001Thank you all for being here with us today. Thank you for your patience as we were finishing up another meeting before this. Um, I'm going to go ahead and call this meeting to order at 6:21 p.m. And all I ask is you join us in a moment of silence, please. Thank you. Item number three is pledge of allegiance. If you'll please rise. 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. Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion to reorder the agenda to consider next items 5A and 5B, our proclamations. Second. I have a motion by Trustee Carrion and a second by Trustee de la Garza Lopez. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?
002Motion passes 5-0. We will go ahead and take up the proclamations. 5A, discussion and possible action to adopt the proclamation regarding the autism awareness month. Dr. Gutierrez. Yes, so World Autism Awareness Month aims to raise awareness for autism. Mr. Mark May, our specialist for marketing and communications department, will introduce a guest. Uh, Mr. Carrion. Trustee Carrion, I'm sorry. Board member will read the proclamation. Uh, and we are recommending action on this item. Thank you, Dr. Gutierrez. In the state of Texas, the county of Hidalgo and McAllen Independent School District, whereas in 2007 the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 62-139, World Autism Awareness Day, by unanimous consent, encouraging United Nation member states to take measures to raise awareness about autism throughout society, and whereas the resolution designates World Autism Awareness Day as a United Nations
003Day to be observed every year starting in 2008 to raise global awareness of autism, and whereas the aims for World Autism Awareness Day is to inform the general public about the global health crisis of autism, stress the importance of early diagnosis and early intervention, and to celebrate the unique talents and qualities of individuals with autism, now therefore, I, Robert J. Carrion, member, Board of Trustees of the McAllen Independent School District, do hereby proclaim that the month of April 2026 be observed as Autism Awareness Month. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the McAllen Independent School District to be affixed on this, the 14th day of April 2026. Right. Thank you. Come on in, sir. And you're going to shake hands with them. And our first student here is
004Jose Rodriguez from Alvarez Elementary. Now, our next student, Nathaniel Pena from Fields. And then we have Alejandro Garza from Seguin. And also his special education supervisor, Jocelyn Espinosa. And also from Seguin, here is Clementine Mejorado. And his her supervisor, Jessica Garza. And now student from Jackson, Sebastian Cantu. And another Jackson student, Ezekiel Luna. Special education supervisor is George Ann Goodlett. And from Achieve Early College Strides program is Gabriel Talamante. And supervisor from the Regional Day School Program for the Deaf is Whitney Maupin. And from Houston Elementary, we have little Daniel Benavides. And our special education lead supervisors, Carlette Barnett Bermeo. And our uh, director for the Regional Day School Program for the Deaf, Lisa Lada. And our special education executive director, Maribel Elizondo. We're going to take a picture now. >> Okay. We are requiring
005action on this item. Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion to adopt the proclamation. I have a motion by trustee Carreon. Second. And the second by trustee Haddad. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Okay. And we have discussion and possible action to adopt a proclamation regarding month of military child. Dr. Uribe. April is designated as a month of the military child. Therefore, McAllen ISD has designated April 17th, 2026 as Purple Up Day. Mr. Mark May, our specialist for marketing and communications department, will introduce our guest. And trustee Aaron Rivera, president, will read the proclamation. Administration is recommending action on this item. Okay. Thank you. All right. Whereas, as Americans, we owe a tremendous debt to those who serve to protect and promote our freedom. It is important to remember the
006men and women in uniform are not alone in making sacrifices. Their families, especially their children, are together in the sacrifice. And whereas, each April, we make a special effort to applaud military families and pay tribute to the resilient nature of military military children. And whereas, Purple Up for military connected students on April 17th designated to observe the strength and sacrifices of military children across the country. Now, therefore, I, Aaron D. Rivera, president Board of the Trustees of McAllen Independent School District, do hereby proclaim that the month of April 2026 be observed as Month of the Military Child. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and cause the seal of the McAllen Independent School District to be affixed on this 14th day of April, 2026. All right. And if our superintendent board can come
007up to the front, we'll introduce our students. Okay, we're going to start with Asher Hollinger. He's from Rayburn Elementary. Next up is uh Cogli Hollinger from Morris Middle School. And from Rayburn, Emma Barron. And from Rayburn, Daniel Barron. From Morris Middle School, uh Sage Barron. And from Rayburn, Bradley Moriarty. That's all our students, so we'll pose for a picture. All right. Moms and dads? Moms and dads? Your moms, dads, and principals. And we know this uh sacrifice by military families, not just children, but also their parents. Could the parents stand and be recognized for a moment? THANK YOU. ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU, BOYS AND GIRLS. OKAY. UM I AM GOING to make a motion to approve the proclamation. Do I Have a second? Second. Second. We have a motion by myself, trustee Rivera, and a
008second by trustee De la Garza Lopez. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Okay. We will go back to our public comments. I do want to thank those of you speaking today for your patience once again. Um We're going to play a short video, and then we will call up those of you listed to speak. Thank you. Here are the public comment procedures. Number one, individuals who wish to participate during the portion of the meeting designated for public comment shall sign up at mcallenisd.org at least 1 hour prior to the start of the scheduled meeting. Number two, an individual's comments to the board shall not exceed 2 minutes per meeting. Number three, the board shall not tolerate disruption of the meeting by members of the audience. Thank you. All right. Our first
009speaker is Fabiola Gonzalez. All right. Ms. Gonzalez, you have 2 uninterrupted minutes. Thank you. Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Fabiola Gonzalez. I'm the vice president of my senior class at Nikki Rowe High School. Today, I wanted to discuss um letting student council officers partake in the top 10% walk at the end of the year. I'm speaking today not just as a member of the student council, but as someone who has watched first hand how much heart and sacrifice goes into what we do for this school. I understand the concern about fairness. Every club on this campus matters, but I don't believe recognizing student council for our leadership and service takes away from anyone else. To say that allowing us for to walk with the top 10% would be unfair feels like the work we
010pour into our campus is being overlooked. Student council isn't just a club we attend once a week. It's hours after school. It's early mornings before anyone else gets there. It's staying up late to hang banners, decorate hallways, clean up after events, and make sure every pep rally, every spirit week, every assembly feels special. When something needs to be organized, when the school needs volunteers, when the hallways need decorating, student council is called Beyond events, student council works year-round to recognize and appreciate the people who keep our schools running. Our officers organize appreciation efforts for teachers, custodians, administrators, bus drivers, and even members of this board. These moments may look simple on the surface, a breakfast, a small gift, handwritten notes, decorations in a lounge, but behind them are hours of planning, fundraising, organizing, and coordinating.
011Our members do this because they believe the people who serve our schools deserve to be to feel seen and valued. Student council helps create a culture where gratitude, school pride, and community matter. We are not just planning events, we are helping shape the environment that thousands of students walk into every single day. We are the ones who create the moments people will remember after graduation, the decorations in the halls, the spirit weeks, the assemblies, the celebrations that bring everyone together. When people look back at their high school experience, many of the traditions and memories they hold onto were built by student council. And allowing them to participate in the elementary walk alongside the top 10% would simply be a way of saying that their commitment to serving others matter, too. Thank you for your time.
012Thank you. Mr. Hershel Patel. Good evening, everyone. Um Hershel Patel, dad of three beautiful McAllen ISD kiddos. Uh you've heard me call sweet breakfast items dessert. You've heard me refer to Doritos, Cocoa Puffs, cheeseburgers, and ice cream as treats. But let's just say it plainly. We're serving junk to our kids. On our latest menu, the artisan, S O N, baked chicken breast, B R E S T, fillet on a whole grain bun. It's a fried chicken sandwich. And the label confirms it. Just like the chicken chunks and drumsticks, the whole grain is set in vegetable oil. I'm in the food business. And that just means fried. Texas schools can't have deep fat fryers, so we let big food par fry it for us. Less unhealthy doesn't mean healthy. I want to thank CNP for shortening
013their plan today from 5 years to 3 years. The idea of going 5 more years of kids having access to junk was a serious concern for myself and over 600 other parents and students. Thank you for completing the scale assessment. It looks like we have a great foundation for making real and immediate changes to our food. I still have a couple of concerns about today's presentation. First, three of the four new breakfast items being proposed are presumably sweet. We're still looking at sweetness as the foundation for breakfast. This is a mistake. Secondly, there are no measurable outcomes. The goals are broad, there are no nutritional targets, no benchmarks, no way to hold anyone accountable in a year or two or three. We want to improve is not a plan. It's been at least 3 months.
