001Three, education in a safe learning environment. Our vision and mission is founded on our six core beliefs. And tonight's presentation focuses on core belief number one, all children can and will learn. And core belief number five, we will work collaboratively with our families and community partners. Tonight, I'd like to share an update on our STAR results, the implementation of the Yonder program, as well as provide our board and community with an update on our registration progress. Following my presentation, Dr. Frank and Miss Cheetah will share the actual overall performance in the 20 different assessments that our students participated in during this past spring on the STAR assessment. And I'm briefly sharing just an overview and analysis of how did we land and how did we stand in fair when you look at the percentage and
002number of students who are actually counting towards actually passing the test. So I'm giving a report on approaches meets and I have a written report because I couldn't put masters on my slide but the number of students who are actually counted as passing on the star test if they scored the approaches level. We are increasing the number of students out of 20 assessments. When you compare 24 data to 25 data, our district increased in 10 out of 20 assessments. And I have those assessments listed. Third grade math, fourth grade math, third grade reading, fifth grade science, sixth, seventh grade math, sixth grade reading, eighth grade reading, eighth grade science, US history. When you compare this is at the approaches level the number of assessments where we didn't go backwards were two meaning we maintained our
003our uh the percentage of students who passed that assessment was the same for seventh grade reading in biology and eight assessments where we actually saw a decrease in the number of students who were counted as actually approaching or counted as passing when you look at for a total of 12 out of 20 assessments. So about 60% of the assessments that our students took, we saw an increase at the approaches level. When you look at the meets grade level performance, which is where we're always striving for our students to be on on meets grade level, 11 out of 20 assessments our students increase from the prior year at one assessment remained the same and then eight assessments. So about the same number total of assessments where we either maintain or increase at 12 out of 20.
004When you look at the M's level, we increased in the M's level on 16 out of 20 areas from 24 to 25. So Dr. Frank again and Miss Cheetum will actually share the overall results as well as share the cohort data because when you compare and you look at our data, you want to always compare the same group of students and is that particular group of students progressing from one year to the next year. So even though you may not see an actual increase in the overall percentage of students who are approaching when you look at the prior year and actually track that cohort you see that there is growth from year to year with groups of students. We know we have uh areas of concern that we're going to work on and focus but
005she's going to share those. The team is going to share those as well as our plan of response going into the 2526 school year. The second portion of my presentation focuses on implementation and execution of House Bill 1481, which was signed by the governor regarding the usage of cell phones in schools. As you know, our board started a process a year ago and really started the discussion two at least two years ago about the implications and impact of cell phones in our schools. As a result of the governor passing and signing House Bill 1481, public schools Public school districts are required to adopt and implement a policy prohibiting students from using personal communications devices during the school hours. So we as a district started the process again in the fall of investigating an option for
006our district to help make our schools distractionf free to increase our students focus to decrease distractions and disciplinary uh incidents that occur on our campuses so that our students so we can improve academic performance and achievement because we know research shows and studies show that students who are focused on necessarily devices, social media, all of those different platforms are not able to they're not able to focus. They have more uh mental issues and mental concerns and stresses and they're not achieving academically and we've seen that. So, we started the process of implementation of yonder. Of course, now we know it aligns with the state law because the law says we cannot have students cannot have cell phones in schools and that we know it's going to support our student engagement and as well as their
007mental wellness. So, really excited about that. This is a display and I think we've shown the pouches to our board before. Each student is going to receive a pouch that you see here and then the implementation of the unlocking device that's uh shown on the right on the right on the slide on the right as well as the one on the left. We have engaged in a very robust education series and these are just snapshots. Mr. uh Maxwell and Dr. Valdez you know have worked really hard educating uh our students getting feedback from students all secondary schools who will be implementing we we will be implementing the younger program in grades 6 through 12. The board approved that and the team actually went to each middle school and each high school had focus groups at
008the high schools to talk to the student leaders about the program and why we were doing it. Students had opportunities to see, touch and feel the devices so they could get an idea of what it was going to what it's going to look like. We are at the stage now where we are looking for and really depending on our parents and guardians to support this initiative. Again, we want our parents to understand this is now a law. The law states that students cannot have a cell phone in schools. We want our parents to understand the benefits of the phone free environment. And one of the things that we're really working hard to retrain parents who will now be in schools where they've never been in school, had their children in schools and they didn't have
009that immediate access to children. So, what does that look like for me as a parent? Am I pre-planning and my daily routines with my student to make certain that I'm checking in on how are you getting home from school? Do you have any appointments? Do you have your materials? Do you have your lunch? several of the things that we parents have taken for granted because they've been able to even though they weren't supposed to. We know that parents were contacting students with this information and students were contacting parents. So with students not having access to their devices during the day, what changes to my daily routine? What is going to change about my daily routine with my student in preparation? So, we're we're working with parents in our training sessions and in the information that
010we communicate to our families about what that should look like, but we do need our parents support. We have to uh implement the rule. And at the end of the day, I believe based on the data and the results that we've seen from other school districts who started implementing these programs with the pouches that we're going to see increased engagement, less distractions, less disciplinary issues on campus as a result of students not having this direct access to their cell phones. One of the things in the communication for our parents and families, what we're saying is if you need to contact your child in the event of a medical emergency or an accident that is life-threatening, please contact the school. However, you won't be able to contact the school for things that are not emergencies, minor
011things, because we actually we don't have the manpower and the capability. And I was just doing the math talking to the team. If 50% of the parents actually texted their child on a daily basis during the school day with something, even if it was 30% or 40%, that's a tremendous amount of messages to try to get to students. We don't have the bandwidth or the manpower to get those types of messages to students. So, as parents, we are asking them to really re-evaluate what your daily routine looks like, what you need to make certain that you communicate to students prior to them going to school and limit contacting the school for medical emergencies. True emergencies, non-emergencies should not disrupt instruction. And again, we don't have the bandwidth to to just push out non-emergency type messages
012to students. And of course, pre-planning reduces the need to contact the school during the day. So just making certain that those actual daily plans and daily communications with students before they leave school are actually actually happening and occurring. What we're going to ask students to do, students will power off their phones, their smartwatches, and their earbuds. Their devices will go into that pouch each morning. Students will keep the pouch with them all day. At the end of the day, the pouches will be unlocked. The items will be removed and of course the student relock relocks the pouches because we have to see what's going in the pouches for the next day. And then the pouches will be uh be retained with the student. I will tell you we did an experiment during leadership retreat on
013Monday. So I asked all of our leaders during a portion of the presentation to place their phones. Well, the first thing I asked them to do was I asked them to text an individual or any individuals in their contact list who might reach out to them during this, you know, next two hours and let them know that they would not be available. And then I asked them to power down their phones, place them in the yonder bags along with their watches and uh well, we didn't put ear pods. I don't think we put earpods in the pouches. Well, there was a little bit of trepidation, I would say, with the adults giving up their phones for a short amount of time. And the a portion of the the reason for that, I want our adults
014to number one, understand what our kids are going to feel like not having access access to their phone. Like, this is this is an issue. But I'll tell you, the engagement for that hour and a half was so much better. It was so much better just with the adults because no one was looking down at their phone. Now, I offered them the opportunity to keep their phones in the pouches for the rest of the session, but I don't think anybody agreed to that. Several individuals quickly unlock their uh phones at the end of the day. But I think that the the point being we know how kids feel and just in that small amount of time, no one was on their phones. So, as soon as you have access to the phone and you turn
