001e e e four a regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Mallen Independent School District will be held Tuesday March 11 2025 beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Dr Ricardo Chapa boardroom ad administration building of the Mallen Independent School District 2200 North 23rd Street Mallen Texas 78501 items listed on this agenda 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 upon at one time at this meeting there may be discussion and action by the board on the items and subjects listed as follows now item one call the meeting to order I have done so at 5:30 p.m. number two please join me in a moment of silence thank you and if you would please
002stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the speeder there with the pledge four public comments we have none tonight number five consent agenda yes ma'am I'd like to make a motion to move 5e out of consent agenda do I I have a motion by trustee Alisa and a motion and a second by truste Regal all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signify by say n motion passes 4 Z Madam president I'd like to move we approve 5 a through D I have a motion by trusty Alisa and a second by trusty Riva to approve item consent items 58 through 5D
003all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes 4 Z Item number six in instructional Services instructional leadership M president we're on 5e 5e I'm so sorry I confused you well let's go 5 e here we go discussion let me just read it out discussion and possible action to retain outside legal council as needed Dr Gutierrez McAllen Independent School District is seeking to enter into an hourly based contract with outside legal councel to assist with legal matters as needed Administration is recommending action on this item Madam president I move to um to table this item until after executive session tonight Sor I have a motion by trusty R and a second by trusty Rivera all those in favor signifi by saying I I all those oppos
004signifi by saying nay motion passes 4 Z Item 5e will be tabled till after till after close session close session yes okay item six instructional Services instructional leadership Human Resources business and operations and Board of Trustees items Dr item 6A instructional Services item 6B Human Resources 6b1 discussion and revisions to policy EIC local first reading Dr guz yes Administration is recommending a change to EIC local that would include utrgv Collegiate campus as a dual enrollment campus where summer school grades can be included in the calculations of class rank um Dr Albert Canales Chief Human Resources officer as well as Dr the oos will share any more information that the board may have this item is for information purposes only because it's a first reading but if you may want to add to this uh Dr
005the oos just for clarification on this uh on this matter if you don't mind no I don't mind uh good afternoon to everyone uh for this particular uh request to include the utrgv Collegian Academy in the list of the campuses to be able to um for students to take dual enrollment classes with utrgv and also um those core subjects to be included in in uh in the rank for students um these uh are not classes that are out of sequence it will be part of the graduation plan and it's mostly those students that either didn't have a successful grade in English 1301 and they cannot continue in 1302 for the second semester so they have to repeat English 1301 the second semester and then they will be behind so then they will have to take
006it during the summer and would only be that class for right now I don't foresee any other classes that will be out of sequence okay okay that's our first reading we will still need to bring it back for a second reading for final approval item six 6C business and operations 6 C1 report regarding facilities needs assessment Dr Gutierrez uh Miss laa Garcia our deputy superintendent for business and operation will provide information on the facility its assessment that we're going to be starting very soon the board approved already uh for us to conduct this study and uh we are this item is to bring the board up to date where we are with the facilities needs assessment that we are going to be having ongoing for the next several months and um this is an information
007purposes only item but uh we like to uh keep the board informed where we are with this uh facility study go ahead uh good evening um Madame President um members of the board Dr Gutierrez uh as you recall at a previous board meeting the board had approved MGT as the highest ranked firm they were at 3,6 36,42 was their offer we were able to negotiate the same scope of the project for $299 980 and we have since met with them to review the scope of services uh these are the the uh tasks that they are to do they are uh to be part of the meetings that we have with a facilities forecast advisory committee which has yet to be formed we would need some recommendations as to who the committee membership would be um
008to to initiate working with them they also will provide community outreach and then as part of the needs assessment there's several things that they have to uh include in the report which is which is a facility condition index for each one of our campuses Capacity Analysis uh educational adequacy technology Readiness Safety and Security measures sight suitability uh ADA compliance and then they also need to provide uh facility needs for the future and Alternatives um they will be looking at our educational and maintenance uh specifications and providing recommendations on updates on that um and then any projects that they find that uh may be for the future they will provide uh cost estimates and possible funding scenarios uh they will provide a final report which will be presented to the facilities forecast advisory committee as well
