Regular AHISD School Board Meeting March 19, 2025

001you [Music] particular yeah not that I'm say that's happen welcome to the show got yeah manag all right I got a low chair chair the same you know they all have Austy I'm going how are you a good [Music] bre just they have another on the and very comp together T I don't know sorry I don't me to good roll cookie roll cookie roll cookie hell how are you doing hi house today I didn't mean I feel like I have broccol all right good evening everybody it's 6:00 uh on Wednesday March 19th this is a duly filed and regular posted meeting the Almo Heights Board of Trustees thanks for everybody for being here I'd like to welcome anyone listening to our live streaming broadcast and if anyone wants a recording we'll be posting a link

002on the website 24 hours after the end of this meeting we'll also post all the materials so you can see those there at the same time too on this Schoolboard icon on our hiic website if anyone in the audience would like to address the board tonight please go ahead and fill it out is there a Peter Williams sign that okay so all right sounds like we're good there um so I'm just going to go ahead and move on to section two delegations and recognitions Dr Franco foro are you ready I am ready thank you so much we're just Hing it up back here excited to recognize everyone tonight thank you all for being here I do want to ask um we're excited to recognize everyone if you're here for recognitions we do ask that you

003remain through the duration of the recog portion I will tell you when that's over um and you'll know don't have to guess I will be very clear about it so uh sit back and enjoy uh celebrating everyone our first recognition tonight is our Spotlight on Excellence which goes to a Cambridge Elementary teacher Tori Carr come on down right now hold that first yeah so let's explain what that is every month we shine the spotlight on one of our employees who works behind the scenes tirelessly to fuel our tradition of Excellence now um Tori has been uh in the district for two years education for altogether now we recognize teachers all the time so we know we have great teachers and they all do great things but we're shining the spotlight particularly on Tori today because

004she um has been um she did a midyear transition so she's a teacher of special education services which means she AIDS a variety of students with a variety of disabilities and she was teaching in one setting and midy year we needed her to move to a new more intense very the most intense setting we have for students with disabilities and she jumped in has been a great spirit behind that very open to it and um all the people who work with her sing her Praises for making that transition so she's a great teacher anyway but then to move into this more intense Services uh her fellow uh co-workers say that she goes above and beyond to help her students with disability she works tirelessly and she works with all of the other teachers who interact

005with her students throughout the day as well offering thoughtful guidance encouragement and very practical solutions to some very challenging situations um and all the staff uh from the campus leadership to the district leadership has just uh really been amazed at how you've shifted over into this transition so that's why we shine the spotlight on Excellence on youday thank you I appreciate that so now yeah so anything you want to say and and let's wave if you're here to support Tori thank you all for being here anything you'd like to add um just thank you so much I am really honored to receive this um it's I've been so supported by my campus and by my I have some of my room moms over there who are the best um and then my family and friends

006um but if you're ever at Cambridge on a Thursday we are launching our coffee card so if you like to come see our little Baristas they've been working really hard I got this sampled last week right that yeah we came and we sampled and we got some RS congratulations thank you so much our next recognition is a powering the profile video featuring wooders Elementary James ress come on down all right so not only we making a video of James which is posted on our YouTube channel so I encourage every everybody listening to go there and to tweet it out and push it out whatever social media you use U but I want to explain what this is uh every uh few months we highlight uh an educator who exemplifies part of our profile of a

007learner now you may know by now that our profile learner articulates all of the um skills attributes and habits of mind that we try to instill in our students from the time they join us at Howard to the time that they graduate across that stage at the high school and so in order to help students to exemplify that we as Educators try to exemplify that ourselves and so we are sigining the spotlight on I mean we're uh shiny Spotlight in a video on James roess now you'll notice at the uh at the it'll start at the beginning to say what domain we're highlighting from the profile and then it'll flash various um descriptors of the profile as you see him in action are you ready I'm ready you the videoen all right C up sit

008back and enjoy my name is James robbles and I power the profile by encouraging kids to think critically and [Music] creatively I think uh one of the key elements is to uh hold them to a high standard um there's a lot of conversations whenever I try to do some of these things and it's like a more targeted to Middle School but to me it's just when you have high standards for students they rise to the occation so um I think just by looking at the the latest trends of Technology really helping them with 21st century skills um that just helps them you know reach for for high we're looking through the Engineering Process just to so they can understand how things are created I mean pretty much anything in the world is created through an

009Engineering Process um and first thing is just sparking that interest at the beginning of the year usually when they come into my class the first day I have the 3D printer running so it's just like chaos you know everybody's excited what is that what is it doing things like that um and then I start talking about the importance of you know creativity uh but how perseverance has to do a lot with it you know being honest on it's going to be hard and it's going to take some challenges but working through it um it gives you a high reward he shows us how to do it and then he just let's just do it and we have any questions just talk to I remember um last year and the years before I wasn't that big

010that I didn't like science that much but he's made it a lot more fun of how um just a guy he is the beginning of this you know because like like we talked about the perseverance part of it and unless we have mutual trust you can tell them it's going to be okay but if they don't believe you they're not really going to work through it so building relationship is the first part um to me it's the most important part I walk through that you know the first couple of weeks to me are just super key because building that strong relationship um it's the most efficient way to teach having having the opportunity to work with these kids and having the support of the community it's it's it's been [Music] amazing pretty neat right I

011know we have a lot of folks here so I want to do it in sections if you're related to James if you're family wave at us and tell us who you are here y all right if you're here supporting James but you're not related to him way at us right now I know we've got some parents in the audience as well and some of your students anything you want to add to that um just say thank you to I mean everybody here um it's it's been you know eight amazing years um and I'm just so thankful that you know any crazy idea that I ever think about it's always supported you know and and I've had some crazy ideas and and you know we always make it happen I mean we' built an arcade in

012my room we've done all kinds of crazy things and the kids just take on them and then they go with it you know and and it's been amazing I know it's probably not possible to do the same things in other places so I'm is very thankful for that um and you know just love everybody in this room you know and I'm very thankful for that we're thankful for you congratulations can't believe it's been eight years James you can't either wow all right our next Rec condition is uh one of our students who qualified for the jrc national air rifle championships in Alabama senior Logan Watson come on down of course uh colonel in the instructor uh Colonel Das as well so now we're celebrating Logan who represented our high school at the NAT should I

013I forgot about the picture that at Nationals in which uh he competed in the Army Precision category alongside top air rifle shooters from across the nation in two days of competition in a variety of poses right kneeling prone standing positions you understand they even had like noise distractions to kind of distract you uh sounds really intense anything you wanted to add about the competition uh well for what I did I didn't have any of the crazy intense noise yeah but it was it was a very fun experience I am very thankful that I was able to do it it was a very big uh learning opportunity there were some things that I had to overcome the Scopes that we use have a little it's kind of like an accordian it's a rubber piece and it

014helps uh block out a lot of the light so you can see through the scope better uh but we found out that at Nationals we're not allowed to touch our face to it and so I had to remove it to be able to get my face close enough to see through the scope so I had to uh adapt no come to be able to uh shoot well uh it was a very as a very good uh opportunity to learn how the process works uh for next our our next competition which will be in Utah wow yeah now you're a senior and so tell us do you have plans already for next year yes I am committed to New Mexico State University I will be dual majoring in Aerospace and mechanical engineering amazing I am hoping

015to get the United States space force RC scholarship and commissioning After College of course Victor thank you so much for your leadersh anything to add about this well this young man is one of a kind uh our program was established 32 years ago he is the first person who in air rifle has gone up the Nationals uh he's not done he's going to lead four more team member he just found out about right before spring break we're going up to Sandy Utah never heard of Sandy Utah but uh for the uh see that we fired that was the jrtc part of and you got the Navy Marine cor uh the one we're going to is is all the other shooting clubs it's probably a lot bigger uh so once again he's uh he's LED you

016know say his legacy he's leaving here that he do it twice now we're hoping we'll qualify here to go to the the nationville and that category cuz we'll make the cycle then we go to Perry Ohio Camp Perry Ohio and uh nobody's ever done that in one year will you make that that's three so hopefully you will take us it right I cannot stand up about Logan Watson I will don't miss him unique smart uh just you know he's also our batang commander the number one uh obviously that runs our program and all stuff but he's a special person so thank you for your leadership because you are he makes it happen thank congratulations next congratulations yep you got it you guys we've got State swim and dive qualifiers come on down we got to

017fit the he's not you're stand in front Okay so we've got with us well let you introduce yourselves the diver and the swimmer right okay they're not exactly the same guys okay so tell us uh your name and what grade you're in I am Henry Tucker and I'm a freshman great and what did you compete in at State I competed the one meter diving and I played congratulations yeah and how about you I'm Bo Henning I'm a senior and I competed in the 100 met breast joke and I placed 18th did you have to swim with that cast uh no I my brother tackled me the day well he timed it well and of course we've got their coaches here tell us who you are which coach oh I'm uh Charles Collins I'm the diving

018coach uh no relation sorry no Rel I'm Pete Williams and I'm a senior citizen speaking up how about this speaking I'm nor Collins I'm I'm the swimming and water polo coach all right so Norm who wants to say what about these to you right so I I'd like to say my Mantra is that you surround yourself with great people and I did so by uh getting our one of the best diving coaches in uh in the state and maybe the country and then in Charlie Collins and then one of the original uh swim coaches for El Heights is Pete Williams he's retired rehired I don't know four or five times and we keep bringing him back so he's back he's one of the best technicians that that's one thing the other thing is when you

019you know today I went to see the eighth graders and I asked them uh if you're five3 or or or shorter stand up and I talked to them and they stood up and they're like what I said that's exactly how tall Bo Henning was when uh he came to us as a freshman we didn't turn him away and it's a good thing because he became one of the uh the very best water P players that we've ever had maybe one of the best maybe the best uh and then he's one of the best in the state we didn't really think that he was going to be the swimmer that he became but he realized somewhere along the line that if you're going to be really good at this sport of water polo you have to

020become a swimmer and you have to do it really well and the reason he he's done so well is because he worked so hard B is one of the best hard workers you see that he has a cast on he broke his hand right after State and swimming but he also broke his hand his foot right after water polo uh and so he missed a whole month of uh training and yet he worked hard enough to get to State and he by the time he was uh a freshman to a senior he dropped about 20 seconds in the 100 breath drip one of the best things I've ever seen he's not the fastest kid I've ever coached but he probably is one of the best best athletes and the best workers and one of the

021best leaders that we've ever had that's so great uh I'd like to let Charlie talk about the diving because that's what uh I have nothing to do with it for good reason well uh Norm thank you so much and would like to reiterate you know got to surround yourself with great people and and Norm you have given me tremendous latitude to do what I can do and obviously it's it is paid off in my time here so thank you again and to the administration as well um fun fact for Henry right he's only really been diving seriously diving for just under a year and a half uh he his older sister uh when they moved from out of state to come to Elma Heights he was the typical younger brother got dragged to the pool

022and was like oh this kind of cool and kind of egged him on a little bit to come and and play a little bit and kind of liked it and let's try just through these other things and kind of liked a little more and got a little show off a little bit and all of a sudden the bug kit and it was it was just straight up from there um having those kind of athletes those diamond on the RO that just come out of nowhere Henry is the epitome of that I mean that is just the thing that we want and I crave for as a diving coach um as we always say everyone that comes out to learn how to dive the Dives are in you it's our job to pull pull them out

023but for Henry it was just so natural and Instinct instinctual with his ability to do stuff that we been able to go just as fast and have the success that we've had and being a Freshman we got three more years in high school and in the club scene and so there's really a lot of of potential that's out there so I just can't wait to see what we have going forward and what we can do for next year for you so thank you so much to the administration thank you norm and P for having me and I think we're going to so you guys you guys right now can say I knew him when we know you guys do a ton to support them but we also know there's families behind them to get them

024to early practices and late practices and the weekend things if you're family can you wave at us and let us know thank you so much congratulations to you all good luck on that thank you our next recognition is for some Alo height high school students who qualified for Nationals in the Texas Association of future Educators uh contest come on down all right and so thanks for being here I was visiting with you guys a little bit so we'll find out tell us who you are your first name last name what grade you're in and if you can just kind of like what was it that you were competing in um my name is Logan Baker I'm in 11th grade and competed in teacher created material teacher created materials coool I was a teacher I love

025this how about you Jackson Moore I'm a senior I compete in teacher create materials all right and how about you hi um I'm Isabella Garza um I'm in 11th grade as well I competed in um a prek children's lit bird book that I made cool and then who's this right here this is our uh teacher um Miss Mo yeah Jackie Moore of course Jackie tell us a little bit about what teacher creative materials are in this contest inails so teacher Crea material they can create anything they want they competed in the um Elementary level and they actually brought it they they created a game um and and their game was really it was so good that the judge told them that he they both should Market they're they're partners that they should Market Market this