015the phone back on, what happened? Everyone started >> texting, looking at emails, or you do what you do. You just play with it and you look at it and somebody texts you in the middle of something and it may be workrelated. Listen to me. It's work related, but it's still a distraction from the current work that's happening and going on in the moment. So, I'm excited about this project. I know it's going to be a lift and we have been doing the lifting to implement this with Fidelity for a long time. But whether you agree with it or not, parents and community, this is the law now. This is this is the law that students cannot have this. So what we really need is we need the support so that moving forward our kids understand
016and I think parents and students when they start seeing the benefits I think the benefits far outweigh some of the concerns that we've heard about students not having access to their phones in case of an actual emergency. I think the benefits are going to far outweigh those. So we are getting ready for a a new look to the 25 26 school year. You know, if students lose or damage the pouches, the replacement fee is $30, and students will not be allowed, of course, to have a device on campus until it is uh purchased and replaced. We are working through uh what violations and consequences will look like. We are definitely taking a progressive uh approach to discipline, you know, from, you know, students maybe having to take an intervention uh course to students uh ISS
017uh CRD out of school suspension all the way to DAP for violations. So, you know, we're working through that. We're going to be sharing those plans with our families uh hopefully at the uh the meetings next week because we have parent meetings coming up next week at Bulai United and Westbrook for the entire feeder pattern on Tuesday, July 29th at 5:30 p.m. Bulmont United feeder pattern uh campuses and uh Dr. ML King Collegiate Academy will be at Bowite United and at Westbrook at 5:30 the Westbrook feeder pattern campuses and Paul Brown Learning Center. So we are asking all of our families to come out to hear so they can see touch feel the pouches so they can get questions asked ask questions and get questions answered and responded to and really understand the implic implications
018for implementation of the project. So, registration update. Currently, we have had, again, I'm so thankful for our community partners who were recognized today, but we have several more events that they will be hosting over the course of the next several weeks leading up until the start of school. But right now, we have 7,817 returning students who have registered. When you look at this same time last year, that is up by almost what was 5,000. I think 5,400 last year. So, it's up from this same time last year with the number of students who are actually registered. New students total currently is 1,579 for a total of 9,396 currently registered. And this is significantly higher than previous years. And we're expecting those numbers to continue to go up. when you look at uh I don't have
019it uh disagregated by by grade level but the new students are mainly prek and kindergarten students. I will tell you that's the bulk of which it it always is most uh most uh years but the bulk of those new students are prek students enrolling for the first time as well as kinder students enrolling for the first time. And then of course we've already shared that back to school first day of school is scheduled for August 13th which just a few days away. We have our back to school portal all things back to school and parents can go on to our website click on that back to school portal. They can see uh registration events. They can see meet the teacher. They can see the uh running start events for our secondary schools school supply list.
020You know everything. It is a one-stop shop for all things back to school. We still encourage we are encouraging and really pushing students to make certain that they are registered prior to the first day of school. We are going to be pushing out additional information for families. We have completed of course our resoning process and we are expecting our families and our students to attend the schools but they have been reszoned to. So, we are truly excited about I'm excited about what our schools are going to look like, but we need our families to to step in and do that first part, which is to complete the process, which they can do it online. We still have registration events, I think this Saturday. Uh, the legacy event is this Saturday. It's going to be at
021Peach uh at Peach MacArthur PreK through 8. So, parents will be able to register at that event as well. in addition to the additional events coming up the 100 black men uh and then a couple of more events that are coming up the following the following week. So we have gotten so much support from our community partners who have really pushed and I think that has contributed as well to the increased number of students who are actually actually registered. So this concludes my report. Are there any questions >> Mr. Evans. >> Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, Dr. Allen, just a couple questions on the yonder uh roll out. Um, are we going to do something like pretty elaborate on social media to kind of I guess um magnify the pre-planning and the things
022that we need parents to do prior to the beginning of the school year? Because I think if they know now to pre-plan, talk to your students about Rise Home, do everything you can do, you know, and I think we can and your team has like I'm loving this allstar thing all in. So your team has the the digital creativity to to to do something pretty catchy. >> So just just the suggestion on that and then what was the feedback like from students on campuses when you when they got to kind of test out the young >> I asked Mr. Maxwell, can you can you speak to that? I'll tell you about the feedback from the session I had with students where the superintendent student leadership >> council and that was very interesting. I mean they
023we we the students uh engaged in robust debate about the pouches and I was I was pleasantly surprised that several students because when we were talking about the fact that we were giving the students a chance to not go this route and several of my super superintendent student advisor students said Dr. and they can't do it. Like, you know, it it can't happen because the kids can't do it. The kids recognize the addictive behavior that exists with them in their cell phones and the social media. You know, I had some kids who felt like it was punishment. Of course, they felt like it was punishment. And, you know, we had really good debate sparked around it, but Mr. Maxwell and his team, they attended, they went to every school and talked to all the secondary
024students. So you want to speak to you know uh some of the feedback from the students because I think we were at the lunch periods and allows students opportunity to come and see touch and feel as well as you know individual like group sessions. >> Absolutely Dr. Allen and Mr. Evans it was a mixed bag. Majority were um understanding I'm not going to say completely in favor. um your high schoolers, it it kind of hit them a little harder, but that's where we also saw more students not following the phone free. Remember, we had a a policy, but we really didn't have a full phoneree school. Your middle your middle school students were excited about it because it was all new and they were giddy and oh, look at this and they were playing with
025it. Mhm. >> Um so but a lot of them also not a 100% of them had a phone. >> So they would give it to their friend that didn't have a phone in case they would get a phone. Um so across the board uh there's some understanding that it's it's necessary that this is what's going to happen. Uh your question about social media, we've had it posted on social media um running I want to say three weeks now. Yeah. And um we've done a lot of other different things. I mean I obviously I've done two nights in a row I've been on TV with interviews. Um we also met in here with all the administrative assistants that are going to be in the front office. We showed it to them. We let them touch CIL.
026We had conversations with them. We also uh met with the substitutes. We had substitute training. Uh we probably had what 15 Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We had a we had a room full. Let me say that. Um, so they've been um, you know, made aware of everything. And then most importantly, we're going to meet with our our parents on Tuesday. But we'll also part of the plan is also talking to our principles, talking to our kids, you know, after the fir first week of implementation to see if we need to make some adjustments or anything of that nature. So the principles were trained in June. The APS uh have been talked. We're going to send a slide deck to the campuses so that every single teacher will understand what the consequences are, the expectations
027are during home room, first period, whatever we're going to call it, advisory period. All of the kids will get that. We will start day one with the yonder pouches. day one they will learn and they will play with them. Also, each kid, the schools, the principles have been very diligent about um identifying the the yonder pouches they have. Let's say I'm at Marshall, it might say MMS number one. MMS number two. So that I might get number one, Mr. Evans, you might get number number two. So around the board, you know, number three, four, five. So, we will we will know who has what pouch because that's going to be super important also. But really, you know, we're doing what we feel like is necessary to get the word out. But as with anything, I
028promise you, somebody's going to come up there and say, "Hey, I didn't know." And I, you know, I just know that. And then we're going to talk to them about it. So, we want this uh not only to work because it's the law, but we want it to work because we know it's good for kids. >> Go ahead, Mr. D. >> Okay. Thank you, President. Uh I must have missed it back when you was explaining this. Uh if they decide to come to school and say, you know what, I forgot it. Now what? >> Two things. Number one, if they come to school now, first let me say, let me let me back up just a second because the question came up the other day. Will every student receive a Yonder pouch? Yes, even if
029they don't have a phone, they'll take the pouch home, they'll store it, they'll keep it for a year because what happens? I'm 12 years old. I turned 13 in the middle of the year in my sixth grade year. My grandparents buy me a phone. >> All of a sudden, now I need my Yonder pouch. So, that's the first thing. If they decide that they've forgotten their pouch and they have their phone on them and the phone comes out, that's a violation. There is no more, hey, this is your second chance. Your first chance is, you know, the rule when you walk into the school. Law says phone free space. That means power down. That's what that means. It doesn't mean you can't bring your phone to school. It means powered down. Can't have it on.
