001Heat. Heat. Heat. about seriously relationship. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yes. Anyway, [Music] Oh my god. tickets. They ask my brother. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Heat. Heat. 6:00. Thank y'all coming tonight. Okay, >> just kidding. Uh, well, good evening. >> Good evening. How you even >> How are y'all doing? >> A lot of people here. I didn't know we were so popular. >> Um, it is 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025. And this is a dy filed and posted regular meeting of the Alamites Board of Trustees. Thank you all for coming. I'd like to welcome anyone listening to our live stream broadcast. If anyone would like a recording of this meeting, we will post a link on the district's website within 24 hours after this meeting. In addition, we will post all
002the materials being presented within 24 hours, so you can review a copy of those as well. The recordings are under schoolboard icon on our Alma Heights Independent School District.net website. If anyone in the audience would like to be heard by the board tonight, we welcome your input during our citizens to be heard. Item on the agenda, please fill out the yellow form by the door. We got anybody? Nobody. >> Nobody wants to. That's okay. Um, all right. Well, since we don't have any citizens, uh, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Frank Alaro. >> Thank you, Mr. Paige. We're excited to have some recognitions tonight. Uh, and thank you all for being here for that. I do want to ask everyone that you please remain during uh, all of the recognitions even after your
003folks here have done. I'll let you know when we're done with the recognitions and then ready to start the regular board meeting. Everybody's welcome to stay for the whole board meeting, but I'll let you know if you need to sneak out when good time is. Uh we are excited to start our first award which is the spotlight on excellence for someone from Howard Early Childhood Center, Heather Frank. Yes. Wow. I was going to ask who came to support her, but I think it's obviously uh our spotlight on excellence is an award that we give every month to shine a spotlight on a staff member who works behind the scenes, often unheralded, to fuel our tradition of excellence. Now, Heather is has been with the district for over 20 years. She's done a variety of roles
004at a variety of campuses. She was even a teaching assistant. Wow. >> She's currently the special education coordinator at Howard Early Childhood Center. So, those of you that don't know, yeah, Howard uh student enrollment wise only has our threeear, four, and 5year-olds. And so, that alone will make it the happiest place on earth, I think. But it's also staff like Heather that make it the happiest place on earth. Now what a special ed coordinator does is a wide variety I think things that most people I think don't even comprehend can't understand in addition to working with students especi uh uh often with uh severe disabilities and special needs she manages the entire program uh students with disabilities uh need uh x number of minutes for various services that they have and so heather is in
005charge working with the staff to schedule like a it's like a matrix or I mean it's a Tetris game of how to schedule all the services that the kids need with the staff that we have and we all know that budget times are limited so we're squeezing turnups all the time. I'm surprised her hands aren't red cuz that's what she does in and out and she does it seamless like the air conditioning. You don't notice it's there until something goes wrong. And so Heather, like that alone, and you deserve this award. And I know your staff is here. That's why they're here. Now, um Heather's work in addition to just kind of supporting her staff. Uh she loves the kids. She loves to watch the kids, the students develop important developmental milestones, helping them, helping
006the teachers to help them. And she has a passion for that. and she has a passion for her team which I you can see that they have a passion for her as well. Here's some of the a multiple team members nominated her for this award. Here's just what a few of them said. Heather truly keeps all the plates spinning for the special ed department at Howard. We would be lost without her. Another person says that she goes above and beyond for all of our staff and students to be successful every single day. She's a hero uh to so many for her tireless efforts to support all those around her. Whether it's working with children, collaborating staff, reassuring parents, don't forget that. Uh being a school leader, facilitating ARD meetings, Heather meets each challenge with grace,
007calmness, and expertise. And so for that, we honor you with the spotlight on excellence. Congratulations. I want to give you a chance to say anything if you like. >> Thank you all very much to those who nominated me. I do have to say that if it wasn't for my team, whether it be my OG team or the team I have now, I could not do anything without all of you. So, thank you so much. This means the world to me. >> Congratulations. and thank you all for being here. That like that that says a lot for our district and we always have so many people come out and support their staff. Our next recognitions, I'll shift to some Alamo Heights High School students. We'd like to recognize National Merit Commended students. Come on down. the
008last one comes in so we can see the now uh as high school students as national merit students they're super busy and so these are the ones who were able to make it tonight glad to see them here let's see first who they are and I'll tell you a little bit about this recognition so starting from there and then here tell us your first name and your last name and if anybody's here from your family over to give them a wave if they're not just going Keep on track. >> Well, my name is Henry Mosser. I drove here myself. So, >> my name is Isaac Try. My parents and my younger sister are in the background. >> My name is Thomas Elliot. My mom's back there. Hi, Mom. Thank you all for being here. Uh