026because they think that it would sell it's for third grade it's a math game um and then me hold that so Lily Pad logic is the name of it and they created their board wow wow they have little frog game pieces and show them the cards um that yall created help yeah I know it's hard so the card it slides out and so you can get the answer there and then there's also with the instructions which is on one of the other ones and then they have challenge cards that are a little harder that are word problems um and then they had little mats like this the kids could actually do the math problem on and they had reflection cards at the end and they had little everything was frogs Little Frogs um like the

027G pieces frogs so um yeah it was it was a really uh great idea we've had people um compete in this particular competition and make it to state but no one's ever made it to National so they're the first to do that so um and then the next one over here is this is the first year we've done a book and this is prek and in this book she has to illustrate it all herself so if you'll look through or she Illustrated every page and then you have to come up with your own story line um and then you present it and when you present it you have to use the voices and um she was super nervous she did amazing job awesome we don't get that she was very nervous get a reading of

028it oh okay we're also very proud of you how about you all do are there any family here uh supporting these folks in the back wave thank you so much I might play that game and and we'll have you over to read the book to us at some point right you'd be surprised a lot of people a lot of the other high schoolers played it and loved it it's just third grade man give these folks a round of applause super our next recognition is for an alamoo Heights Junior School student uh winner of the first place in the public school division of the battle of flowers essay contest mahelia Hudson come on down her teacher can stand right there Mr Ramos yeah so Mr Ramos of course teaches our uh Texas history at the junior

029school and uh this year um there was a a record number of seventh grade essay right at think 67 sorry a record number of submissions from our school yes from our school yeah from our school there was about 133 I believe that were submitted yeah that's and of that plus the competition Citywide uh you got first place now that's an honor tell us uh the variety of things that you won with this s uh I can think of uh I got you're doing good I got a Macbook a ride in the Battle of flowers parade I think yeah I think my mom and I get to go to some band competition or something I feel bad for knowing you get to attend the Battle of the Bands as a VIP is and then uh your

030teacher in his Department got something as well right uh yeah $2,000 in the history we're super proud of you now of course the title of your essay was the angel of golad which is a very interesting story I'm not going to have her tell you all here that's a little teaser for you to go look it up on your own it's very exciting yeah we go for way too long about it yeah so uh congratulations do you have any family members here supporting you uh yeah my mom's there in the back and she tells me that you're going to buy her new boots for the parade is that what I hear we were just talking about I think they might have been like I got to save up the money we don't even know yet

031they might be like no you're going to mow some Lawns and we're super proud you congratulations and thank you all right now a final part of the evening remember when I said stay to the end this is the last one so don't leave you at stay here we get an update on what our alah Heights High School student council is up to from Annabelle charlon Annabelle tell us what you've been up to okay so I actually didn't find out I was doing this until 3 hours ago so if I mess up some stuff I'm sorry but we're in April we're going to be doing the first Friday standup comedy and also maybe K Yi don't know and also a bunch of student council members are going to be uh sign up prom I think I'm

032part of them actually I don't know what the theme is but that's okay what else are we doing we're uh continuing with the safe driving thing that we're doing and I think some officers are actually going to be part participating it in it and being videos T taken of them so we're going to see how that goes and I think that's really all for what we're doing in student council at the current moment so they're demonstrating how to drive safely not yes they're not going to drink and drive I promise got all right good well thank you so much for being here keep the work all right we have a a fun packed rest of the meeting to cover some business but if you only here for recognition this is a good time for you

033to to leave thank you so much thanks for being here but you're welcome to St for the rest of it you all have a good have a good evening nor how'd you do on the game W for easy teacher man I know I do some good job proud of you that's awesome [Music] hey so I [Music] could for me next Frid oh the canop thing yeah you sent me pages I people that do that L okay we're going to move on to item number three citizens to be heard we have one C who wrote down so miss an David to have a public comment on an item not on the agenda legislation and teacher support So if you know the drill but it's a thre minute U time to talk and then Christina's got the

034old cards to tell you how much time you have left um so we appreciate you being here and she'll start the timer whenever you would like to begin I do need to apologize the air is freaking havoc on my voice but I wanted to be here anyway um as you all are aware the legisl the last three sessions has not been kind to teachers for public education this is not a surprise certainly a lot of the focus for the board has been on funding which is an issue and a persistent one um and the $220 they're proposing won't really help much um but I want to talk as I did last month about the specific ways in which the legislature has targeted curriculum and book selection um again hp900 the reader act decided to say

035that that teachers should not allow OB or sexually explicit materials in the classroom the challenge there is that they don't really Define those and that lack of definition is exactly the problem because it places teachers in the position of not knowing what is okay or what is not okay and teachers want to do what's best for students we talked about the profile of the learner of course everybody loves cool robots books are a little harder um and so teachers are caught with the question of like if I pick a book with a gug character but there's absolutely nothing that happens that's of any nature sexual will I be targeted will the book be challenged uh if it will they get in trouble for selecting a book that implies something happens off page what about gratuitous

036violence is that also obsene the law is very unclear and when teachers are caught in a space where they don't understand exactly what the rules are they will choose things that they hope won't get them in trouble but the the profile of a learner invites our students to think critically and creatively I didn't plan that I promise and engage socially and globally and especially when you move to the high school level that means you need to read challenging texts if we want our students to work at the highest levels to be able to continue to collect the accolades that they already do they have to do hard things and teachers are in a position where they don't know what that what that can be and so they're going to choose things that that may not

037meet that and they may be aware of that but again without that Clarity and I'll also offer that now there are two bills under consideration SB 412 and HB 267 which as I spoke about last um time eliminate the affirmative defense for teachers so if someone accuses a teacher of giving a book that is obscene they can't any longer say I'm doing this Ed for educational purposes it makes it a much Bigg deal um and that again positions our teachers in ways where they don't know what to do and what how to go forward aloh height brags on its teachers a lot every every month we see Frank highlight some greatness here and that's amazing the teachers need more of that and again I'm going to specifically say your English teachers who are being targeted

038in these ways right that's who is getting pointed at their finger is being painted at them specifically and they also need to feel it all of the time they need to know that if a parent comes after them you have their back I need to cut you off I'm sorry thank you I appreciate the time again can you repeat the bills sureb that's okay SB 412 HB 267 both went up for um 2676 there was testimony I think this week in committee thank you very and the first was hp900 yeah that was from last okay thank you very much all right we're going to move on to item number 4 a this is a presentation just a bond update so uh M here I was going to help you good evening uh want to give

039you a bond update on all the projects that are going on right now Mike will you go ahead and introduce our project control folks here with us sure as well Ed Mullins uh he uh I don't even know what your title is he's the boss man the boss man no Regional president and then Matt's with us Matt Johnson here he's he's the dayto day with with me so and Brad for all don't know no he's got a sick child okay and just really quick we felt like with so much constru we've only had like limited construction but now with so many more projects coming online we just thought monthly this would be great just to get updates in the public and just and you're going to see April is going to be a busy Bo

040as far as construction goes so at the high school uh there's a list of of uh things that are going we finish the foundation I won't read all of them but yall notice the steel is going up that's on the North Wing uh the high school's broken up into a b and c uh sections so this is the a section uh B section is the main Wing is what I call it and then C is the South Wing So the uh main Wing is going to start within the next couple of weeks you'll see still going up on on those areas they have the pans in on the second and third floor of a or the North wing and they'll be ping concrete schedule start next week under uh utilities are being run under the

041uh Foundation currently they're almost three uh Electrical Plumbing hbac piping just going underneath there uh part of the contract was for uh to replace the boilers we have that's uh started u uh there'll be out the O boilers uh since we're not really needing those at at the current time uh the east side of the stadium uh the uh uh base is down they're cutting in the beams uh cutting uh digging for plumbing and electrical that Foundation is supposed to be poured next week there the sound system at the stadium I'll say over spring break uh all those speakers were installed the engineers coming down Friday uh next Friday uh to tune that and then I'm going to have Jennifer there along with someone from admin office just so they understand how it works so

042whenever that anybody needs to use it they can be the trainers for everybody else uh and then work on the auditorium and Renovations on inside lighting sound uh that's starts as soon as school is out so this is uh you should be getting this summary on a monthly basis from project control uh it just shows you this is Project one high school is the only one going on right now and budget we're about 22% into budget right now on that one then the Elmo Heights Athletic Complex uh you approve the GM paid for the softball field at the last for meeting we're still waiting on city of San Antonio permit visited with the architex today they think they'll have it this week uh they've had a couple of hiccups uh but I think the GS

043straight down anticipated date start as April the 1st Cambridge Elementary uh tonight you're going to be approving the GMP for the portable package last night we got approval from the ARB to go forward next Monday we go to city council U those are just really formalities for us uh K con uh received their sub bids uh last Tuesday this is going to be about a 24mth schedule to get it done the board will bring the GMP to the board in April for that so we've had meetings with uh staff going over the design uh Janna and uh Heather has talk to the teachers about how we's staging this we're going to send out to the community they're going to put together a u a video uh maybe had a PTO meeting I think U Julian

044is helping with that uh so that the community know uh so the parents know how we phing time work and I have a meeting next week with food service because it's going to the kitchen is going to be involved in as well uh Woodridge uh some contractor uh walk through we had that on the 12th uh Kim con is to receive bids on the 20th we'll bring the GMP to the board on April board that's a fairly straightforward it's not as complex we should start this summer and finish uh next summer most of the work is actually done in the summer time the fifth grade Wing is the only one that's going to be and that'll be in Spring SU of next year then here's the summary of that uh we''re only spend about 4%

045of the budget so far on those three projects then Howard uh we kicked off a meeting uh yesterday uh we took bids for General Contractors which we had seven bids from General Contractors uh the building committee LPA and project control will all evaluate those and at the April board meeting then we'll select uh the general contractor for Howard and Junior School uh we start design work with uh staff on the 27th that'll run through about June that'll be for SDS uh but get the basic design down and construction is starting in the spring about to 26 and that's nothing yep and then baseball uh baseball project is to put in new bleachers with a cover over the bleachers uh new restrooms RFP will go out next week this will be a a competitive seal proposal

046uh the board will will bring to the board in April for approval for that work is to be completed before baseball season starts next year and that's my that's great very th thanks questions guys I mean I know we've all seen a lot of these but I've got one the bleachers on the east side of the stadium when is it anticipated those would be usable before the first game good [Laughter] answer that's good and just a real quick question I know you've been in constant communication with the neighbors CU Anytime anything's popped up and they you know talked to you we we've seen great response and great relationship just any update there or just everything's being okay uh everything's pretty good there's some uh buses that Park on their side of the street but overall

047it's been really good okay so when the engineer comes down next week I'm going to have a couple of them there just so they can stand on the street outside and listen to the sound sure things are much better because Mike has been very committed to being proactive with them okay very good okay well we'll move on to item 4 b um so this is going to be a consideration of the approval of the guaranteed maximum price for the Cambridge Portables so these are just the temporary buildings we're going to install right there's two portables that'll be four classrooms uh that'll be set up uh and Ed uh is here to talk to if you got any questions so you go past the first page you go to exhibit a that's just a list of

048the specifications uh and then exhibit um B we have the owner contingency uh the CM contingency both of those are 25,500 we have two allowances one for Sight and concrete got 10,000 landscape and irrigation for 5,000 so a total of 66,000 um Exhibit C is really where the the meat of the uh the Amendments had as Mike said this is the setup and the lease of two portable buildings with Associated ramps and decks and canopies the work also covers the connection to existing power data and fire system and that's to get us ready for the start of work summer when we come back to you with the second GMP um so um it's not the right one right there I don't think it is no it is it is it is I'm sorry okay y

049it is and then exib the more of Exhibit C is just um amendments and clarifications which we've gone over exhibit D actually breaks it down by uh by division on each of the cost and as you can see here the total GMP amount is $937,500 and this GMP is for 3.5 months questions guys I know we look at it we're in the building committee but just follow us remind so these similar to the Portables currently in use at the high school is it the same vendor getting shake from behind perfect cool good question okay okay well so can I have a motion to approve the GMP as presented move thank you Ty can I have a second second thank you Hunter all in favor please say I any opposed motion carries thank youall both we

050appreciate yall's attention to all this work thank you it's a lot we got going on okay we're going to move to item four so this is under our pillar of student learning and progress so a few years ago we were kind of one of the first school districts to adopt a community based accountability system for the district and now we're looking at it for departments so this is going to be one of our first departments to kind of show us how we're going to implement that at that level so coach R coach Fox the floor is yours all I was invited I'm not named but I was invited to help out with my team here and so I'm going to start this off and we'll go tag team um Mr hornberger member of the board

051members of the board and people listening out there in audio land we're excited to come talk to you as Mr hornberger mentioned um we are now starting to do community community based assessment accountability in department and um what the way we're going to present ours is to show you what what we were doing uh prior to cbas so that you can see how we layered cbas on top of some practices they were already doing in terms of continuous Improvement so um to start off with uh for about uh in in the school year 2022 23 we started an athletic advisory counsel so historically to fuel our tradition of Excellence at every level we've had a variety of collaborative teams at the district level we have the district education advisory council at the campus level you

