001[Music] a regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Mallen Independent School District will be held Tuesday February 11th 2025 beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Dr Ricardo Chapa boardroom administration building of the Mallen independent School District 2 North 23rd Street Mallen Texas 78501 items listed on this agenda may be taken in an order other than that as shown on this agenda unless removed from the consent agenda items identified within this consent agenda will be acted on at one time at this meeting there may be discussion and action by the board on the items and subjects listed as follows item one call the meeting to order I have done so at 5:30 at this time earlier or La yesterday we lost a valued member of the mallan I Community Mr Garcia counselor at Lamar
002and um a mentor to many and I would like to have this moment of silence in his honor and um also keep his wife Gilda and daughter Gina and her husband and CH and children in our prayers in our thoughts so please join me in a moment of silence thank you we will move on to 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 item number four public comments we have none at this meeting number five superintendent report Dres 5A uh schoolyard uh Forest uh coming to seven of our schools recently Kint Mas atlan of Mallen received a grant that will enable them to construct a schoolyard Forest at
003seven Elementary campuses this is a 2.7 million grant that will benefit Alvarez Elementary Fields Elementary Houston Elementary Jackson Elementary roselt elementary sigan elementary and Wilson Elementary we have a video on this announcement so can they uh so we're kicking off our schoolyard Forest Grant in partnership with the McAllen ISD we are honored to receive $2.7 million from Texas A&M Forest Service to create seven schoolyard forests in macallen on elementary schools the Texan and por service had offered five different grants between $2 to3 million throughout the state of Texas all of those uh grants fortunately came to the RGV in five different communities Mallen being one of them uh with these grants we aim to uh create green schoolyard spaces for kids and for the community to utilize as not only spaces to explore and be
004within nature and connect with nature but also to learn within studies show that kids that spend more time with trees do better in schools trees that are planted strategically near um buildings and structures allow for energy conservation and can save up to 25% in energy costs so there's many benefits for having trees within our communities it'll really benefit our students by providing not only Outdoor Learning spaces but a great look at nature and Live Science action being able to give them the opportunity to go outside and explore trees nature animals different insects so we're really excited we are Beyond excited to have the tiny Forest project at our school um it's something that we've had on our wish list for a long time to have Outdoor Learning spaces for our students our teachers can bring
005their resources outside conduct lessons outside and it's just a great opportunity we're a national nonprofit really working to reconnect children to Nature and we do this through many strategies and one of them is G green schoolyards macallen is joining a national movement of Greening school grounds and so we're really excited to be able to support the community we support communities throughout the US and so Mallen is joining a cohort of uh many communities working to transform these spaces that have a profound impact on Children's Health mental health um Community environment there are so many benefits to just doing this work so the timeline we have three years to accomplish uh we've been meeting with the seven schools these past two weeks doing our assessments with the landscape architect um we will involve the students and
006the teachers and the neighborhood and in drawings as well on how to create a schoolyard for us on their campus and from Texas &m for a service perspective they're very much interested in increasing the tree canopy to 30% some of the schools range from 5 to 9% and very much interested in the educational element in providing outdoor science classrooms for the [Music] students okay thank you item five b spelling B winners DRZ we also have a video to show uh the community and everyone that on January the 24th the district held its Annual Spelling B and we like to show that video of our students competing in spelling B for MD go ahead our students practice all first semester long for their campus spelling be and our campus spelling be Champions are gathered here today
007to participate in The District spelling be and this is very important to us right we think literacy is a very important um skill that students need to cultivate not only for school but for everyday Liv so this just keeps the love of literacy alive in our schools our district Champion will represent our district at the regional spelling be and um and we're very proud of them right we're proud of their hard work we're proud of their dedication and we're proud of their sponsors too who have put in long hours to help them get here today they have to know a lot of just the rules of the spelling beam and then they have to have studied lists of spelling be words to just understand the Nuance of some of this spelling and uh and uh
008it's incredible it takes a lot of takes a lot of effort on their part on the part of their sponsors and their parents supporting them and uh and then it's exciting to watch it all kind of come together at the competition very nervous super nervous like I have a bunch of fir in my and I didn't want to go raions I wanted to get fourth or fifth so I would have to do it but I still get a big prize at the same [Music] time all right item 5 C campuses celebrate 100 days of school Dr guz on January the 30th our elementary campuses celebrated 100 days of school the festivities included a special visit from der Queen one of our big sponsors and supporters and we also have a video in the celebration that
009our schools uh celebrated on that day go ahead [Music] w [Music] very nice ice cream for everybody notice uh item number six notice of public meeting and notice of proposed consent contract for Legal Services Under Texas government code um 2254 1036 A1 items submitted by our uh Deputy superintendent for business and operations Dr Gutierrez notice is hereby given that a meeting of the Board of Trustees of melen Independent School District will be held on February the 11th 2025 for the purpose of considering and taking action on all matters on the agenda for the meeting including approval of an agreement with the law firm mlion and mlion pllc a special Council to perform all legal services necessary to pursue a recovery of insured but unpaid property damages and losses sustained by Mallen Independent School District as
