CBISD Board Meeting 04-15-25

001And we thank you for those who are gathered here tonight to celebrate uh their their accomplishments or their child's accomplishments, their students accomplishments. Lord, we pray for those um that you would continue to guide them and bless them in their preparation for their future. And Lord, we thank you for the parents and administrators and teachers that are here that have invested in our students. We pray Lord that you would give them um the drive to stay with it to the end as the end is nearing. Um Lord I pray for this board tonight that we would be able to have understanding of the issues that we would um be able to ask our questions and to stay focused. I pray Lord that we would make good decisions that benefit our kids keeping them always in

002front of our efforts. And I pray as usual, Lord, that you would help us to be agreeable even when we don't agree. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Show me the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge algiance to the Texas one state one and indivisible. You may have seen it. First item is recognitions. All right. So recognitions tonight, Miss Tho. Who do we have? We have um four student recognitions tonight. I will let Mr. Kenny begin with um our high school UIL recipients. So, we had a lot of kids participate in our UIL academic event. Um, but we had three that it's

003obvious they put in some extra time on their own to get prepared as they were able to finish first in their event. So, we just wanted to take some time to recognize them. Uh, first we have first place with current issues and events. Mitchell Yanik, come on up. and post pictures. Do we want individuals and then a whole group? Okay, you're just going to stand here awkwardly for a minute. Next with first place editorial writing was Caitlyn [Applause] Durham. Congratulations. And first place in social studies, Brandon Weekes. [Applause] [Music] over this way. Center. Yeah. Hold them open so they can see. Thank you. Thank you all for your hard work, dedication. Congratulations on your Those may sound like simple contest, but for those of us that have the experience, what a what an accomplishment to

004have that. Those are very proud of that. Very proud. Absolutely. And then our next 226 is from West Columbia Elementary. Tonight I would right like to recognize a fifth grade student from West Columbia Elementary School, Evan Cacera. Evan, come on down. Let me tell you why I'm recognizing this young man tonight. Evan is a fifth grader at West Columbia Elementary School and recently he entered his original melody composition entitled Walts in E minor into the 2025 Brazport Symphony Orchestra Student Melody Challenge. Evan was in competition with over 250 other entries and was selected as one of the three winners. His original composition. Is that right? His original composition, Walt E minor, was featured at the Breesport Symphony Orchestra concert on March the 29th at the Clarion. His melody was adapted into an original composition by

005a local composer. And at the concert, Evan helped maestro Brian Casey, the conductor and director of the Breesport Symphony Orchestra, direct the symphony as they performed the world premiere performance of his composition. Evan is the first student from West Columbia to be given this honor and we're incredibly proud of how well he is representing West Columbia Elementary School and CBISD in the southern Missouri county music scene. [Applause] Nice job, buddy. It is. It's awesome. Is that it? All right, we've got one more 226 award to do tonight. Cody, would you mind pulling that picture up for me? Sure. So, tonight, uh, our board president, Mr. Champagne, is ending his 21-year career as a CBISD school board member. So, the oldest picture I could find what was that one. So, some of you oldtime board members

006might recognize that, but uh that's at one of I can't remember if that was at the convocation at the beginning of the year, end of the year banquet, but uh wanted to share a little bit of history there. That's the old again as from a board members p perspective. That's the oldest picture I can find. But Jonathan Champagne is a 1979 graduate of Columbia High School. Came back, lived, working, community, a lot of dedicated service. But uh anyway, I'm appreciative because Jonathan's on the board when I became superintendent, right? So that but yes, that's important. But much like most of the board members, I got to know you as a parent before I really did as a school board member in that association. And so there's no doubt that a lot of our administrators, we

007fall in love with the kids of this district. The kids are just fantastic, right? We get to love them and then we get to love you, right? So, but it it becomes with the kids first. So, in thinking, I go to Mr. Champagne's office every month to sit and talk about the meeting plan and how we're going to do things. And so as I was thinking what would be most appropriate, uh many many moons ago, we gave away books to people that did extraordinary things and and contributions to our district. And this is basically it's a children's book called the spy glass, right? And what the spy glass is about is it it's a if you want to go back to the Renaissance time old England, the castle, you're living inside the castle and you

008have the spy glass at the top of the castle and you're looking out and all you see is open land. You don't see what it can be, right? And so the castle, they wanted their grounds to be great. They wanted to be grounds great. and and then one day somebody came along that helped them look out in that spy glass and see the end in mind. This is where we're at now, but where when we're finished, where do we want to be? And so this book, I think, fits Mr. Champagne Service. I wanted to give him something that he could put in his office that would fit and that every time he looks at it, he remembers the good times and the good things that you did. So, Mr. Champagne. We thank you, sir. All

009right, Becky. See, we had to be at 6:30. We'll sit down. Thank you very much. Means a lot. All right, that's it for 2:26. up now. Campus Communications. All right. So, campus communications. Who we got first? Cody Arrow Adventures. Hello. All right. So, we've been celebrating a lot in this short time we've been in the month of April already. This past week, we celebrated Assistant Principal Appreciation Week. Um, and although Miss Kantu is new to Marrow, she has jumped in head first. I don't know a student in that school that she doesn't love. Her heart is always in the right place when she's dealing with them. Um, and I don't even know how many months we've been in school, but I know how many we have left. And she has built great relationships with not

010only the students, but the community and the parents as well. Um, and that says a lot about just who she is. So, we really appreciate her being there. Um, then we had our Star Your Engine Star pep rally. More about the kids having fun and celebrating all their hard work. um leading up to STAR. Um but as you can see, there's an obstacle course that each grade level had to complete. Um several different activities that they had to go through and you can see their peers cheering them on on the right. You can go to the next slide. Um and then this next slide is just other pieces that happened at the pep rally. So at the end of the obstacle course, um each grade level had to complete a puzzle um that said, "Use

011your strategies." But they had to put that together. And those two lovely ladies at the top are Dana Walto and Kim Duncan. Um, and anytime we need a party, peppery, anything planned, they always do it and they don't leave anything out. Um, so we had a free throw contest. Our teachers had a tug-of-war contest. Um, and our kids had a lot of fun and the teachers were definitely enjoying themselves as you can see. Again, we've been celebrating a lot. We also celebrated pair professionals day. Um, I know I might be biased, but we truly have the best at Barrow. We've had a lot of consultants in and out of the school over the past two, three years. And each time we go in different classrooms, the person asks, "Okay, which one's the teacher?" Not because

012the teacher's not doing a good job, but because the pair professional is so involved in also working with kids directly and meeting every one of their needs. So, I just want to celebrate and recognize them. That's them on the next page, too. And then just a little bit of the learning that's going on at Barrow. Learning is not always sit and get. And as you can see, they have a lot of activities going on. Jelly bean graphing activities. They took their um manipulatives outside to complete their math assignment. And then in reading class, Miss Flores, one of the Amplify units is about um airplanes. And so they had the chance to build their own airplane and then she took them outside to test them out to see who's flew the best and the farthest. Um

013so I just wanted to highlight those things for you guys. Thank you. Cool. Principal Kenny. All right. First, um we had a bunch of our kids that were able to tour the Sweeney Chevron Phillips facility. It used to be the WIT program. It's changed to PowerUp, which is centered around STEM. Uh so we're looking at science, technology, engineering, mathematics and this just gave that students an opportunity to gain exposure uh to career opportunities that they could have uh while building experience to consider furthering their STEM education. Um so we wanted to to thank the power program for that. We wanted to give a huge shout out to Miss Bowman and her practicum of health science class. Every single one of her students was able to pass the national patient care technician certification. Um so that's

014pretty awesome. Uh then we had our CHS thespian troop was given the designation of the gold honor troop for this school year. Um in order to do that to to receive that award they had to complete a leadership academy which they did and they will be featured in Texas thespians monthly. So keep your eye open for that. Uh it's quite an honor. We had Jordan Williams, Claire Banner, and uh Corbin Brown went to district 29 for a UIL debate. And Claire placed fifth. Corbin didn't place, but you know, he's a freshman, so he's got three more years after this. And Jordan Williams, who we had last month for her playright, was able to place second, so she'll be moving on to regionals. And so, we're excited about that. She's been doing some great things this

015year. Uh our ladies golf team competed yesterday and today. um they won the area. So they went as a team. Carly Miller was district champion for four years in a row. So we just wanted that's pretty amazing that four straight years she was first place in district. Um I heard that she shot 77 both days and so we're waiting to see how that falls as far as if she gets to to move on or not. Um Ko, shout out to him. His coach wanted to make sure we put this in there. Uh he earned a ticket to regionals, but it wasn't just that. He set a personal best plus a school record uh on in pole vault clearing 15 feet. So, it's pretty exciting. And then not too long ago, he had his first career