052have various site based teams uh Dr Basher even meets with Communications Council uh or the employees periodically right so we do all of these we have all of these inclusive groups that we talk about what we're doing we get feedback and it's all fueling uh continuous Improvement well we forly created this in 2022 23 uh an athletic advisory Council made up of coaches from a variety of sports all levels Junior School and High School uh students from variety of sports likewise all levels and parents from a variety of sports and the point is that everyone comes to the table with the best interest of all sports in mind and of all student athletes in mind and so we've been doing that for a couple years we meet uh I think four times a year I

053help them uh I'm a member ex officio and they coordinate it all now um so we started that now another thing that we've been doing before we even started talking about Cass is uh Ron and Jennifer work together to create annual athletic department goals so coach tell us about those yes sir thank you first of all we'll start with this it's a great day to be don't ever forget that uh I'm I don't want to just read these goals cuz they're up there but I do want to talk through some of them is just number one is always going to be about communication we encourage our coaches to communicate not not not only with the parents but with the athletes uh create an athletic program that competes in the top 10 finish in the Lone

054Star Cup I think we've already discussed this in our athletic walk a year ago or so uh the Lone Star Cup is just it's a competition of every High School in the state you get points for all the success that you have throughout the season and there's a value to winning a district Championship or Regional Championship or advancing each round in playoffs and so every program you have can earn points towards it now part of it and I need everybody to understand this is we're finishing in top 10 I think we were 10 14 we're right around there but there's about six or seven events in there that we don't even have at the school so the reality of finishing in the top two or three are going to be pretty tough but what I

055am proud of is how well this the programs that we do have are get getting points and doing great things so we're creating a positive uh program in that direction uh we want to cultivate a culture of of athletes and coaches who act with integrity and have great character and I can tell you it's happening because I get one when we go across the football field and the head coach on the other side of Coach you know y'all kicked our butt but y'all did it the right way that speaks volumes to how our kids are behaving and how our coaches are behaving and it's happening in a bunch of sports it's not just the ones that I'm out there uh just to uh ensure that each student athlete will be given the opportunity to perform

056at a high academic and athletic level we want them to be successful in everything that they do and so we're trying to put things into our programs that's ensuring that they're getting both of those and and from the competition that we're playing against I know they're getting it on the field and by looking at their scores test scores and GPA they're getting it in the classroom as well so we're we're very proud of them uh and then develop an athletic program that the community is proud of loves and supports and we'll probably lean on y'all for feedback on that but uh in our uh athletic Council we're getting a lot of positive feedback from the community members so uh prior to even doing community based accountability we've been meeting with our athletic advisory Council these

057are the goals and so Jennifer and Ron uh chunk these up into a different four meetings and we cover a couple goals in one meeting they talk about the goal they talk about what we're doing and then we get feedback from that team just about how to continuously improve in terms of those goals so we've been doing that but with the challenge now uh issued to all the Departments is to say how can we make uh our district uh Cass alive in our departments what we did was of course you can tell that I made that slide it's not meant for you to read it's kind of like when we got together we said on that left column those are the key questions that you're used to seeing in Dr Walker's very elaborate uh presentation

058and then the folio we put together for the for the whole districts yeah it's full of color Etc uh so those are the key questions to the left so we started uh Jennifer and I started first by saying well let's let's go do a crosswalk to see in terms of the key questions which one of those are relevant in terms of the goals that we already set in the athletic department so you can see the first two about academics and they weren't necessar they didn't match necessarily but we really mapped across a a full range of a lot of the other key questions and so we said great so we got something to work with and then we said what kind of data do we already collect that would be relevant to these various questions

059and so the main thing which I'm going to talk about in a second is this a athlete survey that we've been doing for we're in our third year now we'll talk a little bit about that but that's that's the main data source we have to say like oh great A lot of these are about how kids feel about their experience we've got a data set right there let's try to put that together for our cbass and so before we tell you how we did that uh Jennifer is going to tell us a little bit about the survey itself thank you guys for having us um yeah so we implemented the athletic survey just like the fall feedback and February feedback that we do for our teachers in the classroom with the kids we've done that

060for three years with our athletes and it has evolved over the years and now we are to the point where we have a calendar and we set it early and it is done within a week or two after the seasons are over and um one thing that we noticed that a lot of the coaches weren't getting the feedback or it wasn't um being presented in a in a timely manner and so now we have a a timeline as as far as that goes too we get the survey out to the kids one or two weeks after their seasons over and we get to the coaches the next week and then they are giving feedback to us after they read it they uh three strengths or celebrations three things areas of focus and they're setting three

061goals whether it's for the offseason or the next season and so it's been um it's evolved and it's been really great and so what you see is we I mean there's a a a ton of sports we get those we compile them I work with uh our secretary of staff to compile them and we do aggregate scores for the year that's for the high school and for the Junior School our Focus has been the high school so far so we're still kind to figure out how to put the the Junior School in there and that's kind of what it looks like so that's what we've been doing right so we've already been doing this uh the athletic advisory Council meetings uh the athletic goals the feedback here now Cass layers on top of it to

062really help us to put it together in a meaningful hole and here's how we did it so this is a one pager right I didn't do that Jen Jennifer did that and it it's got the key questions on the left it's got the attachment to the department goals it's got evidence and it's got and the data sets in the last two years right so we put that together now to go back to the way Cass works is the real point is that you're collecting data in real time you're working with your community right we have parents at the table we have coaches at the table we have students at the table and we're asking them hey look at this real data and you tell us how we're doing right that's what community based accountability is

063and so they look at the data and they give us uh feedback in terms of a variety of kinds of signals they can tell us hey this data signals to us that you're right on track keep on truck it they can say well this data signals that there's some adjustments that need to be made tell us what you're doing uh and then they could also tell us you know this really needs some support and they give us feedback on what needs support and we attend to that the last one which we don't haven't seen yet is that it's a you know crisis we've got to you know go back to the drawing board about something but those are the general categories that apply to all of the different departmental Cass as well as the district

064level Cass and so what we did and what uh as Dr Walker was helping all the different departments do this she said like don't kind of try to do all of them at one one time chew off one or two or a few to start with and so what we did is we focused on these four that I highlighted there and so in the next successive slides uh Jennifer and Ron are going to talk about both what those categories are and then what the feedback is we got from our community group you guys ready yes okay the first one that we did uh the Cass question is to what degree are AG ISD Learners developing a healthy sense of social emotional wellness and security and then you can see our goal that we had that

065coach rman read earlier and then that middle column or questions from our athlete survey the first one I made better choices during the season then off to the right you can see from 2023 to 2024 um our numbers are very high number two playing this sport may be a better student those numbers are a little bit lower and we think um probably because we already have high expectations in the classroom um we so we were talking about I don't know if this is the right time to say it or not but we were talking about we're probably going to look at these and revise them a little bit as we go well yeah that's the feedback we got from the group the group said uh as they were looking through that's part where she you'll

066see below they were kind of talking about H maybe maybe we need to think about the kinds of questions we're asking or when we're Gathering the day change a little bit they don't fit all of our kids um I'm not going to read all of them but you can see the numbers are very high um for being a better student and having academic responsibilities are signaling that we've got back is support is required the considerations are we need to focus on time management skills and then they notice that going from the Junior School to the high school the reg is just a lot more and so trying to to bridge that Gap a little bit more and then being a good sport our signaling is we're on track because we think that we do a

067really good job in our coaching staff during personalization and just on the field after practice having those conversations um we have a thing called the Texas way through the Texas High School coaches association that just really emphasizes good sportsmanship all right so the second of the four sections we focused on with our community group uh was here and I think coach R taking yes sir to what degree do uh ahisd Learners feel a sense of belonging within our school and the goal is to ensure that each student athlete will be given the opportunity perform on a high level uh and then there's the questions that were asked and then the survey responses on right and again you know uh I felt I had a role on the team those were high numbers just so y'all

068you know compared to other places uh proud to be part of the of the team and a sense of belonging and that I met my goals this season well and I can tell you why I met my goals this season was low because they have very high expectations and if we don't win the state championship or we don't win every game they're disappointed and I think that's healthy I think it's okay so there's just some things that we got to reward some of the questions to make it more fitting to the experience that they're going through at that time because you're getting immediate feedback but it doesn't always speak to what's going on so we this is a a it's going to continue to improve and get better as we go so for a roll

069on the team uh we put you know support needed the considerations are give an overview of what is on the survey to the coaches so that they can be a little more intentional about these these categories that we have uh and defining kids' roles and making sure they feel like they're being a successful part of the team because you define the role and they know instead of just saying were you you know did you meet were you doing your role were you part of the team so we can do some things just to help that uh and for a sense of belonging uh consider again timing of survey the end of the season versus the middle of the season if you just lost in a devastating third round playoff game you don't want to say

070hey how was your experience cuz it was terrible but if you really hit them at the beginning of the year while they're going going through the growing of the Season they're probably enjoying it it's fun and they're getting to be you know part of that program so that that can skew the results as well the timing of the survey so we got to decide where that fits best to really get accurate feedback for what you're doing every day questions at the beginning of the Season you don't you don't want to ask me after all right Jennifer here's the next okay the next one to what degree to ahd students participate in school programs uh that is a typo and that's my fault in activities um so this one directly relates to our Lone Star Cup

071that we talked about earlier um everyone on my team even if not a starter was given a chance to contribute and then my coach supports me in participating in other sports you can see we finished tide for 14 two years ago last year we were 11th in the state our signaling is for participating in other sports as support is required we have a lot of kids that focus on one sport and then we also um want to make sure that we are promoting our school sports first and not outside stuff and and the feedback that we got is how do we get that message out to the community yeah a lot of the parents in the group were saying you know uh we get that you might try that but like the club pressure to

072keep my kid doing that thing as opposed to going to the school sport is is hard and so they identifi that for us and the last one are to develop a direct line of communication and the question is my coaches did a good job of communicating with me uh and again those numbers are really high considering but some of the considerations we had was just the variety of platforms that we really use there's a bunch of them out there and we've tried to streamline a bunch of it and we've done a better job in the last couple of years since we started this uh and then some of the students are actually some of the students actually gave us a feedback that I'd rather my coach tell me cuz sometimes I go home and my

073parents know it before I know it because they're so conscious about getting this information out to the parents that sometimes they come and tell the kids so we're working on those types of things uh to make it about the students and then our students actually reading the communication that is sent to them cuz sometimes we send out on different platforms and we know the kids were receiving them they're on that they never read it so we're still working on it so those were the four areas that we you know did a data dive with our community group and they gave us feedback on and so I just want to step back and take it all in for a second right so this is an athletic program who is surveying their athletes about their experience studying

074that having the coaches reflect on that and then bring it back to a community group um in which the parents and the athletes and the other coaches see it and there's it was a really Lively conversation it was a great and so to me that's local accountability that's your community telling you giving you feedback in real time of what you need to do and so well well consider that right we'll talk about all the different feedback given tests feel like what kinds of adjustments we need to make go back and Contin do the cycle over again anything else well I'll just need yall to hear me said we're trying to get better every day we we'll never stop that as long as we're here so anything we can do to improve uh whether it's food

075system or the DayDay routine or just something we doing we're always looking for better ways to to make it happen so then uh that's my slide yeah I do that questions from Tres Mr was you have a question oh sorry sorry sorry do you have any questions guys no it's great okay we really appreciate the work it's I mean the athletic department has changed to monly and it's more of a group and a team at a department level and most parents can see that it's kind of neat um so we we love the work we love that you guys are not happy not being perfect so like keep on training for sure so thank youall thank you good to see you guys walk she's right over here Totally Miss okay Dr Walker presentation of feed

076February feedback 2025 so this is item four I am having trouble clipping P 4c2 wow what a great transition from Athletics and how they're using survey data in a meaningful way to shape an athletic program and that just makes me so happy it really does it genu does help with so I'm talking about our overall February feedback that we just concluded and as you just saw from our athletic presentation like Gathering feedback genuinely studying it analyzing it taking it in and then doing something with it isn't a once a year event for us it's just in the fabric of how we do uh operate in this district and I love that about this District so overall we always have a fall feedback which is when students provide feedback to their school as a whole how

077safe do you feel in your school so that's direct kind of to the school in February that's when we survey all of our parents and our teachers and then we also ask all of our students to give feedback to each of their individual teachers that's from grades 3F so all of our teachers get to see feedback not just about how safe do kids feel or a sense of belonging in their school but how do they feel in their math class in this geometry class right here how do you feel and that's really powerful and personal to our uh teachers and to our students to be able to give that feedback every year at the parent the teacher and at the February feedback the fall feedback when they provide to the school we have some standing

078topics like school safety is always on there and then there are topics that I call ad hoc they're just topics of the day so this year we ask about the new cell phone policy we ask about Bond communication so those topics may change but some topics are just understanding that we ask about every year so this year we had 1,800 parents respond we had 3200 students again 3 through 12 we had 500 uh staff responses we had a little bit lower parent response rate than last year but it was higher than it was before the pandemic in 2019 so overall some of the things where we saw a nice change in positive response and all of the most of the questions have five answer choices the top two being more positive I uh strongly agree