030>> Same with the earbuds. Same with the smartwatch. That's why everything goes into the pouch. Okay. The Beats. They don't go into the pouch. We just have to deal with that. Okay. >> Don't bring the Beats. Yeah. You're going to get in trouble. >> They cannot bring the Beats. But point being is if that phone comes out because some of the kids we saw in Dallas, some of the kids we saw in Richardson, uh some of the folks we talked to in Arkansas, California, the kids just said, "Hey, I'm leaving my phone in my car." Or some kids say, "Hey, I know I can't have it during school. I'm just leaving it at home." But we know some of our kids work during the day. So, they may need that phone. But once the students
031realize it's not the end of the world to not have their phone on for six, eight hours, it's going to get better and better and better. And that's what we saw when we talked to kids in Dallas, Richardson, and Colleen. The ones the first year, it was hard on them. But the kids that started in sixth grade, seventh grade, and by the time they were in 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th, it was like this this is what we do. This is this is what we did. >> Thank you, Miss Avery. >> Thank you, Mr. Maxmill. Um, you did answer a couple of my questions about now what if they deal break the pouch. Same thing as far as consequences for that also. >> Yes, ma'am. If they do anything to damage the pouch, if they bring
032a burner phone, if they have a device that's outside, could be a smartwatch outside of that pouch and they're caught, that's where those stepped consequences start coming in. Okay. And you have how many steps? Three. >> Ma'am, >> how many steps do you have? You said first, you said steps. >> Right now, we're looking at about six that we visited with the principles and they thought they were great. Um, just starting with picking up the phone at the end of the day, moving to ISS, you know, moving on up. And then the last one, of course, after five or six times, you you go to the U alternative >> discipline school or pathways. >> Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Go ahead, Miss Ber. Tony Michael. >> Thank you. Mr. Maxwell, will will uh the
033teachers be given postings or a poster that these rules can be in the classrooms? I'm sure they will be in the hallways. But is that something we're affording our teachers? >> We can certainly do that. I mean, number one, they're going to be given a slide deck where they're going to actually uh present that information, but we can certainly run up some posters. I'm sure communications can help with that to because we're talking about our secondary schools naturally. Again, elementary, you know, it's a a phone free space also, but we just don't have the yonder pouches. So, our parents need to understand that. >> I thank you for bringing that up about the elementary schools. We're implementing the yonder program for secondary students. However, no students can have a phone. And I know there are
034fifth graders and fourth graders and third graders and second graders and maybe kinder and first graders who actually have cell phones. They are not allowed to have those phones at school. >> Okay. Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you, Mr. Maxwell. And I saw you on TV. You looking kind of smooth. I saw you. >> That's the VCP part. So next we'll have uh Dr. Frank and Miss Chetum who is will share the update on the preliminary star scores and board outcome goal update. Good evening. Tonight's school board outcome goals presentation will present an overview of Bowmont ISD's 2025 preliminary star data. Again, I want to stress that this data is preliminary. Our final data will come out in August. So, what is STAR? So, just a reminder, STAR stands for the state of Texas assessment of
035academic readiness. it. The tests are based on the Texas essential knowledge and skills and they begin in third grade all the way through high school. The STAR is administered to third through 8th grades in mathematics and reading, fifth and eighth grade science, eighth grade social studies, and for high school end of course exams in algebra 1, English one, English 2, biology, and US history. Students receive performance levels. They could receive one of four. Did not meet grade level. Here students are unlikely to succeed in the next grade or course without significant ongoing academic intervention. Approaches grade level. Students are likely to succeed in the next grade or course with targeted academic intervention. Meets grade level. This is the performance level that we strive for all of our students to either be meats or above. And
036at meets grade level, students have a high likelihood of success in the next grade or course, but may still need some short-term targeted academic intervention. And then last, master's grade level. Students are expected to succeed in the next grade or course with little or no academic intervention. Tonight you will see our scores at approaches, meets and masters. So we will begin with the elementary preliminary star data. On this slide you see our elementary math data for 2024 and 2025. I do want to say that scores will come out in August and we will have 24 and 25 data. So you're getting a look at both tonight. For third grade this year, I will target meets grade level, but of course you can see approaches meets and masters. For 2025 and third grade, 26% of our
037students scored at meets grade level. Fourth grade, 20% at meets grade level. And fifth grade, 27% at meets grade level. I do want you to look at the change columns at approaches, meets, and masters. Uh Dr. Allan did point this out earlier the gains that we made. So in third grade we had improvement in approaches meets and masters, fourth grade approaches and masters and then fifth grade and masters for our elementary reading data. Again you can see 2024 next to 2025. In 2025, 32% of our third grade students scored at meets grade level or higher. Fourth grade, 29% at meets grade level or higher. Fifth grade, 38% at meets grade level or higher. Again, look at the change column. At third grade, again, in reading, we see improvements in approaches, meets and masters. In fourth
038grade, we see declines. Okay? And in fifth grade, we had uh an increase, I'm sorry, in meets for science. We had 13% of our students at meets. We know that this is an area even though when you look at the change, we see increases, science is an area that we need to target and focus on. Cohort comparison data is next. And here you're going to see the performance of our fourth and fifth graders this year compared to when they were third and fourth graders in 23 and 24. So when you look at our third and fourth grade, I named those cohort one. In 2025, this is this data is that approaches. You can see 45% of our students were at uh were in 2025 45% at approaches. Okay, this was a decline. But and we
039look at reading, we see 63% of our students and we see an increase. Okay, again if I go and I look at math, this is fourth to fifth. 56% of our students here we're at approaches. That's an increase in approaches. Again, when I look at reading, 60% which was a decline from their previous performance. This slide shows you at meets we want our students to continue to increase. So, we looked at approaches, now we see. And if you notice, you see an increase across the board. So 20% of our students were at meets for fourth grade and we had 29 in reading. We see an increase there of two and and also four. When I look at fourth to fifth, 27% of our students were at meets. Okay, that's an increase of five from the
040previous year when they were in fourth grade. And then 38% of our students at meets which is an increase of 8% from the previous year. So we do see that our students are tracking and showing progress. Again when we look at masters I highlight again that we see increases. So we have students that are moving across which is what we want. We want them going from approaches to meets to masters. So 8% of our fourth graders scored at masters which is an increase of 3% in reading 8% a slight increase of one. And then when we look at fifth grade 11% in math an increase of four and then reading 14% another increase in four. And now Miss Tetum will come and share our preliminary middle school and high school data. Good evening board. >>
041Our preliminary middle school data for you on screen, our math proficiency data. Um, as Dr. Frank and Dr. Allen already outlined, we are showing increases across um each performance level for the most part. So for sixth grade, our year-over-year uh comparison for 2025 approaches meets and masters levels increase by 6% 1% um respectively for meets and masters at the sixth grade level. For seventh grade, we know that's our area of concern, ongoing area of concern just like the state. Um but we did show a 5% increase at the approaches level, 3% at meets and 2% at masters. For eighth grade students, we saw a little bit of a decline in our overall passing rate at 48, which is down from 54% in the prior year. But at the meets and mast's levels, we showed a
