BMTISD School Board Meeting | May 15, 2025

001here. Mr. Lewis here. Miss Spooner here. Mr. Dunn here. Mr. Evans here. Mr. Ree, Mr. Sige. We will now have our recently elected board members come forward to have the honorable judge Naomi Showers Doyle administer the oath of office. We'll gather it there in front of the the elector. Well, I can't go. I can't go because I'm in Poland. I am the best of my abilities. Protect the Constitution. and the laws of the United States and of this state. [Applause] All the way. Miss Avery, would you join us up here, please? We're going to have a recognition for Stacy Lewis during recognitions. But let me say before he leaves the Adas, thank you so much Stacy. You have been a wonderful board member. [Applause] Do we have a new sign for Miss Avery? [Applause] Miss

002Antoine, could we have another roll call for the record? Miss Hickman here. Miss Booner here. Miss Avery here. Mr. Dun here, Mr. Evans here, Mr. Ree, Mr. Sige here. The board is now going into close session to discuss agenda items posted on the close session agenda as authorized by the open meetings act under sections 551.071 attorney consultation, 551.072 and 551.074, 074 personnel of the Texas Government Code. The date is Thursday, May 15th, and the time is 5:14. Dr. Frank, I understand today is somewhat special for you. It's Dr. Frank's birthday. We're so glad your birthday present is getting getting to be with us up here. I've been telling everyone that I get to have a party at the board meeting. So, thank you guys so much. I try to keep that a secret. It never

003happens. Good evening, Madame President and trustees. Over the past several months, the budget committee has worked dil diligently and thoughtfully to develop a balanced and sustainable budget for the 2526 fiscal year. This important work reflects our continued commitment to fiscal responsibility while supporting the priorities and needs of our community and our district. This evening, Miss Hernandez will provide an update on where we currently stand in the budgeting process and she will also outline the committee's next steps as we move closer to finalizing our proposed budget. Miss Hernandez, thank you, Dr. Frank, and welcome to this is I think number two, or is it is it number two? Second budget workshop. and um to our newest board member. I'm I'm going to try to help you to understand a lot of different things tonight and I

004and feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or you want to sit down and get your own class, we can do that. But tonight's presentation is um hopefully going to provide some transparency, some context, and some clarity around our processes and some of the financial challenges that we have and some opportunities that we're facing and how your input as a board plays a critical role in shaping what our priorities are. and we're going to share some highlights of our revenue forecasts and there's also going to be time for questions and discussion and we value your key your your feedback and we believe that this collaborative process helps build us a stronger and more informed community. So, let's get started. We always start out all of our presentations with the vision

005and mission. And if you'll recite it with me. In collaboration with the entire community, we will create an inclusive environment of academic excellence that supports the diverse needs of all learners. In the mission, we will inspire and prepare all students for lifelong success by providing an exemplary education in a safe learning environment. Now, we also like to share our board outcome goals and and these board outcome goals will expire at the end of this year. And we're currently working on the the new board outcome goals. And this is a picture that depicts our budget process. And our goal with that budgeting process is to plan a budget that helps the district meet those board outcome goals. And we also plan the process to produce a balanced and sustain sustained budget as Dr. Frank mentioned. And

006so it's really an ongoing process. And that's why it's a circle with just different spots because we're always working on either this year's budget or projecting what we're working on for next year. And there's a lot of planning that goes on. and we began the planning for our 2526 budget in the fall. And um we're almost to the end. This is going to be the last meeting that we have to share some information and then we will have our public hearing in June where the board will actually adopt the budget for the 202526 school year. When we are preparing our budgets and and we're given allocations per pupil allocations to our campuses, departments receive allocations as well. They tie their budgets to our budget priorities and they're actually going into our team system and tying

007all of these budget priorities and and stating it in there how much they're giving to uh support each of the priorities. So, where are we right now? We are continuing to look at our staffing and our current vacancies. We're still looking at our revenue and our expenditures that have recurring revenues and costs. And then we're keeping our legislature. The legislature is meeting right now. And there's a lot of bills out there that we're keeping eyes on, but so far we do not have any updates from them. Um, we're projecting a 3% raise right now for all employees with some adjustments for some of the high needs areas. Um TASBY presented information last month about our salaries and thanks to the passage of our Vader we are within 96% of our peers that um were shown

008and so that is a good thing for us and um the board was gracious to give us um that go-ahad to go out there for that Vader and we were able to bring our salaries up. Dr. Allen shared this a couple of months ago, like what happened to the Vader money? We committed it all to recurring expenditures. So each year these these funds are in the budget because um we gave raises. Those continue because we don't take back what we gave our employees and we've got safety and security measures that are in there and of course our facility improvements. So this is a breakdown of our different sources of revenue. We have local funds. The biggest portion are property taxes. We are actually with kids you put it to where they can still get you.

009And I forget to turn it off. Sorry. Um we have um interest revenue. That's another big one for local revenues. And we're actually projecting a decrease because interest rates have dropped some. And then our state revenue, we know we're not going to get 1882 funds of 1.3 million. And then federal funds, we will not be able to um receive indirect costs because our ESSER funds are gone. and we actually had um $2.3 million budgeted for that and so we're going to decrease that and then of course our charge revenue there um the government is not going to be reimbursing us for some of those expenditures but overall we're looking at a $3 million decrease from last year. So when you look at the $3 million decrease of revenue, but you want to give a raise,

010so you're going to increase your expenditures by approximately $3 million. So when you add them together, we had to look for $6 million to be able to sustain it. Okay, we're not getting any new revenue because we have the same amount of kids with the same amount of times coming to school. So this picture, we used this during our VA presentation and I really liked it. Yes, ma'am. Mr. Evans needs you to stop for a second. Oh, certainly. Thank you, Madam President. Uh, Miss, can you go back to that last slide real quick? Certainly. Can you tell us kind of define the indirect cost and the shards? Kind of tell us what what what what exactly is that and what's impacted those two funds? I sure can. Um, our indirect cost when we receive federal

011funds and I actually slide tonight that's going to show you how many uh how much we receive in federal dollars. So when we look at um each year we file with TEA our indirect cost rate we there's a calculation that is done um Stacy does it for us and and then she submits it to TEA and then we're assigned a direct cost a restricted and a nonrestricted so a restricted indirect cost rate is very small and then your nonrestricted is it's about we I think we got 15% but our restricted is like 5%. So each time we have federal dollars, the district can recoup like 5% of that for the handling of the money. And it it's kind of like a it's a revenue in our general fund, but we charge it to the federal

012grant. With ESER, we were actually able to use our restricted rate. So if we spent $10 million of ESSER funds, the district got $1.5 million. That's why that's so large is because we were able to charge that unrestricted indirect cost rate and it gave us extra money for operations. Okay. And our SHARS is our school health related um what's the R? school health. It's revenues from our our special service kids that when we spend expenditures on certain kids, they bill Medicaid for some of those and then um we're reimbursed for extra expenditures. So this is actually federal dollars as well. Okay. Is it lower because we are we have fewer kids or is it a government? It's a government they are not reimbursing for some things and I think it had to do with transportation.