016home run as well. So, it's been a pretty pretty uh eventful spring for that young man. We're very proud of him. Um and then we had Drake freshman was name was a co- newcomer of the year and DSi Abdullah was the first team all Brazoria County. So, we wanted to highlight those uh athletic accomplishments. We also wanted to point out all of our CHS students of the month. Uh they're nominated by teachers. And then we also our teacher of the month was Mr. Miller. Uh he does a great job working with the seniors, keeping them engaged, especially this time of the year when they're trying to check out with senioritis. But he keeps them engaged, uh keeps them in political talks, but also talks about what's next in life and helps guide them as more

017of a mentor than a teacher sometimes. Uh but he's a tremendous teacher, so we wanted to award him with teacher of the month. Thanks, sir. Thank you, Mr. Policerio. All right. So, band and choir have been very busy in the spring. Um, they're gearing up for their final concerts. We have band concert coming up and choir concert. Um, but they also competed at UIL concert and site greeting. Um, we took two bands from West Junior High and earned sweep stakes. We also received 121. So, everything across the board was a one. So, we were really proud about that. um choir also attended concert and site reading and received excellent and superior uh ratings. So really proud of our band and choir. Um and at the top you see our beginner band gearing up for their

018first concert. So that is just beginner band in a practice in the top right hand corner. So big big future. Eighth grade science is looking at our eighth graders take four star assessments. They take reading, math, science, and social studies. Um, so science is still looking at um they're implementing using the microscopes and getting the kids out of their student out of their seats just like Miss uh Galloway said. Um making sure it's still fun and we're not just looking at star things, keeping them engaged, keeping them learning in the classroom. So you see some of our eighth graders uh working on science and then social studies as well. Uh Blitz is something we're doing at West Junior High where in the mornings for the first 45 minutes we do a hands-on TICSbased um activity

019that the students are the experts on. So you see student leaders, they go across the across the different rooms for social studies or for science and they help teach all of the different groups and really take that leadership position and then the teachers give feedback on how well they did as far as their leadership. So you see social studies sorts in eighth grade and how they are truly interacting with their learning. And then agg one of our high school credit classes is CTE class. They are full on spring right now. And so you see some hydroponic growing and light growing. They're capturing their own water for clean water. And they also were super excited about the eggs this time of year as they are incubating those. And we're eagerly eagerly awaiting the first one to

020crack. It started today. So everybody on campus is stopping by. Miss Campbell's room to check on all of the fun things that are happening in A. Thank you, Principal Bolton. All right. Well, in March, we held a be a coffee bean themed staff meeting. In addition to laying out our star preparation plans, we were trying to remind the teachers to transform their environments by being a coffee bean. The teachers won door prize centerpieces that featured uh the rema reminders of the mushy carrot, the hard egg, and the transformative coffee bean. And they all left having chosen a how to be a coffee bean rule that they want to live by that they then posted outside their classrooms, which you can see on the screen there. And then they were treated to Kate's coffee, of course,

021with some kalachis. And when they were left, they were challenged to share the message of the coffee bean with their students. and I thought you might enjoy um the video that I received that afternoon after that meeting. All [Music] right. You can change it by put music. You can say [Music] morning. So just stay positive. All right. All right. coffee. [Music] [Applause] So, the message of the coffee bean is continues on. We're going to finish strong. Um, on the second slide, uh, we recognized our students who got to ring the bell for achieving their grade level milestones, as well as our hoppers, which are students who jump from one performance level to the next on their star release test. On slides uh three and four, I wanted to share with you that our third through

022fifth grade teachers have really uh done gone above and beyond that they've ever done before getting ready for STAR this year. Um creating the hallways to look like camp, video games, and even the Olympics. They had competitions, challenges, incentives. Anything they could do to keep the kids engaged and motivated and pushing strong to learn before the STAR test this year. So, I'm really proud of all the efforts that they put into that. Then on the next three slides, I wanted to um highlight that we had our annual steam night and our art in the park where the students got to dye socks, tie-dye socks, engineer their paper airplanes, plant seeds, and so much more. Um, we were sponsored on that event by Stmath. They provided a lot of pizza for our families, which brought out

023the families. And we had a 30 STMath board games that went home with the students as well. and Ace even joined in the fun with a family bingo night as well. Was well attended, wonderful evening. And then the last slide I wanted to share with you is Evan Cacera at the debut of his original melody at the Breesport Symphony concert with his teachers and principles cheering him on from the audience. It was truly a special night for us all. Thank you, Principal Coh. All right. So, I know y'all seen some of these pictures um from campuses last month, but while Peach finally got to host our adventure-f fun run, it was a fantastic week leading up to events. Um we are embracing um being at the primary campus. If um you can you can't really

024tell, but in the Among Us costume, it is me. You can probably see by the size. Um on on Thursday, there will be an Easter bunny on campus, too. So, if you'd like to come take a picture at the Easter Bunny, come by on Thursday. Um, but the students all had a phenomenal time. I was a little interested, you know, cautiously optimistic to how our campus would do being that we are the primary campus and just with some of the obstacles that it had and just the fundraising piece of it. But we did amazing. Our students and our families um were able to we we raised more than our goal. So, the students were able to slime me. It was It was cold, but I one thing that I truly loved about this is that

025they were able to meet the needs of all of our students on the campus. So, they had a sensory sensory friendly time slot for all of for our four self-contained classes. And so, all of our students were able to participate in this event. So, we um again, I think other schools have already shared theirs, but at Wild Peach, we try to do our career day very similar to Touch a Truck, very hands-on event. So, we had our career day um last week on Friday. So, we were able to have um the Bersoria County um barn came and so that's the big truck in the center. Um the Wild Peach Fire volunteer Fire Department came, the Gulf Coast Rescue Squad came and all of the vehicles there except for I mean some of them of course,

026but the students were able to touch the trucks, get they were able to walk in the boat, the airboat. Um they were able to get in the const uh I didn't include the pre constables vehicles. They were able to sit in the vehicles. They were able to turn the sirens on. They allowed our students to touch the horns and um some of them were able to talk on the speakers. The students were able to just touch all the different vehicles. Um one of the things that I I didn't include the picture in this one, but the Btail, one of the guys in the for Betail, he got in, I don't know what it's called, but he got in the lift, the bucket, and he went all the way, touched the light, and the students were

027just amazed. and he he talked to them from up there. They came back down and the kids loved it. So, it was it was a phenomenal time. But, um, Brazora um sent they have a new dog catcher, so sent their new dog catcher came and showed us the uh the cages, the crates in the back. But, it was a good time. But, you know, Miss Hogan and Miss Doy from Communities and Schools, they're the ones who make the phone calls to get f um the companies and the people to come out. And it it was a it was a good event, a good time. Thank you very much. And we have chicks at our school, too. Our chicks have already hatched. We have competition. We have quails and chickens. We are waiting for our ducks

028to hatch. Tomorrow, tomorrow should be their day. So, if you would like to come by and see any ducks, the end of the year, is there going to be a giveaway or what's up? We we have given some away already. But I'm a good veterinarian. Yes, we had seven quail and I think because we have given some away, um we have two left, but Wow. Yes, that's cool. Need me. Good job tonight. Thank you. Students be heard. We have one well group. Columbia High School Project Graduation 2025 is here tonight. So we have some students here tonight to make a presentation. Aubrey Smith, Brady McCann, McKenna Presley, and Destiny Head. All right. Um, so as you said before, I'm Aubrey Smith. This is Brandy McCann, Destiny Head, and McKenna Presley, and we are all part

029of the CHS class of 2025. On behalf of the Columbia High School graduating class of 2025 and the 2025 project graduation, we would like to thank the CBISD board of trustees for your support, specifically by allowing us to have the memorial brick paper fundraiser during the construction of the newly designed Columbia High School. Mr. Champagne, we would like to thank you for your service to CBISD, not only as a CHS graduate, but for serving 21 years on the CBISD board of trustees. In honor of that service, we are here tonight to inform you that your fellow trustees want to honor your service and are having an 8 by8 brick paper placed in your honor. The brick paper in your honor will read Jonathan Champagne, class of 1979, CBISD board of trustees, 2004 to 2025, Rough

030Neck forever. Thank you all and we look forward to seeing you at our graduation ceremony on Thursday, May 22nd, 8:00 PM at Griggs Field. Y'all need Can we get a group pick? Get Mr. Champagne up there if you don't mind. We need photo evidence of this. I think we go with that first one. Want to stand in the middle? Mr. Champ, while you stand in the middle, I'm being picky. Ready? One, two. Very good. Thank you all very much. [Applause] Thank y'all very much for doing that. Very much appreciated. Next is reports. We have the delinquent tax collection report. Mr. Mike Garlo. Okay. I think it's appropriate that on your last meeting you get to hear me. If y'all would like to leave, it's a good time. If you want to sneak out, you don't

