Regular AHISD School Board Meeting - May 13, 2026

001You need to order more. >> I have a treasure trove. >> You do? >> But I want to know about this pen. >> It was one that was in like the PD little thing that you have. Someone handed it to me and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, this could replace it." >> Where did it go? I've been trying to hold on to it. >> Oh no. Let me see. Um the precision something. There was one of them in there that looks kind of fancy. >> Oh yeah. >> Try it. Try it. See what you think. >> Oh yeah. Oh yeah. >> Right. It's very inky. So >> Yep. You're right. It's kind of different. It's kind of seems a little more fancy than what we're used to, but want to take a picture and I'll

002just surprise you with whatever. Perfect. The little things. The little things. All right. regular things. We didn't make it in time for Friday. Yeah. So that's >> You could put it up there when Okay. So I she doesn't have to read everything. If you just gonna skip through it a course, you don't have to read everything. It'll be up on the screen and you can see that's during >> Yeah. But is that the sign of committees? >> Okay. But there's a nominating >> I told him like I'm not checking Thank you, sir. >> I think I got it all. >> Yes. >> Where's my president? It's 558. He's talking to his wife. >> All right. >> Okay. 2 minutes. >> Clay. >> He's over there talking. Karen's right behind me. >> Right behind me. Right

003behind you. I'm always like popped up. >> There's two of these. >> Is there something >> here? It just turned off. I don't know why it turned off. >> Well, I'm just in case here. Who's our tech backup with Brian out? >> What is all this stuff? >> Oh, well, we just lost our >> I don't know what happened. >> Why do we have all these tabs? >> We don't get very far and then all of a sudden I get there. >> What? What is that? >> Okay. >> Well, the good news is we don't need it for recognition. We do. >> Well, the video. We need the video. I can always I can always do text. >> The video is the first thing. Yeah. >> Let's Well, we can we can move to the

004next thing and uh get Jimmy to take pass this off. >> Oh, is that on this whole time? >> Can I go say home? >> Where are you going? >> You think I'm >> I don't think you're weird. I like all people like all kinds. >> Okay. Fingers crossed stays on. >> Oh, there's gully, man. >> It's 6:00, so you can start. >> Uh, good evening. Can I please have everyone's attention? It's uh 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 13th, and this is a duly filed and post regular meeting of the Alice Board of Trustees. Thank you all for coming. Uh, I'd like to welcome anyone listening to our live streaming broadcast. If anyone would like a recording of this meeting, we will post a link on the district website within 24 hours at the end

005of this meeting. In addition, we also posted materials being presented within 24 hours so you can review a copy of those as well. The recordings are under school board icon at our Alma Heights Independent School District.net net website. If anyone in the audience would like to be heard uh and address the board tonight, we welcome your input during our citizens to be heard item on the agenda. Please fill out the yellow or I think it's pink. I don't know. >> It's yellow. Okay. Uh form by the door. Read the instructions and indicate the agenda item if there is one so we can introduce you at the appropriate time. Um, so we're doing the oaths now. >> We are. >> All right. We will begin our meeting with section two of the agenda, organization of trustees.

006Item A, oaths of office of newly elected trustees. At this time, I will ask Mr. Tai Edwards and Mr. Hunter Keane to come up and take their oaths. that will be given by Miss Maria Pas. >> So, you're going to raise your right hand. I >> I >> Todd Edwards >> do solemnly swear >> doly swear >> that I will faithfully execute the duties >> that I will faithfully execute the duties >> of the office of the school board of trustees >> of the office of the school board of trustees >> for the Alamo Heights Independent School District >> the Alamo Heights school district >> district >> of the state of Texas >> and will to the best of my ability >> preserve protect and defend the constitution preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution >>

007and the laws of the United States >> and of this state. >> So help me God. >> CONGRATULATIONS. >> AWESOME. We're going to go to 2B. Having administered the oath for our returning trustees. Thank you for returning. Um, we are moving on to section 2B, consideration of new board officers. For your consideration, I will read the list of proposed board officers. For president, to my left, Miss Carrie Hilder. Vice President will be Mr. Ty Edwards. Secretary will be Miss Lauren Mclofflin. Assistant Secretary will be Mr. Hunter Keane. If there are no questions or comments, I will start the vote. Do I have a motion to approve the new board officers as presented? >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any oppose? Nay. >> Great. The

008motion carries. I will now hand over this meeting to our new board president, Miss Carrie Hildebrand. >> Like bait or what? So do we. >> All right. Okay. >> Wait. >> What? Oh, yeah. I give you that. Hello everybody. Thank you guys for being here. And >> I'm >> okay. Sorry. Um so now we're going to move on to 2C, assignment of board committees. Um the proposed board committee assignments are in your folders. Are there any further discussions anyone would like to have regard regarding board committee assignments? Do I have a motion to approve the assignments of board committees as presented? >> So move. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> The motion carries. Um, section three, delegations and recognitions. At

009this time, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Frank Hoffar. >> Thank you, Miss Hill. Thank you all for being here in the crowd for our wonderful recognitions. We have a lot of recognition tonight, both staff as well as students. And I'd like to begin by saying, um, let's all stay to the end. I know you're here to see certain folks, but we have so many people to congratulate and celebrate. And then once the recognition session is over, I'll let you know when that's done because we're going to go on with the business portion of the evening, which you're also welcome to say for if you'd like, but uh if you don't, that's a good time to sneak out. I'll let you know. Our first recognition is uh for I'm going to call her

010up now and I'll tell you what it is. From Woodriidge Elementary, Marty Zell has to come on down. We have a profile of a learner which articulates the knowledge, skills, attributes and habits of mind that we try. Oh, did I take a picture? I might have some too >> that we try uh to that we instill in our students from the time they started Howard to the time they graduate from high school. And we like to focus on an educator. Every other month we make a video about an educator who exemplifies a particular part of the profile. So we have a video to show Miss A or about Miss A. We'll show it to the whole group. um where we're focusing on think critically and creating right. Okay, let's check it out. Look, >> I'm

011a first grade Spanish immersion teacher at Woodbridge Elementary and I power the profile of a learner by fostering creative and critical thinking in my classroom. Towards the end of the year, I see lack of growth because when they come in, they have no sense of the comprehension or the fluency in reading, right? So, they come in at little to nine Spanish speakers, right? Even when at the end of the year, they can see >> walk around. We're talking collaboratively in Spanish and they speak like so comprehensively in Spanish as well and the fluency is phenomenal. I feel like the why is the important piece in my classroom because it's the right is the most important part of our philosophy in this classroom because that way they can start thinking outside the box right and bring

012in the reality background that they have with once again with their English and their Spanish and then it's like and then it's why do they think that way so hard to be thinking outside the mall I feel like my teaching style is my cont responsibly and creatively and let them be your child because after all you're 7 years old, right? So whatever answer they come up with is a clever answer that you can go on and embed into their thinking process. >> She's fun and she's sometimes silly. She helps us with stuff. She lets us have fun Friday if we're good. And she lets us a house so everybody can learn. I love being a better teacher. >> I feel like I hope at the end of the day and I know that I do

013make a difference because fifth graders come to like I said to my parties at the end of the school year, Christmas and they come back and I know that's when I know I made a big difference. Anything you want to add? Anybody here supporting you in particular? >> Um um >> who's all that that video you >> that is a videographer of my husband. My son who lives in Seattle came down just to come and see his mom on this special occasion, Luis Vada. And then my son Josea as well next to him. And I you could tell they all look alike, right? My husband can't see that they're not they don't identical. And then it's my daughter Mariana and her boyfriend Jared. So that's all my family and people that are supporting me. And

014without a team who actually is able and capable to support I am nothing right so it's a family uh and it's collaboration once again with my team which is Senora which was my mentor when I first got here uh and I am what I am right now because of her and everything that she's done for me to come into Alamo Heights. Um, Seenor Lees I've known for quite a while because we worked together at um, another district I'm not going to name because this is my home now. Um, and we collaborate so well. She's our specialist. Um, we have Senor Shaas with her children here who are my key to what I am and as well and our wonderful I don't call them assistants. A couple of our teachers are in the classroom as well

015which is Senora White and Senora Rubio. So I want them to give them a round of applause. Congratulations. Yeah. Now you all please go to our YouTube channel. The video's up there. Share it out on social media and get it uh everybody see it. Congratulations. >> Thank you so much. Next up, we'd like to recognize an HB excellence in education award state finalist from the high school, MONICA LOPEZ right there. Tell everybody what that is after we take a picture. Now um those of us in the education world uh refer to these awards as the Academy Awards of Education. Uh HB is a big supporter of public education and every year they have a statewide um competition but also then a recognition at the end called the excellence in education awards. Now Monica Lopez who

