001Good good afternoon everyone and welcome those of you that are watching online and those of you here present with us today. I'd like to give a very warm welcome to the members of leadership Macau that have joined us today. Thank you guys for being here. We will we hope this uh meeting is very educative and uh quick for you guys. So, we'll go by as fast as we can. Today is uh Tuesday, October 21st, 2025. It is 5:30 p.m. Uh and we are here for our regular board meeting of the board of trustees of the Mccana Independent School District. There are items on this agenda that may be taken in an order other than as shown on this agenda unless removed from the consent agenda. Items identified within the consent agenda will be acted on
002at one time. At this meeting, there may be discussion and action by the board on the items and subjects listed as follows. Item number one, call the meeting to order. I have done so at 5:30 p.m. And for item number two, we would like to dedicate this to Miss Robin Ellis, a member of our staff who has passed away recently. If you'll join us in a moment, silence, please. Thank you. Item number three, pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. Item number four, public comments. I believe we have two public comments today. Um, we will call you up as soon as we play this short video.
003Thank 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 mckelenisd.org at least one hour prior to the start of the scheduled meeting. Number two, an individual's comments to the board shall not exceed two minutes per meeting. Number three, the board shall not tolerate disruption of the meeting by members of the audience. Thank you. ISD. All right. First, we have Nor Ahmad. Mr. Ahmad, we will give you two minutes uninterrupted. >> Good afternoon, board members and superintendent. Uh, I wanted to share an exciting opportunity that could significantly support student well-being in our district and enhance productivity within our students. Usually 8:00 p.m., 9:00 p.m., 10 p.m. when all the doors are closed and children go to sleep
004and parents go to sleep and counselors are sleeping, sometimes a call for help and no one's available and it's very difficult for parents and for teachers and for counselors and not knowing what's going on. So this is where student 365 365 kicks in a fully subsidized mental health program from call a doctor plus 100% funded by existing federal resources at no cost to the district. Why is this very important? Because about 40% of students experience persistent sadness. This is a n national statistics. 20% seriously considered suicide and 50% of lifetime mental health issues begin by the age of 14. Student 365 provides 247, 7 days a week, 365 365 days uh days across the year, holidays, weekends, access to over 60 66,000 health professionals and licensed counselors through phone, video chat, and more. Plus up
005to 20 therapy sessions per incident. This program doesn't replace the current mental health programs at the schools or schools counselors. It actually complements them especially during evenings, weekends, school breaks and holidays. It's confidential, stigmaree, and requires no diagn diagnosis to access care. It also includes quarterly reports to the districts to track outcomes at no cost to the district. with national average weight times for mental health service at three weeks. Students 365 offers access in seconds to to talk to a counselor. If the board and superintendent are open to it, our district could become the first in region one to launch this program. Thank you for your time and considering this opportunity. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. And next we have Alex Stein. Mr. sign two minutes uninterrupted. Thank you. >> I'm Dr. Alex
006Stain, the father of two dual language students at Fawsome Middle School. I'm also the president of RGB Pue, Parents United for Excellent Dual Education. There's a report from your bilingual department on tonight's agenda. So, I'm here to remind you of your public commitment to increase the percentage of students participating in dual language programs. It's a quote from your strategic plan. Um, according to tonight's report, roughly half of all of students in Macallen are EBS or former EBS who've been reclassified. Um, but fewer than one in five are participating in dual language. This is not by choice. Most campuses don't offer dual language. So, our Spanish speaking kids are pushed into early exit or ESL programs that are designed to transition them to English only. These inferior programs destroy the Spanish in our community rather than
007growing it into academic biiteracy. Uh, and we know the research showing that dual language outperforms early exit in ESL. But it's not just emergent bilingual who lose out. Uh, the other 9,800 students who are not EBS don't learn much or any Spanish and they don't become academically biiterate. Um, with planning and leadership, you could offer dual language at all your campuses. Uh, PSJA does this. Last year, uh, I salute you for graduating the first cohort of, uh, K through 12 dual language students. you graduated six. Uh PSJ graduated 521. That's how many start in your district, but only one to 2% actually finish because instead of having vertical alignment, you've got a pyramid structure for your dual language program. Um a larger dual language program would also generate more money from the state. Under HP3,
008Macau's dual language students already generate something like 564,000 extra dollars a year. That's on top of what they get for being classified as EBS. If you wanted to maximize the number of students participating in dual language, you'd be looking at potentially a revenue source of something like $5 million a year. It would take time to get to that, but that would be possible. Uh more importantly, you'd be providing equitable access to the best program for all students that fosters bilingualism, biculturalism, and biiteracy in our community. Thanks for your uh ears. >> Thank you very much. Move to item number five, superintendent report 5A, coffee with superintendent Schlotskis. >> Yes. Uh on September the 19th, we hosted the first coffee with the superintendent for the 2526 school year. This year, we're taking our coffee with a
009superintendent out into the community by partnering with local entry iteries. This new approach allows us to welcome anyone from the community to join the conversation and learn more about our district initiatives. We have a video to show you. So, could you play the video at this time? >> The superintendent informed us that for the last two years, they've been planning uh strategically uh you know, bringing up data so that this time around when the uh bonds go up for election um that they can have a lot of good evidence onto why our facilities need improvement, which I found very, very good to show that history that you know what, we've been doing our work for the last two years, our homework. It's not something we just woke up with and said, "Hey, you know what?