031have to stay for the rest of meeting. Thank y'all very much. That report to hear that have literally they got economic class credit, man. Exactly. There you go. We get CT for Mike's report. If not, we'll bring it back. We have to talk a certain length of time for you to make credit. You got it. Good to see you. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure, John, working. Thank you. Um, so just a quick update on the delinquent taxes, uh, since we were here way back in the fall. So, the 24 taxes went delinquent February 1 of 25. They're not reflected in this report because they don't all officially get turned over to us till July. But on April 1st, all the people that hadn't paid their 2024 personal property taxes, your business or

032mobile home, those were turned overs to collect and we started working on those. In May, the tax office will mail out notices to people that haven't paid the balance of their 24 real property taxes, and they get until July one to pay that. And if you haven't paid your 20 24 taxes on your real property by July 1, on July 1, you get the pleasure of paying the tax, a 12% penalty, 6% interest, a 20% collection penalty. So the theory of the law is pay it because it cost you a bunch of money because in theory that's money you all if people had paid their taxes on time you would have been able to have it use it for what you need but because you didn't have it you have to be as you will

033compensated through payment interest for not having that money when you need it. So it's expensive. Uh so we urge people to to get in there and pay it. So for tonight, this just gives you a snapshot of what's owed. A little over $900,000 to base tax when I prepared this report for you. Couple of categories I like to point out. Uh one is deferral. I mention it every time because I think it's important people to know that if it's your homestead, you're over 65, you can defer the payment of your taxes. Uh it's a form you fill out at the appraisal district. And when that happens, then you don't have the worry of paying for it. But you may want to tell your family that you've left them a little something pass away. Uh so

034then they get the bill and they're not totally shocked about having to catch up and pay a bunch of taxes. But we code those and then we don't we don't work on at least once a year. We go back through that list to make sure nothing's changed. They changed the law. A couple years ago, it used to be that you had that the family would have basically 180 days from the date that the person that owned the property died to pay before the penalties and interest that had been held off because of the deferral get added back on. They changed the law to now it's 180 days after the tax office mails a bill which is dependent on when the appraisal district finds out about it to tell the tax office which in essence has

035added an unknown amount of time between when the person may pass away until the bill goes out and then the additional penalties go on. I think the theory was to give people a little more time to try to take care of it. But that represents $219,000 in tax to you. In our litigation category, roughly 25% when the letters and phone calls don't work and we have to file suit. Uh that's how much we have in suit. Uh and their variety of categories. Um many of you, I'm sure, get our email blast every Friday morning about tax sales. Last, not actually, yeah, this month, yeah, April, we had some property for CBISD that was on the sale that sold. Uh each month we've had most almost every month we have property in the district on the

036tax sales and people still want property in Brazori County and if we have to put up for sale and we're not able to make an arrangement with somebody it's selling and oftentimes it sells for more. Uh all of you that have been around for a while remember our barex days. We are still we have basically sold everything filed suit and sold everything in Barex. At one time there were hundreds of lots, very few now. But when we do have some built up for sale, they're selling for more than the taxes that are owed. Um, and if somebody does have their property set up for sale, we'll work with them. We had a situation with the taxpayer here that we had to we pulled the sale because they were in the process of getting a loan.

037So, we give them the time. I mean, our job isn't to own property, to get the taxes paid. So those type of activities on in our litigation category. Um action penny I just want to mention you know sometimes there's easy accounts to collect. It's a it's a lot block in the subdivision. There's a mortgage easy people can't pay it. Lender will pay it or we'll have to file suit. But it's you know there's one or two owners maybe a lean holder. We do have properties uh on the roll that are very complicated. We have one that I think we finally got to a point that it's going to actually get resolved and paid. Had a family was paying it, only let it go delinquent the last two years, and then they started to believe that

038they didn't own it. Well, we found out they had a probate, multiple probates in Harris County. They had sold a couple years ago hundreds of acres to the Nature Conservatory, but 58 acres they never sold. And we couldn't get them to understand, well, yeah, we still think you own it. They thought somebody else owned it. We did all the research, figured it out, gave it to them, and they go, "Yeah, you're right. We own it. Now we know who we need to go to to try to get." And then a final example, I have one that I'm trying to approve for soup, but it blows my mind every time I have to review it. It's got at least 25 heirs have an interest in a piece of property, and those are complicated. So, you got

039to work through that, figure out who to sue, and then eventually get that property up for sale. But if I can get a track of land up for sale, somebody will buy it. Moving on because now I've taken more than two minutes. Bank is going to be upset with me. I'll skip the second one. Let's just go to the third one real quick. So this just breaks down by tax year what's owed. The largest single year is 2023, the most recent year. We started last July. So we're winding down the first year collection on the 23 year. And you can see for 22 and 21 in each year prior to that the amount and the percentage it represents the total from your from the board standpoint the idea is harder to get easier to get

040more of the rolls in here more collectible it is for us to get that money in the door for you. When it gets to be this old we've got some deferrals we got some problem we can't figure out who owns it. Every once in a while we have a mobile home that it ain't there no more but the taxes were there. Um, so a variety of things that that go on in in that category, but the newer the delinquency, the better. When I come to you after the weather changes in the fall, we'll add the 24s on there and give you a sense of what's always. So, this is always moving. Lastly, I'll take you to the very last pie chart. You're going perfect. And I know Jonathan would love for me to go through

041every one of these in tremendous detail right now, but so I I know you all know this, but for the uh you levied for 23 like 17 plus million dollars rough number of taxes last July when we started on this 23 year out of all that money you had a little over 800,000 left in the we collected about 96% of your base tax by July when I started just to sneak ahead for 24. It's not on here, but your levy went up $21 million. And you've got right now outstanding through the end of March roughly 2 million. So when July rolls around and I give you this next chart, you'll probably be somewhere in this range, maybe a little higher. The more taxes you levy, obviously there's still going to be a proportionate amount that's

042going to go delinquent. It doesn't mean you have a delinquent tax problem. It just it's a natural evolution. As you're growing, there's always a percentage. I'm real happy with this. If you just flip back to 22 for one second. So last year when I did that whole cycle, I only got 55% which to me was not the best year I could have. Through March, we got it all the way up to 76. Then look at 23. More less money, 653. And then when you come to 23, you upped the percentage to a little over 800,000. But we've already got 60% of the 23. You just click one more. Yeah, I'm already 60% and I've got four months left of my collection cycle. So sometimes it's a taxpayer that had never been delinquent before they go

043delinquent. Sometimes it's timing. Uh so it can be a variety of things. Um but it's something that we look at all the time and try to make sure that we're getting as many accounts paid for you as quickly as we can. And let me say, Jonathan, it's been a pleasure working with you all these years. Um, I guess our careers have been together this whole time that I've been working for the district. You've been sitting right there. I greatly appreciate all the times that you moved me up and let me, you know, question for you on on 2016 and beyond those things. Is that ever written off because you just can't get them or whatever? Personal property when it's 10 years old gets written off. Okay. real property 20 years. Okay. Is written off before

044then it's out there still out there looking at. Okay. Trying trying to collect it. Okay. Mike, it's been a pleasure. Thanks all y'all do for our district. Y'all do a great job getting this money. Questions y'all may have be safe going home. Thank you very much. Mike, are you going to still talk to me when I see you at a golf tournament or you going to just ignore me now? I'll still give you a ball. Okay. Okay. That's that's where I was going. I just don't want to ask in front everybody. Maintenance report. Mr. Williams. All right. Well, there's not a whole lot excuse me. Not a whole lot going on as we were getting closer to the end of the school year. You know, we're trying to gear up for graduation. Make sure we're

045getting all those things in order so the ceremony can go as usual without hitch. Uh that aside, uh I wanted to let you guys know that the E3 project, all the lighting and mechanical upgrade has kicked off. Uh matter of fact, if you drive past the football field, you'll see some there with a lot of their materials and supplies stored in it. Uh I actually handed over them some keys yesterday afternoon and they're working nights. So, uh, principles, you know, you may or may not notice other than just different lights, things coming in the next morning because they're they're cleaning up as I go and not leaving a mess, working out of sight, out of mind, weekends, nights. So, that's in effect. Uh, we had a kickoff meeting for the roofing project uh, a couple

046of weeks ago that we're going to start with uh, junior high that'll start taking place closer to the end of May. U,, beginning of May, end of May, whatever. I got so many dates in my head, I can't keep up. Uh following that, we'll jump over to Westclum Elementary. We should be finished well before school starts. Uh while Peach Water Well project, we're still waiting on TCU approval on that. It's still hung up in its paperwork. Other than that, there's not a whole lot going in maintenance. It's just uh you know, business as usual. Roofing, are they getting us a quote for high school and yes, barrel stuff? I've reached out. We've they're they're starting to get square footages and everything together and uh at some point in the near future going to come down