014I'm asking the board to request that CNP come back with specific, measurable nutritional goals. Stop defending junk. That's the only way parents can know if we're making real progress. Thank you. Thank you. Chelsea Gossett. Hello again. My name is Chelsea Gossett. I'm a mom of two students at Dr. Pablo Perez Elementary and one at Morris Middle School, Sterling, who um planned to speak today, but she's not feeling well. I have three goals I'd like to present to the board in an effort to improve overall mental and physical health in our elementary students and only wish I had more time. My first goal is to eliminate the practice of silent or quiet lunches and increase the time allotted to eat to promote social growth and safer eating. I've heard from admin that choking concerns and limited
015time are reasons students are pressured to limit socialization and eat quietly. My second is to increase the time allotted for recess. I understand uh Senate Bill 25 was adopted in 2025 requiring 30 minutes daily or 135 minutes a week of physical activity as well as prohibiting using recess as discipline. Shape America recommends 60 minutes of moderate to rigorous exercise and not substituting recess time for PE. Recess helps focus, it helps regulate emotions, it helps behavior, it helps reduce stress, it helps increase engagement, it helps support brain development, and it helps improve memory. This sounds like all the things that we are looking for in our education, right? Not to mention the overwhelming research to back this up. Third would be no homework or provided on parents' request. 8 hours of instructional time for 4 to
01610-year-olds is sufficient and I couldn't find any solid evidence to support um homework for this age group. Um no homework also promotes family engagement, time to decompress and play. Um I was going to let my daughter tell you a little bit about her experience at lunch, but hopefully next meeting. Um but I'd like to share my own and as a parent volunteer who's been in the schools for the last 4 years, um I've witnessed lots of lunches from pre-K to fifth grade. Um and what I see are silent lunches. It is said by the lunch monitors, they use these terms. Um the kids get their trays, they're all lined up, they go across from them at the table and they are shush the majority of the time and as um silence is golden to be
017able to release the students to recess. And so, I just encourage our school to promote more healthy habits at eating. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Radha Patel. Hi, my name is Radha Patel and I'm in McAllen ISD fourth grader. My dad has been here many times to talk about food at school. I apologize for him. The cheese sticks and french fries are my favorite food um favorite food lunch foods. My dad can be really stubborn, but sometimes he's right. Cheese sticks are not a meal and french fries are not a vegetable. I'm grateful that our school gives us lunch every day and I appreciate the lunch ladies who work really hard every day. And I want them to know that I appreciate them. But I also know that pizza, cheeseburgers, and breaded
018chicken are foods my family saves for special times, like birthdays or Fridays, not every single day. My teacher says breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So, why does my school breakfast sometimes feel like dessert? I want to I want to eat school foods that give me energy to learn, not foods that make me want to take a nap. My dad talks My dad talks about this because he loves us. I talk about it because I'm the one eating it. Thank you. Thank you. Sterling Gossett. Okay. Christine Revelli. Good evening, school board. Dr. Gutierrez, thank you for having me. I want to start by saying thank you so much for your continued support as we navigate our food journey here within the school district. We are grateful that you heard us, that you
019responded by agreeing with us, and that you've tried to understand how it is attainable. That said, we need your help moving forward. We know the what, the who, and the why. Now it's how. We understand as parents and guardians that there will be logistical and fiscal challenges. However, I believe we've made it abundantly clear. Changes to our children's food choices in the district have direct consequences and are less than optimal. There are food items that continue to be offered in schools that we have repeatedly told you are unnecessary and harmful to our children and their health. Why are we still offering these things? When we have asked this question in other forums, the answer is always that these items are the most popular. This is unacceptable. Children will always choose the sugary option, they're children.
020It's our responsibility as their administrators, their educators, and their parents to present them with the safest and smartest choices as we know from scientific proof that when a when children are hungry, they will eat what's available to them. Let's make these choices the best they can be for the sake of their health, mind, and body, and for their futures. This is a This is one small example of the immediate actions that can be implemented right now. We have presented We have been presented with long-term goals, but for every good presentation, there should always be short-term opportunities. We are not asking for complete culinary facelift overnight. Instead, what we are asking is for a push forward with what we can control now. Because of time constraints, we cannot get into the specifics during this hour, but
021I assure you that if you're listening, you'll understand that we want to be part of the solution. In closing, we thank you again for your ongoing support and we look forward to collaborating with you and moving in a positive and meaningful direction in the future. Thank you. Thank you. Victoria Garza. Good afternoon. All right. Hello, my name's is Garza. I'm a mom of four McAllen ISD students. I have a few goals I'd like to present to the board whether or not I have enough time. My first goal is to eliminate the practice of silent or quiet lunches and to increase the time allotted for students to eat. This is important to promote social growth and safe eating habits. I understand there's concerns about choking and time constraints, but limiting communication during meals causes them to
022transfer that needed socialization into the classroom where it disrupts learning. Instead of punitive silence, schools are increasingly encouraged to use restorative practices or model appropriate socialization. Lunchtime at school isn't just about socialization. It also offers an equally an equally important opportunity for kids to unwind after the first half of their school day. Even the American Occupational Therapy Association credits school lunch periods with everything from fostering inclusion among peers to learning healthy eating habits and allowing students to compartmentalize work and play appropriately. As a parent, I have consistently witnessed and heard daily accounts from my children that are here that they are lined up often boy-girl order seated facing the same direction with no one across from them. Lunch is managed with a microphone and constant reminders to eat over your tray, quiet down, and individual
023students are often called out publicly with yelling involved. For students who have recess after lunch, they are released based on how quiet their table is with some being required to put their heads down. This raises an important question. If recess is dependent on silence, is it truly not being used as a form of discipline, which goes into my second goal. We need to increase the time allotted for recess. I understand that the Senate Bill 25 was adopted in 2025 requiring 30 minutes daily or 135 minutes per week of physical activity and are prohibited from eliminating recess or withholding it as punishment for misbehavior. However, while Texas law specifies that elementary students need at least 30 minutes of daily physical activity, this mandatory time is distinct from structured PE classes. Administrators are generally not permitted to
024use PE as a loophole or to replace the unstructured playtime that recess provides. The Texas Department of State Health Services explicitly recommends that recess be separate and apart from PE. I have more to say, but I'll just say next time. Thank you so much. And our final speaker for tonight, Lucian Delgado. Hello, I am Lucian Delgado and I am president, uh, student ambassador in the fifth grade and I go to Milam Elementary. And I believe and I believe that students shouldn't have non-processed food. Food that makes you smarter, stronger, and healthier should be food that you have at lunch. I know that kids my age love to have junk food as a treat from time to time, but not all the time. At my school, junk uh, processed food is served every day at lunch
025and breakfast and it and it limits me from my my full potential. And if and it affects me negatively. So, I'm asking that if you can make a a food schools have have better food to eat. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that concludes our public comment section. I'd like to thank all of you who spoke today. Thank you. And we are on consent agenda items and unless >> can I make a motion to reorganize the agenda to bring 783 to the forefront? 783, I have a motion. Do I have a second? >> Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. We are on 783. Discussion and possible action of donation on behalf of Capable Kids and The Wonderful Company for Rayburn Elementary. Dr. Gutierrez. Tonight
026we have the a donation for Rayburn Elementary on behalf of Capable Kids and The Wonderful Company. Mrs. Janette Nino, our associate superintendent for instructional leadership, will provide more information. Administration is recommending action on this item. Mrs. Nino? Thank you, Dr. Gutierrez. Yes, um, at this time we are inviting the Rayburn Elementary National Elementary Honor Society to give the presentation. Um, they have actively been part of this opportunity to, um, to have the inclusive playground at their school. And what better opportunity for leadership and community as pillars of NHS. So, they created a PowerPoint that a short PowerPoint and an overview and their officers. We have Chanel Partida, Emma Pompa, Eleazar Flores, Nayani Adame, Ele- uh, Cather, Daniel Sepeda, Mia Alanis, Analia Blancas, and Diego Pecina as part as part of our uh, student presenters. And
027we're also excited to have our principal, Ms. Partida, um, Ms. Pompa in our crowd, Mrs. Pena, and we also have Marisa Pecina from ExerPlay, Ivana Signs from Capable Kids, and Leo Espinosa from Wonderful Play uh, from the Wonderful Company this evening. So, students, are we ready? Yes. Okay, thank you. Hi, I'm Chanel Partida and I'm the president of NHS along with my NHS members. And we are here to present to you the inclusive playground idea. Our mission as NHS members is to make a positive impact on our school community. NHS recognizes students for outstanding achievement and character. It's designed from four pillars that encourage scholarship, responsibility, service, and leadership. We solve problems and always set an example for others. Our mission. We want to provide a play space for everyone to play including kids with
028different abilities. We want a play space that will give all students opportunities to play with their peers using playground equipment. Here is an example of our inclusive play expectation. Equity versus equality. We are looking for equity because equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome. Disability is dynamic and diverse. We must educate the community on what supports are needed for inclusive for inclusion while understanding that everyone's experience will be with a with a disability is individual. Who benefits from inclusive play? 7,300,000 school-aged children with disabilities. One in six children ages 3 to 17 with developmental disabilities. One in four adult Americans with a disability. 16% of children ages 5 to 17 with functional difficulties in at least one area. This play piece
029will be available for our school and the community after school and on weekends. In- Inclusion is beautiful because it helps kid all kids feel welcomed. Phase one of mission project. The project that we are proposing for phase one is beginning with our first inclusive play piece, the OmniSpinner. We want the OmniSpinner because it has a U-shaped opening so kids with disabilities have easy access onto the play piece. Our proposition is a partnership and a donation in the amount of $20,000 to support the OmniSpinner purchase. This The return on this investment is priceless. Some of our partners in this project is The Wonderful Company, Capable Kids, and ExerPlay. We have a video of me interviewing our student at Rayburn Elementary with a disability named Jules. She said that she would love the playground equipment, aka the
030OmniSpinner, and that she'd love as it as the addition. We also speak to Our sponsor also speak to her parents and they said that they would love it, too. And if And if not us, then who? And if not now, then when? Uh, famously quoted by John Lewis. If I can have all my NHS members say this with me. Let's go all in. So, we are here to ask for, um, permission to accept a a donation from our partners that assisted in this and I would like to thank my NHS uh, students. There's many more back at, um, Rayburn, but this is the board for NHS and the students that led this project and they were so passionate about doing the research, um, interviewing, finding potential donors, um, to assist in this project cuz they
031did not want to wait, you know, another minute until we got this um, for our students. So, they were able to get Miss money Saposina, do we have her here with extra play to help get information and here in place of Miss Bobby Graneki, we have Miss Ivana Signs from Capable Kids and not here today is Leo Espinosa who is part of the wonderful company and he has the wonderful citrus division here in the valley and they have been gracious enough to allow this project to take place at Rayburn. We're excited and we are just hoping to get this done as soon as possible because we love our fifth graders to be a part of getting it all together. So, thank you all for for listening and if you all have any questions, we'd love