010a result of the hail storms and wind storms that struck the Mallen Texas area in April of 2023 Mr John Ball our school attorney is available to answer any questions no action is required at this time on this item okay I guess we just move on to the next item thank you very much thank you for that information Dres item number seven discussion and possible action on findings made upon approval of contract 202-213 cont contingent fee contract for Legal Services with Mill and Millan pllc under Texas government code 1036 B Dres mcken ISD has decided to hire outside coun legal councel to represent the district in pursuing property damage insurance claims related to storm damage that occurred on or about the month of April of 2023 Mallen Independent School District finds that there is substantial
011need for the legal services and request action on this item Mr Jonathan ball our school attorney available to answer any questions an Administration is recommending action on this item a motion on this please second yeah that's fine I I have a motion by trusty Regal and a second by trusty deara Lopez all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes 4 Z Item eight discussion and possible action on approval of contract number 2025 - 213 contingent fee contract for Legal Services with Millan and Millan pllc DRZ melen ISD district finds that there is substantial need for Legal Services to represent the district in pursuing property damage insurance claims related to storm damage that occurred on or about the month of April of 2023 Administration recommends approval
012of the contingent fee contract for Legal Services with Millan and Millan pllc Mr Jonathan ball our school attorney is also available to answer any questions on this item Administration is recommending action on this item so moved second I have a motion by trusty Regal and a second by trusty delara Lopez all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signified by saying nay motion passes 4 Z Item number nine donations um 9A discussion possible action for the approval of parent teacher organization PTO donation at leonello H Gonzalez Elementary DRZ the parent teacher organization PTO at Lelo H Gonzalez Elementary will donate Turf artificial grass and SL landscape to improve the campus environment for students Miss Janet Nino our associate superintendent for instructional leadership will share more information we are recommending action on
013this item go ahead Miss Nino yes thank thank you um here's the images of the front part of um our campus that is U going to be receiving this donation and they will have artificial turf at the front entrance of the school and um these are just some of those areas that we can see currently thank you l so mov I I just have a comment I think it's wonderful the PTO are doing this um at the schools I mean we need the collaboration but it always gives me pause because then we create a different Gap you know the schools that have and the schools that have not um so it's always difficult to sit on this side of it I've sat on the PTO side and fundraised for the Pavilion and for Marquees that
014bet Elementor didn't have and so it's it's you know both sides I see both sides so um it's just hard sitting up on this side saying yes to things um that create the disparity but since we're in the legislative session that we are and the schools gets funded the way they do uh did I was there a motion already you need a second you need a second I'll second the motion thank you I have a motion by trusty delara Lopez and a second by trusty alicella all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes 4 Z Item number 10 instructional Services instructional leadership Human Resources business and operations and Board of Trustees item 10A instructional Services 10 A1 report regarding counseling and guidance family treatment program
015Department Dr guz Administration will report on the counseling and guidance family treatment program Department Miss Norma cabera director of College and Career and counseling will share more information about her department and the services they provide in our district this item is for information purposes only uh go ahead Miss CA good evening I'm here here to talk to you about um our counseling program under the counseling umbrella we focus on college career and counseling so next slide please so our mission at Mallen ISD is to make sure that we equip our students with social emotional learning and to help students overcome obstacles that are affecting their education in the area of mental health so um than you so our mission is to enhance our programs and make sure that that our staff focuses on that effective
016domain and enhance those services so each of our schools have different needs so we make sure that we adopt practices that meet the needs of the schools here is our team here at um mallan I I had it in blue so I don't know why it's in yellow sorry for the for the light light uh letters up there so our team is uh we have our pregnancy related Services uh teacher that is part of our our department we have uh an assessment coordinator that works with TSI on college readiness we have Adrian Garza who works with family treatment program those are services that are provided to tier three uh support those are the student the students that need a lot of support with mental health and we have Connie cavayo who helps us with um
017resources and of course our secretary Estella Ry and then here's just a picture of our counselors we have counselors at each of our schools most of our elementary schools have one coun counselor with the exception of milm and Gonzalez who have two counselors because of enrollment and at Middle School uh our our schools are at two counselors per school with the exception of Morris who has three counselors because of enrollment and our high schools have um the five academic counselors and a college counselor and aside from this there's counselors that are in other departments but they're also counselors which are our social worker and U I mean our special ed and our career technical education counselors so our Focus here at Mallen ISD is to make sure that we have strong effective counseling programs and
018I'm very proud to say that at Mallen ISD our counselors provide counseling many districts in many other places counselors or test coordinators they they work on other other duties but uh when Senate Bill 179 came to um to us what which um focused on the counselor role and the 80 20% percentage of 80% of their counselor's time should be spent in counseling related duties as per the the law we we already had that in place here at m i our counselors do provide counseling um our other goal is for staff development to make sure that they're equipped with the latest information and latest resources to better um meet the needs of our students and also of course to improve student outcomes so under goal one which is our counseling program um here at Ma I
