001HS will be goner we'll see we'll see yeah I'm not I'm not not 100% but I thought said of looking like an under Brian CIA dri guy Secret Service Secret Service Dana's bodyguard a thank you that's so sweet thank you so I love we give these back right I think we do it's a book that's been dedicated books every we give the books back take it read it if you like I may read it during our meeting kidding I'm totally kidding I'm totally kidding totally K I cannot multitask happy birthday happy birthday that's awesome yes yay so sweet video my child hi hi I'm at my board meeting oh my gosh never tried that the other one is what I used to get the seasoned chicken yeah you would like maybe I like theoc shopping
002I'm okay well I to get off my phone we're about to start our meeting starting I don't know turn off when he facetimes me in the grocery store I will answer yeah yeah to took a picture My3 she my cry so emotional I love so emotional sweet what Theos that's the sweetest thing just to thank you that's so sweet makes me teary Le making the playground so thank you all for the sounds we literally by law can't start until the time that we post so like I had to wait till it said 6 o' U but anyway thank you all for coming tonight uh before we get into it I just want to note uh Dr Guth recent tour around the Sun thank you very much and happy birthday glad you're here okay it's 6:00
003p.m. on Wednesday January 15th 2025 this is duly follow the posted regular meeting of the AL Board of Trustees thanks everybody for coming and I'd like to welcome anyone listening on our live streaming broadcast if anyone would like a recording of the meeting we'll post a link on the website 24 hours after the end of this meeting we also post all the materials and you can review everything under the Schoolboard icon on the HIC website if anyone in the audience like to address the board tonight we welcome your input during citizens to be heard item on the agenda um we asked that you fill out the Y form by the door but I don't think anybody signed them and so I'm going to move to section two delegations and recognitions Dr Frank aloro s away
004thank you Mr hornberger our first recognition is uh something that makes Mr horber feel uncomfortable as well as the other board members around the table and this is our recognition of them this is of course uh national board School Board recognition month and so yeah last I don't have a few words to say but you'll notice the various gifts those are from campuses and from kids uh the students put together these um uh posters to tell you how much I think that's from Howard maybe right to tell you how much they appreciate you all uh there's all science down here as well uh and I know we've been recognizing them all throughout the month Julian's been po of great things now uh this board is truly a group of Trustees it's an important word it
005means that community members uh have placed their trust in them to help lead the district now they're volunteers these are volunteer community members they're actually your neighbors right they're more than just community members their neighbors and they give of their time and there's lots of it they give lots of time uh and lots of their talents for all of our children and they love all of our children and they love all of our staff now they're intelligent practical they use common sense approaches to very complex and challenging items they ask the tough questions to keep us on our toes as they should to ensure that District administrators do our job uh by children and by our employees they focus on high levels of academic achievement to keep our tradition of Excellence alive and well uh
006both for our children uh academically but also uh as embodied in a profile of a learner because we know it takes a lot more than academics they're super important but you need a lot more to thrive in this world uh I say this very honestly from the heart cuz I will spend lots of time with them these are selfless people they serve with no ego or Personal Agenda and they focus on the best interest of our students so can you join me in appreciating this schoolb I love there so I always um like to take a moment of personal privilege um as we address the entire board to actually uh share a words of appreciation to our board president and what you all might not know is that this is David's third term sitting in
007this really important seat and um circumstances and situation have arised that have offered David the opportunity and I am incredibly appreciative of your willingness to sit in that seat and serve the way you do and the rest of us are as well I appreciate all of you and I appreciate your big heart for this district and the important work that we do so thank you and thank you all right our next recognition uh go I'm going to call him up and I'm explain what it is goes to a Cambridge Elementary teacher Jose Wes come on up so Christine is going to queue up the video while I've given the intro she's not going to started yet uh but uh periodically we um we create a video that profiles a teacher who exemplifies our profile of
008a learner now as I just mentioned earlier it's really the profile of learn is really important for us as addition because it articulates our thoughts the the the attributes habits of mind and behaviors that we're trying to instill into our students from the time they start with Howard the time they walk that stage at the high school and um we like to shine the spotlight or sh follow videos uh do profiles of teachers who exemplify certain parts of the profile so in the video you're going to watch you're going to notice there's an overwhelming uh overarching domain which is to engage socially and globally and you'll see little um Banners at the bottom that kind of explain parts of what that domain is so let's uh join me as we watch this video highlighting Jose
009gues okay and I power the profile by engaging socially and [Music] globally for me that term just kind of of going Beyond like academics like just and U building relationships with students um getting to know them and also helping them to like realize their potential like beyond the classroom Beyond like this setting like this is a very small microcosm of like small very small part of their life but like where do we where do we grow there you go that's a little bit of a black flutter I think said siment sediment right these little pieces of broken of rock these are all Sim it was it was an incredible thing because I feel like if you just give them the space to share those kinds of things like they do the rest they they do
010the rest just give them the ability to share and create that and itpr that means everything to me I mean that's what I do what I do I think that's where the more my true challenge is is um aside from just um teaching the curriculum and you getting grades and things like that it's more about I said before like those relationships that build with them trying to connect with them and then also trying to get them to understand you know the global aspect of everything it's a lot more fun whenever it's really fun we have this like thing that's called like um like laugh where like you do all these like fun experiments and there's like different one he also like um pushes us to our limits but also makes it fun at the same
011time you know we always talk about a character is what happens when nobody else is looking and so when I see those moments happen with the students where they're not seeking any recognition or anything they just doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do that's huge my heart y m wi do you have anybody here uh in particular supporting you tonight uh yeah my team and my wife and uh it's just an honor to be up here and uh thank you so much congratulations yeah back that video is posted to Cur C ly on our YouTube channel so I think some people were looking at it already which is fine uh I want to encourage everybody to share that out with your family sharing it out and spread the good word congratulations
