001e e e a regular me meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Mallen Independent School District will be held Friday January 17 2025 beginning at 12: p.m. noon at the Dr raro Chapa boardroom administration building of the Mallen Independent School District 200 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 identif ified within the 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 call the meeting to order I have done so at 12:00 noon to please join us in a moment of silence thank you item three Pledge of Allegiance please stand I
002pledge of 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 four public comments we have none today item five superintendent report item 5A HB donates $50,000 to Mallen Education Foundation Dr ues yes uh Madame President Board of Trustees the McAllen Education Foundation and McAllen ISD are extremely grateful to the HB grocery chain for its generous donation of $50,000 to the foundation and this donation was done on December the 17th 2024 the donation will help the foundation fund 75 Innovative teacher grants in Mallen ISD this took place in December and we have a short video to uh show you how it went U during the donation ceremony can you go ahead and play the [Music]
003video so happy to be here at southp Festival on behalf of HB that sponsoring this event MEF here to accept a check of $50,000 that they gave us this year and what a what a great donation they gave to our students to our teachers and so happy to be here to accept that donation and uh again thank you to HB for everything they're doing for our community we can't do it without our Community Partners having everyone come together is the only way that we're able to educate our kids and get them where they need to be for the next step in their life so it's really energizing to have people like the Mallen Education Foundation as well as Community Partners like HB and the City of Mallen come together and put this great thing together
004yes um today we have some members of the MEF if you would please stand thank you for all that you do Christine and thank you for everything that you do for us oh didn't see you there doc thank you for thank you all for joining us um I'm sure that this donation is going to go a long way and this year you dedicated your funding to granting our teachers um their proposals for some very Innovative um educational projects and so we appreciate everything you do for us every day and the time that you put into that as well so thank you very much Mallen Education Foundation thank you item 5B coffee with the superintendent at Morris Middle School Dr guz yes this is a part of my initiative and um out there in the community
005as I've been going to the different middle schools completed five uh visits to the coffee with a superintendent at different middle schools I have two more to go but this one was held at Morris Middle School just right before the holiday break and i' like to show the the board and the community a a video of that event that we had at Morris go ahead this is one event of a series called coffee with the superintendent it's an opportunity for our community members and our parents to come and hear about priorities in the district ask great questions and get really good information from directors from our uh leadership and also from the superintendent so everything that we do in our district um really doesn't work unless students are coming to school every single day so
006our team also supports the efforts of ensuring that students are in school in class learning every day it was an intimate setting for us to be able to talk to our parents about any concerns they have uh and then talk about the programs we offer in the district uh our safety progam programs uh our counseling and mental health programs and just an opportunity for parents to talk to us as an Administration uh and our administration at large from [Music] iy very nice thank you Dr VES for doing that for the community item 5c Turf donated to mallan I the athletes dris yes uh doctor's physical therapy and Sports in donated Turf to help maximize strength and conditioning efforts by melen Iz athletes the turf donated in the fall of 2024 takes up uh to 12
007foot by 90 foot uh area in the weight rooms at Mallen High School Memorial High School and Niki R high school students in all athletic programs are able to use it for uh different drills well we also have a video celebrating this kind of a donation and so go ahead and play the video we were approach by Mr mclin a few months ago and with the idea of providing tur for the weight room area for athletes within the school district both Dr Anessa and myself thought it was a wonderful idea to participate in giving back uh because we're both products of the Mallen school district and we both uh played uh Sports within the within the Departments here going on into our our professional careers specializing in sports and Orthopedics we felt that it was
008important to give back to the community in that aspect there's what we call in the Sports World the said principle specific adaptations to impose demands and so if we're putting Turf in the facility where athletes are training to squat to Lunge to push to pull and then we can simulate that while they're doing their training but then we can have them go out and perform on a turf field for football or for soccer and do those functional movements the the set principle has already imposed itself to the body adapting to this type of training so that they don't go out there and hurt themselves or at least reduce that [Music] risk we have a area about 12 by 90 ft uh that has really not been utilized to its fullest I've been wanting to Turf
009that for a few years now and I approached them and they they they made it happen but this is going to really enhance our weight rooms our athletic facilities and give our coaches tools and our kids tools uh to take their strength and conditioning to another level cuz we're able to do push pull sleds here change of a direction uh some agility work some P boxes uh so this is just a great great area to uh get some extra work for our kids and and this is just enhance all three of our weight rooms at Mallen High Mallen Memorial and Nikki [Music] Road I got to visit those um little patches of turf and um great addition and great use of space too space that wasn't being used for anything else so that was really
010nice thank you very much item six public hearing for 2023 2024 District annual report Dres the the Texas Education Code 39306 requires that each District's Board of Trustees hold a public hearing to discuss the district's annual report better known as the Texas Academic performance report which is called taper Mrs Janette Nino the associate superintendent for instructional leadership will share more information on this uh presentation and this is uh for information purposes only go ahead Miss Nino good morning Dr gutieres Madam president and Board of Trustees it is my pleasure to present the 2023 2024 District annual report uh per the commissioner rule Texas administrative code 61122 it indicates a hearing for public discussion of the Texas Academic performance report also known as the taper to be held within 90 calendar days of receiving the taper
011report the taper report was published to districts on Thursday December 12th 2024 and public notice of this hearing was posted on Wednesday December 18th 2024 in the local newspaper called the monitor in this District annual report there are several components that we will just give an overview um including our district accreditation status our district and campus performance goals the progress towards meeting house bill three goals the report of violent or criminal incidents student performance and post-secondary institutions our pe's financial standards and our special education determination status the district accreditation statuses for the 20 the 2023 2024 school years have not been issued as the issuance of the a through F ratings um are pending and are subject to change due to judicial hearings but we can can see here that um our financial Integrity rating
012system based on 2022 2023 data received an a for Superior achievement our last accountability rating from aalen ISD for the 2022 school year is at an A and for 2022 accreditation status it remains as accredited as well and the 2024 special ed determination status meets requirements in addition the district performance goals for for um the four areas of reading language arts mathematics science and social studies we um continue to work with our students to meet the star go campus performance of 100% in each of those subject areas in the areas of star and in addition to District performance goals campus performance goals are um set in place along with campus Improvement plans and we have those accessible to our community uh via our web page as well as just some next steps to help help
013them access those so they can see it by campus for all of our 30 schools at Mallen ISD the 2023 24 uh taper report again was published and as we go through that the 2023 October fall snapshot included 2095 students in that data and for students in grades uh third grade all the way through the high school end of course assessments at uh approaches grade level or above we are very proud of our students in all subjects they are performing at 80% in the areas of reading language arts at 81% in mathematics at 80% and at science at 76% and we're very proud because our students overall are performing above their peers across region one and as well as across the state of Texas and in addition um all of our staff works very very
014hard to ensure that all students participate in their star assessment so that that data is um then reflected in a report such as the taper in addition our students performing in postsecondary institutions now these are the graduates from the 2022 class of 2022 and attended College uh 2022 2023 at the fouryear public university we had 526 students and we have um that breakdown of their grade point average for that first year in public higher education and again we can see that a lot of our students are more towards the right of that 3.0 and above um as well as having 385 students in two-year public colleges and also students um uh enrolled at independent colleges and universities there were some students that were not able their data was not able to be tracked but all
015of this information is provided and published by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and Texas Education Agency in addition to the to the uh District annual report a component is the report on the criminal and violent crimes for the last school year and the only codes that were reported was a code two um I'm sorry two in the areas of code 30 which are um listed there and as well as uh 10 codes for um a 36 but more importantly in just reflecting on the data for our district from last year's data um in the in the last a public hearing to today's we've really um had a lot of prevention measures in place from all of our staff and we'll see that on the next slide to decrease those amounts of code 30s um
016from one year to the next from five to two reports and then uh code 36 from 21 to 10 so just great work to all of our staff in the violence prevention and awareness programs again this takes a lot of Staff throughout our district in efforts from counseling uh drug prevention bullying awareness social emotional learning lessons uh campus counseling plans safe and supportive school teams that we we get a lot of training for um at each of our schools and individual or group counseling and our house bill three adopted goals and action plan have been uh presented this is now our fourth year in giving the the update and we have now started year five on this H hb3 plan um these are measuring we're required to measure um Early Childhood reading Early Childhood math
017and college career in military Readiness so the board adopted three student outcome goals um four years ago and again we're measuring Early Childhood literacy aligned to third grade star reading Early Childhood numeracy aligned to third grade star in math and college career and Military Readiness goals aligned to graduates that meet Readiness requirements and with the outcome in those goals again this is just that timeline of progress monitoring um from when these goals were adopted and approved over the last four years and again um this year we're reporting on uh year four but beginning year five so at our public hearing next February 2025 will then give that year five uh goal as well so for House Bill three goal one of Early Childhood literacy we continue to see our students and our our staff supports