079to I agree neutral slightly disagree strongly disagree so we take the top two that are positive and that's called a positive response rate so on parents we went up on grading and safety were two noticeable areas I love that grades are an accurate reflection of Content Mastery that went up most strongly in the high school which is where we made some pretty substantive substantial changes last year parents are less worried about violence in schools and the percentage students who felt like their campus leadership was strong that likewise that went up and students this first one how clear are you on how to report bullying our teacher I mean our principles really took that seriously when that had been lower they're like we can change this this is just better communication to students better practicing and

080they definitely moved the needle there grading went up and then use of Technology from the student point of view also went up and then we stayed really strong with job satisfaction of Staff 98% of our staff are uh satisfied working in aloides so we had some new questions and talking through those the first two here are about that cell phone policy that was brand new this year at our high school and when we ask our high school teachers how well do you think the no cell phone policy is being followed by students quite strong when you look over at the rule is not being followed it's zero we still have kids who need reminders but overall for a first year of rolling it out that's pretty strong even better is the next question since the

081no phone cell cell phone policy started how has student focus and engagement in class changed look at the responses to the left there so is it worth some redirection of students and some follow through and absolutely look at the difference it's making making in attention and engagement there's also some areas where we saw some things where the results aren't where we want them to be and we need more information this first one is uh student feedback to individual teachers so in this and I don't mean to keep using geometry in this English class if you catch yourself using a a device for non-school related activity first we ask him how often are you doing that then we ask them why and it's interesting you can see the I am Bor I feel the need to

082check notifications I don't think it affects my learning it's a habit I don't even realize I'm doing it for other and we had over 5,000 students because remember students responded each of their classes who said other and when we look at this we have response is like because I'm listening to music that's why my device my parents texted me that's why I'm looking at my device but we also saw enough of this is I'm done with my work I'm taking a brain break that's where we need more information because we have told teachers that that is not what cell phon should not be out in class at all and certainly not if you finish your work and you just have time to be on a device so we need more information there I think because

083teachers are getting feedback from their students that when they read the data that says I'm using it in your class because I'm finished with my work it becomes personal in a way that having general information never feels personal than when it's your students and you can even identify from first period from second period where is it coming from next for additional information is uh this is from the parent side about the use of instructional te uh technology in the classroom is appropriate for my child we did see a decline from 80% positive last year to 73 this per positive this year but when you put that just pose it with the next one which is from your parent perspective how much time is your child on a device look at the gray that is the

084I'm not sure and when we were in our technology District Tex technology committee my tongue is going to tangled up tonight um we really came up with some ideas here of things we might do one is and Athletics talked about this as well looking at the wording of our question so that we're asking a question so we're getting the information we want one uh number two is we talked about this year we are streamlining our online resources because of some budget reasons while we're doing that could we get our most of our programs and apps through class link because if kids are going through class link we can track how much time and what are they doing oh interesting so that's one the other is looking at the feasibility of limiting the bring your own

085device to school because when students are on their own device we can't track and manage what they're doing on that device the way that we can when they're on our school devices so that's another thing we're looking at the last is that we've come up with and it's been about a year Brian working on that reflection tool a reflection tool for teachers that can be used in plcc that really is walking through the use of Technology when you're using it how you're using it at a regular basis so that we are helping teachers make good decisions um on how technology is used in our classrooms going forward this is on the teacher size now you all know we ask teachers how are you feeling right now how are your colleagues feeling right now in February

086when we were having a lot of conversations about the budget so we did see how helpful is collab this has always been a strength with our teachers collaboration it did go down from 88% positive to 81 81 is still strong but compared to historically where we've been we saw a dip there how positive are the attitudes of your colleagues we saw a drop there so more information needed was the decline and attitude of your colleagues is there something Beyond budget that we need to address to me that's the the actionable part there looking at some bright spots one look how much green is up there when we ask our students how smart is your teacher that's basically what does your teacher know what they're talking about and look at the strongly agree here at our

087high school 88% of students responding to every single class they're in that is amazing when we ask teachers and you guys have seen this historically as something that has been low for us how much do you learn from test Dr alato did how many summer sessions uh 15 15 training our admin administrators and our teachers on T Test we had beginning of the year training on T Test our principles put in an enormous amount of time preting post meeting and look at the increase from 38% positive in 2023 we're now at 55 still not where we want to be but that is an incredible increase in how much our staff is valuing that annual appraisal process from parents How likely are you recom are you to recommend Almo Heights to a friend or a colleague

088we have 97% positive there next steps n it really is about communicating communicating with our district at the campus level continuing to analyze you all know every year I do and once we finish our year with growth I do a correlation between the factors on the survey with student outcomes to see what is it what are those levers that we can pull that will result in concrete achievement from the from our students we read and analyze every single open-ended response it is read by instructional coaches it's read by administrators it's read by sight based I read them all our cabinet team reads them all we take those seriously and then with all of that data what becomes actionable how do we not only see the data read the data but do something with it um

089and that's what happens this spring and over the summer and I'll end where I always end feedback is absolutely a gift some sometimes you get the gift you want like diamond earrings sometimes you get the gift for your birthday which is a cloth steamer you did not want it but you need it and sometimes with our feedback we get the gift that we just need to hear but all of it is absolutely a gift any questions very nicely done okay so trusty's questions on February feedback for Dr W just one minor one I know you put the raw number of parent responses what is that proced percentage rate do you know you know that's it is hard to quantify because we also asked like you filled out four surveys yeah so it's hard to say

090find well what would my denominator be would it be because you're one parent you could have done four surveys or one parent or one student might have a mom fill it out a dad fill it out a stepdad fill it out so it's hard to get there but it's stronger than it was pre pandemic but I think 180 fewer than it was last year so those of us with more kids get more input is that what I'm hearing well but you do have a voice for every single student you have in the district but you know I didn't fill it out this year cuz I figured you hear from me if I have any problems right I mean that I and I told Dave not to fill it out I mean he normally will fill

091it out too so I mean you never know why people don't fill it out at least I'm being honest I appreciate the honesty Jimmy I just want to make the comment first of all huge undertaking to do this every year and I'm so you know proud and thank for our district Dana I mean everybody who you know puts resources and thought and energy into doing this it's wonderful and um and then just I think it's so above and beyond how closely you read all those open-ended comments so just Kudos and a thank you for that thank you I appr I'm really proud of is the way that our students are being trained up into giving good feedback and I don't mean good feedback I mean you know appropriate thought feedback d and I did a

092learning walk I think was last you know years they were going through this and we were in a third grade classroom and it was just really impressive to watch the teacher support a small group in taking this survey seriously like that'll be sticks with me um I don't know so I have Lov watching this over the years and how our students are kind of being trained up and abely helpful feedback so it helps them feel like they have agency and what they do which is why it's important to follow up with them and said you said there weren't enough peaches in the C ceria now we have peaches in the cafeteria that just helps them feel like my voice has value yeah very good all right thank you thank you Dr W we're going to

093do a less exciting uh segment here and going hey budget 2025 planning update Mr Matt strer so take the FL Matt good evening so this is a the purpose of this is to provide an update as to where what we where we are you know in terms of legislative impacts uh you know from the financial aspects of public education uh what we know right now uh and there's a lot that we don't know so um I'm just going to run start on on the presentation and uh just to kind of reemphasize that this is a very active time with nearly daily updates regarding public education uh since the budget committee a couple weeks ago um there's been some additional hearings but uh no really additional legislation has has uh passed the either chamber uh the

094house is conducting a lot of work and we may see something very soon from the house and that that's that it's important to see the details uh from that so um it's also important to kind of not I think it's well I think it's kind of interesting that there in in the house there's a razor thin majority uh in terms of the group that's in favor of vouchers education savings accounts uh so as the House and Senate negotiate on that issue uh that may come into play uh it'll be interesting to watch as we move move forward special so some of the U uh you know in terms of the different topics that the legislature is been uh considering um one of them is teacher pay and the Senate has really focused its efforts uh

095on you know putting money towards teachers uh and then that's there's not much else coming from the Senate uh some other incidental things but but um on the Senate side you know there's fixed amounts uh based upon years of experience uh and it's more if uh if a district has less than 5,000 students uh the house is looking at teacher pay through the uh basic allotment increasing the basic allotment and um and so the amount there is probably less per teacher but then as we'll on the coming slides the house is proposing uh other areas of increasing funding so how they Recon there's kind of I guess you could say there there's some consensus or um that from both sides both both chambers that there's uh a need to increase teacher pay but uh how

096the two Chambers reconcile that will also be something to to watch at this stage so before you get to the next slide yeah it's important to make sure that we rest in the fact that we're asking for 1340 right 340 extra to be added to the basic allotment just to meet the cost of inflationary um you know challenges in operating school and you're seeing the largest amount that has been proposed to date is $220 and maybe a reminder that money allocated directly to teacher salary increases does not alleviate our budget deficit so by fixing wages at the state level they're effectively going to force the workforce to shrink so in other funding uh as I said there's not much there on the Senate side uh you know there's some tweets there in terms of the

097teacher and Sen of allignment uh that the Senate has passed but uh it's the house side that has uh additional details and so they also are increasing teacher in setad of allotment uh there's some restrictions on the use of in certified teachers there's added money to uh double the midsize and small size uh allotment for school districts we get some of that and so I'll show on a slide how much uh we're estimating if that stays in place uh compensatory education allotment is scheduled to increase by $32 at least that's what the house is working with right now uh there's a fine arts allotment uh that's established at $51 per student or $12 per student at economically disadvantaged but there's a huge butt to that is that there's a $15 million cap Statewide on that

09815 million is just not much when you spread it out across state so there's no way that we as a state will realize that $51 or $12 for for eess um in terms of calculating it I'm thinking it's you know coming in at around $6 or $7 a student uh so it's it's um you know not near what what's advertised um and there's some incentive for longer school year and and some of what they're considering there's also a high school advising program uh that does uh provide some additional funds and I'll show that in a minute uh but it's important is as we look at the what's on the house side and there's a variety of things here including the previous slide with the basic alotment increase that the house portion if you add them

099all up is over the amount that's uh that was in the planning um for the uh for both Chambers and so there's going to be some pressure to likely some pressure to um to you know chop something um it might come in the you know some type of reduction in the midsize allotment that could that could be but it could also be in some other places as well so special education funding uh Senate not there hasn't been much in terms of like uh you know anything passing you know in terms of uh special education funding uh the house is looking at establishing an intensity of service model for special education with tiers to be established by the TA commissioner so they're leaving a lot up to the TA Comm commissioner in terms of those rules

100uh there's an increase in the special education allotment of $615 million for next school year now when I first saw that I was like Yay you know that sounds like really good uh one of the things that in terms of um learning since the last uh since the budget committee uh is that as presly proposed that $615 million includes the increased count in special a uh so uh we see as you're you know especially uh currently the special education uh numbers Rising across Texas um and so by them including that that's not like additional dollars on top of the allotment they're actually going to fund about 300 million uh because of of that allotment of that portion there uh just to just to make good on the account under their previous law so you really

101only talking about you know that takes about half of that and so uh half of that $615 million so um there are some U uh groups out there that are proposing you know trying to break that out and stuff but it it remains to be seen as different that's going to be uh U if they're going to be successful so um also $1,000 added for evaluation cost uh which could provide some some funding there so for uh our implications um for Alma Heights ISD these items here keep in mind it's they're coming from the house uh chamber and so this has a lot to be reconciled uh with the with the Senate but if we look at that basic allotment that might uh generate an extra 500 $1,000 for alal Heights uh the midsize District

102allotment that be 250,000 that's proposed right now uh that increase of $32 per student into compensatory allotment uh might result in an extra $30,000 for us it's um you know our numbers in in uh for State compensatory are a little bit lower than some other districts so the impact there is you know in other districts might be more uh Pine Arts allotment um that number that I was telling you about that's uh you know might be between $6 and7 a student that maybe it generates you know 10,000 for us um special education funding now of all these things all these items um and as I mentioned with the legislation as it's drafted right now saying that the TA commissioner you know is going to uh formulate rules on how that's doled out um it's the

103hard that Parts the hardest to estimat but you know in terms of um my best uh you know kind of conservative estimate that may be an additional 750,000 which you know is is is substantial and then that high school program allotment uh advising allotment for college career milary Readiness uh that might generate 150,000 and then they're also talk talking about doubling the school safety allotment so for us that would be another 120,000 all told that's um you know best case scenario uh just a little bit over 1.8 million uh if all those things come to pass but there's a lot of negotiation to go and a lot of details to see when legislation is actually passed first by the house and then it's reconciled with the Senate now in other news um leaving all that