0422% increase and a 5% increase at masters. For our reading performance, again we saw improvement at the sixth grade level across each proficiency level improving to 56% 29 and 8% which are increases of 5% at the overall approaches level 3% at meets and 3% increase at masters. seventh grade, we saw um a flat line, so to speak, and a same level performance at seventh grade approaches for reading, but an increase um at the eighth grade level of 2% and 1% at each at meets and masters. Middle school science and social studies data. For science, we showed just a slight increase of 1% at the approaches level and remained consistent at 20% and 4% meets and masters. For social studies, we show a decline overall at 4% overall passing rates and 2% and 1% declines for
043meats and masters in social studies. So when we look at our data, as Dr. Frank outlined, I think, as well, we want to see what our growth rates are for each student. Um, so incremental increases in our year-over-year performance, but when we look at the cohort data, um, there's some telling things. So, math again, seventh grade, so the sixth grade to 7th grade uh, cohort, you see the same trend where we have a decline at the seventh grade level. That is consistent again across the state with just some of the complexity of the seventh grade standards. We've seen that um a few years in a row and so we're going to be targeting seventh grade specifically. But when you look at reading those students, that same cohort of students showed a 4% increase over their
044sixth grade performance at the approaches level for seventh to eighth grade. Again, we always see that bounce back, but we got even a larger gain in this year uh for this cohort of 29% increase from seventh grade to eighth grade with the same student grouping and an increase of 10% u in reading for our eighth grade cohort. At the meets level, we again show increases that 4% decline at the meets level for seventh grade, but a 4% at seventh grade math, 4% increase in reading, 20% increase from seven to 8th grade level at the meats level, and 2% increase um for reading. Masters again upward trends across for sixth to seventh grade masters at math it's remained at 2% for reading an increase of 5% double the proficiency there and 13 to 16% for reading
045from seventh to 8th grade and just about a 9% increase at the M's level from 7th to 8th grade. So though the scores are not where we want to be and we know there are some things that we need to make adjustments for the student cohort groups are trending up across the board. For star EOC assessments we also at algebra 1 we saw a dip in our overall approaches level 62% down 6% from prior year but an increase of 2% at the meats performance level. At biology, we have an 83% overall passing rate, which is the same. It's one of those um subject areas where we listed no improvement, no decline, but a 1% increase at masters balanced by a 1% decrease at meat. So, it algebra is essentially, I mean, I'm sorry, biology is
046essentially the same year-over-year. US history improved from 87 to 90% overall passing at the approaches level and up to 54 and 28% meets and mast's level for 8% increases in each of those categories. English one and English two. You see we showed a 2% decline in overall passing rates there and also at the meets level four and 3% and just the small increase of 1% for English one. We continue to to battle with the short constructed and and extended constructed response and the AI grading, but we're working working in that arena. So when we look at our overall district performance uh summary, we have noted some key gains for your review. Approaches and meets level performance has either maintained or improved from 24 to 25 in 12 of the 20 areas tested. M's levels performance
047has improved 16 out of 20 tested subject areas with RLA meets level performance increasing at grades three, five, six, and eight. Math meets level performance improving at grades 3, 6, 7, 8, and algebra 1. And US history overall passing rate again climbed to 90% with an increase um at both meets and masters levels. Also, our cohort data, we showed growth across cohort groups from third to fourth grade at approaches, meets and masters level for both reading and math. We showed cohort growth data from fourth to fifth grade in reading and math as well as sixth and seventh grade from reading approaches in the reading approaches. The cohort data remember from seventh to 8th is the largest gain for secondary with reading um improvements 10% overall math approaches in that cohort 29% overall increase. But we
048also noted some areas of concern to address. Those um were kind of outlined in the performance overview. And so we'll go to talk about some key focus areas for those um areas of decline or where we're not seeing the growth that we wanted to see. And we'll begin with elementary. So in reading there are some specific strategies that we've been using that we see are working. So we're going to continue to strengthen our phonics and phmic awareness instruction. We have saxs and phonics for grades K through two. So continue to build capacity with our teachers making sure that they are delivering those scripted lessons with fidelity. And then for our third through fifth grade students in third grade normally you get there and you're reading to learn. Some of our students are behind and they're
049learning to read. So we have phonics also for our third through fifth grade students. We noticed this year if you looked at the data for third grade you saw increases and that is because of what we're doing at the primary grades going in. And so we're going to continue with our phonics instruction. Also, we want to enhance student comprehension. A mirror. Adding that on this year was powerful. So, we're going to continue with a mirror. We're going to work with our kids on targeted site word mastery. And then PD, building the capacity of our teachers, making sure that we are supporting them. In math, we are going to have a heavy lift this year, but we're ready for Blue Bonnet, the implementation of Blue Bonnet learning curriculum. Zern Math is an online program that correlates
050with Blue Bonnet and then again targeted skill intervention. We have Delta math which we implemented this year and will continue with our students K through five and this is intervention that will be built in every day and again professional development building the capacity of our teachers for secondary um intervention has looked different. We know that the foundation is uh of being able to do intervention at the secondary level starts with the master schedule. So when we looked at our data, we have started there. So beginning at the master schedule for middle school, we have revisited we are moving from 45minut instructional blocks to 90minute instructional blocks. Uh previously only ODM Academy has not had had those 90minute blocks. We know that our students can reach the bar and we know that we can close gaps
051for students but we want to build ourselves some more time to address the needs of students. So for reading and math um at the middle school level we have again gone to a 90minute instructional block so that we can have strategic interventions embedded into the day. Our curriculum team has done um an outstanding job this summer working with us to revisit the instructional block and make sure that we are building in time uh for students for targeted lessons using our historical data and prescribing at the start what our small group instruction looks like which ties to that bullet around professional development to build capacity. So making sure that we are able to expand supports for students through targeted u time within the instructional block with their teacher of record. The same is true for high
052school. The advisory period is a new addition for us. So we're bringing an advisory period um into the schedule so that we can have targeted time. We found that over the last few years high school students are not staying after school for tutorials and it's different to get it into the instructional day. So we are moving to this advisory period schedule and again we have worked to really prescribe what happens in that time frame. So for high school we know we're reaching for end of end of course exams for um our accountability but we're also looking at TSIA readiness and them being able to meet the the bar there. So building in a specific structure of curriculum, so to speak, outlining what students are to do in those advisory periods for high school schedules and
053again strategic staffing models and services to support content development. So we have over the last uh couple of years been working on curriculum implementation for math at middle school level. The the focus has kind of been changing on us. So we started with Carnegie Math year 1. We went into year two with Carnegie Math and we're changing the the state made some modifications for year two and then modifying again moving to blue bonnet math. So we are really focusing on so where you see contracted services and supports excuse me we are um beneficiaries of the lasso grant this year that we will be able to utilize to add instructional support visits for teachers um via those grant funds additional training opportunities. So we're looking forward to that as we implement Blue Bonnet. We are also
