001Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. kick my chair. No, do it for sure. That was per that was permission. [Music] Here [Music] you go. Thank you. [Music] >> The kids are like on top of each other. 14. Heat. Heat. [Music] 100%. Sir, you 6:00. >> All right. Good evening. Uh, may I please have everyone's attention? It is 6 pm on Wednesday, September 17th, >> and this is a duly filed and posted regular meeting at the Alma Heights Board of Trustees. Thank you all for coming. I would like to welcome anyone listening on our live streaming broadcast if anyone would like a recording of this meeting. We will post a link to the district website within 24 hours at the end of this meeting. Um, in addition, we will also
002po post the materials being presented within 24 hours so you can re review a copy of those as well. The recordings are under school board icon on our website, Alma Heightsindependentschooldist.net. If anyone in the audience would like to address the board tonight, we welcome your input in our citizens to be heard agenda item. Please fill out the form which I already have and we have received one request on the agenda item SB12. Um so when your name is called will you please join the table to speak? Each person will have three minutes to speak and Christina will hold up a card. Christina >> and when there is one minute left and another card when time is up. Excuse me. >> I skipped a spot. >> Sorry. At this time, I want to turn it over
003to Frank. >> Thank you, M. >> New glasses. New glasses. Yeah, we're excited to have such a big group for our recognitions this evening. And thanks for being here. If you're here for one particular group, we're excited about that. We do ask that you stay until all of the recognitions are done. And you'll know when that happens cuz I'll let you know. Um after that we have the rest of the business meeting which you're welcome to attend uh to stay but I'll let you know if you want to leave at that time. So I have a big group. The first one is an uh an award we call spotlight on excellence in which we shine the spotlight on some of our employees who work hard behind the scenes to fuel our tradition of excellence. Now
004I'm going to call them up one by one because this is a big group and I have plaques here for them. Uh we'll do some pictures and then I'll explain to you why we're celebrating them. So, these are members from our Elmo Heights ground crew. Who's first? Juan, come on down. And then we have Luis Ombberto Gonzalez. Come on down. And then Jose, >> come on. This way. Right here. We'll line up this way. >> All right. Now, working behind the scenes, sometimes even off the scene, is what we see tonight. On uh the way to Cambridge Elementary School, one of our Cambridge teachers, Sabrina Solis, and her daughter suffered a tire blowout on the way to school. But thankfully, she managed to get to safety at the gas station and was able and her
005daughter saw an ahist uh vehicle with uh some of our members of our grounds crew. They quickly stopped to render aid and helped her to get that tire changed and get her to school. Now, here's She wasn't able to be here tonight, but here's what she says about these uh young men. I want to take this time to thank you for your kindness by helping me and my daughter fix our flat. I was incredibly relieved to be in such capable hands. I honestly wouldn't have been able to manage it on my own. You all worked together. You did such a quick and efficient job. obviously knew what you were doing. Even though you were very busy with your own schedule and agenda, each of you handled my stressful situation with generosity and a smile. Isla,
006my daughter, and I will remember this event with much gratitude. So, this is why we shine the spotlight on excellence on you all. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Now, if you're a member of the family of any of these folks, can you wave at us? Thank you. Of course, Supervisor David, thanks for David Ramus. Thanks for being here. I know Frank does a lot to celebrate these guys. Anything that you would like to add, you don't have to say anything, but I just want to say thank you. >> Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate you all. Um, next. All right. Um, next, uh, I'd like to recognize a teacher from Alamo Heights Junior School. I'm going to call her up first and I'll tell you what we're doing. Uh, Katherine Maldonado, come on up. >> Okay.