032to answer them. Thank you. Okay, board. There Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion to approve the donation on behalf of the Capable Kids Foundation and the wonderful company for Rayburn Elementary. Second. I have a motion by trustee Carrion and a second by trustee de la Garza Lopez. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Great job, students. Okay, we are going back to consent at this time. And unless there is something that each trustee would like to pull from consent, I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Chair, I'd like to move to approve consent item agendas 6A through 6E. Second. I have a motion by trustee de la Garza Lopez and a second by trustee Haddad. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Okay, we are moving on to instructional services. Um
033A1, report regarding pre-kinder through second grades literacy efforts and student outcomes. Dr. Gutierrez. Tonight, we will be sharing a report to inform our community regarding the literacy efforts to support staff and students in pre-kinder through second grades. Mrs. Janette Nino, our associate superintendent for instructional leadership will provide more information and this item is for information purposes only. Mrs. Nino? Yes, good evening. Thank you, Dr. Gutierrez and thank you for the opportunity to allow us our students to connect with the work that's going on at our schools and now we have an opportunity to showcase the work of our team both at the district and the campus level. So, we just would like to give a board report on the efforts that are done in pre-kinder through second grade in the area of literacy and all
034the efforts that are going on at different levels to improve student outcomes. So, with that, I'm going to introduce Sandra Garcia, our coordinator for elementary reading language arts and also present with us tonight, we have several members from our team, our teachers from Garza Elementary, our kinder teachers, Miss Margarita Belmares, Erica Mesa, Maria Ortiz and our principal from Garza Elementary, Miss Valenzuela and also from Rayburn Elementary, Miss Partida. So, thank you all for joining us this evening. Thank you, Mrs. Nino. Good evening. So, we know um just I guess I just want to thank Mrs. Nino for giving us the opportunity to be here today to talk about our littlest um kiddos that we have in our elementary schools. We want to talk about the instruction that happens in our K to 2 classrooms and
035we know that this matters because the early stages set the trajectory for future success. Um we know that 90% of brain development happens before age five. We know that vocabulary gap gaps happen and are present even before our kids walk in through the doors of our campuses and we know that early academic gaps can compound over time if we don't intervene early. And so, we everything that we do on the curriculum and instruction side is meant to address that and to ensure that the foundation um that the instruction that they are getting in those foundational grades is strong so that we can ensure performance in the upper grades. I wanted to share with you some middle of the year um data. This is data that is um taken from our M-Class Amplify uh screener. It
036is the reading instrument that we use across our district in kinder through second grade and I wanted to show this data to you to you just so that you could see um the work that we are doing in our classrooms in reference to foundational skills and early literacy skills. Um what you see there on the bottom of that slide, you have the key that shows you what those uh color bands represent. Um well below, below, at or above benchmark. This is a composite score for all of the students across our district and across our 18 campuses. And so, you are able to see after we assessed our kinder, our first graders and our second graders how they measured on this um screener and what their composite score was and so, you're able to see what
037the data from this screener was telling us at the beginning of the year and then again, what it was showing us at the middle of the year and so, um I will just briefly summarize it. At middle of the year, uh we had about 64% of our kindergarteners at or above benchmark for middle of the year. Um for first grade, we had about 62% of our first graders and we had about 63% of our second graders at or above benchmark at at middle of the year. We tend to see a slow we tend to see slower growth from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year with our littles. Um we expect to see and historically, we do see a little bit of higher growth from the middle of the year to
038the end of the year. It's kind of like a little light bulb turns on and um they they begin to grow in these early literacy skills. So, this data is consistent across our campuses. We do at the district level look at the data and and and check if there are areas across our district where we need to come in and provide additional support. And we do that when we see that the data is a little stagnant or that maybe we have classrooms that have special needs. We come in and we continue to provide professional learning. We continue to provide support during planning for the teachers that are in those classrooms. We continue to provide modeling and coaching and our instructional coaches that are at the campus are really helpful to us in kind of getting
039to all of our 18 schools. I also wanted to show you on the next slide um what this data can look like in our upper grades in third, fourth and fifth. We also have a tool that we use to measure um reading um proficiency. And so, we follow the same system. We administer the screener at the beginning of the year and at the middle of the year and then we take that data and we use it to provide interventions to the students in the upper grades as well. And um that is what you see on this slide. Everything that we do in our curriculum is built with these five components in mind. We make sure that we encompass the big five components of reading in all of our curriculum and depending on the time of
040the year or depending on the grade level, you will see that our teachers spend a little bit more time in different areas of these components. In kinder for example, we spend a lot of time in phonemic awareness. We want to make sure that we are developing the students ability to hear, to identify, to manipulate the sounds that they hear in words. That is such a fundamental skill in future a predictor of students reading ability. When we feel that those students are ready, we start introducing phonics and we start adding symbols to the sounds that they hear in an effort to make connection between the letters and the sounds that our students are hearing. Um, we then begin to work on fluency um, to ensure that we are building a real solid bridge between students being
041able to decode the words that they see on the paper and the comprehension that they are receiving from the connected text. Um, and then of course we do a lot of work also in comprehension. Do our students understand what they are reading and can we provide um, some um, help for them in that area. And then of course we work with vocabulary across all of those areas um, always making sure that we're providing activities that boost their language and that students are able to understand, define and use unfamiliar words. Um, good evening. My name is Margarita Solis. I'll be um, discussing with y'all the strength what strong instruction looks like in our classroom. First and foremost um, when we do planning is very intentional um, and when it comes to instruction we incorporate our best
042practices to yield the best outcomes in um, student learning. Our instruction is explicit and follows a systematic sequence which allows accumulative practice. Um, what still do um, students are able to build upon um, skills that they have already mastered. We ensure high student engagement by checking for understanding throughout lessons. This gives us the opportunity to give corrective feedback. We also um, create daily Google slides which fosters high student engagement through interactive learning. This also holds us accountable and it to it's tailored to our daily schedule. In regards to daily foundational skills are non-negotiable and they provide recursive opportunities for instruction in phonological instruction and phonics and decodable text. Students are able to practice their phonics skills in connected text. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Maria Ortiz. And today I will share with you
043uh, what structured literacy is and how it looks in my classroom in our classrooms. Uh, structured literacy is a comprehensive research-based approach for teaching reading and and writing. Uh, uh, sorry for that. It's uh, characterized by explicit, systematic and diagnostic instruction. Uh, structured literacy daily slides are provided to us by our language arts uh, department. We also include videos and total physical response movements in order for for our students to make connection retain and um, and apply the learning the learning. Uh, this is a 25 to 30 minute block where it's not it's we don't we do with fidelity every day in during our block we uh, make sure that our students understand that this is their foundation. It's very important for them to become readers. We review some of the five components of reading
044such as letter name and sound recognition blending uh, handwriting fluency and reading sentences. Using this high quality teaching uh, strategies gives us an opportunity to ensure our students are learning and retaining important fundamental skills. And I'll end by saying that as a kinder partner kindergarten teachers this is the foundation for them to be readers. Therefore, we are committed to make it meaningful engaging and a lifeline a lifeline learning skill. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, good evening. My name is Ms. Mesa and I'm here to discuss what we do at our teacher table and what happens during our literacy centers. At our teacher table small group instruction provides us the opportunity to work with our students on skills they are currently in the process of mastering in our tier one instruction and to re-teach
045skills they haven't. We use data from our M class assessments to group our kids and drive the interventions we give our students to grow areas where they show gaps or needs. When we are working with our small groups, our other students are engaged in independent practice through literacy centers that gives them opportunity to apply foundational skills we are learning in our tier one or practice areas where they are able to work independently to increase fluency or mastery of a skill. Our centers do target most or all components of reading like I stated before, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency and comprehension. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Nancy Valenzuela, the principal principal at Garza Elementary. I want to thank you all for the opportunity um, that you allowed us to highlight this incredible team
046that I have. And as you heard from what they just shared, their daily instruction is intentional, it's consistent and it is grounded on best practices, right? And so in fact everything that they do is designed on student growth. And of course that data that uh, is evident in their data. If you if you see at the composite score at the top of the screen uh, you will see that at the beginning of the year we had 47% of our kindergarteners at well below benchmark. However, by the time middle of the year came they that percentage decreased to 25% of our students being at well below benchmark. The most exciting thing to see was that we have what is it? About 40% of our students at beginning of the of the year were at or above
047benchmark and by middle of the year they were already at 56%. Now we do know that there's still a lot to grow, but as Ms. Sandra was sharing, right? We don't see a lot of growth from beginning of the year to middle of the year and to see that these beautiful ladies did that already makes me such an incredibly proud principal and I know that they're continuing to ensure that the early literacy foundations continue so that for years as we go and they get to start they or just testing itself, right? They are ready. So thank you all so much. Okay, and so one of the key things for any type of success is consistency, right? Mm. Diet plans, workout plans and reading plans, right? So making sure that um, we are consistent and not
048just consistent about monitoring teachers, but consistent about supporting the instructional delivery and that's really the key um, thing that needs to happen. Consistency also um, on our part in providing the resources and the time needed for our teachers to plan review lessons and be ready to execute them. And also consistency in data review and analysis. It's ongoing and we do progress monitoring. So that data's coming in all the time and we're making sure that we're responding appropriately. And that we have ongoing coaching. So that's vital. So we're very blessed and thankful that we have our instructional coaches. I have I have my uh, coach here, Ms. Melissa Benya. Um, and it is beyond a full-time job, right? So um, pre pre-K all the way to fifth grade making sure every teacher has what they need
049in all these areas. Um, she is a key player here at our campus and every campus has one in McAllen. So thank you all for that support, but also we are fortunate in McAllen ISD to have very detailed outlined lessons and that are aligned throughout the different grade levels throughout the the school year so that we have optimal instructional delivery. So that is a well thought out process by our reading department. So Ms. Sandra Garcia led by Ms. Patty Benya that they they've worked on over the years and every year it gets better and better and I think it just helps our teachers become stronger and stronger at that instructional delivery. So K2 reading is really the key and that's that foundation for the success that's to come, you know, throughout all the different grades.