009as the Board of Trustees now this is what the the timeline looks like and it's over the course of several months as you can see there different phases there's the project management uh the analysis portion and the engaging and prioritizing ultimately there would be projects that would be developed out of this report and uh as a district and a board uh we would uh want to prioritize those for future implementation and all of that will be included in the monthly report their approach is of course to make sure that we get started on the right foot and making sure that everybody understands what the expectations are um and uh they are proposing to uh provide a time frame keeping the project on track uh also quality control and quality analysis um routine status meeting so
010that there's continuous communication and we have been communicating with them on a regular basis as of now um and then meet with the leadership to review the results and provide staff training so that team members are prepared to implement any recommendations for improvements in infrastructure and operations um their methodology involves project initiation and data Gathering programmatic priorities facilities and educational assessment enrollment capacity and utilization analysis and project prioritization and capital planning and each one of these sections have different steps uh that they would go through in this process ultimately we would also want to include the community so that they can provide feedback uh crucial input as we develop this plan for the future of Mallen ISD ensure that all voices are heard um where do we want to be what do we know where
011have we been what have we heard and what is the best path forward and finally uh in order to reach the community they will do that that through a series of uh different forms of Engagement uh in-person meetings as well as virtual and online an online survey they will use a program called poll everywhere uh to create a survey and gather input from our community so um that is in a nutshell the process that we will be engaging with them and as we have more information we will provide you more updates thank you very much I have a question uh Miss Garcia with the the advisory committee who is going to select those people well we would get guidance from the board as to who or what type of individuals you would want on that
012committee and the superintendent of course as well okay so is there potentially um an opportunity for us individual board members to make recommendations on community members that might be interested and helpful in in that yes ma'am typically the board president would ask for uh recommendations uh names of individuals and uh we would start forming the committee of course uh the committee would also include uh School District employees some essential uh Personnel such as Mr trino and Technology M and so forth so there's some key uh Personnel that we would also like to have on this committee okay and then looking at the Timeline the whole timeline looks to be about five months but the community engagement part like a little less than two months maybe um what could you tell us about the commitment that
013somebody from the community might be required to commit to in order to well there would be several meetings not necessarily with MGT but with the district um we are looking at maybe a committee for Elementary uh one for Middle School one for high school and then another one for the finance component so uh they would be meeting as a committee um on a monthly basis at least um and then there would be meeting with MGT so it would be you know uh at least one to maybe two meetings per month okay thank you I'd like to see uh representation from every school um somebody from the community if possible from every school because people that attend those schools the people that work at those schools know that school the best so um just since that
014was brought up that'd be nice to see I would also like to see the meetings held at a time where people can attend because they are you know working people so I'd like them at a time U that is convenient for uh most to attend and um also a virtual option just in case so yes ma'am we can certainly do that um is now that we have Co and we understand the ability to use uh virtual meetings is there going to be did wait did you just say that and I was thinking i' like to have it as an option just in case in case somebody just can't attend for whatever reason but I still want the I don't want it to be the norm you know face to face is always best but you
015know just in case I do want that option available and so when we have these meetings is there going to be the last time we did it we had sort of an executive committee type thing so that the whole Committee of 50 people didn't have to meet all the time there was sometimes smaller meetings are we going to try and do it like that too so that we can make faster Headway because it's really hard to um and also I think it's really important to get people of the opposite mindset sort of the opposition uh on that Comm comme to to I think that really speeds things up when you have both sides um you know giving ideas back and forth um I think that really adds to the committee you don't want to have