016is a special education teacher at our high school was a state finalist. That means she was one of five in the entire state of Texas in the category of rising stars in the secondary level, which means uh these are teachers with uh less than 10 years of experience. She was one of five finalists that she received for herself check of $1,000 as well for the school another check of $1,000. This is a big award. Anything else you want to add to us? >> It was such an amazing experience. Uh Dr. I attended Houston with Dr. Walker who's here tonight as well as Charlotte Doolat who was the academic dean at the high school that nominated me. So I think that my advice to our district is just to continue nominating our amazing teachers here in

017the district so that they can all experience what an amazing um opportunity this was for our school and feel really loved. Our guest speaker that night was the actress that plays Barbara on Abbott Elementary. So that alone was a huge win for me and all of the fellow finalists. So yes, thank you. Thank you. CONGRATULATIONS. NEXT, I'd like to call up from the high school our girls head basketball coach and special education teacher, Marvin Walker. Now, Marvin, uh, in addition to doing that for the district, is the sergeant in-arms for the Alamo Area Alliance of Black School Educators. And here's he's here to recognize us. So, I'm going to let him uh recognize us. >> Good evening. Um, first of all, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be presenting this award to a district

018in which I work. Um because uh we were nominated and I didn't make the nomination but when we were nominated I had a big smile on my face. Um we every year we do a scholarship gayla and we also do teacher of the year and we pick a district of distinction and this year Alaman Heights was chosen as the district of distinction. What that means is they answer the call. So at the junior school, Dr. Guthrie, for the last three years, uh we have uh hosted the areawide middle school bullying symposium. So that's one u opportunity that the district stepped up and allowed us to use our junior school for that. Dr. Basher usually um opens the the event off with some some kind words and a welcome to the district. Um this past year,

019Dr. referral got to uh do that. Um but it's just an honor. Dr. Basher has continued to answer the call. When uh the area Alliance of uh black school educators reaches out, she always says yes. If she can help, she always says yes. We recognize that. They recognize that. So, it's an honor to present our district with this award. Next, we're going to turn to some student recognition. And now, I'd like to recognize students who qualified for the National Thesbian Festival. Come on down. There's a long line of them, but I'm going to try to end with the teacher. You guys guess which one's the teacher among this group. >> Um, so these students qualify after competing in the na in the state Texas thespian festival. So, I'm going to ask you all to say

020your first name, your last name, what grade you're in, and if you can remember what category you qualified for. If you can't, just kind of pass it. >> My name is Vivian Davids. I'm a senior at Alamo Heights and the three of us qualified for short film. Uh, >> I'm Jason Herrera. I'm a senior and yeah, short film. >> I'm Henry Moser, a senior in short film. >> Gosh, you're so boring. >> Hi, I'm Ken Edwards. I'm a senior and I competed for scenic design uh with my set of Alice in Wonderland. >> I'm Enzo Garza. I'm a junior and I qualified for prop construction for Sleepy Hollow. >> Hi, I'm Skyler Worth. I'm a senior and I qualified for contrasting monologues. >> Hello, I'm Erica Kellogg. I am the very very lucky theater teacher

021of all these guys. Um, we're taking a group of four to nationals this June. Um, Enzo and Skyler are going along with a couple others who couldn't be here tonight and we're so excited to get to go back and do this trip and spend a little bit more time with these seniors before they go. >> Well, we appreciate you COMING and I I can't miss the opportunity to say that Erica was a student. She's an Alamo Heights High School graduate herself. So, last round of applause as you guys. Next, keeping up with fine arts, come on down. We'd like to recognize Texas Visual Arts Scholastic Event State Qualifier. Come on down. Tell us your first name, your last name, and what grade you're in. Hi, I'm Kate Bartlett and I'm a senior. >> And then

022this is the teacher. Tell us who you are. >> Shelby Griffin. I'm one of the art teachers at the high school. >> Shelby, tell us a little bit about the Texas visual arts scholastic event. >> Yes. So, uh, Texas, their big art competition is space. Um, that's through TA and we have a regional level and at the regional level they have a rating between one and four. And in order to be even considered for states, you have to get a four. And then once they have the four ratings, they take 10% of those and 10% of those are selected for states. So for us to have two state qualifiers is huge. That means they were a part of that 10% of our region as top tier artwork. And then at the state level, they are

023graded again and rated again. And they both received a four this year. So huge honors. >> Congratulations. Next, I'd like to recognize the UIL state journalism qualifier in the newswriting category >> right now. >> Yes. >> There's a lot of journalism awards coming up, so we just got to kind of keep them in order. So, tell us your first name, last name, what grade you're in, and then tell us what newsw writing is. Um, I'm Alex Betta and I'm a junior. In newswriting, I get a prompt and then I just have 45 minutes to like write pretty much like a news article about them. >> Wow, that's pretty cramped. And you go to state next week, >> this Monday. >> Great. Well, congratulations. Good luck. >> All right. Now, we also have this is an

024all state journalism award. Tell us your first name, last name, and I'll explain what this award is. >> I'm Maggie Robin and I'm a senior. >> All right. So, Maggie, this is the state all state journalism recognition where students earn in a variety of ways. You you gather points all throughout the year for competing and placing in UIL events, attending summer workshops, having top position on the staff, and you've got to accumulate 50 points in one school year, and they don't carry over. You start over at the beginning of the year. So that means you got at least 50 points. Am I right? Do you know how many you got this year? >> I know. I don't know the updated number. >> 99. CONGRATULATIONS. And of course, the person in the pink is Kristen K,

025the journalism teacher who's going to hang out for a little while. I think we have a lot going on. >> All right. Congratulations to you all. >> Are you going to let me? >> Well, yeah. Oh, yeah. You you're going to have a lot of >> Yeah, you have a lot of recognition tonight. So, go ahead. Don't don't get ner. Okay. So, it's different because Alex is like a sports athlete that qualified at district, went to a sports athlete. That's redundant. An athlete that qualified at district, went to regional, she placed at regional, so now she's going to state. So, it's a really big deal. She is top 12 in the state for uh 5A. And I'm so proud of her. So, Natalie is all state journalism. So, she had to get 50 points in

026the school year. The reason she didn't know she had 99 was because Miss Kay doesn't do math and I had to add it up three times today so I'd know the uh answer. So, she actually had 50 points by January. Takes most journalists through the district season to get their 50 points. She's 99 most school history. third straight journalism child to be off state. So taught her for four years and I'm super proud of her. >> Yeah. So we're going to keep going with the journalism awards. Come on down. The UIL award of distinguished merit awarded to the yearbook staff. They're going to come down. >> Thanks. >> Yeah. So this is a the known as the gold medal in publishing. And my notes say that this is the 18th straight year that our yearbook

027has been recognized with the UIL award of distinguished merit. It's the highest award in the state. They also were recognized by Balffor Publishing yearbook yearbook award which is a national award which recognizes the best yearbook publications from elementary schools through colleges. So let's clap for the yearbook. Uh Kristen, do we want to uh do everybody f uh you go first and then go print or do like all of them and then do all >> you're in charge. >> All right, >> but everybody's here, right? Okay. Okay. So then the second group up here, we'll get to know the individual kids in a minute. The second group you see is the UIL award of achievement to the Hoofprint. Now, the Hobbit received this award which is the second highest award known as the silver medal in

028publishing. Now, that's it, right? There's no more journalism award. So, now let's meet who's here. So, I'm going to give you my list, your first name, your last name, what range you're in, and then whether you're hook or you. >> I'm Quadro Mill. I'm a junior and I'm in hoof print. >> I'm Skyler Jones. I'm a junior and I'm in hoof print. I'm Ansley Embry. I'm a junior and I'm in Hook Print. >> I'm Matthew Rabbon. I'm a senior and I'm the Hooker's co-editor and chief. >> Garza. I'm a junior and I'm in Hook and Yearbook. >> I'm Andrew Williams. I'm a junior and I'm in Hookprint News. >> I'm Harrison Taylor. I'm a junior and I'm in yearbook. >> I'm Harry Tenkin. I'm a senior and I'm in yearbook. >> I'm Sidel Longoria. I'm

029a junior and I'm in yearbook. I'm Seny. I'm a junior and I'm in yearbook. >> I'm Galba. I'm a sophomore and I'm a yearbook. >> I'm Sam Smiley. I'm a junior and I'm in yearbook. >> I'm William Zachary. I'm a sophomore and I'm in yearbook. >> I'm in the bat. I'm a sophomore and I'm in yearbook. >> I'm Cole Smith. I'm a sophomore and I'm in yearbook. >> I'm Pedro. I'm a sophomore and I'm a yearbook. >> I'm Jamie Moses and I'm a sophomore in yearbook. I'm John Munz. I'm a sophomore in yearbook. >> I'm Nick Dodto and I'm a sophomore in yearbook. >> This is Mrs. Olivia. I'm a junior and a yearbook. >> I'm Jasmine Miller and I'm a sophomore in yearbook. >> I'm Ava Esamia. I'm a sophomore and I'm on the