009the National Merit Scholarship Program is designed to encourage and recognize outstanding students for their academic and intellectual achievements. So based on their PSAT scores in their junior year, these folks here recommend or represent less than 5% of all high school students in the nation on those scores. Alamo Heights has 10 of our national commended uh scholars and so these are the four that were able to make it tonight. Uh this uh achievement though you guys I hope you know that it's super uh uh exciting to have for you. I also we were talking about what classes they're all in the same AP stats class uh which is not easy right? That's a hard class. That's the kind of classes these guys take and so we're super proud of you. Uh and we wish you well
010the rest of year. Uh, you're seniors now, right? >> Yes, sir. >> Is it too early to ask you where are you going to college? >> He's still out. >> Yeah, thanks. I haven't even started playing. >> Well, that's good. Well, I'm glad you came so I can kind of remind you. Good. Yeah. Yeah. We're super proud of you. Thanks for being here. Let's give him a round. >> Um, our next uh recognition is uh for staff member I'd like to ask to come up from the high school, the XL award winner for the district, Dr. Maria Kubet. Yes. Great. Okay. Um, so the uh, excuse me, the Excel Award is sponsored by Ken's 5 and credit human and Dr. Aubetto was surprised in her classroom last month, presented with an Apple trophy, which is
011nice, and a $2,000 check. I understand. Uh she was featured on a story on hands five and will be recognized at the end of the school year along with the Excel award winners from across San Antonio. Now uh Dr. Goto has been with us for 6 years. She teaches dual credit Spanish classes. She's been in the business for 33 years. >> Wow. >> Yeah. So we are super excited to for this honor. You've earned it. Is there anything you'd like to say? Thank you. And I'm like happy to work here and I'm so grateful for my students. >> I just want to point out so uh all the if you go to any student events you recognize her, you recognize her husband, you recognize her daughter and they are at all the student events. So
012thanks for doing that as well. Congratulations All right, for our final delegation, come on up. We've got the High School student council. >> Peter Patel and Lindsay Lamb. Tell us what high school student has been up to. >> Hi everyone. My name is Ver Patel. I'm the president. >> Hi, I'm Lindsay Lamb. I'm the vice president. >> And we've been up to what we've been up to is just homecoming. So, we just got done with our homecoming dance. Record-breaking numbers. We sold over uh 650 tickets, which is as long as Miss Rangel has been here, our student council uh teacher. That's the most people that have bought tickets and attended the dance. So, that's exciting. And then we also have a pep rally coming up. Our black um our blackout pep rally. It's next Friday
013and we have a really fun game planned if y'all want to show up. So, >> yeah. So, next month is our Thanksgiving maintenance lunch, which is which is one of the biggest events that is in my heart because we basically team up with our Alma's culinary and we bake a meal and we make a meal for our maintenance staff and our custodians and they all eat Thanksgiving with us and it's really just a way for our students to give back to our amazing staff and um we are currently getting donations from our student council and we are preparing for that and we're super excited for it. Yep. Thanks for all you do. Yeah. >> Well, that marks the end of our recognition portion of the evening. If you want to stay for the rest of
014the board meeting, you're welcome to it. But if you need to get out or this is a good time to do it. Thanks for being here. Get out. Great turnout. Mr. Heat. Heat. [Music] Dr. >> All right. Our next item on the agenda is section four items for presentation or possible action. Four possible action. We are going to have a presentation of department CBAS bilingual program overview by the one and only Dr. Hello everyone. Good evening. So tonight I'm going to go ahead and um conduct our required annual program review of our bilingual and our ESL programs here in the district. I'm the director of teaching and learning and I oversee language programs um K prek12. Our language programs are anchored and I always like to anchor um ourselves in our mission which is to
015educate and empower every student to excel academically and develop as compassionate citizens. For those students that are identified as emerging bilingual students in Alamo Heights, we serve them through two different types of programs. We have the dual language program which uses both the English and the Spanish language to um develop by literacy K through 8. And then we also have the English as a second language program which is a K through 12 program for those students that may not speak Spanish um and may want to utilize uh the English as a primary tool for instruction with instructional strategies to leverage the acquisition of language. our uh programs are governed by statute and you can find that in chapter 89 of the Texas administrative code in title 19. And so there's everything that we do has
016to be aligned to the federal program requirements um that are set for us. So identifying emerging bilingual students, there are 24 languages represented in our district. uh top five of course the first being English, second being Spanish, followed closely by Vietnamese, Guharati and Mandarin. >> So those are is >> that >> yes the fourth one what where where is that from? >> What region is that from? I will find that out >> I will find that out first. >> South Asia as Yeah. Um, however, not everybody that speaks a second language or a third language is an identified emergent bilingual. So, I want to walk us through the process of how we identify emergent bilingual students. It all starts with registration for the first time in a Texas public school or in a public school