054adding diagnostic um so that we can screen students and that is the driver for some of the interventions that's happening that are happening in the high school advisory period and again a really focused plan to improve seventh grade math performance levels which will bolster middle school performance. We know that uh yonder implementation is also not a strategy listed on slide but we know overall student engagement uh is critical for us and so we are really looking forward to yonder implementation so that we can have more students engage time on task and our teachers not battling that. In addition to that, I just want to note that I think the secondary team has done a great job of navigating some of the challenges over the last uh year at the middle school level specifically. We had
055the closure of King Middle School and embraced a whole new group of students across our campuses. And even in the midst of all of those challenges and changes with reshuffleling our students to absorb that campus, our campuses still showed incremental growth. And so I'm looking forward that a foundation has been set and with the strategic changes to our schedule that we'll be able to accelerate progress this year. So our board outcome goals are set and of course we use our 2025 data to set board outcome goals for one and two. So 32% of our students scored at meets grade level in reading and we are striving for 64% by June 2030. For math, 26% of our students scored at meets. We're striving for 52% of our students to be at meets or greater uh by
056June 2030. For our CCMR U board outcome goal, this one remains the same where the percentage of graduates that meet the criteria for CCMR will increase from 65% to 90%. We want to continue to improve the perception in our community uh with all stakeholders. So, we're going to make sure and we're looking at community perception, teacher and student perception, looking at discipline, and also safety measures. And if we do everything, if we do one, two, three, and four, we know that we will have more of our students in A and B-rated schools. And our goal is to move this from 15% to 50% by August 2030. >> Any questions? >> Miss Hickman, >> you said you're going to the 90minute block for math and reading. Is that going to be an everyday class? >> Yes,
057ma'am. We're going to a 90 minute block every day. Sixth and seventh grade for math, not eighth grade math. and then sixth, seventh, and eighth grade reading. >> What are you doing for those advanced students? Are they going to have that concentration of math when they're already doing well? >> So, I'm glad that you raised that. I didn't call out specifically that our accelerated classes will not be on a block. Those students will still have access to their other other content. >> Spooner. >> Yes, President Sige. just want to make a comment uh and just commend both of you young ladies and your team of people that work with you. uh very thorough report as I was listening uh other than what M Hickman just asked uh I said you all have covered everything for
058continuous progression and uh we thank you thank you >> thank you miss go ahead I'm sorry miss go ahead >> I have a couple of questions about your advisory so you're still working on the advisory time how how long it's going to be and do you know that? >> Yes ma'am we have it. It is a good round 32 minutes. So that is to make sure that we have adequate time to get students in. We're also be trans uh transferring students over to career center those things in the morning. So logistically at LA it is at the 32 minute mark but in that time we are going to be focusing on math and reading specifically for any students who have not passed their EOCC exam. So those um targeted lessons that the CNI team created,
059we'll begin with those for all ninth graders and let it be a preparation and a test prep, right, to prepare and bolster for EOCC. However, we have staged it out in how we want to do that. So 9th grade students who haven't tested, they're going EOCC prep route. If I'm in the 10th grade and I have not passed, I'm also on the EOCC route. before our 11th and 12th grade students who have passed, we still want to now be able to hit some other targets. So, that's where our TSI plan comes in so kids can get the additional skills that they need so that we can increase our rate for TSIA. Um, and then we also want to be able to look at um extended opportunities for kids to work with their teachers. That's why
060it's really important to me that they're grouped with their teachers um or contentbased. And so these are literally handscheduled moves uh structured for high school, but those students will then be able to focus on things like dual credit, IGC prep, the things that we need on the CCMR side as well. So it depends on what grade you're in and where you are in the progression of your learning and coursework. >> Thank you for the specialization. That's very important. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Great job. >> Any other questions for Miss Frank or Miss Cheetum or Dr. Frank? Dr. Frank. Miss Cheetum, I thank you for that report. Under review of the student handbook, Dr. Allen, President Sige, school board members, at this time Dr. Valdez is going to do a brief uh overview uh
061some additions to the student handbook. Um you do not have the handbook in front of you. We're still working on the handbook, but before we can really finalize the handbook, we have to finalize the student code of conduct which we'll talk about later in this evening. So, Dr. Valdez, please. >> Good evening and thank you. So the uh model student handbook after the state legislature uh writes the law, then TASBY applies that and they uh provide us a template that has all of the new changes in and you take that template and you make it unique to your district. We got that five days ago. I got it a week ago today. Um it was very late because of the um multiple changes they had. The student co code of conduct is what I put
062my focus on because we have to have that before school starts. And so you're going to see most of that completed tonight. The handbook I just started today and um it has a lot of changes and it still has some areas where the commissioner is going to be creating some model plans. We don't have any of those things yet and you know we're going into a special session. Um, so they're going to be looking at some other things. But what I did, this is new this year that TASBY did, and you have a copy of this um, right now. They actually outlined the changes. And if you click on the hyperlink, which I can give you a copy of this digitally. If you click on that link, it will take you to the actual bill
063and it will show you areas in the bill that were changed, areas that were deleted. And um that's what is reflected then in the handbook. Um so I have a few little things here for you and I'm just going to give you some examples. Uh House Bill 121, that's the first one on your list. That's a a new requirement this year um that uh we have to provide educational information on the safe storage of firearms. Okay, we're required to do that three times per year. The first time that we're uh talking to parents is in the handbook. So that's one notification and there's two more that we will do. um House Bill uh 367, they have added some um verbiage to the bill regarding um life-threatening illnesses and how we calculate that in our uh
064chronic absenteeism. Um, if you look at House Bill 1586, very simple, but they wanted to make the forms for uh your vaccine exemptions easier to locate and so they actually put it in a bill and um it's makes it easier for parents to find uh these exemption forms. Um, House Bill 11, this is something that we'll have to have some discussion on. Um, it is an optional bill and it's uh um setting out time from the instructional day for a period of prayer or reading of the Bible or other text. This is a new bill and um it is optional for uh districts to look at. Um if you look at Senate Bill 12 and you go down to the very last bullet, written permit parental consent for student to participate in any school sponsored
065club. That's new. They haven't had that before. We've had a lot of uh clubs, but they put some uh language in the bill that now the parents have to sign that they understand what clubs the students are in. And they've made a couple of changes on what type of clubs you can have. Um if you look down to Senate Bill 1619, which is at the very bottom of your first page, it talks about auto injectors. And um as we now know, they they used to have EpiPens that were only pen delivery system. now they have a nasal spray and so they added that to the bill. Okay, so these are just some of the changes that uh they have in the um handbook. Again, I've only been working on it for a very very short
066time and we're still waiting on some um guidance from the commissioner on how this is going to look. Okay, student code of conduct almost finished. Almost finished. And I think you guys had some discussion about that and where we're going with that. You also have one of these kind of guidance forms for the student code of conduct. So, I really like this. It used to be that we would kind of go through and I would make one up for you, but now that uh Tasby has done that, it's it's very uh very well organized. Okay. Um I will send this um form to uh Dr. Allen and she can send it out electronically so you can use those little links. Do you have any questions about the student handbook? >> Yes, Mr. Evans. >> Thanks,