010All of a sudden, our facilities need to be changed." No, they've been doing their homework for the last two years so that when they come to the people uh when we go to vote, they can present a good case as to why it's it's good for us to do improvement to our buildings. [Music] This is like my first time really getting involved. Um, I'm coming from a different school district. Uh, this is my second year with Mallen ISD and I have um had a lot of opportunity to be involved. Um there is PTO, there is parental involvement and so I'm now this year being a part of that, getting a chance to be a part of that. I'm just really excited for the rest of the school year and I'm I think that it's going
011to be a great year and just to be a part of my children's education and seeing them succeed. That is my goal. That was great. We look forward to the next one. >> Yes, we will continue to do it throughout the year. We got about five more to go. So, >> all right. We will move to item 5B, child nutrition food show. >> On Thursday, October the 9th, we hosted our annual uh child nutrition food show at the Child Nutrition Center at our central kitchen. Students from elementary, middle, and high school participated in the event, sharing their feedback on new menu items through a fun passport booklet activity. The event also drew attention from several media outlets and welcome community members and restaurant partners who join in to support a commitment to nutritious student approval
012meals. And we also have a video to show you. Go ahead. >> Today we're having our Mallenist food show. So we have uh students from all over our campuses and they're coming in and they're sampling food with our vendors and they are just telling us what they like and don't like on our menu. We try to always provide two entree options for our students so that if they don't like one, they're going to have an option to get another. So, our goal is always that 100% of our kids eat at school. I really like the foods that are like the Italian ones and the garlic pizza and all the other ones are so good. The first that I really did like is the was the Italian noodles. I like the pepp. I think I like
013the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I love it. >> So today we have about 10 vendors that came out uh to showcase their food. Um, and so we work really closely with them and trying to find products that our students are really going to enjoy. We've gotten pretty positive uh responses from students. Uh, they're liking what they're tasting. Um, and what they don't like, they're very good about telling us as well. So, we take all that feedback and we're going to get to work on a good menu. >> It looked like a lot of fun. I saw Lizzie was there. How was the food, Lizzy? Trustee, >> superintendent, thank you so much for um and Sonia Skosting that and uh superintendent, thank you for working with the board um to look at healthier, better nutritious
014options. >> Try your best to continue. >> Item number six, we do have a public hearing for the school financial integrity rating system of Texas School first. Dr. Uh yes, this is our financial uh academic report card and for the 22nd time out of 23 years, Mckllen ISD has received the state's uh highest mark by the Texas education agency school first, which stands for financial integrity rating system of Texas. Miss Lorenna Garcia, our deputy superintendent for business and operation, will tell us more about this and also a a rating perfect score that we got. So go ahead. >> Thank you. Good evening everyone. Um we're going to discuss this in at this public hearing the state's uh Texas financial accountability rating system. Um at the conclusion there will be an opportunity for the public to
015ask questions if they have any. Of course as Dr. Ruth has mentioned Macallen IC earned an A superior achievement rating with a perfect score in financial accountability. the we are going to talk about the objectives as well as the goals and then how this rating was determined. Uh there are some seating indicators um and then the school first indicators and of course our public comments. So the objective is for the rating system uh that fairly and equitably evaluate the quality of management decisions provide an analysis tool for assessment and then to be able to publicly report this Excuse me. Okay. The financial data uh that is utilized to create this this report and assessment is our district annual financial report. um and our PE system which is the public education information management system. Um what
016the first uh attains to do is to first of all strengthen the fiscal accountability, improve performance in the management of the finances and facilitate effective and efficient use of resources. First of all, uh there are some uh critical uh indicators. in these critical indicators. If the district fails in any one of these four, then it's on automatic F. So, uh we have to be very careful and make sure that our annual financial report is filed by the deadline November 27th. And of course, this year they are extending it to February. Uh but uh for the most part, most years it'll be towards the end of November. Um, we also have to have other than an unmodified opinion and no material weaknesses identified in the audit. Uh, meaning that nothing was wrong in in the audit,
017we cannot default on our debt payments and we cannot default on any payroll related payments. So, the district was successful in all four. These are the ceiling indicators. What that means is that that um any uh on that it gives you a maximum score that you can receive if you fail one of these indicators. So it brings you down to the maximum points on those. But we're going to cover the the first indicators. The first one was of course the annual audit, the financial report. Was it submitted on time? And yes, of course it was. Was there an unmodified opinion in the AFR which is what you want? And yes, the opinion uh was unmodified. representing the highest level of assurance and meeting the critical indicator. Was the district in compliance with payment terms? And
018the answer is yes. Did the school district make timely payments and to TRS, Texas Workforce Commission, Internal Revenue Services, and other government agency? And the answer is yes. Was the total net position in the governmental activities column in the statement of net positions u greater than zero? Kalaniz's net position was 319,348543 which is greater than zero meaning we did meet that indicator. Was the average change in the assigned and unassigned fund balances over three years less than 25% decrease or did the current year's assigned and unassigned fund balance exceed 75 days of operational expenditures? And in both cases we met both indicators. Uh the three-year uh fund balance increased actually by 13% well above the - 255 that is allowed and we had current fund balance of 105.6 million which exceeds the 75 days. Was
019the number of days cash on hand and current investments in the general fund for the school district sufficient to cover operating expenditures? Uh we did receive the 10 points in this category. The days of cash on hand were 132.85 587. Was the measure of the current assets to current liability ratio for the school district sufficient to cover short-term debt? The answer to that is yes. Uh did the school district's general fund revenues equal or exceed the expenditures and uh the expenditures did not exceed the general fund revenues and the number of days of cash in hand was 132 which is greater than the 60 days that is allowed. Um they skipped indicator number 10 and everybody received a maximum points. In number 11 was the ratio of long-term liabilities to total assets for the school
020district sufficient to support long-term solveny and the district received the full 10 points. The long-term liabilities to total asset ratio was 15.3% sufficient to support long-term solveny. Indicator number 12. What is the correlation? between future debt requirements and the district's assessed property value. The correlation between future debt requirements and the district's assessed property value is that Mallalan IC's debt per $100 of assessed property value was adequate to support our debt repayments. Was the school district's administrative cost ratio equal to or less than the threshold? And we received the full points because the cost ratio was 6.9% which is below the allowed 8.55%. Did the district not have a 15% decline in studentto staff ratio over three years? And u Mallist's studentto staff ratio declined only by 3.49 over three years which is less than the
02115% that is allowed. Was the school district's uh average daily attendance within the allotted range of the district's banual pupil projections submitted to TEA? And in this case, the actual projection was 1.62, which is less than the allotted range of 7%. Did the comparison of the PE data to like information to the school district's annual financial report result in a total variance of less than 3%. Uh we had a 0% variance. So we received the maximum points. Uh did the external independent audit report that the annual financial report was free of any material weaknesses or weaknesses in internal controls and of course uh our annual financial report was free of any material weaknesses. Did the external independent audate that the annual financial report was free of any material non-compliance when it comes to grants and
022uh that is correct. It was free of any material non-compliance. Number 19, did the school district post the required financial information on the website as required by state law? And uh we did comply with that. Did the school district's administration and school board members discuss any changes or impacts to local, state, and federal funding at a board meeting within 120 days before the adopted budget? And yes, we did have that discussion. Did the school district receive an adjusted repayment schedule for more than one fiscal year? And no, the district did not receive an adjustment repayment schedule from TEA on the foundation school program funds. And those were the indicators. Um so at this time I would like to open it up for any any questions. We do have a copy of the report if anybody
023in the audience would like a copy. Those are with Natalie. >> And that's that's all I have today for you on the public hearing. >> Any questions from the board? >> Okay. Uh we will give those of you in the audience a chance to comment if you'd like at this time move forward. All right. Thank you so much. If not, I just want to thank the the business office and all the departments and the campuses for uh having this uh perfect score and and our financial integrity rating system of Texas and and thank you all for all the work and for taking good care of our taxpayers dollars. So, thank you. >> Thank you all very much. >> Well done. >> Absolutely. >> We are on item number seven, consent agenda items and unless trustee
024would like to one. I will ask for a motion to approve. >> I move to approve um consent agenda items 7A through 7H. >> Second. >> Okay. Have a motion by trustee PÑA and a second by trustee Lopez. All in favor? >> All oppose. Motion passes 70. >> That is item 7 A27. Item number eight, instructional services instructional leadership items 8A1, report regarding bilingual ESL and foreign languages department. Dr. Gutz. >> Yes. Administration will provide a report on the bilingual ESL and foreign languages department. Mrs. Rosio Nava, our director for bilingual ESL and foreign languages department will have more information and this is an information uh purposes only item. So go ahead, Miss Nava. Good evening board president, trustees and Dr. Gutierrez. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to present to you today on
025our department bilingual and foreign languages. Uh our mission in the department is is there so our mission in the department is to support um our district in supporting all of our emerging bilingual students to make sure that their linguistic, academic and cognitive needs are met so that they are successful. And in our district currently we have 5,724 emerging bilingual students. This constitutes 29% of our student population. We also have 1,592 monitor students. These are students who have been reclassified already. They've demonstrated English proficiency and we still monitor their progress to make sure that they're still being successful. Out of those 5,724 emerging bilingual students, 52% of them are at the elementary level, 20% of them at the middle school level, and 28% at the high school level. Um, our students come from different language backgrounds.
