Ysleta ISD Board of Trustees Board Meeting 5/14/25

001Good evening and welcome to the Isleta Independent School District's meeting of the board of trustees. The board invites public comment during that that designated portion of the meeting. Notice of the meeting provided instructions on public sign up and the rules for participation. Leg legally the board may listen but may not enter into a discussion on any issue raised during public comment. This meeting of the board of trustees is called to order at 6:01 p.m. We have a quorum with Shane Hagerty, Chris Hernandez, Charlie Bustillos, Mike Dwire, Connie Woodruff, Katherine Lucetto, and myself, Kruo Chaw. Secretary Lucetto, would you please introduce the JOTC this evening evening? Thank you. It has become a tradition to honor our nation at each of our board meetings by presenting the colors, reciting the pledge of allegiance, and then posting the

002colors. The colors tonight are being presented by the junior ROC color guard from the VV High School. The color guard commander is Cadet Major Oscar Escoar. The other color guard members are Cadet Command Sergeant Nathan Morales, Cadet Staff Sergeant Dylan Escobar, Cadet Sergeant Firstclass Andrew Madrid. The pledge leader is Cadet Colonel Leslie Sombrano. Will you please stand for the presentation of the colors, the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance, the Texas Pledge of Allegiance, and a moment of silence. Please remain standing until the cadets have departed. Thank you. All right, arch and others. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

003Now, please join me for the Pledge of Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas. One state under God, one indivisible. Please join me for a moment of silence. Thank you. Host others and art. A heart ace right ace over arch. All right. All right. All right. [snorts] [applause] On March 19, 2025, the Isleta Independent School District Board of Trustees cancelled its May 3rd, 2025 election for its single member member districts number one, number three, number five, and number seven. As a result of all candidates running unopposed, accordingly, all unopposed candidates are hereby declared duly elected and will now be called to the podium to be sworn in. Good evening, President OA, members of the board, esteemed guests. We ask that each trustee please wait at your seat until you are

004called to be sworn in. Then you may return back to your seat until the recess for your photographs. We'll begin by inviting District 3 trustee Shane Hagerty down before uh our guest and invite Justice of the Peace Brian Hagerty to join us for the swearing in ceremony. You forgot to invite him. Judge Sango, will you do the honors? He's not here. He didn't invite him. Well, thank you. Before I I begin, I'd like to take advantage of I'm your El Paso County Judge, Ricardo Sango, and I just want to let you know that uh you have an incredible board. Uh you have an incredible superintendent. Uh he's so good. He goes to some of the Jefferson events and obviously that means a lot to me and and you'll understand why. But also I just we

005are going through some very very difficult times and uh the education is being challenged as some other things have been challenged. Uh but I just feel very comfortable that you've got a board that is capable of dealing with those challenges. You know education has become very important and I have a front row seat to what happens when we don't do things properly and we don't get our our young people educated. uh when you go into if we go into the criminal justice system, uh there's a couple of factors of uh low unemployment, low housing, and a low level of education. The chances are that they will be going into our criminal justice system. So I know all of you know that that education is very important but I also feel that this is an opportunity

006for the community to come together and support your boards be there for them. They too need motivation a lot of challenges they volunteer they don't get paid and they have to do tremendous amount of things for the community and so this is El Paso is very unique. It's extremely extremely unique and we come together and we rally and we make things better. Whether it was the pandemic, the way we handled it, whether the Walmart shooting and how it was handled, uh the immigration situation, how we handle it. So, this is a very unique community, but I'm just asking you because I know, as I said, I have a front row seat of what the boards are going to have to go through and whatever support you can give them to be able to focus on

007their vision, try to get that vision taken care of. And I know we're going to have such a more better community if we do that. So, I thank you with all my heart because I, like I said, there's a lot of things I get to see that others don't. And right now boards uh you know are going to be very important in making sure that we continue the right traction of education and especially for all these young people that are here today. Uh there's some that are coming behind them that really need and and to the children and or the young adults. I know you went through very difficult times because of the pandemic and you're still part of that situation. Uh you were, you know, sheltered. you have to go through very difficult times.

008I'm extremely proud of you that you're able to now be in a situation that you can continue your education and go into different uh levels of education at your choice. Uh but you're in a really good position. Isa really gets you prepared and I know you're going to make a huge contribution to our community. Thank you very much. [applause] So, I have the privilege, raise your right hand. Yes. I state your name. I, Shane Hagerty, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of the Isla Board of Trustees, District 3. The Isllet Board of Trustees, District 3. the state of Texas. State of Texas. And will to the best of my ability preserve I will to the best of my ability preserve protect and defend the Constitution and laws of

009the United States of this state and laws of the United States and this state. So help me God. Go Matadors. Thank you. Congratulations. [applause] It's my honor to invite uh District 1 representative Trustee Carlos Bustillos to be sworn in by the Honorable Judge Ricardo Sango. [applause] Thank you. Raise your right hand. I state your name. I, Carlos J. do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of Isla Board of Trustees of Isa Board of Trustees District 1 district one the state of Texas and will do the best of my ability to preserve protect and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this state and of state. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations. Go Rangers. [applause] I invite from District 7, Miss Katherine R.

010Lucero, who will be sworn in by Judge Ricardo Sango. [applause] Prior to get sworn in, I would like to invite um my strongest supporters, Christina and Haley and Maria and Dante to the podium because without them, I wouldn't be standing here today. So, I want to take the honor with you, please. So, come here with me. Maria, you too. [applause] I don't where mine is. Thank you. I just got chills. Okay, raise your right hand. I Who else? Who else? We got somebody else. Yes. Okay. [snorts] I feel like the price is right. Come on down. [snorts] Thank you. Ready? Yes, sir. Okay. I state your name. I, Katherine Rose Lucero, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of Isla Board of Trustees District 7 the state of Texas

011and will to the best of my ability preserve protect and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this state. So help you God. So help me God. Congratulations. Thank you. [applause] Okay. At this time, it is my pleasure to introduce and invite from district 5, Cruz A. Ooa, Jr. to be sworn in by Judge Ricardo Samgo. [applause] I'm thinking if we could change it when I say state your name. I a fellow fox. [laughter] Everybody knows where everybody knows that I'm a fox. I mean from Jeff. [laughter] Amazing fruit. Okay, raise your right hand. I state your name. I, Cruz A. Ooah Jr. do solemnly swear Do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of Isla Board of Trustees of Isleta Board of Trustees District 5

012district five the state of Texas and will will to the best of my ability will to the best of my ability preserve protect protect and defend the constitution the constit Constitution and laws of the United States and of this state. So help me God. Congratulations. Thank you. [applause] Thank you very much, Judge Sango. Thank Thank you, Judge Sango, for doing us the honors of stirring us in. It's always a pleasure to have you here. Uh, at this time, uh, I would like to allow the trustees to say a few words before we go into a a small recess. So, let's start with Mr. Hagerty. Thank you, sir. I just want to thank my community for continuing to support me and uh allowing me to to work with an amazing organization with an amazing group of

013people and uh and the best team of eight definitely this side of I guess is just the best team of eight period. I can't think of a a better team that that um I could work with. If I went and I chose my own team members, it wouldn't be as good as what we have here, I think. And I think that's reflected in everything that they do. We get to stand up here and look good. It's the administration. It's the teachers. It's the nurses, the custodians, the bus drivers, the TAs, everybody who meets our kids at 6:00 in the morning, drops them off at 4 or 5:00 at night. They're the heart of each letter. They're the ones that make us look good. We just get to stand here and take the credit. Um, definitely

014want to thank my my boys, [clears throat] my wife Rachel, my mom and my sister out there in the crowd, and uh, everybody who's who supported me along the way. I know I've learned a lot, and um, just can't wait to start another four years and see what we can do to make you even better. So, thank you, [applause] Mr. Bust. Thank you. You know, as you're getting ready, I was talking to my wife and I was like, you know what, third term, you feel like this is easy. It's it's going to it's going to be easy. It's it's okay. But, you know, you think back and you look at what you've done these eight years working with the people that you've worked with, you know, the chiefs, teachers, administration, YSD, and you care so

015much. You want to be you want to make them proud of you. Proud of what we do up here. We all work so hard up here. You guys work hard. So with that said, you go you go through life with one simple hope to make your parents proud. That's where it starts. That's who raised you. That's who shaped you. Who stood in your corner when no one else did. Thank you. [applause] You fall in love. You fall in love and something shifts. You get married and you want to make your spouse proud too to be that partner she deserves to be the rock that she can count on. [clears throat] Then you become a parent and suddenly you wake up each morning with a new mission. making your parents proud, making your partner proud, and

016now making your children proud because they're watching. They learn from not what you say, but from who who you are and what you do. And then one day, you're called. You're called as a coach, a mentor, and in my case, also a trustee to serve the Riverside area. Now, you wake up with a deeper responsibility. You make every child you coach proud. every family that has supported you proud because they trust you with the well-being of their children and that means something. It's simp. It's a simple concept wanting to make people you love proud. But life gets messy. There's setbacks. There's struggles. There's doubts. It's not always clear if you're doing it right. But you keep showing up. You keep fighting to be that person because in your heart you still just to walk into

017a room just like this one and know that someone here is proud of you. And that's why I stand here today. Not because I'm perfect, but because I never stopped trying to live the life that would make my family proud, my community proud, and maybe, just maybe, will make YSD and everybody proud. Thank you, [applause] Miss Lucero. That's a hard act to follow and and that's Thank you, Trusty Gustillos, because you you always speak from the heart and your actions are from the heart. It's it's an honor to serve with you and and all the members of this board. Um I feel you told your story and as you were telling your stories, looking into the audience, I mean, we've been here about eight years together and I look into the audience and I see