030sports staff on >> I'm Carolina and I'm a sophomore and I'm in yearbook. >> I'm Ayanna Ooa and I was on the organization staff on yearbook. I'm Alex Cubetta and I was the writing editor of the yearbook. I'm Tessa Bordalon. I'm a senior and I'm on the student life staff. >> I'm Ben Brown and I'm the photo editor of the yearbook. >> I'm Hayden White. I'm a senior and I'm the co-editor and chief of the yearbook. >> I'm Adelaide Cooper and I'm one of the co-editor and chiefs of the yearbook. And I just wanted to say I'm so proud of our staff this year. We've done an amazing job and I can't wait for you all to see the new yearbook. >> IT'S AWESOME. OKAY. SO, I say it every year that it's the best

031year ever. And somebody will go, "Oh, you always say that." Yes, I do. You know why? Cuz every year is the best year ever. This is my 21st year at Alamo Heights. Every year gets better. Every year the staff is cuter than the one before, even though I love all the previous ones. Um, we've had so much fun. We laugh like the whole time. Like all the time. This newspaper staff is hilarious. I can't tell you the times I've snort laughed. It's not pretty, but it's fun. Um, and so I'm so proud of them and all their hard work. And in this yearbook staff, we had two sections of yearbook. And I want you to look, they divided themselves by classes. So this little group pretty much was my third period class. All boys except

032for two girls. Girls, raise your hands. Okay. I cannot tell you the Axe body spray that we smell on a daily basis, but they're cute and I love them and they've worked really hard. And then my fourth period class, adorable, great chemistry. They were so cute. And these kids, this is the 18th straight year that we've won the award of distinguished, which kind of so I love them all. And I don't want them to leave, but another. But that's okay cuz I'll always remember >> and I'm done. Are you happy? >> We appreciate you. Thank you so much. Next, I'd like to call out of the hallway there the UIL state tennis qualifiers from Alamo High School. Come on down. All right. All right. So, I'm going to start with the students on the end

033with the coach. Tell us your first name, last name, uh what grade you're in, and then what you qualified singles and doubles, so it's one or the other. >> Hi, I'm Hi Ziggler. I'm a junior and I qualified to state girl doubles. >> Hi, I'm Ellie Rose. I'm a senior and I also run for girls. >> Hi, I'm Ally Crane. I'm a senior and I qualified for girls singles. >> Well, that kind of summed it up right there. Um, honestly, these three young ladies I had Engling at the beginning of the semester, they were going to do some great things. Um, honestly, Ally has been amazing all year playing number one singles for us in the fall uh and mixed doubles and, you know, was kind of leading off the team for us. Uh, Hi

034played two singles uh and two doubles in the fall and Ellie played one one doubles and three singles for us. So, you got one, two, three, and they performed so well um at the state tournament. Ally lost to the two-time eventual state champion uh in the quarterfinals. Just kind of a bad draw that way. Uh only other person that she lost to there was the second place finisher. So, we're just going to call her Duran State. That works. And then Ellie and Hi. By the way, Ellie is a two-time qualifier now on double. She qualified last year as well. Um and they lost amazing match to Frisco Centennial, two and a half hour match. uh that team ended up losing another two and a half hour match in the semis to the team that won

035it. So we were right there and these ladies performed adly and represented allies. So well thank YOU of course was coach Daniel. I don't know if he introduced himself but that's our coach. Congratulations you all. Next, we'd like to call down to the stage UIL state track and field qualifiers from Alamo Heights High School. Come on down. So, uh, the actual qualifiers are the students in the middle, in case you didn't guess. The ones on the side are the coaches. And so, uh, I'm excited to hear. Now, you guys compete this Friday, right? Day after tomorrow. So, tell us, uh, your first name, last name, what grade you're in and what, um, event you're competing in. >> I'm Jack Hollowman. I'm a senior and I'm competing in the three inter hurdles. >> I am Alzerich.

036I am a sophomore and I'm competing in the 100 meter dash. >> Uh, we're going to meet the coaches here in a minute, but I'm dying to know what your times are. So tell us how fast you ran your respective uh uh event. >> I run an 117 >> 11 seconds. How about >> uh 37.34? >> That is the coaches who help support these students throughout the year. >> Hi, I'm uh coach Macyver. I primarily work with the hurdles uh with Jack. >> Did you want to pass? >> So, it's all you, right? >> Hi, I'm Jonathan Holidayiday. I'm a boy head track coach. >> Oh, I didn't mean to. >> I'm Coach Williams. I help out with a bunch of different things. >> I'm Brian Rickson. I'm the head girls coach. >> Well, I

037we appreciate uh well, congratulations to you all. We appreciate all the work that you all do. I know that the students appreciate all the work. Congratulations and good luck. >> I would be remiss to leave here without making it well known that this young man is now the school record holder in both the 110 and 300 hurdles. But on top of that, he is now the regional record holder for both 110 and the school record holder for the 100 meter dash as well. >> Wow. >> Thanks for sharing that. Congratulations. Good luck. Next, we want to call down an academic UIL math state qualifier, Andy Lee. Come on down. Andy, >> Le, sorry. Sorry. Andy Le. So, Andy qualified at the regional meet in Calculator, right? >> Yes. >> You got third place at regional

038and you're going to compete on the 19th in Austin. Yes. >> Right. And who's this guy standing next to you? >> Mr. Hughes. >> Yes. Michael Hughes. I'm the coach for all events at the the high school UIL mathematics. Uh so UIL math, UL calculator, UL number sense of which uh Andy competes in all three. Took home first place in all those events. Uh so definitely probably I would say easily the strongest uh math student we've ever had at Alma Heights. Definitely the most decorated in UIL. uh he is going to state and I think a lot of times people don't realize especially in math uh region four is the toughest region in the state of Texas. It's it's not even close they consistently produce all the state champions uh and so it's really difficult

039to uh to advance the state level and uh Andy's made it look pretty easy. >> WELL ANDY Andy is going to stay up here for a little while cuz he's a part of a lot of different teams. Right. All right. So, let's call the next team up. UIL science. Thank you, Michael. UIL science team state qualifiers. Come on down. Now, this is the science team. Uh they won both district and regional winning first place in our region. And you heard that uh how tough that region is from Mr. Hughes. Let's read the rest of the team. Andy, next to you. Tell us your first name, last name, and what grade you're in. >> Hello, my name is Ben Coffenstein and I'm a junior. >> Hello, my name is Gregory and I'm a senior. >> Hi,

040my name is Lucas Bowling and I'm a sophomore. >> Yeah, please do. >> We also had one more member make the team with us, Lucas Rodriguez. Unfortunately, he can't be here because he has a violin lesson, but he played a great role. Now this represents uh all the different like biology, chemistry, physics. It's all all combined. All combined. >> Okay. Do you guys each have specialies? You just done. >> No, it's an overall we won as a team. Congratulations. >> And of course, their coach is also coaching other people that we're going to recognize here in a minute, Ron Malaski. Let's call our next group in, which is the national qualifiers for the US National Chemistry Olympia. Are they here ready? >> I got I told you. So, Ben and Andy qualified for this in

041early April. They finished in the top 10 in the regional event. Now, this event is sponsored by the American Chemical Society and they don't know their national scores yet. Do you know when you'll know? >> Um, usually it's end of May. And if you should know them soon. >> Wow. And so I'm guessing you're pretty good in chemistry. >> CONGRATULATIONS. Now we got another one from the high school, the state science Olympiad state qualifying team. Okay. Goes by Ron Malasi. Uh we'll find out who uh everyone is here in addition to the people we've met already. So this team uh in April earned second place at the regional competition. I'll start on that side. How about that? Tell us your first name, your last name, and what grade you're in. >> My name is Davis

042Bratley and I'm a sophomore. >> My name is Linda Durant and I'm a sophomore. >> My name is Candaly and I'm a junior. >> My name is Stuart Flexerbury. I'm a junior. >> I'm John Frael and I'm a junior. >> My name is Joseph Wilson and I'm a junior. >> I'm Sha Ruse and I'm a senior. >> I'm Abigail Win and I'm a senior. >> I'm Elellanar Yun and I'm a senior. I'm Ben Coffenstein. I'm a junior. >> I'm Andy Lee, senior. I'm Greg, senior. >> I'm Lucas Bing, myself. >> So, now this team competed at Texas A&M and uh they finished 10th out of 30 teams in the state, earning state medals in variety of categories like boom lever, did I say that right? Boom. Disease detectives, forensics, and science world events. CONGRATULATIONS TO

043YOU ALL. NOW WE'RE SHIFTING not content but grade level. We'd like to now recognize the Alo High Junior School State Science Olympiad team. Come on down. Wow, you guys are uh All right, and let's let's um get to know who's here. Tell us your first name, your last name, what grade you're in, and we'll pass the mic down that direction. Okay. >> Hi, I'm City Battel and I'm in seventh grade. >> I'm Emerson Gomez and I'm in eighth grade. >> I'm Maxwell Judy and I'm in seventh grade. >> I'm Matthew Marshall and I'm in seventh grade. I'm Samuel Rubenstein and I'm in seventh grade. >> I'm Lson. I'm in seventh grade. >> I'm Logan Arian and I'm in seventh grade. >> I'm Lucy Kramer and I'm in eighth grade. >> I'm Cecilia I'm Cecilia Holshire