026The majority of them come from the Spanish speaking background. The second most common language is English for our students and Vietnamese is the third one. Um, there are six different state approved uh programs to serve our emerging bilingual students and meet their needs and our district currently offers five of them. Under the bilingual umbrella, we offer the dual language one way and two-way at designated campuses and uh FOSAM and achieverly college high school and our bilingual early exit program at the elementary level as well. Under the English as a second language program models, we have the ESL contentbased programs in elementary and the ESL pulled up programs in our secondary campuses. We currently have 1586 students participating in the dual language program. Um and there's also um there are the participation in the previous two
027years. There's a slight decrease but there's also a slight decrease in our population in the district. We have different services in our department. Um under our department we serve our foreign languages and under this umbrella we serve our students by providing exams for acceleration in the middle school level. And this is for students who want to challenge the test and receive a high school credit for foreign languages if they're proficient in the language. And that's open to all the middle school students. We also offer professional learning and other supports for foreign language teachers. We have courses in Spanish, French, and American Sign Language at the high school level, Spanish at the IB program at the Leon, and Spanish at the FSA dual language program as well. uh under the umbrella of emerging bilingual and newcomer
028students, we have different services. We provide services for our students such as supplemental instructional materials and resources. We also provide different services for our staff such as uh the support for our language proficiency assessment committees on making sure that they are uh following the guidelines and the requirements set by the state in serving our students among other areas on how to serve our emerging bilingual students and how to help our teachers become bilingual and ESO certified as well. We also have different activities for parents and families of our emerging bilingual students and our newcomer students in our district. And uh next we have a graph that compares the performance of our students in Macallen ISD emerging bilingual students and monitor students against the region and against the state. In yellow you see the performance of
029our students in Macallen ISD. And uh we can see the performance in the reading and the math uh start assessments and their academic growth. As you can see they performed above the region and above the state and also in reading and math academic achievement. This is performance at the meets or higher level in the in start assessments and they perform the region outperform the region and the state as well in the English language proficiency measure which is our tpas assessment that uh focuses in the growth in the English language acquisition of our students. they also outperformed the region and the state. And then that this is after a reduction in our EV population from 7,200 students that we had in 2020 uh three to um 6,500 that we had um last year. So there's been
030a decline on our EV population, but even regardless of that, we're still outperforming the region and the states uh with our efforts. Here you see the the trend on the last uh three years on the same indicators for our emerging bilingual students and our uh monitor students and performance in their state assessments and their tus assessments as well. Here we have the performance of our emerging bilingual students and our monitor students in the different subject areas at the approaches and masters level. In green you see the performance of our students at the approaches level in the different subject areas. In uh pink you see the performance at the meets level and in blue you see the performance at the mast's level for our students in the different um subject areas that they're assessed. Uh there
031are different celebrations that we want to share with you tonight. Uh, one of them is that we have 21 dual language students who receive or their high Spanish one high school credit at the end of their fifth grade dual language participation and this is by demonstrating proficiency in both English and Spanish and performing on meets or higher in their state assessment and this is the state uh criteria. We also very happy to continue collaborating with Rice University. We took a group of dual language students from Fossil Middle School transitioning into the high school to the vice tapia camp. These are STEMbased camps and it provides an opportunity for our students to collaborate and network with other students across the state of Texas and learn about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and how it applies to
032to their their future education. Uh we also had our first cohort of dual language uh graduates from Achieverly College High School. Last year we had six students graduating from achieverly college high school. This year we have 20 seniors in the dual language program at achieve. Um also we participated in a UTRGB regional tornado detoraphia. This is our uh regional Spanish spelling B competition. We had six of our students performing at the top level in this competition. Two of them advanced the state level. One of them placed second place at the state Spanish and represented us at the national Spanish competition as well. We had Miss Britney Carpenter uh secondary teacher uh be recognized as the RJB secondary teacher of the year for their services to our emerging bilingual students. And we had two summer K12
033state educator of the year finalist. Miss Dy Drevinho got fourth place. She works at uh Sigin Elementary and McAuliffe Elementary. And right now this year we have Miss Danna Bayister. She is a teacher at Milm Elementary. and we'll find out at the end of this week if she gets a recognition in the top uh three places as well at the Tabith conference. Um we also had our first science extravagana and this one is an activity that we work in collaboration with the IMAS Museum uh to provide different exploration activities and experiments for parents and families of emerging bilingual students and emerging bilingual students in grades fifth and eth with an effort to provide uh them uh the opportunity to learn about science concepts and um the vocabulary. We also had an engineer from Macallen public
034utility present to them on how science is important and how it impacts our water system in the city. So all of this in an effort to help our students perform um increase their performance in their science um in their science the state assessments and increase the collaboration with their parents and our families. We also want to celebrate the performance of our students in their state assessments because they outperform the region and the state in different areas. And I want to take this opportunity to thank all the teachers, the staff and the administrators at the campuses um at central office for all their support for serving our emerging bilingual students because all of them play a key role in the success of our students and none of this will be possible without their support. And lastly,
035I want to thank um my team, my bilingual department for their commitment to uh their services to our district and our students. So, uh that concludes my presentation and I thank you for your time and your leadership and support as well and I can answer any questions at this time. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Miss Nava. Um what would it take to radically grow the number of students participating in the dual language two-way program? We uh would need parent support approval. Uh we are a district of choice. So our our parents have uh the option to opt in to do a language program or early exit or another program for their students. Right? So we need the the parent buyin. We need the support. We can expand to other grade levels. We
036have the resources. We have the plan. We have the program. uh teacher certification is is present in most of the campuses. So it will be a matter of um getting the parents to to buy in into the dual language program and be able to uh open it with a good pipeline in different um elementary campuses in other areas. >> Thank you. And just one quick followup, is that u parent opt-in mostly from native English speakers or mostly from native Spanish speakers? >> No. The dual language program is a program designed to support our emerging bilingual students with the effort in mind and the focus in mind that we want them to be successful and maintain both of their languages. Non-English uh non emerging bilingual students can also participate but there is a limit in the
037state regulations. We need to make sure that in our district we do not exceed 40% of our uh participation in our programs from the non population which we are in compliance right now. We're fine. So we're able to expand the program to our non students and it is designed to help them in their case to become proficient in Spanish because they already come with the English language. So we the the ideal model is to have a 50/50 uh balance in the classroom and we're doing a two-way which is in which we have our EVs and our nonies in in the dual language program participation. Um but um it is possible and it is with the focus but in mind of course first our emerging bilingual students they are the priority for our services. >> Thank
