001I wonder. [Music] >> It's yours. [Music] I hate every otherwise. [Music] you are like with your parents today across the aisle from where you juice. It was so funny. I turn like this in your mouth kind of loud. My god, >> where was that? >> In fact, it was kind of a reunion. Larry Hammer was right behind me. I was like, "Oh my god, >> where was that? I needed it. Here [Music] we are. >> She's been two months. I swear he is [Music] I got to know your I stole your speakers. I mean, I'm just like I'm like, >> this is the first we've had Snickers and that's that's my start. >> Yes. >> You just have one. I thought this was a bumper. I was in All right. >> All right. Good evening.
002Uh, could I please have everyone's attention? It's 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 20th, 2025. And this is a duly filed and posted regular meeting of the Alma Heights School Board. Um, thank you all for coming. 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 after the end of this meeting. In addition, we also post the materials being presented within 24 hours so that you can review a copy of those as well. The recordings are under the schoolboard icon at our Alma Heightsindependentschool district.net website. If anyone in the audience would like to address the board tonight, we welcome your input during our citizens to be heard. Item on the agenda. No laughing. >>
003Sorry. >> Please fill out the yellow 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. At this time, I'm going to go to section two, delegations and recognitions. At this time, I will turn it over to the stud, Dr. Al Faro. >> Thank you, Mr. Paige. And members of the audience, thanks for being here. We're excited to recognize everyone here. We're excited for those who are here to support them. I do want to make a quick note that if you're here to recognize to support somebody, please stay to the end when we're done with all the recognitions and then there'll be a time for you to leave if you'd like to. But remember, we got a whole another meeting
004so you can stay the whole time if you like. All right? But I'll let you know when that time comes up. >> Our first recent this evening is the spotlight on excellence. Uh every month we shine the spotlight on an employee who works behind the scenes to fuel our tradition of excellence. And tonight we shine the spotlight on excellence on Emma Rubio. Come on down. So I'm going to give that to you and Julian's going to take pictures for a second. And you can hold that. Okay. Hold that for a minute cuz I'm going to say nice things by now. Um, Emma Rubio has served in our district for 15 years. >> Yes. >> Um, as an instructional assistant in the language programs at Woodridge. Yes. >> Now, we're recognizing her for variety of things.
005She goes above and beyond. Uh, for example, working at summer school, right? They're working at summer school. Not only does she help the teachers with all the things that teachers need, but one of the things that we have at summer school that's unique is we have college and high school kids volunteering to help during the thing or even workers that are helping. And she does such a great job mentoring our student workers that that goes a long way. And I think you're actually creating more teachers when you do that. >> That's a really big deal. Now, she she not only does she love helping, but she loves to see the students grow. you love watching the students grow and all this you get so much reward from the success that the students um accomplish. Now
006we all have talked a lot about the budget cuts and the tough situation and so one of the budget reductions was we had to decrease the number of aids and so Emma is actually going to be split this year among two campuses. Now that's not easy. We knew most folks wouldn't be happy about it but boy she's had a great attitude about doing that so far. I'm checking. No. So, we appreciate I know it's it's not easy, but man, you've had such a great attitude about that, Emma. We wanted to make sure we recognize you for that as well. So, congratulations. And tell us um we'll clap again for for you, but tell us who's here supporting you. >> There's some people wave at us if you're here. Yes, my cousin, my little daughter, my
007son. >> Yes, my son-in-law, but I say my son >> and my first cousin Juan and my first cousin Maria, >> my counelors, and then all this. Can I say that? Sure. >> Okay. Go ahead. >> Miss Dr. Jimmy Walker I know is one of the angels because always she make a card for the person that is going to be in in charge of summer school and say okay pick him up she knows everything and they call me to say you know everything in this room I don't know who told you that but I want to try and then Dr. too. the same thing I work with different persons and it's amazing always I feel engaged with them and I feel welcome and now I so thankful I'm blessed to be in both campus I
008don't feel like it's a hard work I feel so happy because they welcome me in Cambridge last week and then in wood is I know it's my home >> and I welcome home too every day >> you're very appreciative Congratulations. >> Thank you so much. Our rec our next recognition is a student from Alamo Heights High School recognizing her from uh qualifying for the International Science and Engineering Fair, Abigail Winchful. I missed I've been I've been practicing all day. Abig take a picture of you. Now, uh those of you that know um our science program at the high school know it's second to none. And you also would know uh Ron Malaski who's somewhere here right there who always support he's our teacher of excellence for science at the high school support students like Abigail
009through all of these contests and this is a big deal now um Abigail and she partnered with another student from another district because that's where she was doing her internship uh with somebody like that and you have to have a partner to do the science there. I learned all of that early. Now um at the Alamo Regional Academy science and engineering fear uh fair in the life sciences she won first place. Then she advanced to the state science and engineering uh fair and won first place in the social behavioral sciences category also receiving the Texas Lonear Award which is a cash award for $500 each of the pair. Um now at the international fair um out of 1900 projects theirs was the only 10 Texas projects one of only 10 Texas projects to advance to
010the international fair which was held in Cleveland. >> Yes sir. >> Was that already done? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Well when was it? >> Um it was in May. I think it was the May board meeting. >> Yeah. Right. Yeah. That's right. That's right. Cuz you connected and so Wow. Now, all of those accolades are impressive and I'm not going to attempt to explain the study that she did. Uh, but it's sounds pretty complex and involved and it had to do with um studying cannibid treatment on mice and um all so that we can inform ourselves on how to treat uh autism uh in humans. It's really very fascinating and uh I'm sure she could explain it all to you. If you want to, you can. But uh I'm super impressed. Now one question I
011will ask is uh you told me all about your study said uh and I I I asked so what do you think why do you think it kept get winning awards? What's so unique about your study that you thought really stood out amongst the others? >> I think because our study is actually the very first study to look at the effects of CBD treatment in combination with the female reproductive cycle. It's the very first study in PubMed. Like nothing has ever been published on it before. And I think that really helped us to stand out on the state level. >> Oh wow. Awesome. Now, who's here supporting you? And Abigail, >> my science teacher, Mr. Masky, who helped me practice like a ton. >> I sounded really bad before he helped me. >> And then