044and I'm in seventh grade. >> I'm Li Holshire and I'm in eighth grade. >> I'm Ruby Clappa Charnette and I'm in seventh grade. >> I'm Ellen Mchuk and I'm in seventh grade. >> And that sponsor down there, John Shepard. We do He's going to stay here for a little while. We got a little bit more to do. So, uh, thank you so much. This team won first place at the regional meet and earned one of 30 top team spots at the Texas State Science Olympiad meet. Congratulations. We've got another junior school award group. I don't know if there's any overlap, but we'll find out. So, Junior School, Texas Math and Science Coaches Association, State Me of Champions, come on down. Yes. Switch out. Little >> I love it. Now, that was Science Olympiad. This is

045UIO with a variety of different needs. some overlap. Let's meet the students. Tell us your first name, your last name, what grade you're in, and if you can remember, what you competed in. >> Uh, I'm Li Holer and I competed in science. >> I'm Ruby Clea. I'm in seventh grade and I also competed in science. >> I'm Memo. I'm in seventh grade and I competed in calculator and number sense and general math. I'm Ethan Fry. I'm in sixth grade and I compete in calculator. >> I'm Valentina Royon. I'm in eighth grade and I competed in number sense and calculator. >> I'm Nathan Kolinsky and I'm in eighth grade and I competed in calculator and general math. >> I'm Teddy Kent. I'm in eighth grade and I competed in calculator. >> I'm Samuel Rubenstein. I'm in

046seventh grade. I completed in calculator number six general math and science. I'm Diana Hughes and I'm their coach. >> All right. And then of course, I want to give just a quick shout out to Diana Hughes. She is a retired teacher and she still gives up two days a week on Mondays and Fridays to come work with these kids every day and volunteer her time and help them qualify for the state competition back in mid April. >> Carly Baker, >> thanks for all you do. I couple things I got to say about this whole this big group. Uh this team competed against 45 qualifying 5A division schools and 281 qualifying 5A division student competitors. That is you had to qualify through all of the competitions during the year to even get invited to this event.

047Um there's a variety of individual awards in here. The calculator team was awarded sixth place trophy. They've got individual medals awarded at the top four student scores that made up the total team. You guys had a lot of different awards. Uh I'm excited for what you've done so far. Uh I didn't catch all the grades. It's raise your hand if you're going to be in junior school again next year. All right. So the rest of you going to be in high school, right? So we'll see some of you in the next group next year and the rest of you will be back. Congratulations. Wow. >> Love it. >> This is your birthday. >> Next, I'm starting or we started off. I forget. >> All right. I'm starting it off. Come on down. This is our

048superintendent student advisory council. It's made up of uh fifth graders from Cambridge and Woodbridge. Some fifth graders from Cambridge and Woodbridge. some eighth graders from the junior school and some 11th graders from Alamo Heights High School. And because it's called the student the superintendent student advisory council, I'm going to have Dr. Basher tell us a little bit about this great group. >> So, first I just want to share that these students were all nominated by their campus administrators because they are students who exemplify leadership and character on their campuses. And so I also will share that working with them throughout the year is an incredible bright spot in my year. Getting to spend some time listening to our students, working with our students, getting to hear some feedback um and some input, getting to hear

049about their experiences as students is incredibly helpful. And uh again, just probably my favorite time of the year is getting to visit with these guys. Uh Dr. Alfaro and I get to spend time with them. Uh Dr. Faro has stepped up to to facilitate our meetings and we walk away and we are like, "Oh my goodness, these kids and it helps reaffirm the why in the work that that we get to do as administrators because we have incredible students and just getting to spend time with them um is so meaningful. So we spend time talking about character. We we spend time learning about our touchstone. What I love most about this is watching our 11th graders serve as mentors to our eighth and fifth graders. uh we break up into small groups and we tour

050different places in the high school and um we just spend time in good discussion. This year, this group specifically has been part of um focus group feedback for the strategic um planning work that we're doing as a district. And so these kids tell the truth. They tell about their experiences. They don't hold back. And we love that. That makes us better and better. And so each one of you um has got great things in store. You need to lean in. You need to lean into your leadership. lean into the strong character you have. I'm incredibly proud of you. Dr. Alaro, anything else? >> Oh, yeah. I was just going to say we spend a lot of time talking about leadership and you don't necessar you you can learn about leadership, but you also learn about

051leadership by practicing it. And we watched in action how they were practicing leadership with each other through service, uh, love and dedication. So, I appreciate you all a lot. >> Please give them a round of applause. their name. >> Oh, hey, we I I didn't get a name. >> Oh, no. We need the name. >> Sorry. >> We know them so well. You guys know that. First name, last name, what grade? Pass the mic that way. >> I'm Parker Bachelor. I'm in fifth grade at Cambridge. >> I'm Dana I'm at fifth grade in Elbridge. I'm Wilson Rogers. I'm in fifth grade and I go to Cambridge. >> I'm Gra Perez. Um, I'm in fifth grade and I go to Cambridge. >> I'm Claire Masers. Um, I'm in fifth grade and I go to Cambridge. I'm

052Maya Woo. I'm fifth grade and I go to Cambridge. >> I'm Hley Chavez and I'm in fifth grade and I go to Woodidge. >> I'm Laya Cook and I and I'm in fifth grade and I go to Woodridge. >> I'm really Montes and I'm in eighth grade and I go to Alice St. I'm Victoria Canu and I'm in eighth grade and go to Alma Heights Junior School. >> I'm Charlie Peavey and I go to Alma Heights Junior School. >> I'm Frederick. I'm Frederick Moore, eighth grade go to the best school in Texas, Alma Heights Junior School. >> Right at Dr. Brady Gully and I go and I'm in eighth grade. >> Oh, >> my name is Whitney Webb and I'm in 11th grade. I'm Abby Allison and I'm in 11th grade. >> I'm Rowan Simpson

053and I'm in 11th grade. >> I'm Elena Gustano and I'm in 11th grade. >> I'm Andreas Santiago and I'm in 11th grade. >> My name is Lee Rockwell and I'm in and I'm in 11th grade. >> All right, give them one more round. >> Good job, Fred. Oh, okay. >> Great guys. >> All right, Julian, are you going to come talk about this group at all? Are you going to help me out with this group? Uh, this is almost our last recognition. Uh, but it's an important one. These are seniors. Now, we have a group called, we call them the senior ambassadors because they're seniors in high school. not the other kind of senior, but uh they really helped out with two community events that we did call senior and grand mules for the other

054kind of seniors, right? And so that's where we invite people to come in uh retired or otherwise to visit Alamo Heights and learn a little bit more about what we're doing nowadays in school. They've also contributed to the Alamo High School Foundation alumni newsletter and participated in senior spotlight videos that will debut later this month. Now, uh, two were able to make it. Seniors are very busy this time of year. We've got more than two, but whenever we called on them, they were always willing to share their journey, and it was always moving and inspirational for everyone who attended. Jul uh well let's well let's hear from who's here and then Julian is gonna tell us a little bit about this group. >> Hello everyone. Ivan Romano. I'm a senior. I'm going to Heights High

055School. >> Uh I'm Jack Alman. I'm a senior and I get Al Heights High School. >> And I'm Julian Matonis and I've had the pleasure of coordinating and working with this group since last summer. Some of us went and spoke at a TASA event and really got to spend time in a van driving to Bassrop and got to know and love all of our senior ambassadors. They are shining stars and role models and this is just the beginning of their journey. I am so excited to watch them grow into the wonderful humans they already are. But don't make me cry about the wonderful humans they already are and see them shine now into college and into careers. And I could not be prouder of all of them, especially these two gentlemen STANDING HERE. DO YOU

056KNOW YOUR PLANS ALREADY for next year? Can you show me my turn? >> Sure. Sure. I plan to attend the San Antonio College with a major in geoscience or in geology. >> I'm going to TCU and I'm going to be majoring in uh finance and real estate. >> All right. Thank you all so much for being here and all that you've done with us o over the years. I know that you're going to come back after all of that. Student council. >> Now, our final recognition of the evening is to hear what our Alamo Heights High School student council has been up to this year. And I think they also have a special introduction teeing us up for next year's student council as well as our own board meeting. So, here you go. Take it

057away. I get to start today. Yay. So, my name is Lindsay Lamb. I am a current senior and I am the current vice president. I'm going to be going next year. And just to recap some things we've been doing this past month, we have had a calm May. It's final season. It's AP exam season, so we're trying to get into that group. Um, we did our Battle of the Flowers, which is amazing. And it's just been overall a great experience. I'm very sad to say goodbye to student council. It's been a wonderful four years and I have the honor of introducing our new vice president for the 2026 2027 year. Um, Conrad Roacha. >> Hi, I'm Conor Roachcha. It's going to be my fourth year in student council. My favorite thing that I've done is