007>> Now, Miss Maldonado, we're going to, this is a little token for our appreciation. Have you stand here and you'll have a great view of the video is um, in Alamo Heights, our profile of a learner means a lot to us. It outlines the skills, attributes, and habits of mind that we want to work hard to instill in all of our students um from the time they start with us to the time they walk that stage and leave us. In our profile of a learner, there are six different domains. And what we do is we celebrate an educator who embodies those uh attributes for a particular domain. Every other month, we make a nice little video. We're about to see that right now. And so we highlighted our science and STEM teacher Katie Maldonado from
008the junior school uh who was uh focusing on sync knowledge and understanding. Now in the video you'll see little bullets throughout the bottom and those are like different parts of that domain and the profile that she's exemplifying with her students. Are you ready to watch the video? I'm >> ready. >> All right. Let's queue up. I'm Maldonado at the junior school and I help students the profile by seeking knowledge and understanding. [Music] I guess I really try um to model the joy of finding um out something new. I sort of discovery um when they discover something in class or make a connection I try to celebrate that. So then here when we're doing labs um I think the celebration of the you know big aha moment is really important um and you celebrate it with
009them when it happens whether it's in class or 3 days later when it finally connects I think that really um you want to more curious and more difficult have one person you're going to take the half you're going to put it in and track it we we talk at the beginning of the year what their job in class and asked to ask questions and help each other out. And we also um explain the concept of epic fail. So what that is in my class is sometimes you're going to try and you're going to work really hard. You're going to put together an answer or an explanation and it might be totally wrong. Um but we celebrate that because I recognize the um effort that went into it and even though it may not be correct,
010their epic fail will help so many other people learn and address those misconceptions. I think that really helps. I really hope that they would remember um that they can find the answers themselves, that nothing is beyond their reach. um they may have to read a little bit more, ask more questions to more people, but if they keep pursuing um you know, whatever their curiosity leads them to, they will find an answer and eventually have like a deeper understand by using fun techniques to learn science and they get an understanding. There's no wrong answers in this classroom and everyone just you feel so understood. I feel like I gain more knowledge in this classroom and I feel like oh I didn't know that before. So amazing. What I hope that means is that they're willing to
011get messy and um look at what's right in front of them and make their own understanding of that and not just rely on the internet or me or their neighbor to create their own understanding. Yeah, it was lovely. Yeah. Well, congratulations. You know, we that's going to be on our our YouTube channel. It might be already. I think that's where we played it off of our YouTube channel. Get in there. Uh send it out on whatever your preferred social media means. Is uh tell us if there's anybody in the crowd here with you tonight. >> Yes. Um my whole family came out. I get a lot of support at home, too. Um, and my little guy, it's his fifth birthday. >> I'd like to thank Dr. Dus for being out here to support your staff.
012Thank you so much. Well, congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Our next recognition is for our girls golf team. I'm going to say what it is once we get them in here. Growth off, come on in. It's a big one. All right. So, tell us uh your name and what grade you're in. Obviously, we had a lot of seniors on the team last year, so they're not able to be here. Uh but tell us your name, your grade, and we'll uh we'll tell why you're here. >> I'm Syler and I'm a junior. I'm Chandler and I'm also a junior. >> I'm Michelle and I'm a sophomore. >> And that's their coach. We'll hear from him in a minute. Now, uh, this team participated in the PGA National High School Golf Invitational at Pinehurst in July. Now,
013for the seniors, it was the last time competing together, but this team finished second in the nation. >> Wow. Now, Michelle Lee here, who's a sophomore this year, uh was national champion, winning first place individually after a one-hole playoff. Coach McQuiston, anything to add? just how blessed I am to get to coach such wonderful kids and to be a part of a district that has supported us and encouraged us and uh the the opportunity to go to places like Pinehurst. If you don't know, that's where Bryson and Dishbo won the US Open. And it's it's a golf mecca. And to be able to go there, compete against 30 42 other teams from across the United States, uh, and and to be able to compete well and and to play like we did. And then Michelle,
014uh, you're four under par for your three rounds. Nine >> Nine under nine under for three rounds. really really good golf courses and uh to take on a young lady that was also a very good player and beat her in that playoff and uh and and to be able to call herself a national champion, that's a very special thing. >> Yeah, let's clap one more time. I will say uh they're such hard workers. They came straight from practice and so I think they probably run want to go eat here pretty soon. So, thank you all so much for being here. >> Congratulations. >> Next, I'd like to call in some of our Elmo Heights High School uh drama students, I guess I'll call them, for participating in the National Thesbian Festival. Come on in. Yeah.