012my parents, um, my mom and my dad. >> Way back. Now, >> you're a senior this year. >> Yes, sir. >> What science classes are you taking now? >> I'm taking AP Bio right now. >> How's that going? >> Well, it's pretty good. What what are your plans uh for after high school? >> I want to go to medical school. >> Well, I want to be a developmental behavioral pediatrician. So, I really want to focus on developmental disorders like autism every single day. >> Well, you're well on your way. Congratulations. >> Yeah. Our next recognition is for a campus and a campus team, a whole campus award and it is for Woodwards Elementary National and State School of Character. So that team come on down or stand up. Now, uh, let's get a sense of
013the team here. This is a it's it's a huge team effort. Not everybody can make it tonight. Um, but, uh, for, uh, tell us who you are, what your role is, and we'll come all the way down the heat here, and then I'm going to ask some questions. Actually, >> I'm Sean Reno. I'm the principal at Woodidge Elementary. >> Chris Stevens, counselor. Carol Chavez. I'm a parent. Maria Gonzalez, counselor. >> Great. Now, um, for years, all of our campuses have been working on character education efforts and Woodridge is an epitome for character being a living, breathing thing in the hallway with the students, with the kids, with the adults. It's obvious that it loses. Now, these uh, this campus was recognized in 2020 previously, and you can only get it every 5 years. And so
014they got recognized again based on all of their tremendous efforts. I know all the whole district, the whole campus works on this, but I do know that you two have a special place in it. So briefly tell us why uh character education at Woodbridge is so special. Maria, what would you say to the group? Um I mean we're you know our district definitely focus on the academics but aside from that we're just see the importance of helping to develop the character in our students um at the elementary level and they're just moving on. >> And as a parent what would you add to that? Um I think it's one it is it's the whole campus. All of the educators, the administrators, these two ladies really though push out a lot that's um um really instilling
015those kind of basic core um characteristics of character that you know we're looking for and then gives them the tools to kind of help them grow as they move from school to school. >> Interesting. Private Chris, anything to add? No, I mean I I just think that the be the Wii is is what we do and and and kids know it and breathe it and the sparks and like it just I mean it's it's who we are and kids took it and run. We're just trying to help them and they take it. So >> Well, we're proud of the award you got, but we're even more proud of all the work you do every day. That's what really matters. So congratulations, Sean. I've almost you. Anything that you want to add? Well, you know, I
016will tell you that I'm I'm fortunate that the character education, it it's real on our campus. It's it's lived on our campus and that's where like that's a that's one portion of this is that our students live this every day in their morning meeting with our teachers and it's really it's driven by the teachers. Our students live it and then the work that our counselors put in to ensure that there's a great product every day for our classrooms. And then this this recognition is it's a lot of work because you're really taking this application with artifacts and evidence and really trying to reproduce what you already do every day and it's it's a tough task to then for somebody who's not on your campus to go, "Oh, that is real and that's worthy of this."
017So really like the part of living it every day and then the part of representing somebody who's not on your campus, it's twofold. It's a lot of work. So like I'm extremely proud of the committee and and the work that went into this. >> Great. And I know Dr. Christenseno super h excited for you all. Doc Kristen helps to chair our district steering committee on character ed which you guys are a huge part of. So congratulations. We're super proud of it. Thank you. Uh next we shift to a student recognition. This is the region 20 Spanish spelling be first place winner Ramos. Come on down. Great. Now, Ameliano is now a high school student. He's now a ninth grader, but uh last year and a couple years even before that, he's participated in the um
018state Spanish spelling week. So earlier last spring he qualified by weighing first place in the sixth through 8th grade category at the region Spanish spelling being held at region 20 here and it's his second straight year in a row that he advanced beyond that to the higher levels. Now give us a sense of what are some of the harder words that they ask you to spell in Spanish. Um there's a lot of words that are um foreign that have been like put into Spanish because for me Spanish as a um just like the language itself is a little bit easier because it's a my native like language. But um when I see like a foreign word that's just thrown into the list, my brain just goes like whoa that's that's not even supposed to be
019there. >> Yeah. Well, that's neat. Now, I understand your mom is also a Spanish teacher, right? Does she help you that much? >> Yes, she helped me a lot. >> She was the like sole reason I was able to move on to the English levels. >> I'm sure she uh you appreciate her. Congratulations to you as well. So, anything else you want to say? Congratulations. Are you going to be doing it again? Do they have high school categories? >> Yes, I will be doing it again. >> We're super proud of you, man. Our final uh recognition delegation this evening is to get our update from the high school student council. Come on down >> now. Tell us your name and what your position is and then tell us whatever you want to tell us about
020go. >> All right. So my name is Ver. I am a student council president. My name is Lindsay Lamb. I'm the vice president >> and we just wanted to tell y'all a little bit about how the first week went. So, we started uh implementing a new system. We are doing committees now because we have such a large um class size which has never happened before. So, now we're doing committees like uh we're putting everyone into a committee and we're giving them specific roles so they have like goals to achieve throughout the year. So, some of our con committees uh consist of campus wellness, um campus uh engagement and fundraising. We also started a new um newsletter that we send out to all of our students and teachers to keep them updated. It's a bi-weekly newsletter
021that that we send to everyone and it just has our uh updates and uh upcoming events. >> Yeah. So, um, some of the first things we did this school year, the first thing we did as a duo was our freshman orientation. And we basically just MCEd and we had a super fun time doing that. It was crazy 2029 crazy class. Um, yes. So, we did that. And then speaking of freshmen, today we also during lunch we had officer pickups. Officer packet pickups. So, people that are running for class, president, class vice president, they're applying, they're picking up their packets. We did that during lunch. And one of the other things that is kind of new this year is um me personally, I'm on a national driving executive board. It's about safe driving within teens. And