047and and have some walks to just kind of get up, you know, get their eyes on it, re-evaluate it and kind of get us. Do they do the infrared or whatever to look at moisture yet or if that happens at that point in time? That'll happen sometime between here and uh then Okay. No, it hasn't happened yet, but it's it's on the horizon. Questions, comments? Thank you, sir. All right. Well, with that being said, Mr. Champagne Maintenance Department would like to give you a fairly well. We appreciate all the dedication and hard work that you've given to this board and to this district. Make our lives easier. Uh the rest of you board members just as well. So, thank you very much and God speed to you on your next endeavor. Thank you, Justin. Commissioner

048Miller's here. So, we don't have a safety report tonight, huh? Chief, I don't think Chief, you got Chief back there? You got anything, Chief? I don't have anything other than my report that's in the same sentence sentiment from uh maintenance report. Appreciate everything you've done for us. Thank you, Chief. We'll be seeing you around for sure. That's right. Instruction report. All right. Uh in in board book um I I think is attached. This is our last round. So we did take uh our last round of uh release test. um uh back early in the year, February, I guess. Yeah, late February, early March. Right. And so um that's where we're at. Um principles are here if you have questions. Other than that, STAR has started. We're off and we're off and running. I think you

049haven't tested yet, have you, Jeeoff? Yes. Okay. Those one and two are done. And Bio is today, right? So well, everybody but co he's off and running. Cody, right? So, meaning at the end of the day, we're there. All right. But, but anyway, this kind of charts filled in kind of show you where we're at and uh we'll see. Hopefully, once this is wrapped up, the time we get preliminary, Sam, do you have a do we have a date on preliminary? June. Yeah. First week in June, give or take. I thought the report looked very good. Looks like I mean there was only a couple of grades that didn't progress from the first to the second and most of them are pretty close to goals. So over the years they've done a great job of

050better predicting of what was going on. So hopefully that transitions into the star goals and it does the district's going to be in very good shape. So good job. Any questions or comments? All right. Can we go back to security? We didn't have a report in our board package. No. Oh, chief. No. I thought he said he wants that. Chief doesn't do that. Mr. Miller does it. Yeah, Mr. Miller. Oh, the one you signed, too. Oh, okay. I'll give it to him and I think he puts it. I was just I thought you said something was in there, but it wasn't in there. That's okay. That's fine. It's that same letter that I signed that Mr. Miller has. Okay. Nothing big to report off them that you about the only thing I can remember us

051talking about is the drug dogs showing up, right? Yeah, dogs showed up. We had one report with a direct file assault case that was direct file DA's office. That was all we had and then we had $125 payout in Crimestoppers report. Uh we have interest this year in third quarter was 1.8 million of that 1.3 at 1.4 is from the bond. Um, we're still getting about a little over 4% in interest and most of our money is still with Texas class because they paid the most. Rates are holding up well. They'll probably stay there for a little bit, too. It looks like maybe we don't have to pay a tariff on those, do we? Financial report. Okay. Um, you can the financial report we're at uh 75% for the year. Our expenditures just for general

052fund is about 72%. Um we have a few that are over um but we still have about like I said before we still at about 400,000 under budget under the expense budget. Our revenues are still coming in a little slow on the state programs um and on charge also for this. Does anybody have any questions on the financials? I have a question. So some of them it says they're like at 144.47%. So clearly they're over, but those numbers aren't big on some of them. Some of them they are, but So for the end of the year, do they do these still have monies they need like do they have things they need to spend on or like do you know what I'm saying? Like not everything goes throughout the whole year. Are these things over

053are they going to go further over is my question? They could. Oh, like JJ A the tuition we pay for kids that are going to alternative schools that could go up depending on how many kids we have going to that school. I mean we don't have any there now. They've all been released come back on. Yeah. But yes, they can go over. But then it's likely that some of these won't go up to their 100% either. Right. Right. What would be 64? I can't say xx. What other operating expenses? What kind of stuff is that? Um, just trying to think a good example. Electricity, um, utilities, things like that. You're definitely going to spend some more on that. Yeah. Maintenance. Turn the lights off. All of that. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions, comments? One more.

054What is local and intermediate resources under special revenue funds? 200 to 4.99. That's 309% over. That's our federal. So that comes in goes out. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Another packet you had in there. Um, so there's this document. It's stapled kind of thick. Says e finance HR to top. Looks like this. It's from Julian. So, we started looking at um other financing packages because of just some of the issues we had with the finance of controls not being in place um from keeping errors from happening like in payroll. Um, we started looking at systems that everything that we do like our HR, payroll, student service, everything could be on one package. And so we looked at two different ones. Um, Ascender and Skyward. And so what I am presenting to y'all here is

055the one from Skyward. um we already use them for our student services and we would like to move our accounting over to them. I want to kind of draw you see at the top what we're paying for einance for our HR and finance and then for them hosting us in the cloud and then what we pay for applicant tracking and records which is um our employees records and we pay this year coming up we're going to pay $65,000 for those for those systems. I'm I'm going to jump down to like 2027 at the bottom. You can see for that same type thing, we would be paying about 22 just under 23,000 plus 5,000 for hosting. So we would save about $40,000 to move a year. Now of course at the beginning you have up upfront

056cost just to get you going. And so that's what you'll see in 2526 where you'll see, you know, what it's going to cost to get started, the initial investment. Uh they they gave us two options. I gave you their contracts um to show you. One of them was where you paid an initial investment of 58,700 and then your monthly your yearly reoccurring fees would be about 21,000. And then the other one was that you paid nothing upfront for your initial investment, but you paid 33,000 a month. So, I kind of gave you a spreadsheet to show that after about five years, you've made back your initial investment and then you continue to save money. That's your difference column on this sheet right here that you would save by going with go ahead and paying an

057initial investment of the 58 and not going with no initial investment. It cost you more in the long run. The upfront cost would be the 58,000. The initial investment, what they call initial investment is 58 on the contract I would go with is a 58,000. Now, you still have their services of 103. And that's just to set your system up to get um all of your walk through all your system set up to where it works properly where all of our stuff that we do manual now like doing budget transfers, budget amendments, it would be all computerized. It would be all electronic. Um and they come in, it takes about a year. They'll start we wouldn't go live on this until April of next year because it would take them that long to get everything

058set up. They just walk you through step by step through it and do the training, get you set up. There's training on site. Uh we'll have I think we have eight hours on eight days on site, but then we have a lot of um webinars and things that we'll you that we would go through and then we also will have a training base that we go in and train on to learn it over the next 10 months. So the initial cost is when we sign up. Yes. The initial cost they the services you see if you look at the contract the 103600 that's the service to get us um started. They're going to let us break that out in three years. Paying 40% when we sign up 40% July 1st 20% the following year. um

059the initial investment. I I kind of talked to him about if you look at the one that has the initial investment that is a studentbased um I mean it it's just you pay $21,000 a year. The other one is a three-year contract and so for three years they'll guarantee your fees but you pay more and you'll ultimately pay more with that contract. So, I just wanted y'all to see the difference. But ultimately, I really feel like the one where you have that initial investment, even though that's hard for us to swallow the initial investment, I think it's going to pay off the next, you know, 10 years. He did say that their their costs go up. He says anywhere from four to 5% a year. So that I I kind of put that five I

060did 5% to show you over the next 10 years what the cost would be. And we're still saving from e finance, you know, on a yearly basis $40,000 and we have everything in one place with one company. And what I like about Skyward is that everything that they do is inhouse. is just their their systems and powers school what they've done e finance is they've bought like they bought an applicant tracking and they try to integrate it into their system and they'll buy HR and they try they don't make their own they just try to integrate it and I think that's has caused us a lot of problems one thing I liked about Skyward there was a lot I liked about it I went in thinking I wasn't going to like it because I had

061talked to Needville to their accounting person she didn't like their reporting But when we they actually showed us what they did, like in December when we had the issue come up with the TRS not being withheld, they showed us not knowing that had happened. They showed us a payroll and when they got ready to process it, it came up with red letters in a person's name and it says, you know, alert TRS has not been withheld. And so you knew before you processed there was a problem. And that kind of sold me right there. But that was just one of the things that they had that was uh they just had a lot more controls in place to keep you from making mistakes than what we have with the finance. So these figures do they

062include the yearly licenses? Well, that is the yearly licenses is is what you're seeing where it says upfront cost. That's total drive out for everything. There's nothing else associated. No. One thing I don't have on here, and that's Well, I have it. The hosting, if you look at the contract, they have a they say the hosting is $3,000 a year. That's for their bottom line hosting. I wanted the 5,000 because it gives us a training base. So, if we're trying to see if we implement something new, we can go into training. or if we're doing a a year in close that we only do once a year, we can go to training and play with it, make sure we're doing it right before we actually go and do it live. And that's the you get