017in general with the home language survey. You can think back to when you registered your kids. You had to fill out a form that asked two questions. What languages are spoken at home? What languages are spoken by the children? If any one of those questions has a response other than English, then the next step comes into play where they are tested for their oral language proficiency. So what we're doing with this assessment is determining whether a student is English proficient or the term emerging bilingual. If you've been around long enough, you know that that's interchangeably used at times like with ESL or limited English proficient. Now in statute, it's emergent bilingual. It's the the term English language learner. There's another acronym that that was used. Um then that testing is given to the language proficiency
018assessment committee. And here are um members that were trained this year, our parent volunteers. This LPAC then reviews the assessment and makes recommendations, progress, monitors student performance until students are uh meet the reclassification criteria to no longer be considered emergent bilingual and be considered English proficient. So um so who are our students? Where are we at? How many students are we serving in Alamo Heights? And this is a program review for the year that just passed. So in 2025, we had about 1% of our student body uh identified as emergent bilingual through like I mentioned the dual language program, the majority of our students um with 173 served in ESL programs and only six students um whose parents had denied services. It is our responsibility to offer them um instruction and programs to help them
019acquire the language, but it is a parent's right to always choose what's best for their child. 6% is less than 1% uh six students is less than 1% of our population because I think our staff does a tremendous job at um just informing parents and walking alongside them to make u good decisions as far as programming is concerned. All right. So that leads us to the trend line and what we've seen over the past four years. Since 2021, we've had a steady climb increase of about anywhere between 6 and 1% increase in enrollment. um to that taking us to 2025 in where we had about 9% of our kids identified compared to the state um the state in 2023 24 and I use that year as a data source because this past year's demographic this
020had not been put out yet for publication by the state but they were serving about 24% uh of the population so we are under the state as far as identified students are concerned. Now, like I mentioned, this is from last year, 2025. Where are we at this year? So, um rough numbers, not anything official just quite yet, but we have seen a decline in enrollment and we're at about 8% this year. Okay. So, uh one of the things that we have to talk about is probably my favorite slide in this entire presentation, and that's our staff, our language teachers. Um, our teachers are required to be both content certified and uh, bilingual certified through TEA, the Texas Education Agency. That's our teams in elementary. I am proud to report that while other neighboring districts had
021a difficult time staffing, period. All of our 34 elementary teachers serving in language programs were bilingual certified through TPA. We had five interventionists, um, three coordinators, and two dyslexia therapists that were also bilingual certified so that if a student was in Spanish immersion, identified with dyslexia, and needed, uh, to receive services, they had some access to somebody that was also a linguistic expert. Um, all of our students that participate in the ESL program are serviced through their English teacher, their English language arts teacher. And at elementary and both high school, all of our teachers were certified as well. Now, I do have to state that from time to time there may be teachers that are phenomenal fits for our culture and for programming, but are do not yet have the certification required. Um and so
022for one year we can work alongside them, provide them professional development, get them certification uh preparation so that they can obtain that certification within that year. Last year we had one one teacher at the junior school in a dual language position um and she obtained her certification by the end of 2025. And then we had two teachers that were in an English position that were also obtaining their ESL credentiing and they did so successfully as well. In addition to um the certification preparation we provide our teachers, we also recognize that in a to be a language teacher, there are unique needs related to language acquisition that need to be supported. And so all of our language teachers, whether they're serving in a dual language, in an ESL uh or in Spanish immersion program, are provided
023with intentional professional development. We have some a summer language academy where we all come together, the dual language Spanish immersion teachers, and look at instructional practices that are going to leverage instruction and academic achievement in the classroom. Last year we had a learning day. Even though learning days were um a part of our budget reduction, we did have bilingual learning days paid out of our grant money um to ensure that we had that continual support through ongoing throughout the year. Um and then we started some ESL um targeted instructional practices as well. So th that's our teachers. Um I'm moving on towards the things that I that we have to report on. And so the federal government requires that we report on both English language proficiency, how are kids doing in obtaining the language and
024academic performance. How are they doing academically as we are serving them um in our language programs. So I want to talk about how TEA measures language uh acquisition and the system is called TELPAS and it's an assessment system that utili that's utilized to evaluate the four areas of language proficiency which is reading, writing, speaking and listening and um the state of Texas or TEA sets long-term targets for progress uh for districts to be measured against. And I want to talk about uh if you at first glance you may think gosh those are rather low 55 like we're only expecting 55% of kids at elementary to make one year's growth in one year's time. Well what research informs us is that it takes 5 to seven years to acquire a second language at an academic level.
