's try to be a little flexible there. try to be as least restrictive as possible. Um because this is already out there. The way this was rolled out there, now we're having to come back in and change what we've already rolled out. That's going to be even further confusing is we've already put this out there. It's not approved, but now we got to go in and educate people. It's, hey, that's not the final policy. This is the final policy. And I think it gives us an opportunity to to tweak it some. So that's one thing. Also, one question I had was, you know, this is only going to be released to a parent or legal guardian. Um, a lot

122of the times they're going to pick them up when they come get the kid from school, I would imagine, from a logistical purpose, right? You know, whoever picks up the kid is going to go in get the cell phone. Well, that person may not be the legal guardian, but they're probably the person on the list of people that can pick up the child, right? So, if there's some room there to say, okay, you know, legal guardian, mom or dad, or any person listed on their list of approved people to come pick them up, I I think we might do that on a cell phone. Obviously, if I'm on somebody's list, I come pick up my goddaughter Camila and I get her cell phone for her. Let's say I'm not a trustee. I don't want to

123do that as a trustee. I'm not going to be released records on Camila. I'm not on her HIPPA. So, uh or her student form. So, that's another area I want to talk about it that I've read through the actual law that's putting this in place. And Soup is right. There's nothing in there that prohibits us from charging or not charging. So, I guess it goes back to home rule stuff. We can if we want to, but again, that's going to create two different classes of people that can afford and not afford. And it's also going to if we don't use that option, if we do not give them a chance to pay the nominal fee, a dollar, $5, whatever that is, we're going to have a in my opinion a rise in DAP placements or

124ISS placements or they're going to be missing instructional time over a cell phone. And so we've got to flesh that out a little bit before we do that. I I um I wish we'd have had a little further ahead of us because now we're having to fix this and go back to the public with it. But those are my initial thoughts. >> Madam Chair, uh in regards to the policy, I think it's well written. I I do love the parental involvement. I I think that that's the only way we're going to make a difference in that home with the cell phones is having the parents come and be involved in picking it up. Uh I I like that component. As far as the cost, the fine associated with it, you know, it's not a whole

125lot. I think we spend money on what we want to and I think that they bought the cell phone, so they pay the fee if they want them to keep having it. So, I don't have a problem with the fee associated with it. I I think that the biggest thing is making an impact with the parents that it's their responsibility to talk to their child about the use of the cell phone during school hours. And I think that that's the essential point that we're trying to make. I think that's probably the point that the state was possibly trying to make uh when they imposed this on us. But uh that that's going to be the thing that make the difference. Uh the fee I don't think is going to be a big issue. I really

126don't. I think that they will if they want it and uh so uh I I I support the policy. We have to implement something and I I support what we have. >> I go >> no >> um I am really excited about this. I've talked about this for a long time. I um do understand the uh challenge that this is going to bring to all the admin and the teachers and I just encourage everybody to stick with it and just push through because I think after a couple months the kids are going to get used to it. You know, we're not the only state that has done this. And if you go look at other states that have done this, and you read their data, and you see what these kids are publicly saying about

127how nice it is that they don't have their phones, it really truly brings it back to the core of what we're about with our education and trying to get an education from these kids instead of keeping up our snap streak, tick- tocking with the teachers in the classroom. I mean, it is I I have a He will be a junior in high school and he is about to murder me for saying all this, but I literally want to throw them in the trash and I I wish he wouldn't even take it and put it in his backpack. But, um I I really truly just encourage the teachers and the admin just to stick with it and just, you know, >> it's classic >> in case. >> Golly, it's time to put the trash out. Um,

128anyways, I I really do think the outcome of this is is going to outweigh the the challenge that it's going to bring in the very beginning. And and I know this is it's going to be hard. Parents are going to get upset and I regard with the fines and everything. I that y'all y'all work with these children all the time. Y'all y'all deal with parents. I I trust y'all on what y'all think is is best. Um but um I just I'm actually excited for what this could possibly bring for our kids. >> And it's not and it's not going to be perfect. >> No, >> we no matter what you tweak or change or whatever, it's not going to be perfect. We all know that. And so I agree. I support it and that we

129need to do something. Let's just dig in and see how it works. And you know, we'll learn to adjust as we all go. But nobody nobody knows what the reaction's going to be. >> Madam President. >> Yes. I >> I would also like to say one thing when we when I looked at this initially and I agree totally with what Lindsay is saying and I still say the the the feed thing I'm not on board with. But I looked through the employee handbook. Okay. We're expecting certain things of children, right? We're expecting them to put the phones away. Okay. I look through the employee handbook. This one little paragraph, unless I'm missing something, this one little paragraph addresses what employees should do with cellular telephone use. It's literally five sentences. But we got three pages