018I see Miss Arinda Valencia. I see people. I see principles and teachers who in one way or another we've interacted. I see support staff. I see students. I see my children who have gone through the YSD system and my baby Haley who's going to graduate this year. And I see I see people who are at this together. We we've all been on this journey and sharing the story of serving uh the best that we can u for for the community members in all of our districts. The decisions we make are never sole decisions. We share those decisions and we make them as a board. We make them as a team and we do our best to do it in the best interest of everybody that is going to be affected. And so it's it I

019can say it's an honor to serve, but it's even deeper than an honor. It's it it goes down to my heart, to my soul to be able to sit here and make decisions for this community that I love very much and has entrusted me continually to be able to continue to do that. Thank you. [applause] So, this is my I'm just finishing up my eighth year and I have four more years to go. God willing. Um I started really like a novice at this job. I really didn't understand the duties and responsibilities of being a board of trustees. It is a big responsibility. Let me tell you, we met so many challenges as Judge Sango pointed out. We had the COVID, we had the Walmart shooting, we had um um online learning, everything else that

020this board had to cope with. And we were together in all our decisions to to weather that and uh come out of those um challenges um a little bit better. I hope our schools are so important to all of us. my children that are sitting there in front are my grandchildren now. Um they go to our Isla schools as well and uh I have a very big vested interest to what happens through our schools. I have been very blessed to work with such wonderful people up here that have one agenda and one agenda alone is to make things better for our kids. make sure that they get the best education we can give them and provide the best environment and the best schools and the best teachers which I think we do have the best

021teachers and um it's just uh it's just amazing that over eight years that we have just you know we do our business we never even think about what's how long we've been here and all of a sudden we've been here eight years and uh look forward to the next four years but I also got to mention that I came from LA Jeff here in El Paso. I have a lot of my a lot of my friends that I graduated with and I went to school with and Judge Samo was one of my fellow classmates. We graduated way back when. And I won't say what year because that'll give away my age, but but it's just so amazing that all of you have some ties to El Paso that makes it so important for our children

022to be successful. No matter what school they go to, no matter what district they go to, it is El Paso. And that is what here and Dr. Lator and I have always talked about is that we support not only Isleta ISD, but we support every child that goes to any school in our in our city. So, I want to thank the community for giving me the opportunities to serve you another four more years and I look forward to working together with my colleagues. And uh it's going to be tough, but uh we'll we'll survive. We'll survive thanks to you and your support. and um thank you for being here tonight. [applause] So, at this time, I'd like to take a 20-minut break so some of our family members, some of our friends and colleagues can

023come up here and take pictures with us and then uh we'll resume here with our regular board meeting in 20 minutes. Thank you. We will resume our board meeting as scheduled. Uh thank you for your patience. It was uh as a very special occasion for all of us to get our pictures with our family and everything. it it's and all of you that here that support the school board and um I just want to say thank you. At this time um we will now elect board officers and the newly elected board officers will take their position at the next uh meeting of the board. The president will appoint the parliamentarian during the next regular meeting in June. In accordance with the board operating procedures, the following trustees have expressed interest in serving one or more

024officer positions as follows. Charlie Billos for president, Mike Dwire for vice president, and Connie Woodruff for secretary. Chris Hernandez expressed interest in parliamentarian position which is an appointed position to be filled by the board president in June. Is there any discussion on this item or other nominations? Miss Lucero. Thank you. Um, President, um, Acho, as we go into this, we've heard earlier that, um, I feel very seasoned now. like I I was I was wasn't quite ready and now I feel like a old seasoned piece of meat but in a positive way because we've got to serve with these board members and we've we've done all kinds of different um we've we've gone through different things as a board and made really hard decisions and through that and I I'll have you guys know that

025um President OA does not like chicken but anyhow through that that's why he's the example of chicken so him. But anyways, through that um President OA has led with um at times an iron fist, at times gentleness, grace, and kindness. Um through every single challenge that we've been through, he has made sure to be the steady in the storm. And I just want to honor you for your years of service, for how you've led this team, for for what it's for the support of your family and your community to be able to give you that space to lead the way you have. You you really have made it it um I I the trust in you is immense and I have nothing but respect for you and I want to thank you for your leadership.

026Thank you, Miss Lucero. It it goes both ways. I think being president for the last six years has been challenging, but it's not something I do by myself. It takes all of us to work together with the superintendent and the staff and the teachers and everybody else and of course our community out there because we're all, like I said, we all have a vested interest in our children. And uh those were some very kind words that you said and I look forward to the next four years and supporting our new officers whoever they may be. But uh we will continue on the same path and keep Isleta number one not only in El Paso but in Texas. Thank you. Anybody else? Do you have a a question? Is it are we allowed can we nominate

027here at the DAS? Yeah, I would I would like to nominate um Trusty Bust as board president of the East Independent School District Board. Okay. He he submitted his name already so that's fine. Thank you. You've been nominated. And any other comments? If not, we have Mr. Charlie Bustillos for president, Mike Dwire for vice president, Connie Woodruff for secretary. I move to elect the following as board officers. Charlie Bustios as president, Mike Dwire as vice president, and Connie Woodruff as secretary. Do I have a second? Second. We have a second by Miss Katherine Lucero. Um, this will be um a vote here at the dis. Trustee Hagerty, how do you vote? I. Trusty Hernandez, how do you vote? I. Trusty Bust, how do you vote? I. Trusty Dwire, how do you vote? I. Trusty Lucero,

028how do you vote? I. Trusty Woodruff, how do you vote? I. and I vote I. The motion passes 7 to zero. Congratulations to our new B board officers, uh, President Charlie Bust, Vice President Mike Drier, and Kylie Woodruff for secretary. [applause] [applause] Okay, at this time we're going to have a special meeting of the YSD public facility corporation PFC. I call the YSD public facility corporation board of directors to order with the following directors present. We have a quorum with Shane Hagerty, Chris Hernandez, Charlie Bustillos, Mike Dwire, Connie Woodruff, Katherine Lucetto, and myself Kru Choa. Elect officers for the YSD public facility corporation board of trustees. Is there any discussion? If no further discussion, may I have a motion? Miss Woodruff. Mr. President, I move to approve as elected officers of the public facility corporation

029board the same persons elected to serve as officers of the board of trustees of Isleta Independent School District. We have a second by Miss Lucetto. Please cast your votes. All votes get have been cast. The results are seven in favor, none opposed. If there's no further discussion, I adjourn the um the PFC meeting and reconvene the workshop and regular meeting of the board of trustees. Dr. Lato, do we have recognitions and introductions this evening? Good evening, President OA, members of the board, esteemed guests. We have several uh introductions and recognitions tonight. At this time, I'd like to turn the program over to Miss Bobby Russell Garcia. Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board, Superintendent Dr. Deator. We have nine recognitions this evening. At this time, we ask all trustees to please come to the

030front of the DAS. Audience members, please remain seated until all recognitions are complete. Thank you. Our first recognition tonight is our superintendence award which is being given to three students from Bair and Eastwood high schools for outstanding community service as youth golf coaches with first te of El Paso. First TE is a national nonprofit that builds character in young people through the game of golf, teaching values like respect and patience along the way. These students have been part of the first TE for 10 years. And now as high school seniors, they're giving back by serving as coaches, all while balancing school work and their senior year responsibilities. Tonight, we proudly present them with the Superintendence Award for their servant leadership, congratulate them on their graduation, and wish them continued success in the journey ahead. Ladies

031and gentlemen, please help me welcome from Bair High School, Ariana Espinosa and Armando Yanes. [applause] And from Eastwood High School, please welcome Faith Hendren. [applause] They are accompanied by first T of El Paso executive director Christa Alers and program manager and coach Jason Cadenna. [applause] Let's hear it again for these outstanding students. Our second recognition honors three students from the Young Women's Leadership Academy who captured first place at the El Paso History Day tournament, qualifying them for Texas History Day tournament in Austin last month. These tournaments engaged hundreds of Texas students to conduct original research on historical topics of interest under this year's theme, rights and responsibilities in history. Congratulations to these outstanding students. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome our El Paso History Day first place winners from the Young Women's Leadership Academy,

032Shannon Close, [applause] Amaya Espino, and Jen Song. [applause] They are accompanied by teacher Lucia Bautter and assistant principal Roelio Ooa. Let's hear for the Transformers. [applause] Next, we are proud to recognize Isleta High School senior Enrique Ira, who earned first place for the second year in a row at the regional competition of Texas Citizen B. This rigorous contest challenges students on American Historical Figures, political science, court cases, current events, and more. Enrique's first place finish qualified him for last month's state competition, where he placed eighth overall. Congratulations to Enrique on another impressive run. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a big round of applause to our region 19 citizen B winner from Misleta High School, Enrique I. [applause] He is accompanied by teacher Nancy Kaine and principal Amelia Garcia. [applause] Sorry. Sorry. Let's hear it again

033for the Indians. [applause] Our next celebration c our next recognition celebrates numerous students whose artwork excelled far beyond their peers at the regional and state contest of the high school visual arts scholastic event or vase. Not only did these students earn the best ratings at regionals, but at the state competition, 10 were named all state artists after earning an exemplary rating of four. Additionally, these additionally, two students, Isa High School's Tristan Diaz and Eastwood High School, Sophia Gonzalez Romero, won the coveted gold seal, the highest honor in the state. Tristan and Sophia were o were were the only students in region 19 to win a gold seal in 2025. What an amazing accomplishment. Ladies and gentlemen, let's begin with our vase winners from Beller High School. Please welcome All State artist Carlos Alaron, [applause] Zoe

034Martinez, [applause] Alandrea. [applause] They are accompanied by teachers Alejandra Ortega, Ilsa Anhill, and principal Jake Valtier. [applause] Thank you. Congratulations to the Highlanders. [applause] from Eastwood High School. Please help me congratulate all-star artist Amber Baserto, [applause] all state artist Alexandra Caro, [applause] All State artist Sarah Cario, [applause] All State artist Mabel Lara. [applause] The students are accompanied by teachers Luna Marquez and Anelica Kaken and principal Bonita Torres. [applause] Good job. Congratulations to the troopers. [applause] Next we have Parkland High School. Please welcome student artists Jose Matier and Maria Robles. [applause] They are accompanied by teachers Melissa Austin and Moises Lucerio and principal Javier Salgado. [applause] Let's hear for the matadors. [applause] Next we have aa high school. Please welcome all state artist and gold seal winner Tristan Diaz. [applause] and all state artist Alexandra Himenez.