025So knowing that we have a great continuum of learners. Some students have been here for 4 years while others may have only been here in the country for 2 weeks. They take that into account and that's how these long-term targets have been established. Uh proud to report that we that's what I just said that in 2025 our campuses have met the 2037 targets with Woodidge being off by just one point. So we are working with the Woodridge staff to ensure that when um we'll be ready for 2037 this year in 2026. That is the results of the Telpas assessment. Moving on to academic progress. Um this table that I'm that's going to be the source of how we walk through the data reports out star performance in reading, math, science, and social studies third through
0268th. And then if they were the first column uh is going to report out if they were an emergent bilingual student at one point in their career and they are no longer so they've met that reclassification criteria they've exited. We still monitor how they're performing. And so that first column tells us once they've been through our program, they've been reclassified or they exit, how are they doing on the STAR assessment? those numbers um are the closest towards that district goal that we have of we know that we have 90% of our kids we want them to be making um to be at at least an approaches or higher on STAR then we move on to well uh by program if we look at dual language if a kid of the emergent bilingual student is in
027a dual language section how are they doing academically and that is this and so we are close to target but a little further off especially in the science and the social studies. I will point out that that social studies result is only the eighth grade test whereas reading and math um have uh three grade levels. They start in third grade through 8th grade. Social studies is the first part and I've learned a lot guys because we're looking into how we're going to address this and solve it. But it's the first part of US history. um and it's taken in 8th grade probably the most challenging test that they'll take. It's heavy on um language, but it's also heavy on content. And so, um that is an area of growth that I'll talk to and address
028in a moment. And then we look at if they're served in an ESL program, how are the kids doing and performing? So, al together here are the big takeaways um that as a leadership we are addressing at every campus. So the celebration is like I mentioned if they've been in our programs and we're monitoring how they're doing after they reclassify or meet reclassification criteria and exit the program they're doing solid. Um there is an achievement gap of about up to 20 points across the content areas if you're an emergent bilingual student versus an Alamo Heights English proficient student. And so it's what we're constantly working towards helping students overcome and close that achievement gap in elementary specifically. We've identified there's a cohort that fifth grade cohort is now in sixth grade. So we have an
029I um stu Dr. Guthrie and our team were working closely together because they struggled in fourth grade um when they were in fourth grade. their fifth grade scores were lower um than the rest of the grade levels and then now we know that they're in sixth grade it's transition year it's so many things and so that's an area of focus that came from the data and in the junior school like I mentioned that social studies that history is really concerning we are trying to determine is it curricular or is it cohort specific um last year the data did not resemble this but the year before it did. So when we get into actions, I'll talk about some of the things that we're doing to try to mitigate out a curricular program programmatically. All right. So
030the first thing or the number one question that I get because we do have a Spanish immersion program where English proficient or native English speakers participate. And so I do the lottery um and I meet with parents and I talk about the programs and the number one question I get is how will they do on STAR in English when you're teaching them in Spanish all the way through third grade through fourth grade content all the way through fifth grade and like that that is um big trust piece with parents to say please trust our teachers they are language experts and they are content experts and they continue to provide great tier one instruction. Um, but here is just a little snapshot I pulled. And so the first three sets of bars show our reading data.
031The ne the last three sets of bars show our math data. And so um the blue bar is Alamo Heights all category with the gold golden rod bar being at the dual language sections in third grade. Okay. >> So, findings are that even though they've been instructed in Spanish for the majority of their elementary years, if you are in a dual language Spanish immersion section as a native English speaker, um their results were at or above the district goal of 90% in reading and above the Elmo Heights all uh report. In math, you could see that they're uh approaching we're approaching that 90% that we want to achieve, but they're comparable in fifth grade in math with native English speakers instructed in all English. And they are slightly above in the third and fourth grade.
032So when parents ask me, how will my child fare? I say, "Well, let let's look at the data and see what the data um says," which it's great as a practitioner to see research in action with our data. A source of pride. All right. Um moving on towards uh the academic achievement as evaluated by end of course assessments. So we have again the Alamo Heights all and then we have algebra, biology, US history, English one and two. the celebration there. Although it is it's one of those like slight but like not get over excited because I feel like there's much room to grow to get to that 90% that's our target. But our kiddos that were emergent bilingual did do better than the all category um for Alamo Heights in algebra 1. Now if you
033look at the English one and two that doesn't come as a surprise it is um they're English learners we have a a continuum of language proficiency and so that will be an area of focus or target for us as a a campus. Okay, recclassification criteria or exit criteria is something that I've referenced. Um, in elementary we had 14 students this past year uh reclassify and in secondary we had 22. The criteria is set by the state set by uh um chapter 89. And so what we're trying to do especially in the dual language program is ensure that students are becoming biliterate and having high levels of academic achievement as well. And we know that that takes some time. The percentage is about 13%. So every year we are reclassifying about 13% of our emerging bilingual
034students. All right. So our next steps professional development is heavy and AC a theme across the board here. Um, in elementary we are working to support our ESL teachers. Um, as we noted when we looked at that data, emerging bilingual in a dual language program performed u slightly better than emergent bilingual in an ESL program. I failed to mention then but I'll mention it now because I should honor that uh denominators in ESL are much smaller and so the impact of data um is felt. However, we don't want to neglect the needs of teachers that have English learners in their classroom um and want to ensure that they have time to come together plan and um learn instructional strategies to help them in the classroom. So we are working with um both Cambridge and Woodridge