013Health and Human Services actually reduce the amount that any district is able to recoup uh for health services or related services. Yes. So it's not just here, it's everywhere. And we actually have a consultant that helps us to process all of the things because there it's very detailed stuff that they have to um submit. And so we use a consultant and we pay them a percentage of the funds that we receive for our SHs. Um to in total I think we get about 1.4 million in charge revenue. Correct. And then um for Medicaid it's 600,000. It was about 66 620 I think. Yeah. And then our BABs are our Build America bonds. We um get rebates back on the bonds that were issued years ago. So that money is flowing into the general fund as

014well. Mr. Hernandez, two years ago we were hit with a property tax um disagreement with the state over the level of our taxing. Are we okay on that? Now we did receive our um preliminary uh local values that um the state controllers issued it just about a maybe a month ago and we did receive local values and everyone in the area did this time. But you can tell from your your tax bills or your notifications from the appraisal district that a lot of the values have increased. And that's due to the value that the appraisal district appraises your property at is what you could sell it for. What's it what's what could you get for it? It's supposed to be what your value what your property is worth. And so a lot of them have

015increased because there's a lot of people paying outrageous amounts for homes these days. And so that's causing the uptick in those property values. And we don't set those values. They're done by the Jefferson Central Appraisal District and we contract with them to do so just as all the other taxing entities do within our county. Any other questions? um our chapter 313 funds are one-time funds. That's what we like to call them, one-time funds that we're projected to get right about the same amount this next year as what we did this year. However, we did have notification by one of the entities that they are cancelling the project and we were actually going to go into the value limitation period next year and we were going to receive some extra funds but we won't now because

016they have canceled the project and these are only for the period of that agreement too. So, these will expire when those agreements expire, and we won't have any other extra one-time funds because they sunseted the actual chapter 313 um avenue for ent or businesses to come to Texas and make agreements so that they could have some kind of abatement on their school taxes because we're not like the county and the city. We can't offer incentives for people to come into the area. It's prohibited by law. Is the foreign trade zone the foreign trade zone that the city declined to pass a couple of weeks ago? Not this one. This one has to do with the the products that are in a certain area around the plants. So whatever product is in that zone at that

017time, they pay us 40% of what they would if they were paying taxes on it. So we figure out the what the value is of that product that's in the trade zone. Sometimes they ship out a lot at the end of the year so that they're not having to pay because if it's a foreign trade zone, typically it's taxfree for that entity. But we have the agreements with um Exom Mobile and they actually make a payment to us for that at 40%. Okay. So, in August or September, depending on when we bring it, the board will adopt two different tax rates. And this um is just a slide. We showed this during the Vader and I really liked it because it shows 80 cents of our tax rate is going towards just operations, the payment

018of our teachers and the maintenance on our buildings. And then 16 cents is going to pay debt of what we owe on the previous bond issues. And it just is a really good picture. two different buckets, but when you get your tax bill at from the tax office, you're going to see one tax rate because they add those two together, but we're actually collecting two different taxes. Okay, any questions? we probably will see a decrease possibly in the M rate slightly um because when our um property values do go up there is tax compression by the state depending on how much the state's property overall has grown. Okay. So contrary to cities and counties, when the property values go up, we don't get more money. The state just takes back what they're just going to

019reduce that by what? Our our taxes go up, our state aid goes down because unless we get new kids, we don't get to keep it. This is our enrollment history. So, we have had a slight decline. So, we're projecting in our budget 16,119 students and hopefully they will come or come back. And the board just to know just to let or a reminder and for our newbie you're going to adopt three budgets. the general fund, the child nutrition fund, and the debt service fund. Okay, so Oh, this slide just really messed up. I forgot to check that one, Ryan. Oh well. You know, when you're dealing in Google Slides and then you bring it into PowerPoint, it sometimes messes up. But this was going to be a really good slide for you to see if

020it hadn't messed up because I mean if you look title one part A the district receives 8,355,091. That's what we did for this year. Now we haven't received our planning estimates for next year. If we did we just did today so I didn't have time to update the slide. And title two we get a million dollars. Title three $235,000. Title 4, $618,000. IDAB Formula, that's for our special needs children, 4,439,000. IDA breed preschool, these are special needs preschool kids, 133,000. So when you look at this, we have 275 positions that are funded from some of these grants. in addition to the general fund where we have the majority of our staff. So that's a lot of extra people funded through the federal government's allocations to the district. Okay. Are there any questions about that? I

021just thought it would have been really good. It would have been really nice had that slide looked better, but it's It's just a big eyeopener to see that the district does receive these and and there's requirements associated with these funds just like we have requirements with our state money as well. Okay. This does not include uh head start or nutrition. Actually head starts down. It it was there. Um, so what's up there does not include 2 million. The the two the 275 does include the positions in child nutrition and head start, but Head Start is on there. How much do we get in Head Start? I forgot two million. $4 million. So there's another $4 million. So we kind of went blank. Got a question. Go ahead. Oh, why are we talking about He fixed

022it. Look, that looks so much better. Thank you, Ryan. We talking about two of my favorites, math and money. How much does that accumulate total? Well, I do your math. I went to school with you. So, if you if you're looking right here, it's probably say 8 n 13 plus another 17 18. So, $30 million. All right. If you add in child nutrition, because child nutrition is about 12 million dollar program, we we get reimbured about a million and something every month for um feeding the children. And then lastly, um these are some bills that we've been keeping our eyes on. House Bill Two was based off school funding and they're looking at putting 7.6 6 billion dollar into the school funding formula. But the Senate, they got another idea and they're talking about teacher

023pay increases. And then there's some increases talked about in special ed. And then of course early education. And then there's the Senate bill for school safety increasing that school safety aotment. and we've already placed a lot of money towards school safety. So hopefully that'll help us to be able to meet some other needs because we've we've been consistently, you know, trying to make sure that we've got our armed security guards at all of our campuses. And we won't be able to know until they vote it both through in the house and it goes to the governor. So the only thing that I think that went to the governor is vouchers. Yeah. Priorities. Just does anyone have any questions? As we learn things, we will update the board as quickly as we can to let you

024know we can balance the budget right now, but it'll be taking some things out that we have grown very fond of like maybe the one-time stipen. We don't want to take that out because we love to give it. We love to help um everyone to have a good Christmas and um if they put money into education, if they increase that basic allotment, there's going to be strings attached. you're going to have to give certain types of raises and a certain percentage to teachers and a certain amount will go to they're talking the the more experienced teachers will receive more money than your lower paid and you've got to do certain percentages. We're hearing all kinds of stuff right now, but we will make sure that we comply with whatever rules that they tell us to.

025Thank you, Miss Hernandez. Thank you. We are ready for our regular board meeting. Please stand and join us for the pledges to the US and Texas flag. Good evening. Tonight's color guard is presented by the Bumont United High School Navy Junior ROC. It is commanded by Cadet Ethan PBOST, Cadet Andre Simmons, Cadet Guadalupe Delgado, and Cadet Micah Riyals under the direction of Gunnery Sergeant Michael Triplet, United States Marine Corps retired. The pledges will be led by Vincent Middle School 8th grader Kylie Drew. He's a member of the FFA program and he shows a duck for competition. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to

026the Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible. [Applause] We will now have our recognitions. Miss Jackie Simeon, director of community and media relations. Good evening, President Hickman, board trustees, Dr. Frank in Dr. Allen's absence, and audience members. Our first honore of the evening has made history in Bumont ISD. Ernestine Hunter is the district's first Brace Equip program graduate. Brace Bowmont ISD's Brace Bumont ISD's responsive academy to certify educators or grow our own program was established in 2023 in partnership with Bumont ISD. capturing kids hearts teachworthy and Indiana Wesleyan University. The program serves current employees of Bumont who are pursuing bachelor's degrees and teacher certification as well as graduating Bumont ISD high school seniors who have earned their associates degrees while in high school and are working to become educators. The accelerated program has little

027to no cost for the participants as they work to become certified teachers. Ernestine graduated from Indiana Wesleyan University last month and is teaching social studies at Vincent Middle School. All brace participants must agree to work for BISD as certified teachers for two years. So we are happy to have her as part of our family through 2027. Please join me in congratulating Ernestine [Applause] Hunter. Hello board members. Uh first of all I want to say thank you um for giving me the opportunity to pursue my calling because this is not just a career or a job. It is a calling. I've been working for BISD since um 2004 and um I left and then came right back home to BISD in um 2017. Um so my cohort family um all of us, you know, we're just

028so happy to have this opportunity. Thank y'all so much. [Applause] Our next honores of the evening will graduate as valadictorians and saludiatorans of their classes. Join me in applauding Bumont United validictorian Jamie Garrett, who will attend Lamar University this fall, where she earned the $8,000 per year Cardinal Elite Scholarship and an additional $2,000 per year Cardinal Elite Housing Scholarship. She plans to intern with Exxon Mobile while pursuing a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. After graduation, Jaime hopes to explore international STEM opportunities and expand her impact on a global scale. Saludiatoran Valyriia Velasquez will attend Lamar University to seek a bachelor of science in biology and plans to continue her education to pursue a career in pharmacy. Westbrook validictorian Crystal Louu has chosen to attend Stanford University to pursue a bachelor of science in materials, science,