022um now that I'm on that board, student council specifically, since they endorsed me, we are going to a conference later this year and we're going to be as a class learning about safe driving and coming using the things we learned there and bringing it back to our campus. And then also additionally the other thing that we are very we are really harping on this school year is um homecoming and we are starting homecoming preparations. We are getting our class officers done so we can send out all the information and we are super excited for homecoming. >> Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for all we've been in school for 5 days. There we go. That's crazy. Good job. All right. So, for those of you that were here uh supporting all of the celebrations, if you wanted to
023leave, this would be a good time to leave, but we have the rest of the business portion, so you're welcome to stay. Thanks for being here. Thank you for me. All right, moving on. Uh, >> section three, citizens to be heard. We have zero signups. So, we will be moving on to item four, items for presentation or possible action. And our first presenter is presentation for the target area student assessment data 25 26 pillar 1 and two Dr. Jimmy Walker. >> All right. How's that? I just need some walk up music maybe. Thank you for that. So, you know, I'm excited about this presentation because we are going to be looking at quite a bit of data from last year and also things that came in over the summer that help position us in terms
024of goal setting for the upcoming year. So, we'll start with going Brian Grer always asked me are we going smallest to tallest or tallest to smallest. So, we're going tallest to smallest starting with high school then we'll look at some star scores and then we'll also look at some early childhood data. So, starting with college entrance exams, and you all have seen this multiple times, but uh for everyone listening at home, Alamo Heights High School does offer a uh school day PSAT for all juniors in the fall. And last fall, we had our highest PSAT score from our junior class over 3 years. >> We also uh offer SACT testing at our high school. Uh Ron Malaski helps with that with ACT and SAT testing, which gives our students kind of a home court advantage
025when they can go take their ACT or SAT in their high school. So, we also had our highest ACT score uh in three years. The high school also offers a school day SAT for juniors in the spring. And what's of note, you see that big decline in 2122. That's when schools, so many schools went test optional. Do you see the trend now? That's schools are returning to requiring SAT scores. And we did see our highest SAT score from that school day SAT in three years. Huge congratulations to all of our current senior class. also looking at high school data. This, and I'm going to take a pause here because this, you all know how much we've talked about AP when we were talking about multiplier and the high school recommendation that the board approved that
026everyone enrolled in an AP course would sit for the AP exam. And we talked about when your testing group is a little more exclusive, it's only students who feel like they're wellprepared, scores are likely to be a little bit higher. But when you expand that testing group to be everybody, we anticipated that we might see a a decline. And that was not the case. We had more students taking the test. We went from 572 to 701 students who made a three or higher. Anecdotal note, I did have a family who called me wanting to appeal having their child sit for the exam because their three older children had not had to sit. So therefore, their youngest should not the child did sit for their AP exams and walked away with college credits in two classes.
027And mom called me back to say, "Yeah, good decision. I wish we would have done this three children ago." So, uh, it is a good it is a good choice. I think it does also have families make good decisions about their course enrollment knowing that if you sign up for five AP courses, you will be sitting for five AP exams. But overall, nice improvement, a a strong benefit to our students and campus alike. >> That's a real question. I'm sorry. I know you're trying to roll, but just the uh AP students with scores of three plus that's 7 to1. Is that like uh unique test scores out of the 1991 or is that students out of the 913? >> That's students out of the 913. >> Okay. >> Wow. Uh I also want to talk
028about not only students who participate but students who are excelling and this is our honors program through college board. And I'm going to point out where we were preandemic total scholars who earned earning a three or higher on three or more exams was 183 students out of 567 total AP students 32%. Here's where we were last year. scholars, y'all. When we hit 200, I was like, "That's it. That's the ceiling." And we've now broken 300 out of 913 students. So, exemplary achievement. And I will also note between 2019 and 2025, we did bring on two new AP courses, environmental science and pre-cal, but that does not account for that whole growth. So well done to our teachers for making sure our students are well prepared and to our students for just extraordinary achievement. All right,
029I'm now going to turn to STAR data. >> Jimmy, can I ask a question? So um on the requirement this last year to have all the kids take AP test, um I know there was an option for kids that had financial difficulty. Did that process run smoothly? And people >> I don't know a number Lauren of how many we did supplement and pay for but the campus paid for some. We also had community organizations ready willing and able if campus funds were not enough to offset the cost and we did have that work. It was a handled discreetly so that we didn't um >> differentiate who was that everybody was able to get that. Also note that anyone who does qualify for free and reduced lunch that AP exam cost is already cut in half.
030>> Okay, good. Good to know. Thank you. You're welcome. >> Um, talking about STAR, I always start just by putting things in context about uh on STAR testing, our students exceeded state average in every grade level and in every content area across the board. And that is that's a strength and a positive. I'm getting ready to walk through and show you details about areas where we really are growing and doing well and then some areas that are targets uh target areas for us going forward. But when anytime we talk about accountability, I have to put in that there's two different ways of looking at this. One is just straight calculation and the other is how those calculations are then scaled for how districts are graded or rating for our ratings. So calculation is just a
031raw score. What percentage of kids scored at approaches? What percentage of kids scored at masters? And then TEA then scales that what does that mean in terms of accountability? So there are two different things a calculation and a scaling. Calculation is actual score. Scaling is how good is that equating to an A, a B or a C. And that scaling is completely determined by TEA. They set those points and determine what of the calculation will they uh rate as an A, B or C. So this is raw score data and you all have seen this before but let's just take it at the top. So this is reading those first set of columns are approaches that is the lowest passing score. In the middle is meets which is ongrade level expectations and then we have