035[applause] They are accompanied by teacher Diana Franco and principal Amelia Garcia. Congratulations to the Indians. [applause] Our fifth recognition honors students from Hanks and Parkland high schools as well as Parkland pre-engineering middle school who captured first place at regionals for the technology student association or TSA. This STEMbased competition lets students go beyond the classroom to explore careers in fields like architecture, robotics, and tech research. Let's begin with our regional TSA winners from Hanks High School. Please welcome Anna Marie Fernandez, [applause] Ava Alfaro, [applause] Jacel Murphy, Kiara de Santiago, [applause] Madison Holand, Leila Moreno, [applause] Lyra Rosales, Emma Reyes and Maria Jose Salgado Los Lozano. They are accompanied by teachers Brian Flores and Rita Sanchez and principal Daniel Boutieres. [applause] One, two, three. Congratulations to the Knights [applause] from Parkland High School. Let's congratulate TSA winners

036Alexander Sharp, [applause] Jaden Arista, [cheering and applause] Jiren Venegas, [applause] Lazareth, Gatario, Annel Pon Rodriguez, [applause] Azra Rios, Carol, and Ly Vera. [applause] They are accompanied by teacher Julian Anguano and principal Javier Salgado. Let's hear it for the matador. scores. [applause] Our final group of TSA winners comes from Parkland Pre-Engineering Middle School. Please welcome Chloe Cordiero, [applause] Sophia Gardea, [applause] Elise Rodriguez, Yaretsi Robles, Dominic Kintanar. They are accompanied by STEM teachers Chris Whitman and assistant principal Cesar Romero. Oh, and Mr. Evans. Congratulations [snorts] to the Novios. [applause] Our next recognition honors numerous students from Bair and Easta high schools as well as the Career Center at Riverside High School who earned gold medals at the Skills USA regionals competition and qualified to compete at state. Every year thousands of talented students compete to demonstrate their

037talents in trade, technical, and leadership fields. At the state championships, three students, Beller High School's Valeria Martinez and the Career C Center's Genevie Sparsa and Andrea Martinez, caps captured gold medals and will now advance to nationals. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome our Skills USA winners from Belair High School, beginning with state gold medalist and nationals qualifier Valeria Martinez. [applause] Anelica Aguilar, [applause] Selma Caxmar, Briana Darte, [applause] Janae Blunt, Timothy Hagerty, [applause] Melissa Gonzalez, and Jocelyn Federico. They are accompanied by teachers Diana Kirk and Victor Oshiro and principal Jake Baltiera. [applause] Let's hear it for the Highlanders. [applause] Next we have Isla High School. Please welcome Iraon Alvides, [applause] Mark Gonzalez, [applause] Alvaldo Reyes, Hennessy Balderama, Carla Castanetta, [applause] and Sophia Terrasas. They are accompanied by teacher Nicholas Torres and principal Amelia Garcia. [applause]

038Let me see. 14 and 16. Okay. congratulations to the Indians. [applause] Last, but certainly not least, we have a very large group and very talented group of gold medalists from the Career Center at Riverside High School. Please welcome our first set of career center medalists. Starting with state gold medalist and nationals qualifier Genevie Esparsa, [applause] state gold medalist and nationals qualifier Andrea Martinez, [applause] Andre Jones, Valeria Sepeda, Jorge Lara, Diego Ern, Eddes, Jesselle Retana, Jose Lopez, [applause] Ellis Fouchi, Diego Rodriguez, [applause] Carmen Chakon, Allison Rodriguez, Alexander Massie, Rosa Rodriguez, Chloe Gutierrez, [applause] Anna Medina, Jimmy Salenas, and Jennifer Galarsa. They are accompanied by Riverside High School Principal Victor Lada. Yeah. tippy toe. Congratulations to our first set of medalists. [applause] And now, please welcome our second set of gold medalists from the career center, beginning

039with Caitlyn Ernnandez, [applause] Ameliano Torres, Isabelle Eera, Danica Travis, Andrea Armentaris, Fernando Ramirez, Isabelle, Amanda Lane, Edwin Sanchez, Alexandra Vasquez, Ly Vera, [applause] Miguel Berm, Bermudez, Sarah Galindo, Retell Chakon, Faith Estrada, and Natalia Ernnandez. They are accompanied by Riverside High School assistant principal Ben Melendez. [applause] Once again, let's hear for all of our gold medalists. Yes. [applause] Our next recognition honors Parkland High School senior Ezra Rios Carroll, the first matador ever to be named 2024-25 all sorry academic all-American from the National Speech and Debate Association or NSDA. This prestigious recognition is awarded to only 2% of NSDA members nationwide and honors those who excel in both debate and the classroom while demonstrating leadership and strong character. What a glorious way to leave your mark on the park. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome our

040first academic all-American award winner from Parkland High School, Azra Rios Carroll. [cheering] [applause] She is accompanied by teacher Ryan Mullenex and principal Javier Salgado. [applause] Okay. Congratulations to the Matadors. [applause] Our eighth recognition honors five standout seniors from the class of 20125 who earned some of the nation's most prestigious scholarships to continue their education after graduation. Up first, we have the Quest Bridge Scholarship. This national program connects high achieving seniors with full four-year scholarships valued at more than $200,000. Our first QuestBridge scholar plans to attend the California Institute of Technology to study applied and computational mathematics and hopes to pursue a career in research involving math, programming, and physics. Let's hear for Delvi High School senior Zoe Granados. [applause] She is accompanied by assistant principal Dr. Rammon Benavid. [applause] Our second QuestBridge scholar plans to

041attend an Ivy League school this fall. She is headed to the University of Pennsylvania to major in criminology and intends to pursue a career as an attorney. Let's give a big round of applause to Young Women's Leadership Academy senior Mia Alvides. [applause and cheering] She is accompanied by assistant principal Roelio Ooa. [applause] Our next award is the $20,000 Dell scholarship. It is given to only 500 students nationwide and also provides a laptop, credits for textbook purchases and rentals, and personalized academic support. Our first Dell scholar plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin to major in education in order to become a teacher. Congratulations to Beller High School senior Valeria Chavez Ruiz. [applause] She is accompanied by principal Jake Valtier. Our second Dell Scholar plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin to

042study biology or begin her premed track in preparation for becoming a pediatrician. Please help me welcome Eastwood High School senior Stephanie Moreno. [applause] She is accompanied by principal Bonita Torres. Nope. All right. One, two, three. [applause] Congratulations and best of luck to the outstanding class of 2025. [applause] With great respect and heartfelt gratitude, our final recognition tonight honors Lieutenant Colonel Charles Dorsy, [applause] the director of our JOTC program who retires next month after 20 remarkable years at Isleta ISD. A native of New York, Lieutenant Colonel Dorsy enlisted in the US Army after high school, earning a bachelor's degree in history on the GI Bill. He served with distinction for 25 years across three continents in a variety of roles, everything from riflemen to calvary troop commander to tank battalion operations officer and many others. He

043also holds a master's degree in oper in military history and taught military science at Oklahoma State University. Under his steady leadership, the district's JOTC program has twice earned the highest possible rating of honor unit with distinction from the Department of the Army, a rarity for a district this size. Though he's stepping down, he plans to remain active in our district as a volunteer and mentor. Lieutenant Colonel Dorsy's legacy will endure in every cadet who passed through our program. As a special token of appreciation, we are presenting him with a special plaque and coin of excellence for his distinguished service to the district. We thank him, we honor him, and we will we wish him every happiness in retirement. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome our beloved JOTC Director, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Dorset. [applause] [applause]

044Thank you very much. One, two, three. [applause] Congratulations [applause] on your retirement, Lieutenant Colonel Dorsy. You will definitely be missed. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our recognitions for this evening. Thank you. I guess some people don't like We got speaker. Okay. At this time, Trusty Lucero, do we have citizens input this evening? as president of we do. Our first speaker is Maria Ernnandez. The topic is incentive 5,000. Good afternoon. Um, President Bust now still OOA still. Okay. Well, okay. Good afternoon, President OA, members of the board, and Dr. Deator. Um, I just want My name is Maria Fernandez. I'm the ESP vice president for the Isleta Teacher Association. I just want to um let me see. I just want to congratulate whoever thought of the 5,000 incentive for the educators and the administrators, but um

045I also wanted to say that it would have been really nice if you would have included hourly employees. Thank you. Thank you, [applause] Mr. O. Here is Jeff Senor, workload compensation. Good evening, President OA, board of trustees, Superintendent Delator. Uh, let me just take a quick uh point of privilege and congratulate our members that were sworn in today. Congratulations to you all. [applause] When does positive attrition turn negative? Attrition can be seen as a cost-saving measure, but it crosses into dangerous territory when vacant positions are not filled. When a staff member retires or leaves the district and the role is left unfilled, the responsibilities do not disappear. They are redistributed among the remaining staff. The same number of classrooms still need to be cleaned. The same number of meals must be prepared. And crucially, the