029and engineering. She aspires to become a professor focused on sustainable and advanced materials research and to one day launch her own startup based on her discoveries. Saludiatoran Matthew Curicos was unable to join us tonight. Matthew will attend Rice University in Houston where he plans to pursue a bachelor of science in bioengineering. Prior commitments have also kept Bumont Early College High School validictorian Alonso Rodriguez and saludiatoran Gerardo Gonzalez from being here tonight. Alonso plans to attend Lamar University where he has been awarded the prestigious $40,000 Cardinal Elite Scholarship. there. He will pursue a Bachelor of Science in Biology with aspirations of becoming a dentist. Gerardo has also been awarded the $40,000 Cardinal Elite Scholarship and was accepted into the Lamar Promise program. Gerardo will attend Lamar University and major in mechanical engineering. We now invite Jamie

030Valyria and Crystal to the podium. [Applause] Good evening. I would like to thank you all for recognizing my outstanding academic performance. This recognition reinforces how the support from this tight-knit community proves that when you're doing right is impossible to fail. Since I'm staying local for college, I look forward to our continued collaboration and your continued support. Thank [Applause] you. Good evening. It's truly an honor to be here today as Westbrook's valadictorian. I've been with Bulmont ISD since Regina How, then I went to Marshall Middle School, and then I went to West Brook High School. So Bulma ISD really has been all part of my life since I was in kindergarten and I'm truly thankful for all the support opportunities, the people, the teachers I've had. And there's definitely a lot of people I want to

031thank here today for this honor. So first I want to thank God because they he has strengthened me and supported me on this and guided me on this journey. And then I want to thank my parents for being such a strong support system. My parents really have integrated this mindset of really loving education, really loving learning. And I don't think I would be here today without them, without such strong support, not just for my education, but for me as well. And then I want to thank my brother. He's not here today. He's in thousands of miles up in New York, but he will be here for my graduation. But he is my truly my inspiration. He stood here four years before me right here today. He was also validictorian. He definitely put a lot of

032pressure in me to be here today because he's my brother and I there's a lot of pressure to live up to the sibling. So, thank you for being my inspiration and he'll see this hopefully. And um he's also my best friend. So, not only is he an inspiration to me, but also my best friend. And then I want to thank all of my teachers, some of whom are here tonight, which was uh something pleasant to see. Um, they've not only helped me in the classroom, but some teachers, like some of them tonight, have really helped me outside the classroom, have taken the time outside the classroom to help my pursuits. Miss Muse is right here tonight. She has helped me outside the classroom with violin on multiple occasions for free on the middle in the

033early morning on the weekend, and there's so much support, and I'm so happy for that from my teachers. And then I want to thank Principal Phillips and all the other staff. He's here right now. Um, Principal Phillips has been my Marshall Middle School principal as well, and I promise every single year that he has been principal. I feel like the school has gotten better. Um, I know freshman year was wild, but right now everything is really, really chill. And thank you, Mr. Phillips, cuz I think you're the reason why Westbrook is so chill now. And then, um, and then finally, thank you to all the board members here tonight, and just everyone in general. uh the board members, you have made education possible all 12 years and you have been instrumental into guiding me where

034I am today. And yes, thank you so much everyone. [Applause] Well, Crystal's brother has proved that positive peer pressure can work. So, we thank him tonight also. Well, finally tonight, it's so hard to say goodbye to board vice president and district 2 trustee Stacy Lewis Jr. Hello citizens of Bmont, Texas. My name is Stacy Lewis Jr. and I'm running for BC Trustee District 2. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] I'm St. Louis Jr. and I'm fighting for our community. [Music] [Applause] Vice President Lewis chose not to run for reelection. So tonight, we thank him for fighting for our community and for the service he has provided to us for the last four years. And as you can see, he is departing tonight with the winning haircut that won him his seat on the board. Mr. Lewis,

035if you would please come forward, please let please join me in congratulating him. [Applause] Congratulations. [Applause] And his award reads in recognition and appreciation of your distinguished service as a board member from May 1st, 2021 to May 3rd, 2025. Your contributions have strengthened our foundation and future. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I have my Easter speech so that way I make sure I stay on on task of exactly what I want to say. But dot want to cry. All right, dot dot. Wherever you are, I miss you. All right. So, for the last four years, I'm meeting her and said right next to each other. So, short on my mind. It's tough. I don't want to cry. Okay. So, let me say on my Easter speech now. First and foremost, I'm happy. I'm proud.

036You're going to do great. Greatness is steward. And then also it's another cool thing right here, right? I mean, we just changed out the crimson for a little red. That's it. That's all we did. All right. So, that same seat is going to be fine. Okay. But first and foremost, I want to thank God. I want to thank God. I want to thank my family. You know, without both of those in my f in my life, then none of this could possibly be possible for for any of us. Okay? Want to thank God for the opportunity. Um, and I want to let you guys know that success is not success without a successor. Uh, I want to thank the pioneers who laid the foundation, those who built the cornerstone of what it truly means to

037be a community servant and a public servant. When I ran for the seat, as you guys can see in the video, I went with the moniker, the slogan, fighting for our communities. And I meant that. And I work to be intentional in doing just that. So that's how that's it. So it was seeing that little boy, you know, I'm that little boy right now. Tears on my cheeks and the ones on your shirt and trying to make sure that you take care of his needs. And for some of you, it's little girls. And so my community, my community is this community. is a community that's made of educators, our students, and our staff members. And it has been the highest privilege and the honor to serve you guys. Truly, thank you. So, I want to

038say I'm proud to pass you the baton and I only hope that I've made this school district community proud and that I've done the work with justice and integrity. So today I say farewell as a trustee but not as a servant. In the presence of my family, all of you guys, I'm announcing my attempt to run for justice of the peace in the upcoming midterm elections. So my fight don't stop here. It don't stop here. It only gets it only goes higher. I'mma work hand in hand with you guys here during my election season and then after I win the seat to make sure that Bulmont is heard around the state of Texas cuz I personally I believe this all right that I'm an advocate of Bowman and I'm an advocate of the city and

039especially for our youth and Bulmont cannot afford to keep losing his young to crime and violence and I want you guys to understand that jobs and education are the only way out. I'm committed to being a part of the solution and I thank you guys for this honor, this recognition. Truly, I'm sorry to sit up here and embarrass myself in here crying, but needless to say, I thank every last one of you guys. I have coaches, I have teachers, I have at some point co-workers all in in the congregation right now. And I thank you guys for the hand that y'all put on me. Thank you. [Applause] We close with invitations to our three high school graduations. ECHS kicks things off on Friday of next week at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center. Then on the

040last Saturday of this month, we will celebrate Westbrook and Bumont United commencement exercises at the Montaigne Center. Get more information on those and other events in Bumont ISD by visiting our social media platforms, subscribing to our YouTube channel, and exploring our newly enhanced website bmtisd.com. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Simeon. Next, we will hear the assistant superintendent's report and we will then have public comment. Stacy get away without his sign. Right. Thank you. Good evening, Madame President, trustees and BISD community. Tonight, I will present the superintendence report on behalf of our phenomenal leader, Dr. Shannon Allen. We have already recited the vision and the mission. I won't make you do it again. But in front of you, you see our core beliefs. Our vision and mission are grounded on these six core beliefs. And tonight's

041presentation will address core belief one, all children can and will learn, and core belief five. We will work collaboratively with our families and community partners. The presentation tonight is short. I have three quick updates for you on registration, summer to success, and then graduation. So, we kicked off our registration efforts on April 26. You can see our registration event here with lots and lots of pictures. It was well attended. I want to say we registered about 500 students. They didn't have to come to register because you can register online. I want to thank our campuses because we are continuing our efforts. And so just this week we had two additional registration events. One was held at Westbrook. Don't strike out. Register today. And all of the feeder schools from Westbrook participated in this registration event.