019D we have campus counseling plans we have a district guide but aside from that we have a campus plan for each particular Campus based on the needs of that campus so counselors uh request information from staff they they pull data from you know assessment attendance behavior um teacher questionnaires uh student questionnaires to find out what are the needs of that campus and a plan is developed for that particular campus because each campus has a different need so one plan doesn't fit all campuses but they each have their own comprehensive counseling plan that meets state requirements and the American school counselor Association which is the national model we are our models are more mirroring the state model but we're also working really closely to make sure that we meet uh that we mirror the national model
020it's just the verbiage is a little different at the national level but we do meet the state model um under goal two for professional development opportunities uh we meet with counselors regularly to make sure that they're equipped with the latest information latest um uh resources that are available to better meet the needs of our students so those meetings are happening constantly with the different groups we meet with Elementary counselors as a whole we meet with middle school counselors and high school counselors because all their you know their needs are different at each grade level and then under um student uh Improvement student outcomes the focus is student and uh student achievement so everything that we do is type to student achievement for example at high school level our College and Career military data we make
021sure in our our department uh spearheads the the TSI test to make sure that uh more students participate um in uh taking the test and also um the performance rates increase so we do we work very closely on TSI testing to make sure that our students are ccmr complete and also um are ready for dual enrollment we also focus on dual enrollment in our department and we're very proud to say that we've increased those numbers um we also have our social workers that here at maau and ISD our social workers uh wear multiple hats one of those is of course providing services for our homeless population or Foster students we have about 350 students right now that fall under that homeless population and about 48 that fall under Foster um they work with our atrisk
022population our um Ecco dis students and they also help with Crisis Support anytime there is a need at a campus a death of a student a death of a a staff member we have Crisis Intervention teams that help us uh help students and our social workers are at the Forefront of those Crisis Intervention teams they um they report to the to the campus that needs help with their um with their um resources and they're ready to help students that need um that additional support so our social workers are a great asset to uh helping students um overcome obstacles that are affecting their their education and then we have our family treatment program which is very unique to Mallen ISD our family treatment program that's the we tier our services tier one is 100% of our
023students these are the services that 100% of our students receive tier two is 20 to 25% of our students for example group counseling individual counseling those types of services and tier three is about five to 7% of our population but that that's the group that needs the most help so our family treatment program actually provides um therapy uh referrals to students in need and they help us with all the um Community Resources the state hospitals today we were able to secure a an LPC for staff because we have we have a crisis going on at Lamar um so we were able to secure an LPC for staff because staff needed a lot of support today and um but that's through the Partnerships that we have with Community U Mental Health Resources and then of course
024we have our state our district uh plans these are our scoping sequence these are our pacing guides our plans this is what we recommend that is happening at every campus but as mentioned earlier aside from this each campus has a comprehensive counseling plan that meets the needs of their students so from that plan we look at the number of individual conferences that we have with students individual sessions group sessions parent meetings um staff development opportunities and we gather all of that data and we we create a plan for the campus and then at the end of the year we have a report so this is a plan in August this is what we did for the year and uh these are the areas that we need to grow in so we're very very um strategic
025and how we um provide services to students and because of all of that we wrap all of that up into one package and that's how we apply for the crest award and this year 27 of our campuses are are Crest recognized um just last week was uh counselor's u n national school counselor week and we were able to uh recognize our schools for the crest award and that's just packaging everything that we do in our counseling department and submitting that application to the uh State Association of counseling and then they recognizes as Crest uh we're the only district with this many campuses south of of San Antonio and we're the only district with a leadership award which is Fields Elementary because this is their fourth year as a Crest recognized school so we're the only
026District South of San Antonio with the leadership award and that's all due to the efforts of our counselors and our social workers and here we are at the crest recognition dinner last week in in Galviston and that's my report any questions thank you oh good job um I got to spend a little time with everybody at that and you also recognize the counselors of the Year yes if you want to say who they are yes so every year we we have our principls nominate um candidates for counsel of the year we have a an elementary counsel of the year and a secondary counsel of the Year this year jacine canu from Houston Elementary is our elementary Council of the year and Brianna roas um lead coun at mackai is our secondary counselor of the year
027so they they're able to um they're the face of our counseling programs for for the school year a very um very we very prestigious to us because all of them work very hard but we can only select one to represent them and it was a very nice uh recognition for them and that's also very unique to Mallen I congratulations to both Jackie and Brianna thank you thank you item 10B human resources we have none there item 10 C Business and operations 10 C1 report regarding the Delinquent Tax collections for the period of October 1st 2024 to December 31st 2024 Dr Gutierrez Miss Kelly Salasar from The Firm lme Berger Goen Blair and Samson LLP will present the Delinquent Tax collections report for October 1st 2024 through December 31st of 2024 this is an information purposes