046same number of special education students still require support just to that's just to name a few examples. Special educ education classrooms are already stretched thin. If we do not have the necessary personnel to provide effective services to our special education population, student outcomes will suffer and will have a direct domino effect on campus and district scores, especially when special education enrollment continues to grow. And with the recent passage of Governor Abbott's school voucher scam, we can expect an influx of students seeking services in in our public schools. It truly takes a village to raise and educate a child. And the YISD team has consistently gone above and beyond to live up to that ideal. But we must acknowledge the weight placed on staff who are asked to cover not only their core responsibilities, but also

047a growing list of other duties as assigned. parking lot duty, gate duty, crossing guard duty, after school club coverage, daycare supervision, and more. These additional tasks, they add up and they take a toll. What about our teachers and our librarians? They're expected to produce the best scores in the region year after year while wearing every hat imaginable. Educator, counselor, social social and emotional specialist, behavior interventionist, tech expert, mentor, testing proctor, and the list goes on. Here is a little perceived financial insight. The district is offering $5,000 early out incentives to 400 employees. That's a $2 million investment, but if those 400 employees are veteran staff earning around $70,000 a year, their departure saves the district close to $30 million. So, if we can save close to $30 million by investing $2 million, surely there's a

048way to reinvest just a portion of that savings back into the people who are still here holding it all together. Supporting them is not the right is not just the right thing to do, it's also the responsible thing to do. Thank you, and you all have a good night. [applause] Thank you, President Nela. That concludes public comment for tonight. Okay. Thank you. Um Dr. Lator, do we have any presentations this evening? Yes, President OA and members of the board, we have two presentations. We're going to start by introducing Miss Amy Sanchez, who is going to give us our internal audit quarterly update. Welcome, Miss Sanchez. Good evening, members of the board. Dr. Delator, I'm pleased to present my quarterly update. A quick administrative update. We have hired a new secretary, Victoria Duran, as well as

049a new uh intern. She's our part-time auditor. our previous one graduated from college and went on to full-time work. We're happy to have Brianna Richardson join us. She's a Delva grad and a current UTEP accounting student. Additionally, the board policy that addresses internal audit CFC local policy was updated recently uh approved by y'all last month. The only change was to acknowledge uh recently updated internal audit standards. Regarding audit projects uh completed and started since uh my last presentation from our 2025 audit plan, we have 13 campus audits in progress as well as one campus audit completed and one non-campus audit that we've begun. from our 2024 audit plan. We've completed the last of the 13 uh campus audits and two non-campus audits. We're drafting the audit reports. And just a reminder on our 2025 plan

050for campus audits, we have um a reduced scope. We're focusing on cash and special education documentation. Attendance will also be looked at, but at the district level, we continue to do our follow-up reviews. Since February, we've completed nine. Four of those follow-ups are considered fully implemented. Five are partially implemented, which means we'll do another follow-up until they are fully implemented. And we do have one campus uh follow-up currently in progress as well. We do also have our fraud, abuse, and waste hotline. Since the beginning of the year, we have received eight calls. Four of these were referred to human resources and handled administratively. They were not fraud related, and four are currently being reviewed by my office. Just an update on our budget to actual hours um from for the total 2025 calendar year and

051an update on the 2025 um project plan, our audit plan. And if you have any questions or comments. Yes, ma'am. I'm definitely not an auditor and I appreciate how you make this really um easy to understand, but when for the budget to actuals, does that mean you're able to get more done than what you um would than the time that you were h how what is the difference there? And so the budget is how many hours that we have available to us for the entire 2025 calendar year. And the actual is just what we've basically used since uh the beginning of the year. So So you're right where you projected. Is that what it Yes. Okay. Good. Thank Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No, go ahead. Uh Miss Sanchez, uh thank you for that presentation.

052Um I had the same question as Trusty Lucetto. the the budgeted hours is that supposed to be used by the fiscal hour or I I still I don't understand by the end of the how I calculated is how many people are in our office um times how many uh hours they work a day eight hours a day and that's [clears throat] the total resources available to us in um in hours. It's common for an internal audit shop to um to analyze their work uh and assign hours to projects um based on the hours available to you. I saw we're way under right on the actual because it's not the end of the year yet. When it gets to 20 uh to December, then those audits will have been Okay. So, it's a calendar year, not

053a fiscal year. It's calendar year. We're doing ours on calendar year. Okay, that that makes more sense. Thank you. Uh-huh. That was my question. Okay. Um, thank you for your presentation, Mrs. Sanchez. There's a couple of things [snorts] I can we can I can understand when you're talking budget as far as fundraisers and receipts not being um given out and money's taking a while to get turned in. I'm sure um the principal and people in charge will make sure that those things are corrected. The next one is um attendance. Um and I'm sure again Dr. Delatori and um other people the principles will make sure that teachers understand how important it is to take their attendance accurately in every single class period. There's one concern, the one that concerns me the most is when we

054get into um IEPs, special education. I was reading through it and I would like you to explain um Excel plan. Yes. Is that um a computer program? Excel plan is a computer program. Um what we look at when we look at special education, we look at um documentation to ensure that the services um the services put out in the IEP, the students individualized education plan, right? Right. Um are met [clears throat] and documented and the way that district documents that the services are met are in Excel plan which is um a software application. who um puts that data into that software program. Is it the teacher? Is there a a specific counselor or or what personnel is in charge of that? Whoever's providing the service. So, it could be a teacher, it could be a

055teacher's aid, it could be a therapist, whoever is providing the particular service for the student. Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to I don't want to get in the weeds, but I wanted to make a recommendation. Okay, just to clear up confusion back to the budget and actuals, if you could add a line for projections, I think that would help us a lot. But where you're projecting it, if it's like quarterly going where you thought it was going. Okay. Stuff like that. Yes. Thank you. We can do that. No other questions. Thank you. You ready? Good evening, President OA, members of the board, and Dr. Dea Tore. This evening I actually have a very short budget presentation for you. And the first thing we're going to talk about is a legislative update which will tell

056you why we have such a short presentation because of what's happening or maybe better said what's not happening at the state. And so if you don't mind I'm going to turn it over to Miss Damata. Let her give you a brief update and then we'll come back and I'll conclude the budget presentation. Thank you very much. Thank you um President OA board members and Dr. Deator. Uh when I came to you last time, we discussed very briefly House Bill Two, which uh at your last meeting was still pending in the House. House Bill Two has now moved forward. Uh the House has adopted House Bill 2 um and has referred it to the Senate and they referred it over on the 22nd of April last month. Wow. It sat in the Senate committee, the education

057committee, up until last night that we got a bill alert about House Bill 2 being scheduled for public hearing tomorrow, 9:00 a.m. So, by sometime by sometime tomorrow uh afternoon, we may know more about school finance, but it has taken um kind of a long while. Now, we're down to the last three weeks of the legislative session. uh siny die the last day of session is June 2nd. So as you can imagine uh folks are working fast and furiously um but maybe not fast enough uh for school boards and school districts across the state. What we're hearing though, however, and what happened uh last night is that the Senate Chamber and the House Chamber are working together because the Senate essentially wants to make changes to House Bill 2. You may recall that under House

058Bill 2, we would see a raise to the basic aotment of $395. Um and and that's good. maybe not enough money, but it's good in the sense that um at least a good portion of it, more than half of that raise would be undirected funds um essentially discretionary funds for each school district to do with them as they need. Um unfortunately, however, the Senate has put together an executive summary of the changes they'd like to see in House Bill 2. The Senate version does not give us new money to the basic aotment. That uh could be problematic for most districts. Instead, what they're doing is they're setting aside $8 billion for school finance, arguably a little bit more than House Bill 2, but they're putting that money, redirecting that money into specific programs. uh some

059programs that are wholly inapplicable to to Eastleta ISD for example [snorts] TIA right teacher incentive uh we wouldn't see money for that program small to uh midsize uh aotment money we don't see that money and so the argument still remains if you're going to fund us do it in a way where we can use that money individually uh based on our specific needs um here at East LA ISD. So, as soon as tomorrow, we're going to hear the Senate uh education committee debate the bill. And what happens uh thereafter is that the bill once the committee has made its changes, um it's going to send its version, the committee's version to the full Senate for a debate on the floor. Once the Senate passes its changes through its chamber, it goes back to the House

060and the House can say, "We concur with the changes or we will not agree to these terms. We're going to call a conference committee." A conference committee is comprised of both chambers. So, the Senate gets to appoint five members. The House gets to appoint their five members. And those are the negotiators for House Bill Two at the table. And so essentially they work up until I believe the 31st if I'm not mistaken of May. Hopefully it won't take that long but they have until the 31st essentially to approve the conference committees version which should be ultimately the negotiated uh piece of legislation that goes to the governor uh for his signature. So, all of that to say that there's still a lot of uncertainty as it relates to school finance. Um, and so obviously I'll

061be watching tomorrow and um and and taking notes um and tracking this stuff. Now, one of the concerns that I've heard was is this um is the delay is this delay a tactic? I mean, possibly. Um will we be looking at a special session? uh as it relates to school finance. Maybe, maybe not. I think uh although we have three weeks left, it's kind of early on in in the month of May to say that it's going to go to a special session. Um I think that there's interest uh on both sides of of the uh the House and the Senate to pass the bill because remember that House Bill 2 isn't the only bill that's pending. Um, we still have the supplemental appropriations bill. That's House Bill 500. That's essentially going to give school

062districts some of the money that they lost through the SHARS um the changes to the SHARS program. Um, but also the the um appropriations bill ties into the voucher bill. So, there's a lot of interest to get the school financing, the appropriations bill passed by both chambers and there's very little time. Um, but we're we're going to be keeping an eye and I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any at this time. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Miss Ma. relating to to House Bill Two and at the Senate. How did our did our local senator make any recommendations or was he in favor or not in favor of the changes? That's my first question. Senator Blanco has been very supportive of us. Um we have uh I've made calls uh sent out emails uh

063regularly communicate with the senator's office. Um and so he has actually in writing assured us that he will also be supportive of House Bill which would give us some of that um money that we lost under the SHARS program. And so I think the entire El Paso delegation has received at least two emails from me at this point and phone calls, plenty of phone calls. Um and they're all telling me they're very much in support of um House Bill 2. They uh have a a good understanding of the Senate's um interest in reducing the money that House Bill 2 would give us to to our basic aotment, but they're supportive of us to answer your question. So So you're saying he didn't vote in favor of the changes or did they not have the vote?