042So, thank you principles for working together. We were able to again help and assist families with registration. Yesterday, we had a registration event at Bulmont United Registration Raceway. And again, you can see we had families to come out and we had our staff assisting parents with registration. I want to remind our parents, it is important for you to get your students registered for the 2526 school year. We have currently, and this was 9:00 a.m. today, so I'm hoping more parents got on, 259 students registered. So when you think about we have 16,000 returning students, it's only about 17%. So, continuing to push registration, new students, 318. We're excited about that. So, those are new students to the district. They could be prek or they could just be moving into Bowmont and coming to our schools.

043As a reminder, because I've heard this asked several times, well, if my student is already enrolled, why do I need to register them? They're already enrolled. They're on the campus. They know we're coming back. Have some bullet points for parents. and if you could help pass this information to parents. Early registration lets the campus to know you're returning for the next school year. We are planning right now for the 2526 school year. It also ensures that we have your most accurate information, your contact information and health information. Schools use the registration numbers to plan class sizes. We look at it to assign home room classes, hire teachers, allocate resources, and then registered students will have the ability to come to Running Start to meet the teacher events and have schedules ready for them. And parents,

044it saves you time and it prevents the child from missing important events. We have activities and events throughout the summer. You do not want to miss out on information about your students running start events, meet the teacher events. We have several campuses that have new leaders that will be pushing out information where you can come in and meet the new leader. So, we want to make sure that parents take care of registration. We will continue to support our parents. Again, I will say you do not have to come to a campus to register. You can go online to our website, click on our registration link, and complete all of your registration online. But if you need help, campuses will continue to support parents throughout the month of May. In the summer from June 4th through

045the 27th, Monday through Thursday, we will have someone at the annex from 8 to 4 pm to help parents with registration. And I'm also working with our student services uh department. We want to offer some extended hours here at the administration building during the month of June. So again, if you need help regist with registration, we are here to support you. The next update is about our summer to success website. I'm so excited about this. Miss Angelo and her team always does a phenomenal job of taking the information not only from our district but also from the city and putting it in a one-stop shop for parents. So, the website is up and running. If you go to www.bmtisd.comsummer, bmtisd.comsummer. You will see information on registering or registration for summer school. This flyer, which is

046also on the page, shows us where we are having summer school this summer. We have feeding sites where students can come in if they're under the age of 18 to come in and get a free meal. We want to make sure that our parents and community are aware of our feeding sites. Also, we are pushing reading even in the summer. So, we have our summer cool down literacy events that will be held at the annex opportunity for students to come in take AR test activities for students and then we also have STEM camp. And of course, we want our kids to have something to do. And a lot of them, guess what they like? They like going to open gym. So, we have our open gym at Bulmont United, Westbrook, and then also at Peach

047MacArthur, Jones Clark, Marshall, and Vincent. And then if you're interested in your students taking swim lessons, you can find out information about swim. All right, last update. I will tell you, I had the pleasure of attending LIIT graduation today and seeing our students walk across the stage getting associates degrees and certifications even before they graduated from high school was just something that really touched my heart. You just saw Miss Simeon share our graduation date. So, I'm looking forward to Early College High School next Friday. Okay. We will be at the Westbrook uh performing arts center. And then the following Saturday we will graduate students from Westbrook and Bulmont United. So, right now we have graduates. 464 are graduating with honors. That's about 44% of our graduates. 48 graduated today with associates degrees, 126 with level

048one certifications, and our students have received over 15 million in scholarships. So, we encourage you to come out and support our students at graduation. We are looking forward to uh those ceremonies. Any questions? said uh for the students for the summer for eating you said under 18. It's 18 to under. 0 to 18. Got you. Make sure. Yes. Let me clarify. 0 to 18. So if you're 18, you can participate in the summer feeding program. Thank you for making sure I clarify that. All right. If there are no other questions, I am also going to present our cabinet report. And the cabinet report today is going to review board outcome goals for 2025 through 2030. And I will tell you that these are proposed goals. They have not been approved by the board yet. We

049actually held a board workshop on May 7th and it was led by Dr. Duncan Klusman. The purpose of the workshop was to define the strategic goals that will guide our district's work for the next five years. And we specifically looked at goals in early literacy, early mathematics, college career and military readiness and perception and AM rated schools. So before you you have our task force groups and leads. They have been leading the charge of working when their particular area and you can see those groups on the left side. Teaching, learning and leading, parent and community partnership, climate and culture, talent strategy and college career and military readiness. So, we receive feedback and we appreciate the feedback. Feedback is a gift. And we know that the board's expectation is for us to establish ambitious and inspiring

050goals in literacy and math. Aiming for more aspirational targets in college, career, military readiness that align with the district's commitment to make sure that our high school campuses can achieve an A rating. looking at quantitative and qualitative data in measuring the perception goal and then overall looking at targets that reflect high expectations and demonstrate confidence in students potential. I hope I summed that up correctly board. So what you see in front of you is 25% and I'll talk about this and I this one of the things if Dr. Prudin is here she's going to know I called her the other day because I woke up with a dream after our meeting on Monday because we immediately came back and we met and we talked about the expectations. We made sure we were looking at data.

051We made sure that we were focused on goals that our community would see that we were raising the bar and looking for progress and but at the same time were attainable for where our students currently are and where we need them to be. So 25% increase by 2030 in reading, math, and CCMR. What does that look like? Our first proposed goal for early literacy is that the percent of third grade students that score meets grade level or above on star reading will increase from 27% to 52% by June 2030. Second goal, the percent of third grade students that score meets grade level or above on star math will increase from 21% to 46% by June 2030. For goal three, the percentage of graduates that meet the CC the criteria for CCMR will increase from 65%

052to 90% by August 2030. And when looking at our perception goal, we did get the approval to use this goal that did not have a baseline or a target, but to make sure that we were looking at performance objectives that would be able to measure perception. So we we uh stuck with B uh Bowman ISD will create improve its perception with all stakeholders by ensuring all students are safe, supported and able to develop self-management skills as measured by surveys and other data reports. We will concentrate here on community perception, community and student perception with surveys, but also looking at discipline data, decreasing the number of referrals that we have and looking at safety measures. Are we implementing the safety measures mandated by the state and and where we want to be by 2030? And then

053for goal five, we want to increase the percentage of our students in A and B rated schools from 15% to 50% by August 2030. So again, we know if we achieve one, two, and three, it will make sure we achieve four and also five. Mr. uh you told me something about I think it's go two that we are at or above the state average when we look at our reading or you want to look at math when we look at where we are and I do want to say that the baseline will probably change but we do want to increase by 25% from wherever our baseline is. Currently, we're using our data from 2024 star because our scores have not come in for 2025. But when we look at our data for third grade star

054and if we just look at the region, 32% is where the region is at meets and you don't have this in front of you, but I can provide it for you. And then for the state 41% at meets and that is for math. When we look at reading for the region 39% at meetats and then 49% for the state. Yes. So we know we are performing below the region and the state but our goal is to make sure that we are setting targets yearly targets where we're increasing. Once the goals are approved we will come back as a team and then talk about the yearly targets. So that means in 2026 where do we want to be? So, if the end goal is 52% for reading, where do I want students to be at the

055end of 2026, 2027, all the way to 2030? Any other questions or really comments and feedback? Because we have a meeting scheduled Monday where we're going to take your feedback again. If you tell us to go back to the drawing board, we will do just that. Our uh task force leads are here. They're writing down notes and I will write them down as you give us feedback or any comments or tell us to move forward. If we are allowed to move forward when we meet, we will set targets and we will also begin to work on performance objectives. Those are going to be the strategies that we implement. This is this is going to be part of our broader strategic plan. the plan that's going to drive the work of the district. Mr. I I