032masters which is exceeding and this is the heat map that I use for most of the data that I put in front of you. A yellow is no change. If it's up a little, down a little, it's still basically stable. Red is two percentage points or mo more decline. Green is 2 percentage points or higher improvement. So if you just look at this for reading approaches is fairly stable, meats is fairly stable. But when we look at the M's category, we did see more growth at that M's level. There are some little pockets of red that are isolated uh target areas. Now, let's look at math. Remember when we were looking at reading, it was a little more stable in color. Here in math, it's just not as consistent as it is in reading and
033other academic areas. I will say of note, our math textbooks are 10 years old. That adoption is 10 years old. This is the year that we choose new instructional materials for K all the way through high school. And that does give us an opportunity to retrain our teachers, have a consistent resource, and I think that will help with some of the inconsistencies because we have grade levels that are knocking it out of the park and then we have grade levels that we need to support a little bit more. I will point out again that our strongest growth was at that M's level. So that's all calculation. Let's now look at the scaled score and the accountability side of that duplex. So this is overall a tof ratings scale scored >> this year to last year
034again with that heat map of where we changed and there are some areas of uh celebration there. I'll point out junior school across the board. Just really strong progress closing the achievement gaps. Really nice progress there in academic growth. You can look at Woodridge growth and at closing the gaps you can take a look at Cambridge. So nice progress. The question was we're a B. What's needed to become an A? An A means that overall our scores are scaled to be a 90 or higher. In terms of specific goal setting, that means our scores in every campus level for STAR, CCMR, and graduation rates needs to equate to a 91. And we're pretty close. If you look at we have an 89 at Cambridge, a 90 at Woodidge, a 90 at junior school. Closing the
035gaps is an area of focus. And here we need every campus to be at an 87. And we do this by focusing on academic growth. Because if we focus on knowing where students every student where is their unique achievement level beginning of the year and we stretch every child a year worth of growth, that will impact closing the gaps that will impact star achievement. So, to put things in context, this was our most missed question on third grade math and it's all about Frank. Um, Frank puts 90 pictures in a book, six pictures on each page. How many pages does Frank put pictures on? Okay, at top glance, it's calculation. It's reading. But then look at how kids are putting their answers in. They have to be familiar with the calculator that's there entering the
036it's an open-ended and so you type the wrong answer by one digit. So when you look at this you can't say what third grade needs is exclusively more work on division. It might also be more work on representing your answer here. Here's the seventh grade. >> What's the answer? in seventh grade now. Uh, y'all, this question, which is coming up any minute. >> I think I did that. >> There it is. There it is. There it is. You just didn't want to answer the seventh grade question. So, this is y'all again. What do you think? This is the most missed question. Vin diagram numbers placed in two sets. Set K represents rational numbers. L represents integers. Okay, we have vocabulary. One of the numbers is placed incorrectly. Which statement shows how to correct the error
037in the diagram? Remove -7 from L. It's not an integer. Remove three from set L, not an integer. Like it is a little bit of reasoning. It's reading. It's being able to track the detail between each of those options. So there's more going on in this question than just what's an integer and what's a rational number. Another area I want to elevate is just reading language arts extended constructive response. Before the shift of STAR writing was tested separately from reading comprehension in grades four, seven, and then in high school. Now, it's in a constructive response. It's embedded in every single language arts assessment, which as a third generation English teacher, like I appreciate the emphasis on writing. Going in this chart, there's grade levels in the gray. Every single grade level is graded against the
038same rubric with a perfect score of 10. So, if you write the perfect essay, the highest score you can make is 10. So, it makes sense that third grade scores would be lower than upper grades because they're all against the same rubric. You can see our average in 2023, 2024, 2025. And then that bottom row is compared to the state. So, third grade 2023 2.53 2024 4.0 last year 2.9. You're like, what's going on right there? It's the number of students that scored a zero on it. When I taught fourth grade, students only got a zero if it was illeible or if it was completely offtarget. No one made a zero. You might make a one, you might make a two, but no one made a zero. Now, it's you all, we've talked about this.
039They're scored by AI, and it's all about in those first two sentences, are they answering the question? So here's English 2 extended constructive responses the essay prompt. Read the article falling into place along the fall line. Based on the information of the article, write a response to the following. Explain how geological features have helped shape the history of human civilization. So if you write an entire essay about Oralopythecus and Homohabilis, no first sentence has to be the geological features have helped shape the human civilization by these three reasons. Number one, number two, number three and getting it has to be and if they don't explicitly answer the question instead of getting credit for the beautiful sentence structure and the sentence the word choice, it's scored sorry a zero. Yeah, thank you for that. Um, like
040I get a little hook talking about, right? So, um, there is there is a way that districts can ask for things to be rescored by a human. It cost us $50 every essay we resubmit. We only resubmitted four. They were seniors who needed a score to graduate. Of the four, three of them were rescored higher. only one was higher enough to result in a passing score. >> Wow. >> There are districts though across the state that spent thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to have a safer score. >> So that is what's frustrating >> their ratings improved. >> So >> that yes so this is something this is part of the reason why many districts did sue was because of this part. remind me >> there uh it is uh I think it was
041resolved in April and that's why they were able to release the scores but there is still uh consternation across districts and um but regardless I think there is something about being able to write in a concise precise way we and that's part of our work this year is how do we continue to teach students you respond in the way that's appropriate to the task Mhm. The way you write a personal narrative is one way. Poetic writing is another. But there is something about APA format, concise, precise writing. >> So in summary, just our star, we did exceed the state in every content area and grade. Writing absolutely becomes a focus. Even though we did exceed the state, it is a focus not just in our language arts classrooms, but in our science classrooms as well.