064Senator Blanco hasn't voted on House Bill Two because it hasn't come to him yet, but it's coming. And uh and that's what my last phone call to his office was about. And do we have any of our local delegation on any of these committees? We don't. This year, well, we have we do have Representative Mary Gonzalez on the House Appropriations Committee, which is very important. So, House Bill 500 will come to her. um Senate Bill one um will also uh come to her and um and House Bill Two. So yeah, we we definitely have a key uh representative on the appropriations committee. I'll definitely support the efforts as we move forward. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Any other questions? M you had said that the appro appropriation bill was tied with the vouchers and the vouchers

065did pass. Wouldn't [clears throat] that pass also? So the vouchers go ahead. Yeah. And to answer your question, um Trusty Busios. So essentially um the funding will come through uh either one of the appropriations bill and we have competing bills on the Senate side and the House side. There are several bills that are uh relying um House Bill Two being one of them uh that are relying on the appropriate appropriations bills getting passed. And because neither has passed at this point, everything is pretty much contingent on the funding being there, including the billion dollars for uh the vouchers, right, which won't go into effect immediately. It's going to be 2627. uh when we start seeing the um the um education savings account money. Um so a lot of things kind of hinging on uh on

066numerous bills. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. If there are no other questions, I will pass. Sorry, Mr. Mata. Uh thank you for the update. Sure. Um, how likely do you think it is that we will have to approve a budget before Austin has made all of its final decisions? So, the last day of the session is June 2nd. I anticipate that we're going to have something uh before that. I think we're going to see negotiations uh well into the 11th hour. I don't think it's likely that by the time this board meets to approve its budget, you won't have um a a school finance bill passed and signed by the governor. That's good. Um if we were in that situation um and we aired on the side of uh conservative estimates of revenue but uh good

067things happened and we got more revenue. Is it difficult for this board to adjust our our budget? No. No. And and the board has done it before where they come back and the budget is amended. just has to be done at a Is it any more difficult to if we air on the side of being optimistic with revenues, but we find out we shouldn't have been so optimistic, is it just as easy to adjust the budget from there? Adjusted upwards? No, downwards. Okay. [clears throat] Yeah. I mean, I think um I'm getting at that we should air on the side of being conservative, especially in the unlikely case um that Austin hasn't made all its final decisions. Um, I think as we get into the budget presentation, I I think we might see that we've

068been too optimistic with uh revenue in the past and I'd like to uh encourage my colleagues to refrain from from that as we move forward with this budget. So, thank you. Sure. Any other questions? I just want to I just want to express something that I don't think we've ever gone into any budget season. At least I know I haven't with any optimism. It's always been really really really hard to make any of the decisions. We understand at least I understand and I know my our colleagues understand that the decisions we make each and every budget season is going to affect future finances. We understand that. And so, while I appreciate what you're saying and I am taking that to strong consideration, it's never an optimistic experience. Go into it with sincerity and understanding each

069of the consequences of the decisions that are made. Yes. One more. Um, I agree with Miss Lucetto. Um, we know it's going to be extremely difficult times the next month, 2 months, year, possibly two years. Um, we're very concerned and [clears throat] um we know there will be some tough decisions that will be have to make will will have to be made. Thank you, Mr. Mata. Oh, or yes, sir. Yeah. uh based on all what was discussed here, I think that being optimistic or not optimistic, uh we just have to rely what's happening outside of our boardroom because all these external forces which are happening in Austin are are really impacting not only our budget but budgets across the state for all the school boards or all the districts. And uh sometimes I feel that

070we being held hostage because of those decisions or those decisions not being made readily because uh it's just uh impacts what we're all here trying to trying to resolve for the for the next budget. I think we just have to grind it out, wait for what happens from day to day. And uh and um like I'm I'm not optimistic at this point for sure, but I'm not uh I'm not thinking that we'll be in such dire need at this point until we encounter that uh situation and when we do then we'll try to do the best we can to deal with it and and resolve it inhouse with what we have. So, um I think that we'll just have to wait and see what develops and tomorrow certainly if you can keep us informed as

071to what you you hear what's happening over there. I mean right now because it's taken so long I just you know it's one of those things and I just got to wait and see what happens. It's is it bad news? Is it good news or is it no news? So just bear with us and see what happens. uh and then we'll make those decisions when we're faced with him and uh hopefully uh we'll be we'll be okay. Thank you, sir. I'll be sure to provide uh uh the board with an update. Thank you, Mr. Dam. So, continuing with the budget presentation, this is the slide and data with which you're all familiar. It uh begins with just after Dr. Deator's arrival and you can see that since he since long before he got here actually

072the district has been in declining enrollment. Prior to the pandemic we experienced a loss of about 369 students per year. From the pandemic forward we started experiencing a much d more dramatic loss to the tune of 1,227 students on average per year. By the time we get from 2021 through the end of next fiscal year, next school year, I anticipate the student loss will be nearly 7,900. In revenue terms, that's almost $79 million. And so these are really things that are happening to us. You have very little control. The thing which we do have control over is the ADA somewhat. We can encourage children to come to school and some of our funding is based on that. Through a task force with Dr. Chicone's leadership, we have inc improved our ADA such that we're now

073getting a little bit more revenue based on nearly two percentage points increase from prior periods. So ADA, we have some control over enrollment. We've incentivized it. You can see that in this fiscal year we only lost 850 students even though we're anticipating a loss of between 1,00 and500 and an average of 1,27. To compound that we have external influences in the marketplace. So from the pandemic to today we're we've experienced 25.9% inflation and that's all urban customers all goods. So you can see that you have two things reflecting against you. You have inflation driving costs up and loss of enrollment bringing revenue down. And you can see those two coming together here in this graph. From 2014 when Dr. Deator arrived, I arrived in the spring of 2016. We almost perfectly mirrored expenses and revenue

074all the way to the pandemic. And then in the pandemic, you can see that it started becoming more difficult to balance. And as we got to 2122 2223, revenues started falling below expenditures. And I'll show you another slide in just a moment. But what I really want to point out here are a couple of things. Number one, if we don't have a course correction, you can expect the divide between revenues and expenditures to continue to grow. It it requires something. Now, whether there's new legislation or not, we're going to have to address the delta between revenues and expenditures. And then I also wanted to bring to your attention, if you notice the blue hashed area below, that's payroll cost. And so those are people. And obviously, we're looking at how many staff do we employ

075compared to our enrollment. We recognize that teachers and our classroom personnel and our campus administrators have an an incredible burden and they're being asked to do so many more things than they were 10 or 15 years ago. But we've already invested this much in personnel cost. The solid blue area is everything else that it takes to run the district. It's security. It's transportation. It's utilities. It's not things I can just flip a switch and say they're gone. I can't turn off the lights. I can't turn off the air conditioner. I have to comply with the safety bills that required us to have armed defenders at every campus. And so those are costs that have been built in and essentially unfunded. We've seen a utility cost every year by all three utilities whether it's been electric,

076uh, water or gas. And the only reason I'm bringing this slide to you now is because I want to talk a little bit about the ongoing impact. So we adopt budgets and we think that we've adopted a deficit and that deficit goes away. Unfortunately, the deficit doesn't. It's cumulative. It carries forward each year. And so you can see that in 2223 when you rightfully relied on the state and thought that they would come through after the innumerable um special sessions you generously granted raises with the expectation the state was going to appropriately fund public education. They didn't and that $10.5 million deficit remained on our salary schedule. Then next year we adopted another 5.7 again remaining on the salary schedule to today. So that's nearly 16 million. And then last year we added 17. And

077so those three deficits now add up to 35 million we're carrying through in expenditures while our revenue is dropping dramatically. And so you can see that our projected revenue is showing a difference of $31 million between last year and this year. A pretty significant decline. And I thought I would go ahead and talk to you a little bit about fund balance again because it generally always comes up. This is our audited financial statement. It's the five categories of fund balance. And we always focus on the bottom, the unassigned fund balance of 61 million. That's where people say, "Well, look how much money you have in savings." At the end of this fiscal year, I anticipate that 61.6 is going to be 37. So, we've used our savings. We don't have any more savings. We, you

078already know, I'm going to bring you a payroll loan in June to approve. We'll need it to get through August payroll when we get no money from the state. You may see another loan come forward for next April when again I don't get money from the state. So, I want you to be prepared. There's no savings left. We have utilized every bit of it that we can. So, the decisions and the work you'll be doing next week is critical to the well-being of the district. We need it for a course correction. We are going to bring to you a budget with the recommendations in there to reduce the expenditures to reflect or match more closely revenues. I will tell you now, I can't bring you for the first time, I will not bring you a