056think we've agreed we we need to move forward on them because it's unsatisfactory if we leave the goals low. We need to be pushing towards something higher for our children. Who's going to be satisfied with a 27%. That 27% of your students are reading effectively. That's not satisfactory. And as a district, we need to be pushing forward till we raise the level of expectation from our children. I wouldn't want my kid reading or students reading that 27%. Is that satisfactory to you all? Any of y'all got children in the district? Would you be okay that your child is reading 27%. It's not acceptable. So, we're pushing the ball down the down the field. Let's get on board. Buckle up. Let's push the district forward. That's why we changed the numbers. Mr. Dod, can I just

057one quick uh question here? We're going to uh look at for each one of these uh by year how much we want to raise it say from 27 to 52. You guys going to come back to us with that? Are we going to Yes, sir. Different number. If you tell us to move forward that the goals are okay then the next step will be we will set targets. We didn't want to set targets right if the end target was not approved. Gotcha. Yes. Understand? Okay. Thank you. I think one of the things we agreed with the other night was we wanted something that was easy to understand by our community and I think the math goal is appropriate. It is more than double what we where we are now. I think the reading goal is

058not I think it needs to be at least 54 so that it is double what it was last year because as Mr. Siki said nobody is happy with last year's score. All right, I have noted that. We will come back and there goes my 25% graphic. But we definitely want to make sure that because we know board, you will be the face of these goals. Not just not just the the teachers and the principles and we know that you have to communicate the goals and we want to meet your expectations. We have to sell it. Yes. To the community. And I'm going to make a comment that's probably not going to be popular with Miss Hernandez. However, if we want kids to read better, we have to provide for them to read. And I know

059we have the um program on their uh computers that they can read, but there's nothing like holding a book and even more importantly snuggling with your mom or your dad or your big sister to read that book. So, I want us to be very clear about being able to hire if not librarians, although I would love to see us meet the state average for and the expectations of the state for certified librarians in our elementary schools. But at least librarians who are allowed to be librarians in the classrooms so that they're not taking care of everything else in the world so that they can check out books so that they can help children find books and make reading a true priority. Because unless everybody is making reading a priority, if kids are not setting goals

060to improve their reading, if they are not aware that it is a big deal for all of us, it won't be a big deal for them. I have one. Yes. And this is targeted to Miss Hernandez. In listening to President Hickman, uh, I would like for you and your team to navigate into funding for early childhood partnerships. We partner with World of Color and all that. We've asked several times and then I guess it's on the back burner. But when we talk about literacy in kindergarten, uh, Miss Little is here, Bingman, Head Start, and all of that, we have an avenue. We want to, of course, hold our parents accountable. But if we have young parents that cannot do it, we have to do it. And that's where the daycarees and the partnerships come in.

061That is a necessity. So, I'm imploring you again, Miss Hernandez, to look into whatever we have navigating here and there to help us make that a dream come true because Miss Hickman has have asked and I have asked several times. So, thank you. Not not not cracking the whip, but we we need some expediency on that. Thank you. And we have actually met to look at that. So, it is definitely something. We know the expectation and we love our partnership with World of Color. Um, we we actually had some students who graduated today with certifications that actually go to the the daycare and uh get their hours there. So, thank you, Dr. Yes, ma'am. We the dream if I'm not mistaken was to have that type of partnership on every side of our city that

062we have at least four that we can reach uh more families. Thank you for pursuing it. Thank you. Is there any other feedback for Dr. Pride? Thank you. Public comments. It is now time for public comments. Miss Antoine, do we have anyone signed up to address the board? Yes, ma'am. Dr. uh, Miss Antoine, I don't have my script for public comment. I apologize. I just realized I forgot to attach it. See here. No, not tonight. Would you like me to add a little bit on your behalf? Would you like me to add a little bit on your behalf? Oh, okay. Oh, that's not the portion of this meeting is set ai aside for parents, students, employees, and community members to address the board about any matter of interest to them pertaining to the school program.

063Each person who has signed up to speak before the start of the meeting will be provided two and a half minutes to speak. If you registered at the meeting, you will be provided one and a half minutes. The board will listen, but it is forbidden by the Texas Open Meetings Act from discussing any topic raised or making any decision unless the matter is already on the agenda of the meeting. We will remind you that, excuse me, we will remind you that public comment is not the time or place to bring the board complaints about a particular program or a particular employee. Should you have a complaint about a particular program or particular employee, we will the board president will ask you to stop and we'll refer you to the appropriate grievance process. This is in

064uh accordance with the requirements of board policy beed local that specifically requires the board to refer such complaints to the proper resolution channels. Miss Santo Dr. Brandon Thirsten not here. Okay. For a minute and a half. Jennifer Moore. I'm scared. Thank you guys for Thank you for letting me speak tonight. And I would like to bring before you the need for cameras in all special needs classrooms. Not being specific with complaints, there are multiple open CPS investigations as well as BISD police criminal investigations related to an occurrence related to my daughter. I understand that cameras are available through the process of being requested by a parent, principal, admin, or board member. After that request is made, that's 30-day approval and then 40 to 45 days to put them in. You can only make the request

065at the beginning of the year or throughout the year, but it's only for that school year, and it doesn't continue through. My daughter, who's currently in a special needs classroom at Amelia, will be attending Caldwell Elementary School for ESY, and I don't know if there's cameras in that room either. There's currently not cameras in my daughter's classroom which I have requested. My daughter's first report of abuse was starting in January. I worked with the principal to make an and there was an investigation. Spoke with the principal on February 3rd requesting cameras in the classroom which he assured me that he would follow through on. That request was not followed through. I made a formal request on March 20th which was approved on April 25th, 15 days after my daughter's injury. If properly requested, maybe the

066incident in April would not have happened. But if the cameras were in the room in the first place, then we would know right away what happened and there wouldn't be any question as to how that teacher could still be teaching in the room. Cameras in the room benefit BISD board as a it protects you. It protects BISD against false claims being made as well as protecting all the students. Sorry for going over and thank you for your time. That concludes request for public comments. Thank you, Miss Antoine. We are now ready for information items update on personnel activities. Mr. Samuel, good evening board, and welcome, Miss Avery. uh you have uh in front of you a listing of newly hired and separated employees for the month of April. Uh I would like to give a

067a special shout out to uh Yolanda Valerie the the new principal at Fail, Victoria Landry, new principal at Jones Clark and Rene Pig is the new principal at Smith Middle School. They are uh on the trail uh hiring for their campus. Any questions? Thank you. Mr. Hernandez, welcome back. Well, thank you. It's good to be back. So, for the month of April, the tax office collected almost $600,000 in maintenance and operations taxes and just right below $120,000 in debt service taxes. and we are 95.93% collected. Any questions? For the general fund, we had 157 million almost 158 million really and um expenditures of just over 146 million. So, we are in the black because, you know, our tax collections came in in February, January and February, and we had outstanding purchase orders, just over $3.6

068million. Our campus activity funds collected just over $343,000 during the month of April. And then we had a number of donations, monetary donations totaled over $11,000. Tricon donated to several camp campuses $500. An anonymous donation to ODM Academy in the amount of $591. Nat Gas gave um Westbrook High School $500. architectural alliance was a donation to Westbrook High School, $3,500 for the um coaches rings for the state basketball win. And then Ramona Dugis Lee donated $215 to Bowmont United High School. Dolores Chis of D Richard Real Estate donated to Career and Tech $50. Emma Brown to Career and Tech for $30. and Lawrence Evans to Career and Tech for $25. And then John P. McGovern Foundation donated to child nutrition department $5,000. And we had two donated items. Chick-fil-A chicken biscuits to Peach MacArthur from

069Bolton CDJR in the amount of $1,034. And Jean Leaf of Jason's Deli donated coffee to Regina Elementary for $50 and we didn't get invited. Oh. Well, and then we do have a quarterly investment report for the period ended February of 2025. And at that time we had 143,383,31840 in our Lonear account and in text pool we had 4,620,2892. Are there any questions? Thank you very much. Thank you, Chief. Intruder detection districtwide intruder detection and audit report findings. Good evening, board president, Dr. Frank, and welcome Mrs. A board of trustees. Um after the tragedy of Hub Valley, uh Texas governor with TA along with the Texas school safety center, they helped incorporate what is considered to be the intruder detection audits. Uh the TEA wanted to ensure that all of the districts across the state of