038you. We actually didn't we used to be 100% offer dual language in every school >> I believe so um um I was not in my position at that time but yes it was it was in all the elementary campuses and then um after that I believe the board and the district leadership decided to have it at only designated campuses. So we have it at the designated elementaryaries. We expanded to Fawsome and to achieve early college high school as well. >> So that's just some background from the board that it was years ago and we can look into kind of the history of the program. >> Um I ask a question. >> Yeah, you know I was following what trustee Karol said, you know, and thank you to Mr. Stein for being here today. He educated
039me about this program and you know you see higher um students that do a language do better academically graduate higher rates metriculate to college in higher numbers. So thank you for everything you're doing. I just wanted to I think Mr. Stein brought up some some numbers that PSJ graduates 521 last year. What is PSJ doing and how do we uh copy them? Because I think this is such a incredible program. You know, I'm doing a horrible job, and I mean horrible job, of teaching my son Spanish, but I'm gonna rely on MISD to do it when he's four years old and can enroll. >> So, I want this program to be >> and we want we want him and Macd um it is uh from my understanding San Juan Alamo only offers dual language as
040their bilingual program. So, there is no choice of early exit or dual language. So everybody offers a dual language program and they do offer it at the all the way to the secondary level as well. So that is one of the reasons why the students you see a larger number of students in addition to the larger uh district that that they have. But it is a great program. Um I'm I'm blessed to be part of Macallen as an employee but also as a parent. And uh my younger son sitting in the back is a dual language student at Sanchez Elementary. My previous two sons were early exit students. So it it is a great district to be in. Um it is a possibility. Uh but that is one of the reasons why PSJA has more
041dual language graduates. >> And you when u Mr. Trust Kon asked you. You said it's a we're a district of choice, so parent buyin is the number one that we but we do have the resources. So you're saying if we wanted to expand this to other junior highs, high schools, we would have >> secondary it's it's secondary is more uh challenging. Uh and the reason being is in elementary most of our teachers we do have the staff to provide the bilingual education which means that they're bilingual certified. Um are proficient in both in English and Spanish. When you get to the secondary, bilingual uh certification is not a requirement anymore. So, it is a challenge to get teachers to be able to teach the core content areas in both uh in Spanish in in the
042case of our secondary campuses. For example, FSA, they teach science in Spanish in addition to the Spanish language arts uh teacher. So, those two teachers need to have the bilingual certification. they have to be proficient in the language so they can provide the correct instruction to the students. At the secondary level, it is more challenging because it's not a common practice. It's not impossible. Um, but it is more challenging to find the staff that is proficient in the language to be able to support them and get bilingual certified. Plus, the the ones teaching in English need another certification as well. So um elementary yes it is it is we have we have the staff we have the resources secondary yes but it has to be a gradual approach to make sure that we have the
043staff in place to be able to provide the program for our students. >> Thank you Miss Nava and superintendent. I know we're going to have a conversation in the future strategic planning priorities. This would be a great one to add to that. Um, Miss Nava, thank you for presenting today. Thank you for all the work that you do. >> So, are uh dual language students outperforming our early exit >> and uh based on on the analysis that I've done in Macallen, we we are blessed, like I said, to work with excellent teachers, excellent administrators committed to the success of our students regardless of the program they participate in. So when you look at the performance of our elementary students in dual language, early exit, ESL programs, you can see a very uh similar performance comparison,
044like you said, we we outperform the region and the state in most of those indicators. When you see the spike of the performance over dual language students is in secondary, which is the design of the program. After the longer you participate in the program, then you get to see that outperforming uh that performance above the rest of the students. So when you look at the performance of our students at uh the middle school level and at the high school level, we do see a great um difference on the on their success on the state assessment in comparison to other students participating in ESL programs or our non students. >> Okay. And and I'm wondering if um you can send that information to the board like so we can see dual language separate from the other
045programs that students are. >> Yes, I can certainly provide that for the previous years. This year final report hasn't come out with a breakdown of the performance of our students by program participation. I have preliminary data for 2025 but for the previous years I do have that data and I can certainly provide that for you all. >> Thank you. And I too just want to echo um other uh board members and vouch for my support for dual language. Um I'm monilingual and it's I've been here my whole life. It's embarrassing but I would love if our district I mean you've got to be bilingual in today's world. you've got to be biiterate. And that's what differentiates, you know, bilingualism, ESL, early exit programs from dual language is that students actually learn how to become biiterate,
046how to read and write in Spanish. It's very challenging. Um, but again, I know we can get there with support from the board, administration. Um, so I really would like to revisit kind of our goals and what's going on at our campuses uh for our strategic workshop. >> Yes. No, thank you so much for your support. And I also want to take the opportunity to thank our parents because they've always been very supportive to to our programs. So >> thank you and we we will I'll send that data. Thank you your way. >> Thank you, >> Mr. President. It is with great excitement that I ask that we rearrange the agenda to bring up item 8 C1. >> I have a motion to bring up 8C1 >> and I have a second by trustee. All
047in favor? >> I oppose. Motion passes 70. 8C1 is next and that is Chewy. >> Chewy. >> Bring it. >> 8C1. Discussion and possible action on donation and transfer agreement number Macau ISD police department K9 Dr. >> Yes. In accordance with a board policy CDC local, the board delegates to the superintendent the authority to accept unsolicited gifts on behalf of the district. And in addition, this agreement will allow for the transfer of ownership from transfer to melaniniz police department. Our police force has grown uh by four piles. We're excited to welcome Officer Chewy, who was recently rehomed at our school district by Mckllen High School students Addison and Amelia Humphre. Are they here? >> They're here. >> Come here, girls. >> Their generous contribution helps strengthen our commitment to safety, connection, and community spirit across
048Mckllen ISD. We ask for them to come to the front for a photo and administration is recommending action on this item. And let's bring in our new member to our police department. >> Second resounding second. Second by >> The rest of the board. All in favor? Everyone in favor? >> Motion passes. 70. >> Honor to to present to you Officer Chewy. Can we have Addison and Amelia maybe say a few words? >> Not to put you all on the spot, but we are very grateful. Hi, I'm Addison Humphre. Um, we heard about Chewy from a friend of a friend and uh my mom had made the connection that uh there's always kids in need. And we do uh some stuff with mental health as well. And we just thought what better purpose for this very
049very intelligent dog than to come and help kids and potentially save a life. And he's just the sweetest. and we think that he's going to do an amazing job with his new profession here with >> Macd. So in addition to officer chewy, we also wanted to present officer Sylvia Trovinho. She is our new our new handler for Officer Chewy. [Applause] All right. >> She was getting she was getting jealous. official head will go on. >> Oh my gosh. We put him on filbert. >> He filled the position. We're good. We filled >> that. We put him as a >> hire. We could He's ready to go. >> He's ready to go. >> So, just real quick, I I just wanted to mention, you know, thank you all so much. Again, it's just another great example
050of the district's leadership that proves anything is possible. And I want to thank all of you for your continued support. Special thanks to Trustee Sophia Pena. We appreciate your help. And um to the Humphre, we just want to assure you that Chewy will most certainly get the attention that you're hoping he'll receive the Mall with the Mall community. And Chewy's all in. [Applause] >> I really want to say thank you to uh Dr. and the team for accepting him and giving him a second chance. And so I'm really proud and kind of emotional because this is exciting for me. >> Thank you, Humphre. >> Thank you all so much. >> Thank you. >> That's exciting. >> Penny's got a friend. We are going to circle back now to 82 report regarding scholarships for class of
0512025 and promote college night for class of 2026. Dr. >> uh administration will provide a report on the college readiness efforts provided to the class of 2025 and efforts in place for the class of 2026. Miss Norma Cabrera, our director for college career and counseling department will share more information and this is for information purposes only. Go ahead, Miss Caba. >> Good evening. Um, Mr. Board President, school board trustees, Dr. Gutierrez, thank you for having me here. I'm here to share with you information for the class of 2025 and so you can also get an idea of what the uh the efforts are right now for the class of 2026. So here we have uh information on financial aid applications submitted. We have the class of 2024 um the total number of students on the