042And I talked about our math achievement uh was an even strong improvement at masters, but there is specific support for teachers and students in grades 3, 7, and high school algebra 1. All right, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on MCL class and math. Uh but this is something this summer I went to a national conference from MAP. And this picture is terrible because I took it from my cell phone while I was in the audience. But math presented this data and this is the MAP score needed to pass the state assessment in 41 states. >> Okay, so that dotted line is in uh national percentile rank 50. And you're like, "Wow, that's interesting. Where's Texas?" >> There's Texas. >> Yeah. So you can look at the MAP score required to pass
043STAR compared to the MAP score that's required to pass state testing in Virginia, Ohio, South Carolina. >> That's very interesting. >> Right. So it's that's interesting. >> Very um >> so this is map and what I love about the fact that we ended our year. We know where kids end of the year when currently we're right now testing for beginning of year that will conclude September 15th. It helps us see did kids regress over the summer and this also helps us kind of at a general sense this is math. 29% of our students are scoring at the top 20% national percentile ranking. 15% are in that bottom 20. So this always reminds us about the large like we are absolutely going to take care of that 15%. But we have to make sure that that
04430% that are very strong math achievers continue to grow. So here is math and here is language arts. Look at the number of students. Um again we have about a third who are reading well above grade level. >> I love this picture. And do you see the kid like midway through with his mouth? I don't know if it's a yawn or a sing, but I love it. >> This is early literacy data. And I just want to point out a couple things here. Just the red and the blue. Red is well below benchmark. Kinder end of year only 8% of our students were well below compared to a national 22%. Look at the blue well above. 61% of those kindergarteners who are now sitting in our first grade classes were well above benchmark level. Now
045look at our second grade. It and those are the kids that we taking STAR for the first time this year. They're our current third graders. So when we think about the support needed for classrooms and teachers, this helps us go, wow, those third grade classes may need a little bit more support because the second graders who are entering in have some deficit areas. So is that back to that 20% which represents a number how is that is there direct intervention with those children or is it just generally in the classroom there's a higher focus on I think it's a it's a both on I would say that even when I look at the above grade level that percentage is a little bit lower than first and fifth so it could be as an entire class
046there's some deficit area we are taking care of the specific needs Every child who's in this red is a unique. It's someone's childident. >> And so absolutely they're an intervention. They might be served through dyslexia. They might be served through special education, >> but absolutely we know their names. >> I do think it's important to point out that we did have to cut interventionists this year budget cut. So intervention looks different than it has over the past years. So I've shown you a lot of data kind of where do we sit at a district level? uh writing is a district-wide priority. Math continues to be an area we have specific grade levels that we're targeting. We also noticed um that some transition years from some we saw a regression from kinder to first. Sometimes we
047see a regression a second going into third the first time that they're doing formalized star testing and from fifth grade to sixth grade. And that helps us know just making sure that our teachers while they're not on the same campus, if we know those children from elementary, we have five years of information about them. How can we set up systems so that that information can follow the child and those teachers can have conversations? We started with these questions with our summit admin team and talked about this at a district level. task each campus to bring this back to their campus leadership team and then we have campus checkups on October 13th where we're help we will hear back from campuses about what specific things are they doing on their campuses to address these district targets
048and I'll end with speaking of targets board target areas and these are reports that we will continue to come to you all with over throughout the year but specifically in the target that you're holding us accountable to are goal outcomes. 90% of students meet grade level expectations and decrease by half that gap between all students and students identified as economically disadvantaged. So this is all students all assessments and this data source you all is completely transparent. It is available online. But you can see how we've got the 90% at all students, all assessments, and the gap is beginning to close, but it is not closed yet. And that continues to be an area of focus for us. So, we've talked about uh college entrance exams, STAR, MAP, MClass, early childhood. Um, and that's where we
049are now. Happy to answer any questions. >> Rock and roll. Thank you, Jimmy. Anybody have any >> questions? I've got one. >> Um, >> so you kind of started out on the AP about how it's kind of blowing up and that's great. Um, I was always an AP fan, but it reminded me of the whole entire year's worth of work we went through on the dual credit. And uh, and so if AP is going this way, and this is more of a wondering, and you probably don't have the answer, but I I'm more curious about what is that doing to our early college high school because there's a financial burden that we have with that. And and I mean isn't that correct? >> So we don't pay a tuition, >> right? I know that. But
050we still have we still were spending monies for something if I recall. Maybe not. >> This is it's actually it's a money maker. >> It's a money maker. Okay. >> Okay. Great. I'm just more curious >> how do the two play together? >> How are they playing together? Yes. >> Okay. Because if more students are wanting to go the AP route, what is that doing to the early college high school? And if it is a no change, I mean, I I guess what I'd love to see is just kind of I mean, it's been like a year since we visited this. It feels like >> just kind of where are we, you know, where how many I don't know if someone said how many kids are in early college high school. >> A great board
051presentation for all public. No, it's a public. I think we need to know kind of I mean if someone said how many kids are in every college high school, I'd say I don't know seven. >> It's about 200. There's 100 fresh and don't say >> and uh and so anyhow, >> I think it's great. AP is great. You know, I just I don't know. I'm just curious if it's pulling away from from that. >> The short answer is no. >> Good. The short answer is that um I think it is students who are like wow those who are in those freshman college transition class speech communication who are successful. It's like wow if I've done well in this college level now next year I'm going to take an AP history class because there's not a
052dual credit option. They are playing nicely together. We have seen enrollment in AP go up. We have seen enrollment in dual credit go up. So and but I'm happy to get you more information. We did pull back some parents. >> I don't think it has to be immediately next week, next month. I mean, whatever. I I would just I think just out of >> interesting that would be interesting to know where where we're kind of headed on the graph. >> Absolutely. >> You know, >> Clay, you asked for a graph. You know, I >> put it 10 graphs, >> right? Right. Okay. I I sincerely appreciate help. Did you have a question? >> Yeah, I do. And it's this is an unfair question, so I'm going to qualify recognizing we all went through budget cuts