079balanced budget. It was very difficult to balance it last year and we still adopted a deficit. I can't balance it this year. It's just not possible without impacting service without without impacting employees more dramatically than it's already going to. And with that, I can take questions. May I ask May I ask um thank you for that in depth presentation. You've told me I'm blind. I definitely feel optimistic now. Um but on a serious note um as a district we what I am hearing tonight and what we've learned and absorbed over the past few years since the pandemic is that we cannot depend on the state. That's been the norm. We cannot depend on the state and here we are five years later and we still can't depend on the state. So what can we or

080what are we doing as a district to increase revenue be it selling properties the incentive program that that was discussed or that that is a recommendation. Um and how much revenue or how much revenue will doing those things bring in are there other ways to increase revenue here at the district at all? Well, generally your revenue is based off your student enrollment and there's very little we can do to influence the state to pay us more per student. There um the property sales are I'm bringing to you two properties this evening for consideration. We have advertised those properties probably three to four times and this is the first offer I brought since South Loop was sold right after the pandemic. So, as you can imagine, if there's inflation in the marketplace of 26%, people are

081leerary. One of the offers I've had is sitting on the table because construction costs have increased so much that they now they're debating, do I really want to move forward with the sale, so I haven't brought it to you because the market is telling people, let's be careful. Um, additionally, we'll continue working on ADA. I don't know that we can get much above 95% 90. We're 94.4. Is that right? Yes, 94.4 right now. That's significantly increased and it helps revenue. But again, your children, parents keep their children home when they're sick or not feeling well, as they rightfully should. Um, but we can encourage them to come to school when it's appropriate to do so, which is all the time unless they're sick. Real [clears throat] quick, um, let's talk enrollment. I know I know

082we've talked about YSD being [clears throat] excuse me landlocked, right? What other things are we doing to be able to bring more kids into our district? Um, you know, we're an A-rated district. You know, how how can we bring in more kids? What are we doing to do that? Well, I think you've seen the marketing campaigns. We're on the billboards. We have we're all over social media, especially FitFam now. I think um Miss Russell Garcia can probably speak more to it, but we are actively marketing the district and we promote well. You're right. We're number one by niche. We're A-rated. Um we've got more a we're the only one with comprehensive high schools that are A-rated. So all of those things are marketed. But what we're seeing across the state and across this county is

083every school district is losing students. So where are they going? Home, private school, I don't know. No, they're not leave. They're not leaving. They're not being born. Yeah, they're not being born. 10 years ago, uh, a family would [snorts] average a little over two students. In fact, in 1990, uh, a family average 2.8, although I don't know what a 08 student is. Um, in 1990, today that number is 1.2. Okay. And I think a lot of it has to do with a new generation that recognizes that the economy is uh oftentimes erratic, unstable, more kids mean more responsibilities, more responsibilities uh cost money. And so if you look at cohorts, by [clears throat] that I mean the number of uh seniors graduating in a couple of weeks going out the door and then you look

084back down to a prek or a K class, you'll find that there may be 10 10% less students, 15% less students. if the situation were different and I saw that, you know, Sakuro was a fast growing district and they continued to bring students in and that El Paso ISD had additional students or even like Canutio that has uh all of that residential development out at Simmeron. Uh but every one of them are in the same situation we are. And you know, sometimes it begs the question, are we going to out billboard each other? Because in my in my way of thinking, the best way to promote your school district is to be the highest performing school district year in year out. To be the only A-rated school district, to have a reputable special ed program

085that bro that that draws 17 18% of all specialed families to the Isleta Independent School District. Uh but what we're seeing across the board is that the cohort of students come into school, the four-year-olds and the 5-year-olds aren't keeping up with the number that just walked out the door after graduation. And so I think nationally as well as throughout the state and certainly in our community, uh people are just not having the number of children that they used to have. Thank you, sir. And we still have 4,000 transfers coming to us, right? So that that number has remained high. High. Yes. Thank you, sir. And just so you know, and and and let me preface it by saying this. We we don't apologize for anything we've done as a school board to support educators and

086support staff. In the last 6 years, from 2020 to today, we have invested $60 million in increased compensation. There's never been a year since I've been here that we haven't found a way to increase compensation. During that same period of time from 2010, excuse me, to today, about 10 years, we have lost 10,000 students at about $10,000 a student. So, we lose $100 million of revenue and we spend $60 million to support our employees. That's a $160 million swing in 10 years. Well, how were you able to manage that? Because of this board, because of our community, because of the support of the teachers association, we passed almost $1 billion in facility bonds that allowed us to close and consolidate almost 15 campuses. If that hadn't happened, we would be in this situation. We would

087have been in this situation five, six years ago. We used everything we could in every school, large schools typically three and a half four $5 million worth of savings. ESSER to some extent helped us. Um, and we've just gotten to a place where if we don't behave differently moving forward for at least the next two years, could take as long as four years. that diagram that that we just saw that shows us deviating. Enrollment keeps dropping. salaries keep going up, that gap gets bigger and you're never going to be able to to fill that gap by relying on the state because the state and this is something I think it's important to share with people at present the state of Texas is the eighth strongest economy in the world. The eighth strongest economy in the

088world. And they cannot come up with money to the basic allotment that would move them from being in 38th place on in this country. They're number two in terms of economy. California, I think, is still number one. And they can't find a way to move their traditional public school system into at least the top 10, there's something wrong. So that that's what we're facing. And that's why um I think it's important for us to continue and be calm, be confident. This board, this district has faced any number of challenges, especially in the last five, six years. This will be the latest and but I will tell you, we're going to have to do we're going to have to conduct business a little different. Just a little statement. Dr. Lato, you bring up a good point.

089We did do consolidations and we did have to make difficult decisions and I would like to see this administration look at our schools and make sure that the same that we're taking that same consideration now that we have to make these difficult decisions specifically schools that we know um there's extremely low enrollment. And I'm speaking specifically about what we know are some of our special schools. But I'm going to be honest with you because we are at the point where we do need to make difficult decisions that are going to benefit each and every student, each and every teacher, each and every employee. So if doing some of these hard decisions is going to make a a small adjustment and I think it actually make bigger than a small adjustment into our our revenue, then

090we need to I would like to see those recommendations brought to this board this budget season. Uh thank you Miss Cameron for the presentation. Glad to see you back. We missed you next week. Dr. Deator, you did a great job. Uh as as I said last time, um before I get into my questions and I have several um I want to be, you know, clear that I think, you know, my colleagues, the past boards, um made the best decisions that they could with the information that they had at the time. Um I keep hearing we can't rely on the state. Um, to me that's the exact same sentiment I had as let's not be optimistic. So I think we're actually all on the same page. Um, now to my questions you presented to us approved

091budgets. What were the actual budgets especially with revenue? So I presented to you balanced budgets and we adopted these in terms of revenue and these amounts that were shown here were these the same amounts that were were actually that we actually received during these fiscal years. No. So you will see that it's pretty close in 22 23 by 23 24 it's less by 24 25 it's less and then 368 is obviously significantly less than what [snorts] was the difference for 2425 from uh projected revenues what we adopted in the budget we adopted to what actually transpired. So right now in the financial synopsis that is included in your report for this week, our revenues are going to be I'm showing 35.2, but I'm going to have to look at this. So revenues expenses are going

092to exceed revenues by 35.2. But the the total revenue is listed as 390 million.9, right? What what was the actual revenue that we brought in? Well, we're not done with the year, but and this is as of March. Can you tell me for 23 24? Yes. No, I I have it at my table. Hang on. So total general fund revenues in 2425 I'm sorry in 2324 were 385 million. I'm sorry 385 million. 385. So we're about 12 million short. we than what we projected and it's the same for all the all the adopted budgets. Our revenues, actual revenues were always less than what was projected, right? Yes. Um it's been highly publicized that the district is offering a 5k uh dollar amount uh for incentive for resignation. Yes, sir. Um I had the same math

093as as was presented earlier. Well, close to it. It's a $2 million investment. I I was projecting about $26 million in savings if 400 uh employees uh take the resignation. Salaries [clears throat] plus benefits is more like 75,000. So I was projecting 30 million in savings. Okay, very good. Even better. Um how are we doing so far? I believe 177 yesterday. 117 this morning. 117 as of this morning. And they're they're we are having resignations come in repeatedly. So we'll have a better. So this is increasing every day. Yes. So we may get close to that. We may hit that 400. I think we'll get maybe 200. Yeah, 200 is our best guess right now. So it's going to be a $1 million investment for about 15 million in savings. 175 is what? Well, that's

094your best guess right now. 15's a better estimate if I get 200. Okay. And you're right. I'd spend a million to pay those. Okay. Or retirement incentives. And that's that's 17.5 um will go into the general fund or well the savings we won't spend the money we won't spend it right so yeah money saved is as good as money earned I I believe um just for clarification um is it that 86% of our budget is tied up in salaries and benefits that's correct as of last last year and uh I mean it was just said by Dr. Deto um over the past 10 years this board has invested heavily into our employees um by approving salary increases. Um and then but this is not just a salary increase it's part of a step program. Could

095you elaborate a little bit of that for the benefit of the public so they understand? Um well my understanding is that everybody's salary increases every year even if the board does not make a uh approve approve a salary raise. Okay. So let me clarify it's not everyone. So hourly employees paras ancillary staff are not on the step schedule. Our early employees are not are not on the step schedule. They do not automatically get a raise every year. The step schedule includes teachers, nurses, and librarians. Okay. Does it include admins? No. Well, no. No. Just teachers, nurses, librarians. That's why we call it the TNL schedule. No assistant principles or principles? Nope. Nobody in central office. No teachers, nurses, librarians. And then it's also kept out at a certain year. and the step schedule. So once