050So um, we count so much on our lower grade teachers to set them off right our our students and to get them reading and ready to go. So they they go into third grade you know, just ready for the next that next level of instruction. Thank you. We just want to close with our last slide. Um, so what we're doing is also not just being data driven, but also um, supporting in action what we're doing. So, we are getting ready as a big team to support every single kinder, first, and second grade student in the month of May at all 18 of our schools with a a reading camp in our schools, and then they will leave with a backpack with selected text to take on through the summer, and hopefully begin their year next
051year with something as they've read along. So, thank you for your support, and thank you for allowing us to update you all on something very important that our team is doing in the district. Thank you. Thank you all very much. We're proud of y'all. Thank you. All right. Discussion with the board? I do just have one question, Ms. Nino. Absolutely, Ms. Um I love seeing all the data. I love seeing all the results. How does this year compare to prior years? So, um every year we have made gains, especially after um we returned from remote learning and and COVID. Um there's significant gains, but there's work all the time because our students change um every year. Um and even as the team was sharing right now, our middle of year data still shows about 30%
052of students at all 18 schools. Um there's not there the commonality is there at all 18 schools. It's not more than the other. Um so, what we want to do is just make sure we also look year to years at the same kinder team, is it the same first grade team, is it the same second grade team. If it's not, then we want to make sure we train those teachers. We're also required to be part of the Texas Reading Academies. So, anything that we have there it's all implemented through our curriculum, but there are gains. Um we could give that longitudinally for especially from 2021 to now. Um but the just the engagement of students, making sure that there's consistency ongoing every single day. Um we're not trying to accelerate kids at these grade levels.
053We're trying to make sure that their foundational skills are very very tight and um mastered so that way when they leave us in second grade, reading comprehension comes a lot easier for them. Not just in RLA, but in science, social studies, communication, etc. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. One question also, as far as across the 18 schools, what kind of team training or best practices are shared when you see significant growth at one campus versus another's? Uh that's a great question. Thank you, ma'am. And so, today's practices is something we do. We showcase a lot um within our own principals, you'll find out um Dick Benson Zavala was visiting Rayburn. Um Fields was visiting Dick Benson. There's strengths in every single part of the team, but there's also learning opportunities based on the composition
054of my students in my class. And so, even within principals, they're a great network for each other. And within teachers, um when we get to bring them by grade level, they get to network. Um so, planning is a big part of me executing an effective lesson. And as an administrator, I want to be there to plan and support that. Um so that way again, I might have to monitor and adjust at that time, but for the majority, this is my tier one instruction, and then we go into small groups and support those above and beyond that are ready to move on, and those that are still needing help. And for our little ones, attendant Everybody, attendance matters, but with our little ones, every day they miss, they're missing a foundational day with with their teacher.
055So, um we also account for for, you know, variables like that as well. Awesome. Thank you so much. >> Yes, ma'am. May I ask to um so, just a random question on slide 15, the bottom bullet, redirection of support staff to lower grades after STAR, is that just a formality or or what's So, throughout Uh that's a great question. So, throughout the year, we also want to make sure that even after STAR, we have data on students that still need um areas to to close gaps that are or that happened in kinder, first, or second, but are now third, fourth, and fifth. So, our uh teachers from kinder, first, and second actually help work with our students or work with our teachers to say, I may not have never have taught a lower grade as
056an upper grade teacher. How can I use this a practice or best strategy just for me to work with my students still working beyond until the last day of school. So, um there's a lot of preparation in a STAR blueprint assessment, but skills and foundation is beyond just preparing for an on grade level assessment for on grade level text. Okay. So, um that's more to to again network with how can I leverage their expertise for skills that maybe third, fourth, or fifth graders are still needing help with. Okay. Great. >> Yes. And then um in the future, I would love to see, you know, I see the Amplify data breakdown, um but I'm curious even more, you know, a breakdown of the specific skills. Like, is it um what are students most struggling with? Is
057it phonics? Is it fluency? Is it Is it just um basic comprehension? Like, what exactly and even, you know, certain schools and what supports are there for them, too. Absolutely. And we can um that report is available, and we look at that as well a little more in depth. Um here it's just an overview for the board report, but we can definitely get that and get it by campus as well. Okay. And then one one more question. Using this Amplify data, does the literacy department have like a clear benchmark goal by the end of the year you expect to see X or Yes, ma'am. So, we have our House Bill 3 goals as well, and using that um we use our Amplify data. So, every year we increase it by 2%, and this year's 86%.
058So, um if by the end of the year, our goal is to meet that, if not above. Um but we'd have increased that percentage 2% more um since House Bill 3 um is required of us to measure that. Uh we have also pre-K data for circle, and then the third grade reading and math STAR to see how that works. You know, how is everything working? So, when they're taking the STAR test as third graders, how is that aligned to those outcomes as well? And what year did we switch to science of reading practices? That was in, I believe, 2019. Yes, ma'am. So, I'm assuming, you know, there's probably a trickle of the balanced literacy, and now we're going to see, you know, better and better build up over time. But it's probably a slow pendulum,
059right? Yes, and it's intense curriculum. Um but what is great is our curriculum writing team are teachers. And so, we are using um high-quality instructional materials provided to us, and then aligning it with all of the again, the the reading academies information, strategies. And then as administrators, our principals have gone through that as well to support from the admin lens as well. So, um again, everything is always something there to learn and adjust, but we do that during summer as well to be mindful. And throughout ongoing for our classes as well. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. I had one uh actually two questions. Um and this could be a function of the difference between Amplify and I-Ready, which I will admit I'm not sure what the difference between those data sets are. But
060kinder through second grade, you have at or above like in the 60s percent ranges, and then starting grade three to fifth, you go down to the 50s. Um why is that? So, um in mCLASS Amplify, we're measuring foundational skills. In I-Ready, you start measuring reading comprehension and on grade level uh texts. However, we can still see where um for example, our current third graders, we started the year as a as an elementary team saying, where did they end as second graders? And already starting from day one, um teachers were able to help work with them instructionally to close gaps because again, that's not something that's going to be re-taught or brought up again in third, fourth, and fifth. Um the shift of them needing to be reading on grade level is set in motion, and
061the type of writing, the type of um everything that they're doing really shifts after second grade. So, that's why the kinder, first, and second um is really foundational. But we did have some students come in with gaps. Um you have different variables from that, not just students within McAllen, but students moving in. Um you know, maybe Well, that was going to be my second question. Is do you track students maybe in two cohorts, ones that have been in MISD versus ones coming in so you can track Absolutely. You We can definitely see that data, and also again, attendance is a big variable. The more school you miss, the more um you're missing in those opportunities. So, there's various variables in there that we measure as far as when we see that data, but we have
062definitely noticed um these are our students taking the STAR reading language arts right now, and we know that some of them are at one grade to two grade levels below, and uh we want them to be prepared even beyond their STAR exam to move on to their next grade level with success. Thank you. Ready. Thank you all. Thank you for all the work that you all put in. I know how important it is, cuz if you don't catch it at the right time, you're playing catch-up for years. So, thank you guys. Absolutely. We have a great team. Thank you for your support. Thank you. Um all right, we will move on. That was for information purposes, so we'll move on to the report regarding the Advanced Scholars Academy, Dr. Yes, uh we will be sharing
063an upcoming uh innovative opportunity beginning for the 2026-2027 school year for rising fourth and fifth grade students in McAllen ISD. Ms. Janet Nino, our associate superintendent for instructional leadership, will provide more information. This item is also for information purposes only. Ms. Nino. Thank you, Dr. Gutierrez. And yes, this is a uh a work that in progress that we've been planning over the last year. What we want to do is make sure that students have access uh to something unique in our district. Also, for students to know that within our district before they transition into middle school, there's a lot of opportunity. And so this is just a unique approach to having them access again a different way of learning, a different experience, various experiences in that. And before I start, I just want to thank
064the entire elementary team including our instructional services directors coordinators present. If you're here, I'd love for you to stand. It's a big team. We're collectively planning everything out for next year. And again, just trying to come up with creativity for students to have a different experience in our classroom. So thank you all very much and thank you for being here tonight. So we have had several parents sessions while virtual options has been has been offered and is available through our website. The in-person experience is a lot more meaningful for parents, especially because this is for rising fourth and fifth grade students. Most students are going to make a decision if they say yes to leave their current elementary to come and be part of an academy that that's going to be a very different experience
065for them. So we've had all in-person sessions with a virtual one last option and now it's available on our website. But really we tell I've been sharing with parents why select the Advanced Scholars Academy. Our classrooms in McAllen are fantastic, but this is going to be offering a more unique approach to teaching and learning. We're still going to be mindful that they're 9, 10, and 11 years old, so having that whole child approach to helping them. But we want to make sure that they're set up to engage with more rigorous and advanced curriculum in all subjects. It's not so much acceleration, just a little bit more advanced preparation for what they can choose again when they leave us in elementary into secondary. We're going to be making it a mix of real world experiences, leadership
066course. to make sure that we can have them engage with our community that's also that speaks American Sign Language. And so Miss Lisa Ladd is helping us be part of that, but just overall giving them a different program design. So something did reset a little In addition with our parents, their biggest question has been you know, what is the big difference about it? And again, very problem-based approach. We're going to have opportunities for them such such as engaging to be not just digital users, but digital literate with different opportunities. I know that we're connecting with SMU. I know Trustee Carrion connected us with that, so we're going to see how to take active the active playful learning on with this approach. We also are going to be embedding a different experience for them fourth and