104aside from the legislative standpoint our enrollment and attendance rate uh have increased uh from previous years so we might be able to uh count on an additional $300,000 just based upon our um average daily attendance uh you it as long as things you know continue on the current track you know for this year to be able to budget into next year so so that could help so when you add that also um we might be looking at you know maybe more than $2 million but then you know uh in terms of added revenues if if uh if things break favorably for for adal Heights IST but we got to watch watch what happens and so we'll keep keep updating as we learn more um in other news there's education savings accounts and on the table

105for uh both uh both Chambers and both Chambers are in favor uh now I'm just going to sum up this slide to say that there's different ways that which each chamber is approaching this issue uh and so that's going to have to be reconciled and so uh between the two Chambers and it'll be interesting to see which uh kind of holds sway uh but uh I guess the the the basic uh thought there is that you know there's there's the votes as presid counted but um uh they have to iron out the difference between those two Chambers property taxes uh here's also where there's some uh some differences uh both Chambers are in favor of reducing property taxes uh in Texas uh but they go about it in different ways the Senate is proposing an

106increase in Homestead exemption and the house uh so far is talking about um lowering the the compressed tax rate further uh to realize the same kind of same savings for for taxpayers uh so that will have to be uh um ironed out between the two Chambers this all leads us to recommend recommending tonight uh continuation with our uh you know the budget advisory committee recommendations and uh we've already uh talked about tier one tier two and then this is tier three uh for these uh for these elements here uh totaling an estimated $924,000 uh in in savings so um we we're just not seeing as I as I mentioned you know there's a lot of uncertainty and we're we just not seeing enough that's concrete especially around the basic alotment you know that you know

107it's just not not what we were hoping for you know uh $220 versus what we really need to meet the inflationary needs so more to watch okay so I wanted to uh bring this point out because I've now heard it a couple times from uh in in different uh sessions that you know with regards to legislative updates is that there's um movement at the state to repeal or reduce uh previous hold harmless Provisions in the interest in sinking fund um so what happens there is that when we talk about tax reduction property tax reductions um the as as we're reducing those taxes typically on the M side there's a whole harmless there to say okay well the state's going to you know bring in some additional money to help School District so that you're not

108losing thaty until them uh on the interest in seeking fund side that's also been the case uh so but there seems to be a movement of foot that that's you know kind of hostile to continuing those hold harmlessness from the past if you remember you know we had the property tax reduction additional U increase in Homestead exemption from 40 to 100,000 and so um and and so there's a a hold harmless in place on the interest and seeking fund and so if that goes away that could could dramatically significantly impact us uh because we count we get about a you know million 1.1 million in Aid uh out of those hold harmless parts and to help out the interest in seeking fund and so how that would impact us is that the forecast in our

109you know 2023 Bond of of tax rates and and maybe uh slowly increasing them you know over the years to meet the uh each each Bond issuance uh would have to be increased a little bit further because we wouldn't have as much uh support from the state in that area um if if some of those hold harmes go away now I hope that doesn't happen and uh but I want to mention it and I think it's I think it's worth mentioning or important to mention because I've heard it a couple times now in the legislative updates and um and that could impact us when we're talking about setting our tax rate later this summer for the interest in seeking fun if those if those um types of you know conversations come to pass into legislation

110and so I'm kind of giving you know kind of a warning uh Dwayne in a minute we'll talk about you know about U the uh Bond issuance that you know for tonight and and talking with within the context of present law and and that's important uh and and I hope that maintains but I'm just kind of would to apprise everybody of that situation uh then finally um I thought this slide was interesting and ran across this uh so actual these are actual revenues and and u minus expenses uh for uh the fiscal year that just ended uh 2024 and it's a culmination of all the uh all the isds in the state and so um if we look at that and see okay we're kind of com through the 2020s you know 2019 after the

111last big uh increase in the basic allotment there was a significant uh you know fund balance uh for for uh school districts as well as uh revenues over expenses on an annual basis uh and then we can see that that just kind of craters in in 2024 so uh a lot of districts in the note down there is that 510 uh independent school districts in 2024 finished um with a deficit spending um we were one of them there's uh according to my Google search there's 1,39 school districts impendent school districts not counting Charters uh in in Texas so um you know that's almost of of District so we can see that the system's kind of running out of steam uh I don't know how put that but uh graphically I thought that was pretty pretty

112significant and I would add too that 63% of isds are in budget deficit so that number was budget yes yeah yes these These are actual numbers from last year like year right that's your final slide that was my final all right all right so Co questions conversation are we looking at the federal government and the potential for Less funding coming from that Source not yet um most of the uh funds that we received like title one idab uh they're continuing to flow and uh uh now there may be less um oversight I don't know in terms of like the changes and stuff that are happening there with those funds but uh but the funding is still flowing uh so and I heard that funding I mean I've read a lot about it I feel like

113that funding is going to be transferred over to Texas different states yeah in the past when that's happened and you know what's happened the state is yeah yeah so and that was my concern you see the special education funding what going to 600 million it's like well are they then saying well we're going to take from the federal government of course that yeah as we're losing throw away yeah um keep us posting on that home hard harmless hold harmless chatter like if that gets louder like that that's very concerning um to the point of like I wonder if a lot of istd should talk to each other about like let's just bankrupt the state psf fund and stop paying the interest on our bonds if you're going to do that to us um so obviously

114we don't want to do that but that's a giant market that they could destabilize and that is very full hearted I'm I'm shocked that they're considering that so it yeah it feels a little scary but cool any other questions from Mr TR okay thanks Matt we appreciate we have uh a guest here who's going to help with our NE our next um item so I'm going to move this up so we can get Mr Westman out of here so we're going to move our business recommendations item number seven we're going to move it up to right now before our consent agenda um and so I guess Mr West you've got the floor if if I me uh so um just a brief comment before going get started pleas uh and um so in your agenda

115U packet the board packet on page 41 uh there's a a section here that that's important for me to read into the record uh so to speak uh at the meeting uh from our bond attorney that you know this language is like a required when uh you know proposing to issue bonds so I'm just going to quickly read this and then let Bo um so consideration and approval of an order by the Board of Trustees of the Alamo Heights Independent School District authorizing the issuance of alam Heights Independent School District and limit tax school building bond series 2025 leving A continuing direct annual ad alarm tax for the payment of the bonds authorizing the execution of any necessary engagement agreement with the uh District's financial advisors delegating the authority to certain members or the board

116or trustees and delegate staff to approve and execute certain documents related to the sale of the bonds and providing an effective debt um so it should should this you know pass tonight um it includes this that's effectively we discussing right okay thank you members of the board M um pleasure to be here I don't think you were here at the meeting the other day but we've covered a lot of this information a couple of weeks ago and since that time Nick who was here with us had and his wife had their second child and so he's not here tonight but we have a future mule coming along for for the record I I saw him in the elevator the first day he went back to work and he looked tired just want to put that

117in the record yes yes yes he's he's getting a few hours at work but not me never so we're we're happy about that happy to hear about all the good things at the district so we'll go ahead here just real quick a quick refresher from the May 23 C we have 371 million approved and authorized by the voters to date we've issued 55,1 190,000 leaving us the 315,000 still to be issued so now we're ready to proceed with the next go round go to the next page so this is the slide and and those of you here on the couple of weeks ago same slide this is 70 million that we're looking to issue with this go round based on the numbers from from Mike and Matt and uh we looked to pay it out

118we have the debt current debt service on the leftand side the new issue in the middle and the Shaded and then the new Total Debt Service would be on the right hand side and the debt Services kind of set up as as descending as we know um we have the additional issuances that will come along that will allow for that debt service to be built in trying to manage the tax rate um as we go forward and so here's a look at how that kind of works um the left-and side again is what your current debt Services then we have the next I I took out the issuances from 23 we've already done and just kind of focused on today going forward and you can see how it layers in and this now has a

119column on the right that was missing um that shows what the total debt service will creep up um with these projections which are are conservative up to about $33 million a year eventually with with the B ISU so and when you say conser you mean on the expensive side on the expensive side yes um we anticipate rates will probably be lower than we we generally use a lesser collection rate things of that nature so uh going forward for tonight you're considering the order that that Matt read a few minutes ago an order um approving the issuance of the bonds through a delegated or parameter authorization and this authorization allows a maximum power amount of 115 M39 95 the reason for that is the new money portion uh we put in a Max of 100 million

120in case there were some changes in the project between the time we set this up and the time that we issued the bonds and you needed more funds U but we're currently planning to only issue 70 of that and then there's a potential refunding of 15 million of some of the outstanding bonds um don't think that's going to unless the market really changes and rates really go down I I don't see that that happening but again we wanted to at least have that included so if it did we could take advantage of it um the maximum maturity February 1 of 20153 and a maximum interest rate of 6% now that is parameters that are in this order and we would be we canot exceed those parameters we currently expected that interest rate um did a

121quick look at it today I think we're probably be around the 44445 effective interest rate based on where we are today what's what's the current outstanding effective interest rate well well it's a variety of different rates I can I don't have all of those here with you but we have we it's in a Range it's lower because up through last year we were in such low interest rates we had effective rates that were in the 3% range and some of them were even even less than that and last year I think we got into the either the high 3es or low fours I can we can put a schedule you got me the answer I need thank you so um quick timeline we've covered most of the timeline already we're at the March March 19th

122board meeting to authorize uh we expect to see receive the rating uh later this week or early next week and then we're looking to sell bonds April 1 if things fall in place and and market conditions are we might set that up the week prior to that but then we're scheduled to close and have the the money in your hands by April 15th and then that at the bottom is just the the schedule that uh between um Madden ourselves we've kept as far as what we've issued out of which proposition what we're looking at with this proposition and what will be left going forward that little table at the bottom and that's I believe the end of of the presentation we do we do plan um with the conversation we are uh recommending and planning

123to go forward with a competitive sale for this issuance and um again I think we're we're in good shape ready to move forward and when you say competitive sale I note in the sample motion that says pursuant to a delegated sale do those words Jive they do delegated just means that you delegate um your approval tonight is delegating the uh approval of the final terms to uh the superintendent yourself as board president and CFO not not the type of sale right okay cool questions guys for D well if we have no questions there is a sample motion that is in front of I think all of us if if anybody wants to make a motion I'm happy to read it yes please I move that the Board of Trustees adopt an order authorizing the issuance

124of alam Heights Independent School District unlimited tax school building bonds series 2025 pursuant to a delegated sale do I have a second thank you Ty sorry car all in favor please say I reading any oppos the motion carries DNE thank you for the work on behalf of the district you guys are great part appreciate it appreciate it appreci all the work you do as a graduate of graduates un graduates and now I hate to even say it a grandparent he a gr that kind of blows my mind good deal okay thanks okay so now we're going to move to consent agenda that's item number five on your agenda so as a reminder all items in the consent and gener considered routine or previously considered and will be acted with one motion let me know every

125discussion unless somebody wants to pull anything from consent so take a look see everything on there and let me know I would request that we pull the uh classroom iPad refresh line item F okay anything else guys take a look I am just real quick okay okay okay subject to that any other things to P guas okay um so do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda except for item 5f so moved thank you Brian do I have a second thanks car all in favor please say I I any post the motion carries so you want to take that discussion up now or after uh board member committee reports no let's do it yeah you're good yeah you join us at the table so you are here get questions I know that um

126questions were submitted ahead of this meeting and and you all received you know answers to those but we probably need to dig into some of those a little bit more so Lauren you want to just kind of start us off yeah um thanks Jo and I'm I'm sorry I mean I I do appreciate the patience everybody um is having with me because I know you know we talked um at some length about this GMP Brian you weren't there it's part of the reason why I wanted to discuss it again I'm really sorry Clay is not here because I I mean I do think that this is an important um you know item that we need to talk about as a whole group um you know I guess I obviously you know have concerns and I

127do appreciate all my questions Brian you've done such a great job answering them and Dana I appreciate you you know keeping everyone in the loop um and and I guess I also just want to start by saying I Brian I hope that you have not felt in the crosshairs of of all my questions and and I just you know I feel like I've said this at this group before but I want to reiterate again how outstanding I think Brian is um I mean all the years that I've been on the technology committee he is so open collaborative Cooperative we have all these different stakeholders so really want to compliment you for that um but you know here we have have for consideration you know the expenditure of $365,000 on iPads at a 1: one ratio

128for our very youngest students four five six seveny olds and given the life of the iPads to date you know the most important part of this in my mind is that by refreshing at this you know one:1 ratio we're basically committing to this regime for the next 5 to six years it's a long time and so you know I guess you know when I look back at all the work that we've done in the technology committee you know I'm really proud of how thoughtful that committee's been and you know two of the items on our belief document are the consideration of moving to Shared carts for this exact age range um as as well as a consideration of implementing a policy that these kids at this age are not you know individually on a device

129alone and so you know by going forward with this and having onetoone devices I mean to me that's running directly counter to those two points um the other thing you know over the past week I have tried to do some research on just what other districts are doing um and you know I communicated with um a trustee uh with Highland Park And I Know Dan is going to send out this Highland Park framework in our uh Friday update but I mean I'll tell you they are not at one: one for prek and Kinder and then actually starting in Kinder through 12th grade they are no iPads they are all Chromebooks and they have required promulgated keyboarding um curriculum starting in Kinder and can you repeat what Highland Park goes to Chrome Chromebooks at what age