035to get a plan for that. At the junior school um very proud of our instructional coach Valerie is a social she's a history teacher herself and so we've solicitated her help. She's done a whole learning day with the junior school um to just start trying to get curriculy, her arms around the assessment and then um she's working with a team that's going to be providing additional instruction for students to through tutoring so that we can try to um give them additional support and help um in the area content area which is of of the challenge right now. And then, oh, that's the US history tutoring plan. Um, Valerie and Christy Christopher are two instructional coaches at secondary and they've paired up and they're doing lunch and learns with teachers um on strategies that help with
036emerging bilingual instruction, but also that help all students because good instruction is good instruction for all. And so, um, very excited to do it was their first session at the high school. How'd that go? good. >> Yeah, they're great. And so the idea is to continue to support our teachers that are at the front line um and are doing all of the work that is directly tied to student outcomes. That's what I have to report. I'm going to go >> very good questions. I'm open to questions um or any comments that you may have. >> Oh, any I have a couple but I don't want to go. There were a couple of slides back um where it showed going back. I don't know what number it was. >> If you tell me which one >>
037um it was the cohorts that you had of the three >> reading, math and >> Okay, got it. That one. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, that monitored section is is what what student population >> that is students that were um within the past five years. They were emergent bilingual, but they met the reclassification criteria and are no longer emergent bilingual. They're considered English proficient. So, but we just monitor them to make sure that they're not getting lost once they enter the just English instruction. >> But those those scores in that column were taken the same year as >> Yes, same year. This is all 2025 program review. Yes. >> So, can I ask you first of all, thank you so much. This is a lot and the presentation's great. Um, so on this slide, so
038the the last column ESL, so those kids are in an English class. >> Yes, they're in an English class, not in a dual language >> versus the dual language. >> Correct. So >> third through 8th. >> I guess one question I had is on class size. Those dual language classes, those are smaller. >> Well, it depends. We typically um uh staff above ratio in first um in first grade. So we're I think the the staffing section is at 18 possibly. Is that it? >> We went we go to 22 >> to pay for attrition you know over time larger classes. Um right after co we had we experienced a lot of attrition uh not a lot but significant uh to where we thought is this going to be a trend but we don't our classes
039are sitting at 22 first grade second grade third grade in fourth grade part of the strategy each campus has uh employed because language allocations are the same is that they can do some balancing with the dual language and Spanish immersion sections um but class to attribute to account for that class size piece so that we don't have really small classes compared to the English classroom >> but the dual language that program I mean there are it's English >> yeah speakers as well >> half 50 50% are English speakers and 50% are native marginalized >> and I'm sure it varies by class but I mean is it is it roughly kind of 5050 50 between emergent bilingual and >> it is it it tends to be it tends to start out that way and then we
040can't account for kids moving in or out. Um and that really does is what determines how many sections of dual language we have like this this incoming year. Um emerging bilingual students were only enough to make one section in each campus. Okay. And so we we do have to leave room for emergent bilingual students that move in. So it's slightly smaller, but not by a lot. And you may have said this, sorry. Um, but is it like a is that a lottery system to get into that dual language class? I mean, if if a family's moving in with an emergent bilingual student, are they automatically is that an option for them or >> Yeah, they're automatically they choose to. >> Okay. They can choose. Okay. Great. >> Okay, two quick I have one. You mentioned
041the denominator effect and on the social this is a confirmation that 58% I assume that population is like 20 or 30 kids realistically. So it's a really Okay. So it's real volatile. >> Yes. Because it's only one grade level there that's being possessed. >> And then second one and this is just a curiosity. The drop from 9.4% from 4% to roughly 8% this year. Do you attribute that to anything or is that just random or >> um it's something that we had potentially planned for as we were planning uh dual language sections. I think that it's things that sometimes are beyond the control of the schoolhouse. >> Um we've seen we've seen that decrease in enrollment as well uh in the general population. >> So I know like our kids got combined with a dual
042language class. So, are they considered still dual language even though they're in a Spanish immersion class? >> So, are your children in fourth grade? >> Okay. Yes. So, our dual language and Spanish immersion sections um begin at different starting points to account for the fact that some students have the Spanish language experience and some don't, right? So, native proficient English speakers, but by the time that curricularly by the time that we get to fourth grade, the program models are the same. And so that's why we can do that in combination. So what are they considered? It's like at the junior school the dual language uh two-way model. >> But are they still in the dual language number? Are they in the Spanish immersion number? >> So this right here reports a dual language number >>
043and just the emergency >> just the emergency. this um this one that is all both sections the dual language section and the Spanish section native English proficient students >> I have one more question the slide that is talking about the algebra one >> yes so I mean that's surprising to me uh that this population is I mean that's appreciably higher um so I mean what is you're a >> guess small denominator compared to >> the kids that are taking algebra 1 >> um at high school >> uh >> are students who are not in that accelerated track >> okay so this is just high school >> correct kids okay >> and I can yes and I can tell you that the small denominator is 16 and so that's why I say with the ESL numbers