067fifth grade for fine arts. We have an opportunity to work with the student space flight experiment program in fifth grade. It is their last space flight experiment going to the International Space Station and so we've been invited to participate. That would be a fifth grade culminating experience for them. Through a career technical and education lens, we're offering a leadership course that will be planned out over the two years as well. These students will be part of the Science Olympia team at Wilson. And all of their content and math, language arts, social studies, and science will be interdisciplinary in their learning through again a different lens and approach of teaching. So our fourth graders will be taking fourth grade curriculum. They will have to take the fourth grade star, but they will receive the sprinkle of
068fifth grade preparation in that year as well. And fifth grade will also be engaging in fifth grade curriculum because they have to take the fifth grade star, but with the sprinkle of the sixth grade to help give them some preparation for that as well. And really it's just to help set a mindset in elementary for advanced academics pathway once they get to secondary. It's just to let them know what's to come and what they're they're ready to do. So just creating that urgency. So our student outcome and goals for this academy is just to make critical thinkers, have them express and learn what their creative their strengths are at. A lot of collaboration. We always say that there's no nothing in the world where we work alone. We're having to do a lot of teamwork,
069building their confidence, curiosity, and being innovative. So we want to make sure that they know what they're committing to, having a growth mindset. Usually I get to compete within peers in my classroom, but this is more networking with peers in my classroom to be stronger and better to then be competitive as a whole once we leave McAllen and once we leave to our part of the world where we're going to make that impact. And sharing with them all the opportunities that our advanced scholars would have and all elementary students have here beyond in our middle schools and our high schools. And no matter what pathway they take, they will be ready for that next step. So we are encouraging parents, you know, have conversations around you know, our is your child you know, wanting to
070explore how to think outside the box for more traditional classroom setting. Again, working well with others. They we do want to set up an interview for them again to try and get them that experience of building their communication skills both written and in and in person. And then just understanding an investment of time from their family as again it will be a different approach and a little bit more intense for them at fourth and fifth grade. So we'll be having this opportunity for families and students to apply through May 15th just so that our team can keep the planning going and know what we're going to be doing. We've shared out through SchoolMint where they can apply. And so we'll be responding to parents already for those interviews. I do follow up with a thank
071you on my behalf and on behalf of our team after they've attended a session in person. And we do see if they have any questions after that. So we just want to share the information in case you know what what we're venturing on next. We also want to retain our students within our district, right? There's no need to seek outside of McAllen ISD. And so getting them started in fourth grade is a good time to hook them in to start looking at that middle school whether it's their feeder or it's a a pathway of some sort if that's the reason that they're looking outside. We have it here at McAllen. So we're excited to offer this and we'll definitely be giving y'all more updates as the program begins. Can I ask just a basic question?
072Yes, sir. So is it Leadership Academy is a different cohort or are the kids like taking out of class for like two hours a week? How how's it function? This will be their everyday school all fourth grade and hopefully their fifth grade as well. Okay. If if they don't want to make a decision at fourth grade, they can still join us in fifth grade. And then again, just building the content, not just content, but experiences around what they're doing is going to be key. We want to make sure that they know that they're engaging in a whole different experience and that they left their home school so to say to be a Wilson Warrior for for a good a good reason. So Got it. Yes, sir. Um Miss Tina, I have lots of questions, but
073um how would you say this compares to the elementary IB program at Betts? And are the curriculum similar? Um is there a a testing requirement that they have to take before they get in there just like they would for a GT program? So there's not going to be a testing requirement. With a lot of students that sometimes it's just that right interaction that um undoes their their excitement for learning. But we do say at least look at their math and RLA scores. Meets and masters would probably set them up only because they're going to be getting advanced curriculum in addition to their on grade level. But if your approach is in math and meets and RLA, that might just be your experience up to then and we don't want to discourage anybody. So we also
074shared that with families. As far as how it compares to our PYP program at Betts, so with IB, there is very detailed specifics on how to teach, on how you're going to be assessed, and the criterion. This is going to be a mix of project-based learning approach, but also mentoring, getting networking. A lot of hands-on, even the setup of the classroom has to be conducive to the type of learning that they're going to be doing. And it's going to be through all areas of their academics. So to answer, they'll still you know, they'll be engaged as Wilson Warriors. They won't be going back and forth the way maybe high school or middle school students do if they're trying to pick a specialized program. But more importantly, we want them to to know that in McAllen,
075there's going to be a unique experience for them and then they can continue on into secondary with with what whatever they're choosing to do whether it's IB at De Leon, STEM at Travis, an advanced math course at any of our middle schools and beyond CTE. So just giving them a sample of what's to come because before you know it, they'll be choosing that choice card in middle school to make a selection in high school as well. I think this is an excellent idea and I'm excited to see how it does at Wilson and the possibility of offering it at other elementaries. Yes. And then expanding it somehow to middle school. Because there's such a huge opportunity for our families that want that extra challenge at the middle school level and just to show that we
076have that and offer it here at McAllen ISD before they decide in high school whether they are going AP Capstone, IB, collegiate, um whatever their route may be that they are ultimately prepared in that middle school continued that progress that they have in elementary. I always say, you know, my kids came out of elementary, you know, ready for high school because they were and I know some parents don't like the homework and the requirements, but they left elementary fifth grade ready and knew what their assignments were and what was due and and were ready for the rigor that was required of middle school and then now high school. So, I'm excited to see how this goes. I hope that it goes great um at Wilson. I know that our curriculum writers are going to do
077great at offering and and preparing them for the challenge. So, I'm I'm really excited for this. So, thank you thank you all for creating this. This is This is exactly what we need at the right time. And we have the students ready ready for it as well. Absolutely. I like I like to add that you mentioned middle school that Dr. De Hoyos has also been working for the last couple of months with Travis on on a STEM program. And so, at the next board meeting Dr. Hoyos will be presenting on the STEM Academy that we're also working to implement at Travis Middle School and they've had parent meetings already. They've already been uh uh talking to kids and signing up kids for also for the STEM Academy at Travis and we'll have a report at
078the next meeting with Dr. De Hoyos. Thank you. We're touching also the the the middle school as well. Thank you. Thank you all. Um may I ask a question about the the Scholars Academy which I agree it's amazing idea. Just playing a little devil's advocate here. So, I I know Wilson has seen um you know, new administration, some supports have been added recently. Um have we met really mapped out what resources, what supports are going to be needed to do something like this quick turnaround to start to start this next school year? So, we um continue to map that out and I know that we're planning for you know, two fourth grade classrooms, two fifth grade, but we don't want to close the door if there's more interest. And so, um it's going to it's
079taking a lot of partnerships as well even outside of our district that are are supporting us. Um again, it's not so much what the program is called or does. It's just on everything they're going to be engaging is just going to be a little bit of variety. Um we have some families within our community saying, you know, is ready just to try something different. Um again, our classrooms are fantastic, but um just setting it up to have different outcomes is is key. And again, if our families are going to look for this experience, um we can offer that for them here at McAllen. Um and I I'm very excited because uh when you've been part of teaching in this dynamic yourself and you've seen students thrive, um you see the end in mind. And so,
080our team has taken a very positive approach to be mentored themselves and think outside the box for our students to be supported in this environment. Okay. And um is there fourth and fifth grade teachers is there like specific training or anything that they need? >> Yes, so we will have something separate. Um they'll still have access to tier one instructional resources, but then in in addition to that, we have to make again things look different at different points in time their timeline. So, there'll be curriculum writing, there'll be training. Um we have different training for them as well. And that's going to be key is that we make sure that our staff that is selected to do this is supported. We've had a few teachers reach out interested. And so, that'll be added onto the
081transfer application when that window opens. Um there'll be an extra line Wilson for the elementary Scholars Academy just so we know the teachers interested in that specifically. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Any other questions, let us know. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you guys. I think it's as Trustee Garza and Lopez said that, you know, it's a way to keep our kids challenged and it's another option to keep them in McAllen ISD as you mentioned. So, I know that it's already been posted out there as far as cuz I've gotten phone calls on it. I told people to watch tonight, but if they don't, we'll make sure to send them the information. But thank you guys for all your hard work. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Enon. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. We are
082on to the report regarding the 2026 bond. Dr. Gutierrez. Yeah. We will be presenting an overview of the 20 the 2026 bond. This report outlines the current challenges, the purpose of the bond, and the expected impact on our community. Uh Ms. Felicia Villarreal, our director for marketing and communications, will present this report. This is for information purposes only. Um Ms. Villarreal. Hello, Board of Trustees and Dr. Gutierrez. Thank you for the time this evening. Um before I get started, I want to ask who's heard about the bond in the audience? Has everyone heard about the bond 2026 here? All right. So, um giving you guys an update. I know we called for a bond election um on February 10th and that was roughly about 60 days ago. Can you believe that? Just a two a