067Mr. President. Um, I don't know about if it's Anyways, HB121. >> Okay. >> Relating to required educational information for parents on safe storage of firearms. >> Yes. >> You said it has to happen twice. >> It has to happen three times in the uh school during the school year. We have to have three informational opportunities for parents. >> What's that look like? >> I don't really know what that looks like. I know the first one in my training that I went to last week, uh, last Thursday, they said the we're going to put it in the handbook. >> So, that's number one. >> Okay. >> They've been notified on what to do, what safe storage looks like. Um, it can be done through uh at a uh coffee with the parents. Maybe it can be
068done in any type of form that we have that we have the audience of parents to uh talk about safe storage of firearms. >> Okay. Um >> Mr. Evans, clarification that safe storage of a firearm at their home. >> At their home. Correct. >> At their home. I'm sorry. Yes. >> You know, I I get it. Um >> you're probably assuming that everyone has firearms at their home, which in Texas they might. Uh, I don't know. I just was curious to see how that plays out and >> keep it posted maybe. >> Sure. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions on the student handbook? Um, I do believe that it will be available for um your review before school starts. Okay. There may be a few things that we're still waiting on the commissioner to
069uh build a plan for and we will work with our attorney on those items. >> Thank you, Miss Baldes. I'm so glad you cleared that up about the gun at the house. >> Thank you. >> We're now at public comments. Miss Antoine, do we have anyone for public comments? >> Yes, sir. The board will now hear comments from those persons who have signed up to speak. This portion of the meeting is set aside for parents, students, employees, and community members to speak to the board about any matter of interest to them pertaining to school programs. Each person who signed up before or by 4:30 p.m. yesterday may speak for no more than 2.5 minutes. Those who signed up after that time and prior to today's meeting will be allowed to speak for 1.5 minutes. During
070public comment, the board will listen, but is forbidden by the Texas Open Meeting Act from discussing any topic raised or making any decisions unless the matter is already on the school agenda for this meeting. The board reminds speakers that public comment is not a time to bring the board complaints about a particular program, employee, or students. Should a speaker remarks include complaints directly to a particular student, employee, or program, I will respectfully ask that that individual stop speaking and utilize the board's adoptive grievance procedures. Miss Anwine, first person, >> Tammy Richard. The second person, >> Jennifer Moore. >> How are you, Miss Moore? >> Good, thank you. How are you, sir? >> I'm well, thank you. >> Thank you so much for allowing me to speak with you guys again. Okay. My purpose continues to
071discuss the need for special I'm sorry for cameras in special needs classrooms across the district. Having cameras in the classroom will allow for investigations to can be completed quickly to protect victims as well as accused individuals by providing immediate accurate and impartial evidence when claims arise. Recordings are not allowed to have regular monitoring and cannot be used for teacher evaluation in case that is a concern. They are to ensure that children with disabilities be treated with dignity, respect, and not having their rights violated. There are students in these classes that have no voice. And then there is my daughter who can clearly tell me exactly what happened to her. And the school district can claim that she lacks merit. In May, Mr. Evans questioned an increase of $8,000 for a new school bus. The cost
072was for it to become equipped with school cameras or for it to become equipped with cameras. You can't imagine getting a new bus without cameras, but can continue to put the most vulnerable learners in rooms without them. I'm sure there's more than 56 school buses according to TEA 29.022. 022 cameras are and equipment are to be provided to the school upon written request from a parent, principal or board member. I made my initial request to the principal at Amelia on February 3rd. I turned in a written request on March 20th, more than two months before the end of the school and cameras were never installed. Something happened in my son's class for cameras to be requested. Notices were sent out to parents when cameras were installed. Some parents may not know that the c that
073the request for cameras is only valid for the current school year. TEA requires the school to notify parents no less than 10 days before the end of school to get a new request and that was never done. Lastly, I would like to encourage the board to ask for a detailed policy to be implemented when it comes to abuse allegations towards a teacher. Students should not have to miss school during investigation to avoid an abuser. They should be edified, reassured that school is a safe place, that they are important, that their voices matter, and that their feelings are valid. Thank you for allowing me to speak. >> Thank you, Miss Moore. >> Thank you. for a minute and a half. Coin Cole, >> how you doing, Colin? >> Good, thank you. >> Good evening, members of
074the board and community. My name is Cohen Cole and I'm going to be a 10th grade homechool student who lives within Bulma ISD and plays basketball. I'm here today to ask that students like me be allowed to participate in UIL sports as sanctioned under SB 401. My family pays the same taxes as every other household in this district. Those taxes fund the schools, teachers, facilities, and athletic programs that serve all students who live here. Homeschool students are a part of the community, too. Yet, we currently have no access to programs our families help support. UIL support supports I mean UIL sports teach teach teamwork, discipline, and perseverance qualities that prepare young people for life beyond high school. Homeschool students often already meet high academic standards, but we miss out on the opportunity to grow alongside
075our peers and competitive athletics simply because we receive our education at home. Other districts across Texas have already chosen to allow homeschool participation, recognizing that it strengthens teams, fosters inclusion, and ensures fairness for all taxpayers. Bulma ISD has an opportunity to lead by example and show that every student in in its boundaries matters regardless of how they are educated. I'm not asking for special treatment. I'm asking for equal opportunity to try out and to work hard to earn a spot on team just like any other student. Together, we can create a stronger and more united district that puts students first. Thank you for your time and considering homeschool students, homeschool students, Bulma and Bulma ISD for UIL sports participation. >> Thank you, Kyle. >> Thank you, >> Kelly Brown. >> How are you, Miss Brown?
076>> I feel like I'm in school again. a little nervous. >> Um, >> don't be nervous. >> Good evening, board members and Dr. Allen. Um, my concern is the zoning for my daughter. My daughter attends Dishman Elementary School. Straight to the point. Um, she's zoned for Sally Curtis Elementary. I'm by myself trying to do whatever I can to take care of both my kids, which that's not everybody's problem, but I don't have a way to get her to her zone school. My mom will me to Brown works at Dishman. That's my that's kind of like my crutch. She helps me be sure that Paisley gets to school on time and she gets picked up. The times that they have to be to school, I work for Bowmont Parole. Um is it's it's kind of conflicting
077for me. I don't have a I don't have a way to get her to where she's on. That's my concern. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss >> Britney Tino. >> How you doing, Britney? >> Been better. Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to speak. I am the mother of a non autistic verbal child placed in self-contained class at Emilio Elementary. Slow down, Britney. Slow down. >> Pull the mic closer to you. >> I am the mother of a non of an autistic non-verbal child placed in the self and clank test classroom at Ameilia Elementary. I am here today to advocate for cameras and special needs classrooms across the district. One of my biggest fears has always been that someone was hurting my child and him not being me to tell me. Imagine sitting at
078the dinner table asking your child, your grandchild, their highs and lows of the day. This is something I will never get to experience with my son. I saw resistance going I saw resistance going and My behaviors increased over time going to school but never knew what was going on until a verbal child reported the abuse he was wondering. My biggest fears come true and in seeking justice for my son I have lost all faith in trusting BD with my child. They have failed me at every turn with acknowledging the abuse to reporting the abuse to investigating the abuse. I've been treated like I don't exist and what happened to my child isn't important because I have no >> You can finish. >> Cameras are the least you can do to protect my son's constitutional rights.