015Come on. Now tell us your first name uh your grade and what area you qualified in. We'll end with your teacher. >> Okay. Hi, my name is Skyler Worth. I am a senior at Almo Heights and we competed at what what category? Oh my category. Sorry. Um I competed in monologues. Uh I'm Fallon Edwards. I'm a senior too and I competed in scenic design. I'm Mia Joseph. I'm also a senior and I competed in solo musical. I'm Erica Kellogg. I'm the theater teacher and I qualified in having amazing kids. >> Great. Now, as much as we wanted them to perform tonight, uh, but Erica, anything to add about this is such a great accomplishment. It was in Indiana. Sounds like it was a great week. Anything you would add to that? >> Um, we were
016just so excited to get to go. This was all of their first time competing at Thespian and their first time getting to travel at nationals and they were very well behaved and we saw some beautiful architecture and some beautiful theater. So, we're we're ready to tackle it again next year and maybe take more this year. So, thank you. >> So, what family members do we have including family members of the of the teacher here? Give us a wave if you're really All right. Our next recognition goes to a campus and we will have people recogniz representing that campus. It's uh Cambridge Elementary earning the designation of Purple Star. Let's have uh the principal and Karen Shelon come on up. Now, uh, uh, this is a designation that the Texas Education Agency recognizes schools who do
017a number of things. To receive a purple can't, I'll get out of the way. A purple campus, a purple star campus designation. Schools must do uh, four things and four things. Well, uh, they must designate a campus-based military liaison. That's Miss Shelnut. They must have a easily accessible web page that provides information for fam military connected students for their transitions and their family. Three, they must institute a campus transition program for military connected students. And four, they must support military families in assistance with various initiatives. Now, this is actually Cambridge's second time. They go in two-year cycles. They were first uh recognized in 2023 and this designation uh lasts for another two years as well. Thank you for doing so much for military connected students. Uh what would you add? Anything to add to that
018here? >> We have students from all over the country and even the world. Uh last year we had students, military students that came from Australia. This year we have a family at Cambridge that is part of the Rock Republic of Korea Army. Um, and so military students just are tend to be a family no matter where they go. And then they find that instant family in our group, the Hoola Huddle at Cambridge. So, we're really excited and um honored to be able to support them in that way. I think that's something that Alamo Heights does really well is make everybody feel at home here. So, >> I appreciate your husband right there taking taking a video of you. Thanks for being supportive of you. How about you? Anything to add about? >> I'm just really
019proud to get to work alongside Mrs. on that and to get to participate and be part of very important work. It's truly important. We all appreciate it. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Uh next, I'd like to invite uh some high school student council officers to come on up and give us your report. Tell us who you are, what your uh uh position is, and then tell us what you need to Hi everyone. My name is Ver Patel. I'm the uh president of student council. >> My name is Lindsay Lamb. I'm the vice president of city council. >> And we just wanted to come up here and tell y'all like what's going on. So right now we're turning into turning our gear into homecoming. So everything homecoming. Right now we're planning like with uh alongside PTO,
020we're planning the actual homecoming dance which theme is Rio. So it's going to be very floral, very uh vibrant South American. And we're also I just wanted to tell you all that we're also doing um the we're keeping the uh tradition of doing um the hallway decorating. So this year our uh overall theme we usually have an overall theme and then each grade has their own hole in the buildings and in this case the mods. So, um the student council will be doing the actual breezeway of the mods and then each grade will be doing one of the uh one of the individual mods and our theme is Disney/Pixar. So, I know the freshman are doing like Rio as in like the Rio movie and then also the juniors are doing the um sorry uh
021Monsters Inc. So, they're going to like be uh painting all or not painting but decorating all the doors like the little doors in Monsters Inc. if you'all ever seen the movie. >> And yeah, so also homecoming um court nominations have been sent out to students. So, if y'all have any students at the high school, definitely let them know to um nominate someone, nominate teachers, nominate students in their grade. And yeah. >> Yeah. So, homecoming week is going to be a very busy week. Right in the middle, we have Howdy Night, which is a super fun tradition. And we're super excited. Student council signed up for two booths. We're fundraising for the senior gift this year, which is what the money goes towards. So, student council will be selling sodas and that's just overarching. And then
022our senior class officers are also doing a booth. I believe they're doing like hair tinsel and like some fun glitter stuff, something of that sort. But we're basically trying to fundra for our um end of year gift for our senior class. And this past month, we have done a pep rally and our first first Friday. So, our pep rally was a huge success. Ver McEd it and we had a super fun time. We played musical chairs. That was great. And um so, and then also we had our first Friday, which if you don't know what First Friday is, it's just a celebration at the first Friday of each month and it's during lunch. We just play games, we have music, we sell snow cones. It was a huge success and we had so much fun