070Texas were fully 100% investigated or excuse me audited. And so with that being said, um they have went out with to be able to accomplish that task. Uh they have somewhat completed uh doing so uh this school year. Uh for our district we have completed all 26 campuses have been audited. Any of those campuses that did have deficiencies early on uh have undergone the corrective action plan and have been completed. So as of today to date we are completed with any type of intruder detection audits for the district. Is there any questions or are there any questions? I'm sorry. Thank you chief. Yes ma'am. Thank you. Report on facility subcommittee. I believe Mr. D is making that. Yes, I am. Thank you, Madam President. Uh facilities committee met on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. The following

071members were present. Uh President Tilly Hickman, Robert Dunn, Randall Maxwell, Sherah Hernandez, Dr. Ron Jackson, Mark Mlen, and Brian Johnson. The following items were were discussed. BISD uh Treyan Transportation Complex construction continues on schedule. The steel material needed for the building will be delivered in July and the project continues to be on schedule for an August 2026 completion date. Smith Middle School Commons area paintings will begin on June the 9th, 2025. The building will be closed to students and staff from June 9th through July 18, 2025. Summer open gym will be held at Jones Clark. Dr. Martin Luther King uh Junior Middle School has been rebranded. It is now Dr. Martin Luther King Collegiate Academy. The signage of the inside and outside of the facility has been ordered. All areas that say middle school will

072be removed. That's the end of my report. Any questions? Thank you very much, Mr. D. We are now ready for the consent agenda. Does anyone wish to pull any items from the consent agenda for discussion? Present Hickman. Uh item number one, the minutes. Yes. That we u delegate uh an amendment to uh Miss Georgia. Yes, there's a a omission of hours that should have been included for training that needs to be corrected. We will um adopt those minutes next month with number item one removed. Is there a motion to um approve the minutes? So move. Mr. Dunn, I don't know. I didn't catch you, Mr. Sige. Mr. Dunn has moved Mr. Sige second to approve the items on the consent agenda. Is there any discussion? Those in favor, raise your right hand. All oppose, same

073sign. The motion carries 70. We are now ready for our action items. Board members. Uh, there's not approve budget amendments. Dr. Frank. Madame President, I recommend that the board approve budget amendments from the general fund 11 and accept amendments from spe uh special revenues 30 31 32 33 and 34. Mr. Hernandez. Thank you, Miss Hickman. GF11 um is transferring funds between functions. As we wind down the end of the year, campuses are moving funds to be able to spend the rest of their budget money. And then we have title um budget amendments that are moving uh funds between the functions as well. And then for um Head Start, they are u moving funds to uh be able to purchase a bus and that's going to be on our purchases over 50. Are there any questions?

074You look perplexed, Mr. Evans. I would. Is there a motion? So move. It's been moved by Mr. done and seconded by Mr. Reese to approve budget amendments as presented to the board. Is there any discussion? Those in favor signify by raising your right hand. Those opposed, same sign. The motion carries 70. Madame President, I recommend that the board approve purchases over 50,000 from the general fund in the amount of 1,224,5427. Instructional materials allotment in the amount of $781,269.80 from federal funds in the amount of $482,97.50 50 and state grant funds in the amount of $200,500. Is there a motion to approve? So move. It's been moved by Mr. Dunn and seconded by Mr. Reese to approve purchases over 50,000. Mr. Hernandez. Thank you, Miss Hickman. For the general fund, we are uh renewing class link

075at the in the amount of 58,8280 that's used by our technology department. CDW is the subscription renewal for our multiffactor authentification provider. That's where our um it protects our network in the amount of 123,45747. And finally, a long time coming middle school purchase for furniture for Vincent Marshall and ODM in the amount of 1,42,244 through Mannings. our instructional materials. Um, McGraw Hill is this is additional science curriculum for Jones Clark Fell Price and Smith since we're taking back those campuses in the amount of $22,73.7. And then S syngage learning is for the high school math instructional materials which is $579,196.73. And then for federal fund purchases, we have commercial kitchens. Child nutrition is replacing some outdated equipment at King in the amount of $121,60. Then there's a purchase with Satchel Pulse for virtual mentoring for

076teachers for monthly professional development in the amount of $99,187,50. And then region five, they they are the approved provider for the strong foundations PLC support. This is a new grant that we just received and that purchase will be $112,500. And then the Thomas bus Texas is the purchase of the new bus for Bingman Head Start in the amount of $149,350. And then we have the state grant side of the strong foundations purchase through region five in the amount of $200,500. Are there any questions? Mr. Dun, just one on excuse me on the uh Thomas bus uh Texas head start being the head start. You said the the safety vision cameras. Yes, we we have been putting uh cameras on our buses. Uh when we purchased the original fleet, we did have cameras on the buses.

077Some of them are not working because the technology has changed and it's not as good and sometimes the cameras that you know the buses kind of shake a lot and sometimes the technology doesn't work. So we do want to equip every new bus purchase with that camera system. That's a separate purchase besides the bus itself. Well, it's a part of this purchase. So, the the cameras are going to come installed on the bus. Gotcha. That's okay. Miss Hernandez, if I may interject, I see Miss Little back there. For those of you that do not know, I serve on the policy council for Bingman Head Start. So, I was privy to be in the last meeting of the year and there was several things uh that I thought was very interesting to add to what Mr.

078Dunn asked. If I may ask Miss Little to just come up and share a little something about this. Yes, if you'll just share the rationale or whatever you want to share about this bus purchase because it is it was very unique how you will utilize this transportation. We have on our campus two teachers that provide trans that drive for the uh fleet. Um and have been doing it now for three or four years. Um so we were trying to go ahead and purchase a bus so that they would have their own bus to drive and wouldn't have to be going back and forth between fleets and to make sure our children get home safely. I mean it's just a safety issue. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Mr. Ree. Whoops. How you doing? We appreciate everything you

079do for the ones. Thank you so much. We'll start back reading probably in August. Okay. We'll be looking for you. I know you hold me to it. Yes, I do. Okay. Anyone else? Thank you, Miss Little. Anybody else? And and just to point out, that's a really good point, Miss Spooner, about that once a purchase is made through federal funds, that bus is only used for that program. The the transportation department can't take it and use it for other things. It's for that program. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. Thank you, Miss SP. All in favor raise your right hand signaling I. Those opposed same sign. The motion carries 70. Madame President, I recommend that the board approve rankings and contract award for the Chiller replacement project CSP 25.15. Is there a motion? So move. It's

080been moved by Mr. Dunn and seconded by Mr. Sige. Miss uh by Mr. Ree to approve rankings and contract award for chiller replacement project CSP 25.15. Thank you, Miss Hickman. We issued um a CSP for the chiller replacement at Bmont United and we received back two responses and the award is going to associated mechanicals for this replacement in the amount of $475,23. The um amounts have gone up since all the tariffs have been put in place though. Is there any discussion? Eric none. Those in favor please signify with right hand. Those opposed motion carries 70. Madame President, I recommend that the board approve rankings and contract award for student athletic insurance RFP 25.19. Is there a motion? So move. It's been moved by Mr. Dunn and seconded by Mr. Sige to award to approve rankings

081and contract award for student athletic insurance RFP 25.19. Is there any disc um are you going to talk to us? I'll talk to you. So um this is student athletic insurance. This is the first year that we're awarding um a new contract to Greater East Texas Insurance Associates for our student athletic insurance. And just to remind the board, this is student um insurance for parents. It pays secondary to their um insurance that they have. if their student is injured during any athletic event, they can file on this insurance and it could pick up like a co-pay or something like that. So, this is a little bit less than we've paid in the past. We I think our last year we paid 123,000 and so we did an RFP and the amount is 102,213. Is there