053and I think we're all concerned about closing the gap in light of the budget cuts and the disproportionate impact that's going to have on those that need more help and we just know that is a reality. Is there anything we can do? What are we doing to try to address that in spite of the fact that we're dealing with with less manpower to to try to target that? >> So, I appreciate the question. Here's what I would like to do. Uh Dr. Palasios has spent this week all day Tuesday and next week all week Thursday Tuesday on campuses talking about what will intervention look like in our new normal. I'd like for her to finish that work and then we can come back and give you some specific. >> So just to on the goal
054outcomes number one 90% of all students meet grade level. So where are we today on that? This is the aggregate we are at. If you take all of the STAR tests taken by all of the students, 90% were at approaches of higher. >> When we look at individual, remember the one that had the green and the red, I can tell you seventh grade math, algebra 1, we're not there. >> But when you take it together, we're at a 90. But some are much higher than that, some are lower. That's the aggregate. >> We can pull that for you though. Okay. just to kind of give you the breakdown by grade level versus the >> there are obviously >> that's star and map together >> correct and we'll when we finish our map scores this is
055why this is a target area and we'll have additional information that should finish about September 15th so we'll be able to give you some more data once all that's completed about where we sit now so Jimmy discussed a little bit just about the district process of this accountability you know and the fact that this is a springboard now for campus checkups, campus, you know, accountability checkups that we will do beginning of the year at end of year and we come to you and kind of give you a progress check on where we are at that point, too. So, we've kind of designed a little little machine here that kind of keeps this on our radar. No. >> And so the the rating that we just got was based off of the 2024 >> school year
056>> 2025 >> and it's this is all students star that rating also includes CCMR. It's also 30% closing the gap which is where that 14% we lose points there. If it was straight academic star we're stronger but when you put their whole methodology together that All right. >> All right. Anything else? >> Absolutely. >> Rock and roll. >> We love you. Thanks. >> Absolutely. >> All right. Next up, 4B, consideration of tax rate hearing, Mr. Matt Strager. And Matt, hey, I wanted you to know that we've all been thinking about you. >> God bless your family and I'm sorry for your loss. >> Thank you everybody. I really appreciate that. Um so this August is a little bit different uh than in past August meetings. Uh when you come to the financial portion of of
057this meeting um in the past we've discussed the budget and the tax rate. Uh and we had a September 1st fiscal year. So we had to pass the budget uh prior to September 1st. Um we this summer we did change the uh fiscal year, modified it to uh July 1st and as you all know uh the budget was uh discussed in June. Uh by statute we have to pass the budget prior to uh the beginning of the fiscal year and so that was July 1st. So this uh this August we're just left with the tax rate and uh as we mentioned before uh on the general fund side of the tax rate uh that is uh pretty much decided by state statute, state law since 2019. Uh school districts have a very limited uh ability
058to affect that tax rate. Um so um in terms of the overall tax rate uh about three about good 70% of that is already kind of decided uh by the state. Uh there's a process there by which we submit some tax information. We get it from Bear County Appraisal District submit it to the state uh around the 1st of August and then we get back the approved uh what's called the maximum compressed rate uh by August 5th and uh and so then we know our tax rate. Uh we do have uh flexibility on the debt service side uh to adjust that rate according to the uh upcoming pay debt payments. Uh and so uh and that has been taken into account. Um on the debt side that rate is uh increasing uh as we go
059through the 20 uh 23 bond and issue uh or do new issuances of the bond each year uh to fuel the construction and improvements in the district. So, um I'm gonna take just a moment to read some of the resolution here, uh just into the public record. Uh and uh and and this will be brief, I promise. Uh so, this is a resolution is an ordinance limiting an annual adorum tax for the year 2025 setting specific tax rates applicable to all real, personal, and mixed property situated within Alamo Heights Independent School District, setting due date, and providing for penalties and interest on delinquent taxes. Uh this resolution is in three sections. Uh the first section uh is that can add more on tax rate of 0.9572 per $100 cash valuation and assessment ratio of 100%
060of the market value will be set and the same is hereby delivered for the year 2025 on all real personal and mixed property located and situated within the confine boundaries of Alamo Heights Independent School District as of January 1st of 2025. uh that combined rate compares to last year of last year's rate was 9622 and so we see that rate decreasing uh slightly. So um part two is the breakup of that of that combined rate and that the above specified ad war tax be distributed as follows that 7122 rate for the general fund uh last year that was 7512 so it's uh almost 4 cent decrease and then for this year a 2245 rate on the debt service fund uh that is up 3 cents from last year. uh we did have to take into
061account like I said the new payments but we are also forecasting uh the passage of an increased homestead exemption and with that passage um there's a need to uh increase the INS rate the the debt service rate in order to cover payments as well. Uh so that puts kind of some upward pressure on that part. Still the overall combined rate is is going to is going to be less. Um I would point out too on the on the debt service is that the maximum according to state uh uh statute on on that side is 0.5. So we're less than half of the maximum uh that's allowed under stat state statutes. So so the third part and uh it's it's a necessary part uh to talk about when it's when things are due when the taxes
062are due. Any person failing to pay their taxes on or before January 31st, 2026 shall be subject to maximum penalties thereon allowed by law to be collected on delinquent taxes. All delinquent taxes shall bear interest from the date of delinquency until paid. Um, unfortunately have to say that, but it's it's necessary part, but there is a due date. So, um, that's our uh tax rate and uh any questions related to the tax rate? >> Thank you. >> No questions. All right. Do I have a motion to approve the tax rate hearing as presented? >> Can I just make a quick comment? Yes. I'm sorry. Every time we do this, I have to make a comment that the state of Texas sets our maximum compress rate on our M side of the house, right? The Constitution
063of the state of Texas prohibits a statewide property tax. I don't understand how the state gets to tell us how to tax our property and that's a constitutional effort. It just blows my mind. And I want everybody to know that your elected trustees do not set your taxes for the large part. And it's just out there just fed up with it. But thank you for giving me the opportunity. >> For all those listening, that was Mr. Horber. I think they yelled by Sorry, Clay. I just had No, it's fine. Uh, all right. Do I have a motion to approve the tax rate hearing as presented? >> So move. Second. >> Second. Carry. All right. Any further discussion? >> Good. All in favor? I. >> All oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Thank you. All right. >> Good
064job. >> Let's move on to 4C. Presentation of employee compensation. It's not benefits, it's benefits. Now, >> good job making >> and market adjustment plan. >> Mr. Frank Stannage man, >> we appreciate your stud leadership, sir. >> So, I want to start before we advance on the slides uh just by thanking the board and thanking Dr. Basher uh for the uh foresight in the way that we handled personnel cuts last year. I know that there was a lot of deliberation uh by this board, a lot of talk with the community. Y'all went through the process the right way. We had lots of input from all the constituents. And because we went through that, um we now have enough money to give our folks a pay raise. So, excuse me. We know that the state gave