052second column and the class of 2025 on the fourth column. So our goal is to have 100% of our students apply for uh for financial aid and uh as part of a graduation requirement we are required to ensure that all students apply for financial aid but some students opt out of applying for financial aid for different reasons and you have the percentages there. Um at MAC high 87% applied uh 13% opt out. Memorial 80% applied 20% opt out. 64% applied and 36 opted out. Lamar IB 96% and two opted out and Lamar options 85 and 15 and achieve early college high school 98% and 2% opt out. So this is work that everyone is involved in but primarily our college admission scholarship specialist. They work with every single student one onone to make sure that
053they all apply for financial aid uh which is the FASA form or the TASA form or opt out. Um so here we have the college applications that were submitted last year by uh campus. So the total number of seniors for class of 2025 and the number of college applications. So here you have at Mallen High School, 88% of our students submitted a college application and our requirement is for them to at least submit one application, but more is better. Um, but we make sure that every single one of them at least submit one application, but we try to shoot for three, but one is mandatory. And then of course our students that join the military, um, they, uh, submit other forms for military. So you have the 88% at, um, at Mai 94% at Memorial
05496 at row 55 Lamar uh I mean 100% Lamar IB 98% at options and uh achieve early college high school 100% of our students and here we have scholarship information and we're so very happy to see that our numbers grew at an increase of 35%. So how do we collect this data? Our college ers work with their senior class very closely and they need to submit evidence. So once they re start receiving their award letters, their scholarship information um they submit that evidence to our college counselors who collect that evidence and then give them credit for the different awards that they're receiving. So at Mallen High School, we saw an increase of 54% for a total of 19,822,000. At Memorial High School, we saw an increase of 9% for a total of 13,284,000. At Row
055High School, we saw an increase of 52%. We're at 12,87,858. Lamar IB, an increase of 8%. Uh 14,999 99,917. At Lamar Options, we're working with that group. We saw a little decrease of 17%. at Achieve Early College High School, an increase of 137%. We went from 3.1 million to 7.4 million for a total of uh 66,766,618. So, we're so happy to report this because we went from 49.2 million to 66.7 million. And that is something to be very proud u for our students, our class of 2025. And the same efforts are in place right now for class of 2026. And here we have the number of associates degrees by different groups at achieve. Of course, we have more of the associates degrees because that's the degree that most students are work or all students are
056working towards. So we had 91 associates degrees completed at achieve out of 114 students. Lamar IB, they they participate in a different program. So they don't receive associates degree but they do get their IB um certification. and then Mac High School five students that participate in themies which uh secure um associates degrees Memorial High School 4 and row 14. So those are the associates degrees that means that they've completed 60 uh college hours in a particular area and um and the students uh receive uh like two years of college um completion before they graduate from high school. And then we have a list of district based certifications for the class of 2025. So it achieve 189, Lamar IP 110, Macallen High School 985, Memorial 811, and Row 1166. And some of our students um we
057know that the classes are smaller, but they get multiple industry based certifications. That's why our numbers are are higher. And then of course the last column is the scholarship information by campus. And then we have here a year-to-year comparison report for the last few years. Um, and we're very happy to report that we continue to increase the amounts, but anytime we increase, we have to sustain or continue to increase. So that's the goal for this year is to continue to increase the amounts and make sure that our students are um continuing to apply for scholarships that they're following through with all the recomments to submit those scholarship applications and also for them to submit their proof that they've received these scholarships. So we're at 66.7 million last year. And then this slide just gives you
058an overview of the dual enrollment hours for the class of uh this is all hours earned in last school year 2425. So we have at STC 12,079 credit hours. So each course is about three to four credit hours and we're using a very um uh small number of $350 per credit hour but I we know that that may 50 550 600 depending on the Institute of Higher Ed, but we're being very conservative with our number. We're using $350 per credit hour. So, the parent savings for the credit hours earned at South Texas College last year was 4,227,650. UTRGV students completed uh $1,853 credit hours for a savings of $648,550. and the UT onramps group uh completed 1,259 credit hours for a total savings of 44,650. So a total savings to our parents of uh 5,316,850.
059And that right there is uh speaks volumes on our efforts for dual credit because if you all know how if you're parents with kids in college, you know how expensive it is to get them through through those programs. And here we're giving them those opportunities um at Mallen ISD in high school. And then here are uh additional efforts that are in place for college um readiness. So 9th and 10th grade students receive uh college awareness, financial aid information, college expiration, post-secary prep, college readiness exams, GPA rank information. So we we present and we meet with kids at every every grade level. College readiness something we start talking to kids about in preK preK through 12th grade. We're always discussing college with students. But here we get more more of course intentional with um u making
060sure that they have their resumes or essays in place, financial aid awareness, college research and matching, uh internship opportunities, um campus visits, standardized testing and guidance. And then of course for our 12th graders. So these are our college readiness uh college um our college uh specialists that work with these different groups. But the focus the most of their time is spent with seniors because that's our last year and we need to make sure that they all apply for financial aid that they all apply for um college and that they're all securing scholarships because that's the piece that's very critical. like we can send them links and we can have the most beautiful um websites but we have to sit with them and and and help them and walk them through a lot of these processes
061because they they are tedious. So we we do that. We work with them on college applications, financial aid submissions. Um also support for uh every student even those with mixed statuses. What does that mean? Students that may have uh may be residents or citizens but maybe is undocumented. So we have to meet with those students. We provide everyone uh general information and then we sit with those different groups one on one to make sure that we meet the individual needs of those families. Um so support is provided for all students and um making sure that um that their final transcripts are in place and that we assist them for uh enrollment because we don't just prepare them to graduate from our high schools but we prepare them to enroll in postsecary ed and make sure
062that they're successful in postsecary yet. And this is just for information. Also, financial aid night. We're hosting financial aid night tomorrow at STC for all of our uh class of 2026 seniors. We have our college counselors at SDC and I'll be joining them tomorrow. And that's where we have SDC staff also helping us with the FASA applications. The FASA applications can get pretty convoluted based on the needs of the of the families and and the information that the families have. So, we have financial aid experts at SDC that can help us help the students with those applications. And we're also having a college night. It college night is scheduled for November 3rd. This is something through Tacro. It's an organization that puts together the college fairs in our area and they assign the date. We
063really I wanted to have it earlier, but they they give us the date and the time and we just have to uh go with that date and time. And in this case, it's November 3rd. But we're working those students on a daily basis, working with our counselors to make sure that every student is taken care of and that we meet the individual needs of each child. Any questions? >> May I? Yes. Um that over $5 million savings is huge and I'm just looking at our marketing director to see if we have plans to really like is this unique to us compared to charter schools and I know sure other public districts are probably comparable but what about how we've lost some students to charters? Do you know are they offering the same? >> So there's
064different programs um in each institution right but I'm glad you um brought that up because we met today. We're creating a district marketing plan to market all our different programs. We have too much to offer and sometimes it's it's a little confusing uh because we want to make sure that everyone's uh sharing the same information. So, we're creating a marketing plan for every single program for our comprehensive schools and all that they offer for IB for uh achieve for Utrgv collegiate for the new PEK. So, in trying to explain all those details to parents, we're creating um like a catalog that says a student's path to completion. So, what do I need to do um uh early on to make sure that I that I complete and that I understand these different programs and we're