028item only and go ahead thank you Dr KES president pen and esteem members of the board I'm here to present the delinquent tax collection report for the uh period of October 1st 2024 through December 31st 2024 our delinquent tax collection program on behalf of MD continues to focus on two basic premises the first is to collect from the individual taxpayer first and secondly use the tool of litigation only as a final option to collect during this reporting period we completed one demand mailing s ing over 996 statements to delinquent taxpayers within this District we made or received over 1100 phone calls had 121 payoff requests we knocked on 188 doors within this jurisdiction educating and informing taxpayers about their delinquency and doing our best to get them into a payment agreement we also had 21
029individuals come into our office for further information or enter into a payment agreement regarding litigation we have filed 29 lawsuits disposed of 22 and we have 271 lawsuits currently pending representing over $1.6 million owed in base penalty and interest to Mallen ISD we regularly conduct tax sales and resells on judgments with little to no effort to pay during this reporting period we completed two tax sales placing three properties for sale and all three were pulled due to a payment agreement with the taxpayer we do our best to work with the taxpayer to avoid foreclosure again that's an only a final option to collect regarding our second quarter highlights you'll see our collections are up compared to the prior year second quarter we collected over $285,000 in base tax over $170,000 in penalty and interest and
030we collected over $284,000 in delinquent tax that was paid back to a successful protester someone who received a benefit from the appraisal district due to a lower valuation or receiving a homestead exemption and just for your general information you'll see this at the fiscal year end report so far the district has had over $620,000 extra in refunds year-to date compared to the prior year so you're seeing a surge in this in the district uh related to that just to make you aware um in the future we will continue filing lawsuits as necessary continue litigating those cases on behalf of the district we will continue to Monitor and advocate for the district involving any cases in bankruptcy and continue with our mailing program as well as property sales as necessary that concludes my report I'd be
031happy to answer any questions that you might have that's we're good thank you so much you'll have a great evening thank you item 10 C2 report regarding self-funded health plan up DRZ yes uh tonight we are going to present an update on the district's self-funded Health Plan Miss Lorena Garcia Deputy superintendent for business and operations will present more details on our health plan and this is also an information purposes item go ahead Miss Garcia yes good evening everyone with me tonight is a valley risk Consulting uh Mr Roger Garcia and Mr Javier uh Representatives that assist us with our health plan fund um um this report regarding is to provide a status update on the health plan we're going to look back into the last budget season when we were planning for this what the
032history was and then what the the the the plan actually ended up costing us and then we're going to look towards the future into uh this next budget season the first chart provides the 23 24 projections and these were some projections that we worked on as as early as March of last year uh back then um the we reported on this during the 2425 budget process the ending fund balance at the time was projected to be a little bit over a million dollars which is the top chart that you see there in actuality um our Revenue was spot on we did uh calculate uh very close to actual and that's the bottom but however the expenses were a lot higher and this is attributed to several factors number one we have some increase in Pharmacy
033costs and in addition to that we did have six high cost claimants and none of those hit the stop loss uh deductible so um that did increase our cost so uh we ended up actually closing the year at an ending fund balance of 68,4 196 the next chart provides when we were working on the 2425 projections for March we already knew it was going to be a tough year um in terms of Revenue our projections were correct we also decided um that we were going to need some additional help we have been carrying year toye a uh a sign fund balance of $2 million and I don't know if you recall if uh early on in the year we did a budget amendment to Mo move over 1 million of those 2 million into the
034health plan and at that time I did inform you that it was very likely that we were going to occupy the full 2 million for the year however we were going to do it in in in sections so um we do we are bringing a budget amendment to the board tonight for the additional million so that that 2 million uh still stands um we also were tasked with uh finding budget reduction ideas working with our providers and then and also looking within what programs we offer and maybe uh providing some cost savings so at the time we estimated about 856 th000 that we could bring in but it ended up being a little bit over a million in cost savings so that we like to do Cost Containment strategies because it costs us nothing we
035don't have to add additional money to the fund so that was one of the first things that we did um less of projected expenditures we figured we would end the year at about 827,000 so what is it looking like now well remember we ended last year at the 68,000 versus the million so that that did not help we did have an increase in high cost claimants we had an additional five high cost claimants and these some of eight of these did go over the stop loss deductible the $330,000 mark uh again our Revenue new stay the same we are going to use the 2 million the health plan savings were a little bit actually over a million however our projected expenditures were 28 million so we are looking at about a negative 84 now the
036year is not over that doesn't mean that that's where we're going to end because at the end of the year we get $1.2 million in rebates Pharmacy rebates which are basically discount coupons that go back to the disc District so that will Zero out that 8814 but another thing that we don't know is what liability adjustments we may have at the end of the year so uh we're right now we're we're uh we'll keep looking at the numbers as we move forward and that gets booked close to the end of the year so that's where we at right now these are the summary of the budget reductions that we worked on like I said cross containment uh doesn't cost us a dime so what we did is we talked to Blue Cross Pro Shield we