065raises for the teachers and it was significant. $8,000 raise for teachers who are 5 years and more in service and then a $4,000 raise for teachers who have three or four years of service. But the issue is there are still teachers there who have zero one or two years experience. And then for the employees who aren't teachers, um you know, it created some real significant disparities between like for example teachers in the classroom getting an $8,000 raise, but yet the counselors down the hall or the principles whom they work for, vice principles weren't included in the state's race. So because we had the extra money to work with, we were able to come up with some meaningful adjustments to help minimize that disparity between the significant feature raise and what the state gave us for
066all the other activities. So what I'm going to do today is go through this slideshow and just give a brief overview of the targeted adjustments in our salary plan so that you all know which way we look on this. Next slide, please. [Music] Or do I have the clicker right now? Thank you. So, as we looked at the the salary adjustments for the coming school year, we we realized that um by looking at the market for the wages that there were some folks in our district who were under the market rate for their salaries. So, we had to do some target adjustments in addition to an overall raise for employees. So to be clear, every employee in our district is receiving a payments and and the minimum pay rates is 2% off of the midpoint
067in the category. And I'll go over those categories in a moment. The ones you see up here on the screen, auxiliary employees, uh teachers who have less than 3 years experience, our clerical and professional uh staff where we had some high turnover and below market salaries, and then also some of our administration and professional support staff. we had to target specific pay adjustments in addition to the percentage race in order to get them back up to market. But this first slide represents auxiliary employees and you'll see that these are primarily our transportation maintenance and custodians. They receive a 4% raise and that was due to market adjustment for the entire career category auxiliary. Now in addition to the uh auxiliary employees receiving the raise, the bus drivers and custodians were it would require an additional
068market adjustment. So instead of the 4% for bus drivers and custodians, they received a 5% raise or they will receive a 5%. Looking at teachers, uh it was a 2% raise off the midpoint, a $1,200 value. So that's what we're applying to those teachers who have less than three years experience. Teachers who have three or more years experience will receive the state funded raise, which is the funded side. clerical and professional. We saw some turnover in the pay grades one and two. Uh those are our folks who are either teaching assistants or they're also working at the campus as clerical support in the pay grades one and two. So while we're giving the entire category of of this 2% raise, uh we did have targeted adjustments for pay grades one and two where we gave
069a 4% raise which equated to 58 cents an administrative and professional support. These are our admin folks. 2% off the midpoint of the entire category is $1,600. We know that anyone who's worked in this familiar with salary structures, if we go off the midpoint of the entire job category instead of within the particular job level, what that does for us is brings the um it lessens the stratification. It brings the pay bands closer together. And right now where we are sitting there there is you know it starts to get a larger spread if you apply percentage raises to each person or each individual pay grade. This time around we're applying it off the midpoint for the entire pay grade and then that's going to compress things a little more around the middle lift up our
070lower uh wage employees and minimize the upper uh upper gain. So this is all up to point. You see here the total costs that we had budgeted. Matt did some magic. We came up with 307,800 for these uh adjustments, targeted adjustments. And then also for the other targeted adjustments, Matt came up with $130,000 for us to help those professional support positions that needed the market adjustment. the people that we gave a uh market adjustment to under the administrative professional support. We, you know, had to have the LSSPs and the SLPs who are specialized folks with training. They were below market. So, we had to make an adjustment on that. >> Licensed school psychologists and speech language pathologists. >> Thank you. >> We throw out a lot of letters. >> Um yes. So, the speech language
071pathologist licensed well school psychologist now. And then um we also had a targeted adjustment for our special education coordinators. Natalie pushed for that because those are the folks that supervise our teachers. They got the $8,000 raise and in addition they take on a lot of additional responsibilities. So um they receive raises as well. So that's an overview of all the different adjustments. Do you all have any questions? Thank you. >> Thank you, Frank. >> Incredible job, Frank. >> Awesome. All right. Now, we're going to move to section five, consent agenda. The next item on our consent agenda, uh these are the items that the board considers routine or that have been previously reviewed and discussed in prior meetings and that we therefore enact in one motion. I am going to remove item I, consideration of
072revisions to FNCE local personal communication devices electronic devices from this month's consent agenda and request that it be added to a special called meeting agenda for Wednesday, August 27th at 700 a.m. Is there anything in the consent agenda other than the one I just removed that anyone would like to be removed? Nope. Good. Um, I also want to mention that y'all we got almost $71,000 of donations. Uh, and I think it's incredible that our community just constantly every month just gives gives gives. And it's just so great. All right. So, uh there's nothing to pull out. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Minus I. So, >> do we have a second? >> Second. >> All right. Any further discussion? All right. All in favor say I. >> I. >> All right.
073Motion carries. All right. 5T board member committee reports. Um are following the so next building committee. Wow, I didn't prepare for that. >> However, I was there. >> We had a review of the Howard design. >> Yes. Go ahead, Danny. >> We just reviewed the budget. >> We reviewed the budget and uh actually we got a construction update on the high school. Uh we got uh construction update on Cambridge and Woodri. Uh Cambridge um has we're we're it's uh it's difficult. Let's put it that way. A lot of moving pieces. Um we're almost there. Let's put it that way. Okay. But it's not by lack of the contractor trying. It's just a an old building with a lot of pieces and uh and so we're almost there. >> Almost there in terms of timeline or
074>> as far as a timeline. Okay. >> You know, in a perfect world, we'd be done, but we're not done. >> Just punch out on on the at building one. Got it. So, what's complicated about Cambridge is that it will be in continual um >> construction throughout the entire year this year. So, currently in building three, level one is being is under demolition, right? and they're going to refresh those classrooms while we have school going on. And so that's complex. Um, >> yeah, it's complex. And I mean, the building's what 100 years old. And so when you peel the onion back, you don't know what layer you're going to hit. >> And so we're we're dealing with that. And u and you know, you can only it's always one brick at a time, right? And
075so you you can't speed it up. So is it is it the classrooms where the kids are or is it like the mechan mechanical and the major renovation? >> It's more like the hallways. No, >> but I mean what the complicated stuff is like internal building. It's not the back where we have pre-rain to knock it down and re No, it's just it's just let's let's say you got to go through step one through 600 to finish. >> Well, each step should have taken this much time, but each step took a little bit of more time. >> You know, they're little things. Our doors are the old doors. We need to replace them with the new doors once they come in. The wall paneling on the hallways needs to be replaced once it comes in.