018in place to have our students showing um increase here for Early Childhood literacy where our third grade students are meeting at grade level or above on the star reading and that increased from 54% to 59% from last year's um progress monitoring to this this past Year's in the area of pre kindergarteners that are scoring on grade level or above in reading on the circle diagnostic again um in meeting that goal um we've moved we've stayed steady in this area from 82% to 81% and continue to use this data to support our staff and our students in um Early Childhood literacy um as they move up into the next grade level for kindergarten those students on track to meet grade level demands are also at 78% um very comparable to last year's data in first grade
019we see those students on track to meet grade level demands in Reading using the measure of amplify from 68% to 75% and our second graders in the area of Early Childhood literacy to meet on track um grade level demands also using the amplify diagnostic exam we remain at 68% for House Bill goal two Early Childhood mathematics our third grade students scoring at the meets grade level or above um are at [Music] 47% our prekinder gardeners on track using the circle diagnostic exam in the area of math um in increased from 84% last year to 88% our kindergarten students um using their diagnostic uh for the end of year assessment um from 64% to 59% and for first grade students we have um using the same diagnostic thank you um remaining from 48% last year's um
020progress measure to 48% this past school year our second grade students um from 50% um the school year of 23 to to this uh last year for 46% and as we look at the last house bill goal three for college career military Readiness we had 1,612 students um that graduated as part of the class of 2023 the college career and Military Readiness data um does lag by one year so the cohort from the previous school year is what we're looking at in that data but we're just very um proud of again our staff and our students where they're having 94.5% of that in the student achievement area for ccmr so again we're starting year five on these House Bill three goals and all of these uh three goals that we set as a district and
021at next year's public hearing for um 2025 we'll then see that completion of these fiveyear H three goals and overall for 2023 2024 the district accountability rating has not been released at this time again those um are still in hearings uh judicial hearings this is now year two for the taper report for all school districts in the state of Texas however um just some calculations that are made based on predictions based on manuals and formulas that we do have uh for 2022 2023 we had an an 87 of a you know a tentative letter of a of a letter B that would have been and we're just very proud because we've grown two points from that year to this last school year of 2023 to 2024 to an 89 and so a lot of celebrations
022a lot of um data to look at and use for reflection and for planning in the future and moving forward this school year but overall we're um very very proud of of the work that is being done here at macallen Icy for our students in our community and here's uh just the dissemination of where uh resources and links can be found for the information in today's presentation thank you thank you very much and we move on to uh item seven public notice notice of public meeting and notice of proposal proposed contract for Legal Services Under Texas government code 22541 036 A1 Dr guz notice is uh hereby given that a meeting of the Board of Trustees of McAllen Independent School District will be held today January 17 20125 for the purpose of considering and taking
023action on all matters on the agenda for the meeting including approval of an agreement with a law firm of Millan and Millan pllc a special councel to perform all legal services necessary to pursue a recovery of uninsured but unpaid property damages and losses sustained by McKellen Independent School District as a result of Hell storms and windstorms that struck the Mallen Texas area in April of 2023 no action is required at this time however our attorney Mr Jonathan Bal is uh available to answer any questions and we will have an item uh further down in the agenda for the board to take action no questions um we moving on to item item eight discussion andoss action for the approval of donations to to leonello H Gonzalez Elementary Dr Gutierrez the parent teach organization PTO at Gonzalez
024Elementary donated equipment in the form of a front school entrance canopies and pavers to improve the area for students during challenging weather uh Miss Nino our associate superintendent for instructional leadership will share more information and we are recommending action on this item thank you Dr gues in accordance with board policy CDC local the board delegates to the superintendent the authority to accept unsolicited gifts on behalf of the district and so today we have um just some pictures here illustrating um some donations by the Leonel Gonzalez Elementary parent uh teacher organization in um not just improving the area at the front of our the front entrance of this campus but it also helps when students are waiting for pickup um these canopies will help Shield them from the elements of nature right there and also improving
025the pavers just so when they walk everything's out a little bit more balance so again this is a PTO donation from Gonzalez Elementary and we also have our principal here miss Christina atand this present if there's any questions thank you madam president move to approve second I have a motion by trusty Riva and a second by trusty R all those in favor signify by saying I I all the those uh opposed signified by saying nay motion passes 60 item nine consent agenda items 9 a through 9d do I have a motion I Mo to approve I have a motion by trusty R and a second by trusty Rivera all those in favor signify by saying I I all those post signify by saying nay motion passes 60 I didn't ga the other one I item
02610 instructional Services instructional leadership Human Resources business and operations and Board of Trustees items item 10A instructional Services uh leadership items Dr Sal oo 10 A1 report regarding the Career Technical education department Dr guz yes uh this is also another report from one of our departments just so that our board and Community are well informed of the services that we provide to our students in Mallen ISD today we're going to have Mr Leo science present on the Career Technical education department go ahead Mr science thank you good uh good afternoon Madame President and uh Board of Trustees I give you an update on our CT Department um I want to consider that we are preparing to the workforce for tomorrow and we're I think we're doing an excellent job um we see some of the
027pictures here on some of the events that we've had before obviously our kmac and then we had visits for in other departments but we'll go right into it um this is the folks that work with me I have three coordinators that do an excellent job and I I thank you for have allowing me to have those folks because they do a lot of the heavy lifting for me um we do have 22 programs of study under 13 clusters uh in the state we cover 14 clusters and there's 53 programs of study that are available to anybody in the in the state but we only provide 22 programs of study we're very uh deliberate on on our on our programs of study that we offer to be sure that we're in line with whatever Workforce is
028asking of us in our area so that's these are the programs of study that we have um you can kind of see them I hopefully you see them a little bit better on yours but Pro the the Clusters on top and the programs of study on the bottom uh and I just want to pinpoint a couple of them that are very important to us that they should be highlighted obviously in our health uh I'm sorry in our law enforcement one we have one that has a program that's only here that is not throughout the state we only have it here that's for instance foric science and so that works directly with the forensic science department so when you see somebody that has a crime and they go in there and try to figure out who
029who did it these kids are learning that they're actually learning the actual Hands-On stuff that happens in those areas so they're learning directly from them the other one obviously is our Aviation program that you're well aware of has been on the news it just came out again in the news if you didn't see it but one of the things that I proposed to do and and got approved was moving from 12 students to 24 students and the way we can do that is not spend one single more Penny but it opening up to a different license that they'll get which they'll will be able to grow with that license same with the one that they currently get but now we'll afford it to 24 students I noticed there was like an 8 to 10 person
030waiting list we won't have that waiting list anymore so that's super important for that um and then of course something called incubator that some of you might be familiar with that's an entrepreneurship part we're the only School District South of San Antonio that has it I know that other are going to jump on board because they've called me and asked about it so that's great for us because it'll also shed a light as to how good we're doing there so it's super important and Entrepreneurship as you see anywhere you look in macallen we're growing so it's important for those kids to get that type of background as well and I'm just going to show you by the numbers real quick um 84 84% of all high school students are in CTE so the biggest obviously
031being in business and the smallest right now is in it but we're trying to we're trying to grow it next year so we're going to try to grow that as well keep going with those um but the biggest number obviously is in our business department uh which is business marketing and finance so but the good thing is that 84% of our students are in CTE and then again by the Numbers just to give you a number uh students uh taking CT courses it's about 8,000 that's across from middle school and high school as well and then in uh ta approved uh industry based certifications which are super important for various reasons right for accountability they take a look at how many industry based certifications through ccmr this is a big component of that also when
032it comes to monies this is important as well so I'm sure you're very uh much in tune with what I'm talking about here but we we we went to we went a little high on 2023 when the sil was here and then last year we went down a little bit lower to 4,000 I will tell you that I'm very happy because as of right now we already already have over a thousand this year lit last year at this point in time we only had like 50 so we're way ahead of the game on that and so we're looking forward to the 4,000 if not more this year as well and then again by the Numbers CT students that are earning more college credit hours this is an amazing opportunity for these kids and we're already
033up to 1,200 uh credit college credit hours per year and we're looking to grow it and we've grown we we've also applied for something that's called PTEC hopefully that'll come through which will even add more hours to that as well and so we're looking forward to that we're look I think we're we're supposed to hear back this month if not next month right and then we do have a CT advisory committee meeting um and I know that I sent out an invitation to everyone and I'm hoping that for the second one you'll be able to make it it was a great event we had uh I know our president was there and we had over 60 folks that were there the good thing for us is they get to see our facilities they get to
034see what our kids are actually doing and they get to give us input on what we're doing good and what we what we do better and so those are super important one of the things that came out of that was and I might have missed it here it's not in there but is opportunities for students so one of the opportunities for students like for example is the Boys and Girls Club got together with our incubator kids our entrepreneurship kids and right before Christmas they were afforded a job an actual job through the boys and girls club and they were being transported to the middle schools to teach them about entrepreneurship as well and they were getting paid so right before Christmas they got a nice paycheck and that was more than 16 kids $500 each