037said we have one more year to renew what can you offer us so they gave us a reduction on the administration of the plan of 125,000 so that's straight off the top they gave us a discount for the year um in addition to that Pharmacy plan um medication sourcing we uh were able to take advantage of some coupons through the pharmacy plan and that was Savings of 290,000 um as far as the stop- loss we went out for bid on that one and the stop loss uh was the savings for the stop- loss was 350,000 um for through a new RFP the medical plan Administration it says 150 but it really should say 350 because that was the savings and we're actually working with our consultant right now to reduce it even further maybe another
03830 35,000 um the issue is that they've identified four employees or not employees for covered uh lives that uh they're lasering and what they what a laser means is that they exclude those from the stop- loss insurance and so uh it's predicted that those uh individuals will exceed maybe half a million to 600,000 in expenditures however one of them because of the prognosis that uh probably will not materialize so we're working on getting another discount from the the premium on the the stop loss U because of that so we're still in negotiation with that and then we're going to see what else we can do with those lasers um but that's something that they typically do in addition to that the medical plan administration fee um was reduced by 50,000 um we had an onsite
039rep there was actually a Blue Cross employee here at central office that would help the employees with their their benefit plan changes and questions anything they have so we said you know what we can handle that on our own we don't really need that so they reduced that by uh 94,000 we didn't renew that we didn't renew the medical plan fiduciary fee and then we we opted out of the medical plan benefit advisor Fe that's another 98,000 so in total uh it was a little bit over a million dollars that we did in Cost Containment savings we're still working on the State medical plan discontinuation which is something I'm going to talk to you all about and then also we're negotiating further Network savings with uh Blue Cross Blue Shield so some of the things
040that increased our cost as I mentioned before are Pharmacy um monjaro is a drug that is typically used for diabetes treatment and it's really the one of the most expensive ones to our plan it has risen in popularity uh we we have had about an additional 13 utilizers 111 uh prescriptions and this medication we cannot Source it through Canada how come um how come gentlemen do you have the that question sorry because I know other districts are sourcing internationally so I'm just wondering why we cannot good evening uh president than superintendent uh Gutierrez and honorable members of the Board of Trustees uh to answer your question it's a drug that's very difficult to obtain as you can recall a few months ago there was a shortage on the production of that particular drug so it's
041it's not something that is generated here in the United States it's actually I think it's from Germany I believe it's it's where it's produced so they kind of held back they scill back a little bit just to drive the price up uh however we've made several attempts to try to get that drug in Australia and United Kingdom and other countries and they're just not available out there and they won't ship it into the US for that particular purpose so for us to obtain it from them at their price they they're holding back so that's we have to get it for the commercial markets here right but I mean I know of other districts and entities that are getting it internationally so I'm just curious why just we can't get it it's not OIC because OIC
042we can Source internationally it's just that one particular drug that's that's has been very difficult to obtain however there's other resources and other recommendations that we're going to make to the board that we believe will offset that that particular drug or that cost of that drug so in the future you'll probably be hearing some recommendations that you might want to take AC because then there's also wovi and Z bound so yes ma'am those we we can obtain International yes that will we but uh Mr Garza my question is and I asked this morning when we were going over the this board book and the presentation is do they need to be in that medication can it be an equivalent like OIC or some other medication that's equivalent to this one without having to have this
043brand I mean like that's that's a wonderful question if you don't mind can I answer it's it's a great question because that was a statement that was asked of us last week by another superintendent why are we having to dispense this drug I going to go back five years and I believe uh trusty Alis said was at that insurance committee meeting if you recall and we brought up the question about tcity uh that came into the market it was a very expensive drug and the and the old uh uh PBM had assured us that it was was a very rare drug very few people would use it don't worry about it it's expensive but only two or three would you use it a year later they came back and they had this OIC that just
044hit the market but don't worry about it it's not going to happen they're going to stay on tcity we had 113 people on TSI at the time and two people on OIC but they said not to worry about it a year later we had almost 180 people on OIC and people were getting off of tcity so these are high price GOP drugs that are starting to hit the plan but we're attempting to do is put a gap between the delivering of that drug people were actually taking a $136 drug just not more than five six years ago now it's costing us 1,300 on the average just to maintain those drugs so it's it's uncovered on us to come up with a different idea and start the step therapy programs before we put them on these
045high and drugs but doctors tend to prescribe that first because people see them on commercials that's what they want they want to lose weight we all want to lose weight but at the end of the day we don't have any mechanism inside our plan that pays for weight loss and this is one step that could take without actually incurring that cost so we are we do have some ideas sir as you's mentioned they don't have to be on those particular drugs we just if they just allowed themselves to get on it by doctor authorization so so then we can set the parameters of that not to have this what is it called monjaro mjo yes and and and and and say that we cover OIC or another equivalency drug that is within our plan correct