079I would also like to second Miss Moore's request for an administrative policy towards allegations of abuse by staff. >> Thank you, Mr. Tino. >> That concludes all the requests for public comments. >> Okay. We need an update on personnel activities. >> Mr. Samuels, >> good evening. Born. >> Evening. You have before you this email listed of newly hired and separated employees for the month of June. As you peruse the report, uh I have some uh data I would like to share. So as of uh today, this morning, uh uh HR alongside uh directors and principles across the district have hired 196 employees for the 2526 school year. Of the 196, 106 of those uh uh employees are uh teachers. Of the 106, 53 of those are uh certified. Uh we have about 40 more uh
080in the uh in the pipeline. On Tuesday, um uh Mr. Maxwell alluded to on Tuesday, we uh reoriented uh 99 uh substitutes. Uh we did something uh different this year uh in that we had them sign up for the campuses that they actually want to sub uh want to sub at. And so we'll be releasing those to principles so they know exactly where to go when they're looking for uh for substitutes for their uh for the campuses. We have a job fair. Uh this Saturday we did something different. I'm excited about it. We were able to have our pre-registered uh candidates uh fully vetted before the job fair. Okay. So, it's going to uh help speed up our uh our onboarding time. And then we're looking to do this also for uh our uh teacher
081our annual teacher job fair uh this school year as well. Any questions? >> Where's the uh job fair? >> Uh the auxiliary job fair will be this Saturday from 9 to 12 at the administration building. We we uh and we have 77 pre-registered applicants. >> Wait, Miss Ba, >> Mr. Samuels, how are we doing with the uh position uh part-time teachers? >> Yes, ma'am. So, we are still uh gathering uh gathering uh in uh uh candidates for that. Uh we're I think we're at about last time I pulled 23. And so, what we're doing right now, we're uh sectioning them off to be able to release uh to principles uh to review to support uh their vacancies and uh needs across the campuses. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Sams. What about those H1 visas? those
082people. >> Yeah. So, uh about three weeks ago, you know, there was a uh well, about over a month ago, there was a pause. Um three weeks ago, two weeks ago, excuse me, they were uh that pause was lifted and now it's just getting them here. I think that they uh will be here at the end of August, early September. Uh we released information to uh principles uh this evening. There was an email that was sent out to to those that are anticipating uh the arrival of our visiting teachers. >> They're not included in these numbers. >> Yes, sir. They are. They're Yes, sir. They're coming. >> Okay. >> Every number counts. >> You're a ringer. You got some ringers in this number. Any questions for Mr. Samuel? >> Thank you. >> Come on down,
083Miss Hernandez. Price is right. We had the prices right yesterday at the secretary training. >> Who won? >> Um, one of the secretaries. I can't remember which one. >> If it was secretary train, I'm assuming a secretary won. >> Oh, it was Kendra at the transportation department. She did. She was the big winner. Um, for the June tax collections, the tax office collected just over $414,000 in maintenance and operation taxes and a little less than 77,000 in debt service and we are uh 96.97% collected. And for the general fund, this is um the the last month in our fiscal year. And these are just preliminary numbers. We have not closed out anything as of this time. But um um total revenues right now are $165,59,297 and expenditures are $176,972. I mean $972,964. And then we
084have just over a million dollar still outstanding in purchase orders that we're going to be clearing out over the next few months. We have not made adjustments to our state aid for our end of the year um attendance yet. So those have yet to be recorded. So it looks like we have an 11 million loss, but we have not made adjustments to revenue. Any questions? >> Any questions, Miss? >> Thank you. >> Okay. In the campus activity funds, they collected $446,657 during the month of June. And then we had some donations from Arka Foundation to guest and Curtis in the amount of $500 each. And then LifeShare Blood Center to Career and Technical Education Center for $970. And then also this month at the beginning of the year, we're required to report all of the
085cooperative purchasing um programs that we are participants in as well as the annual fee. And you can see there's only two that we actually have to pay a fee to be a part of. And that's the state of Texas, our Texas Smart Buy, and then also our Central Texas purchasing allowance for $150. The rest of them there's no cost to the district. Any questions? >> Questions. >> Thank you. >> Where you going, Cheryl? >> Okay. It's a Cheryl Hernandez show. We're now ready for the consent agenda. Does anyone want to pull any item from the consent agend agenda? Can I get a motion? >> Second. >> Motion was made by Mr. Dunn and second by Mr. Reese. Discussion. All those in favor raise your right hand. Motion carries. 70. Mr. President, I recommend that the
086board approve budget amendments from the general fund one and child nutrition funds one and accept amendments from special revenue one and two. Second move by Mr. Dunn, second by Mr. Evans. >> Thank you, Mr. Sige. Um these um are purchase order carry forwards. Some of the outstanding purchase orders. We did not receive the goods um by the end of June. So we are carrying forward and so we're asking the board to reappropriate the funds for those purchases. Otherwise, it would come out of their current year budget. And for the general fund, it's 973,214. And then for the child nutrition department, it's $40,700. And then the special revenues, these are just movements between functions are um title one funds and the the both of these uh special revenue one and two. Those grants go until September.
087So they're just moving money between the functions because they have opportunities to spend them till September. There any discussion? All those in favor raise your right hand. Motion carries 70. >> Mr. President, I recommend that the board approve purchases over $50,000 from the general fund in the amount of 1,652,43.79. >> Call for a motion. >> Second. >> Moved by Mr. Dunn, second by Miss Avery. >> Thank you, Mr. Sige. Um these purchases are all considered uh renewals of software that we utilize our frontline education for our um HR system, our payroll system. The annual renew is $464,869.84. Then our annual uh recruiting and hiring software is $7,817.99. Our annual Microsoft Office subscription is 92,500. The renewal of our school liability and automo bill insurance is $694,173. Um community and relations is um with final site
088100,313. This is the hosting of our website. and then branching minds with curriculum instruction in the amount of $167,968.96. Um the one purchase that is a nonrecurring is the purchase of a Chevrolet Suburban in the amount of $61,41 out of the transportation department and that is to replace one vehicle that was involved in an accident. discussion. >> One quick question. Um the the renewal for school liability mobility insurance for all of our vehicles. >> Yes. The uh it includes all the buses, our white fleet, every um vehicle that the district owns. It even includes the golf carts and the side by sides and um mules. Thank you. >> But it also is our school legal liability as well. TASBY handles a lot of that for us as well. So those numbers are inclusive of both
089of those insuranceances. >> Pay pay them to >> we're Yes, we're a part of TASBY Legal. >> They they provide a lot of our updates and everything to get our money worth. >> Is he >> um Did we get insurance money for the the Suburban? >> Yes, we did. Thank you. >> You mentioned golf carts. I got nervous. I got hit by a golf course. >> I was up there visiting Mr. Jackson and got run over. Anyway, all those in favor. Motion carries. 7. >> Mr. President, I recommend that the board award superior lawn maintenance for lawn maintenance services. >> So move. >> Can I get a second? >> Motion was made by Mr. Dunn and second by Mr. Evans. Um we let out an RFP for lawn maintenance services and we we had exhausted
090with the previous bid. So um we had nine responses. It was scored by um four members of the maintenance department and the award is going to superior lawn maintenance in the amount of $852,580. Wait a minute. >> That's all our properties for the whole year. >> Yes. And we also included more cuts this year. There there has been a slight increase from what we paid last year, but we added more um cuts. They they cut um certain times more often than what they had been doing. Do we do anything about um plannings for the central the front of our building? Um I don't >> the landscaping you know >> they they do um >> is that included I guess the question >> the last time we had superior they did include the muling and stuff
091in our all the landscaping >> yes thank you landscaping is included >> okay they're not doing much in the front of the building >> well this is a different um company that we're going going to recommend and we actually as the district used Superior several years ago. They just didn't win the bid previously. We switched. But um we were very pleased with how they handled the landscaping. I think maybe you were principal at the time when we were use utilizing superior possibly. Maybe, >> maybe. >> Any other discussion? All those in favor? >> Motion carries. 70. I'm going to get in the lawn maintenance building. >> 70. Miss, >> Mr. President, I recommend that the board approve investment the investment management agreement with meter public funds. >> Get a motion. Motion made by Mr. Dun.