035no tax and so they're still a part of the Boys and Girls Club so they can still work in the Summers or whenever they want to also it gets put on their resume and all those good things so those are important parts too and so we we work with those we're we're looking at other opportunities to get our kids more opportunities and we'll come to you when when those come up because it'll have to have board approval and it'll be amazing I think you're going to be happy with some of the things that we're we're building there as well that's pretty much all I have for you any questions no good stuff all real good things happening we look forward to a lot more Innovation and things to come yeah one of the biggest things
036I really do want to tell you is that we're trying to break down all those um classes that need that have a small count so that we don't have those waiting those kids waiting in line that's that's what I'm working on it should you should see it next year for sure perfect thank you so much thank you Mr science 10 A2 report regarding partnership agreement 202 52100 Texas regional Pathways network with region one Education Service Center Dr ues this agreement is a partnership between the district and region one Education Service Center to ensure students are College and Career ready Mr science uh director of Career and Technical education is available to answer any questions for this item uh this uh item is for information purposes only and no action is required sure so this is
037it an agreement that we that Dr Dr G signed for us we just basically agreed to receive monies later when they get the grant um the Texas a regional Pathways network has something called the regional convenor in our area that's region one and region one has a reach that they do and every year they pick a different uh area this this year they've chosen education as an area and they felt that we were a good candidate to receive their monies and so later on hopefully we'll come back to you with anou to sign it it's going to be for around $80,000 which would be spent in $110,000 for like a salary for somebody that to work in the district on that project uh $20,000 for supplies and and equipment and then $50,000 for students to
038do work-based learning opportunities through education to hopefully get more teachers and also for teachers that work with them at that time so we will 80,000 or more probably somewhere in there free money I felt that was a good idea to sign right very good any questions we'll take it we'll take it yes item 1083 report regarding the 2025 2026 school calendar Dr ues yes it's just a we're at that time of the year where we are working on the calendar for the 25 26 school year uh we wanted to give a report to the board to give you an update where we are with uh the process of uh selecting the calendar for the 25 26 school year and we wanted to give a report to the board uh and miss Patricia Peña director to
039professional development and lersy will share more information and this item is for information purposes only so she can give us an update on that process how it's going yes sir um good afternoon Dr guz Madam president trustees uh today I will be providing a report regarding our calendar committee goals and the timeline that we follow in creating an instructional calendar so so this is our current timeline we start um usually oob October and November um getting feedback uh with a Google survey from our stakeholders to understand what their needs are for the upcoming calendar then we start to create our meetings we have a lead calendar committee meeting we had this one in November and that's where just the calendar committee meets we look at survey information and we start drafting our calendar after that
040we present our drafts to the general lead assembly that was done November 20th and that's where we presented the three drafts that we had created using the Google survey information and um stakeholder feedback we created our three drafts we presented them today I'm providing the report I'm hoping that we can provide these three calendar options for voting uh we'll give uh stakeholders three weeks for voting January 24th through the 14th and uh the goal is to have this finalized and approved the finalized calendar approved by February 25th so what are our calendar committee goals well every year a goal is to provide at least three viable calendar options for our stakeholders to vote upon these three calendar options um should be responsive to the needs of students at Mallen ISD into to our community and
041they must adhere to Texas Education Code and they should align with the vision vision mission and goals of maal and ISD so these are the two things that we take into consideration when creating our Cal calend local goals and guidelines state laws and guidelines our local goals are these four student achievement people development facility priorities and financial priorities so with this in mind we know that establishing a school start date that maximizes student learning opportunity Falls in line with our student achievement goal in addition to that we'd like to create a calendar that minimizes learning gaps to also Aid in that student achievement goal in line with financial priorities we were tasked with creating a calendar that maximizes access to revenue resources such as adsy and creating a calendar that maximizes student recruitment efforts with
042an earlier start date as far as people development we wanted to create a calendar that allowed multiple opportunities for Meaningful professional learning and planning so this year's calendar did just that we were able to create a calendar that gave us an earlier start date um the calendar committee was asked to create calendar options that create that included an earlier start date and we were able to do that um we created a calendar that increased funding or opportunities for funding through an atsy calendar our current calendar meets the requirements for additional day school year and this allows the district to generate extra funds or revenue for school after school tutoring Saturday tutoring and summer school in addition our current calendar also has addition breaks and teacher planning schedule so one of the things that teachers asked
043for was we'd like a break at least one time every month right in some form or fashion and we' need more time for planning and this calendar had that so there are only two ways to change um the school start date from the 4th Monday in August that Texas Education Code requires the only two ways is you adopt an 11mon calendar oh oh okay I'm sorry want to welcome trusty Klan to joining us the meeting brand new baby girls that's only one of them congratulations okay so there's only two ways I'm going to have to compete with the baby it's hard competition you can't compete sorry oh my gosh so cute all right so there's only two ways um to change a school start date from that fourth Monday in August one you operate an
04411mon calendar or two you become a district of innovation so why would two uh districts choose to become a district of innovation well this is a designation that would give a district the ability to claim exe exemptions from Texas Education Code one of those exemptions would be the school start date um for a calendar there are other exemptions too like teacher certification educator appraisal requirements probationary contracts and teacher contract days those are all in the district of innovation however if you're looking at a school start date that would be the the one way to change the school start date a district of innovation designation is available for any District That's rated at least a c um it is granted after formal approval process from Board of Trustees public hearings input from stakehold stakeholder committees and
045it is a designation that is available for five years currently there are 987 districts of innovation in Texas out of the 127 Public Schools so that's about 82% of public schools in Texas if you are not a district of innovation then you would have to look at an 11-month calendar and the 11mth calendar according to TA was created to give districts the flexibility to restructure their academic calendar to meet local education needs and so if you operate an 11-month calendar what te guidance says is that you must have a program it's the technical term is a year round education program program that operates school during a portion of a minimum of 11 calendar months and that's why we refer to it as the 11 month calendar so in summary uh Mallen ISD did adopt the
04611mth calendar for the 2425 school year the 11-month calendar afforded Mallen ISD the ability to access more funds through adsy um these funds are only for elementary school and this financial opportunity aligns with our financial goals digging just a little deeper into what is adsy adsy is part of House Bill 3 it affords elementary schools the ability to um generate funds for up to 30 instructional days These funds are intended to improve student achievement um these funds are used in summer learning programs or Saturday Saturday tutorials so they um if they result in increased opportunities for student learning and enhanced funding for Teachers Tea gives a breakdown of how this funding Works um it is a halfday Formula funding so for up to 30 days you can get half day funding for these students in
047elementary and this is just a sample scenario of what that could generate you could generate up to $750 per student about 10,000 per classroom of 25 students and even over 300,000 per school um so 18 elementary schools in macallen ISD this could be a significant source of Revenue to not only impact teacher salaries uh student opportunities and also um alleviate some of the school operation costs in summer school so for the 2526 Mallen ISD calendar we were our goals were to retain the flexibility to adjust the school start date to prioritize student learning and support Recruitment and retainment efforts and to continue accessing those additional funds through adsy and to continue ensuring opportunities for teacher planning as we create this calendar again we have to take into account teach Texas Education Code if we want
048to change the school start date it must be an 11-month calendar within these this 11-month calendar teacher contract days according to Texas Education Code um have to be 187 days so 187 days for teachers um Memorial Day um Texas Education Code states that we cannot provide student instruction on Memorial Day so that has to be a holiday um our calendar has to operate at least 75,6 minutes we do go over those minutes because for adsy we also have to provide within that 187 instruct days for teachers 180 days of our calendar has to be for instruction we also have to have two bad weather makeup days which we use one in the in the first semester and one in the second semester in addition to Texas Education Code and the local education requirements like I
049said we did get stakeholder feedback most of the feedback came from teachers that blue orange and yellow piece of the pie there are all teachers elementary middle and high school so we took um we got four 544 responses from teachers and staff staff members we asked about holidays what was it that they wanted or that was most important for them for holidays what was most important for them for holidays was the longer breaks that they said were essential for preventing teacher burnout and ensuring time to recharge most specifically night over 90% wanted to continue with that weekl Long December break and they wanted two full weeks off in Christmas we asked about back to school days what did you want in your back to school days the majority wanted five days but there was quite
050a few teachers who wanted six or seven days uh for back to school days so we tried to incorporate that into our drafts this year we had halfday planning days that we'd never had before and you know there was a lot of uh talk about the halfday planning days the majority of the um of those surveyed or those that responded said that the they found the halfday teacher planning days very valuable and that they'd like to continue keeping these days um and that the days should be focused on eliminating meetings and allowing uninterrupted planning with all this information we created three drafts with the earlier start date draft a has a start date of August 7th uh for teachers the students start on August 18th and the last day of school would be June 2nd
051this would give us the 11-month calendar requirements there are 4.5 professional learning days the first semester 2.5 work days this one has no professional learning or work days the H the second semester draft B um teacher start date is August 8th student start date I'm sorry yes August 18th and the last day of school is June 2nd this one does give us four professional learning days two work days at the first semester and a half day professional learning day half day work day second semester draft c um has teachers starting on August did I not okay sorry August 11th student start date is August 18th last day of school is June 3rd this one has four professional learning days at the beginning one work day one professional learning day um second semester plus one work