023and yeah, we are super excited for this homecoming season and all the craze of it. So, yeah. Good job. >> Well, thank you very much. We appreciate all you do to keep up school spirit that makes a great environment. Well, that's the end of our recognition. So, if you're here for this that part alone, this would be a great time to leave, but you're welcome to stay for the rest of it. Thanks for being here. Yes. video. All right, moving on. Uh, our next item on our agenda is section three, citizens to be heard. We've received one request to speak on an agenda item. When your name is called, will you please join us at the table to speak? Each person will have three minutes to speak and Christina will hold up a card when
024there is one minute left and another card when there time is up. When making your presentation, please refrain from referring to individual students or personnel by name. In a public setting, it is best to exercise caution when commenting about specific people. In addition, mindful of the due process and legal obligations, the board will not respond to your comments this evening. However, we are we welcome and appreciate your input as an important member of our community and will follow up with you separately as necessary. For everyone else listening, please know that if a member of the community speaking tonight raises any concerns or questions, we will have a member of the staff contact them directly to follow up. So, we are going to begin with Ann who's been knitting. >> I like it. >> Hello. Good
025to see you. Welcome to the first few weeks of this school year. I'm here to speak on two topics today. I was excited to hear I get three minutes, not two. Um the first is SP12. So SB12 is such a poorly written law that even lawyers are having trouble figuring out what it means. And I'm here to say that I think Alamo Heights has the ability to make some choices to support its teachers and its students um even with a poorly written law. So mostly TEA has released information about as I'm sure you're aware the health related services and they've had to re-release information because of the lack of clarity. I've heard from multiple teachers in different districts that SB12 is being used to remove books, narrow curriculum, restrict conversations in the classroom because no
026one's quite sure what the diversity, equity, and inclusion means, what counts as an instructional material. Again, the law is bad. Let's be clear. And so, I think to myself here, um, the profile of the learner, and we saw that great example from STEM, and over the years where I've visited, I've seen lots of other examples of that, and my children have experienced that. But alumini students will not gain quote the knowledge, skills, and attributes to pursue individual dreams and positively impact the world upon graduation if a poorly written piece of legislation is allowed to control the curricular materials teachers use. The teachers in your classrooms, as you often brag about, are some of the best in the state. I would invite all of you then to trust them and their knowledge, deep knowledge of both
027their content and the students in front of them. instead of trusting legislators who frankly probably haven't been in a classroom since they graduated from college. And certainly um I should say there are a few who have been teachers. I will give them credit. I'm betting they knew better than to write a bill like SB12. Um and even curricular approval processes that make things challenging for teachers means a narrowing of the curriculum. related to this in my second topic is really that I invite Alamo Heights ISD and its community, the board members, everyone to resist this snitch economy that is growing around teaching and teachers right now. SB12 encourages investigating what's happening, posting screeds on social media, going after teachers directly. Certainly Greg Abbott's letter or I'm sorry, Mike Morath's letter that came out I believe
028on Monday doesn't help that. We ask our students to see something and say something. When someone doesn't have enough food, they should tell someone. If someone is selfharming, they should tell someone. That's out of community and care. People who are targeting teachers are not caring. Even if they say they are, they're not. So, let's resist that in everything we do and talk about the importance of our students getting to explore and understand the world in all of its great diversity and all of the different perspectives so that when we launch them at graduation, they are successful. Thank you so much for your service to our students and our community. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay, we're going to move on to item four, items for presentation or possible action. Uh, pillar three, student safety and
029well-being. Uh, it's going to be a presentation of Texas School Safety Center intruder detection audits by the man, Mr. Frank Stage. >> Thank you, Mr. Paige. Uh, Dr. for the sheriff members of the board. I've got a prepared statement to talk about intruder detection audits since they're a safety related matter. The information is privileged. So you'll have the opportunity to talk more about it in executive session. Schools in Texas are required to have thorough emergency operations plans to follow several other requirements to ensure safety and security of our students. Annually, we must review and revise our EOPS and submit them to the Texas State Safety Center for approval. Yeah, excuse me. Trian, we conduct a comprehensive safety audit which we completed in February 2023. We periodically train students and staff in conducting monthly safety drills.