076So, there's been some delays in ordering. >> Yeah. >> The blinds just came in this past week. Teachers got their furniture moved into their classroom on Saturday, you know, before the school year started and they have done an incredible job. I I just want to continue giving them a shout out, their positivity and their spirit. I I shared today the foundation um a huge community um support you know took place with with um the movement at YSL you know >> stealing my thunder >> oh like yeah there's just I mean it was a >> challenging time but a great community response is what I would say so it's going to be like that those of you who've remodeled and built a house you know that there's punch out that >> yeah is there impact to
077the budget or not >> no impact to the budget >> what is the timing in so far as the kitchen and the cafeteria and all of that. I mean, is that still that's summer work? I mean, they're going to start that in the spring, remember? And we're going to do some satellite food um options out, but it'll it'll be late spring and summer. >> Okay. >> Um what else did we We talked about a lot about Howard. Uh it went through >> their sections be ready. It looks good. >> Uh yeah, almost. Much >> um so anyhow perfect great report thank you >> yeah all right next report >> um I think you just give an update on kind of conversation the fact that we're just all together >> so all right well just that
078>> Karen and I met with policy committee >> and um had made some decisions but now we're going to revisit it a little bit based on what our attorneys had provided for us and um that meeting will be next Wednesday, >> right? >> Okay. >> All right. Budget committee met on Wednesday. >> That's all of us. And we reviewed the tax rate hearing and I reviewed the market compensation. So >> cool. Business recommendations. >> And you don't have school foundation on there. We didn't meet today. >> Like I missed that on the agenda. I should have >> Well, that'll be next month. >> Well, I kind of gave the report anyway. So, >> yeah. >> Well, can I throw into the record the three new board members? Matt Bishop, Pete Broadick, and Juan Matthews. They
079thank them for their service. [Music] >> No, seriously, you want to talk about anything else on I just want to recognize a new folks. All right, >> that's great. >> Uh, great. >> Item seven, business recommendations. Any >> No. Moving on. El Calendar review. Oh my. >> All right, we got lots more back to school. We've got high school athletic kickoff on the 27th. Junior school kickoff is tomorrow. Uh we'll have a building committee on September 3rd, which is Clay Har. September 3rd is also DEAC. Karen will be our representative to that. GMP will be in the morning on Wednesday, September 10th. And then many of us are going to attend the Tasati um Texedcon in Houston. um that kicks off September 12th and we'll be there through Sunday through the weekend. Um board meeting
080David is in school foundation board meeting. The next one is September 17th which is the same date as our regular board meeting in September. >> Awesome. All right, superintendent communication. >> So Julianne puts together just some nice uh photo collages for us to dig into during these um updates. Lots to celebrate about the start of the school year. incredible um new employees that we welcomed to the district. We had a great administrative summit. Um we had some great time of fellowship with our auxiliary staff or my cabinet team um cooked and provided them lunch to thank them for their incredible work this this summer and we had our our early college high school induction as well. And then next convocation was a huge celebration. Um handful of you were able to be there for that.
081we launched the theme of um everyday heroes which is just um an incredible um way to celebrate all of the employees of this district who share their heart and their talent um with us every day. And so that was a very spirited event, set a very positive tone um for the school year. So >> I would just like to recognize you guys for that. That was great. >> Great energy. >> Love the speakers. Carrie, you did well representing us. >> Thank you, Carrie. You're welcome. Very nice. >> All salary time. >> Great way to start the year for our team. >> And then um first day of school pictures. I mean >> y'all first day of school in this school district is an event like there like just to watch the the neighborhoods, you know,
082coming walking their children into all the camp. I mean it is it is like Christmas morning at this event. And so, um, just just lots of fun little pictures, um, about, uh, just the positive vibe that was that's all around and and teachers hugging on their kids, welcoming the Zach. My team had a fun time riding buses this year. The person, they all looked at me like I was crazy when I asked them to do that. I got a little attitude from some, any names, but at the end of it all, we had such a great time debriefing the behind the scenes from what we learned um, about our team, our transportation team. They are incredible. They are relationship builders. They um are community ambassadors. They are skilled and detail planners. They know how to
083interact with kids and deflect situations. I was completely impressed um with that experience. So, next I think was bond updates that we pretty much talked through, but just some updated um photos. You can see the refresh at Cambridge in that top right picture. We had our bond community council meeting this week and we have started every time every meeting um having a a meeting where we discuss and we ask questions but then we load the buses and we go visit uh one of the sites and so this week we went and visited Cambridge um aerial photo of the high school which is pretty impressive. Um it is really pretty and that the you can see the visitors um standings. They look great and I love you know >> feels good. >> Does rock and roll.
084>> Any questions for me? >> Perfect. Thanks >> y'all. I'm going to tell you I'm going to do I have these things to say. I'm on a real positive high here. Um, I want you all to know that, you know, as we started school, let me say as we ended school, we walked through all of the consternation around the budget challenges and, you know, when we we when the year ended, everybody knew who had a job, right? And who was coming back and who was shifting into different places. What we didn't internalize was the impact on those jobs with the cuts. And so, I'm going to just give you some examples. you know, the the secondary teachers having to take on an additional class, losing a conference period. Um, our athletic coaches losing kind of
085the block format of athletics and their academic time. Um, our elementary teachers losing cafeteria monitors, they have to do cafeteria duty now. Um, the interventionists leaving and really having to rethink um and reimagine what what um intervention looks like without those people. Um we have the best people who step up in big ways but that does not mean that this week was without growing pains um as they you know for the first time internalize what those cuts meant for their current jobs. You know again just last year it was like do I get to keep my job you know and letting their guard down once they heard they were keeping their job and moving somewhere. Then this this week I think especially um when I coached with principles on Tuesday it was a theme that
086I heard >> at every campus like this uh we do hard well here that does not mean that hard is easy >> right >> and so >> I think even for the kids I mean at least the high school >> I heard from a lot of them saying >> the thing that I'm most proud of is that um you know every district has attrition every year and you know I don't know what ours was pretty low this year, but in any event, I know we're the first in Bear County to fill our spots and I would bet that we might be the first in the state. And that means even when there's a job opening here, there's a line out the door to come here. And that's something we should all be proud of because
087I mean it feels like even by June you always say we're we're we've already replenished. >> A lot of school districts start school without replenishing. We did this year um because of enrollment we added two positions at Howard and I communicated that to you all in my update but those were late hutters you know after we had gone through um and they did an incredible job at how finding some real superstars so kudos to you Frank and your work with our new principal there to get those >> All right cool uh all right y'all want to take a 5m minute break or >> Yeah >> and uh And we're going to executive session. I assume we're going into >> We are going.