130telling our kiddos what to do with those. I think we need to lead by example on some of this. You know, I I have no problem when executives come up here and they're presenting and we're talking and they're on their cell phone or they're on their computer. Doesn't bother me one bit. They're working on something. When they're up here talking to us, they're totally tuned into us. But if we're going to expect this from our children, we need to model that behavior in the classroom. Whether it be the instructor upfront or the principal or the administrator, we need to model that behavior because the the feedback I'm getting besides the fact that this was already out there and I had limited information on it is well, the teachers up front doing the same thing. the

131teachers up front scrolling through whatever. So that's a different discussion maybe, but it's something that's tied into this. I don't think it's out of bounds to say, "Hey, if I expect Eleno number four to speak a certain way, I ought to watch those words in my vocabulary as well." >> And uh and and it's a shame that we do that to educators. They are not students. It says students there. Yeah. if they're doing that, they should be penalized or they should get in trouble. But to say an adult to I'm going to my job, you have a cell phone on your job and if I come in there, you have a cell phone. So, we keep teach treating teachers like they're children. They are not children. Now, if they do something out of whack or

132they shouldn't be in the front of the classroom doing that, but just to say you can't have a cell phone on your job, I'm employed. I'm not a student. And we keep acting like teachers are students and they're not. And that's what I don't like. Yeah, I I think you missed me on that one. I'm not saying this policy should apply to teachers. I'm saying teachers should model the behavior that they want of the child. And that's what I'm saying. And I expect that from any adult, not just a teacher. If I want kids to be off their phone, I should be off my phone. >> And every teacher's not doing that. Like every student's not doing that. So, but to society keeps saying that the teachers, that's all you heard. Well, what are the

133teachers going to do? What are the teachers going to do? They gonna do their job. >> I I think that that becomes a campus concern. The principal is responsible for the teachers. If the principal is monitoring everything adequately, that can be taken care of as well by addressing it appropriately. So, I think that that's something that is beyond the policy that we're talking about at this point. the teacher, the principles are responsible for that in all regards in regards to any teacher that they have on their campus. So that goes without saying. So if that student knows that teacher is having a problem, she maybe should talk to the principal, he or she should talk to the principal. So it can be addressed officially, but it shouldn't be a policy associated with that. That's a

134matter of conduct within the classroom. >> We have a policy of that. Uh, Trustee N, we we have in our right >> in our handbook, we have a policy about cell phone use for all employees, teachers included. So, there is a policy, okay? >> And I'm not saying we add this one to them, but we need to model behavior. We need to be conscious of what we're doing. And by us, I mean everybody. >> Teachers certainly don't need to be doing Tik Toks in their classrooms. If if kids are doing Tik Toks or at school to do it, >> Yeah. Teachers should not be doing Tik Toks at school. >> Period. >> Uh, no. >> Let me repeat that. At any time of the day, there should not be a Tik Tok that has any

135semblance of a facil being done at a facility of Tyler ISD. So there there's a there is a there's a statement for you right there, Mr. Lasa. So So they should not be doing that. I would hope that teachers aren't bullying each other like kids do with these devices. So yeah, there's no doubt that we we don't need to be on our phones looking at YouTube videos that give us a giggle or scrolling through Tik Tok through through the day even during our off period. We should be working on the work. That's what you're trying to say and I appreciate that. That's exactly right. We should be modeling it appropriately. I do have some concerns about let me hit the adult side of this first. Some of our emergency signaling comes through a device. Uh

136some things where you can't take a phone call or or it's not appropriate to be on your phone if you're observing a classroom may come via device. Um, so there's going to have to be some things fleshed out with the adults and what the expectations are on that reinforced. There's no doubt about it. We hear you loud and clear. We don't need to be doing things that are juvenile if we're the adults, but there's going to be some things that we need to to talk about. I keep saying we need to go back to the 1980s, but things are different than the 1980s. There are some certain things that we don't that we have to worry about now. is there. Let me look let me hit it from the from the kids' point of view

137and even from our staff as far as communicating. What about dual credit an early college high school with some of the online learning things that there are that require dual authentication to log on to. >> Yeah, that's a good point. >> These are just some things that just kind of popped up into my head. Extracurricular activities. Let's say you're a softball player and and so you don't disrupt the entire campus to Mr. Jones and I Hillrest High School back in the day used to get chewed out by our faculty because we were coming on saying bus 32 is now going to be bus 45. Remember that those days? >> I do. >> Or the softball game, the the team's not going to leave now till five o'clock. You were supposed to leave at 4. Now,