083couple months ago it feels about half a year. So, wanted to give you a little rundown. I broke it down into three phases here. So, our initial phase was the month of February and March. Uh we had four uh different areas of outreach. Uh face-to-face presentations and those were to our internal stakeholders. We had approximately 25 presentations to faculty and 18 presentations to groups of parents throughout the campuses. We then had print collateral come out. We established the brand of the bond 2026. So, most of you saw posters, brochures, um one-pagers, district-wide communication pieces, just a a a slew of different printed collateral. We then had our mass communication. This was our slow. We were building this up. This was our direct messaging to parents. Um this was a a uh an effort social media
084and digital signage that we had many folks reaching out saying, "What are you going to do more? Is there more information coming out?" Uh phase one, we were we were slowly bringing that out. Um community outreach, this is where Boys and Girls Club they actually reached out to us and said, "Can you come over before sooner than later?" So, that was one of our instrumental kind of a cornerstone of a presentation that we gave. Um there was a group of community individuals in that presentation that said, "We got to um do something on the outside." So, provided them with a factual presentation. McAllen Education Foundation was another group that we provided various presentations to. Um they too were instrumental in getting facts out there to the community. And lastly was the McAllen Housing Authority. So,
085this was all during the month of February and March. Then came second phase, education and engagement. The end of March. So, our final week of March and we are in the week of April. This is where we started to pick it up. Um if you notice here again, um four phases or four areas of this phase as well, presentations, print collateral, mass communication, and community outreach. So, our community outreach kicked up a notch. Um we talked about voter registration. We had that up until the end of that week of March 30th. We also had continuous presentations. We had print collateral. So, this is where you guys started to see the vertical cheat sheets come out. I call I call them cheat sheets. They're the one-pagers. They're an easy kind of share. And our mass communication
086again went up a little bit more. So, I'll give you those numbers at the end of this presentation as to how many impressions. But our goal here was to have five impressions per individual per week, right? So, during the week of March 30th and the week of April 6th, my goal was at least every single person here in McAllen was going to have five impressions either via presentations, print collateral, mass com, or community outreach. Um some big some newer um efforts during the week of April 6th, which was last week, um you had your backpack stuffers. So, all 19,000 students received some sort of collateral. We then layered that with a digital message that went out to all parents and staff. Most of you received that. I hope everyone received that. I hope you haven't
087opted out of that mass communication. Please opt back in. Um and we also have our seven series um we have a seven series podcast that's going on. I'm sure most of you received that um via uh text or email. And then we added a layer of direct mail. So, we everyone should have received a direct mail piece last week. Um that should have landed around Friday or Saturday um more or less. So, again, this is where we brought up those impressions up to five. So, phase three. Phase three begins um this past Monday. Um this is where my goal our goal internally is to have eight to 10 impressions across the board um for everyone. And I hope everyone has received some sort of communication. So, we've had we've continued our campus and faculty. I
088know our board has seen that list um and I want to thank, by name, the individuals that are a part. So, our biggest challenge was getting out and giving these presentations to all um, of our campuses and our faculty. So, I do want to identify the 25 individuals that were broken up into five groups. Um, we had, of course, Dr. Gutierrez, Ms. Debra Loya, Olga Mendez, myself, Ms. Lorena Garcia, Joel Garcia, Lisa Covazos, Chief Joey Silva, Dr. De Hoyos, Mr. Ruben Trevino, Dr. Cindy Olivarez, Mr. Leo Signs, Ms. Janette Nino, Dr. Connie Camacho, Ed Barnhart, Ms. Laura Williams, Dr. Albert Canales, Brian McClain, Maribella Lizondo, Domingo Ramos, and Raul Vega. All of these individuals have given of their time um, in the afternoons or the evenings and then get back and make sure that their
089regular days continue and their regular projects continue. So, they have been a huge part of this effort, um, in getting out to our campus and our our faculty and parents. Um, print collateral. We continue with our backpack stuffers. Um, those are added to what we've already had um, with a little bit more focus regarding arts, CTE, and then voting information. I know uh, voting locations is a hot topic right now, so we are making sure that we're adding that um, to the landing page. If you notice on the bond website, we added all the voting locations to the landing page. So, it's not um, it's seamless as you get to the website. Mass communications. This is where we incorporated a little bit more of our marquees and our scholastic. Scholastic are all of those uh,
090monitors within the school lobbies. Um, we have the podcast, the bond overview, and um, focused a little bit more on the fine arts and CTE. And last but not least, our community outreach. Um, this is where we have another direct mail piece going out this uh, this week. And that will be an overview from our superintendent and it will be an overview of our voting locations as well. Um, and then of course, we'll continue our presentation to to various community groups. This includes the Chamber of Commerce, our EDC, um, various privately owned entities as well. So, let me go ahead and give you some some overall numbers. So, the total presentations that we've provided thus far is 66. We have um, I've broken it out by parents, faculty, and any presentations provided to larger groups
091or community outreach um, or community organizations. We are pending 27 presentations. Those 27 presentations will occur during this week and next week. Um, when you look at the number, you know, it's how does one person do that? Dr. Gutierrez doesn't do it. He has, as I say, a troop of um, individuals that are behind him and supporting that effort. Um, our digital mass communication. So, our direct messaging goes out to 19,537 parents and 39, a little over 3,900 um, staff members. Our social media and website. So, the number of posts that we've had is approximately 128. Our podcast, we've recorded about seven uh, or seven we've recorded. And print collateral, again, uh, posters, campus community brochures um, have been during our face-to-face. The one-pagers are custom to each campus. Not sure if you've seen those,
092but those one-pagers were custom to what every campus is being um, would benefit from this bond. And then we have our banners, 100 that have been across the district. Uh, backpack stuffers, we'll have three, a series of three. And then of course, the direct mail pieces, a series of two. Um, our press releases, we've currently had five and we are adding five within the next two weeks. Um, we've had currently, um, as of this afternoon, we had an earned media of approximately 25. That's non-paid media. Uh, that's any type of local media that's picked up our stories. Again, our external stakeholder events, two of those. Um, one of which we presented on the bond, which was our state of the district. Um, that was approximately 300 individuals from the community that had that were in
093the audience. And then um, we have one planned this Saturday where we will go out and block walk. Um, again, our biggest challenge right now are those individuals that are not directly connected to McAllen ISD. So, if you don't have a child here, if you're not employed here at McAllen ISD, you might not have heard about it. So, this is where we're coming out um, and we are block walking and we're doing our social media. We're hiking up the the social media outreach as well. That concludes my presentation. If you have any questions, concerns, or ideas, please let me know. I do have one um, question or comment. We've had just today some concerns from parents regarding schools as voting sites and locations and just have some safety concerns. Is there any way that you
094can get with our PD department and develop some type of response to just reassure families that this is going to be a completely safe um, process and that people who go and vote will have no direct uh, oh, hello. No direct communication with the our children. Yes, so and I I failed to mention that. So, this past Monday, we did have a message go out to those voting sites, those campuses that are voting sites and just letting them know, "Hey, heads up. This is going to This is coming." Um, so Chief, you want to give an update on that? Right. So, good evening. So, just to give everybody a little background with regards to this. Of course, it's a little unique because there is a lot of campuses being utilized. But at no point is
095safety ever being compromised. We We're going to have officers at every single location. We're going to have overlapping schedules. Um, we want everybody to feel at ease. Uh, there'll never be students and voters intermingling at any point. And that we're going to There's some some other things that are kind of in play at that point. But rest assured that we're on top of it and we're taking care of it. So, the community can feel at ease as well. That was a concern today uh, and I read that some of those emails. Um, was Ed Gonzalez and uh, I was there this morning, Ed Gonzalez, and we did make some adjustments there to make sure that uh, we take care of that uh, that situation with the early voting. Uh, they had set the cafeteria aside,
096but we know that it's not going to be like a just a regular election. It's just going to be a very unique election with a bond and probably just one item, a proposition A, which is the bond. So, we made some adjustments. We moved out of the cafeteria and uh, relocated that area to the and they've done it before towards the front entrance of the school. And so, we made those changes already at Ed Gonzalez uh, cuz that was the one that was a concern. So, we took took care of that. I know Dr. Canales, me with Chief, uh, we're looking at all the other campuses to make sure there is additional security and uh, supervision. So, that uh, there is school can go as normal as possible and voting can take place in uh,
097those 11 campuses that we have. I also checked uh, Rayburn cuz that was also a concern at Rayburn. I went over there with uh, met with Ms. Partida. We visited the location. That's that's pretty safe where they're going to be and away from the rest of the campus. So, as we're looking at as we're getting emails or getting calls, uh, I'm going personally to go look at those those situations to make sure that uh, we fix anything that needs to be fixed so that uh, kids, parents, everyone feels as safe as possible, but also that the community has a chance to vote. Right. So, in just in addition to it, is it just rest assured that I mean, I'm pulling resources to include myself being out there as well. So, I mean, there's we're going
098to take care of it. We're going to make sure that everybody goes home the way that they got dropped off. Um, I wonder if there is if if we can request that each school have a memo sent out to families or something like that just to calm some of the nerves about you know, the process and the procedures and and precautions that will take place. >> Yes, most definitely. So, we can send it out numerous times. We will send one out on on Thursday and then we'll send another one out on Sunday to those campuses just to let them know and we'll reiterate what that process is. Okay, great. Thank you. In addition to the security concerns, some of the other concerns parents brought up is that early voting will be going on during STAR
099testing. And so, will there be any disruptions to our students' ability to concentrate, take take exams? So, if we could address that in the memorandum as well. Okay. Yeah. We we we make sure that again, that uh, that school can go as normal as possible uh, whether it's testing or instruction and and the as well as the voting and and separate those two. And so far, I think we've already just about visited every school and we fixed those things that need to be fixed. We are putting them as as close as they can be to the parking lot where they can go through one door, vote, and then exit out without having to go into the main building. Yeah. Okay. And then um, Dr. Gia, I have one more question about communicating to the uh,