046because uh you know with health insurance and our Pharmacy the is very fluid because we have claims that fluctuate month to month week to week and well the the threat is that there's another drug another glp drug that's coming down the pipe that's even twice as expensive as that one so we have to set the parameters in in place for future for future cost reference I could say so that they don't obtain that drug because it's going to it's going to come in your plan allows it to go in so it's encumbered on us to come up with these limitations so it doesn't happen so we can say that we don't cover this because there's other equivalent drugs that can Co can do the same that's correct all right then then that's maybe that's what
047we need to perhaps unless unless the patient is allergic to all the other ones and this one he or she is not allergic to then that's an understandable well it's our responsibility as a as a entity or as a plan is only pay for the condition that they're seeking which is diabetes the side effects are Lo weight loss and in some cases there's other side effects that benefit the employee that they're taking advantage of but our Target is diabetes if we can treat diabetes and control diabetes that's our responsibility to pay for those drugs are inexpensive or as one pharmacist said one time whatever happened to the drugs used to cost $39 a month you know they're still there on the Shelf we just not utilize them anymore so it's for us we want to
048come up with a suggestion and a recommendation actually that that targets that and makes employees not forces them but encourages them to take those drugs first before they seek the highend drugs I mean we can do that of those 108 utilizers how many do we know are actually employees and how many of those are dependents because at one point we talked about not allowing dependence but only allowing at one point we talked about not even allowing any of these drugs in our s in our uh and that would save us because we are self-funded and I think people forget that they don't realize that we are self-funded and so um this is really on us this is really taking money out of our our accounts to have to pay for this um and so we
049did talk about that um but at the board at that time said no we'd go ahead and fund it for our employees and their dependence but then there was a mindset of not doing it for their dependence so do we know I mean out of 108 utilizers are eight employees and 100 are dependents that are on our system we didn't actually uh drill down to that but we can get it for you I would love to know that number because there there needs to be a stopping point uh I mean I feel like there needs to be a stopping point you know we we do with what Dr Guetta said we we push them to another drug we'll pay for this but not that this because this is lower but even further step it to
050you know you know because it is so costly you're an employee of the district will take care of it for you but for your dependent for your spouse for your children that's on you um I think that needs to be a conversation that we need to have because this is quite excessive yes ma'am and there's other recommendation like and I I hate to get too far ahead but you know on your formulary and non-formulary drugs that you need to start actually condensing so that it's not just an open right uh Pharmacy list it it just condens it down to the treat the condition that you're treating well like just to give you an example on the base plan we have a about 645 enrolled in a family type plan which is employee and spouse employee
051and child employee and children employee and family so that's just on the base plan um and on the high plan we have about 200 I thought we got rid of the high plan I thought that no we have uh we have three well we have actually four but um we have the the basic plan we have the high plan the state plan is the one that we're talking about getting rid of and then of course we have the alternate employee only um and and and we'll talk about those uh those plans because we have three and eventually we may have to just have two options um and so we we'll talk about those because they're further down in the presentation but we got to find different ways to offset this Medical Healthcare cost without putting
052too much into the employees contributions you know Finding ways to cut back and and still maintain as much as possible what the employees are paying without going up high a lot higher we have 284 on the other plans that are family family plans I think this would be a great topic in my opinion for a workshop just on health insurance um I know we we have discussed um that we don't contribute as much as we should as a district as well for you know the per employee and so I would love for us to be able to help the majority of our employees as far as health care but obviously then we'd have to make some Cuts somewhere else to be able to support that and I know these drugs change lives um but again
053if they're if it's not a true diabetic and they're just using it for the side effect there are other medications that are um indicated for weight loss which are not mararo but Z bound and W GOI and so I just think maybe we need to see where you know maybe those empics covered but not the weight loss Ian or at a higher co-pay I don't even know how that can work but there needs to be maybe well they do go through step therapy and uh correct me if I'm wrong gentlemen but um with step therapy um for example if you're being prescribed Monaro right off the bat that will not be approved you will have to start with a different alternative medication before you get to the monjaro so these people have actually their actual
054diabetics they they it's not we don't cover for weight loss right okay well we do have a an overview because we have some more slides but I think it's a good idea just to have a meeting on on on the health plan as well as a phy plan and just on that so that we can have all the ask all the questions and go over the whole plan because it's coming up where we need to go out uh I think this is the last year of the contract yes for the third party administrator in the pharmacy plan yeah so and we did I remember we had a workshop trusty Alisa and I were and you uh Regal were was on zoom and we had the representatives from Blue Cross Blue Shield and we asked those