016the committee everybody in there that's you know um so I think that's really important when you're when you're thinking about appointing members um I think it's really important that we look to the community who was you know the opposition last time who was on the you know the other side um and invite them and and listen to their voices yes and the committee uh as I mentioned would be divided in four subgroups so we would we would be able to meet in small groups smaller groups okay yeah this the engagement of the community in in this process is very important not only will they be involved just meetings but also to uh conduct walkthroughs with us throughout the district so that they can see the state of our facilities and be able to have a
017better understanding of our needs because eventually we're going to have to uh develop a priority list uh to see how far we can go with that priority list with what we can qualify for for the amount of money that we can borrow without you know without with maintaining the same tax rate and so the it's going to be important for uh the community members to go and visit the facilities the different sites and U and help us U design and develop a priority list along with our consultants and and that way we can also uh keep the board informed of those visits and the things that we're finding out take pi um have presenters talk to the campus principles directors of those buildings to tell us more about the needs of the facilities and and
018come up with a final list at the at the end and so that way we can um have as much input as possible and also come up with a dire needs of the district when it comes to facilities that we need to fix and and and upgrade how might we navigate if there's a lot of community representation for some parts of the city for certain schools versus others that don't have as much representation well the nominations would come from you all so you can set parameters that would uh limit the number of individuals per campus or for per community area I think also that kind of um would lend itself to what MGT says what they say are the their recommendations are going to be right and then the committee would look at it and
019say yay or nay and do the walkthrough I I feel like that so yeah I think it would kind of work itself out that way yeah we'll make sure that it's pretty fair important but you also I mean in that line you also want like if if they're you're talking about Safety and Security you're going to want local law enforcement involved in it versus someone who's into Fine Arts they're not going to you know what I mean you're going to I'm sure you're all going to be very selective in who's in what group so yeah no definitely that's why we want to divide it because Elementary Middle School and High School have different needs different needs different designs of buildings a different population so that's why we need to separate those three committees by their
020because their needs are different along with the finance committee to oversee the the cost and and how we can be able to U come up with that list and the cost of those projects we good not to be laborate but are we going to have a a certain website or a certain tab on our website that we can go to okay to give updates we can give updates to our community Through the website okay um are we good there your present it was an information yeah thank you so much um uh we're going to be starting it in about a month from now we're going we already stared to talk to the Consultants but to get everything going in about a month or so okay got item 6 C2 discussion and possible action of the
021Mallen Independent School District February budget amendment to fiscal year beginning July 1st 2024 and ending June 30th 2025 Dres we are recommending the approval of the February 2025 budget amendment for the 2425 fiscal year Miss Loren Garcia Deputy superintendent um and for business and operations is available to answer any questions we are recommending action on this item but are there any I AMS yes I usually go over it um an item of note is we are are increasing the federal revenue uh that is coming into our food service program and then that that 2 million uh 2.1 million is getting distributed amongst uh the expenditure so um that is being allocated to Food Service uh in addition to that um we are allocating uh 100,000 from fund balance to increase this the budget for uh
022Fine Arts for the marching band so that they can purch is props and and Equipment because other school districts are investing 20 to 30,000 40,000 per school and we've been investing uh a little bit less 10,000 I think 10,000 so this year we're we're increasing that and that's in addition to already about 200,000 that we've uh given them in addition to what but was budgeted however that was coming from assigned fund balance so that did not require board approval but in this case it does because we are pulling it out of fund balance any questions on the budget amendment I move to approve the budget amendments thank you second I have a motion by trusty Alis and a second by trusty all those in favor signify by saying I all those opposed signified by say
023nay motion passes 5 Z Item 63 discussion and possible action on competitive sealed proposal number 2025-the are recommending solicit solicited proposals from vendors for the installation of new surveillance cameras at Mallen High School Mrs CIA executive director of technology is available to answer any questions we are recommending action on this item and this is a three-part item recommendation my only question is why is it a rebid it's a rebid ma'am because the first uh bid uh had a much larger scope and when we received the pricing it was double than what we could afford so we went back and we paired it down so that we would not have to uh increase the budget so this time it is within budget perf Madam president I move uh that the administr that the Board of Trustees