063that if you just go up, which the same thing that E Finance has, you can see is $13,000 for hosting and theirs is only five. And they do about 320 schools in Texas. Um I I think Bay City uses them for their finance. Angleton Angle doesn't use the cumulative. They just use the old version. But Neville also they use the new version and I think Sweeney uses the new version of the accounting part of it. But that would have us having our accountant, our student, everything in into one system. So the numbers here don't factor in what you already pay for einance that wouldn't be paid that thing we will have to pay for both of them the first year. So our e finance you said you said till April right? So e finance renews

064for us for applicant tracking it renews July 1st for e finance it renews in on se August 31st. So we would renew with them August 31st and then in April when we go live they would be be running consecutively and then we just would not renew with them in August of 2026. That'll be a pinch for a while. It will. It will. But no matter when you c cross over, you're still you're going to have to do that. Yes. Because you don't want to stop one and start the other and just shut it down. You want to make sure you can't I guess infrastructure wise we we're good to go for in on the infrastructure side. Yes. Yeah. This so this will be all hosted. So we won't have we won't have a server for

065it. One thing I like about Skyward is it integrates with our systems really well. E finance right now you have to enter in the new employee and then you enter it into Skyward and then we have to enter it into our system. It it'll it'll be entered in one time and then sync through all the systems. So that that makes it a lot easier on our end. So I'm confused because the to get started is 1036 initial investment 58719. Right. Right. But then down on the 2025 it says upfront cost of 162. I mean it's not much difference. Is that supposed to symbolize those two numbers up there? Is that something different? It is. It should be I went back and looked at this again. It should be the 41440 the 58,000 and then the

06621,000 to get of the first yearly cost to get started. And it's kind of prrated plus the hosting that's 110 that's 162. Well I went and on 2025 I did the sign the first 4140 because we have to do that if we sign up with them tomorrow we have to pay the 4140 and then 71 we have to pay 4140 again. So I felt like I included both of those years. Okay. The 80,000 plus the more those three numbers there. When I look at page five, it talks about the 58719 talks about 1036 and it's got first year recurring of 20,503 on page five. Yes. Are we paying do we have to pay that 20,503 when we sign up or does that start next year? That will start with I think in October when once

067they get the system in and we work through some of our processes and get some of our stuff in then we start training. Once that system's available for us to start training, we start paying it. We will only pay it from a prrated rate from October through July 1st because I wanted our contracts to run July 1st to July 1st. So we're it's April and we're presenting this. When's go time? When's it will be April of next year? No. Okay. I know. But I mean to let them know so that they're ready to know tomorrow they we will start working through signing contract. So to be able to get ready to be live July 1. What's your 01 26 or 25? 25. Excuse me. So to be able to like when we start July one

068to have Right. Is that what we're looking at? No. Okay. July one of 2026. 2025. No. It's gonna take them till 26 to get us April 26 is when it would crank up. I understand that. But when do you need them active? That's what I'm asking for. If you if you we don't approve this till July 1st, can they still get you up and going by April of next year? I don't I don't know. He did this based on right now their capabilities of what they have available. I mean, me personally, it's hard to look at something like this until we have a better feel on the budget, which I think they've passed some stuff. I'm sure we're going to discuss it sometime tonight or close, but you know, I don't know. So, tell me

069again, if we sign the contract tomorrow, what would we owe? 41440. We would owe 41440, the 58719, and the 5,000 hosting to start. Yeah. So, tonight's a report item, right? It is. Tonight's a report item. You You have to approve this. We don't meet till May. So, that's what I was That was You mean this is just the first meeting. It's not the I mean, Right. Because it has to come back in the May meeting for that. Yeah. By then you'll have some idea what the budget looks like and it'll be a lot easier to address that because because then you're going to turn around around if you pay that May 1st or May whatever the meeting day 14th then on July 1st you're going to pay another 41 for for that 162 So in

070year two the 42,000 that is remaining $20,000 of the 103 the 27 20,503 for the first year service. Yes. Okay. And then the third year 27 is when you're actually just paying the annual cost that is and you just projected the 20,53% each year each year just to see what it would be on your e finance is is that is that a fixed cost of 65 or does that go up every year? Go up every year and in fact on this e finance the 35,242 that doesn't include a student activity and it doesn't include um our fixed assets. I took them off because we had not been using them. So, I didn't re I'm not renewing them coming up. So, the cost of this actually would be closer to about 72,000 if we had have

071left them on there. You have those features underneath Skyward or they're all included. I mean, the the cost savings shocked me on what what they cost. I even would call him back and say, "Okay, I want to make sure this is all included." Because it was such a significant cost difference. I'm assuming you do use those things. You do something to account for those records that you didn't use under any finance as it right now. We use QuickBooks for our student activities and we use um an Excel spreadsheet for our fixed assets. It's not in einance. It was we've always had the module, they just never used it. the student activities we started but we just we couldn't ever get well for two years they they couldn't tell us why it would work and they

072end up refunding us the money for those two years and we were moving forward to get it set up but we had to something we couldn't use with what we had from them and so we finally figured out what it was we were moving forward with it when we started talking about wanting everything under one company and so we just I just didn't renew it this year for the board to look at it next month. Yeah. I just I mean from our standpoint it's it's a have to, right? And that's kind of why we're presenting it. It's a it's a have to. You know, we we've talked about some of the mistakes we've had. Your software is supposed to help you and our software right now is just not helping us. Right. And we've had

073that software since when that was at least 20. Yeah, I was going to say that was picked by Yeah. a previous superintendent and a previous CFO, right? And I'm sure it was state-of-the-art then, but it's not they have and and they have Finance does have issues. Um they're losing a lot of people. They're losing them to Skyward. I went to a region six meeting the other day and there were two other people in there with e finance who were moving away just because of the issues like we've had that they didn't have controls in place that kept things from happening. Not that because humans can make mistakes and their software I'm sure could too but they have controls in place that we just don't have available through e finance. All right. Uh, one last thing

074under finances I did u, there's a three-page stapled in your marine binder on the front of it at the very top says House Bill 2 almost 8 million 8 billion in new funding for public schools. So, um, this is just a a handout. So, tomorrow will be a big day in the Texas House of Representatives. House Bill Two, which is the education funding bill, goes to the floor uh tomorrow. So probably by this time tomorrow night, we'll kind of know the lay of the land and what's happening. The front is kind of the highlights of House Bill 2. You can go through there raises the basic alignment and so on and so forth. Uh one of the things I do want to take your attention to that will kind of change things about halfway down.

075Uh it says requires the commissioner to adjust school districts enrollment in ADA for each 6 weeks interval instead of waiting till settle up. And when we're in budget conversations you hear about that. We predict we do it. They pay us through the year and then at the end of the year they either overpay or underpay us and we either have to pay it back or they give us more. Right. Well he's what this legislation would do would fix that. meaning that your payouts every six weeks would have to be adjusted which means now instead of submitting that enrollment data and attendance data at the end of the year we will be submitting the actual live. So that's going to change the process. That's going to change some things there. Um meaning we have to be

076right. Right. Right now we're kind of in a situation where we have it. We have it. We get we get a chance to fix it. We get a chance to fix it. It's not important right now. Next year if this passes it will be important every day. Um then a little bit further down it says prohibit school district from employing uncertified teachers and foundation courses. Exceptions are allowed for courses other than reading and math. So you do we do since we are a district of innovation one of the things that would happen is that it would require a a a Texas state certificate or ESPEC state board of education certification certificate. Right now we may have somebody that has an EC through6 degree teaching seventh grade math and we've DOI them because they did a

077great job in fifth grade math and so we've got them teaching seventh grade math. That's a DOI that that we're allowed to do right now. If this passes, you can see that by 2026, we couldn't have more than 20% of teachers and then it goes down to basically where you're you're taking that away. DOIs will still be available, but they would put a limit on what you would be able to do. And so there there is a push there. As you can see, as of right now, it's kind of linked to reading and math, meaning, you know, the financial advisor we have teaching money matters would be okay. So uh just want want to bring that uh to your attention. So, uh, if you turn the page, the the next two pages are basically was

078the first, uh, House run that we were shared from Mo and Casey of House Bill 2 since there has been a a committee substitute put in place. And then before this hits the floor in the morning, or when it hits the floor in the morning, there's going to be another amendment that's going to make some changes. So, I will take you to the very last page. And if you can see, I've written some things in down. Um, uh, if you look under the 2526 school year, the summary data shows that, uh, and and our numbers are off a little, meaning our ADA and and stuff. So, this is not exactly perfect, but the expectation was that we total the difference would be $1.8 8 million to the district, meaning it would raise our uh it