096they reach is it year seven Bobby that they move to 500 a year. So at year the steps at the beginning of a career are much lower. So a year a first year teacher is going to make 60,550 something like that Bobby 60,000 and then the first five steps are $50 a year and then as they as they move along in their tenure the steps increase. There are most of the steps are 500 per year and then there are a couple of steps in there that are a little bit different. The 10-year step I believe is a $65 increase and around 23 years of service it goes up like by $1,000. But generally the steps are 500. So if you do absolutely nothing, everyone who is employed today as a teacher, nurse, or librarian will

097incur some sort of raise, whether it's at the beginning of the schedule, the middle of the schedule, or the end of the schedule. And the total cost of the step increases for us this year, if the staff staffing level remained the same, would be just slightly less than a million dollars. So every year the steps cost a little less than a million dollars but they only impact teachers, nurses, librarians. Okay, thank you for that explanation. So every year are that 86% that's tied up increases, right? Because of the 900,000. Yes. Especially considering that our revenues have decreased every year. It's true that our revenues have decreased every year while our obligation to pay teachers, nurses, and librarians increases, right? So, yes, but let me clarify. So, as Dr. Deator has said before, you can pay

098people as much as you want to pay them, but you'll just have less people. And as Miss Lucero mentioned, we have consolidated, we've gone from 62 campuses down to 49. In that process, we have not we have consolidated classrooms too. So those classrooms become instead of maybe 15 or 18 students in a class, there are now the full 22 at the elementary level. And so your your costs are not she is bringing staffing levels down to match student enrollment. It's just not as fast as the decline in student enrollment occurred. So not every year does the million dollars cause our percentage to increase. There are years when that percentage has declined in comparison to the rest of the expenses. So 86% is of the entire budget and the 86% includes hourly not just teachers, nurses

099and librarians. Okay. And admins um so we've been talking about teachers, nurses and librarians. Admins have also received a raise every time that teachers in fact you can see it on this slide. So, at the bottom, and again, this line of questioning is for the benefit of the public. I just so you know, we I know we've been through this a lot, but I have constituents and questions and media. I want I want this to be clear. Absolutely. So, you can see in 2223, teachers, nurses, and librarians got a 5% increase on the step schedule. So, we kept every step stayed the same, but the midpoint went up by 5%. And so, the entire schedule shifts over. It's not a 5 percent flat increase for a year one teacher or a year two teacher. And

100I would have to I have a great slide that would show you how a step at the mid or a raise at the midpoint occurs and what happens. But 5% at the midpoint for teachers, nurses, and librarians, which increased everybody's salary. Those below 15 years got a little more than 5% because it's at the midpoint. And those above 5% or above midpoint got a little less than 5%. Paras and ancillaries got 5 a.5% and admin got 4% in 2223 and then you can see the raises for each of the years thereafter. Last year there was no salary increase on the step schedule. Um but everybody that was employed by the district still got their step including admins. Uh no because admins are not on the step. just last year everyone got the stipen. So you

101may recall the stipen was still approved but that doesn't go on the salary schedule. Okay. And I know we've made in increases [snorts] for hourly employees but it hasn't been every year the way it has been for well salaried employees. So the paras and ancillaries that's really all of our hourlies and they got five and a half and 22 23 and it's still it works very similarly. It's five and a half at the midpoint for that job class. So, so yes, they did every year, but last year got an increase when TNL's got an increase. Thank you. So, what I'm getting at is um I'm recommending what I recommended last year and that is a stipen for our hourly employees and only for our hourly employees. Um they are not part of any step program.

102They do not have any guarantees in their pay as you know teachers, nurses and librarians um do considering trying to find that balance of being fiscally responsible and finding the the morally fair choice. Um I [snorts] I I think that's the right thing to do. Uh a $500 stipen for hourly employees is huge, especially during Christmas time. It could be huge for for anybody, but if we have to make a tough decision, um, this is what this is what I'm looking at. That's basically the case I was trying to make. And for my final comment, I've actually had a meeting. Oh, we met earlier. I wanted I want this on the record, too. I came to you with 7 to12 million in recommendations of possible cuts. Um, are any of those being considered? I will

103tell you there is no stone unturned in this budget process. We are looking at every opportunity to still protect employees but to reduce expenditures and and thank you so much for for working with me and and and going over that and we're going to do it again. We have another workshop coming up this month in two weeks on Wednesday. Next week. Wednesday. Next Wednesday. I got to update my calendar. I thought it was two weeks. So I'll be here next Wednesday. Yes, I'm hoping I'm hoping I can meet with you maybe tomorrow. Maybe in the morning or the afternoon if possible. I can tell you I'm working on insurance benefits tomorrow morning. So maybe uh next early next week. Okay. And to your point, the you mentioned a stipen and obviously the thing that's less

104difficult for us to cover in the future year is better. But House Bill two still includes those huge increases and a dedication that I if they pass that I'm bound to it. It's not that I get a choice. That's great. Okay. Um just any way that that can help whether we have a choice or not. if we do have the choice. Uh for me and I think I think all of my colleague this is an easy one for us. Um it's for sure we're going to take care of our hourly employees. Um I hope I'm not speaking out of term for anybody. Please correct me if I am. Um and then I anticipate more difficult uh conversations with my colleagues moving forward on on the other topics. But I am working hard guys. I'm looking

105for those cuts 7 to12 million. I'm trying to find that balance. Uh thank you Miss Cameron for uh this presentation and answering my questions. Of course. I have a couple questions. Um one, [snorts] if House Bill 2 goes through, it increases ADA. I'm sorry. House Bill Two will increase ADA. No. No. House Bill Two, the the proposal before it went to the Senate. Are you asking me about the comment I just made to House Bill 2 has a provision that says 40% of the increase over last year has to go to raises and of the 40% 75% must go on the teacher, nurse, librarian, and now counselor salary schedule. So you absolutely have the authority to say we're only going to do a stipend except if the state gives us in new money and says

106oh by the way you better put that on the salary schedule or you don't get the money. How much are they proposing? Well I don't really know the number because you have the basic aotment increase over here of the from 6160 to 6550. So that increase 40% must go to raises and of the 40% that goes to raises 75% has to go on the salary schedule for teachers. The remaining 25% of the 40% could go elsewhere but it all must go to compensation increases. So if that if they as Miss Damata mentioned, if they if the House says unequivocally we reject the Senate's revised version and they go back and fight for the particular increases they're talking about, I'm going to tell you adopt a budget based on current law. sit on it and wait

107till we get what the state is going to say because if they if they ask you to do the raises on the schedule, I don't want you doing a stipen in addition to and the Senate bill proposes stipens effectively instead of on the salary schedule. It's just a convoluted mess, frankly. So, I'm going to say let's adopt it based on current law if I don't have a new law with runs on what my funding will be by next Wednesday. And we won't. But you're not scheduled to adopt until June 25th. by then, as Mr. Dam Mata mentioned, I think you'll have a bill or you'll have law. And if they continue behaving the way they're behaving and don't come up with a solution, um I would also like to throw out there that we consider

108extras for employees to if we can't increase salaries because the money just isn't there, can we increase quality of life? Can we do things like reduce the amount of walkthroughs or make it to where walkthroughs are more constructive as opposed to um punitive? Can we do things like increase the number of days that teachers allowed to wear jeans? um a mental health, other morale boosters. In other words, things that don't necessarily cost money, but still make us the the obvious choice when it comes to employment. I I'm going to let my boss speak to that one. Yeah. All those are great ideas. I think what's missing from the conversation that we haven't had a chance to talk about is your recent health care quote did not come in at exactly the same cost as the

109one that we currently enjoy, which makes sense given that inflation's up 25%. We have to have a conversation around the additional cost to maintain the current health care plan or we have to go in and make significant changes to the plan design. At present we offer four plans. One is uh relatively expensive. the the consumer-driven um savings account plan or health savings account plan is the the least expensive and even the least expensive has gone up significantly. What was missing from my previous comment was that in that 11-year period that I have sat on this DAS, healthc care premiums have only gone up one time in 11 years and it was a very very modest increase. And so sometimes we forget that that is a form of compensation when we get a bill indicating that

110health care has gone up 11% or 15%. And Miss Leaper and you and the district take care of that increase. That costs money. What you don't want to do is give a $500 stipend to hourly employees in December only for them to find out in January that the increase to their health care plan has gone up $1,500 for that year. It will lead up to 500 and then take an additional $1,000 away from that employee. So, one of the things you have to look at is you can do one or you can do the other. But I can I can tell you that even under the best circumstances, this district cannot afford to absorb the increase to the healthc care plan right now. And so what I shared last time is you can either cost

111share it with the employees, they send you a letter, they say healthc care has gone up 15%, 20%, whatever that number is. The district can try and pick up 10%. they'll get a letter indicating that their healthc care premium has gone up 10%. Or you can do a a pass through and depending on what happens in Austin, a pass through is not out of the question. And a pass through is basically an employee getting a letter saying, "Hey, your healthcare premium just went up 12%." And they're expected to pay it. So what you don't ever want to do is with this hand you give them a raise or a stipend and then two months later they get a letter saying that their health care has gone up significantly. But to base the question DLT I