058be a part of the talent show and help with first Fridays and I'm excited to bring more school spirit. Hi, my name is Ver Patel. I'm the current student council president and I'm going to be the student council president next year as well. And I've worked alongside Conrad all four years of my student council career and I know that he's very driven towards student council and he will work towards student council through thick and thin. So, he's a very good candidate and he obviously won. blessed to have uh you know returning uh officers. But Lindsay, you're a senior. Do you know what you're going to be doing next year? Can you tell us? >> Yeah. So, I'm going to be going to New York University and I'm going to be studying philosophy on a pre

059pre-law track. So, good luck to you. I know you roll on fire. Congratulations. Well, wow. Thank you all for staying for these wonderful recognitions. This is the end of that portion of the meeting. So, if you came just for that, it's a good time to exit. We'll be starting the business portion as soon as you all leave. Good job. Good job. Good job. >> I didn't have much to say. We love being with Ad. everybody. Congratulations. >> Good to see you. >> Oh, God. this weekend. My fifth grade buddy buddy. He's always been my buddy. >> Doctor Who are you? Yeah. >> But is Dave like a spectator now? >> What are you doing over there? >> Just Yeah. Different perspective. You've been there for a while. >> Wait, we did have somebody sign up.

060>> No. >> Considering how many people >> I got people that run this, >> right? >> Okay. We're going to get started. Um, there are no sentences to be heard tonight. So we are going to move on to section five and I can't see so okay um no let's see okay learning so section five items for presentation or possible action our next item on the agenda is section five report on school bus seat belt study and compliance SB546 and the presenter is Mr. Frank Stage It really empty. >> Sorry. We will start with item 5A. Mr. Frank Stage will present a report on school bus seat belt study and compliance better. >> There you have it. >> Thank you, Madam President. >> Congratulations. Um, so we Senate Bill requires school districts to either put three-point

061seat belts in all of their buses or explain that we don't have the money to do so. with a $350,000 bill to retrofit the buses. We don't have the money to do so. And I was required to publicly say that today. >> Okay. >> Any questions? >> Thank you. >> I appreciate the shortness there. That's great. Okay. Next up is 5B, the presentation of the 2026 2027 budget update. And the presenter will be Matt Strager. helps understand why we don't have the money for the bus. >> Yeah, mine won't be that short. >> So, um uh greetings everybody. Uh so, this is a presentation on the an update on the 2627 budget. Um we will be presenting the budget for adoption in in the June meeting. Uh and I'll have a timeline on that at

062the end. Um there we go. Uh so that's the uh overall budget that you see there. Uh right now we have just a little bit of revenue in excess of expenses uh by $8,521. So basically it's it's almost dead even there. Uh total revenues are forecasted at 70 million uh 823,000 and expenses are at 7,815,000. Uh so like I said this is an is an update at this stage. Uh we're going to go walk through a couple of things with regards to revenues. Uh it's a little bit of challenging you know on the revenue side. We do have the expenses you know in place on the budget. Um and also some of the expenses include uh some things with compensation which we'll have a later slide. So moving along um when we look at revenue

063and break it down uh about by local uh state and federal uh starting with local first uh the uh biggest part of local of course is tax collection. So I'll talk about that in a minute because it deserves its own bonus slide. But uh the other part of local is is a kind of a v variety of things. What stands out here is the uh projected donation of $2.5 million from the Alamo Heights School Foundation. Wonderful, wonderful work that they're doing and uh and it's just, you know, enough can not be said about that. That's just fantastic. Uh that that amount keeps increasing amazingly as we go through time. Uh and as we experience, you know, some challenges with our state funding uh you know, statewide. So, uh, tuition and fees just shy of 1.3

064million that we're projecting there interest rates and other donations 1.8 million um, you know, that's mostly more so from interest that's funding that and then athletic and food service selling tickets to the other events as well as the food service and the general fund that's coming from food service receipts at the high school uh because that's not part of the national school lunch program. Uh, so we've recognized that in the general fund as well. Now moving on to uh local tax collections. We are forecasting at this stage uh a total tax collection in the budget of 57,188,000. Uh the projected uh maintenance operation rate right now is 7054 which you can see is dropping from 7122 as as current. Uh that's due to compression. So as the state uh statewide as property values increase uh

065tax rates are compressed according to to law and so we see that rate going down. If you compare our tax collections to like past years uh and prior to uh some some repeated uh you know increases in the homestead exemptions. Uh you'll see that in past year budgets uh you we were maybe collecting uh tax taxes in excess of 70 almost 70 million uh and but each time that the legislature passes a homestead exemption increase uh that is um you know that brings our taxes down. Uh by contrast too it also brings our recapture bill down too. Uh so we're not really gaining anything there in terms of net but uh but those numbers are different if you look back over time uh especially in t in the tax collections and then also in the

066recapture and that's an important part to note. So um our overall tax levy is uh you know projected at 57,513,000. Uh these numbers from taxes uh that we're using to project this is from what's called preliminary tax values that are received by uh from the uh Bear County Appraisal District. Uh and those are uh presented to us at the end of uh April and that's kind of the first look at our at our tax values. They do get updated until uh we go through the summer and people follow, you know, tax protests and stuff and that that does influence these numbers, but right now that's where these numbers stand. So there could be changes as we get later into the summer over to the right and and what I put up here on this chart

067is uh just kind of talking about in reference to those uh increases in the homestead exemption is that there's a number of what's called t values used by the state controller and then also TA to estimate our our funding under uh under tax in our tax collections. each time that the state uh adopts a increase in the homestead exemption uh there's another set of t values uh that we have to estimate and so uh that that um that uh number or that those number of rows have gotten quite large and I just thought that was kind of interesting to put up there to show that the that that number is has increased up to 12 in this state used to be three uh so uh from that we have tax collections uh from our p

068values coming in at just shy 57 million. Uh the reason that that's that number is different than the one over on the left uh with the uh tax collections is that that includes penalties that would produce the budget and that's why we could budget 57,188,000 that we have on the left. So uh so we get to uh the next part in our revenue and uh and that includes state and federal and our state funding is uh one of the things we do have to recognize is the amount of uh state uh contribution towards TRS retirement uh for all of our employees and that's the on behalf that you see there. Uh and so we're estimating that at 3.3 million. That's a watch because we also have to note it on the expense side. So that

069doesn't affect the bottom line, but it's but it's noteworthy as a as a number within the within the state line. And then we also have the TIA and available school fund uh estimating to bring in 3.8 million later uh in terms of state funds. uh our federal uh dollars is uh right now forecasted at 150,000 uh charers uh which is Medicare comp uh revenue that helps with uh special education services uh used to be much higher as you'all know uh in excess of 7800,000 and that's coming down in recent years uh due to restrictions at the state. So um that number is less. Now in the coming slides we're going to talk just real briefly about special education funding and early education a lotment um and uh why we are cautious about for including uh

070you know increases in those numbers uh within our budget. So first um oh and just to kind of mention uh a key component in the state funding as well is total attendance and enrollment uh that happens. And so this chart shows the uh public school enrollment and change from prior year uh you know for since 2017 and we can see that pretty significant dip in 2021 due to co and then the state gained back students uh in 22 and 23 and then it's very been very flat in 24 and 25. Uh, interestingly, since this is, you know, since this chart uh was put out, the uh there's been some published reports about this statewide losing about 75,000 kids uh statewide in public education um for uh for the current school year. And so, it would

071be interesting to to update these numbers as well, the current school numbers, but that does contribute to uh to to our funding estimates when that is flat. Yeah, we're not getting growth from uh revenue growth from from enrollment. So in reference to special education funding, this slide here uh shows TA's estimate of what could happen uh with a with a student, a particular student in special education. The part in blue there is a is an estimate of of of what a student might generate under the previous law, old law, uh in special education. And then under a new law that was passed in last legislation regarding intensity of services, the I didn't do it. >> It's back. >> Uh is um shows what could happen. Now when I showed you this slide before, I had

072some handdrawn errors in there and so I I fixed that. So I have underlined red parts there. And those underlined parts are variables which TA is estimating. Those are not known and will not be known until after next fiscal year. Uh so we uh don't know what that could be. But the TA saying that hypothetically uh the state student that generated $11,700 uh under old law might generate $14,100, but that part is um is is hypothetical at this stage. TA does have a plan for shifting over to the intensity of service uh model uh statewide. And uh the plan uh this is is noted in statute. Uh first off, the legislature um passed $250 million in additional sp special special education funding. And uh so we know that there's that much and that sounds like