100community about the bond. One question I keep getting asked is about a citizens bond oversight committee. Mhm. And um, you know, how that entails. And I know you uh, Ms. Garcia, you sent me some best practices. I know you and I have talked about the need to create one once the bond pass. Can you give us some highlights of what you're thinking, what administration thinks will be the plan forward on that? Yes, absolutely. And And this is also we talked about it in in our presentations as we go out there and and present on the bond. We know that that we have members of the facilities advisory forecast committee. We also have a political action committee. So, once the bond passes, I'm going to think positive about this one that the bond passes, definitely we're
101going to have to have a bond oversight committee that would be made up of stakeholders from parents, community, as well as staff to make sure that there's oversight of this bond, the implementation of the bond, and the transparency of the bond process cuz it's about a 4-year to a 5-year plan. And also that we deliver every project that we promised on time, within budget. Yeah, I think that'd be absolutely vital to reassure the community that about that. I agree and as well. I've been asked a lot about the timeline of projects. So, as those projects come on, um when they get approved, and then which tranches. I know that Estrada Inojosa has presented on the different tranches over the the 4 to 5 years. So, I think that's important too that our community kind of
102knows what's what's going on at what time. Correct. Yeah. Absolutely. That The once the bond passes, then that's the next phase to go into the timeline and the projects and and uh and how long it's going to take each project and the cost. And we'll be reporting that regularly just like we've had the bond presentations at just about at every board meeting for the last several months. This is an ongoing process. After that, we will have it on the agenda at every meeting to give updates to the board and the community as well so that it would be part of our regular agenda for the next couple of years. I think it would be great if there was some kind on the bond website some kind of tickler monitoring where by project the amount that
103was budgeted and to date where where we are on expenses so that the community sees that their tax dollars are being allocated to the right projects and that it is within budget and True. Hopefully that's a great idea. on time. Okay. We will. That's definitely. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Felicia. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. >> all you do, by the way. The whole Yes, amazing work. and community. Yeah. All right. We are on to the discussion and possible action on contract agreement number 2026-265 for the election services and voting equipment. Uh between the county of Hidalgo I'm sorry. and the McAllen Independent School District for the bond election May 2nd, 2026 with early voting to be conducted from April 20th, 2026 through April 28th, 2026. This agreement is between the county of Hidalgo
104and the McAllen Independent School District for election services and voting equipment for the bond election schedule on election day, which is May 2nd, 2026 and early voting is set to take place from April 20th through the April I'm sorry, April 20th through April 28th, 2026. We are recommending action on this item. All right. Board would see you. Any discussion on the board? This contract was reviewed by legal, right? Cuz it's Okay. And then it's the same as the ones that we've previously had. It's a standard contract. It's what they send out. Move to approve. Second. I've got a motion by Trustee Haddad and a second by Trustee Edelagasa. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. We are on to business and operation items. Report regarding nurturing student health McAllen ISD 3-year plan. Dr.
105Gutierrez. Uh the child nutrition program is committed to evaluating and improving our meal service by outlining our goals for increasing scratch cooking and presenting their 3-year plan focus on enhancing student health. Miss Sonia Esquivel, our director for child nutrition program, will present on this report. This item is for information purposes only. Miss Esquivel, can you Thank you, Dr. Gutierrez, Board President, and Trustees. Uh thank you for the opportunity to share updates today on nurturing student health and our 3-year plan. Um I just wanted to start off by talking a little bit about our department and what we do. So, just an overview of how many of how many programs we run in the child nutrition program. So, we run six uh federally funded programs. Um and then a little scope. This shows our scale and
106scope of how many how much food we actually serve. So, we serve nearly 30,000 meals in a day. This is including our breakfast, our lunch, and our supper programs. We always support the tutorings on Saturdays. We continue to feed during summer from June pretty much until right before the first day of school. Um so, in total it's a total of 5.5 million meals. And of course, you know, we can't do this by ourselves. So, we have an amazing staff. We employ about 230 employees. Um and all of our staff is really committed to ensuring that students across our campuses receive consistent, reliable, and nurturing meals each day. Um this slide illustrates the reality behind school meal funding. So, for around $4.70 for lunch, uh we our program covers far more than just food alone. Um
107it includes labor, employee benefits, trainings, equipment, supplies, uh and any operational cost. Um for breakfast, it's about half of that. Um There are foundations like the Chef Ann Foundation supports school districts nationwide to improve meal qualities through scratch cooking. Uh McAllen ISD has completed the scale assessment and is using the results to help move our district towards more scratch cooking. I do want to point out that the Chef Ann Foundation and other foundations that we've researched uh do uh talk about the process of scratch cooking and it is usually between 3 to 5-year process. And so, McAllen ISD is committed to trying to get this within the 3-year process. Um Our district's overall scale assessment, we took the assessment and we came out at a 33% which reflects a baseline measurement, not a grade or
108a compliance rating. Um Scale is designed to identify where the program currently stands and to highlight strengths, challenges, and operational opportunities for growth. This score that you see here indicates that McAllen ISD is in the early stages of transitioning towards expanding scratch cooking. Um the assessment looks at six operational areas. And in this slide, you you will see the six areas that it oversees or it looks at, and it's you'll see finance and human resource. That is where we are our strongest. That demonstrates that we have a strong foundation to support the change that we're trying to get to. Um then it moves on to food and marketing. And then our lowest scoring is facilities and scratch or the ingredients that we use. This shows the our greatest area of growth that where we require
109investments or training. Um I'm not going to go over every single point, but I do want to go over one just so you kind of understand how to read it. Um so, this is coming straight from the assessment. So, if we look at something like the facilities um column, um it it looks at cooking equipment that we have at campuses. It looks at production area at our campuses, serving equipment or storages at our campuses. Um and then the steps for improvement come straight from the assessment. So, these are recommendations after you've taken the assessment, the Chef Ann Foundation assessment scales tells you if you take these steps, you'll start to improve your scoring. So, stuff like investing in food processors to speed up your production. Recommend trans transferring our cooking equipment to combi ovens or
110other types of heating elements to to allow us to do different types of food from one machine or purchasing blast chillers. The assessment did request did recommend blast chillers for all campuses. We are trying to bring back our bakery. So, we feel like starting with at least our central kitchen will be a good step towards towards this goal. Um and then, of course, you know, I'm going to follow Felicia on the bond, right? So, the current bond would help address some of the cafeteria needs for four of our campuses with total investment for cafeteria modernization of 33.05. So now I'm going to kind of walk through the three-year step towards scratch cooking. The first year of the strategic plan I'm intentionally breaking it down into months because if you see our menu initial menu when
111it rolls out, you might not feel like there's a lot of changes, but throughout this first year we will be working towards changes. Again, just kind of referencing back this is the start of our process towards scratch cooking. So we just need a little time to to get ourselves there. So I do want to highlight a couple of things from this whole timeline just starting with now April and May. So we are already starting to receive raw beef and other bakery items. We will be testing the bakery items in a smaller scale because we are still at the process of bringing up our whole bakery. We're at about 75%. So we're still working on getting all of that connected for us to be at full production. In August when our staff comes back, our training
112all staff training will be moved more towards culinary training for our staff to start getting our staff in the mindset of scratch cooking. And then in September and October we will feature two new bakery items. And also be rolling out salad bar and soup bars soup lines at our high schools and middle schools. And then in January we'll be featuring new local raw beef um recipe on our on our menu. And then in March featuring an additional two to three breakfast items for school breakfast week. Um So all of these changes will increase scratch cooking during the following year by 16% during the school year. And I know breakfast is one of those items that keeps getting brought up by parents. It is a difficult menu item and and it's not just our own district,
113but it's other districts across pretty much across across the country. But I do want to highlight you will like right now you will see that our breakfast we do two-week cycle. We have approximately about 20 breakfast items different breakfast items during that two-week cycle. Four out of the 20 are scratch um scratch made breakfasts. So going into the 26-27 school year that will change from we will change to only offering 14 breakfast items. There's they'll still have two options, but the second option will be the same all all across the week. But we will be doing seven out of the 14 will be scratch cook and new items. We still have our breakfast tacos, hot oatmeal, overnight oats and yogurt parfaits. And I know that you know this might not seem like a big change,
114but this is the stuff that we know we can do and we can do you know correctly to start our year and it's for us it's a start towards where we're wanting to go. And so in a recent shack meeting I know I presented our Brownsville's breakfast menu compared to our breakfast menu. And I know Brownsville is one of those schools that is already three years into their scratch cook journey. And 95% of our menu is exactly the same. So that's why I say breakfast is a really hard one. So we will continue to through this plan phase in different breakfast items throughout the year to make sure that we are providing food that students want to eat cuz the other comment that has been made is you know just put out whatever you know
115and if students are hungry enough they'll eat it. You know I'm not I'm not comfortable with that type of approach. I would rather you know have the time to make sure that we're putting out menu items that students would actually like to eat cuz I'm sure teachers don't want hungry students in their classrooms. So you know I ask for your support as well in ensuring that we can put out menu items that students would like to eat. Um On that note I sorry to interrupt. I just want to say that I also have had some parents reach out um who are concerned with taking away some of the food items because their children whether they're special needs or have type of dysphagia or condition orally where they don't like certain textures and so they feel
116that the foods that are being provided now are considered safe foods for their children and they know that they'll go into the classroom to eat them. >> Right. That on the opposite side of what we've been hearing that's another point that some parents have also reached out and they're a little uncomfortable to come and speak in in public forum because of the large amounts of that other side of the story, but we are getting those messages as well. So I think it's important that we consider Right. >> some of our our other students that that have those concerns as well. Yeah and and our goal is really just to push out you know food that the kids are going to like, you know, all across. It doesn't matter, you know, but that's healthy and that's