138that's handled through apps and it's very effective that way. >> I'm worried about that. Speaking of transportation, we're going to eventually get to the point to where we can communicate which bus is late. We've got some apps that are out there right now that kids look at along with their parents and coordinate that way as well. What about watches? I mean, that's almost banned through here. So, if someone's got an an Apple Watch, yes, it could text message off of that. I don't text message off my Apple Watch, but I use it for other things like health data, but I'm still going to wear it. Does that mean if it's not put away in my backpack? That is something that we have to discipline. That's just a concern that I have. um along with other

139dis districts issued devices, they're going to find ways to communicate with each other inside the district issued devices that we're that we're that we're using. I mean, I've already been given the strategy on that in my own house. Going down. >> So, those are some things we're going to have to really work on that this sudden shift needs to be one to where we adopt it and it becomes part of our culture. And so I don't I don't think overnight we're going to be sitting here thinking that it's just going to be a straight running cut off. We'll go back and look at the fees. I've had some thoughts just as we've been talking here. I still think they need to have some assessments in there. Um maybe not as draconian up front right away.

140Maybe we can delay them a little bit towards the back. I don't know. We'll talk about it um so that we can get there. My dad's even calling me wanting to talk to me about cell phones apparently, man. Um, so I those are some things that we'll try to flesh out between now and the second reading uh because we were not allowed to devise this local policy locally because of the constraints that we have in there. I'll be honest with you, we first talked about at least at the high school level, I mean, the middle schools are pretty much there. Correct. I mean, I know that they're already charging $15 for a penalty. Is that correct? >> Yeah. All of our our all of our middle schools charged $15 this year for collected cell phones.

141Uh and they all had the same practice of uh out of out of sight. When you're on when you walk on campus, you it goes in your backpack, it goes off in your backpack. >> Now, fidelity between the four middle schools, >> can I just say and my daughter's at one of those middle schools and she never ever ever texted me or used her phone the whole time. >> Yeah. >> Never. If she needed me that bad, she went to the office and used the office phone. >> Yeah. That that is one thing. Every one of our classrooms do have phones in their classrooms. Thank you voters. Thank you taxpayers for providing that for us. Uh that's a security thing for us as well that that our parents can use. Um I mean that our

142teachers can use at their discretion if a kid needs to call someone. So that's kind of old school. I'm glad to see that. So we'll we'll we'll kind of go through some of this stuff as as we're going going forward between now and the next reading. Um it was a healthy discussion. Is there anything else y'all would like us to take a look at on that specifically other than what you talked about? >> Just a journey. >> I I'd just really like to see what you come back with on like the multifactor um authentication stuff because we use that so much in everyday work when you're logging in that I'm almost like you can't have a computer and not have a cell phone. So, what kind of workarounds are you going to find there? We

143need to talk about that. And I'll go back to this. We were going to talk about at the high schools a a gap in there during lunch. Not so that they could get their fix on. Um, which is what it is sometimes. sometimes. But when I go back to checking whether or not a coach has sent me a reminder in sport that our game time has changed, >> I've got to we've got to figure out how we're going to get those things. If we're not going to do this, we've got to get how we're going to get those commun. And for the parents that are out there watching, did you know that each one of your ch your children have a districtsued email? So, can't those sports shoes be attached that way? >> I'm going

144to go look at that. Okay. Yes, ma'am. I I I Yeah. >> And And you know what? That's a It's a good way to document those conversations in case they are inappropriate. So, I mean, I'm not not just on coaches to to staff, but I'm talking about between >> between students as well. They're going to use our district email system, Chief Wsworth and Agent Mills Seagel to bully each other. That's a little bit easier to chase than trying to get get a hold of Apple or somebody, right? So, um, let give us some time to do that. We'll have something ready for you to answer some of those questions about the dual factor authentication or whatever it's called. Um, and then the communication with extracurricular activities, transportation, all that goofy stuff that I just brought

145up. >> I have two quick things. One is just a reminder that the reason we're talking about this is because the state law passed a law that says that we had have to do this, right? And so they didn't pass a law that >> we have to do anything with teachers on their cell phones for one. Um, but the other thing is just from a practical standpoint, I really really appreciate um setting the tone in middle school because I feel like it's going to be easier as those kids now get older. The hard part is going to be um with the kids in high school now and then um working through some of the issues that you have there. So um you know, whatever we can do to provide some flexibility with those things would

146be great. But I 100% agree with everything Lindsay said. Um, and you know, my kid has had a job this summer and he can't text while he's working. So, it's, you know, it's really great and that's how it should be at school, too. So, appreciate the hard work on that. >> Okay. Any more questions? >> Madam President, >> well, you forgot about the legislative update. >> Legislative update. We we've talked enough about stuff from the legislature. >> Future business. Okay. >> July 31st, summer school graduation board workshop August 7th. School is cool. August 7th. First day of school for students is August 13th and regular meeting will be August 25th. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I oppose. Meeting a charm.