065also marketing dual enrollment. We have amazing dual enrollment programs. Um but we have so much in Macallen. We are also um planning our Mallen has it all event for December 5th where we're inviting all eighth grade families to join us and receive one firsthand information from our representatives from each of the programs because that's when parents are are uh trying to decide on which programs to pursue or whether to stay at a comprehensive school which also offers dual enrollment which also offers AP which offers uh on ramps or go into one of our programs. We have a lot, but we are working with the marketing team to make sure that that the message is clear and that and we even want to take it as uh as early as elementary because that's when parents are
066talking about um maybe you know leaving our district for other opportunities. We want to show kids in fifth grade and fourth grade and third grade everything that's available throughout >> like hey you can graduate with an associates degree that's a huge deal. So anyway, thank you for >> any other questions. >> I just wanted to make a statement. I have two in college. Well, one in Brad and one in in college. And I just want to say thank you because those college counselors, I mean, not only do they sit with the student, but they sit with the parents when we have questions. I know with the first one, we did the we sat down early on for the FAFSA. Um, and that was 2020. So then hit and He would still call and we would
067do FaceTimes because I was confused about how to fill out and you have to fill out. I mean, it is they want to know what you're having for dinner. >> And so, it is so much work and all of our counselors have such great expertise as far as how to include all the information. And then you still have to do it every year that they're in college. And so, I would still call back the same counselor even though my child had graduated. I need help with this question. And so I just want to say thank you because it is I can see where so many parents just say don't worry about it, forget it. Not but it is so valuable for families in our community if they just have that guidance to help our students
068and our families to be able to complete all of these forms and and of course to stay on top of our kids for scholarships because their senior year, I get it. They are checked out and the last they want to write another essay for a scholarship, but it is >> so beneficial to the families and it's just, you know, $5 million is is huge for our community. So, thank you. Thank you for Thank you for sharing that. >> Um, two questions, Miss Carter. Uh, first of all, thank you so much for this. Um, second, seems like the college specialists are the real lynch pin of the strategy. What's the ratio of college specialists to seniors at our high school? So we have one college specialist at each of our schools. In our comprehensive schools, we
069have one to the senior class, which is about 4 or 500 students. But aside from college specialists, we also have programs with Utrtv like Americanore where they send students that are also wellversed in college applications and financial aid that help us help our seniors. So there's about five of those at each of our comprehensive schools. And then um so we have a lot of support and they they are in that lane of helping students with college readiness um needs. Um what we have seen in other districts is that college specialist is also the crisis counselor, the specialist counselor and here in Macallen we're very blessed to say that our college specialists have this open sequence and the the they have to follow that and make sure that we meet with every student and we meet
070their needs. Wonderful. Thank you. Second question. Uh I know financial aid changes every year and there's an evolving landscape when it comes to eligibility for instate tuition here in the state of Texas. How are you seeing the college specialists responding to those needs for all of our students? >> Well, we're having to have smaller meetings. We just met with one of the institutes of higher ed about our TASPA. >> Our TASPA is for students that are undocumented and there's been some changes statewide for TASPA. So, we're trying to figure out how to help these students because going to be charged out of state tuition. >> So, um and and they may not qualify. So, we have uh some resistance from students in submitting a TASPA application because that may affect their their status or if
071staying in this country. So, we're having to meet with we're having to really look outside of the box and meet with certain groups to get better informed on how to help our students. >> Yeah. Thank you so much. One idea as I've been talking to colleagues that I work with in other parts of the state trying address this issue is exploring maybe more non-traditional options for students that are affected. Maybe not the residential college option anymore, even as heartbreaking as that might be, but I know there are highquality online lowcost self-paced institutions of higher education that might be able to meet that need. Um, just a minute. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> I just have one comment. you know, from the day that I got on this board, I've been clamoring
072for more and more and more because it is it is a savings and it's my background. And so, um, it is a cost savings for families. Um, they get ahead, they get out and into the workforce faster and support themselves. And so, it is really a game changer when it comes to breaking that cycle of poverty. And education is the equalizer. Nobody can take that away. So, thank you. Thank you for your your team and Dr. and everybody that's involved with making sure that our kids have access to higher ed and u again yeah thank you so much it's it's really really good thanks >> I want to take this time to thank our counselors our campus administration and and district administration Dr. and the board because without you we wouldn't be able to do
073what we do >> thank you all so much >> just want to add that those $5.3 million is at no cost to the parents it was our cost So it's a it's a scholarship to the parents >> from users. >> Yes. >> So the way SDC works is they don't charge us per student, but there's fees for like um the textbooks and other things, but they don't charge us per student. >> Okay. Thank you. >> One, this is a marketing comment. Maybe if we could just divide the 5.3 by however many families we have and just plaster it on their front door like we are saving you by the time you walk out of this, you know, graduate. We're saving you $20,000. >> That would make me come. I mean, I'd come anyway, but I'd
074come even more. >> And we have some really successful people that started at STC that are, you know, doing great things in our community, too. So, >> um, you >> I did. I did. And so I had to figure all the fast out myself because well I didn't take advantage of it when I was in high school. Um and so it we didn't have chat JPT back then either. So you didn't know how to put it. Uh but there are a lot of people there that are >> that helped me out and STC gave me another start. So I'm very thankful to their program there and to UTRGB because I also attended there uh and to see because this is where I got my start. >> So tomorrow is our district FASA night, but we're
075hosting FASA nights and FASA days at the campuses throughout the year. Tomorrow is just a district one, but this is happening throughout the year to provide that support to students. >> Well, thank you all so much. I do encourage parents to take advantage of the programs that are here. Um, you know, I know a lot of students are eager to get started and maybe a little shy to bring it up to their parents, but it's no cost to them and and it's a service that I has. Thank you all so much. >> Thank you. >> We are on 8B1. >> Mr. President and board of trustees, if I if I may ask if we can combine AB1 and AB2 because I believe that the conversations that we may have would carry on between both of
076them if it's okay. >> No, no problem. AB1 and AP2 and these are on the discussion of policy EFB for the slack school library advisory council. >> Uh Melaniz policy EFB local is proposing the establishment of a local school library advisory council slack. TASBY the Texas Association of School Boards is recommending this resolution uh be brought to the board for review. Dr. Canales, our chief human resources officer, will have more information on this item and this is for information purposes only. And I'd like to add now AB2 the comments about that. Melaniz policy EFP local is proposing the establishment of a local school library advisory council. Slack TASB is recommending this policy be brought uh to the board for review and Dr. is our chief human resources officer will have more information and both of
077these items are forformational purposes only but it's a discussion of the resolution and the local policy that we we need to establish. So Tazby recommends that that we uh first establish the resolution uh followed by the EFB local policy. So Tazby given us uh two different policies here to look at. One is EFB exhibit resolution establishing a local school library advisory council uh and that is up for for discussion right now. We can talk about uh that there and then followed by the proposed policy on EFB local. So if we make any changes to the resolution part of it, it could change a little bit of the policy but Taj will help guide us through that process. >> Dr. Thank you so much for your work on this. I know you and I have had