079would raise our um revenue per ADA $692. So, for the first time ever, there were some reports uh yesterday that hit the news that said that the Texas House or the legislature is not putting out financial runs for districts because this is coming to the floor and they normally have their financial runs. Well, they haven't. Chairman Buckley put out information that says that the individual reps could come by his office and pick up a run of their districts. And so it was kind of why is this happening? Why is this happening? First time ever. So, shortly after that came out, I did get a text message from Cody Vuit last night and he texted me what I've written in hand and read right there that that committee substitute that's going to hit the floor or

080that amendment that's going to hit the floor tomorrow when this goes CBISD that number instead of being 1.8 would be 2.6 meaning it would raise our ADA from 692 to 996 ADA. So does this number include anything for the increasing safety and all that other stuff? Is this is straight? This is straight ADA off of this. So what's happened is, you know, we've talked about SHs funding. The SHs funding we lost. There's a separate bill to make up for SH funding. That would be an addition. There's a safety a bill to increase the safety aotment. That would be in addition to all of this. And so we don't know tomorrow if if this get as soon as this gets voted on tomorrow then we will get the runs and we'll be able to identify what

081was in what was out and what those extras are. But Cody Cody's uh Cody's text didn't say what they are. He just said there's other funding available outside of this that will be coming as well. I'm glad see when you send us the Friday letter and talk about the 1817 we were still in the world of her. Yeah. Because you said I mean when you take out what you have to do raises that was 700,000 leaves us first year a million one she had a million two when we met but we also looked at Mo solar project that was additional 600 short we was about a million8 so I mean you were you were 600,000 still short based off the million eight going in the next year 700,000 in raises carries over you only had

082a million dollars to work with and you're so I mean it wasn't looking good from what those numbers looked Like there's still going to be a lot of cuts. If we do the 26 and 28, the district will be in a lot better shape. Yeah. But it's you said it's an amendment. So it's an amendment that's going to hit the floor that will change it to the numbers. Cody Cody. Yeah. Yeah. Meaning that amendment is going to get added before it ever gets voted on. So Chairman Buckley's the one that adds. Yes. Now there's a chance it could pass the house. I don't see it not happening, but they like us. So after it passes the House, then the Senate passes this one or the Senate has their own bill and then that's when they

083match. The Senate has already passed their funding bill which only gave which and so read the tea leaves. They only put money in teacher raises, right? They didn't spend a whole lot of time on the education budget, but they did spend a whole lot of time on the voucher bill, which is their SB1, I believe. So if you read the tea leaves, the Senate taking over, right, whenever it gets done, the voucher bill will be a Senate bill and the funding for raises and stuff is going to be a House bill. Okay, that's that's the way I see it. But yes, both of those if it passes, it has to go to conference committee with the Senate, come out, go back to both, and then go to governor's desk to become and get signed. Right?

084So again, the voucher bill is separate than this, right? Voucher bill don't make it. Does he sign this one if it you know? So there's still a lot of politics at base. So So the voucher be bill is what is it saying as far as if a student leaves here and goes? You said the thing and and the Christian Center is going to open the school back up apparently. So if we have 100 students that go over there, then do we lose 100 times 10,000 out of our revenue? We lose the ADA. We lose whatever the ADA is. Okay. Anyway, just wanted to give you that. Pay attention to politics. Tomorrow is a big day in the house. That's all I got. [Applause] All right. Next would be bond report. Things are looking good. uh

085progressing. Um you know, we're talking about the end right now. Had a had a construction meeting today. We're talking about the end and so uh everything's going really really well. If you have any specific questions about anything, be more than happy to answer those. Otherwise, I do have an updated uh bond report in your marine folder. Say this out loud. Thank you for dating that. So many things that we get doesn't have a date on it and when I keep them I'm like I don't know what's I do that for me. So I do I do it by board meeting. So I dated that 4:15 one. So starting tomorrow the one I work on will be 520. So um anyway just laying this out again. That first column 100% those are budget numbers. The yellow

086is budget slack, meaning those that's what I'm kind of keeping out because I think there could be things we give us the money to address things as we move forward. You're saying contingency basically. Yes. Yeah. Meaning if it doesn't get used, it come it will flow into the green. The green's what I'm telling you I think is going to be left at the end of the day. Right. So when you add up uh the budget slack, which I call it, is a little over 1.4. The additional U that I think's going to be there is going to be 6.2. U again the 2.277 is the variance between uh the original and what we approved as the 100% construction budget as of interest at the end of March. That's the 3.1. When you add all that

087up gives you a total of 116 that I think will be available to be used. Meaning I've still kept out the 1.4 in yellow. It's not included yet. could come back. Uh the 332 303 is what's left in the junior high bond which gave you that 11.9 total. We did pass the $4 million for the West Columbia and West Brad junior high roofing project which I'm telling you it looks to me about going to be about 7.9 left and then whatever's left out of the yellow and then by that time anything in the construction budget line items that's not used that will flow back to us at the end of that as well. Uh you know kind of what Mr. Shane Payne was talking to you about in the last meeting is using that 2.277

088and the 3.1. That's kind of the number that you could consider available and you've used $4 million of that total but get which gives you 1 point something left is if you wanted to say you could use it. So, you know, as of right now, you know, we're kind of in that holding pattern. You know, we've got other projects we're talking about, but those are in the planning phases. We're not ready to pull a trigger on those things yet. Right. Um, so just as a reminder at the bottom, the CHS band hall renovation has been taken out of this. The district security upgrade we did last week for Vicotta cameras district ride is there. Um, if you can see over here to Columbia, I've sent you pictures of the Columbia high school ephus, which is

089that SEAB building exterior that's getting uh taken care of. That's already in in the numbers, the HVAC piping. so that you know we don't when we when we turn the new HVAC on we don't blow something out in the build that's getting that's already taken care of as well as you do have two other things on the agenda tonight the district phone upgrade and the district radio transportation and campus upgrade is for uh uh safety communication those numbers are already taken out of the yellow and included in the yellow as well okay so meaning if you did pass those numbers wouldn't change if you they didn't pass them then those numbers would go back into the yellow line and they would increase. Okay. The other projects I have down there too from Wild Peach Waterwell

090all the way to you know we have two things that came on the list this week which would be the marching band tower and transportation mechanic bus left and then of course scoreboards and mares and stuff that we've we've talked about for a while. So So are we But the scoreboards are in the bond package, aren't they? Or is that outside? They're outside. Oh, I just understood you were there. No, no. So, are we going to go ahead and replace the marching band tower? We'll talk about I was going to give you some suggestions. Okay. So, on the interest of the bond, it shows 3.124 million through the March 20th. On your investment report, it shows 1.4. So, is that your investment for this year? That's just for this year. So, the others would be

091in from last year. Okay. Is that for the first quarter? One quarter invest your investment report. Your investment report that you turned in that's through the third quarter through March 31st. Yeah. For just one quarter or is that through the through the whole year? Through the whole year this year. Okay. That's year. Okay. Yeah. Since July through 31st. I see that now. Okay. So when they print it out to me, I have 2024 number and a 2025 number. That's Yeah, that's I just want to be sure. Okay. Questions, comments. Next, we have the annual report on training hours for individual board members. I think the law requires me to read it out. So, our board of trustees 2425 training hours. James Bruce, 13.5 hours. Jonathan Champagne, 7.25 hours. Becky Danford, 10.25 hours. Jackie Gocher, 14.5

092hours. Linda Heapner, 17.5 hours. Greg Cresta, 17.5 hours. And Ray Sison, 12.75 hours, which from my understanding, everybody met their requirement for hours this year. Next we'll go to the uh action items and the first is to approve the proposing proposal engagement letter for 2526 audit services. Okay. So we did go out for bid. Jonathan asked me to go out for bid. So you have a um in your folder there's a onepage. It's a one pager. Yeah. It's just the grading system of the four people who looks like this landscape. [Applause] How does the proposal compared to what we currently pay? Uh the the same thing. They didn't go up. They didn't go up. Okay. They did not. Um and he actually It said attached engagement letter, but since he they put in the bid

093before I got the signed engagement letter, I wanted to make sure y'all saw the different fees from each company. Um, of course, the rating subjective. That's why I put it in your your packet. Um, I do feel like that, um, you know, Whitley Pen, they're they're nationwide, so they were of course more expensive with $60,000. The other two were more in line with what we were paying. Um, Singleton Clark and Company. Uh, sorry, typo. Um, they're they're they're pretty small. It look like just a couple people working on it. Um, and the next closest one was Patella Brown and Hill. Um, they would be the one I would put up against Ken Master, but I feel like I do feel like Ken Master for us is the the way to go. One, they're local. Two,

094they know our district. They know how we work. Um, and the last few years we've really worked well together on them. um they didn't have as much audit experience, but they have the most with us and I felt like that they're a good fit for us. Their fees are really in line kind of right in the middle of the two closest to them. So, I didn't feel like that they were um overpriced either. Thank you for going out. It shows us that, you know, we are looking at that. I think Ker Master's done a great job over the years here. They are a local firm. They do have a lot of employees that live in our district. There's no questions or comments. I make a motion we approve Kim Master and Luxford for engagement audit.