024approve the ranking for selection of general contractor for competitive seal proposal number 2025 1033 macallen high school security surveillance system rebid second I have a motion by trusty Riva and a second by trusty Regal all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes 5 Z Madam president I move that the board approve that Administration begin negotiations with the highest rank contractor if the district is unable to negotiate a satisfactory contract with the selected contractor the district shall formally and in writing end negotiations with that contractor and proceed to the next contractor in the order of the selection ranking until a contract is reached or all proposals are rejected second I have a motion by trusty R and a second by trusty Riva all those in favor
025signifi by saying I I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes 5 Z Madam president I move that we authorize the superint that the board authorize the superintendent to execute a contract in accordance with the procedures set out in Texas government code section 226 9254 once contractor negotiations have been successfully achieved second I have a motion by trusty and a second by trusty Riva all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signify by saying a motion passes 5 Zer item 6 C4 discussion and possible action on competitive sealed proposal number 20251 18413 theore Rosen developed Elementary School intercom system dras administration solicited competitive seal proposals for an intercom system at roselt elementary school um Mrs kamama executive director of technology is available to answer any questions and we are
026recommending action on this item this is also a three-part item approval I have a question um the winning bidder is from Arizona who am I asking to to you Miss Garcia she's not here um yeah because I don't see that's coming on um so are they going to come down and install it are they're going to contract with a local vendor to install it um we've actually done business with them quite a bit before um they um and actually Reuben I think um they work with a subcontractor they have their local subcontract Reuben but we have used this company for this type of project quite a bit oh we have yes uh this particular this company does have local representation and they've done work for the for the district for over the past four or
027five years uh so they're reputable and they're you know being recommended all right thank you so much Mr I move the board approve the ranking for selection of general contractor for competitive sealed proposal number 2025 1030 Theodor Rosevelt Elementary School intercom system second I have a motion by trusty Alisa and a second by trusty Riva all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes 5 Z Madam president I move that the board approve that Administration begin with negotiations with the highest rank contractor if the district is unable to negotiate a satisfactory contract with a selected contractor the district shall formally and in writing and negotiations with that contractor and proceed to the next contractor in the order of the selection ranking until a contract is reached
028or all proposals are rejected second I have motion by trusty kman and a second by trusty all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signify by saying n motion passes 5 Madam president I move that the Board of Trustees authorize the superintendent to execute a contract in accordance with the procedure set out in Texas government code section 20 2269 254 once contractor negotiations have been successfully achieved second I have a motion by trusty Riva and a second by trusty Regal all those in favor signify by saying I I I all those opposed signified by saying nay motion passes 5 Z item 6 C5 discussion and possible action on request for proposals number 2025 1029 employee benefits and insurance Consulting Services Dr guz Administration solicited proposals for employee benefits and insurance Consulting
029Services uh Miss Karina Gara coordinator for risk management is available to answer any questions as well as Mr Andy Silva we are recommending action on this item and this is also a three-part action item Madame President I move that the Board of Trustees approve uh request for proposal number 2025 1029 employee benefits and insurance consulting services and award Valley risk Consulting Inc for a term of three years commencing upon the date of contract execution second I have a motion by trusty Riva and a second by trusty Regal all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signify by saying Nay Nay n motion passes 30 Madam president I'm sorry 32 Madam president I move that the Board of Trustees approved that Administration negotiate the draft contract with Valley risk Consulting Inc second
030I have a motion by trusty Riva and a second by trusty Regal all those in favor signify by saying I I I all those opposed signify by saying n n motion passes 32 Madam president I move that the Board of Trustees authorize the superintendent to execute the contract in any amendments if needed once the contract has been successfully negotiated second I have a motion by trusty Riva and a second by trusty all those in favor signify by saying I I I all those opposed signify by saying nay nay motion passes 32 item 60 Board of Trustees item 6 D1 approval of Board of Education minute meetings minute meeting minutes say that Real Fast 6 d1a regular board meeting February 25th 2025 at 5:30 p.m. 6D 1B special board meeting February 27th 2025 and 6D 1C