082any discussion? Question. What if the parent doesn't have insurance at all? It will pay up to the amounts allowed in the program. Okay. Thank you. There are limits as to what it pays, but it does pay things. Any other discussion? If not, those in favor raise your right hand signaling I. Those opposed, same sign. Motion carries 70. Madame President, I recommend that the board approve rankings and contract award for health insurance RFP 25.18. So moved. Mr. Dunn. Mr. Evans. It has been moved and seconded by Mr. Dunn and seconded by Mr. Evans to approve rankings and contract award for health insurance RFP 25.18. Thank you, Miss Hickman. We um issued an RFP for employee health insurance. And um at this time I would like to recognize because we formed an employee benefits insurance committee at

083the direction of Tracy Reinhold, our um director of risk management and benefits. And if you're on the employee benefits insurance committee, could you please stand and be recognized? [Applause] They were presented with a lot of information this year. Um there were several meetings that were held and we actually had Gallagher, our insurance consultants, come and present to them so that they could better understand the things that districts are facing, the things that programs are facing, the things that um insurance companies provide. And we do have with us um Ben Magnus and Betty Gwyn with Gallagher. And if y'all would like to come up, um, in your packet there's some information that, um, they're going to share and you can follow along with it. It's the second page after the, um, um, scorecard and they're going

084to kind of talk about the things that we're kind of going through with our health insurance. This is Ben and this is Betty. I know. I know. Okay. Sure. No problem. That's all right. That's all right. Good evening. Thank you for having us. This has been a really fun project. Um the more challenging these types of projects are, the more we love working on them. And as you know, healthc care costs are going up every single year without exception. So throughout this process, like we talked about. We went through the committee and um brought to them everything from um benchmarking, comparing it to the TRS plan, comparing it to all of the districts that are adjacent to you as well. Because it's always so important that your benefit package be competitive, affordable, and provide high

085quality, cost-effective care to your employees and their family members. That is always our goal to bring these uh programs to your employee population. So what we were faced with when we were talking and working through this plan is we had a very compressed timeline and that's why we worked through the RFP because we wanted to leverage the market. We knew how the plan was running and we knew what to expect from Blue Cross for the renewal and the only way that we could leverage that renewal was by doing a formal RFP because otherwise we would simply just be accepting Blue Cross's renewal as they presented it. Whereas when we uh have a competitive marketplace, that's what's going to help us leverage uh the market to get the best rate in renewal that we possibly could.

086Um, so what we did is we went to the marketplace. Oh, you want to go ahead? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, as as Betty was saying, uh, for RFP 2518, we went out to the market. We received proposals from three medical vendors, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Curative, and United Healthcare. And then when we flip to the next page, this is where you'll find the financial executive summary. So, you'll see in column two, the current annual about 12.6 million. In the initial RFP, Blue Cross Blue Shield came in with proposal that was 34.8% above your current annual spend or about 34. Your current premium rates. During best and final offer, when we went back and told them to sharpen the pencil, they came back at that 19.9% that you'll see in this blue box here. In addition

087to the 19.9% uh rates that they're offering, they're also providing a $390,000 administrative credit that will be applied to the first or second month's invoice. So when we factor in that $390,000 administration credit, it brings the renewal down to that 16.9% that's in that blue box. and we flip to the next page, you'll see that uh Bulmont ISD is currently offering three health plans and it is recommendation that that continue for the next plan year with no plan design changes. On the next page, you will see that you'll see the current breakdown for the current year uh premiums for each three plans, PO plan, the HMO plan, and the high deductible health plan. And then you'll see in the right three columns the new premium rates for all three plans and for all three health

088tiers. That's the employee only, employee spouse, employee plus child, and then the employee plus family tiers. And then you'll see on the next page a further breakdown of what those contributions will be for the employees. So for example, when we look at the HMO plan for the employee only tier, it's currently $0 employee contribution. You'll see on the right hand side in the blue box under the employee difference column that that is increasing to $4210 a month. When we look at the hydrocoal health plan for the employee only tier that is going from $359 up to $96.60 or a difference of $61. And lastly, on the PO plan for the employee only tier, it's going from $3063 up to that 145 for a difference of $14.37. So basically what it means is there's not going

089to be a plan that will be there's going to be a cost questions. Mr. Hernandez, could you tell us what groups were included in your employee committee? We had a representative from every campus. Um there were criteria that we wanted they want we wanted them to be a participant in the health insurance to be on the committee. There was a representative from um every department and the heads of the presidents of the teachers organizations and then of course Tracy is a member and then uh Derwin and myself and Brandon Basinger. Thank you. So you covered the waterfront as far as getting input from every group within the district. Correct. And not only did they do the health insurance, they did our ancillary benefits that we offered, too. And and they voted on which ones if

090they wanted to add any new ones this time as well. Just one one quick question. You went through that kind of quickly. Uh on the page where you have the contributions uh the 2025 2026 plan year contributions as you go across there these uh how much is actually uh the employee is paying on on on these numbers here I see u 446 uh for 202 years yeah 2024 25 which is current That's what so it's broken down into the EE is the employee contribution. How much that's how much the employee pays. The ER is how much the district pays and then you add those two together and it gives you the total premium. Premium. Okay. Does that make sense? Yes. And that's monthly uh 42. Yes, sir. All right. And so they just pick which

091which plan they want. Okay. I'm good. I'm sorry. Anybody else have a question? What is an average 3% raise going to be? When you when you say an average, are you saying to pull something out of the air? Well, because what I really want to know is is it going to cover the health insurance increase? Is the health insurance going to eat any raise we give them? No, ma'am. It will not cover it for everyone. And a lot of times if if there's going to have to be something out of the pocket, typically there's some of our people that will not take the health insurance. There is an ancillary benefit though that we're adding this year. The um what's it called? East East Texas cure it and it and it's going to be like they

092can you pay so much per month for employee and they can go to an urgent care like if they can't afford having that insurance there's going to be an avenue where they can go see a doctor for um I think it's $25 a month is it 20 $60 a to go to the urgent care and they but they can do family coverage. Tracy, come up here, please. This is Tracy Reinhold. She's our director of benefits and and she's um been working with our we have different third party administrators and consultants to help us through this process. and she's been very instrumental in trying to give other avenues for employees. The East Tech Curit program allows for employees to voluntarily purchase the ability to be seen at East Tech Urgent Care. They're calling the program East

093Tech Cur It. So for $60 a month, an employee can select care for themselves. And then it's employee plus one, employee plus two, and then employee family. And the rates go from $60 to $140 if memory serves. It might be $145 per month. But we're not underwriting that. We are not. The district is not. That is a voluntary benefit employees can elect on their own if they so desire. But we did try to because we to see if there was a way that the district could contribute depending on what our health insurance came back. We were going to try to see if we could subsidize it in a way, but when it's that much money, there's there's really no way that we could increase our contribution past that $460 because it to add that for

094employees would it would be a big impact on our budget when we're already trying to reduce expenditures. A quick question there. If if the employee has his own insurance, we don't uh subsidize them with anything. No, we do not. If they choose if like if they're on their spouse's insurance and they're not um they don't have to take it or theirs is better through their spouse, we don't subsidize them in any way. No. Okay. I just wanted to see if it changed from when I was teaching when I had my own insurance and you didn't give me anything. It has not changed. Any other questions? If not, those in favor signify by raising your right hand. Are you uh the motion carries 6 with one abstaining? Madame President, I recommend that the board approve the

095district contribution for health insurance and other district paid benefits for 2025 2026. So move those in f uh is there anything else you're going to add? Well, in addition to the 460 that we contribute for health insurance, we also spend $134 per employee per month for basic term life and then also a $111 per employee per month for the EAP, the employee assistance program and we do have participation in that. How much? How much for the life? How much for you say you pay that amount for the life? The life is it 1000? Thank you. It's term while you're here. You cannot take it with you the whole time you're here. Is there any other discussion hearing? None. Those in favor signify by raising your right hand. Those opposed same sign. Motion carries 70. Madame