073a lot, but when you break it down uh as as we'll see in a minute, uh it's not quite that much. And then also um the part that's unknown is that uh they want to see all the data first from the 26 27 school year before making a determination in the fall of 2027 as to what uh that funding is going to look like under the intensity of service model and looking at um for our district. Uh what I've tried to do here was uh just to kind of show okay well on a on a per student basis what might that what might that look like uh starting out with 250 million uh and then dividing it by the total number of sped fes from the fall uh be reporting in 2025 and so that

074average increase pered student is $980. uh TA is also going to be using uh fall of 2025 uh uh numbers to project in their budgeting as well. So um the uh number of FTEEs that we had in the fall of 2025 reported at 208 uh students and so the potential uh service increase would might be 205,000 and then we get another 184,000 for assist assistance with sped evaluations. So we could see a theoretical increase of almost 389,000. However, the last part here I just want to show you that while that's well and good and we appreciate that, uh it doesn't quite meet uh the gap in terms of what we spend versus what the state uh contributes. So we spend or projected to spend in 2526 7.8 million. uh we currently get uh 5.3 million

075and then if we had the other 389,000 well that would bring that would still we still have a shortage of 2.1 million uh there uh without 389,000 it's more like 2.5 million. So it does help and and very very glad about that. But uh and the intensity of service model uh will help in the long run. It's just a little bit of a challenge in forecasting it in the in the next. So short $10,000 is stupid. >> Yes. >> Just to put it in >> Yeah. terms. >> So um the other part I was just going to mention is in terms of revenues regarding prek funding uh because there's some information being put out there uh especially from TA about oh we fully fund prek now. Uh and the uh when you dig into the

076the calculation of that it's it's a little bit different. Uh so in the uh top slide in the top arrow there uh over to the right uh the uh uh prepaid funding is still based on the 0.5 ADA under the foundation school program but that has always been half day funding. Uh what they are doing though is that there was this education aotment that was passed back in 2019 and the education aotment was uh supposed to uh provide uh additional funding for enhanced services in K through third grade when it was passed. Uh and it's based off of the it's generated off of the average daily attendance in K through third grade. So what they're doing with that uh early education a lotment now is that they're distributing it a little different. They're first going

077to distribute it to school districts based upon the amount that's needed to bring up their existing prepaid program up to full day and then they're distribute the rest according to the way that they already have. Um the early education a lotment is budgeted $800 million uh statewide and that is not changed and so there's no increase in funding uh real uh that that districts are going to receive this. The way it's distributed is a little different. So there's this possibility that there's winners and losers, you know, depending on the district, which district you're at in terms of like the existing uh prepaid population there. Uh but uh it doesn't provide more funding than than before. Uh so just wanted to highlight that because there's been some public information out there that that we are fully

078funding prepaid and yes, they can say that because of the way it's these monies are distributed, but there's no additional money that's really coming into the picture. So switching over to the expense uh expenses we have um uh you know a number of bullets there. Uh first related to compensation we are looking at a $100 increase in our employer contribution and the healthcare plan uh for each enrolled employee. um this is as the result of the rising healthc care cost and to keep our self-funded plan uh solvent and uh so uh they're you know and I think this that's a common thing that a lot of businesses and and you know public education school districts are experiencing and uh and you know we we're experiencing it as well. So, um right now we're projecting an

079additional $570,000 uh in that for that uh for that purpose uh in the budget. Um we also put in a onetime retention payment of $500 for all staff. That comes that cost comes to $336,967. Um and I have I'll bring back to that in just a moment. Compensation increases within 93% of the market for nonPIA eligible positions. Uh we wanted to try to get uh certain positions up to um and this was kind of as far as we could go. We'd love to go like 95% of the market, but um but 93 was kind of what we could afford and still keep the budget balanced. Uh that would be $92,140 there. Now uh moving away from uh compensation, you know, there is a reduction in the budget of six positions and this is related from

080the budget advisory committee actions that we had uh and and the foresight of the budget advisory committee and also the school board uh and taking actions uh to try to keep things balanced. Um, I would point to a number of uh reports in our in media and stuff about school districts really struggling with balancing budgets or maybe being in significant deficits and they're looking at, you know, closing campuses and that kind of thing. We're not at that point. So, I think that's a I think that's a good good place to to not be, you know. But um the specific uh recommendations here from the budget advisory committee that are affecting that that allow us to uh reduce by six position is coming from increased staff sizes. But that work has already been had already been

081done. Uh additional uh however we are adding in five uh special education positions to meet increased service demands uh mandated service demands in our in our growing special education population. Now, that last bullet uh for school resource officers, uh we are not budgeting for school resource officers because uh the uh uh city is going to pick up that cost because we're doing uh some some improvements on Broadway Avenue and uh so uh we won't have that expense in uh 26 27th. So, we took that out. But uh it's it is related in part as I at least I see it related to that teacher retention payment of 500 I mean not teacher but the staff retention payment of $500 for all staff uh because uh as opposed to doing like a like a like a

082couple of percent increase which if you do an increase like that then you're you have to carry forward those cost you know in perpetuity. Um the retention payment is, you know, is kind of in place where we can pay that. And then at some point in time, we're going to have to uh put the school resource officers back. >> Is that in 28? >> No, it'll be the following year. 26. Yeah, 27 28. It'll be the next year. >> Okay. What's the SRO line item again? >> Like how much money all in for the SRO? >> Oh, uh we normally budget 485,000. So yeah, >> they're going to pay for it. that they're going to pay for >> just for two years in exchange for some capex work. Yeah. >> Yeah. So 48 that's not

083a dollar for dollar. >> So 485,000 out of our operating budget. Um but then we're adding in that 336. >> Yes. >> And the six positions that so that's >> that's the actualization of losing the second conference period. And so we knew that that would take probably three to five years to to get to the projected savings. So this is year two of savings. >> Those aren't those aren't filled positions right now. They're they're vacant. >> Correct. Is as teachers are leaving, we're not filling those positions based on >> the additional teaching load that they're our teachers have pursuing. >> So but that won't impact class size specifically. >> Yes, it does impact class size. um in the fact that I had shared with you all that we are um not capping class size like

084we did last year. We are doing the the divisor in class size. So you will see class sizes um increase um we are staffing at the um at the divisor level but that's as as we get increased enrollment throughout the year that will continue to increase. And so by um rolling out the divisor versus the capping, we're actually saving $450,000 this year. >> And that's So there will be no cap at any level, including elementary. >> So Oh, I no I mean I we we watch it pretty closely and we just determine, you know, the the the load that's on our teachers. Um, fifth grade right now I think is at I think we showed you those numbers that I think it's at starting at 24 25 like that's going to be our highest class

085size. Um, we started the divisor though you know at uh kindergarten at 18, first grade at 19, second grade at 20 and so those will be lower but they could increase over time. >> Yes. So um just looking at the uh table over to the to the right side of the screen payroll uh that increase is uh is directly related to the numbers over to the left uh you know by adding those in the contractual part is going down uh but then there's other contractual pieces that that are experiencing some some inflation but overall the contractual category is is is declining uh because we're not budging those SRO's supplies uh is at 105,000 that number and I want I say that number um could could change between now and June uh because we're closely watching

086as we all are uh gasoline prices and stuff and uh and the gas is is included in supply cost there. That's where that line hits as well as utility cost and then the other is like our travel and and fees and dues and that kind of thing. So it's remaining steady there. So uh some you know definitely some increase in in expenses but uh but then we have revenues as we've seen that will offset that and hopefully in terms of what I and just to just kind of mention the way you know what we work with numbers is that the revenues that we're presenting here is is we hope they don't go up you know now it may be after the fiscal year when we get those numbers in from special education and we're like

087hey we got an extra couple hundred thousand we can add that to fund balance Uh but uh but that's what we're hoping for. You know that that will that will increase from there. In terms of our timeline, this is just an overview. So obviously we're here on May 13th uh talking about a maintenance operation projections. Uh around the end of May, we'll put out the notice in the paper regarding the budget adoption in June. Uh at uh a June 10th meeting, we will uh talk about food service and debt service projections. We will need to spend some time on debt service. U because there's some changes there in terms of what the legislature passed um especially around truth and taxation and stuff. And then um a board meeting in June of course to consider adoption

088of the 2627 budget. Uh then moving forward uh we get to where the certified values are received from Bear County appraisal. we turn around and submit a what's called a local property value survey and then TA uh turns around backs to us you know the maximum compressed tax rate uh that we can that we can approve uh so a lot of things on the M side and so uh TA you know that's really coming from state law there and then at the end of August uh we have we put out the public notice for the tax rate adoption and then at the September board meeting we will uh go through the tax rate adoption uh there um we can adopt the tax rate in September as opposed to August. I know August was kind of