030We have weekly perimeter safety checks, not to mention all the infrastructure put in place as layers of security like security fencing, single points of access, door locking mechanisms, buzzin systems with secure vestibles, security surveillance video, and our school resource officers, just to mention a few. Starting in fall 2023, schools are also required to undergo intruder detection audits conducted by auditors from the Texas Education Administration. These are individuals trained by the Texas School Safety Center to assess a campus's intruder detection processes during one announced unannounced site visit. When a visit finds no issues, the superintendent receives a report saying no findings. When a visit finds any issues, the superintendent receives a report with the findings. This school year, Alamo Heights has had two different intruder detection audits. At the visit to Howard Early Childhood Center on
031September 5th, the inspector noted that an exterior door didn't latch when allowed to close on its own. Of course, we checked the operability of exterior doors each week. This door's performance had changed since it was checked previously two days prior. Cambridge Elementary received their audit on September 9th. During the audit, the inspector found an auditorium door that had been propped open in the unlatched position with a screw, apparently by construction workers nearby. In addition, the auditor noted that four portable classroom doors were in the locked but not latched position inside the secured area. Chief Eddie Ray, our district safety coordinator, has already submitted corrective actions for the Howard finding and it has been closed. Corrective actions have also been completed at the Cambridge campus, but this audit remains open while we appeal the finding for
032the portable classroom doors. This concludes my prepared statement and I'll be able to talk further in executive session. Thank you. >> Thank you, Frank. Um, okay. We're going to move on to item five, consent agenda. All items of the consent agenda are considered to be routine by the board of trustees and will be enacted in one motion. There will be no separate discussion of the items unless a board member so requests in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered as an item on the regular agenda. Is there any item that the board wishes to remove? I'm hearing none. So, um, we need to approve the consent agenda. Do I hear a Thank you, Lauren. A second. >> A second. >> All right. Thank you. All right. The consent agenda
033is approved. Um, we're going to move on to board members committee report. And uh Dana has just informed me that I am doing the committee report. >> Such a team. >> So we'll move through like this just so everybody has a little time to prep. Uh we've got you for building got Carrie for policy because Karen is DEAC and then we have I will do David's report for foundation. Okay. >> You're going to do a report? >> Yes. >> All right. uh building committee. We met on Tuesday, September 2nd, and >> sorry, we might need to talk to you later. >> Absolutely. >> You okay? >> Absolutely. Yeah. >> Everything all right? >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Uh we met on Tuesday, September 2nd, and uh actually we decided that I think everybody's up
034to speed on this >> cuz we met on the 10th also. >> She's not on there. Yeah, I just cut >> the building. Yeah. Yeah, Christian. [Music] Um, no, >> apologize. Uh, but anyhow, we decided that uh we are going to put Howard on the bench for now. um and uh tackle uh the junior school um uh in in the we're basically just swapping uh we're going to swap Howard and the junior school and uh that was really mostly what we talked about. Um and uh you know we're excited to get the junior school design going. Um it is very complicated and uh we wanted to make sure that you know Howard is is is is basically a groundup building. There's really not a lot of you know uh or I didn't know about this,
035I didn't know about that or I didn't know a pipe was there. I didn't know a pipe was there. The junior school is different there. We're tapping into a building that's been there a long time and we just want to make sure that we have the funds available for both schools. So, that is my report. >> Um, thank you for that. We're going to go back a minute because um we didn't um a motion for the consent agenda. We did. >> Yeah, we did. You did it first, a second, but you didn't vote. Oh, >> so all in favor? >> You're right. All in favor? >> So, who was the first? Let's just remember. >> Lauren and then Hunter seconded and then you would call for all. >> Can I have a vote on the
036consent agenda? >> All in favor? >> I. >> All oppose. >> Motion carries. >> Perfect. Perfect. Okay. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Great building report. Moving into policy. >> Okay. Uh Carrie and Karen caning this. So, we um I mean it's sometimes easy just to read it. I don't know. Well, there the board must approve purchases over $50,000 and um the legislature had Senate Bill 1173. Is that right? Okay. Um that raises the competitive procurement threshold from 50,000 to 100,000 which helps when considering which type of procurement methods we use um on a purchase and competitive bidding. Um, and talking about this new law, we've we've decided that, you know, that makes sense and it um it gives Dana the ability and her team the ability just to procure those items about those envel