112I where are we with looking at our women's leadership academy? Well, you know, the Women's Leadership Academy cost uh the district about $3.5 million to $4 million to operate a year. We are on a different galaxy. We're not looking for $4 million. We're chasing $40 million. Would it help? Yes, it would help. But I want to make sure that we're fair to them in that that there's time for them to prepare first thing. Second thing is those teachers are in contracts. So even if I close that school, I got to find positions for those teachers at other schools. And right now all of those positions are being set aside to accommodate are being created by this incentive plan that is creating positions. But if a position opens because someone has um submitted their notice of

113voluntary separation and that person happens to be a special ed teacher uh and the IEP for that person's students require a teacher, we're going to replace that teacher. So, the only vacancies that we can really rely on are those that are in subject areas where um they're not driven by IEPs or or ARDs or 504s that require a specific number of adults in that classroom. So, it it leads leaves everybody else. So, let's say that we get 200 or 240 people that retire. If the net is 200, that means 40 of them had to be replaced. And and as I think Miss Camurn said, we've been doing this all year. We've been anytime there's been a vacancy, we've looked at it. Um we have seen how neighboring districts have experienced um financial exigencies and we're

114trying to avoid two things. And the first is the priority. We want to run a school district where the students never realize that we're dealing with anything like this. In other words, as far as they know, everything is the same as it's always been. They get the same options, the same opportunities, the same courses are available, etc. And the second thing is we don't want to do anything adverse or detrimental to any employee in the district. And that's why you need to start looking at, okay, um I I think it's important we find out how much revenue we're going to see next year. Um but I cannot think of a scenario that's not going to require either cost avoidance or cost cuts to maintain the same programs. What is it looking like the insurance is

115going to increase by? Hm. $4 million. Um, at present, the district pays $31 million a year and the employees in the aggregate pay about $9 million. So, we have a $40 million health benefit fund. The district pays 75%, the employees pay 25%. that's about to climb to between 46 million and 49 million. So, I can either come up with $9 million somewhere and and insulate the employees from any kind of increase to their health benefits. But passing that along would double their Huh? Passing that along would double their their costs. You said they pay 9 million and it's looking to go up 9 million. Oh, for some it would be a 30% increase. For others it would be a 25% increase and for some it would be a 20% increase. Yeah, it's significant. Dr. Deto,

116can you clarify? Maybe I misunderstood. Um, a healthc care benefit increase is going to happen no matter what, whether we approve a stipen or we don't, right? Yep. Well, to what you said earlier, I would rather have the $500 stipen if I'm going to be getting a letter saying that I'm my my salary is going to increase than to just get the letter uh saying that my healthcare costs um are going to increase. And again, my recommendation is only for hourly employees uh that are not seeing their salaries increase every year. Also, is every hourly employee uh receiving health benefits? No. So, they're they're not they're not going to get that letter because they don't receive health benefits. You said are are all are all hourly employees and I said no. Correct. So, you say

117that none of them are receiving health. Right. But some are going to get are are not going to ever get that letter. And for those that are, I would feel confident in saying they'd rather have that $500 stipen than nothing at all. Plus, their healthcare benefits are going to go up. We'd have to defer to the association. And I'm sorry, I want to drive it back to the reality of where we're at with our finances and where we did look at and we closed or consolidated during our bonds. We consolidated um our schools. We have we have Alisia Chakon now where the liber used to be. We have we have made those children had to go to a different school. Those children had to find a way to make room for the students at Alicia

118Chapon. And so we have we've had to make these difficult decisions and change the way a a student is receiving education here at this independent school district. So where we're at now financially, it is the time. $4 million is a huge amount of money to where we're at at the deficit. And and I know it's a hard choice. And it's not that I want to sit here and say I'm really I'm I really want to happily look at at no longer funding this this academy, but the reality is in order for us to continue to provide what our our entirety of our student body and our teachers need, we need every scent that we can get right now. And that is the reality that I see. And I don't know if my colleagues agree, but

119I hope that we do have the opportunity to discuss that. Yeah, for sure. A lot of what we're talking about uh can and should probably take place in a a workshop environment with backup material and things like that. So, um, just as a a point of emphasis, I think what I'm trying to impress upon, uh, you and, uh, the district is that it it just isn't business as usual anymore. I'm afraid to turn around and walk off because Mr. Ooa is going to get me just as I leave. Actually, um, I don't have any questions. All right, sir. Thank you. All right. I know it's getting late, but I think we should move on if that's okay with the rest of the board. Um, we will now discuss the agenda items as listed in the

120posted notice of the board meeting of Isl for May 14, 2025 and related recommended motions with the superintendent and executive cabinet and receive responses to questions and or requests for additional information through the superintendent in preparation for deliberation and action on set items at the May 14, 2025 meeting of the board of trustees. Please stop copy if you have any questions or wish to pull an item for separate consider consideration. Consent items. Consent item number one is minutes of the board of trustees workshop and regular board meeting April 16, 2025 6 p.m. Consent item number two is accept monthly financials quarterly investment report and bond update for March 2025. Consent item number three, approve award of YISD solicitation number 225016 RFP for depository services. Moving on to the action items. Number one is accept a

121donation at the Beller High School boys and girls wrestling team to the girls wrestling team. And the close session today will have uh one item, two items actually. One is the discussion of the district-wide intruder detection audit report findings. And number two is the discussion of possible sale of two properties located at 7090 Alama Avenue and and 7988 Alama Avenue, El Paso, Texas. The order of the agenda has been approved. I have an electronic motion on the consent um on the consent agenda items listed on the agenda as recommended by administration. Mr. President, Miss Woodruff, I move to approve the consent agenda items listed on this agenda as recommended by administration. Thank you. We have a second by Mr. Chris Hernandez. Please cast your electronic votes. [clears throat] All votes have been cast. The results

122are seven in favor, none opposed. We move on to the action items. Except number one, accept the donation of the Bellair High School to the Bellair High School boys and girls wrestling team. Is there any discussion, Miss Woodruff? Yes. Um, so all of the talk that we've had about having to cut back and all the things that we're going to need to do to help our kids have what they need as um as students. I am just very very grateful for people who want to donate these kind of items to um to the wrestling team. I know for a fact that that Belair has needed a wrestling mat as long as I've been on the board. And so I'm just really really grateful to these people for for um for doing this for us and

123for providing our kids with the opportunities that these things will um will give them and make them more competitive, make them more everything just because even just for the way you feel when you get these new things that um lift your spirits and make you feel like you're you're top dog. Anyway, I just want to say thank you very much for this uh incredible donation and I would like to go ahead and make the motion. Oh, you want No, I just want to say that I want to thank uh everybody for who have made this donation, but it reflects what the community has invested in our in our kids, not only for Belair, but it's also been shown in other schools where people step up and make this kind of a investment and whether it

124be wrestling, football, soccer, whatever it is. and we appreciate it and we hope to continue this collaboration collaboration with them so we can fill in those gaps like you say that we our schools desperately need and I want to thank them again. So, I move to accept a donation from the from the Bell Air Wrestling Booster Club to Belair High School's boys and girls wrestling teams valued at $6,963.85. Thank you. We have a second by Mr. Nandez. Please cast your electronic votes. All votes have been cast. The results are seven in favor, none opposed. Thank you. Uh let's see. That was our only action item. Now we're going to move on to close session. The board of trustees had determined that a closed meeting of the board of trustees is required to discuss the items

125set forth in the posted agenda for this date. Such closed meeting is authorized by the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code, section 551.001, including but not limited to the sections and purposes covered by the following section of the Texas Government Code 551.07172 07172 838487889. Should any final decision action or decision or vote be required with regard to any matter considered in the closed session. The final action decision or vote shall be in the open meeting or a subsequent public meeting with notice. The board will now go in close session at the Rio around the room at 8:53 p.m. to discuss number one discussion of the district-wide intruder detection audit report findings. And number two is to the possible sale of two properties located at 7090 Alama Avenue and 7988 Alama Avenue, El Paso, Texas.

126Thank you. Chris Hernandez, Charlie Bustillos, Mike Dwire, Connie Woodruff, Katherine Lucero, and myself at 9:24 p.m. The action after close session is to consider approval of the district-wide intruder detection audit report findings. There's no no [clears throat] uh action on this. Then there's um number two is consider consideration of bids and possible sale of two properties located at 7090 Alama Avenue and 7988 Alama Avenue, El Paso, Texas, and possible approval of related board resolution is presented. May I have a motion? Uh, Miss Oh, nobody's moved yet. Mr. Dryer, go ahead, Mr. Dwyer. You've been cancelled once. [laughter] I wasn't. Mr. Dwyer has and it's been seconded by Mr. Hagerty. Please read the motion. I move to approve the bids and possible sale of two properties located at 7090 Alama Avenue and 7988 Alama Avenue, El

127Paso, Texas, [snorts] and approve the related board resolution as presented in close session. We have a second by Mr. Hagerty. Please cast your electronic votes. All votes have been cast. Six in favor, one not in favor. All right. Before we close, I just want to say thank you all. Uh this is my last uh board meeting as president. It has been a pleasure to have served all these years. It's not something that uh I am come on. I'm going to say that I can't say I'm happy about it, but I'm saying that it's it's something that will really um I'll enjoy being uh over there or over here wherever I'm placed. But I really have appreciated the support that all of you have uh given the the board, not me especially, but we've done some

128fantastic work. we've re we resolved some serious issues and we'll continue to work together as we proceed on for the next uh years to come. So yes, we have challenges but we'll meet him head on like we always do and um hope to see you again for the DEX board meeting with our new officers and I congratulate them again and um that's it. So, so thank you. [applause] Of course, Dr. Ltora had played a little part in all that, you know, over the years. Throw me under the bus. [laughter] So, on that note, may I have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Ajourn.