052day and those will be the three drafts that we will set uh we will share for voting any questions um Miss B is the community advised of the um the voting via email or how do the stakeholders get that um we try to push it out as many ways as possible through Skyward I believe um Mark thrillshare um website uh parents are reached out by campus principal share with parents so yes we just we try to really saturate with using any means that we can and then that final voting is February 3rd right um there was a change because the board meeting changed so I don't know if you all had that update on your on your um copies but okay febrary 25th oh we also have paper ballots that's true uh paper ballots are
053provided for those who can't vote electronically thank you yes I have some some questions um is so is there no thought to going to DOI anymore uh to me if the if the goal is to start school sooner than the fourth Monday in August if 80% of the school districts already doing it why aren't we doing it or is the goal to generate that extra Revenue doing the ADC I guess that's my first question well um I'm G to go back in time when Mallen did the District of innovation I uh you know there's a process that he has to go to the board for approval to apply for the District of innovation and if I remember the history the board approved it but then uh when it came to the teachers and the staff
054voting on it uh the board did not support it at the time because there was uh yeah about the certifications there was a lot of issues with the certifications uh and so therefore the District of innovation has gone through that process here in Mallen I and it didn't go through it was voted down uh from experience I I can tell you that I went through the same process in another District even though we guaranteed that it was only for calendar purposes and it was just very difficult to uh to get it through uh because there was a lot of uh uh the the staff was worried and concerned about the certification whether we could hire teachers without a certificate and uh and so we go through the District of innovation here in Mallen again uh
055I think we we're going to go through the same difficult process of trying to uh convince every one that is only for calendar purposes because it's been done before and it didn't work I would like to see that we go through with it and try it now uh with I mean now we have a um the teachers union that we work well with together it's a different time fast forward now it's it's a much different time on both sides of of the table um if the goal is is that truly starting before the fourth Monday in August um I as a consumer um do not like bringing my kids to school after in June uh and for the teachers and staff don't like working in June this past uh um year I just don't see
056that other learn if we're trying to do it uh to generate Revenue then I see that argument but then even in that argument it only applies to elementary students so then why do middle school and Junior High and and high school students have to go to school those extra days as well I I would like to see that we go through the district rennovation we do a resolution of some sort to where we say that we're not going to hire uh teachers that aren't certified and we try it again if that is our goal of starting the before the fourth Monday in August um I think it's a different time now it's a different board it's a different Community it's different um I think it's worth our while to try it I don't like coming
057to school in June if uh we have to stay this way and do the ADC way because we're trying to generate Revenue can we in June make those two days the two weather days so that maybe we don't have to come to school in June and hold off to the weather day in the first semester and have them both in June and if we don't have any weather days the entire year next year we're all off we don't have to come back in June at all I would like to see that as an option I think we have to have classes an instructional day yeah at least we got to have at least one day in June it's just one day and is it only for those elementary students no no it's for the it's
058it's part of our calendar it has to be an instructional day it has to T even though we say 11 months we just want to say the the requirement is you got to touch one instructional day in the month of June right okay and so so it's kind of like deceiving to say 11 months because it's really it is 11 months but it's only that we just have to get one instructional Day in June so that we could do the we can start school earlier instead of late in August if we did a distri of innovation uh we could if we started earlier in in August we could conceivably when you leave for Memorial Day weekend you never come back that's that's possible yes and so and we could have graduations in May instead of
059June 6 7th and and so in my mind as a consumer I would like to see that we try to do the district inovation for the calendar purposes only I think the community supports us I think they would support us on that um I think there's a lot of trust now I'd like to go that process if however we don't go that process I do have other issues with the calendar as I always do um I do think that there we need Veterans Day we need our military holidays I've never understood why we don't just follow the federal holidays I noticed that we have two days this year for the first time in my uh being on the board for Easter I think that raises a real issue um because we don't have other religious
060holidays for for other holidays for other religions we don't have holidays um so I could see scene taking that Monday or that Friday for Easter holiday weekend and moving it to Veterans Day um perfect example we don't have MLK day to uh this Monday uh and if we do the district renovation we could take the federal holidays as we should be taking um I I've always had issue with that um and I think that the solution to all those things is becoming a district rennovation we could start earlier and then we could actually take off Veterans Day we could take off MLK Day we could take off Memorial Day and never come back um so I'd like to see that before we vote on this calendar I'd like to see what the timeline is for
061the DOI and see if we can and then if worst case scenario they say no we can't they don't trust us I don't think that t will'll take on the timeline I don't know if this timeline can be done at this time of the year because we're almost uh we're already in the beginning of second semester there is a process that we have to go through we could amend I mean so let's say we did the distri let's say we have to wait if it passes or it fails then we could come back and uh so if we vote on a calendar let's say we have these three calendars right and we vote on it and then after we vote on it then we come back and we say yes we're a DOI we could
062come back and amend it and change the calendar right because isn't that what we did this past year when we when we added the 11 day calendar didn't we go back and no no that that was voted from the very beginning I just yeah I just think that we need more options and I don't think that those three options they all have the Easter weekend they all have they don't have Veterans Day they Easter weekend was one of the things that most people on that survey want it they want that Monday uh staff staff not consumers we have 20,000 consumers and those consumers their parents are working uh they have military they have veterans I mean they have the federal holidays off but they don't have those those those are not holidays for if you're
063working uh and so then you have to do child care and daycare and all that uh so I think we should really think about our consumers and their families and their employers and what holidays they get and everybody gets the federal holidays the majority uh and then also like you follow utrgv and STC because our students are there I get that but I just think it would be so much easier if everybody was on the same system we all had federal holidays and we all knew that we get those holidays off so I'd like to see more if we stay with these three calendars I'd like to see more of a difference in there and then to trusty regalado's uh point I would like to see it pushed out more more because it feels like
064every time it comes to the board staff's the only one that votes on it and maybe I I don't remember how many it was but it was so minimal the amount of actual consumers that vote on it um that it seems skewed it always you you know my time here it always seems like it's staff heavy uh when to me the calendar is for our our consumer our customer I mean we have to fall within our guidelines but we also have to worry about child care and on all that so I I'll yield the floor but I would like to see um more of the federal holidays on the calendar options we'll take we'll ask the committee about that request about looking at some federal holidays and uh and then we'll also look at the
065timeline for the District of innovation I do want to say that once the District of innovation the process starts it starts with the board and it ends with the board and the last time it started with the board that he got the green light but it ended with a board where it didn't get through yeah so just want to just want to let you know that because and it became very political um and and it shouldn't have I mean correct correct but we'll look at the timeline and we'll look at those at those holidays if there's a possibility to embed one or two days Miss B would it be possible to add to that survey like a question regarding the District of innovation so that when people are in giving their input on the current
066calendar options they can also kind of give us an idea of how they feel about the District of innovation absolutely we can send out you know as a as a lead committee we could uh send out a survey just on District of innovation uh for future calendars I mean I don't know what the process I don't know at length what how long the process for um becoming a district of innovation I know it's lengthy I know that districts who started started very early because it starts with that stakeholder feedback um you need to give people time to to respond to that and then it's uh Town Hall meetings it's it's a long process so it it starts with that though we can start with a survey I'm not sure how quickly we could start for
067this year but definitely well I was just kind of I'm sorry to interrupt you um I was just thinking if we could just put that fer with the survey they're already getting because I know that you know everybody has a lot on their plates but if they're already going to respond to that and they can just give us a an idea whether they're even interested in it that would be nice to gauge whether we should even go down the route to begin with but with also the stipulations right that it would be just for calendar purposes to be done before June and that it uh with the resolution that it wouldn't be to hire non-certified teachers I think making that clarification then yeah and it needs to be with not how other districts do it
068needs to be what are the requirements like if you're going through a DOI do you have to have a town hall do you have to have like what what are the requirements and the mere Basics uh and so we can see if we can speed up the timeline that way like is there a way to FastTrack it let's see that yeah we have to check with a TA because there is the process but uh we'll take those three recommendations and and work on it thank SP do you know the deadline to apply for DOI I do not know the deadline to apply but I will look into it can I make a suggestion as a consumer as well I I have only voted on a calendar once and I didn't get it from the school
069district I got it from a teacher is there any way that we can send it out on the remind or on the general text messages that we send to families to where it's a survey that way just to ensure I mean I hear you saying it's on the website I don't know how many parents get on the website to do it I I hear you saying that but I know as a consumer I I don't go to the website to look for an update of some sort but we'll look for all the Avenues I'll work with Mark um maybe I know I get text messages as a parent all the time uh perhaps there with a link right I know that in the past I've worked with Mark to get it out through any means