095Second by Ray. All in favor? Any opposed? That carries. Approve summer school 25. Miss Fer, anything? Can I cover it right quick? Sure. Um so we typ we have our typical summer school that we're offering the um ESY for elementary and special education. We're offering our English the second language classes for our kindergarten incoming kindergarten and first grade. We will be offering our accelerated instruction to grades three through eight for those students who uh do not pass star. And we will also offer EOC for high school students that do not pass star t for them. We also will have credit recovery this summer and the locations and the times and our budget is attached and it's already budgeted, right? The expense is already budgeted. So, it's just let letting you know. Yes. questions or comments?

096I'll make a motion we approve the summer school 2025 plan. I'll second. Second by Becky. All's in favor. Any opposed? That carries. Next is the uh consider approval of student catastrophic coverage for 2526. This is the same company we've used every year. And basically what it is is that we pay about $2,800 a year for it and it allows our students to buy coverage if they're hurt playing sports or whatever. They can buy coverage and that's optional. It's optional for them. Do we have many people that actually take coverage? You know what? Honestly, I don't know. I need to find that out. You mean that? But I was curious. I don't know. It all goes to mostly the athletic department. So, I need to ask Connie that. So, we pay the 2,200 and then the

097kids have to pay some of it, too. No, they pay for their own policy. They pay for their own policy. What does the 2268 get? It's just the right for them to be able to offer it. Expensive, right? The kids can. Yeah. For like $25. Yeah, they pay 25 bucks. Y But it is a good question. I do need to see how many people buy it. Could you just let us know or let Stephen know to give it to us? Because if we just have one, it's kind of That's true. Yeah. I don't We didn't just because we had insurance. But I if I if I remember right, I mean it covers them like during the school day as well, right? Not just in an athletic just coverage. Yeah. From a board's perspective, how many

098students you think should have to select him for us to just spending $2,300? Over 10. Yeah, it's definitely over 10. Okay. I mean, because it's really going to help out for kids that families don't have insurance at all. Yeah. If if they buy it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. But we also don't want to have it if we don't need it. If we paid $2,300 and nobody got it, then I mean, that's a waste. I don't think we've ever known how many people have gotten it before. So, it' be interesting to find out. She want to approve with the caveat that we have more than 10 students that signed up for it. And if they have less, you'll look at it again next month. Well, I I tell you what, I would approve it. Just

099because you approve it don't mean we sign the letter. Uh just prove it prove it based on you know us finding out if you know. Okay. Just prove it that way. And if it if we find that it doesn't meet that qualification, then we just won't do it. Okay. Y'all good with that? Okay. I'll make a motion that we'll approve the uh catastrophic coverage. Those caveats second James. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Carries. Consider approval and addition of district transportation safety communication radio system to the Columbia High School from the to the Columbia High School bond project. Meaning you would you would add from that. Yeah. Yeah, we kind of you're adding it to the scope of the project. So Josh, you want to cover that right quick for us? Yeah, so

100we're looking at uh going to a cellular platform for the radios right now. It's currently connected to our network and we did get a quote from Bearcom for that. Can you I'm sorry. Cody, can you bring that thing up because they don't have I don't have it at their board table. Yes, sir. So the first line item. Dexcom is the one that we're looking at. Uh we've gotten demo units from them. And the good thing about this is you can use it outside the the area that we have right now. We have two repeaters at the moment. One at West Columbia PD and then one at support center. So we're only able to use the radios within that range. This will allow you to use it anywhere. If if you were to travel to Houston

101on a bus, you can still communicate with them. So it it picks up on cell towers. It uses all cell towers in the location. So, it's not tied to one specific carrier. So, if a Verizon tower is down, it's going to jump to an AT&T tower. So, you got Nexcom, School Radio, and then the Bearcom Wave. Those all use cell towers. And the cost difference on that is for hardware. You're looking at Bearcom Wave, they charge you up front for all the new radios. So, you're looking at 98,000 just for new radios. And then the school radio, they charge 3,500 for those for the new radios. Whereas Nexcom, they give you those radios if you sign a six-year contract with them. So, we were looking at six-year contracts on all items. We also looked at

102microwave networks that that'll build they'll build a network for us that doesn't rely on our network. And so, the issue we ran into with that is we need a 100 foot tower. uh that the tower we currently have at support center is is not tall enough and to build a 100 foot tower you're looking at $40 to $50,000 to do that. So looking over everything, I did a lot of research. Uh I just kept coming back to Nexcom. The cost is is the best cost that I could find. And then you get two months free out of the year. So they they give you two months off because they know we have summer. So we're not going to be using the radios as much. Now, if we did use the radios, you know, more frequently

103in the summer, they would charge us for it. But I spoke with Ray. He said there's no way they'll they'll be using that amount. So, we do get two months free with them. And the total cost for six years is 113,000. And that, you know, that's a big savings compared to going with any of the other ones. So, they monitor your usage, right? Are we limited in any during the other 10 months? We're not limited in the 10 months because we're paying for it. The usage would be monitored in those two months because they're given to us for free. Yeah, there is a you can use it at a limited I think it's two radios. Okay. Now, I would assume this microwave networks even if we built the tower, you're still just limited to your

104network. If we went to Houston or wherever you're once you're out of line of sight or whatever you're going, right? Once you're out of the range, you can't use it. Where where Nexcom, they use cell towers, so you you have signal everywhere. Are there are the next comm radios covered during that six year or something breaks? They They're full warranty. So if anything, you know, they don't replace physical damage, right? But if they malfunction or stop working, they'll replace them. So normal wear and tear will be. Is it like a sailor phone? Is that what it looks like? Or is it actually like a It looks just like a radio. So they use the same concept. All everyone that uses radios now wouldn't notice the difference. Do we have Do they like use cigarette light

105adapters on the bus to charge them or do they stay charged? Uh they stay charged on the buses and then the handheld ones that the schools have, they'll have a docking station. Okay. So the bus will be a permanent like a CB radio type. Thought we were looking at an order. Yeah. Yeah. We could that's what we talked about also doing all handhelds. So we would just have a docking station that they would they would dock them once they're done using them. Meaning our bus routes are right three hours they come back in dock charge it. I mean we should we should be fine. Our our only issue would be if we went on a trover night trip, right? Right. They could take it, but they could take a charger with them. Yeah, they can

106take a charger. Just take a standard charger. Get some extra batteries. They have detachable batteries on those. They do. If I remember right, Ray said that like when you get it, comes with a package. You get like the car charger. Yeah, it's like like a cell phone. It's boxed up, has a charger, everything with it. So, it does come with all that. But yeah, for one of the safety things, this is talking with Ray. We're not going to do the install. We're going to do the handheld. They did find on all the tests with the buses, right? Yeah. Is that if we did have an emergency like uh you know like Sweeney had, we would have 65 radios in the district that we could go get and use in that kind of situation, right? From

107a from a a multiffactor type thing. That's just a nice backup to be able to have. And again, they also have an application feature where you can put the application on your phone and then when they're communicating through the radio channel, you would get the notification for it. So those are additional add-ons that you can do. So 65 radios, how many would be on? We we don't have 65 buses. 40. 40. So 25 would be like with administrators and things. Five at each each campus and then 40 on the buses. Okay. And so the 113100 is what you ask to come out of the bond. So we wouldn't have a payment for six years on this. That's correct. And it's a six-year contract you said. We strictly use these radios for travel. When you're travel

108communications whenever they're, you know, campuses, they use them every day. You know, whenever the buses are out and Linda call says, "Hey, my is my kid on the bus. You didn't get home." they can look me. You know, in a previous conversation where we had uh about, you know, using a cell phone, what was that? That was security, too, wasn't it? But well, what was campus camp? So, campuses have radios, right? Right. Now, but sometimes, like we said, they get in a bus in in Missouri transportation and they don't know till they get here within this cell tower range that the system's down, right? There's no check, there's no balance, there's no test until you get here and get in the range of this repeat. That's our current static. That's our current system. What we

109said was that Ry would say that the only way to if if that's down if they have a cell phone, he has to call. But that's what we were talking about was handheld. Ray was saying, you know, talking about having it installed in the bus and and my conversation is he and I had had the conversation about getting the individual radios yet. And we were talking about what's the difference of grabbing of reaching down and grabbing the horn to talk or grabbing the radio to talk. And and so he when he at the next day he started calling districts that use this and they're using the individual radios because when you when you come with the install into the bus it comes with an install price but you also have other mechanical issues that could

110cause problems too as well. So it's easier just to do that. Right. It's more functional. Right. And if we do swap over to Nexcom, we do we will save 125 per month that we pay for internet at the West Columbia. So that cost away. We pay Bright Speed for that. But but the other deal is if bus 140 if if bus 140 is down, we just take another radio, right? But if the radio's installed on bus 140, it's down. You don't have radio, right? Kid takes the radio. Well, that that that's going to be, you know, that's its own issue, right? But with people being used to carrying cell phones, I think that probably is losing them, breaking, dropping them, breaking them. You have to evacuate the bus. You can take the radio with you.