044it's really hard because one or two in either direction can really impact the numbers that you're saying. >> Okay. Yes. >> Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. >> Um, >> Mr. Page. >> Oh, no. >> So, at the beginning of your presentation, you talked about uh certification, >> right? We have teachers that we got to get certified, blah, blah, >> who, and this is kind of I'm asking the whole group >> and I want to put you on the B. Who pays for that? >> Who pays for >> their certifications? So for if we are filing which we did a bilingual exceptions and waiverss report because they don't have the certification >> they don't have the bilingual certification. >> They don't have the bilingual certification but they they have the content certification. We pay we
045can pay for um the assessment but they add it onto their certificate and we pay for the professional development. >> Is it like a lot of money or is it >> I'm just trying to feel I feel like if we're investing $92 for 92 >> $12. >> Okay. So 92 for the cost of the assessment. >> That was my question. If it was $920, >> right? >> I would have a different opinion. >> $92 for the cost of the assessment and I think it's about the same for them to add it on to their certificate. >> Okay. So my other question is, and it's kind of a curveball. Jimmy is going to probably weigh in. We we've been talking about TIA a lot. Yes. Recently >> and you had you mentioned the the tel telpus
046>> telpus and uh so are any of these figures percentages because your TIA involvement is about growth. Right. >> Right. >> And so I'm trying to understand like if I'm you know what avenue am I going to want to run if I'm one of these teachers? Right. Mhm. >> And and and I'm I don't know which one of these percentages count towards the TIA. >> Does that make sense? >> That's a great question. >> And and so I you know I don't know it like you know if I'm a if I'm I'm I'm a fifth grade teacher and I'm or no, let me back up. If I'm a ninth grade teacher and I know I've got these you know dual language kids that are at the 50%. >> Mhm. >> Right. Um that's who I
047want to be. Right. And so I'm trying to understand what do any of these count or do they not or >> So when we wrote our TIA application, we made a determination of what assessments were going to be used for growth determination um by teachers and SELPAS was not one of the assessments that was included. So it's just application. It was not universal screener. The growth on universal screener, >> but tell them the percentage of our language program teachers that have a proposed designation. >> 50% of our language teachers. 50 of the 30. >> I'm just asking if they're getting dinged or if they're get if they're if they're, you know, being able to take advantage, you know. >> Yeah. >> Because if you if you talk to me in Spanish for four years, I'm
048probably not going to do really well, you know. >> It's the same with my French. No worries. So, you have no judgment on my end. But the We all run that trap. >> The trap class is measuring Spanish to English proficiency. >> Yes. So it's it's measuring English proficiency. >> You would want to measure that for growth of Spanish emerging >> because it's measuring the wrong way. >> All of this is emerging by none of this native English. >> Okay. Any more questions? >> Great reporting. All right. >> Okay. We are going to move on to section five consent agenda. Um, next item on our agenda is the consent agenda. These items are board considered routine or been previously reviewed and discussed in prior meetings and that we therefore enacted one motion. Um, is there
049anything on the consent agenda that any board member would like to remove from the consent agenda except for the one that I'm about to remove? Anyone? >> No. I'm going to remove five I from consent. Um that is approval method to pay recapture tax revenue of the state to the state of Texas. And the reason we have to do it is because it's got to be an open. >> So that's why I I No, actually I just still want pet. >> I second. Okay. Other than five I um if there's no other items to pull out, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So move. >> Okay. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you. Any further discussion? No. Okay. All in favor, please say I. I. >> All
050oppose, please say nay. >> The motion carries. Okay. There we go. So, do we need to talk about fivei or >> we so not well give us a little overview here and then there is some language in all of your letters that needs to be read onto the record. So annually it's required uh under state law that uh school district uh board delegate to the superintendent the authority to enter into a recapture contract uh with the with Texas Education Agency. And so the uh information that you see in your board packet that that that uh verbiage has to be read into the minutes. It's a requirement again going back to state law. Uh and uh this will give Dana the authority to um to uh enter into to the contract with uh with the state
051of Texas regarding a recapture payment. Um there's very little options in this nowadays. >> That was my next question. What can we do about this? >> I I think in years many years past uh there was a little bit other options, you know, in terms of what districts could and couldn't do. But um it's really evolved to where it's like, okay, we're just going to have to pay. So, um, but this, uh, this information is still required to be read into the minutes. And so, that's why we're needing to pull that out. >> And, uh, >> so this is where like you used to be able to like pick a district and say, "We're going to fund this." You could and so you didn't have to go through the state, but now it's pretty. >>
052Yeah. >> In other words, it's all dictated. We're just have to vote to say that's such a joke. Sorry. >> All right. So, we have a required motion. Correct. >> Yes. All right. And whoever makes the motion if they'll read the uh the information there. >> Would anyone like to read the motion? >> I'll do it. >> Carried. >> Sure. >> Required motion. I move to approve the following statement. For the 2025 2026 school year, we delegated contractual authority to obligate the school district under Texas Education Code TEC 111.1511C4 to the superintendent solely for the purpose of obligating the district under TEC 48.257 257 and TEC chapter 49 subchapters A and D and the rules adopted by the commissioner of education as authorized under TEC49.006. This included approval of the agreement for the purchase of
053attendance credit, the agreement for the purchase of attendance credit netting chapter 48 funding or agreement for purchase of attendance credit and netting of chapter 48 funding. >> Fantastic Mandarin. >> I mean truly >> and who understands. >> Okay. I don't know. >> Moving on. Second. >> Second. Well, there's no We have to second. >> Yes. Okay. It's not coming from committee. >> Yes. >> Do I have a second? >> Second, >> honor. >> Thank you, honor. >> Yeah. >> All approved. >> Yes. >> Say I. >> I. >> Any names? >> Motion approved. Okay. We're going to go to section six, board mini, board member committee reports. our first communication committee meeting, learning walks. Who volunteered for that? >> Oh, >> we went to Woodidge if I recall. >> We did. We went to Woodidge.