130Kinder Kinder and so you know and and I'll say about them that has not always been the case they made a decision as a board to move to transitioning to Chromebooks and so I mean again if we're looking at making this commitment for the next 5 to six years and and I know you know I know that the line item on here is a budget expenditure it's not a policy discussion I am aware of that and so but I mean you know I do think it's obviously relevant um if we're talking about you know how to spend this money and you know and locking in with this particular type of device um so questions from trustees maybe I could start there CU I know we've talked about this at length if you want to I

131think my I think my only concern I mean I I I understand where Lauren is going with this 100% And I I too sitting on sat on the um technology committee for a little bit I I hate hearing from teachers and correct me correct me if I'm wrong that the shared cart idea won't work or doesn't work or seems harder otherwise I totally agree with what where Lauren is headed with this I just hate to ever do something that against what the teachers have asked us not to do um but I would love to hear more I mean I would love to read more I'd love to see that ort I mean look I I agree with that and I mean I you know I I hope that I've always been careful to say and

132it's certainly how I feel that I mean our teachers are the experts I you know I I don't have a degree in education I mean they are the ones that are experts they are boots on the ground they are with these kids every day but but when and and and I I appreciate like on the shared carts for instance I know that Brian did an excellent job and that was in you know one of my questions that I mean he asked every single teacher and instructional coach so very thorough and and I 100% acknowledge and applaud that you know I do think though that the technology committee is intentionally made up of various stakeholders including parents and so you know I guess in my mind mind it's perhaps a question for us as a board

133when we're looking at okay what is the process of determining whether some of these considerations are you know implemented or not I mean do we do we want you know more than just teacher feedback do we want parent feedback too do we want research you know also to support this I mean what is the process to to say this consideration is going forward and this one's not you know so I mean that would be one comment I mean you know so let's pause there for just a little bit because that's a valid point that I feel like Brian can speak to because in addition to looking at the Highland Park um information that committee looked at for other districts um kind of to really dig in R uh Brian has cited um multiple research pieces

134that that they looked at at the time and I'm sorry Lauren that you weren't here like to hear that from the teacher Voice last year because it was powerful when a teacher just told us the complications what what the day-to-day routine and that was compelling you know to to those of us who are on the table so I mean h you did not hear that either but um so I don't want us to walk past kind of the big picture work that that team had really dug into that did involve you know a variety of stakeholder yeah I'd also add you know we we had the discussion too about iPads Chromebooks yeah um and the the Chromebook discussion was you know looking at that for Elementary level 3 through five with the understanding and the

135feedback we got from teachers is just the iPads are easier for students to work with they're more appropriate for what the teachers are doing in the classroom they're a lot easier for students to log on to than than a than a standard Chromebook uh so I think that the understanding on the iPads was prek through 2 we're going to remain iPads um and then in our beliefs doc we have considering uh that switch over to Chromebooks from 3rd through 12th grade which we've made that transition um already at the middle school um that that kind of coincided around the same time that we did update the uh 3 through five uh um iPads uh we went through that process at that time with with campuses uh so each campus right now has at least Le

136two carts of Chromebooks on on campus uh to be shared for you know if they're if they're keyboarding or you know what have you if they if they need to use a Chromebook for that um but my recommendation came from um a couple of places one that we were sticking the iPads prek through two and then you know outside of that just a normal refresh I mean those iPads are are not receiving updat anymore so uh everything from security updates we're no longer receiving on them to uh um you know there's no guarantee that apps that we rely on for for testing or whatever are going to work in the future everything's working right now but iOS is going to go up to iOS 19 in in September uh and these aren't even up to

13718 and we can't get them up to 18 um the other point I just want to make you know for the the big picture of this is that we've been um I feel like we've kind of set ourselves apart as a district as we walk through big decisions districtwide decisions and that we spend a lot of time looking at what best practices are all across the state always we anchor into research but we never like quickly grab something that another you know district is doing and we say this is the answer we we like take pride and saying we Alo Heights ify it right you've heard us say that multiple times and so um the culture we built is about trusting our Educators and um it feels a little strange to say that um aside

138from setting expectations and then holding professionals accountable to those expectations um that we would doubt their request for resources in the classroom feel like I just need to put that out there sure I absolutely agree I mean if you Chromebooks that make my life a lot easier Mr Mr I like that kind to pump you up I don't really understand what you want war or what where you're going are you not wanting uh iPads and you just want Chromebooks or it kind of help me I'm I I don't want kids on devices as much as they are so that's that is the bottom line but we can fix that for it like that can be fixed in a a way that protects the C and so that's that's where I'm my frustration is it feels

139like you're not willing to walk that way well I guess and I you know I don't I don't want to be super confrontational about this or but but again like if you look at February feedback that we just got and if you look at and of course we don't have student responses for Howard but and and we don't have you know I I haven't requested I don't you know I'm sure we could break out the the data for grade levels but just looking at all of Woodridge and all of camridge the student responses of how much I mean I'll just read the exact how much do you use Tech versus paper and pencil to complete your work 77% of Cambridge kids say half or more of the time 65% of wage say half or more

140of the time I'll note there is a mismatch with the with the teacher you know responses are along those same lines but I mean I'm sorry I just feel like if kids have a designated device for every single kid they're going to be on screens more and so that just becomes you know I think incumbent on S is a board to you know say I mean are we okay with that or not I mean my preference is less and that you know and I think the thrust of our beliefs document which again I think is really really good is that we want technology usage to be collaborative creative and additive you know that that's when we want kids on devices and TI you know your question about Chromebooks versus iPads and and I will say

141I me I've been on that technology committee since day one and so you know shame on me for not you know bringing up Chromebooks at at an earlier age I frankly didn't even know that that really was done anywhere until I talked to the Highland Park trustee but but what I have brought up you know I think at this table certainly in my questions that yall got as well as at the technology committee is my concern around the fact that we have tees starting in Kinder that have to do with keyboarding and our kids don't have keyboards and so to know that Highland par for instance is successfully integrating you know technology through Chromebooks with their starting at kindergarteners to me that's compelling and something that we should you know consider the other thing that

142I will say about Highland Park and I mean Dana to your point I am I'm not suggesting this and we talked about this at technology committee I think it's good for everybody on this table to know they have set time parameters per day prek is 0 to 5 minutes a day supp them talk that through last year so that's like it feels like we're well I guess that was before time my question to you was going to be you know this is this is an acquisition we are trying to purchase the devices would you feel satisfied if we allow that to to occur but then we work as a team to go back what we did last year and set those parameters and guidelines with the help of our teachers and and Par back to

143we're about to set up the time to walk through our Target Aries for you as a board tell us what your expectations of us moving forward technology um guidelines are one of those Five Focus areas keyboarding learn to me fits very nicely in there I was really impressed with the Highland Park document I had a lot of questions for um Brian about that I was reassured that Chromebooks are available to kindergarteners through second graders it's not that we don't expose them to can I add on the on the keyboarding bit when when these particular devices went out into classrooms uh um this is well before I got here right we had um certain teachers that received those those engaged learning teachers and each of those carts that went out had I think five keyboards included

144with them so uh once once uh um carts went into every classroom um keyboards weren't necessarily put on but there are uh keyboards built for for iPad that's not included in in this whatsoever and I think agree with D saying and what you're saying about keyboarding I think it's it's important I just think that is a separate topic than uh the procurement here no that's fine I mean I think the other thing about Chromebooks that I will say and you know perhaps this is anecdotal but yeah I mean I mentioned to Dana the other day I mean technology I mean not only obviously I personally am passionate about this but it is the number one thing that I get called as a board member about from community members from parents and so you know I

145feel like in order to be responsive to you know my constituents if you will like it's incumbent upon me to bring this up and what I hear over and over again about iPads and and I personally agree with this as well they just I mean they're like a big phone in terms of the gaminess and the Poppin up stuff and the apps and the you know and I mean I think we all around this table have you know seen and heard all the research out there on you know teens and phones and how bad they are and anxiety and all of these things and I just feel like if we are if we have these little bitty kids starting at four years old with a device that is theirs in the classroom that is an

146iPad I mean to me I you know I don't love that and I think that I think that a Chromebook feels a lot more like a technology tool than a you know kind of game device I mean so yeah and I mean I'll I'll just kind of offer up I think it's fair to kind of get everyone's perspective on on this and I I fully appreciate we're we're buying a tool here and I think it's a really worthy thing to bring to the four Lauren because it's you don't want to compromise the culture but I I am concerned about the second you put an easy tool in anyone's hand it is RI for being abused and so I'm I'm concerned about that I'm not saying we shouldn't give that autonomy to our teachers in this

147particular decision but I do want to bring up what's on that tool and how frequently we use that tool and I know you're alluding to us getting into that conversation here in the very near future I think we what's on the tool has already been taken care of like that's been scaled down as far as the apps but but how much time is on that is has that been controlled recently last year we talked about last year a lot because we had a lot of they're anecdotally a lot of issues and a lot of constituents that have voiced concern about access to things through the devices the kids are creative they're talented they figure things out and it's always it's going to be a whack-a-mole battle always right and so I think that's my much

148much more High concern is duration of time on the tool and what is is available to the students on the tool um and I I recognize that's not a conversation that we need to to have today but I do understand Lauren's point about this if you put one toone in their hands you're you're communicating out that there's a certain level of acceptance of use of that tool frequency of use of that tool um that I think is maybe a little inconsistent with the committee's uh ideals and so and I even that like I think you made the great great Point Jimmy and so did uh Ron about tweaking our questions on our and I think the feedback question I mean even how we ask the question I think communicates something that's not great and and

149I I say that as you know on on the particular question that that Lauren was alluded to how would you describe your use of technology and this is to the students and um and paper pencil not technology to complete your class work the tranches we give them as answers I use technology I use more technology I use half technology like I I think we need to be like I I don't think half should be the middle there I think I think I think half should be like the far extreme like I use half or more of my time on technology that like we should be like I use 10% 20% or more like I I I really think we need you can use technology as a tool I think it's an incredible asset especially in

150our Fine Arts and creative classes and those type of things and and it gives us the ability to pull data like this that's incredible for us to be able to to absorb it's more than we can even absorb um and that that's a great tool but I I do think how we communicate out Expectations by those questions and how we put that out there I think is something we need to probably really sink our teeth in to going forward and so I think this is a good opportunity to to bring that to the floor whether we elect to to buy the one: one Ratio or not it's replacing what we already have so we already have them but this yeah but that's communicating I mean that's also right no I we've been doing and I

151I don't agree with that so I mean not that I want to approve the purchase I just I think we've some bad habits have been formed a lot of them due to co I agree um that we need to kind of counteract and that's a hard hard genie to get back in the I but not impossible this is yeah that's not something I don't feel like but I guess this is I mean this is the opportunity to put the genie back in the bottle I mean and not go five or six more years and and I am I'm I am very I understand that we can have more policy discussion but I mean you know I just I think if there is reticence which I understand and and I myself have on behalf of the

152teachers to put more stringent sort of time parameters on then I mean I'm sorry but I think having the iPad sitting right there one for each kid invites more time on them you know as opposed to I mean even if we had not shared carts with a cart down the hall but you know half the number of devices is kids in the Kinder classroom that are in the class I mean I don't know you know I don't know if there's a creative way to sort of get around that but again the idea that four five six yearolds have a dedicated device in the classroom at all times I I don't I just I don't like that you know and I don't like committing to that for the next you know six years and and I

153do feel like I would feel differently about even if it was a dedicated device if it was a Chromebook because I just I do feel like that feels more like a tool less like a phone or a game and and I also you know and I realize we can address the keyboarding separately but it has that sort of added benefit of you know having that as well and I think that that is a huge life skill that everybody needs and to start you know in sixth grade is just you know lost opportunity let me jump in real quick so first of all just from a technological standpoint iPads have keyboard and just turn sideways and the keyboard pops up so like the technolog is there if that's something the teaks require and we're not doing

154we can do it um but it just sounds like there's a lot of conversation back and forth we have a recommendation from our staff that we all keep saying is so great and so talented but we just really are questioning this issue um and I want to take the brmh out of the air it's like this is the Board of Trustees of the Alam Heights Independent School District if we want to get together and ban bikes tomorrow we can so like even if we bought them we could ban them tomorrow and that's a bad use of funds I agree but I want to take the brinksmanship out so I'm wondering if we can just slow this down a little bit and figure out a path forward we're not going to figure out a path forward

155tonight so the um the outline you know of complicating factors that if we stall this has been provided to you um that's a decision that you guys have to make so I would ask that you kind of weigh those um you have a director of Technology who's kind of outlined what that means in his world and in the world of our teachers and um we can definitely you know do that here's the deal y'all our teachers will make whatever you all decide work they do absolutely you've heard from them what they would like um and what they feel like is is the appropriate tool for best practice instruction in the classroom and so I totally agree with the conversation around the table about the work that's left to do we've set some pretty ambitious goals