117you know that there there where there is healthy steps towards um positive change towards our menu. Because we do we do see it as well. You know, like I've said before like we have two registered dietitians now on our on our team and that was the very first thing that they pointed out on the menu like oh no, this is too many carbs, you know, and so we've started to make the change. Um it's just we just you know need the time. Like we're we're pushing out this timeline and you know, our bakery is not 100% and there is no other option. I don't have mixers or anything else anywhere else. So in order for us and bakery is not the only thing that we can push out I understand, but we we just need
118time to you know, it would require maybe other equipment somewhere else. So it is something that we're we're working on. Thank you. Mhm. And then this is year two and three strategy. So year two year two two we plan on increasing scratch cooking by 35% through a gradual again just going through the same process of gradually introducing new items throughout the school year. This phase approach allows staff to become more comfortable with operational changes while building capacity and confidence in scratch cooking. Introducing new menu items throughout the school year will also help maintain student interest reduce menu fatigue and increase participation. Year and in year two just to highlight we we do want to continue to do student menu development. So if you didn't see the story, but channel 5, channel 4 and Telemundo put
119out a story on the marinara sauce that our students from Memorial and Achieve put out. So it was a really a really positive story and we want to continue to work with our students on that. As well as implementing salad bar options for all elementaries across the board in the second year. And then for year three scratch cooking will become a more standardized process as we increase scratch cooking recipes by approximately 71% through again a phased-in program and continuing with student involvement and then implementing school gardens. The same approach you know, just by including students we know that that will deliver us some good results. And then lastly I'd like to just talk about the training that that we were a part of. McAllen ISD was proud to be one of seven districts in Texas
120that were selected to participate in a hands-on training which included cooking demonstration and classes. This was in early March. The courses were led by experienced chefs in child nutrition. So one of the chefs was led was a director for one of the largest school districts in Georgia and she brought a wealth of experience in um showing how how to enhance school meals while ensuring compliance through effective menu development. Um so the goal of the training was to return home ready to train our team to raise the bar of school meals in our district. Um and so yeah, we're we're committed to moving school nutrition forward and That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Sonia. Um I want I want to thank you and your department for all the work you've been doing on this. I
121know it's been months-long efforts. Various presentations to the board, various emails, calls. Um a lot of research on your end. It's a Herculean task in front of you to um comprehensively change how um we serve not what 20,000 meals a day. 5.30 30 30 30 30,000 meals a day. The largest food provider in the city of McAllen. Um so I I thank you so much for what you're doing. Um you know, I think next steps for us would be to help us consolidate all the plans. I know it's not easy responding to the board. You have seven of us. We have a lot of questions. There's a lot of parents with questions. Um so if you could help us by consolidating that into a plan that we can publish with objectives metrics and timelines. And
122I know it's all the you you've done most of it, but if we can consolidate that, I think that'd be uh fantastic for transparency. So your staff, the board, the community knows where we are, where we're heading. But I know your heart's in this and I really appreciate everything you're doing. Um you know, there's nothing more important than health and safety of our kids and that includes nutrition because that's like you said, if they go to class hungry um or if they're taking a sugar bomb in the morning, they're it's harder for them to learn. So thank you for everything you're doing. I think we're on the right path. Um I know it's not as fast as we all want even you. But we went we went from five years now to three-year plan. So
123kudos to you and I know that was a lot of work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank Thank you. Also want to express appreciation. Um you know, the the mantra of like when you know better, you do better. I see that happening right now like in real time in the learning of the team. It's it's really amazing. On my own end as I've been learning about this, one of the things that I observed was that our district wellness plan which I had a hand in creating as a member of the SHAC last year um doesn't include components around nutritional content or objectives. And so my wondering is now that you all are in the process, you brought up SHAC, should we expect as board members to see a structurally different wellness plan when it
124comes to the board that includes metrics looking into the future for let's say reduction in highly processed items, increase in the number of scratch-cooked items or other components of the scale assessment from the Chef Ann Foundation? Yeah, definitely. And I mean not even just um you know, the the SHAC, you know, touches more than just here, right? It's uh it's the PTO sells and all of that like what's allowed to be sold and all of that. So there's a lot of different things that that it includes Yeah. that is allowed in the schools. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you. Mhm. I apologize. Trustee Cardona's question remind me of remind me of a question I did want to ask you about um I think at the last SHAC meeting um you discussed with parents and your dieticians about
125the CMP specific nutritional guidelines that are you all looking at, right? Above and beyond what USDA provides like limiting added sugar Right. uh below what USDA says is advisable and things like that. Um so can you tell us a little bit more about how you all are approaching that? It's it's something that um as we're starting like I can't give you a specific number cuz we're we're barely starting to to start our recipes. So it's easy uh when you buy a packaged item, it's it's easy, right? But as we're starting to build recipes, like we got to know at what point where our limit is going to be. So it's it's really really early in our like probably within the next few months as we're developing some new recipes for breakfast item we can come
126up with a better guide cuz I would I would hate to say like, well, we'll be at 9% you know, let's just say added sugar or whatever it is, you know. Um and and when you're creating this recipe, 9% is too too low or too high, you know. I so it's as I think within the next couple of um months as we're working on these new recipes we'll have a better guide um on the on where we're going to start. Okay, that's great. And I think part of the strategic plan you can put that in there, right? Identify um and I'm not a dietician, but identify certain factors that you want to look at like added sugar, fat content, saturated fat. I'm just rambling on here, but you all would know better than I and
127about what point you think you'd be able to set those standards. Correct. Okay. Yeah, I think I think we just need to get started on it and then we can start basing it on what we're we're tasting and what students are coming up. Of course, you know, still having that that we want it to be lower than and getting students used to the a different taste, right? We still want that, but we want it to be good for them. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Guerra. I also one more thing, Sonia, sorry. Um just I think the marketing department and you guys could get together and really start kind of showcasing you're doing so many awesome stuff like the marinara sauce was on channel five. Like let's make sure that we're really promoting what
128we're doing in-house and the changes that we're making cuz I think that would help with you know, some of the concerns. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we are on to the report regarding number 2022-187 between TASB Risk Management Fund and MISD. Yes, in accordance with guidance provided by the TASB Risk Management Fund, administration is providing the agreement this agreement to the board to reaffirm the awareness of the district's participation. Dr. Albert Canales, Chief Human Resources Officer, is available to answer any questions if needed. This item is for informational purposes only. Anything you want to add, Dr. Canales, or you want to say? No, just that it's a perpetual contract. So last time it came was 2022, so it just automatically renews every year. Just wanted to bring it to the
129board's attention. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. And now we'll talk about the uh was discussion and possible action on the McAllen Independent School District March budget amendment. Dr. Gutierrez. Administration is recommending the approval of the March 2026 budget amendment for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. Ms. Lorena Garcia, Deputy Superintendent for Business and Operations, is available to answer questions. We are recommending action on this item. Any questions for discussion? >> yes, the it's very small. Um the only amount that we're pulling from fund balance is 27,898 and that's for some summer acceleration programs. It does also address the lease setting it up as a revenue and then an expenditure, but it nets out. Uh also we have some transactions in regards to TIA that also nets out. And that's an action item. Move to approve
130the budget amendment. Second. The motion by Trustee Haddad and a second by Trustee Vela Garza Lopez. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Mhm. Motion passes 5-0. Okay. We are on Board of Trustee items on discussion and possible action of approval of Board of Education meeting minutes. I believe everyone has had a chance to review the minutes. If there are any corrections now or I'll entertain a motion to approve I'll move to approve the Board of Education meetings as Superintendent for February 26th, March 9th, March 11th, March 23rd and March 24th. I'll second. We have a motion by Trustee Haddad and a second by Trustee Rivera. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Discussion and possible action of travel by the Board of Trustees. So this is for a uh conference that's going
131to be held the Region One Conference, the School Board Conference that's held at the island annually. And so we do have some Trustees that will be going over there to get their continuing ed because that's coming up. Move to approve. Second. Okay, motion by Trustee Haddad Second. second by Trustee Vela Garza Lopez. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Okay, at this time we are going to recess to close session. Uh pursuant to sections 551071, 551072, 551074, 551076, and 551089 of the Texas Government Code to discuss the items listed on the agenda. It is 8:25 and we are recessing to close session. >> Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. >> Mhm. >> All right, we are back. It's 9:24. We're back from closed session. And we will now take items action and items on closed session.
132So, we are on 10A. Discussion possible action of human resources recommendations for school year 2025-2026. Uh human resources submitted a list of recommendations for the 2025-2026 school year under separate cover for discussion during closed session. Uh we're recommending uh motion to action on these items. Move to approve. Okay, I have a motion by Trustee Lagasse Lopez. I'll second. All in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Um item B. Nothing. Nothing to report. Okay. And on the rest of those items as well. We do have a list of scheduled meetings on the agenda that you are able to look at. At this time, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. I have a motion by Trustee Lagasse Lopez. Second? >> Second. By Trustee Carrion. All in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Motion
133passes 5-0. Thank you all. Good night. It's 9:05. 5. >> Thank you all. Thank you. >> Mhm.