054Um it was wonderful. We uh were broken up into groups and we got to um go into individual classrooms. We heard from Sean Reno, who is fantastic, about all the great things going on there. Um, it was great. Appreciate the opportunity. So, >> it was really neat. I enjoyed it. >> I I loved the kids leading us, too. I thought that was a great touch. Yeah, >> we are um >> having an athletic learning walk. Um, I think in January and then later in the spring, we'll be at the junior. >> Oh, that's awesome. >> Yeah. >> Very good. All right. Budget committee. >> Okay. Uh, that's me, Ty Edwards. Um, basically, this is nothing new. revenues will be uh less um from the state of Texas and uh an increase in expenditures due to
055security and software. So again, the overall theme is we're getting less from the state, but our expenses are going. That ends my report. >> Awesome, Ty. Thank you. Building committee, was that me or you? Hunsky, was it me? That's um uh so we met. I think we're all in the meeting actually last Wednesday, but um we met uh to talk through What did we talk? >> Okay, I'm going to have to take it. >> You're going to have to help out. >> We talked about the g we gave we we talked about giving the the junior school budget the team to go ahead on a a not to exceed number effectively a GMP number to perform and go forward with design. And I think they're already going on design. >> Yeah, they're already going on
056design. we talked about we we gave him a 62 something million budget. Uh one of the things that uh we kind of highlighted was that you know in the 62 million we had uh it was baked in about 30% in escalations and in in in our world that we live we don't have that. So, you know, there's like nine line items that covered the 62 million. And our expectation, I'm not saying we're going to get it, but our expectation is to get 12 line items, >> make our dollars go further for the kids. And so, that's kind of where we left it. And we said, you know, that's the budget. Basically, they wanted to know what the budget was. And so, we agreed that that's the budget. Um, I don't think anything of it. No,
057but just to just the the big thing is we put Howard on pause at the a month ago so that we could make sure we're moving forward with the junior school, get everything we want out of the junior school, make sure our collective aggregate budget in the bond, covers everything we want to do at the junior school, and then we'll revisit Howard and hopefully we can move forward with Howard in earnest at that point. But we want to make sure we kind of get our ducks in the road with junior school first. Yeah. Okay. Alma Height School Foundation board meeting. >> That's David. >> So I um attended that today and um had a great meeting. Those meetings are a real bright spot in coming here really just to hear the positive momentum of all
058of their efforts and um lots of celebrations. They formally announced the um award recipients for the Hall of Fame for Reunited Heights. And so we have three distinguished alumni, Howard Peak, Steve Waters, and Debbie Chzn. Our distinguished educator is um Danny Porch and then distinguished um uh service >> service, right? Distinguished service is um Ann Valentine. So that event is going to be um very special on March 29th. Um caller and I always sponsor table if any of you want to sit there. Um that's one of my favorite events. Uh greater heights night. I mean, it feels really strange to be at the table with parents and doing a report. So, I'm going to probably toss this to you, but November 5th, I mean, it's just around the corner. They're they're really celebrating. You speak
059a little to this, just the, uh, record-breaking underwriting at this point. So, >> underwriting um, tables, um, have great silent auction items, live auction items. So, excited to have you all there that evening. >> When's lunch? >> On Friday. >> Raffle tickets are already out there to purchase. So, purchase your rapper tickets and upgrade wine. Um, and then yes, so live and silent auction will be on Friday. >> Do we want upgraded wine for our table? >> Maybe. >> Okay. >> Um, >> so that's just really exciting. >> Yeah. And then I would just share um last year strategically the the foundation invited um the PTO uh president's council president which is the high school um PTO president and mu team president to join um as exeicio board members um and today Courtney um Percy
060gave a great speech just about the work that's taking place PTO's from Howard all the way to the high school and >> um and that's fun it's a nice um coordinated strategic effort to talk about fundraising and then finally I just want to say that um I brought Jimmy Walker to provide that group with just an overview about TIA because they're going to be hearing about it too and just for them to understand um the strategic way that we've rolled through this and are implementing it and of course Jim did an incredible job. So great meeting >> sweetness. Um okay, we don't have any business recommendations. Correct. >> Correct. >> Awesome. We're going to go to calendar review. >> Okay. Busy October, November Woodridge Carnival this Friday. >> If anyone needs to get a carnival