070possible what we try to do is get the most votes right you know generate that enthusiasm talk to principles talk to teachers and so we will um continue to work on that thank you but to to that end though as a consumer you don't see any differences other than when the teacher start date is like the rest all three calendars look identical other than when the teacher start date is and so as a consumer you're like why am I gon to like what you know I'm not a teacher so I what so I do think there needs to be definite differences between like okay this one has all the federal holidays this one has the religious holidays this one has the something like you have to you have to give true options we can't say
071we're giving options if they're not really options so I understand that there's also very little wiggle room I understand because we're not a DOI and because we're doing the I understand it's horrible parameters I appreciate everything I yeah you have to get all the hours and minutes in I totally get that uh yeah it's a lot yeah yeah there's very little wiggle because uh there's also a requirement on on the number of days per semester that we must have and if you take if you give a day you have to take it somewhere else it's kind of like a a balancing act so but we we'll work on those recommendations and that's why we need to start in August sooner and be a DOI but and we'll look into those recommendations okay and um you
072know I've also always been very critical of the calendar once it comes to us and you know it's just part of the process right but I did get to sit in on the process this year I showed up because I knew they were having that meeting and I got to sit in and a lot of the work that goes in there it is a very detailed process and um thank you to the committee that sits there because it is a lot of work and back and forth and changing and changing one little cell throws the whole thing off it was really a great experience to actually witness the work that goes in to doing and planning for that calendar to get those three options to be viable and so thank you to the committee for
073that work but I agree you know we we also need to take the consumer into consideration and I've always you know question why Veterans Day and MLK day a day of service you know should be um part of what our kids you know our families get to enjoy and you know do something hopefully for the community during that day but we're in school right so hopefully instruction revolves around a day of service and so with that said thank you for all the work Miss B and U you know we'll see how how it all turns out and we do have one draft that has M as a holiday so just so I believe it's draft a as MLK as a designated holiday yes and it's going to be a cold day on MLK this this
074week this year but um it's still not a reason not to do something of service for our community so thank you Miss thank you thank you you're hanging in there you're doing good okay thank you it's a tough one yeah like every year just in addition to apply for district of innovation it has to be in September so if we want to start for next year we will need to start the service now oh there's a certain parameter you can't just do it anytime no it says here it's uh September well we we'll uh we'll start it well I would love to have District of innovation because I would love to have the flexibility in in the calendar uh in in another District that I work with we had District of innovation and so we
075were able to work with that calendar in many different ways such an advantageous yes okay thank you item 10 A4 discussion and possible action on the advanced course list for U no pass no play 2024 202 5 with amended language regarding core courses taught solely by college and university staff Dr ues the state and District allow principles to Grant exemptions to the no pass no play rule for certain Advanced academic courses uh miss Karen nich director of Advance academics will share more information we are recommending action on this item and I believe Mr mclan is also here to answer any questions and regards to this uh board agenda item go ahead go ahead M good afternoon Madam president um and members of the Board of Trustees I have Brian mclan with me because he's um
076the Athletics expert but I did want to speak to you um about updating the language in our UIL um um list of eligible courses for exemption um what we have found out in working with um the students who are participating um in taking college courses that do not have a Mallen ISD teacher partner is that we're having um issues getting appropriate grades for the students in order to determine eligibility um the reason it's hard is because each of the professors has their own grading policy the professors um may or may not post their grades in a timely manner on blackboard or canva whatever it is that utrgv V has um or STC sometimes they're posting one grade and um and that's all the student has sometimes it's no grade um we found out that um
077when the students with the systems today in place for grading through the learning management systems the LMS systems which are the Blackboard the canva um oftentimes the professor will average um will create an average and then start plugging in grades so the students start with a zero average and as they move through the semester and get more grades in the average increases so it's not been easy to to manage those grades so through the um rules available to us with um the U no pass no play um Mallen ISD way I I want to say way back in the 80s um decided to take a more rigorous route in determining that students um could um exempt one course per semester and with some um grading guidelines there no grade lower than a 60 and so
078that's a much more rigorous standard um than than districts around us and um we are able to exempt courses um as we as we need to but we we've chosen not to which I think is a great thing you've seen um a lot of instructional um um uh uh improvements over the years but I don't don't think it's a fair thing for us to um have to try to manage what those professors are doing and get their grades for the students who are having to take college classes in which there is no Mallen ISD Professor so I would like to just state that the um exemption list apply only to courses taught by Mallen ISD teachers they could be a duel in um credit dual enrollment program I mean course but um with a with
079a professor from St or utrgv but only if we have a partner teacher there so if it's not a partner teacher not one of our staff members I I propose language um that I have updated um on the screen that um exempts those courses from us looking at them if I have Brian here if you have any questions I'm I'm happy to make that motion as let's there discussion I I just have one question how many students does this affect this is affecting uh all Juniors at the Collegiate Academy and very few at STC which is how many kids 75 at the utrgv Collegian Academy just Juniors next year it will be approximately 150 so Liz Gonzalez and her team over there have done an excellent job uh putting something together the check grades but
080they're not in Skyward so we need something that's sustainable so we follow the UI rules because if anything's in question right now the kids not playing and that's not fair to them and so so we want to put something in place that's sustainable and this will be sustainable because when they look at Skyward right now with Juniors utrgv Collegian Academy four subject careers are showing up because they're taking at the Comprehensive High School the other four Collegian professors and and so that's the reason so all 75 Juniors at UT RGB Collegiate are in Sports no not all 75 no but a big majority of them are in extracurricular activities which and our Orchestra all of those so I would say 90 95% of them are yes ma' I have a question about um because I
081understood it to be about courses that were not taught by our employees but correct the IB courses it says all IB disciplines are those taught by non where does it say I might looking at a I might be looking at a different draft at the list that we always use so we have we have um the the list and we're only um all um advanced placement all preap all middle years all IB courses um follow that exemption policy that we have in place the only courses that we are completely exempting from our policy are the courses taught by professors at utrgv STC in which there is no Mallen ISD teach okay I misunderstood that it's the age-old Dual credit situation with the grades posting this has been from the start of dual credit way back
082when and it's always an issue and uh unfortunately professors at the University or higher ed level have that discretion so this appropriately addresses the need to be able to get the kids what they need in order to be able to to play or participate that's correct okay I'll make the motion I move that the Board of Trustees approve the amended language to the advanced course list for UIL no pass no play exemption for 2024 2025 regarding courses taught solely by college and university staff second I have a motion by trusty Alisa and a second by trusty deara Lopez all those in favor signify by saying I I I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes 70 thank you item 10 B1 discussion and possible action of additions revisions deletions of policies resulting from
083the tasby policy review second session second reading Dr gutiz administrators with the assistance of tasby policy service division conducted a policy review session on July 23rd and 24th of 2024 review consisted of additions dels and revisions to the local MISD policies Dr Albert canal is Chief Human Resources officer will have more information on this item we are recommending action on this item go ahead Dr Canalis I'm happy to make the motion uh as everybody probably remembers we already went through this we had a long conversations about this and uh trusty kman was out so we decided to wait until we had everybody in present so um unless there's any more discussion I'm I'm happy to move that we approve the the policies has something oh you have yes sorry I I have a couple of
084um on page 146 it's policy BF local or I guess it's maybe it's 146 of the DH local BF BF be I have it as BF in my copy it's the policy regarding emergency adoption of policies um of board policies adoption and Amendment page 146 and 147 I have page 147 yes the top of 147 it provides for um prop I guess the new language is proposed local amendments introduced and recommended to the board at one meeting shall not be adopted until a subsequent meeting emergency adoption however may occur in one meeting of special circumstances demand an immediate response I I when it comes to policy I really it gives me a lot of pause to be able to have such a huge exception where we can like what is an emergency um I couldn't
085fathom what emergency would arise that would require us or call us to not deliberate on a second session that makes me nervous so I I don't like that last um emergency adoption language um which policy is that bf local b as in boy f as in Frank okay can you take not that wasn't in that wasn't in the changes here uh but we can look at revising that that was well I may be looking at I'm looking at the one because I made my notes on the one for Tuesday's meeting um in today's packet I believe it's 147 page 147 okay so it's page 137 it's page 137 onday 13 well you're at the page page number is it on the pack oh on the pack doesn't oh 136 so it's page 136 of today's
086packet yeah policy should never be amended in an emergency situation we should be able to so would you feel comfortable in making the motion to approve all the other ones uh without with the exception of BF local almost yes I have two more Sor oh no sorry um so on page 171 I guess we have different page numbers if you could give us the the I'll tell you what the policy is um policy let me get there yeah and I I couldn't go back and read versions and um we've got a lot to read all the time and to get well I I'm okay with that one I have only one more so 226 which one would that be as far as the the code yes give me just a second it's it's um policy
087FNG local under the extracurricular activity complaints um this one the language is proposed says for a complaint concerning a student's participation in an extracurricular activity that does not involve a violation of a right guaranteed by Education Code chapter 26 the level two decision is final and may not be appealed to the board I really don't feel comfortable taking um that right away for or that privilege rather away from our community I think that they should always be able to come to the board if they're not happy with what um the grievance process has provided them um so I I don't like that language and I would propose so I guess in finality or at the end of the day I would propose that we remove that emergency language from policy BF that I talked about