037left. >> Thank you, Carrie. >> Um, let's move on to the DACK. >> Okay. And I'm going to ask for Frank's uh input as well on this, but we met as a group. It was our first meeting of the year. Um, we talked about being a district of innovation, we have the ability to exempt ourselves out of three specific legislative um agendas for that are coming down from the legislature. and those were around training that we already really do on an annual basis. Um there was one around the class rank and how we rank ourselves. I can't remember the third that was what >> uh the grievance policy. >> Sorry. Yes, the grievance. Um so that was discussion and made recommendations to the board which I believe we all uh approved. And um lastly was
038just a subcommittee for next year's calendar asking for a group to participate in that. >> Awesome. Thank you. Uh now let's move on to the school foundation. Is that UD? >> Yes. So great meeting today. There's um just incredible momentum um with the work of a foundation. Just every one of those meetings is a bright spot for me personally. Um lots of reports at Greater Heights tonight. Uh Karen is one of the chairs that it's just on track. It's about eight weeks away and there's some some pretty neat um auction items and some special surprises during the evening. were sure to have a great um time. The uh teacher fund, you know, the budget, the goal, I'm sorry, for the teacher fund was um um a million dollars and we're in September and they've already
039reached that >> and so um there's just again I just the the momentum is is incredible at this point. great efforts working with um alumni focus we know with reunions and with events um both the the grand uh mule event that was this past summer and then there's a a young alumni event being hosted here in the fall um let me think there was one more thing that I wanted to tell you about um endowment campaign they're really excited about moving forward um and actually moving the endowment campaign forward Um, and it, you know, it was supposed to start in the spring of next year, but they're thinking that it'll it'll move up to the fall of next year. And so that's really exciting as well. >> Can I can I add to that really
040quickly? And because that had been communicated and some folks were like just finishing down the campaign while doing another for the legislaturator's inability to fund our deficit like really amped the the foundation up. They were just like, "We have a goal to meet. We need to meet it. The state's not going to fund this. We have to fund ourselves." So if anybody kind of pushes you a little bit, didn't you just do an endowment campaign? That's some of the messaging that's there. She said that's important to push out to people. >> And then finally, um just an update around the strategic plan work that the foundation has um been engaged in the last um year and um just some updates around that. So great meeting today. Incredible. >> All right. Awesome. Uh well, let's move
041on to section seven, business recommendations. I don't believe there are any business recommendations. >> All right. We'll go to section 8 calendar review. >> Okay. So, looking at the calendar, we have um we're bringing back learning walks this year. You know, we kind of pushed pause in our pruning efforts last year as we walked through our first round of budget cuts and just standing up TIA and and the extra workload on our admin team. We will have Woodridge in the fall and we will have junior school and athletics in the spring. And so mark your calendars for September 30th. Uh we will meet at 8:15 over at Woodridge and and we'll be there until 9:45. We'll get to tour some of the classrooms and just see um some of their campus community based accountability work.
042On Wednesday, October 1st, we will have the um committee of three building committee meeting. On Friday, October 3rd, um I am inviting you all and the foundation board to join me in the um Worth and Ariyaga family community room for the football game. You'll get more information about that in your update. Um but it's always a nice night to be together in community with both boards. Um we have a TBD on our team of eight board team building workshop. I had thrown out um October 9th, which is a Thursday night from 5 to 8. Not Not a good night. Okay, throw out some more days. I'm in Japan. Look, we got lots of conflict. All right. We will figure out a date for that. >> When did you get back from Japan? >> We arrived
043back the 13th. >> Okay. >> We have an Excel graduation. >> Be asleep. >> Okay. We've got an Excel uh graduation on the 9th. Even though we don't have Excel in the location where it was before, we've got teachers who are standing up those services. And so, um, if we have a graduate, that will be the day. October 15th, GMP, um, morning meeting. Same day after the GMP meeting, I'd ask the Ty, Lauren, and Hunter to stay behind. It's typically a 20 to 30 minute meeting where we go over the audit findings. Howdy parade will be on the 15th. Howdy night, homecoming on October 17th. Um, and then our October board meeting on the 22nd along with the foundation parking. >> Yes. God, >> we're going to blink and October is going to be over.