055questions and we never heard anything back we we we can bring them back to our budget Workshop so go ahead and complete it would be good to is the high cost claimants that I mentioned in 23 we had six claimants and in 24 uh we have 11 which is a total cost of 4.2 million so it's an increase of almost $3 million from year so that's why you see the the costs increase now in terms of Cost Containment um one of the things that we did is update the formulary implemented prior authorizations and the step therapy that I mentioned so the biggest impact has been from the international Pharmacy the program uh cost the members zero dollars and uh to fill their eligible medication and our plan pays sometimes as much as 50% less for
056the drug so it's a win-win we've uh achieved over 3.2 million in savings since the program's Inception and we filled over uh prescriptions by 250 eligible members so our plan also has a diabetic population so we do have some diabetes management they will get from the program they get a glucose meter a monitor meter for their blood sugar level and supplies as they needed they're also provided with onetoone coaching uh we also have tele medicine and this tele medicine is provided by our agent for the voluntary products and the tele medicine is another win-win because it's a zero cost for the employee and their dependence and they don't have to be their dependents do not have to be on the plan like for example you could have your your children that are covered by another
057plan even in college and they can call in and you don't pay anything and you see a doctor through tele medicine um and the district pays nothing so we've been actively promoting that uh it's a savings of about 300,000 so that's another Cost Containment so for for 2526 uh we are considering uh proposing discontinuing the state plan now this one we only have about 36 uh enrolled in the plan however it's at a loss ratio of 365 per. so what that means is in comparison to the other plans for example uh the basic Plan cost us $582 99 cents per employee where the high Plan cost is 1,357 40 per employee per month and the state plan cost us 2,792 per employee per month so it's very expensive originally it started because this was to
058mimic the state the actual State State Health Plan those benefits are very rich they pay very little to no out of pocket it's a it's an 85 uh The District covers 85% and the employee covers 15% they have uh zero to reduce co-ace so they're paying very little like I said out of pocket um what we would recommend is for that group to for us to start working with them educating them on the plants that we do have plan to continue if this is something that we will be able to just continue educating them and transitioning them for January 20 2026 so starting Jan because January already started we have to wait till January 2026 um and but we can work with them now to provide them Alternatives because another thing they can do is
059get a Supplement Plan and you know if they need additional insurance so that's something that we're proposing and most districts in fact maybe all of them by now they only have two plans as options yeah some some even have one yeah some the 70% 30% or the 80% 20% uh very I don't know if anyone that has a a third plan because because of High Cost of healthcare that's the data you don't ever see behind the like well our school district only pays this much but our school district has four plans or three plans with the other school dist only have one or two so those numbers are always fuzzy when like we look like we're not doing well but we are covering a lot yes and so the other things that we can consider
060is of course we can change the employer contribution increase that because it's kind of about time we do that we can also modify the employee premiums uh we can also look look at the copas the deductible plan design changes like you know on the on the pharmacy side as well um this chart provides a comparison of employer contributions of our district is number two lowest at 46650 um now the district has done really really well and I'm going to tell you because we have been paying one of the lowest employer contributions yet that the plan has been in the black all these years we have not had to transfer money until this year so um there was a half a million that was transferred maybe about three years ago but that's it some of these
061districts not only are they charging or they contributing a very high monthly per employee per month amount but then they're also transferring like you know for example like the district that I came from we were transferring about a million dollars a year for like three years so in addition to increasing so melen I has done extremely well um with that but now it's time to consider uh making those changes so we've we've taken the Cost Containment almost as far as we can we're going to still continue looking at several options uh but uh we do also need to look at the employer side of the contribution and then the next chart uh these districts in comparison to melen ISD um Los Fresnos West Mission and psj they increased their uh District contribution so this past
062year they all went up these guys went up and then this chart just provides how they not only did Los and psj uh increase their District contribution but they also increased the employee contribution their premiums as well so they did a double a double change and then this just kind of shows like what you were saying Miss Alisa a comparison of the districts surrounding us and what their first of all their plan benefits at the top on the white and then their prescription drug prices and then at the bottom is the cost per month their premiums and then at the bottom is the district contribution so that's just for reference if you want to compare and this is their basic plans this provides a history of our district in terms of employer uh contribution and
063employee adjustments the last time that the district made an adjustment was in 23 24 and um basically it was to add I believe it was um 2650 to um the basic plan with a variation on some of the other the other PL we had we had uh some increases across the board in in the different uh employee premiums so um prior to that it was 1920 and even before that 1819 so as you can see the district has not impacted the employees the district takes on the burden as much as possible um however it's maybe now time to consider making some adjustments in in some of the plans and that that concludes my report thank you so much if you have any questions let me know so so we'll plan that uh special call board
064meeting just for the health insurance and the pharmacy there's nothing more complicated than Insurance matters obviously you know and so I think that's it's a great idea okay thank you for that um item 10 C3 discussion and possible action on the Mallen Independent School District January budget amendment for fiscal year beginning July 1st 2024 and ending July 30th 2025 Dr guz Administration is recommending the approval of the January 2025 budget amendment for the 2425 fiscal year Miss Lorena Garcia Deputy superintendent for business and operations will report on the amendment we are recommending Administration is recommending action on this item I was going to ask a bunch of questions on it but you already explained the million dollars I moved motion that we passed second I have a motion by trusty Alis and a second by