061fix, it's a good one to go to. Monday, we'll be together for team of eight training. We'll be here. Um, >> I can't make that. >> Yeah. But you're funny. >> And then, uh, no moving into November, we'll have a building committee meeting on November 5th, same night as Greater Heights night, a district safety committee meeting, Clay and Carrie, um, November 11th. And Frank, is that time right? 1 to two. >> Double check. >> Yeah, double check that. I don't >> Will Chief Ray be there? >> Yes, >> he he won't be here. >> Okay, good. >> He and I had an interview Monday. >> He did. >> Was good. >> Okay. Well, >> um GMP meeting in November is on November 12th, followed by the audit committee. Um we had some difficulty getting it
062scheduled another time, so we're going to just do 30 minutes after it. It shouldn't take long. >> Um DEAC is that same day, busy day for board members. Gratitude lunch is on um November 14th and um call your barbecues for our team and I just invite you to come and help circle their plates and share some words of appreciation. >> Good stuff. >> What do you mean ah? >> Yeah. So, because the you remember we were in the locker room for years and >> it's a game day and they want that team room and so we're going to be in the foyer because really parking is good here in front of the foyer right now just because it's >> kind of overflow some construction. So, I feel like we can pull Carter's pit into there
063and you guys can park there a little bit easier. So, >> that's great. Yes, >> that's the correct time. >> 1 to two is the correct time. Thanks. Right. I one to two >> will not be at the the building committee meeting on the >> Okay. >> And that gratitude we're going to be out of town in San Francisco. >> Do you want me to try to reschedu >> what's your I'm I fly out that morning. >> Okay. >> So, >> let me get more information >> and I'll But when do you get back? >> Uh not till late Friday. >> Okay. So the next Saturday morning I can either do it the four third or fourth or I could do it the following week. >> Okay. >> My birthday's on the 21st. >> It's
064on the calendar. >> All right. Superintendent report. We good? >> Uh I think we're good. Um >> lots of celebrations. Julian does a great job just capturing all that we've walked through this past month. real highlight was um a a pep rally at the towers with our senior citizen friends and it was just a great opportunity to to I don't know spread the mule spirit um every year a favorite event of mine is the swing for the pure um tournament that coach Mack um really hosts for top golf teams from all across the state. So, got to be there and we got to honor um one of our staff members who's walking through uh who walked through a battle with cancer this past year and that's Karly. She was able to be there and um
065shared some words and it was emotional and it's wonderful. Um great presence for our staff appreciation night at the football game. Um we had y'all a record number of colleges and universities that um showed up for our college fair. We've got a a new superstar, Gerald um Padilla, and uh just a great showing at that college fair. I think I've captured all of the pictures that are up there. Um homecoming was wonderful. >> It was a lot, right? It's always a lot, but it feels good. >> If you go ahead to the next slide, oh, just some pictures of bond updates. You can see the the back of Cambridge there where um they're working on that central plant. You can at the bottom left is a picture of one of the classrooms on the bottom
066floor of building three for the renovations. Um over Thanksgiving break, >> both at Howard, I'm sorry, both at Woodridge and at Cambridge, the hall doors and the hall panels will be um finished on those walls. So, it'll it'll be completely finished during Thanksgiving break. >> Um aerial view of the high school, which is pretty impressive, right? M >> I keep hearing that that crane is coming down. They say by mid November. I don't know. Supposed we're not I mean supposedly they're already disassembling it. It's a production. But >> four courts at the tennis um center are resurfaced. We've got four more to go. >> And they're so happy. I'm just beautiful. And um the shade covers and the windcreens are um starting to be put up as well. And then you can see the um
067footprint there of the work that's um taken place at the um softball field. Um I understand the batting cage structure is completely erect and um >> you know I'm curious how far is it from the home plate to that road. >> I know the same thing. >> Do we need do we need like a big green wall up? Yeah, >> CMU block is complete. >> Batting cage structural steel is complete and the drainage lines from field turf have um been making progress. So >> that's the bond update. >> Fabuloso. >> A great meeting. >> Is that it? >> All right. Well, I guess before we move to our next item, we're going to take a little quick break. >> Can I real quick? >> Yeah. have been wondering. >> This is Ella Martin. She's a
068sophomore at our high school. She's in principles of education with Miss Hton and she shadowed me yesterday and then is here at your board meeting today as part of our Texas Association of Future Educators project. So, >> I thought it was your daughter. >> Welcome. It's awesome.