089the traditional time. Uh however, uh the treatment taxation um uh requirements have changed and there's going to be uh some additional reporting that we have to do and working with Fair County appraisal on that. So u we could definitely use the month of August to uh put uh to to work through that process uh because there's some additional requirements there. and uh and then also come come to the school board with all that stuff. >> I think that's um that's my presentation of the budget. Not as quick as Franks, but does anybody have any questions for >> Yeah, I I got a question. Um and I'm going to fly at 50,000 ft and I really want you to respond. Not today because you're not probably not going to know. >> Okay. respond at 50,000 feet

090because I don't want to get in the weeds. But here's where I'm stuck. In 2022, we took in $80 million. We spent 33 million on Robin. Okay, that left us with $47 million. All right. Today, just four years later, we take in 70 million, but we only pay 12, leaving us with $57 million. Okay? So, our net revenue is up 22% in four years and we do all these cuts from where we were four years ago. And so, I don't I just don't understand. So I think the question is just a comparison from 2022 to where we are now. You do not need to answer that. We'll include that in the in the update. I mean there's a lot to inflationary costs. I mean in operations just that's the quick answer to that but Matt

091will get that for you for Friday. >> Does that make sense? >> Yes and it totally does and and the biggest thing I point to and I'm just going to keep my comment super brief is mandated spending such as teacher retention a lotment and other mandated spending from the state uh that we have to spend. say give us more money but then we have to spend it and that's increased our spending and we don't have a choice. >> Yeah, >> I I guess I I hear you >> completely new laws that were >> Yeah. >> But I I feel like I feel like we're always tasked with telling everybody we don't get any more money and I don't believe that we get 22% more than we did four years ago. And now what we're I

092would rather say yes, but we have to spend 32% more than we did. You know what I'm saying? It's it seems to me like when we say we we we we get the same amount, you know, or we don't. We don't. We get more money today, a lot more money than we did four years ago. >> And in nominal dollars. Yes. >> In nominal dollars. Now, our our expenses, you know, we get 22% more, but our expenses 35% more. That's what I'm trying to that's the 50,000 foot level. Does that make sense? >> Yeah, it does. >> Yeah. Okay. >> I am going to go ahead and highlight that. We'll get you your answer. Um moving on to another point. Okay. >> Okay. Um I am going to highlight that the time that we continue

093to see increasing challenge. Um as we look at the compensation plan where um $350,000 is allocated to continuation of next level prime. We have $576,000 in this budget that um will go to employee retention contribution. We've got $337,000 that's going I'm sorry that's retention for all. The employee contribution is 576,000. That's towards the benefits. And then there's 92,000 additional dollars to get folks um who are outliers and are not yet at that 90ish percent um of the at the um market median cap. Um and so I'm really proud of the work that you've done kind of thinking through this, Matt. Um like I said, in a time of challenge, we're still prioritizing our people and our budget will continue to be at that 88% um focus on people. Rock and roll. >> Great. Any more

094questions? >> Thanks. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> The final presentation tonight is item 5C, a presentation of the DT program review by Dr. Jimmy Walker. >> Check it. >> I was reading the title and I was reading. >> All right. >> Tonight concludes, you have heard three different program reviews throughout the year. beginning of year, you heard the bilingual program review from Dr. Palasios. You've heard the special ed program review by Natalie Brown. Tonight concludes that with the GT program review. You all have seen this information before, discussed it. It's also been shared with my GT leadership group, which is my parents, teachers, and administrators who come together to provide feedback on our GT program. So, um, our service model in Almo Heights in elementary, it's two prongs. One, we place students in a

095home room classroom with a teacher who is GT certified. In addition, they're pulled out uh throughout the week with GT specialist. At junior school, we have GT sections of core academics and an accelerated pathway in math. At high school, I really want to just highlight our outstanding advanced academic offerings at the high school. We have 28 AP courses. Only half of school districts in Texas offer five or more, and about 36 to 44% of Texas high schools offer no AP courses. Our AP scores and our AP offerings put us in the top 5% of high schools in the nation. In addition to that, 11 dual credit courses and the opportunity to earn an associates degree, plus two courses from UT called on-ramps courses, statistics and physics. that is an a robust offering of advanced academics

096for our high school students. Now, with all of those offerings, it means master scheduling gets tricky. And one of the things we try to do when we do stack courses with GT and advanced students is produce a document so that we can identify exactly how the experience will be different for students through gifted and talented. One suggestion is next year to make this public for parents so that parents also know how high for gifted and talented services. That's 17.4 of our total student population. Compared to other districts, there are a few that identify more students than Almo Heights. There are many that identify fewer students. The average in Texas is 8.7%. This matters because we do receive weighted funding. It's about $430 a student, but it's capped at 5% of the population. So any students

097identified above that are students that we're funding through uh local funds. So to qualify for GT services, students go through an evaluation. They need two objective scores. That can be through MClass MAP or a nonverbal paper pencil test called INDAT. uh and they also need one from domain three which is academic performance and potential. This is a score from a parent survey, a teacher survey or a grade average above 95%. This is new for this year this year. One of the things with budget advisory is we did cut KAT and Iowa and this is the first year we've gone with this new uh evaluation system. In 2022 we also changed our acceptance of outside testing. It is still considered but it supplements internal testing and does not supplant local testing. So in this first year

098of using MAP and inclass and in that we tested 1,697 students which is a large uptick over prior years. 69 students in grades K to 4 were newly identified. Again that is a nice uptick from prior years. 14 of those qualified with a combination of INAT and MAP. And I want to highlight that 92% qualified for internal testing alone. Only 3% qualified through outside testing. 5% qualified they transferred in. Most of those are military connected families where the student was served in a GT program in a previous duty station. And then when they transfer in, they're welcomed into our programs. Looking at junior school, this is students who qualify from fifth grade into secondary students. Once they qualify in elementary, they remain in our Heights program. They do not need to re-qualify. Once they qualify

099fifth grade to sixth grade, they do not need to re-qualify again through their entire tenure in junior school and high school. This year, we tested 404 fifth graders. That's every fifth grader at Cambridge and Woodridge. 39 students qualified for at least one section of GT at the high school. That's 34%. Looking at it by subject, 71 students qualified in science, 60 in math, 39 in English, 37 in social studies. I will note that our cut score in elementary is in 98th percentile. In junior school, it's 96th. This is something we'll be watching next year to see if we need to make any adjustments. This was our first year of doing this and so we'll continue to monitor this uh next year. When we look at students who are in current GT, we did use MAP

100scores to qualify some additional students and you can see those numbers up on the screen. I'm going to turn now to talk about demographics briefly. Overall, uh you can see that this is still an area of focus for us that the demographics of students served through gifted and talented services does not completely reflect the demographics of our overall student body. We have some ideas for next year of how we might uh begin to diversify the test we use to identify some students serve through special education and dyslexia or speech or other identified disabilities as well as our emergent bilingual students and students identified as economically disadvantaged. So it's not just identifying the students but it's also ensuring that once they're in their program that the program is supporting their academic growth. So on star reading

101last year, this is the percentage of students who made a year's worth of growth in a year's time. All students that was at 54% GT students that was at 74. Star math last year all students 50% GT 72% of students. When we look at math this year, I broke this apart from reading and math. Uh all students 50th percentile is considered average for growth. All students in Elmo Heights were at the 62nd percentile. GT students 67th. Math was 64th and GT 61st. Parent feedback. We ask in February feedback of families who are served by these programs if they feel like they are satisfied with the services their child their child or children are receiving. Really strong feedback continues to improve year-over-year both in elementary and in secondary. And the reason our families are satisfied is

102the caliber of our teachers that are interacting and teaching our students in GT services. To become a GT teacher, there's two criteria. The first is an initial 30-hour training, and the second is an annual update of six hours year-over-year. 100% of our Heights teachers are GT certified, of course. 88% of our Woodri Elementary home room teachers are GT certified. 86% of Cambridge, 65% of Howard Kinder, 100% of our secondary teachers who teach GT sections are GT certified. And core teachers that do not have a GT section, we have 61% of those core teachers GT certified. 100% of our administrators and 70% of our counselors because we do have some new counselors that we need to make sure that they're GT certified. So areas of focus, one is we are so close to having 100% of

103our staff GT certified that that is a goal over this summer and into next year. Math curriculum, making sure that um as we move into some new pacing expectations with our new math curriculum that when students leave the classroom for a day for heights that they're not falling behind their peers in math. identifying uh and this is partnered with staff training so that we can rely on our teachers to give us appeals when there's students that we need to look at unique ways to identify giftedness. Again, something making sure to the degree possible that we've clustered GT students together in core classes uh for our GT modifications, providing our teachers with some vertical alignment time so that they could see if they're an eighth grade GT teacher, how were students served in the next year

104and how were they served in the prior year to make sure we're not duplicating products or experiences. um that it is a robust aligned uh GT services. Next year is the last year that English 2 will remain a tested subject which opens up some possibilities in English 2. There is an AP course called AP Seminar that is a writingheavy AP course that might be a nice partner with English 2. And there is a new business course that would align with personal financial literacy called AP business principles and finance that might be a nice uh addition to our high school program. And one thing that I wanted to get off the ground this year and did not is the PSAT in 8th grade as a counseling tool for our counselors and parents. If we have families