088and then remove this language and FNG local under extracurricular complaints that I just read and subject to those I would move that we could approve the policies okay we took note of that I'll second that good okay I have a motion with amendments from with amendments to FNG and bf local by trusty Regal and a second by trusty Alisa all those in favor signify by saying I I wait all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes 70 did you get those uh Dr Canales yes local and so those will come back to us as a second reading correct correct thank you thank you item 10 C Business and operations items 10 C1 report regarding 10 B2 I'm so sorry I wrote all over it that's why 10 B2 report regarding School Board elections to
089be held May 3rd 2025 Dr Gutierrez yes uh Dr Canales Chief Human Resources officer will provide an update on the upcoming School Board elections to review just the timeline uh of the elections and this is for information purposes only go ahead Dr Canalis right so here we have a a PowerPoint here so just to let you all know that uh the voting will be on the May 3rd uh for the school board election so here's some background information there uh the election for places 1 two and four and five shall be held in 2027 2031 in four increments and then for this election process we're doing places 3 six and 7 uh the School Board elections for Place 3 six and 7 will be held on May uh 3rd of 2025 uh the opening date
090was January the 15th at 8 a.m. a.m. and the closing date will be February 14th on Valentine's Day at 5:00 p.m. so uh just some information for you all there the application for place and ballot may be picked up and turned with the student Support Services located at 2200 tamarak Avenue uh here with Malala she's also here we have any questions uh and then early voting locations are still to be determined uh we're still waiting for the city to give us some information on the past November election so they're they already know about our filing we're just waiting for them on the dates um here's some also some cost uh so for 2021 the estimated cost for the cost was $69,500 535 uh the Vader election that we had uh was also at 55,000 so
091projected cost is at about 65 uh they do bill us on 100% voter turnout and then they adjust that that bill any questions that's it thank you all right thank you item 10 C Business and operations tc1 report regarding 2025 2026 budget calendar Dres Administration manages a uh budget development implementation and monitoring process that reflects the Sound business and fiscal uh practices that support District goals U Miss Lorena Garcia Deputy superintendent for business and operations will report on the 2526 budget calendar and this is also an information purposes only item go ahead M Garcia uh good afternoon Madam president members of the board and Dr Gutierrez um this report is to give you an idea of what are the topics that we'll be discussing in the upcoming budget Workshops the very first one is scheduled
092for February 18 2025 at that point the primary topic is going to be human resource topics we're going to look at also review the current budget let you know where we're at we will provide you with a staffing comparison uh from last year to this year uh and uh identify the number of positions that have been cut uh vacancies that have not been filled Compensation Plan will review also the history of the raises uh and provide you with some cost scenarios of what has been paid in the past for raises um and then uh review of the Staffing guidelines and then also provide a legislative update on the second budget Workshop that one is for March 4th and we will discuss the tax rate history we'll go over our fund balance our student enrollment projections
093attendance uh we'll provide you an update where we're at with optional flexible school day program and also additional day school year and how that impacts our budget the third budget Workshop March 25th we will provide you with an employee benefits update where we'll talk about our health plan our Pharmacy plan we also have a plan for workers compensation and unemployment compensation and again every Workshop we will be bringing you legislative updates because this is a legislative year fourth budget Workshop April 15th that by that time tasby should be done with their review of our Compensation Plan and they're going to provide a market value comparison uh the also recommendations for pay structure shifts and then we will have some scenarios and what the cost is for compensation increases uh we'll take another look at the
094Staffing guidelines and changes to that and then also legislative updates May 6 we will provide updates to uh the current budget by that time it'll be closer to the end of the year so we'll have a better idea where we're going to land um and then uh 2526 we'll bring you those projections uh by April we'll have our our preliminary U property values so that'll give us a good indication what our tax revenue and possible state aid would be for 25 26 uh we're going to look at budget reductions uh there's a lot of activity going on with school health and related Services chars and uh we'll give you an update at that time again we'll uh cover uh op optional flexible school day program and additional day school year hopefully by that time we've
095uh have a lot more numbers to report back to you the property values update ID County appraisal district will provide that for us and then any changes or uh recommendations regarding the employee benefits program and legislative updates we'll have an opportunity for a six budget Workshop that's on June 3r again we will continue talking about human resource uh topics and provide you with the different department budgets and then uh updates to the 2526 annual budget book provide you with a draft on that that will uh then we can close it out with legislative updates so we have an opportunity as early as June 10th to approve the budget uh or it could be our seventh budget workshop and you know at that point in time we we have uh the annual budget book and it's
096closer to its final format um now the final opportunity to approve the budget uh would be either on June 17th or June 24th we typically like to uh wait towards the end as close as we can to the end of the the month because it gives us a little bit more opportunity to to go over different scenarios with the board and uh hopefully we can bring it to you on the 17th that would be a perfect timing for us because at that point we can come back because there's a lot of leg work that has to happen after it gets approved so that we can close out the year before uh the break so those are the the proposed uh dates and topics if you have any questions uh please let me know and thank
097you I have a question are those the same dates as actual board meetings yes so these aren't actual workshops these are during the meeting they're during the meeting is there a way that we can move these and actually since we changed policy we actually have workshops uh and do them at a different time do them earli because they take so long it's it's it's yall's pref preference when you would rather hear this information that's just the general timeline I did base it off of the board meeting schedule but we can certainly schedule it on a different date I think we should look at the calendar on that and then also especially the May 6th one because the elections May 3rd 10 days later what uh you you might have a new board you want them
098them to be able to sit and have discussion because so you know you don't so put it a little bit further up put a little bit wait 10 days after May 3rd for the May for the May meeting that way the trustees can have actual um input so let let's look at that let's changing you know making them workshops uh and changeing the May 6th one to 10 days after May 3rd yes I agree um it's just uh these those workshops run long we have a lot of questions and so it's hard to do other business while we're doing that and and all fairness if we're going to work on the budget we should be working on the budget yeah maybe make them the Monday before or at 4 it adds a few meetings to
099our calendar or to the board's calendar but you know it's it's only fair especially because uh budget season comes in and if you do have a new board the new board has to adjust quickly um to the budget and where you know all of the processes that go with that okay we we'll move up some those days and just dedicated to to budget and then the other thing is that um we did put legislative updates at every meeting that we're going to have great because it's going to be very fluid um until probably until the end of May or June when we're going to find out exactly where we are with school Finance at the legislative level we're anticipating and we're hoping that uh we recover some of the money that has been withheld for
100the last five years because we have not had an increase or additional Revenue since 2019 and so it's long overdue that public education becomes a priority this 89th legislative session and I welcome and invite all uh elected officials to advocate for South Texas and for public education y here here thank you thank you so much item 10 C2 report regarding timeline to facilities improvements projects Dr guz Dr Miguel de los Santos babal and M Dr angel magayanes from Esten HOSA who are they are our financial advisers they're here with us tonight to provide information on timelines and other considerations when planning for facilities Improvement projects uh Dr Los Santos and Bobby yes sir uh Madame President members of the board drer Miguel Deo company is with me also the uh well it's not EST Noosa
101company now it's EST Noosa because we are um we have been acquired we have a parent company which is Texas Regional Bank so we Los Santos with Estrada inosa but we still maintain the name within the trb process and we kind of operate the way that we did before except that our boss now has a boss uh Dr teras and I and US staff met uh couple of weeks ago in relation to uh a facility study that you're conducting or will be conducting soon and and the discussion was referen to a facility study is going to identify that you have facility needs and he said can you give the board the different options or different avenues that once that facility studies is completed what kind of directions the board can take in terms of financing
102some of those facilities that are prioritized as top need um I made a few points on that with regard to that on uh page one of the presentation the district is in the process of of doing a facilities needs assessment or will be pretty soon according to what we understand the needs assessment will not only determine your physical needs but it's going to determine proposed uh proposed uh dollar amounts that are going to be necessary to take care of those needs and the uh at some point in the future some point in the future the administration and the board will decide how we're going to address these and then they will be prioritized decisions will be made they'll be ranked and decisions will be made by Administration and the board on funding mechanisms to to
103approach the needs that you do decide to address uh some of these slides we have shared with you in the past that this is a uh a reiteration new board members uh in terms of where are you right now with debt that you hold that what you what do you owe out there uh in order to do that it's it's important to understand that you have two sides to your tax rate the leftand side we have the M which means maintenance and operations tax rate that is that is acquired from your local tax rate Levy whatever is raised with your tax rate on your property taxes across the district uh will raise a certain amount of money and you add those collections to whatever the state gives you and the federal government gives you and
104so on and that becomes your general maintenance and operating fund on the ins side which is the right side of the of the tax rate those are generally debt that's been auor authorized by the by the voters in the past in this case the little bit that you o is is U uh was authorized like 20 years ago uh the affirmative vote of the of the public sets in essence an unlimited tax rate what what the public says is um we're willing to pay whatever is necessary to make sure that our payments on on these uh on this debt is so and that these revenues cannot be used for M purposes they can only be used to pay the debt that has been authorized I'm I'm going to go fairly quickly and get get to