078a lot of conversations over the past I don't know month or however long it's been on this. >> Um and thank you for putting this resolution together. I do have a couple recommendations that would like to discuss with fellow trustees. Um first is the resolution does contain the statutory language that has to be at least five members um with each member appointed by the board of trustees and with each trustee appointed equal number of members. But I would think it makes sense for us to add some language in this um resolution outlining that the number of members we are appointing and I would suggest 14. Um Dr. I think you provided us with a memo uh with a suggestion that each board member appoint a voting member which has to be a parent of a
079child in the district and then we can also appoint a non- voting member which can be clergy um community member parent that has a student in the a liarian, etc. >> On that point, Trusty, I I agree with what you said. Um, however, I think that it would even I would suggest this even be a little bit more specific because I think if we're all to each nominate equally, then it should be seven, minimum, seven, not five. Um, and I think the spirit of it is so that nobody has, you know, more influence than anyone else. And so I think I agree with you on the 14, but I think that we should each appoint one voting member and one non- voting member. >> I agree with that. >> Um one just a kind of
080a technical issue Dr. Canales on what is it one two three the seventh whereas it says whereas a majority of the voting members of the slack must be persons who are parents of students r district and who are not employed by the district. I would suggest removing the first three words a majority of. So it would just read as whereas the voting members because the statute SB13 requires voting members to be parents. So by adding and I know this is directly from the statute. The statute itself is confusing because it says the majority of the voting members is like have to be parents. Um but actually the only people that can be voting members are parents. Okay. >> So it's just confusing language to put majority. And then finally, I would recommend that um the
081appointments that the trustees make are an annual appointment. You brought up to me that you know what happens if there's a parent of a senior um and this is a three-year slack. So what happens next year? Is that parent still a voting member? Do that have to appoint? So I would just suggest avoid any of those issues that we appoint on an annual basis. And this we have to outline in the resolution. Yeah, >> correct. For example, like you said, if you have a senior student, you vote for a senior parent. Now, they're not they're off next year. So, it must be a voting member has to be a parent in our district with a student enrolled in our district. Then you'd have to decide does that parent not move to a non voting member
082or that parent completely move off? >> It's probably just do the annual. >> Yeah, if if we go that route, I was thinking potentially longer just for consistency sake given there's only a requirement for two meetings per year. Um potentially there's more just depending on the number of titles that are under review or potentially challenged. Um but uh we may also consider uh renewability um of membership uh to some sense like if I appoint someone for the first year and it's only a one-year term can I reappoint that same person as a voting member do we want to have some guidelines around that I would also get behind an idea that if somebody uh no longer is a parent unenrollment graduation any other case that they be removed by the next meeting. Um so we
083don't have to wait till the end of the year um if it is truly open year term. Um and then uh it may be helpful for future sake um to align voting membership and non- voting membership to trustee places so that when voting members or non- voting members turn over we can have some clarity as a board for who on the trustee das has the authority to reappoint. I think all good points, trustee. And then one final comment from me is the slack once created is going to need assistance from the district in terms of um knowing what the statute what statute is going to have to abide by where to meet how to meet you know help coordination logistics meeting the open meetings act requirements. So I would also suggest that in this resolution
084we add um that the superintendent appoint staff to assist the slack in carrying out its students. I will I will tell you that you don't necessarily need um someone to do that. Like we are here for assistance, you know, to get the room to do all that, but anybody in like I'm sure you're going to get people from the district. They have the capability of uh requesting a room. Uh there will be a secretary that is voted upon, a chairman that's voted upon, and we'll make sure that they have any assistance that they need. >> If you look at be local. On the second page, it it says recommendation and procurement of materials. Uh there it says librarians and other professional staff shall assist the slack in developing the list of library material recommendations to
085be presented to the board. And then it lists there the four different areas that they could assist with as well. And when I spoke to Tesla, they did say like the very first meeting um the expectation would be that I would be there and the things that I would have to go over with the Slack would be the um of course SB13 uh go over FB legal and FB local make sure that um what TEA outlines for those SB13 requirements, what Macallen ISD has for the book selection guidelines and then After we do that, then we would elect the committee roles. Um we would elect a committee chair who would then from that point on um run the meeting and we would elect a secretary who would take notes. Um and I would think the
086secretary who's taking those notes would be responsible for posting uh they would be responsible for recording and posting all that information um on the website. they can get it to me and I can I can handle that part on the library part of the website. >> Okay. >> Well, you know, I'm happy to defer to you, Dr. or you, Dr. on whether we need that in the resolution or not. >> Sounds like staff's already going to be assisting the the slack in the duties, >> right? >> Anything they need where like I've got my digital learning staff, they can help with recording um and setting up. I've got my secretaries who can, you know, obviously get a room set aside. Um and then We have librarians at every campus that can help us get uh
087I think we have to post 72 hours before. We'll make sure that the librarians get that posted in the office uh or the entryway that the way it's supposed to be. So, we're here to support you however you need. >> We'll just work to coordinate it, get it. >> You can also talk to Tazby as well. And we know that this is also new to to everybody. So if something comes up where you need to come back and bring it for any kind of changes, you all do have that right to come back and bring any kind of changes you see. >> So So for the next meeting, we'll bring the changes to the resolution that we talked about and then uh and the policy will have to reflect those changes, right, for the second
088reading as well, the local policy that we need to adopt. >> Correct. And if we're going for the second reading for the approval of the slack for the next meeting, we also have to have the seven voting members uh on the slack >> the the the selection of the members. >> Selection of the members. >> Can you clarify, Dr. Canales, we need those names in the item when it is posted 72 hours in advance or we bring those names to the meeting itself? >> I will double check. When I met with TASBY today, they said as long as we had it for that board meeting, >> okay, >> that we could present it at that board meeting. Uh Tasby also recommends that possibly a roll call where you'll randomly select who chooses first, whether you
089do the first one voting, second one non voting, or you do the first one voting, and you go back again and do another one of non- voting. That's up to you. And the voter I met with John that earlier. >> You can do the nominations there, right? That's all part of the public forum, public discussion aspect of it, but as long as it's done in public, this doesn't require the 72 hours post that we're going to have this vote and you're going to appoint them. That has to be posted and then people can comment, come in and volunteer if they want to. >> But we talked about it. I think somebody mentioned seven names, but have we decided that it's going to be seven or 14? >> Okay. >> No, that's for y'all. >> I
090think that would be in the resolution. >> Okay. whether you want seven or 14. >> What TY is recommending is that at least each board member select a voting member that is part. So there's seven for sure that are voting is what they recommend. The other ones can be anybody else. It can be less than seven. It can be seven. It can be five. It can be >> Well, it can't be less than seven >> on the non voting side. >> Oh, on the non- voting. I thought I I read it to say that we all have to have the same number of nominees irrespective of whether they're voting or not. >> That's correct. >> It's either going to be seven or 14 >> or 21. >> Well, the correct >> when we spoke to
091the attorney, they said at the minimum it would be the seven parents non voting. >> The extras is up to you. It does it can be five. Like if you look at some of the others that are out there, it could be five, it could be six, it could be seven. So really number to determine >> it's what we recommend. >> I don't read it to be >> unequal. I think we have to use >> seven or 14 or 21 or 28. >> I vote 14 and I think that's a lot. >> I think 14. Yeah. >> So for direction 14 >> seven voting, seven non voting. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Right. Okay. Then we can make those changes for the next I do have one more recommendation for the policy, not the resolution.