031board Workshop March 4th 2025 at 5:30 p.m. I move we approve 61a 61b 61 C second I have a motion by trusty Alis and a second by Riva all those in favor signify by saying I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes 5 item 6d2 discussion and possible action regarding the election of region one Education Service Center board of directors Dr Gutierrez yes Administration is recommending that each board member to cast individual ballots provided by region one Education Service Center uh the board should have those ballots on your desk for your votes okay now do we know how these were selected um U there they apply with the region one service center uh and so the application is all uh done through region one region one forwards the candidates who applied and are
032interested to serve in the board of directors at Region one and not local boards uh vote on those candidates so I'm just going to read the ballot for the sake of the community region one Education Service Center ballot uh board of directors official ballot 2025 election of board of directors um Place three Webb County there's only one person on there La a McCoy and place six Cameron County you have a choice between Dr Manuel Gomez Jr and Antonio G leemon and we will fill these out and then return them back over to um one yes ma'am you can you can put them in the envelope and then we can give them to Natalie don't want to see don't want to see top secret stuff right voting Ballance congratulations to whoever gets elected across the board
033um to serve as one of our region one Representatives we shall know after region one tallies them huh that's correct okay do we need to take action on that um just voting on it no no because we are submitting those to region one okay and then we have item seven recess to close session Board of Trustees may go into close session pursuant to sections 551 071 551 072 to 551 074 55176 and 551 089 Texas government code to discuss the following 7A Human Resources recommendations for school year 20242 7B discussion of human resources employee resignations and retirees for school year 2024 2025 7c discussion regarding School Safety and Security 7D pending Ander potential litigation 7e possible real State acquisition at exactly 6 with 15 seconds Dr Canales we are in close session e e e
034welcome back everybody at 6:38 p.m. we are back in Open session we are going to go back to tabled item 5e and do I have a motion Madam president I move that the board approve the contract to retain outside Le council with the following Amendment to the proposed contract with ohanlan demorra and Castile on page two of the contract section 3.2 billing increments that that be modified to read as follows time shall be build in increments of one10 of an hour the applicable hour hourly rate shall be applied based on the actual Personnel performing the work Additionally the firm will work on increments of $20,000 once that threshold is met the firm will not continue work work unless given prior authorization from the Board of Trustees second I have a motion by trust and a
035second by trust Lopez all those in favor signify by saying I I I all those opposed signify by saying a motion passes 5 and um action items inclosed session 9A discussion and possible action of Human Resources recommendations for school year 2024 2025 uh Dr Human Resources submitted a list of recommendations for the 2425 school year on a separate cover for discussion during close session and um Dr Canales Chief Human Resources officer will share any more information if the qu if the board has any questions we are recommending on this item actually Madam President we had none this evening so this is just for information purposes you are correct thank you trusty Alis item 9B discussion of human resources employee resignations and retirees for school year 2024 2025 Dres Human Resources amitt list of resignations and
036retirees for the 2425 school year under a separate cover for discussion during close session Dr Canalis Chief Human Resources officer will share any more information and this item is for information purposes only thank you item 9C discussion discussion regarding School Safety and Security no action taken 9d pending and a potential potential litigation Mr ball report item 9 e possible real estate acquisition Mr ball same an we move on to item 10 scheduled meetings item 10A board Workshop a budget Workshop number 3 March 24th 2025 at 5:30 p.m. at the Dr Chapa uh Dr Chapa boardroom administration building 10B board Workshop student recognitions March 27 2025 at 5:30 p.m. at the Mallen High School auditorium item 10 C special board meeting a level three grievance on March 31st at 5:30 p.m. here at the Dr Ricardo
037Chapa boardroom administration building 10d special board meeting level three grievance March 31st 2025 at 6:30 p.m. here at the Dr cha Ricardo Chapa boardroom administration building 10e regular board meeting April 8th 2025 at 5:30 p.m. here at the Dr Chapa um boardroom administration building and 10f board Workshop budget number four April 15 2025 at 5:30 p.m. here at the Dr choa boardroom administration building and item 11 adjournment second I have a motion by trusty Regal and a second by trusty Alisa all those in favor signify by saying I I all those poos signifi by say n motion passes 0 at 6:43 p.m. we are adjourned for