156in the past two years to kind of chip away this in a way that makes sense um for us as a community um you know to me it's you know can we move forward with a recommendation or um you know can we not and that's just something you guys are have to talk about well I'd like to move forward in consensus and I don't think we have that and I don't think we're going to get it tonight so that's essentially just not moving that's we're going to have to should we have some uh early meetings we're going to start 7 a.m. meetings times week we're back bring the breakfast doers okay look I I I do not want to be the one road block so I guess what I would request if possible can we

157just hold off one week can everybody here look at the Highland Park framework that you know Dana is going to send out to us can we have Clay around the table too and then I mean if if if the consensus of the group is to move forward on this I mean I will fall in line but I I would I would like just a little more thought and consideration you know Ryan's just hearing all of this for the first time tonight you know just that would be I'm not all it for the first time and we've followed a process for the last year we've had parent involvement so that's not I just my concern saying um as it feel like we ran a process to get to the recommendation I'm very process driven and the

158fact that the process doesn't agree with your subjective belief is where we're at and I'm not I didn't mean that rudely but I feel like that's it and so often we follow a process and it may not be what each of us agree but it's the trust we have in them um and I'm just saying that's that's where I'm at of you I believe we should go for it I believe you have valid concerns we continue to address those and the continuous Improvement that we do every single day um I don't see the inconsistency in a iPad or a Chromebook and maybe that again it's just me but the gamesy of One Versus the other they're tools for kids I don't um and I guess I would ask you know if y'all have constituents talking

159to y'all about these concerns and I hope those have been redirected to the administration so that those discussions can occur um just say that I like to add I have high hopes for our technology reflection tool which hasn't been shared with the board yet because we're still we got kind of a almost final draft that got sent out today it will be presented to um our principes and directors tomorrow um to talk through it and get some feedback on on that from that from them but I think a lot of what we worked on this year in our technology committee um addresses some of those concerns that trying to get that Genie back in the bottle so to speak uh so this tool it's um it's set up in a matrix form and it's really

160meant it's it's check a lot of boxes it's checking making sure teachers are intentional when they're planning their lessons with technology making sure that they're uh reflecting on lessons after they've run a lesson using technology there's PLC uh uh discussion questions uh kind of built into it as well as an administrator piece that um speaks to administrators of hey you know what should we be looking for uh when we're doing our walkthroughs in classroom you know what does um for instance you know balance technology look like in the classroom uh and and then rubric cell you know this is an exemplary lesson this is you know you know it's developing it's a I think it's called core but um I have High Hopes in that in moving the needle on a lot of these concerns

161um I'm just going to leave at that yeah and I would ask if the Highland Park data is sent out also the data regarding the four other districts that were discussed I think should be sent out as well I'd like to going to be in New Orleans can I read it and I get back yeah no I agree and and again I mean I've been on that technology committee since day one and so I I I apologize I know we looked at other districts you know I I do not remember seeing the and and it could be because Highland Park again has has made an intentional shift to Chromebooks so it could be that that has happened in the last 3 years since we started the technology committee and looked at that but I do

162not remember seeing all of that um I don't you know I don't remember seeing the specific time limits that they had so um you know I'll just I'll just say that so the question that I have is how can we as a board run a process where we get an outcome that we can say hey we built the process proc we trusted the process I don't know if I'm thrilled about the outcome personally but it's the outcome of the process generated because if if we're going to do this again like I want to be able to say go on the result even if David horber is not personally thrilled but David horber agreed that that was the process we're going to go with so that's when I'm struggling like had aerus because like I don't

163I don't want to try to like spend a lot of Staff time and parent time and and trust trustee time and then we're in a really diligent process and then come out to a place where it's like well I don't know if I like that or not um because I really just don't want to make decisions my board Fiat like that just no I I appreciate that I mean I will say again if we look at you know the recommendation about the shared card or if you you know if you want to say it you know less than one toone device I mean that's what I see the shared card as and that no kid you know individually alone on a device I mean I I just I don't think that the technology committee made

164a recommendation to do away with with those two or to you know to say that that we're that we're not going to pay attention to those or or we've decided that that you know that that we're not going to utilize those two um those two things and so you know as a board if we can I I am all for determining some way some groups you know to to make these decisions and again and I'm I mean I am not trying to say that I don't trust our teachers but but if it is just teachers making a decision about that you know I just I don't think that that's a process that involves our community when we're so I do just want to go back on that because it's been a threeyear commitment to this

165to this committee um we decided after year one that it was really important to have board involvement on that committee and so Carrie stepped up and was part of that again and so my frustration and we've run into this you know from time to time as a as a group as a team of eight is that we do run processes and you know we spend a lot of time staff-wise a lot of effort by these folks um ensuring that we we collecting multiple stakeholder voices and we come up you know with recommendations and then that it just doesn't feel good Lauren I just have to put that out there because um I feel like we've done what was asked of us as far as withing that process involving a board member and Carrie I mean

166I would turn it to you to kind of talk about what you felt like that process was I mean I probably wasn't the very best board member in the technology I mean I was on it for last year and the year before I think um I don't remember ever hearing and I I mean I I understand where Lauren's coming from I really I do I do feel that we're talking in my opinion about two different things purchasing and then also developing protocols for the classroom and I think that piece is extremely important and I and I believe in that wholeheartedly and I believe that the techn ol committee felt the same way I never heard anybody and don't don't I I never heard anybody in that technology committee say well we can't buy devices and

167that's where I'm having a hard time I I would love to read all the data that you've collected I'm dying to see what Highland Park has done but is there a way for us to fulfill this commitment and still put in the parameters with our Educators to do what we feel is best for kids that's kind of where I am and I felt I I don't I don't like conversation either so I don't really I don't really like this kind of conversation but I I do think it's important that we listen to our teachers that we do listen to our community members but nowhere has have I ever been told well we can't buy iPads could we buy the iPads and put them in the in the cabinets and use them like James robis did

168and bring them out with the you know the 3D printers and be able to De you know develop these awesome robots that are doing cool things that's educational to me and I want to make sure that our kids are allowed the opportunity to do those assignments if we need them to be doing those assignments that's where I am that's kind of how I feel um but I also don't want to step on your toes because I appreciate your research and I do want to read that so that being said I mean can we can we pause for one week and do especially called meeting or make sure it's at 7 in everybody I mean again I I would I would love for clay to be a part of the conversation um and and you know

169I would like yall to you know see what it is um and again I'm not trying to say don't buy any devices you know I mean the question is how many devices and which devices iPad versus Chromebook so I'm all for James roess and I mean that's incredible and I I want our classrooms and our teachers to be able to do that but remind me what I I read it remind me the difference between a Chromebook price and a iPad price it was significant no it's very close $20,000 no no a Chromebook is got it right here yeah all in we we buy an iPad with an iPad case $35.95 Okay correct uh Chromebook we have to buy the Chromebook and a um a license an education license for that and that's 388 so $20

170the same I will say the quote we have on the Chromebooks right now is only good through March after that um with that April 2nd you know I who know what what they're doing did you mean CH Chromebook or iPad I'm sorry iPad thanks yeah okay so what's the special called Le well yeah I don't I think that's just going to raising more questions than answers so I'm trying to think on my feet here and figure out okay let me try to let me try to help is the issue I mean Lauren do you feel compelled to have um a processed conversation about moving 3K through 2 to Chromebooks before any procurement I wondered about that today that's good that's if not I would propose that we allow Brian to move forward we can cut

171this recommendation in half tonight just so that it doesn't hold up the start of school next year and new devices because we're really experiencing frustration um it kind of cuts this in half I fully anticipate that by the end of this spring we will have fleshed out those expectations um about you know around the rubric um Jimmy and U Brian will will plan their you know their roll out with with back to school as far as expectations and so feel like by the time those devices are in the classrooms that that recast of expectations will have taken place um but it feels stifling to kind of not put some tools you know that that our folks are asking for so I'm wondering if I'm slitting hairs here just saying like can we move forward with

172some iPads um or is it that you're saying absolutely I and I I really truly appreciate that thank you for you know and I mean yes I now I I'm going to just say right now I want us to have more conversation before we get to the next you know third through fifth grade and whether or not to move from iPads to Chromebooks on that so I would love yes I would love more we talked about that a long time before we have to approve it but you know yeah if we could do half the number so it's not one to one devices on the iPads knowing that we're going to continue the policy discussions and you know figure out keyboarding and all of that does that change your quote at all um if I

173only bought 500 um it changes not materially these thousand iPads are not receiving any security updates at all right now yeah um so are you asking that I put 500 iPads that I just don't replace 500 iPads and those remaining in the classroom without security updates are you asking that I'm going prek through two and saying we're taking half of your devices away and we're putting a cart in every other classroom okay let me TR this question so if we go forward with with the requested order right the provisioning because I know it's a lot of work for yall to do all the provisioning and to do it all at once helps ease your operations like we'll have a l a lot of meetings before school starts and I know there's curriculum planning in the

174summertime and this definitely impacts curriculum planning but is there a way that we can have a discussion and a decision on the amount of those iPads to make available to PRK through2 oh absolutely I mean that that cuz the district will find use across all the other campuses for the remaining iads if we provision less at that level there'll be iPad SS probably next summer the update okay but what where are we talking about we buy a th and then decide not to do one to one I mean I don't we use iPads across the district right and so what I'm trying to them around if we don't end up using them yeah so so we're kind of in this tough spot we're not we're not replacing every teacher has an iPad in our discri

175that teacher refresh I'm not replacing any iPads for teachers right um I mean if if we had 400 extra iPads I mean we could issue one to to teachers as well and replace the iPad that they have um currently um so we could use them in other places sure um I'm trying to find a flexible path forward yeah because I recognize that there's a recommendation and how to proceed but we have tension around that recommendation and so I'm trying to keep certain things on track to give us flexibility to think in process I just throw a consideration is there are genuinely times where we do need a class set we do I uh like map testing three times a year and it's easier when everyone has a device because the teacher reads the question and

176guides the kids through uh part of the assessment a wondering is what if there was a scenario where the in class iPads maybe there's 10 in a classroom the other ones are in an activity room or a library so when I need the entire class I keep my 10 and I check out the other 10 that I need is there any kind of scenario like that that might work because they genuinely are activities they do everyone needs it they're taking pictures they're writing on it that and we heard our our um K2 teachers talk through this like it's hard to be like this class gets to do and take pictures now this doesn't but that doesn't happen every day so maybe there's and that's where I'm struggling the most is just the compelling arguments that

177our teachers made last year daily accessity with understanding where you're coming from too my the thing that's really pulling up my heartstrings is we heard from the teacher themselves who said a cart makes it really really difficult for us and it it was last I mean when it last it was you were on the board so it was just recently based on the recommendations of the technology committee and the teachers were like whoa whoa whoa we really need the devices on the days that we need them to take go walk around the courtyard and take pictures of bugs or whatever they're doing it it it just doesn't I don't know it doesn't feel good to me Lauren I'm so I'm really I understand where you're coming from I I want to read what you've researched

178but holding off I'm just going to say holding off makes me feel really kind of puny okay but even holding off a week to read the information you know but are you hoping that that information I'm just trying to understand where you're coming from are you hoping that that information changes our mind to say okay let's order Chromebooks instead I I mean perhaps I I I don't I just because if the information tells me hey we need to put parameters in that our kids and prek to to are only need 10 minutes a day on it then I feel like we can accomp by the crazy iPads I hate technology anyway because you have to update it so often but but allow us as a team with you guys on it now to continue the

179process that we've been working on for a couple years to to in partnership with our Educators to make the right decision for technology use in the classroom like I don't I don't personally see it and maybe it's cuz I have older children now but like I don't see a problem with allowing Brian to do what has been recommended and then us solidifying what is important for our Educators and how they use technology in the classroom if we say hey 10 minutes a day your kids can be on the the device okay put them up in your storage Benin but that conversation has been very much met with universal we are not going to do that we are not going to do time limits I mean is that correct I mean well the board made a

180decision that that wasn't the it didn't feel good I I do so so I mean but if that's what if that is the concern of yours then I think we can get to a happy place in in terms of Pol not policy cuz that's it's not really it would be policy it's going to be board policy make okay so in terms of board policy I feel like we can get there to a happy medium where everybody's happy but I don't believe telling Brian that he can't buy iPad should be a policy that we make oh it's a budget budget decision and that policy discussion might be more proactive and productive yeah and and there there's some unintended consequences that I'm kind of picking up on like map testing I'm like o and think about that

181right and so it's like I'd love to have the resources so we could do it when we have to do it because we it's techn it's technology Bond we have the budget for it so we can do it um but again like we don't want over Reliance on on technology in the classroom so like how do we balance these two things I really don't want to slow down procurement because it's like a giant undertaking for his department and we have like a staff of hundreds oh4 that's got the iPad numbers and the staff number backwards yeah right so very much so I'm I'm I I don't want you to feel like if if if we do go ahead with the recommendation on the purchase that like the cat's out of the bag and there's nothing