105a couple of points that I think will be more uh important there are four financing options that are out there for public schools first one is Cash uh which you don't have very much of right now uh but when districts have very large fun balances they're able to make uh major projects out of their fund balances they're able to pay for them in this case you guys are in the process of rebuilding your fund balance from what uh we have worked with staff on the second is maintenance tax notes you have some maintenance tax notes and I'll speak to those in just a minute uh that is a loan that a board commits to make and that they commit to pay from the m side of the tax rate remember I said M and ins
106the m is what funds teacher salaries this board meeting that's going off the election Transportation instructional materials and so on so forth so whenever you're building or doing facilities from the M side you're in essence digging into your uh into those programs that are the functions that I just mentioned which is mainly salaries 80% of your budget is for salaries public facilities Corporation um in this case I don't believe you all have that but in this case what a school district does the board itself creates a public facilities Corporation of which the board becomes the the board and then authorizes uh going into debt to build to uh build or or or reconstruct facilities the uh downside of that is that also it is paid from the M side of the debt uh so and
107then the last one is voter approved Bond I said the last time that you had uh voter approval is we're talking about like 20 years ago and that that particular those particular debts that you have are paid from the ins side of the tax rate and the inss collects certain monies and pays for this kind of B now just as as a um as a matter of information uh historically uh the tax rate that you have and the tax rate is what pays for either M or ins debt the tax rates that you have had historically from 2019 18 forward and drer mentioned 2019 which is uh the last uh actually the first year of the state withholding funds from us for the last five or six years made it very difficult particularly well made
108it very difficult on the M side because the ins collects whatever is necessary to make the payments on your debt but you can see that that the total debt there has gone from a15 in 2018 and it began a downward Trend all the way to what it is today 96 cents what that means is instead of collecting $1.5 on every $100 of value of property you're collecting 95 99 on every $100 of property value so the chart at the bottom shows how that debt is being paid on the chart and you're looking at uh one oh the chart so I'm sorry chart shows the tax rate going down going down from U from $15 to 90 and you can see the slight drop especially over the last few years some of the drop was was
109mandated by the state the state forced you to to pressure your your M tax rate down it made it even more difficult for school districts on the M side because they took away your tax rate which you weren't able to put back on on you know raise taxes with and they said we're going to make you whole on the we're going to take away from you and as is Not Unusual with with state and federal government they did not make you hope so that makes it even tougher tougher for you the interest in syncing fund on page six is what we call voter authorized outstanding debt oh did I pass did I pass something here oh yes thank you thank you very much the uh page five maintenance and operations the outstanding debt what do
110you owe on on from your maintenance and operation site you you have three notes out there that you passed over that you have uh sold over the years and the reason it says series 2020 2012 and 2011 is that those notes are older that's it sorry you covering that that slide that's that's you're covering that slide yes okay yes I'm on that slide and uh it's so so difficult to read up there uh that U but anyway today your balances on those notes on the total of the three notes is 23,36 if you look at the chart you'll notice that in 25 23 and 20 25 and 2 six you have payments of approximately $3.8 million those bars go up Sky High in 2026 2027 I'm sorry which will be year after next you will
111have paid off you will have paid off those two little notes the 196 and the 23060 and your payments you're going to free up about 1 point about 1.8 1.9 million in your M fund which help you with your general fund budgeting M budgeting if there are any questions at any of these points uh and then the ins is what you're paying the ins would collect those pennies so that you can pay off money that was authorized by the voters in this case years back uh it's coming almost to fruition it's coming almost to where you will have paid it off pretty soon and if you look at the next page I think it tells the story a little bit better it's a very very busy busy with a lot of numbers but I want
112to take you to what probably will be most meaningful to you in in my opinion uh in terms of how does it affect the taxpayer and where are we with this particular debt that we've had on us for the last uh 25 30 years you go with me to uh the third from the last columns there where it says estimated calculated ins debt ins tax rate and you'll notice that right now you have a tax rate of 16 cents and whatever you collect with those 16 cents you're paying for all debt you're taking old debt off the books now the the uh those 16 cents this coming year and the following year in 2027 those T you will have paid off all of the debt that you owe and those 16 cents will be reduced
113from your total tax rate unless you choose in the future to use them as as a mechanism for fin financing in some other way any questions so far and then the final page just a little summary uh once you do your needs assessment of your facility needs some point they're going to be brought to the table and they're going to say we need X number of millions of dollars to do these particular projects uh to fix these schools that are bad or to build new school whatever it is that the facilities uh study says and at that time we'll come back and visit with you again on uh financing Avenues we'll also be in a better position when that happens to talk about what the legislature has done right now it's uncertain they're meeting right
114now uh my understanding is they don't they don't do a whole lot the first few weeks but uh then they'll put the pedal to the medal as we say and hopefully by the end of May or so we should we should have since since the legislature is giving in to the governor to get the vouchers place that he wants and that's his main thing on the agenda so when Once the legislature does that the governor will not fight the legislature as strongly as he did the last time uh for for things that the legislature is asking for in school finance and hopefully those things will be the kinds of things that are going to bring better better financing to your schools not only Mallen but all sou Texas schools all Texas schools so we'll we'll
115stay on top of those and then um we'll monitor your state and local revenues depending on what your tax rates are going to be we'll have a better picture of what 25 26 is going to look like uh in terms of the kinds of revenues that you're going to have we'll work with staff as they're preparing their budget and uh see where you are with that we'll relook at your assessed values your assess values as uh Miss Garcia said you'll get your your muscle menos in April and then clarify them sometime in June so we look at those that those play in your tax tax rate setting your Ada where are you in relation to this time State funding is very strongly based on Ada so uh I know that dras and staff are working
116very hard to make sure that not only do you keep your Ada high but that you increase it by whatever strategies you're using right now and then we look at all of this package together with Administration to see where uh the impact of the new current law and the local local policies that you have within the law and items that I just talked about how they fit in in terms of your overall budget we'll give you a better picture of where you are as you move along and uh what you want to dok any questions I'd be happy to uh by the way I don't know if I introduce Bobby but I think I'm sorry with with our firm been with us like years it's a pleasure thank you so much Dr de los Santos
117thank you so much Bobby thanks for thank you all item 10 C3 report regarding regarding intention to apply for 2025 2026 Community Development block grant cdbg for an all-inclusive playground at Juan sein Elementary Theodora Roosevelt Elementary William B Travis Middle School Community track project and a parking lot at Dortha Brown Middle School Community track Dr deis through the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 local governments with populations of 50,000 or more are eligible for funds from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for projects dealing with neighborhood improvements Miss laa Williams director purchasing Services is available to answer any questions and this item is for informational purposes only but it's basically for us that to partner with the city to apply for a $1.5 million Grant it's just it's an information item
118okay good afternoon Dr guas Madame President Board of of Trustees I am here to present on Our intention to apply for the fiscal year 2025 2026 Community uh development block grant also known as cdbg as Dr gutieres mentioned we will be applying by February 6 requesting uh approximately 1.5 million for four different projects per the guidelines for cdbg we will have a presentation to their board regarding our our project potential projects uh that we are hoping will will be approved the four different applications first project is for Juan sigin Elementary requesting approximately $390,000 for an all-inclusive playground we have applied in the past for this particular uh project so we're hopeful this year maybe we we will be able to uh win the or win the bid get the bid for juin elementary going on
119and this is a schematic of the proposal for the all-inclusive playground at wene elementary and then where it would be located on the school grounds the next project is for an all-inclusive playground at Theodore Roosevelt Elementary again for an all-inclusive playground for at the cost of approximately $390,000 again just a osed schematic of the of the playground and then where it would be located at the school grounds third project is for a community track at Travis middle school this is a project that we have applied for in in the past again hopeful that maybe we will be granted the request for 350,000 again for a community track at at Travis middle school and then the proposed schematic of where the track would be on school grounds and project number four is for the phase two
120for the parking lot at Brown Middle School we are currently um working on the track lighting for for the track the community track so this would be phase two to add the parking lot for the community there at Brown Middle School and we are requesting approximately $400,000 again coming to the 1.5 million uh for the four applications that we will be submitting by February 6th any questions thank you good luck with that thank you sounds [Music] good and we are act item 10 C4 discussion and possible action on request for proposed propal number 2025 1022 facilities needs assessment Dr VZ Administration solicited proposals for a district facility needs assessment Miss Lena Garcia Deputy superintendent for business and operations available to answer any questions we are recommending action on this item and this is a three-part
121action item Madam president I move that we that the board approve the ranking for request for proposal number 2025 d1022 facilities needs assessment for a term of one year with the to Ren for one additional year 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 nay motion passes 70 Madam president I move that the Board of Trustees approv that Administration began negotiations with the highest ranked firm if the district is unable to negotiate a satisfactory contract with the selected vendor 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 contract is reached or all submittals are rejected second I have
122a motion by truste Riva and a second by trusty Regal all those in favor signify by saying I I all sorry you want to go ahead and include it no continue okay did you want to say something no sorry all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes 70 one last one Madam president I move to authorize the or or to authorize the superintendent to execute a contract once contract negotiations have been successfully achieved second I have a motion by trusty Riva and a second by trusty all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signify by nay I'm gonna say nay only because I would like to see it come back just because I'm nosy and I want to see what it was negotiated but he'll still pass without me motion