092U the policy does have uh two or three instances where the slack makes recommendations. I would just suggest that anytime this the policy requires us or has a slack to make a recommendation that we put in language that says by a majority vote of the voting members. So that way it's clear, you know, Slack doesn't have to try to figure out if it's unanimous or majority. questions, comments >> and just a discussion with Tazby. They're a they're a uh they recommend to the board and you all ultimately will vote on any items. >> Thank you all. And we are on to 8C2 discussion and possible action on the Macist District September budget amendment for fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2026. Dr. >> Administration is recommending the approval of the September
093budget amendment for the 2526 fiscal year. Miss Loren Garcia, Deputy Superintendent for Business and Operations will go over the budget amendment. Administration is recommending action on this item. Go ahead, Miss Garcia. >> Uh yes, we received a grant uh from the fresh fruit and vegetable program for Jackson and McAuliff with a revenue of $46,86. On the expenditure side, we are uh taking bringing the amendment to you for uh state compensatory funds. Their state compensatory education is using some of their fund balance to purchase some software in the amount of 24528,000. Uh from 199 uh we are using uh 15,410 for the student dropout prevention and recovery. And also from 199 we are uh using it to purchase or to pay for the thrillshare rooms the 2A parent teacher communication at 45,540 and uh uh fine
094arts is using the last of the money that had been set aside for the band uniforms uh 41,970 and that is all on the budget amendment. Um, we are requiring a motion on this item. If there >> move to approve, >> I have a motion by trusty Giona and a second by Trusty Pñena. All in favor? >> All oppose? Motion passes 70. >> 8C3. Discussion and possible action on request for proposal number 2026-10006, fully insured dental plan. Dr. >> Yes. uh administration solicited proposals for food insured dental plan. Mr. Silva is not here today, but Miss Garcia is here. Uh Lora Garcia, our deputy superintendent, as well as our consultant from risk management. They're here to answer any questions the board may have. And we are recommending action on this item. And this is a
095fourpart motion item. Uh yes, we are recommending uh Delta uh Del Delta Dental Plant. I'm sorry. Yes. Uh they were the rank the highest rank. We have used them in the past. Uh the district allocates $18 per employee per month for the uh employees dental plan. the uh cost is lower than that than the $18 for the employee. Um it's actually $16, so it is lower. Are there any questions on the evaluation matrix? We've included those in the attachments. We do have a threeyear rate guarantee as well. >> And the rates are the same as what we're currently paying or less. >> Um the the rates are lower than we're currently with Humanana and Humanana was one of the biders. They came in a little bit higher this time than where they were last year.
096>> Hi, good evening management coordinator for the benefits department. So the rates are going up a little bit. U between a dollar to $3.50 for employees. Now remember uh the district does fund $18 to the low employee only plan. So those employees will not be affected in any way. They still get free dental. However, those that are on the employee family low plan and the employee only and employee family high plan, those will be affected again between a dollar to $3.50. And the the second uh rank choice MetLife um it's slightly cheaper but it's only guaranteed >> for two years. That is correct. So yes, they are cheaper. However, on year three they're hitting us with a 3% increase. So it is going to affect a lot anywhere between $2 to close to $7 the
097employees pocket on those three plants. And Delta Dental is agreeing to a three-year fixed rate. All right. Any uh further discussion, questions? >> You have a question? >> Oh, yeah. Go for it. >> Okay. Mr. President I motion to approve the request for proposal number 2026-10006 fully insured dental plan for a term of three years effective January 1st 2026 through December 31st 2029. >> I have a motion by Dr. Kdman and a second by Sophia. Um all in favor? All >> oppose. Motion passes 70. And we have it is a four-part motion. So if there is a trustee, >> Mr. President, I move to authorize administration to conduct interviews with the agents with the most experience with Delta Dental. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Trusty Karion, second by Trusty Daniel. All in
098favor? >> All opposed? Motion passes 70. >> Mr. President, I move to approve the administration. I move to approve that the administration negotiates the draft contract. Second. >> I have a motion by trusty Hadad, second by Trusty Pñena. All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion passes. 7. >> Last one. >> Mr. President, I move to authorize the superintendent to execute the contract and any agreements, amendments, I'm sorry, if needed once the contract has been successfully negotiated. >> Second. I have a motion by trustee P, a second by trustee. All in favor? >> I oppose. Motion passes seven. Thank you guys. >> Mark >> and 8 D board of trustee items. 8D1 approval of the meeting minutes from October 7th, 2025. And do I have a motion to approve? >> I second. >> Motion by trustee
099Pñena, second by trusteead. All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion pass 7. Item number nine, recess to close session. The board of trustes may go into close session pursuant to sections 551071, 551072, 551074, 551076, and 551089 with Texas Government Code to discuss the following human resources recommendations. Discusses of human discussion of human resources resignations, discussion regarding school safety and security, pending and/or potential litigation, and possible real estate acquisition. At 7:01 we are in It's like All right, it is 7:50 and we are back into open session. We will move on with item number 11. Uh 11A, discussion and possible action of human resources recommendations for school year 202526. Dr. Uh, human resources submitted a list of recommendations for the 2526 school year under a separate cover for discussion during close session. Administration is recommending action
100on this item. >> Move to approve. >> I have a motion by trusty pña. >> second by trustee. All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion passes 6. Right. On items 11B to 111E, there is nothing to report there. We will move to item number 12, scheduled meetings. We have a board workshop facilities needs assessment at Utrgv October 28th, 2025. I believe that's at 5:30. What time is it? >> The workshop. >> Yes. Yes. >> Uh then on November 11th, we have a regular board meeting here at 5:30. December 9th, we have another board meeting here at 5:30. And at a board workshop, student recognitions, December 16th, 5:30 at McQue auditorium. At this time, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. >> So move. >> Motion second. >> A second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion passes
1016. Good night, everybody. Thank you. It is 7:52.