044Just telling you. Okay, you can go ahead. Do superintendent communication. >> Yes, ma'am. We're going to move on to section 9, superintendent communication. >> So, lots of great um events taking place all over the district. I'm celebrating really successful back to school nights. I've heard from many of you around the table just the great experience you've had um on our various campuses. Our teachers work really hard to provide that opportunity to our parents and families and our our community shows up in a big way um for that. We hosted an incredible teddy bear picnic at Howard Early Childhood Center. It's an incredible opportunity for our grandparents to come and be part of that experience. Today we hosted three different media events at the high school. So, at 7:00 a.m. um Wii was here for Thursday
045night lights pep rally. At 900 a.m. we moved to Dr. Cabara's classroom and awarded her the Excel teacher of the year and Ken's 5 um is airing that tonight. And then um at 10:00 a.m. KAT came to highlight the work of our incubator program um because this this is dump startup week. So, lots of positive media attention and it's a it's a good day in the life of the superintendent when you can claim that. So, >> um >> bond updates. So, there's a lot taking place. We had a great walk through last week where we got to go to a topping out ceremony. >> We look We look intent though. >> It looks like legit. >> It's all point. >> So, lots of good progress all around. Um, our north wing is the most farthest
046along. The bricks being laid, windows are being installed, sheetrocks going up, and technology and wiring is being installed. So, we'll see that same progression through the main wing and the south wing. Um, in Cambridge, we're um working in building three on the first floor. That's typically where the fourth and fifth grade, you know, students are. And so, that first floor has been evacuated. Demo's complete. HVAC units and duck work are being installed. Electrical work is taking place. Um, and the plumbing is rough for the class. Plumbing rough in >> roughed. Thank you. I'm not speaking the right language here. For classrooms and restrooms. Um, lots of work taking place at the central plant behind Cambridge. And so every weekend, the past three weekends, and then moving forward, all of the electricity will be shut off
047um in the building to complete the demolition of that central plant. Um, it's a big project. Alah Heights Athletic Complex out at Robins. The locker room exterior block walls are finished. The steel rafters are being installed. The final retaining walls are being framed and waiting to be poured. Batting cage steel cover has been installed. The dugout block walls are complete. Um tennis court resurfacing will start here on the 29th of September. And they're working on the bids for the tennis shade covers at this point, too. Um, we have had two design meetings for the new central office community center and I can't tell you how excited I am about that. I I am excited just for all of us to be in the same place with collaborative spaces. It's going to make our work um
048so much more productive and so it's just fun to be in those um conversations. We did make the decision that um the the placement of the new building will actually be where the colony house was. So, at the lot adjacent to where we are right now, we spent lots of time going back and forth deciding whether or not it needed to be on that lot or on the corner lot and and just um really it comes down to parking placement and then um the design of what we're calling the um I'm going to say the wrong thing, the mule plaza. The mule plaza. So there will be some nice green space between the facilities that will provide us our community some good space but us for for nice space to kind of stage >> some
049of the gatherings before and after board meetings and so it's going to be great very exciting and I think that's my last thought. >> Well I want to thank you for proddding our team on doing the shade structures and dipping into a little bit of our contingency. >> Um I know there was >> everybody wants their projects done now. you know that. So, we have to be careful about how we do that. But we had lots of feedback from the tennis community that that was a priority and needed to be >> moved up in the timeline. So, it is >> that's what I'm saying. >> We're good. >> Um, okay. Well, let me get my notes back up. I think we're >> Okay. Well, we're going to before we move to our next items, we're
050going to there are no objections. We're going to take a 5m minute break and then we're going to enter into executive session as Texas