111I agree with questions or comments. I think he's good. I do too. especially when it gives us, you know, right now we go to Belleville to play a football game, we're dead to them and you're relying on someone's personal cell phone, which I don't like the district having to do that with people. We need to provide something. I make a motion we approve the uh proposal of NE nextcom uh the six-year contract out of using the B bond project money for the radio system. Second by Ray. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That carries. Next is the uh district phone communication system at Columbia Heights. Okay, Cody, if you'll work on getting that up. And then Josh, you want to Well, right now we use MEL uh IP phones. Those are the handsets

112in every classroom, every office. That allows communication between the classrooms. You can call outside also. [Music] Yeah. But these so these phones allow communication between you know staff and then to call outside. Uh and then they also use these for bells. So any of the bell system will play through the phones. Right now the the issue is Mel. So Mel, we're kind of unsure where they're going to go as a company. They they may be going out out of business completely or they may be getting bought out. Our handsets that we currently have, they go into life in 2027 and we're looking at buying new new phones for the high school. So, taking all that into account, we're, you know, we may we need to look at replacing all handsets throughout the entire district. So,

113I went I went through the list and I looked at Dial Pad, Momentum, and VTEL. Dialpad is is Google phone that they're also IP phones. They'll work just like what we have. Uh Momentum is Teams phones. So it does the same same all the all three of these do the exact same thing that we have now. Uh the benefit to them they're also hosted so we don't have a server anymore so we can cut cost on server. Uh the best price that I came across was BTO. They do everything that we have now and they're they're significantly less than the others. So you're looking at about 250,000 for uh 10 years. That's a 10-year contract with them. Whereas the others, you're looking at, you know, close to 500, 600,000. And the reason for that price

114jump is because, you know, the big companies, the big company names like Microsoft and Google, they're really the only ones out there right now. Uh, so handsets, handset cost, you know, they're they're about the same price, but the service cost is what you're going to see the biggest increase on. And then the one-time service cost, BTL didn't is not going to charge us anything for that. And it's all hosted at VTEL. So, you know, if we have any any issues, we we can call VTEL. They'll help us out with it. There's no server involved. They host everything for us. And, you know, one thing I like about Vel is customer service. Anytime I need anything, I can call them and they they come right over and help. So that that's that's what I'm leaning towards

115and that's what I would prefer to go with and that would get us set for 10 years. So from from a cost standpoint, what disappears out of the budget? So right now we're paying 15,000 a year for our Mel service. Um there's yearly support for that, right? Yearly support for that. If we look at we do have to upgrade all phones. So you're looking at 200 $250 $300 a phone. So you're looking close to $250,000 to replace all handsets. And then of course the yearly cost. So it it's very close to what BLE is offering us. And then of course you know the to take in account you want to take in account a server cost also. Yeah. Which is I say Mr. together winners Friday letter said that this would be roughly a $70,000

116savings out of the technology part. What makes up that $70,000? You're looking at server cost. You're going to drop that, you know, between it just depends on its usage. So you're looking at 5 to 8,000 a year and then you got 15,000 for the actual 70,000 over a year over 10 years. Yeah. Yearly yearly. And then one big item also is right now we have bright speed. So in West Colombia we use brighte for or my telephones to call out local and long distance. So with that with the broadband for the uh the radios and then the phone lines that we use here. We have a couple phone lines for fire alarms. We've paid from July to now $55,000. That entire bill will go away once we swap over for the radios and to bail.

117What about current contract? Current contract right now. We going to have to get out. We got one now or no? No contract with them. We're not going to have a penalty or nothing. No, no penalties on that. That was one of the deals is that we're outside of the warranty period. If if we do need help, you start by the time they get in their car somewhere in North Houston. Yeah. So, you said you're you paid 55,000 to Bright. That's for your local calling and your call features, stuff like that. Yes, sir. Okay. So, just to be clear on Betail's proposal, that's going to be 2,000. That's 24,000 a year. So, it's not a full 55,000 saving. It's 24 minus 55 or whatever that. So, I just want to want to be transparent with the

118board on that side of it. I was under the impression last month when Mr. Gallin presented it and we looked at this that the monthly service was wrapped up in that 17,000 a month and we wouldn't wouldn't have any more monthly bills each month. That's that's not the case. That's that's for support and and and for the phone purchase. We still have a monthly local service, but monthly local service will is completely separate. We'll continue to pay that. Whether we we went with Betel or Dial Pad or Momento, we would still pay this to Betel. This is for just these cost strut here. So, we're okay. We already What are we paying now to Beta for the fiber? We're paying for fiber. We're paying 6,000. Uh well, that's that's part of that's the actual internet

119pipe, which is the 330 $3,000. Currently what they're paying is the top three numbers the 57400 and the 312 that stays the same and and then you're adding all the phones because BT currently doesn't provide any phones. So as I was saying that that $2,000 a month right there is what we're currently paying to Bright Speed on the other side. Do we currently play Betail that amount plus Bright Speed? So you're wiping out all of the speed. We're not be paying retail anymore. We already got it or we are be paying more. What we paying monthly right there, that cost is going to stay the same. It stays the same. So, we're eliminating Bright Spe because they will not have the local DO would go out of Missouri, not out of West Columbia. So, that

120is a $55,000 savings. So, it will be a $55,000. You're right. I mean, go back to the cost page, Cody, for 10 years. So, we're going to pay $250,000 for 10 years, right? It's what we're saying additional, but at the same time, we're taking out $70,000 out of the budget for 10 years. So, when I add that up, that sounds like a great deal. And you're getting all new phones. I think it's 400 phones, isn't it? 400 phones. You know, for the You're going to be buying phones in two years anyway, right? Yeah. Because these the phones we have now in two years they will no longer work. Well, they could if they break you just have no support to get them fixed. True. That's a gamble you take. True. I wouldn't advise that gamble.

121It would go out whenever you have an emergency with my going through its changes. It was just it's not something you know I've been recommended to move away from. So just for everybody's clarification, if you remember from the last meeting when we started going through this and we started looking at that BTEL wasn't in our conversation. We were looking at these others because remember they're packaging it now in a way that you can do the bond funds and do this and set yourself up. And we asked, hey, does where's the retail range in this? Do we even have? And so we were the ones that reached out and asked, "Hey, can you I know you probably don't make a proposal this way, but this is the way everybody else is doing it. Can you put

122one together that matches this and they worked with Josh?" I was originally looking at teams and we reached out to BT. I went over there. They gave me a huge demonstration and it was great. So it's a no-brainer. Definitely. I agree that so out of it. I will abstain from voting on this. So if it's something the board wants to do, I advise somebody else to make a motion. Addition of district phone communication system to the Columbia High School bond project. Second. Second by James. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? And show me is abstaining, please. Thank y'all very much. Good business. We'll be in a good good shape many years to come. Call Brad first thing in the morning because Monday they were on a call and with terrorists they're talking about

123phones going up. So I think they supposed to go up 40% in two weeks. Hey, let me get I'll give you a cell phone number right now. jump on that. It's very turn the microphone off. Consent agenda is to approve the minutes from the March 18th regular and the March 27th budget meeting to approve budget amendment and donations. Approve the property health for trust and approve the agreement by and between CBISD and Sweeney Community Hospital. Would anybody like any of those pulled? One number one pulled. Yes. Number one. Okay. Greg, you make a motion for two, three, and four. True. Yes. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? Carries. Number one. What would you like? Greg was left off. There you go. He was he was at the meeting and his name wasn't on there. On

124which one? on the March 18th meeting. And we'll forgive you since you give us these little treats every day. Becky makes a motion to approve the approval minutes subject to the change of Greg being added to the March 25th March 18th meeting. Second. Second by Ray. All in favor? Any opposed? That carries. Anything else for open? All right. Before I adjourn, I want to thank y'all for all y'all done for our district. I think we have the best administration team in the in the world probably. And thank you for all the support you've given me. I appreciate it very much. With that, we will adjourn to close session pursuant to the Texas Government Code Opens Me Act section 551 9074 to consider the employment of professional personnel. Discuss the resation retirement of professional personnel. Discuss

125the performance of personnel consider teacher director supervisor administrative contract will reconvene and open and consider action on items discussed in close. Thank y'all very much. Thank you. Thank you so much man. Appreciate it very much. Thank you. I think you're