065trusty all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion par carries 4 Z Item 10 C4 discussion and possible action on final payment to Safe Haven defense Arizona LLC on contract number 2024-25 safety security film application rebid Dr Gutierrez a final walkth through of the project has been completed with facility staff the contractor and engineer all the items on the punch list have been completed Mr Ruben trino our executive director facilities maintenance and operations has already appr proven this item to to be taken to the board and we are recommending action on this item move second I have a motion by trusty Alis and second by truste deara Lopez all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signify by saying n motion carries
0664 Z 10 C5 discussion and possible action on request for proposal number 2025 d1023 staff refresh technology equipment with service and leasing options Dr guz Administration solicited proposals from vendors for technology equipment with service and leasing options Miss Judith esam our executive director for technology is available to answer questions Administration is recommending action on this item you may want to give us an overview Mrs kamama yes uh members of board superintendent this uh solicitation was mainly to address a lot of the concerns with our refresh of our devices for all of our teachers and staff and uh we're coming up to the sixth year where we had initially uh first done the refresh so it's been a while since we've done this so we're very excited to move forward with this solicitation and uh hopefully
067entertain uh different options when it comes to leasing we are definitely considering a particular uh situ ation for leasing which would be the dollar buyout for this equipment we're looking at 2900 devices for our our teachers and staff districtwide so they will get new devices correct all of them yes replace the what the the old ones that they currently have correct with this new ones devices would be computers laptops this would be laptops correct yes laptops for every staff it's we we basically have a on to one for for our staff so they would get a laptop for all of our teachers and then our core admin and every just go down that that ladder uh I move we approve the ranking of request for proposal number 2025 1023 staff refest technology equipment and with
068service and leasing options for a period of one year with the option to renew for three additional oneyear terms for onetime purchases second I have a motion by truste Alisa and a second by trusty all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion carries 40 um and this is a three-part motion so I move that the um that the board approved that Administration begin negotiations with the highest ranked firm if the district is unable to negotiate a satisfactory contract with the selected firm the district shall formally and in writing and negotiations with that firm and proceed to the next firm in the order of the selection ranking until a contract is reach reached or all submittals are rejected second DCA this one um I have a motion
069by Tristy and a second by trusty Alis all those in favor signify by saying I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion carries 4 Z I move that the board further authorize the superintendent to execute a lease contract and related documents once contract negotiations have been successfully achieved for a period of three yearsor okayy I have trust and second by trusty Lopez all those in favor signify by saying I all those opposed by saying a motion carries 4 Z thank you ladies item 10d Board of Trustees items I need a motion for 10 D1 approval of Board of Education minutes second I have a motion by trusty and a second by trusty deara LZ all those in favor signify by saying I I I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes 4
070Z before we go on to the next item um can I just recommend I know we used to do this uh we used to have like a section for upcoming meetings and I know we're going to have tons with the budget meetings coming up but I think um I don't know how it fell off our agendas but I think it'd be great to put it back on especially I know we removed some items but that was not one of them so we sure they get we have so many every week I'll get with you nor we we'll take it yes we'll put it in yeah because there's a bunch of meetings coming up right just so the public is aware and definitely yes 10 d1a regular board meeting January 28th 2025 um item 11 recess
071to close session Board of Trustees may go into close session pursuant to sections 551.071 55107 2 55107 6 and 5510 89 Texas government code to discuss the following 11a Human Resources recommendations for school year 2024 2025 Item B discussion of human resources employee resignations and retirees for year 202 2425 11c discussion regarding School Safety and Security items 11 D pending and or potential litigation 11e possible real estate acquisition at 6:33 p.m. we are in close session e e e at 7:03 p.m we are reconvened an open session item 13 Action on items in close session 13A discussion and possible action of Human Resources recommendations for school year 2024 2025 DRZ Human Resources submitted a list of recommendations for the 2425 school year under a separate cover for discussion during close session Dr Albert Canalis Chief
072Human Resource offer officer is available to answer any questions we are recommending action on this item to approve second I've got a motion by trusty deara Lopez and H second by trusty Regal all those in favor signifi by saying I I all those opposed sign by say n motion carries 4 Z Item 13B discussion of human resources employee resignations and retirees for school year 2024 2025 Dr Human Resources submitted a list of resignations and retirees for the 2425 school year under a separate cover for discussion during close session uh Dr Canales Chief Human Resources officer is available to answer any questions and this is for information purposes only thank you very much and item 13 C discussion regarding School Safety and Security no action taken item uh 13d pending and or potential litigation Mr ball
073and 13 e possible real estate acquisition Mr B and can I get a motion to adjourn ladies I have a motion by trusty and a double second by trusty Al and trusty Lopez um all those in favor signifi by saying I I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion carries 40 at 7:05 p.m. we are adjourned thank you everybody for