105that never considered an AP class, this test might um provide some motivation and some evidence that their child is ready and able to take on some AP courses in the high school. When I met with my leadership team, there were some additional uh thoughts. One was to move the GT 101 training that we do with all staff annually to October so that it's not in the beginning of the year when there's so much staff training going on but rather it's coming after beginning of year testing is completed first uh nine weeks grades are in just so that our staff can help identify students that their performance in the classroom may outperform their testing and they need some special consideration. Also looking at our parent communication and processes, it's strong fifth to sixth, but looking at

1068th to 9th to make sure that parents understand what GT services look like as students progress through the different levels. I already mentioned the vertical alignment and then just continue to partner with our booster organization and our parents to raise awareness of GT services and also support whether it's financial time or talents from our parents in our classrooms. I know that was a quick clip, but this is the second or the third time most of you have heard this and I appreciate your unwaving support of GT services all the way from Howard to high school and AP and dual credit. >> Thank you, Jimmy. Thank you. >> Any questions? >> Okay, we will move along to number six on our our consent agenda. These are items that the board considers routine or that have been

107previously reviewed and discussed in prior meetings and that we therefore enact with one motion. Is there anything in the consent agenda that any board members would like to remove to consider as an item on the regular agenda? Um I also want to mention that we have received $83,520 in donations. It's pretty incredible. Um, if there are no items to pull out, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor, please say I. >> All oppose, please say nay. >> The motion carries. Next is section seven, board meeting committee reports. We'll start with item 7A, building committee. The building committee met on Wednesday, May 6th, 2026, and Monday, May 11th, and Hunter Kingman will provide the committee report. >> We

108just approved uh GMP1 for the junior school, which there are three sections to the junior school project. I think we all sat down in that meeting together. So, we'll subsequently release those as we get them finally priced, but um this will get the project going this summer and keep it on schedule. So, that's good news. Uh and then the DCC, we met on Monday. Uh the pricing came in. Uh they got good coverage from subs. The pricing is a little beyond what we budgeted, but we were all comfortable with it in terms of what the scope covered and are excited about that. Also, going forward very quickly, hopefully because it's in the city of Alma Heights, its permitting won't take as long as the city of San Antonio. So, uh goal is to break ground

109in June. >> June. >> Yeah. And 15 month schedule. >> Great. Thank you, Hunter. We will move to item 7B, nomination committee meeting. Um the nomination committee met on Wednesday, May 6th, and I will provide the committee report. Do you want me just to read? >> Um because we presented it already. It's just the committee assignment. So if you just want to if there's any other discussion. >> Okay. Any other discussion about your roles for this year? >> Okay, let's move on. Um 7C, we will end our committee reports. Alma Heights with Alma Heights School Foundation board meeting. Um they met today, Wednesday, May 13th, and Dana will give that committee report. >> Yeah. So we had a uh final meeting of the year today and um big celebrations around uh the formal recommendation to

110give a $2.5 million gift to the district. It's um pretty amazing. Um they also approved their 2627 budget. And then Heather, it was a very quick meeting. It was a 30-minute meeting, but she did spend some time at the end just walking through celebrations from the year. Lots of new initiatives this year, um their alumni newsletters, the um alumni events that have been held, you know, across the state in Houston, Dallas, um and and also in San Antonio. And then also the first ever Golden Mules reunion brunch that we hosted last August. We're going to host another one this upcoming August where um the participants will get a tour of the new facilities. And so just incredible momentum um with the um launch of the new endowment campaign as well. So spent some time talking

111about that. Spent some time talking about uh new board membership and leadership as well. So it was a meeting of celebration. That's great. Okay. Moving on to section 8, business recommendations. There are no new business recommendations at this time. So we will move on to calendar review and Dr. Basher will walk us through that as well. Okay. So, May is busy, y'all. Uh, senior awards on Friday. We've got um our school foundation board meeting. Um, that it will be Oh, that was today. Sorry. That was You're good. All right. I got to catch up here. Regular board meeting is >> today. Balorat um on the 17th on Sunday. Senior exit interviews. you all if you can be um uh present at our little lunch meeting with our seniors. It would be wonderful just to kind

112of hear their um input and their experiences. Then we'll have the school foundation end of year board celebration on Monday at at Elizabeth Maro's house. Carrie will represent there. Um we are going to have an Excel graduation on May 20th at noon um in the auditorium foyer. And then uh graduation y'all is next Thursday 8:00. We're going to keep our fingers crossed about the weather. Christina and I were looking at it today and we're going to hope that it's not what it said. So, um, building committee meeting. We have new building committee member David's going to step onto that committee and Carrie's going to step off. Um, we'll meet Wednesday, >> I think. I think Wednesday, June 3rd is >> incorrect. I think it is Monday, June 8th is what it is. Yeah, it's at

1139:00. >> I guess maybe. So, we'll get that clarified in the uh calendar that we send out to y'all. uh GMP in June is on June 11th, regular board meeting the 17th and then we always host a July special call board meeting on the 13th um to take care of the last minute personnel recommendations and so typically that's not a meeting where we have everyone but we do need to have quorum and so is there anyone that already knows that they have a conflict on July 13th? >> Let me do it the other way. Let me do the other way. >> July 13. >> Can you raise your hand if you can be present on July 13th? And it's quick. It's a 20-minute meeting, I think. >> What is this for? >> July 13th. >>

114No, no, no. >> Personal. >> Huh? >> Special call. July meeting. >> Personal. >> I'm not sure. >> You can do it. Okay, we got two. >> July 13th. That's a fun Monday. >> Yeah, I'll be here. >> Three. You have anybody else? >> It's possible. I just can't possible. >> I think so. I'm like 60%. >> Okay, I'll keep pulse checking that, but we're going to we'll hold the date at this point. So, >> thanks. >> Y >> Okay, great. Now moving on go back to you for your superintendent communication. So we are in the season of celebrations right lots to celebrate about our seniors. We hosted um superintendent employee graduate uh reception which is just an opportunity to celebrate um our employees who have seniors. We get to host you know just a

115little special time of fellowship with them and that was this past week. And then you can see the picture at the top with our college um t-shirt day celebrating the commitments that our seniors have made to higher universities. You go to the next slide. Um continued celebrations in our celebration of excellence which um was hosted at Paloma Blanca recognizing our um award awardees that all came to the board meetings and then also our retirees. You can see them pictured up in the left corner. We had our uh coach Ritman retirement celebration this past week as well. Business incubator uh pitch night. We uh recognized Brendan Boland as the Trinity Prize Excellence Teacher of the Year. And then we also recognized Dr. Cabaro as the Excel teacher of the year. So, lots of lots of great

116things to celebrate. Um we have state track qualifiers, Jack Hullman, Aleria Slavich. Uh the state meet is this Friday. I loved hearing the uh school honors and the region honors. I I wasn't aware of that, so that was pretty fun to hear tonight. State tennis qualifiers and then our golf girls team placed third in the state and we had a first place state champion again, Michelle Lee. So that's exciting. And then finally, um just a quick bond update. Fifth grade wing is on schedule in Woodridge and um teachers will move in after school is out. Cambridge. The new transformer from CPS arrived today and will be switched over in the month of June along with new chillers and new air handlers. That's all exciting news, right? Um the high school continues to be on schedule

117with moving of new furniture and existing student furniture in July. We'll be moving out of the portables on the J lot the week after school is out and Bartlett will repave that lot. the other portables that are on the practice field will be moved off the latter part of June into July and the start of returfing of that field will begin. And so um exciting momentum like um Hunter had shared and exciting that we're going to you know break ground both at the junior school and at the district community center in July. Any questions that you all have for me? >> So when is the high school like when will the teachers be able to move into their rooms? Do we have >> Julyish? >> July. That's fantastic. >> So exciting. >> We're going to

118be asking for some boy scout help, for some athlete help. >> I made the football players move. >> Wow. Dana, this is just like the thought and I apologize for jumping on it, but >> you know those 3D print, we did a 3D printing model of our projects down >> and it was not expensive to do. now that the 3D printers make all the >> it would be really cool I think in at the junior school for the extent of that project >> to maybe have that somewhere on site so that when both the kids and maybe in the library or something it might be worth >> that's kind of cool that's a great idea it's interesting we didn't think about that for the high school yeah >> I think the junior's so much going

119on I think people can visualize a lot easier >> if there's something they know attract attention >> yeah maybe it's something our kids could even do I don't or that >> I mean they do have a somebody has a 3D printer. I can't remember who it does but somebody has one teacher that >> totally >> anything else. >> No. Okay. Okay. Before we move on to executive session, if there are no objections, we will take a short five minute break before entering into executive session as per Texas government code section 551.001. >> So back at 750. Start. Okay. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> I already gave you. >> Thank you. >> You're going to need to sign this.