096President, I recommend that the board approve the contract award for fire alarm system replacement project CSP 25.20. So move. Second. It's been moved by Mr. Dunn and seconded by Mr. Evans to approve the contract award for fire alarm system replacement project RFP 25.20. We um actually only received one response to our um CSP and it was from Texas Fire in the amount of 235,595. Miss Spooner. Yes, Miss Hern Hernandez. And um seeing that we only received one response and looking at the intro to this proposal, uh let's see. The offerer agrees to strictly abide by the terms, conditions, and specifications. Am I missing something? because I didn't see any terms, conditions, or specifications that was in the CSP. It's outlined when they they bid on it. They have to agree to our terms and conditions

097that are in there. There's um it's it's um a part of the the document when they're bidding on it and when we put in there certain stipulations and specifications, they have to abide by it. And this is them signing that they are agreeing to our terms. Our terms that I I was aware of that but uh we didn't have anything in our packet that reflects what they are abiding by. Yes, we don't we don't usually give that because it's a part of the bid document. Typically what we put in here are to approve the rankings of um how it was um scored. But since we only had one, we had to have some kind of documentation to put in here. And so this was their um agreeing to in their bid packet that they would

098uh abide by our terms and conditions, but they are listed on our website if you want to go see them and we or we can send them to you if you'd like. Well, I'd like to put that in my booklet because since we only had one response and we don't have any followup information even though you're saying I could go to the website. The terms and conditions apply to every contract that you were approving. Like tonight, the HVAC chiller repair that you've already approved, they had terms and conditions the same as this one does. We just don't put it in as part of the document because it's not like you're you're having to approve it because they're agreeing to what we're asking them to. Just FYI, has this happened before that we've only received I

099couldn't recall just one on replacing this because normally it's not like that. We get a few more bids. We had one last month where it was on a chiller replacement. We had only one response. Sometimes we do in fire alarms. There's not a lot of companies in this area. A lot of them will come through Houston and um typically Texas Fire is basically it. I know that Mr. Devault has tried to reach out to other vendors because we want that competition and we want to be able to do business with other vendors. Okay. Thank you. Just for my information, I was looking for the terms, conditions, and specifications, and we will get them to you. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All those in favor, raise your hand signify. I those opposed, same sign.

100Motion carries. 70. It is now time to reorganize the board of Texas uh the board of uh Bulmont ISD based on Texas law that we must reconfigure the uh or at least reorganize the the board of trustees after an election. Is there a motion to elect the board president? I have a motion. Miss Spooner. I move that we elect our new president for the board. All right. Miss Spooner has nominated herself. Are there Oh, no. I did not. What did you say? There's Oh, I thought board members. Okay. No. Okay. Miss Booner. Okay. I can nominate. You can nominate whomever you like. Thank you, Miss Hickman. Oh my god. Okay. I proudly nominate trustee Joe Evans for president of our board for the reorganization. Are there any other nominees? Me. What? I'm sorry. Uh I

101move to nominate uh Mr. Sige as board president. Okay. Are there any other nominations? Hearing none, we will take them in the order they were nominated. Those in favor of Joe Evans, please raise your right hand. Motion fails. Three to four. Those in favor of Mr. Sige, you need to vote one way or the other. Mr. Sige will be present. Four to three. Is there a motion for the vice president? I nominate trust uh madame president uh for vice president X official. We need that. Miss Tilly Hickman. Mr. Ree, did you have a nominee? Are there any other nominations? Okay, we'll do the same thing. Those in favor of Tilly Hickman, signify by raising your right hand. Motion fails. 34. Those in favor of Mr. Dunn, signify by the same sign. Motion carries 43. Mr.

102Dunn will be the vice president. Um, is there a motion to elect the secretary? Well, now it's my turn. I nominate myself to continue as secretary to this board. Mr. Sige, is there any another nomination? Hearing none, those in favor of Miss Spooner? Motion fails. 34. Those in favor of Mr. Ree. Motion carries. 43. The new officers of BISD board will be Mr. Sige, president, Mr. Dunn, Vice President, and Mr. Ree, secretary. I believe we are done. Mr. Evans, do you have comments for the evening? No, ma'am. No comment. Mr. Don, as always, I want to thank the uh staff for the hard work that you guys put in. We're getting toward the end of the year and really appreciate everything that you guys do. Thank you. Miss Avery, I have much to learn. I'm

103ready to learn. I'm ready to work. And thank you for welcoming me tonight. And let's go. Sounds good. Mr. Sige, congratulate Miss Avery uh for actually running to be on this board. We got a lot of work to do. I want to congratulate Miss Hickman for all the work that she's done over the last couple of years. I hope that I can fill your shoes. uh as well as I also want to congratulate Miss uh Spooner for the work that she has put in as a secretary and I want to congratulate everybody on administrative staff for the hard work that you do especially uh uh Miss Frank in Dr. Allen's absence. I don't want you all to think that I threw you under the bus in reference to raising the bar. I know that we

104can raise the bar and get the scores up and get more schools in the A and B category as well as get the reading comprehension and the math scores up. I know you have it in you to do that as leaders in the district. I know what we do every day is hard. I know that. But I know that you have the ability to do it. So, we're going to be pushing a little harder. I ask that you do that. Work just a little bit harder so we can raise the standards here in BISD for all the other district to follow us. Thank you, Mr. Ree. Thank you, President. President uh what Tilly has done and maybe a lot of you don't know her background. This lady has done. She's been around the the world

105in a school district teaching young people. She love it. She love it. She love it. And when I had the opportunity and I was the fourth vote, she been president and she has done a heck of a job. And we have some upcoming people that I can see here. I'm not gonna call Joe name. I I mean and I'm call the new lady here. They are young warriors. I'm an old school and everybody I think should have an opportunity that want to do it. I've been president before many years. I don't know how many but a lot of them because during that spat under my leadership with the board we put a ele brand new elementary school in every part of Bulma north south east and west I don't have to call the names you

106can see sadly Curtis was one of the last one which they weren't too happy because of some other things we did before that but it didn't matter when I had an idea to do and the board backed it. We putting a brand new elementary school in that area along with Regina How. No school district around here can say they accomplish that. That's what I am as an accomplisher. So, I just want to let the public know we did it for you and now we have a new board and and thank you for you come out on the vote. Thank you, Miss Spooner. Yes, thank you, President Hickman. Oh, wow. The reorganizing is always a reorganization is always something. And uh keep in mind that even though we are individual trustees, we have one goal in

107mind is to make sure that this district is the district that we know it is presently and what it can be. And I'd like to just say I'm looking around. This is my third term, third four-year term on the board and I've been vice president and secretary and I have thoroughly enjoyed this. Sounds like a goodbye speech, isn't it? Sounds like a goodbye speech, but I am so excited to work with our new uh officers and the rest of the board because anyone that knows me, first of all, I love God and he's in control of everything. You know, we may not have been happy with way, you know, the voting turned out for president of the United States. Some were happy, some were not. But we still have to work with who God has

108put in charge. And so in saying that, President Hickman, you've done an awesome job. Stacy did an awesome job. I want to welcome Miss Avery. I know her outside of this realm and we have worked together. So this is not my first uh rodeo with Miss Avery. And so I would just like to thank all of my fellow colleagues on this board for the time I've served in office with you. And like Aver said, I'm ready to work. It doesn't stop. Sometimes they call me unstoppable. So I'll leave with that. Thank you, Tilly. Thank you, Dr. Frank. Just want to thank everyone for spending my birthday with me. And just a reminder to staff, we have 10 days. We can do great things in 10 days and we will. Okay? Great instruction, making sure our

109students are focused and still learning because we're reaching for those high targets that we're changing again. Thank you, Dr. Frank. I want to say thank you all uh with an special appreciation of our 48 students who earned their associates degree before they got their high school diploma. It's pretty amazing that we offer them [Applause] that. Thank you to the staff, particularly the cabinet for pitching in and pulling together and making everything work with Dr. Allen's absence. Thank you, Dr. Frank, for being at the head of the ship. Welcome, Miss Avery. Congratulations to the new officers and have a great evening. Is there a motion to adjourn? We are ajourned. No big deal. We have got