092Can I get a second? Second. >> Second by Mr. Evans. Um, last month the board approved a different avenue for us to be able to place funds in a different um, investment area. And Meter Public Funds is the company that actually will help manage those funds. They will also help us with our quarterly investment reporting to the board and our annual investment reporting to the board and helping us review our investment policy. Um it they're they're going to try to help us maximize getting more interest dollars because as we don't get new revenue, if we can increase our interest earnings, that will be new revenue to the district. And a number of other school districts utilize them and other avenues. So we're hoping to be able to take the funds that are sitting in our
093fund balance and invest them more and get better returns than just keeping just the bulls. >> Ziggman, >> I asked this question a couple of years ago about the lousy return we were getting on our investments. Um, and your answer was that we were limited in with whom we could invest. Does does this spread that out? My first question, >> it does diversify it. Yes. My second question is, do we have any assurance that we're going to make more than the $10,000 it's going to cost to have them manage funds? >> Well, it will depend on how much we invest with them as to what that fee is going to be, but I think the base is $10,000 and we want to it depends on how much um money that I can give to them
094because they would invest it longer. A lot of ours are in pools where it's liquid. We can pull it out at any time when we need it. So, it depends on how much I can give them to not to be able to tie it up where I know that I'm not going to need it for payroll and and to be able to make payments. So is it a sliding scale that we pay them for what we invest or what they make or >> they're what they earn is dependent upon upon how much they're managing for us. So if you you know we're able to give them $50 million the fee is based off of that with a minimum of the 10,000. So, if you're only doing 10 million, you you you hope that you would
095make more than the 10,000 to and and they told us that we would. Well, I hope every time I open my investment portfolio, my hope is not always rewarded. Yes. >> Okay. >> Mr. Dunn, >> thank you, President. Um we do we have any guarantees on this or just you let it ride and >> well there they have to follow our investment policy. So they're only going to invest in things that have been um approved by the board in our investment policy. There are some things that um they feel like they can invest in. We don't invest in CDs. They can put things in CDs and get a higher rate of return. Sometimes it's it's hard to gauge it because the market changes so much. They won't be playing the market because we're not allowed
096to do things like that. but buying um uh governmental agency things and and being able to invest things a little bit longer term >> because they may come back and ask us to change our policy because you know if you're going to buy a CD at the credit union the longer that you leave it in the higher the rate is so if we're able to take our money and tie it up a little bit longer then the rate of return is a little bit better than having it fully liquid to where you can access it at at an overnight time, you know. >> So, the more we make, the more they make and the minimum is $10,000. >> The cost of the investment management group is the 10,000 >> and we hope that we're able
097to put the we were starting with 10 million. Okay. because I I'm not I'm not I'm just getting my feet wet in this >> and and it depends on how long we will invest that those funds as what the rate of return would be. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> This has nothing to do with TRS. It has to do with our our available cash on hand and investing it to make money for the district and add to our bottom line. Any other discussion? All those in favor car 70. >> We have come to the end of the meeting in record time. I must say, uh, we'll start with Mr. Evans. >> Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I don't have much. Just if I'm correct, I think by the time we
098meet again, we will be, you know, past the first day of school. So, just, you know, to the teachers and staff and faculty, administration, uh, cabinet, just know that I'm praying for you to have a successful start to the school year and ultimately a successful school year. So, uh, good luck, prayers up, and, uh, let's make it happen. Thank you, >> Mr. Avery. >> I'm so glad we're partnering with the, um, entities for back to school supplies and registration. It's going to be, it's been a great u marriage so far. Last weekend was really good. I can't wait for the next two weekends that we do this. So, it's going to be great and thank you very much for that. Dr. Frank, Miss Chum, good job on the on the um report. Let's make that
099happen all all year all in. >> I'd like to thank Dr. and all her staff for the hard work that you guys put in. Um I know sometimes um people don't really see what you do and and and trying to move the district forward. I'm very happy about uh the pouches and and uh I have faith that we're going to the scores are going to go up, the discip the disciplary problems are going to go down and we're going to be talking to each other instead of texting. So, I know right off the bat uh principles that it's going to be a little rough, but we're going to get through this and then we're going to see uh the reward uh coming from being able to do this. So just hang in there. Everything is
100going to be fine. I do really appreciate everything that you do. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. D. Miss. >> Thank you, President Sige. First of all, let me turn this way. I'm looking up here. I'm very excited. You hear it in my voice. Excited about the theme for this year. Start stronger. Stronger together. I love that word together. I want to wish each and every one of you, all the students, the employees, the parents, everyone, we're off to a great start. I'm wishing each and every one of you a great year. And presidents, you don't get to do this that often. It reminds me of Let's Make a Deal. You get to give a shout out when you're up there. So, I'd like to also end by sending a shout out to my son
101who's out of the country, Brian Sheay Brown. He will be a an August 1st graduate of Lamar University with his master's degree. He is a supervisor for Exxon Mobile and an on the point volunteer for our district all the time. So once again wishing you all the best and sending my son love and congratulations. Thank you. >> Thank you Miss Hickman. >> Happy new year. I know how hard everybody is working right now. Um, may you be blessed that it all goes the way you want it to, that you have a fabulous school year. Thank you for all you do, >> Mr. Reese. >> Thank President you cut my phone. You got and u I think one day we're miss Georgia. One day I don't know what day but we're going to miss her. He
102ain't going to let us go. Okay. Well, thank you president. You have the power. But uh teachers and and mechanics and bus drivers, we love you all because without you, we can't do what we do. uh this district uh attends I think we're on the road to maybe topping what we did last year superintendent possibly well every little bit helps. So thank all of you for all that you do. We love you. Thank you. Have a good evening. M sing like you got a little boy. Sing happy birthday Miss Evans. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, Mr. Evans. Happy birthday to you. I just want to tell the team, you know, uh we're going in all year, the whole year, and I'm excited about the upcoming school year convocation. Our kickoff
103signature event will be August the 5th at Ford Park Arena. So, I look forward to seeing our our leaders, our teachers, our entire BISD family together and ask everyone to be careful. There is a storm going on right now. So when you leave, please be careful. But I would not dally based on what I'm seeing on the little radars right now because of this whatever this is that's coming through. So thank you. Okay. Where yall going? [Applause] Y'all going to cut out. Y'all don't hear I got to say I'll be brief. We are moving in the right direction. When I say we, I'm talking about everybody in this room and everybody in this district continue to press forward. You know, we need each and every one of you principles, teachers, everybody in this district, we
104need you. And principles, relate that down to your APs and your teachers starting day one. They are important and what they do is important. teachers, I don't care the worst guy in the world or the worst person in the world. You can ask them a million questions, but when you ask them who was your favorite teacher, I promise you they will be able to relate who that is or who that was. That's how impactful and how important educators are. I thank the administration for your support of the superintendent as well as support to us as a board. When we ask you for something, you always come up with what we want. That's what it's going to take to push this district in the right direction or continue to push it. Stacy Lewis says something that
105just echoes in my head. He said that teachers from BISD can go and work anywhere, but not anybody just can't come to BISD cuz we're different as a district. We deal with things differently. So, I'm going to visit you. I'm going see you at your campus. But you have we have your back. We're going to take all these distractions off the table for you. We need you to educate. That's what we asking you to do. Congratulations to the new principles. We're out to support you. You all have a good evening. Keep out of the rain.