123passes 61 move on to item 10 C5 discussion and possible action on the Mallen Independent School District December budget amendment for fiscal year beginning July 1st 2024 and ending June 20th 2025 dris and Administration is recommending the approval of the December 2024 budget amendment for the 2425 fiscal year Miss Lorena Garcia Deputy superintendent for business and operations available to answer any questions we are Administration is recommending action on this item approve second I have a motion by trusty R and a second by trusty Riva all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes 70 item 10 C discussion and possible action on request for qualifications number 2025 10003 Bond Council Services Dr guz Administration solicited uh statements of qualifications for Bond Council services this is to
124renew our bond Council services that we've carried on in Mallen ISD uh I'd like to at this time also at the same time introduce our our new Chief Financial Officer Mr hoel Garcia who's back there welcome Mr Garcia to Mallen ISD hello mcia and he he's available to answer any questions and we are recommending action on this item I just um had one comment I wanted to confirm this is just because the contract that we previously had had expired and we generally always have Bond Counsel on some kind of contract is that correct that's correct okay okay in that case I move that the board approved the ranking for request for qualifications number 20251 three Bond Council services for a term of one year with the option to renew for two additional one-ear terms second
125I have motion by trust and a second by trusty Rivera all those in favor signify by saying I I and all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes 70 do you want to make a two-part yeah okay um I will go ahead and make the two-part motion um one that we that the board approve the administration begin negotiations with the highest rank firm if the district is unable to negotiate a satisfactory contract with the selected firm the district shall formally and in writing end negotiations with that firm and proceed to the next firm in the order of the selection ranking until a contract is reached or all submittals are rejected and second that the board authorize superintendent to execute a contract once those contract negotiations have been successfully achieved second I have a two-part
126motion uh by trusty R and a second by trusty Riva all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signify by saying nay thank you trusty Klan motion passes 70 both motions pass 70 item 10 C7 discussion and possible action on competitive sealed proposal number 2025 1028 safety security film application Phase three Dr Utes Administration solicited proposals for force enter resistant film Mr Ruben trino executive director of facilities maintenance and operations is available to answer any questions if needed we are recommending action on this item and this is paid out of a grant that we have I move we approve the ranking for selection of general contractor for competitive sealed proposal number 2025 1028 safety security film application Phase three I have a motion by trusty Alisa and a second by trusty
127Riva all those in favor signify by saying I I I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes 70 Madam president move uh that the Board of Trustees approve that Administration began with 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 and negotiations with that contractor and proceed to the next to the next in the order of the selection ranking until the contract is reached or all submitt are rejected second I have a motion by truste Riva and a second by trusty all those in favor signify by saying I and all those post signify by saying nay motion passes 70 Madam president I move to authorize the superintendent to execute a contract and accordance with the
128procedure set out in Texas government code section 22692 54 once contract negot 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 signify by saying nay motion passes 70 item 10ca discussion and possible action on findings made upon approval of contract for Legal Services is under Texas government code 2254 1036b Dr guz melen ASD has decided to hire outside Council 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 are there is substantial need for the legal services and request action on this item Mr Jonathan ball our school attorney is available
129to answer any questions we are recommending action on this item and it's a three-part action item two if I could just add on this part this is the findings for the reason for why we need to actually go forward and get the contract this is not the part uh on the agenda where we actually need to go forward and make those motions these are the findings themselves that are the pre prerequisite for us being able to go out and hire outside Council to do this if that makes sense so you just need approval to approve the findings correct approval appr approval of the findings it's a three-part um is that but he said it's not this is this a three-part John or three part motion is for 109 okay so then for the next okay
130so this is just an action to approve right this is strictly for you guys to and you can adopt the findings as written in the agenda if you would like you can read them out loud if you prefer whatever you want to do but there just needs to be Motion in a second those are y finds when we go to 109 I have a motion by trusty Alis do I have a second second I have a motion by trusty Alisa and a second by trusty theara Lopez all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signified by say a motion passes 70 10 C9 discussion and possible action on contingent fee contract for Legal Services with Millum uh PLC Dr teres MD District finds that there is a substantial need for Legal
131Services to represent the district in pursuing property damage insurance claims related to storm damage that occurred on or about the month of April 2023 Administration recommends approval of the of the contingent fee uh contract for Legal Services with millon and milon pllc Mr ball is a school attorney is available to answer any questions we are recom committing action on this item and this one is the three-part item right action item okay Madam chair I move that there is a substantial need for the legal services second I have a motion by trusty deara Lopez and a second by trusty Riva all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes 70 in addition Madam chair I move that the legal services cannot be adequately performed by the attorneys
132and supporting Personnel of the political subdivision do I have a second I have a motion by trusty deara Lopez and a second by trusty Riva all those in favor signify by saying I I all those inos signified by saying nay motion passes 70 and I also move that the legal services cannot be reasonably reasonably be obtained from attorneys in a private practice under the contract providing only for the pay of hourly fees without regard to the outcome of the matter because of the nature of the matter for which the services will be obtained or because the political subdivision does not have the funds to pay the estimated amounts required under a contract providing only for the payment of hourly fees lawyers that was the legisl that's politicians do I have a second can I get
133a second folks second I have a motion by trusty delara Lopez and a second by trusty Thomson all those in favor signify by saying I I all those oppos signify by saying nay motion passes 70 and we move on 10 D Board of Trustees 10 D1 approval of board education Board of Education meeting minutes 10 d1a regular board meeting December 10 2024 10 d1b School Safety and Security committee meeting January 9 25 move I have a motion by trusty Alisa and a second by trusty Riva all those in favor signify by saying I I I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes 70 and we are at item 11 recess to close session Board of Trustees may go into close session pursuant to sections 551.071 55107 2 551 .74 551.071 and 51.08361 B
134discussion of human resources employee resignation and retirees for school year 11c discussion of athletic athletic coordinator head football coach at James Nikki High School recommendation for 2025 11d discussion of superintendent's Employment contract 11e discussion regarding School Safety and Security 11f pending and or potential litigation 11g possible real estate acquisition Folks at 1:55 p.m. we are in close session we'll be back e e e at 2:57 p.m. we are back in Open Session um item 13 Action on items in close section session 13A discussion of possible and possible action of Human Resources recommendations for school year 2024 2025 Dr guz Human Resources is submitting a list of recommendations for the 2425 school year under a separate cover for discussion for discussion during close session Dr Canalis Chief Human Resources officer is available to answer any questions
135uh Administration is recommending action on this item move to approve second I have a motion by trusty Regal and a second by trusty Riva all those in favor signify by saying I I all those poos signify by saying nay motion passes 60 item 13B discussion of human resources employee resignation and retirees for school year 2024 2025 Dres Human Resources is submitting a list of resignations and retirees for the 2425 school year under a separate cover for discussion during close session this item is for information purposes only thank you very much item 13 C discussion and possible action of athletic coordinator head football coach at James Nikki row High School recommendation for 2024 2025 Dr Gutierrez Administration recommends the approval of Henry Jamar Taylor for the position of athletic coordinator head football coach at James Nik
136bro High School administration is recommending action on this item so move second I have a motion by trusty Alisa and a second by trusty deara Lopez all those in favor signify by saying I I I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes 60 congratulations coach Taylor 13d discussion discussion and possible action regarding superintendent Employment contract yes Madam president I move that we extend the superintendent's contract by one year and include a $10,000 salary adjustment to recognize their leadership and contributions to the district I need a second folks I second I have a motion discussion go ahead uh it this is nothing uh to Dr eus I think he's a wonderful superintendent as a whole I think superintendents in in if you have 1217 public school districts in the state of Texas and only
1377% make more than $300,000 uh and nine of those are in hadalo County um I think that superintendents make too much money compared to what teachers make um hial county is one of the poorest counties in the state but we are among the highest superintendents in the state of Texas um so it's it's for that reason that I'll be saying no I have a motion thank you trust Alis any other discussion um just an amendment to the motion that the um salary increase is to begin in the 2025 2026 fiscal year okay which is which needs a second no at the end of this fiscal year right 2020 2025 2026 that's what I said 2025 2026 F school year I have a motion by trusty Riva and a second by trusty Thompson all those in
138favor signify by saying I we need to vote on the amended I made a motion to amend the motion second so wa a second okay let me just Erica you you second it you want to vote on the first one and then vote on the amendment we can make we can um can you I guess a friendly Amendment if if trust will accept yeah or just amend yours to include the starting date uh I move to extend the superintendent's contract by one year and adjust their salary by $10,000 beginning fiscal year 25 26 25 26 do I still have your second yes I have a motion by trusty Rivera and a second by trusty Thompson all those in favor signify by saying I I I all those opposed signify by saying nay nay motion passes
139five1 items 13e discussion discussion regarding School Safety and Security um as just proceed as discussed in close session item 13f pending Ander potential litigation Mr ball nothing to report item 13g possible real estate acquisition Mr ball none thank you very much I need a motion to adjourn folks oh before we adjourn everybody the Kids Marathon is tomorrow at the convention center at 10 a.m. uh lineup is at 9:30 and the mile is at 10: WEA should be great move to can I get a sec I'll second second okay I got it I have a motion by trusty Regal and a second by trusty paa all those in favor signify by saying I all those opposed signify by saying nay motion passes we are adjourned at 30:3 [Music] p.m. e for