182the board can do like the board can do an absolute whole heck of a lot that's what right how I feel um I just feel like there's going to be unintended consequences if we just by Fiat make a decision without understanding like oh this standard assessing we got to do now now we frustrated that whole thing unintentionally so like I I feel like we can do work over months to pull that from the ground up so we get something that everyone's going to feel good adopting as opposed to we just had different opinions up here and so we're just going to push it down last thing I'll say if I am the only voice at this table that wants to wait have yall look at the information have Clay be a part of it then

183obviously I mean I'm one person so I'm not I'm not going to win the day on this um and I'm and I'm not I'm not saying that I that I you know don't ever want to do this I just am saying this has this has been quick I mean a very quick turn around knowing you know that now we need to vote on this and again it is commitment for the next 5 to six years I think it's a big deal so you know now I mean the gene out of the bottle I mean now is the opportunity to be intentional and thoughtful before just voting to move forward but again if we go around this table and everybody else is go doing it then even if clay you know would would agree then that's

184obviously you know I would say the useful life of those iPads is five to six years I I I do I I think it that we have a lot of ability to we're selling the ones that are six years old for whatever Pennies on the dollar we're getting I I think there's opportunity to move forward with a purchase today in the quantities that staff is seeking but I would you you've alluded to it I don't do you mind just giving me a little bit more knowledge about between now in August what we're what we're up for what you're signing us up for over the next so that we can I really want do want to understand the policy side of how we could CU you alluded to not having the younger kids I think the

185the constituency that probably Lauren and I are hearing from is those those younger parents that have just voiced some real uh concern about the the utilization of the tools and and it's not something specific necessarily it's almost just kind of the it's in the it's in The Ether um of of the conversations and I think it's reflected kind of noisily in some of this data um and so um which isn't is not de on the questions I know I I don't know how you would have asked the question better I just it's hard to it's hard to glean um from that and so I I would maybe just Dana if you could just give me an idea of yeah so I don't have a plan you know I don't have it process completely mapped out

186what I'll tell you is some kind of marks across the way tomorrow morning I'd love to include the draft of that Matrix may be near Friday so tomorrow morning we have a principal director meeting and I have already asked uh Brian to be prepared to present at that meeting um just the expectations of that parameter and what really articulates um what appropriate use of technology looks like in the classroom it is not broken down by grade levels in about time and so that'll have to be you know another phase that it feels like everybody around this table kind of wants to have some input um despite the fact that we talked about that and that that is fine um and so from there you know Brian's going to continue to work with his committee about

187the conversation around the expectations we will go ahead and just put this we can put it on every long range you know meeting kind of moving forward to update you all and to have some continued conversation again um we've started our draft work on the target areas and I have I've already asked Brian to insert in there you know some work around keyboard you know that we need to take on and so I think this team you're going to get those target areas in kind of our draft on Friday and then you'll be able to kind of put your fingerprints all over that to see if if we're really hearing you know and if you're feeling like the actions what we call High L areas of focus will address where we need to be with

188the community and so that's going to be like the work throughout the spring the intent would be to have a plan to roll out for back to school um training for our staff I think also part of the summer work is also I think part of our Gap is doing a better job with communicating with Kinder one and two here are the exact apps that your child's using them here's why there's using them here's when we use them I think we can up our game there as well because I think some of this is just misconceptions you saw 50% of parents don't know so they hear chatter and assume that's what's going on we need to do better job of representing that we are using an iPad but we're out in the courtyard taking pictures

189of bugs and trees we're not and so I think we need to do a better job there as well and I would add that into our summer work a communication plan in addition to clear expectations and training for teachers do you remind me and I I'm embarrassed that I don't remember this um because I've had three do it semi- recently but on the onet to one at at Howard specifically do they actually get is sh an iPad or is it just the ratio is one to one i a Rao and prek we went through this discussion with our prek teachers two years ago and we've actually reduced that number down to I think it's I think a classroom has an average of eight so their class issued with that quantity but it's not that they

190don't have their own pen kindergarten is um their carts are built for the number in the classroom and then we put like two extras in there I mean kids break off and stuff or step on the screens all the time just so that and then starting in first grade they actually get their issued no saying they they have a cart so they're they're never out unless teachers say they are out going to say I had to buy my kids I would I just want to add in really all cross k32 is that way the term we use H and I we don't use it as much anymore but when we first did all this Co when they had their issu okay sorry just sorry before and returning after co uh the when we first got

191into this the term we used was teachers would have enough to do one to one when they needed it we intentionally never wanted to use the term one: one because we weren't doing it that way when districts were using the term one1 they were literally given it to you and you take it home we never did that it was always like when you needed it so that's kind of we quit using that over time like I said that's Prett through 12 yeah no thank you that's here we yeah I'm struggling with a path forward guys um I mean my personal opinion is I because I I share all the concerns around the table um I would I would love to make the purchase to make it easy for our department and our staff to handle

192certain things but I love the work to be done on discussion about how it's all used and communication about how it's all used um to happen well that's on me Y and and that is your expectation of me right and so so what I'm trying to communicate is I'd like to make the purchase purchase on the trust that you are going to follow through with what you say you're going to do I'm not let you down the I would agree with that P for what you every I I trust uh the administration and the teacher so I would his [Music] recommendation Lauren I don't think making a purchase brushes off your concerns I think it actually brings them to the full where it's like we have hypers scrutiny on what's going to happen so I

193almost feel like if it went one to one it would just be swept under the r a little bit um but I feel like this is going to be highly scrutinized by us I I'm going to be a team player so but I you know and I know Dana we already talked about this I mean I I I I do want a lot of discussion before third through fifth grade decision so I I don't want to do that a month or a weekely you know um I think it's already in the pipeline to kind of maybe switch over the chome books anyway so I think you won't I think you'll and then I guess also just and again I'm not Ryan you do an excellent job don't don't hear me say anything else but um

194but so you know well two things that belief document I do think we need to and I take responsibility for this as part of the committee too be continually looking at adding to it you know not just this is what we you know came up with a year and a half ago or whatever um and then number two I would challenge us as a board to create some more framework and process around how those considerations are decided on so updated so you know if this body decides that it is just asking the teachers you know fine but I mean I I think we need that discussion you know is it is it more than just that so I think that's part and parcel with what you're proposing you're going to be doing for us too

195well I think it's what we've been doing you know I feel like our target areas already have a bullet point that says that we annually review the beliefs um and I feel like we've heard from the board the last three years that we wanted a comprehensive process that involves multiple voices teacher voices are one sometimes I will say uh that ways differently in a conversation you know and that's just kind of a natural progression um but I feel like what you're asking is kind of what we have had in place and so I'd ask for you to continue to push if if there's a misst up you know in kind yeah no I agree I mean the only again the only thing is it's like we have this technology committee that includes parents that looks

196at research that does all of this and then we come to this consideration you know shared cards and then it's we ask the teachers they decided we're not going to go that route so we're not you know what I'm saying like that's the difference that I'm talking about and and again maybe and and I don't I don't want to call out teachers because they are the ones that are in the classroom that know but I guess I just want the want us as a board to come up with sort of what is our you know protocol when when the technology committee that has different stakeholders is you know saying this should be a consideration well then how are we like deciding whether or not we're going to take that consideration or not and so do

197you feel like I mean we' tried to address that by having a trustee part of that committee do you feel like that does not address it like that's the representative of the board on that committee to come back and to be well that was the idea of how to address yeah I mean I you know I guess I mean I am the trustee now and so I mean again that I guess that's sort of part of why like I'm bringing this up tonight because you know the shared cards we hear well the teachers universally don't want them you know so then it's like okay well so I mean so then that is the the recommendation from the technology committee you know I don't know um but look I'm I don't want to hold us up

198anymore I I understand totally I think it's this is Germaine to what we're going to continue to discuss with our Target CES um and I think we going do a good job discussing that so I wonder if we could have a vote to approve this but subject to the work except what we're going from exence as part of our Target targets for the district does that feel like a path forward I think it would be subject to it anyway without having to say it's subject to it I everything is subject to continuous Improvement and better policies and I just want to specific specifically acknowledge the concerns being raised and say yes we're going to address that but I hear your point that's time what do you think is that that forward I'm trying to find

199some ground here to forward okay I can't wait to read the before yeah I look for to that okay well let me let me ask for a motion on item 5f on the consideration of the iPad refresh p prek in special programs do I have a motion to approve so moved go out a second nobody wants be a second I'll second it thank you all in favor please say I any oos the motion carries thank you all for that discussion thank you Brian for your assistance Brian you're one of a kind you Jimmy appreciate you I really do well do you though what you're doing I understand guys can I make M me of our committee Reports say what can I just like chop up our committee reports and fly through them U cuz I

200mean committee you heard everything so I didn't want to address all that stuff School Foundation I was there today it's it's great the donations are up huge um I mean reunited Heights is going to be bang out a great experience budget committee other than all the depressing stuff which someone with ster presented today I don't know you're missing you know the one thing I do feel I feel like I should have spoken during that committee meeting so I'm going to just say the budget one yeah yeah um you know we we um very quickly went over the slides around the tier three cuts and I think it's just important to acknowledge um what that's going to do to our system of operations um there's some vulnerable populations that are going to be served differently and

201we will figure out a way to serve them um but I I don't want us to just gloss over um we've been we've looked at those tear cuts for months now we knew this was coming we've been trying tried to be honest throughout the whole process it's heartbreaking to be at a place tonight that that we're at the tier three and um and the challenge of what we're going to do you know to make sure that we that we're meeting the needs and we will but um everybody's going to have to work harder um everybody's going to have to take a different load um so I need to put that in the univ well I'll Echo that a lot of constituent stuff I get is about dyslexia U and absolutely it's going to impact how

202Ser of Dyslexia kids because we spend more money than we're getting mother SCH um and so the cuts are going to impact that for sure and people just didn't know that and so we've spoken at one group already that spawned two more groups that we're going to do I think next week and the week after um so the more often we just spread the word to everybody like we need to help okay thanks yeah that yeah so I'm going to kick it to you for a counter okay I will note in the February report people understand budget a lot better to do is talk about it yeah well I me you know I've been defense that like I've been talking very to right people paying attention Excel graduation y'all next Thursday and that is going

203to happen for sure for sure so um put that I I say that out loud I feel like we got kids on track right okay good um Friday we have Spring Fest and then we have our building committee um on April 2nd that will be a big meeting because as I was listening to what Mike was talking about tonight we're going to have U GMP for uh kingridge for Woodridge it looks like we'll have the naming of the um general contractor for project 3 is it something we can all go to or just this three decided we're going Post Yeah RFP Bas will be there and so that that will be an 11:30 to 1:00 meeting and it will be full andr that needs to be posted I promise I won't ask any questions I'll

204sit quietly I just want to hear good I don't believe that is on April I did last time I could quiet F Culture Night Festival learning I'll put that on your calendar April 7th there's a change in location we'll be at the Junior School this year Brian does a great job really um making sure that that's a successful event with our instructional coaches in leadership as well I almost asked why is it at the J school come on GMP um will be April 9th from 11: to1 David you'll do the school Foundation meeting on April 16th and then that takes us during next board until okay so very quick updates we' got wait sorry we go back just sorry I have one more to add got it thanks are we good yep I don't know

205I am okay moving in just to my update some um quick celebrations Julian's put some pictures up here we had 11 teams that qualified for Odyssey the mind um state tournament later this month which is exciting news you've got the little notice there for our Festival of learning culture night and then the next slide highlights our boys basketball state semi-finalist it was fun to see many of you at those games um super proud of that team they will be at our next meeting and we have their medals and their trophy to Showcase as well um the next slide just um kind of highlights the communication that we're we're trying to to do around advocacy and so um our cabinet team has been working um to provide Julian with some text around these legislative Lowdown that

206we send out every Monday um I've asked PTO presidents to also kind of circulate them on their feeds as well and I feel like we're getting some good um reaction to these and we're trying to just simplify obviously complex issues in these little Snippets and then the last slide just highlight something that happened today one of our me time media um students Elena went with her teacher with Mr boand Mr and Dr Guthrie um to the capital she originally scheduled a follow-up interview with um representative lahood I I had her picture when she was at the school choice rally and she got to uh visit with him requested a follow-up interview she got to interview representative the hood today representative woo representative Bryant and representative Goodwin and so great experience for her and she's going

207to put out a neat piece that we will feature and push out is that her mom it was her mom in one of the pictures yeah okay and the dog went buzz buzz goes everywhere fantastic that's what I have that's cool and just a reminder guys to encourage people to email the folks because those are going into a written record um and so I've made calls but now I'm going to start emailing because I hav't really so I'm going to hmer um okay well then that uh concludes item number nine so now if there's no objection we'll go to Executive session per government code textas government code section 55101 it's 46 we'll take a 5minute break and then reconvene you too you too guys thank you all for being