012thank you our next recognition is for two High School teachers Rebecca marshburn and Dr Leslie goo come on down as as they're making their way down I'll explain a little bit uh Alamo Heights launched its first national board certification cohort of teachers in 2019 in partnership with the Education Service Center and the Texas national board Coalition for teaching now the national board certification offers certifications in 25 certificate areas and each of these areas requires a whole lot of work and a very high level of skill and entertainment uh there are of the four different components three of them relate to student and teacher evidence things that they do in the classroom work samples lesson plans feedback forms recorded videos of them teaching live and then uh the last part is a computer uh the fourth
013part is a computer-based assessment regarding uh uh current content knowledge and pedagogical practices in their field now this is a very prestigious uh recognition it's not easy to get and it's not common and so uh we are celebrating here uh Rebecca who teaches Spanish and uh uh lesie who teaches English I'm going to let you say anything and let us know who's here supporting you as well you go first and you go I brought my daughter with me c my daugh I brought my three daughters Fallon who is an 11th grader at the high school my daughter Meridian who's an eighth grader at the junior school and y'all heard Coraline on my sixth grader anything to share about this uh award there it's a recognition really cuz you worked really hard for it anything to
014tell the group it may me encourage other teachers out there who are interested um well what I can say is that this was extremely rewarding to to get this uh certification but also to work with the students because it's not just something that we received they helped us achieve this so it was their work as well it was their work and they're our our subject they're our evidence and so it's great to have a project that big able to show them that we also like use the writing process and revise and edit in the same way that we're teaching them to so and I just want to thank you um Dr bashara for your encouragement your little notes to say good luck and that you're thinking of us Mr stanage sister stanage thank you for
015your support and of course um all of our admin at the high school um and my department chair Mr Keenan who's also in the national board process and Miss Alvarez um our instructional coach who's like my brainstorming partner to come up with better strategies to help our students so it is a team effort between the students and the admin and the teachers and it's a very worthwhile process um to just reflect and even take a moment to appreciate all the the stuff that we do on a regular basis that is part of the profile of a learner but it's very special in unique T Mo Heights and to our teaching that should be celebrated and we maybe sometimes take for granted but it's very special well all right thank [Music] you wow well this really
016is um a special board meeting we get to recognize great teachers and our next recognition goes to that and so I want to call up our 2025 campus teachers of the Year line up as I think you might have been instructed to do come on we'll figure it out come on junan is going to line them up in the appropriate order I will follow my script and do that order and principles have been briefed and should be ready to do what they're supposed to do now I would also note that we're going to we're going on Facebook live at some point are we on now okay so we're going to do Facebook live for the announcement of the district teacher of the year uh but I'm going to start with a campus um and I
017need to point out that uh every year each campus uh selects their teacher of the year so on the first level this is a really special award because you're chosen by your peers and we all know the animal Heights we have great teachers and to be chosen from your peer teachers to be teacher of the year on your campus is a really special honor uh and then once we do that then we have a committee that means I'll talk more about that later I think not I'm getting off screen all right our Al teachers of the year are I'm going to say their name and I'm going to say some things about them so give me some time to talk and you can clap after that so from the high school it's Braden Kan history
018teacher uh he teaches world history in US history Bron comes from a family of Educators and I think maybe some of them might be here including his mother who's a high school principal his grandfather who is a principal and longtime member of the school board now uh Braden's principal uh Miss Smith says that as a third generation educator Braden has embraced his calling with energy and devotion making an indelible Mark in the lives of the students and colleagues as his proud principal I can honestly say he's among the best and the brightest features I have known in my 27 years in public education this recognition is a testament to the profound impact he has had on our community congratulations GRE next from the junior school math sixth grade math teacher Kim Brady now Kim is
019a sixth grade math teacher she also serves as a student council in the sixth grade girls service Club advisor and as uh as the team lead for sixth grade she uh she was with Heights years ago left and came back and we're super happy to have her back her principal Dr Guthrie says that what sets Miss Brady apart is her ability to create a classroom environment where students feel valued and supported her classro is a space where students strive both academically and personally Miss Brady empowers students to recognize the potential fostering confidence purpose and a sense of belonging Beyond her work with students she also mentors fellow teachers sharing her expertise and setting a high standard for leadership and collaboration on our campus congratulations cim next from Cambridge we have Barry adame lre Barry's a
020third grade teacher in Cambridge and he joined us in November of 2022 but he has 25 years of educational experience as a teacher a principal and an instructional coach coach in Texas Florida and his native Scotland his principal Jan Hawkins says although Barry has been a member of Cambridge Elementary faculty for a relatively short time his impact has been nothing short of transformative his dedication professionalism and infectious enthusiasm make him an invaluable asset to our students and families and the whole Campus Community what sets bar part is his remarkable ability to connect with his students personally his students are motivated to succeed not only for their own growth but out of a sense of respect and admiration for him as their teacher congratulations Barry next I come to wridge Kim Holland second grade teacher at
021wridge I've been with the district for 10 years and been in education 19 overall uh we're also fortunate to have her two children in the district as well now Kim prioritizes building a classroom community and creating engaging lessons that tie into the curriculum standards and meet the needs of all learn her principal Sean Mr Rino says Kim exemplifies the qualities we celebrate in our Educators including our creativity compassion resilience and an unwavering belief in the potential of every child she's an inspiration to her students her colleagues and our entire School Community it's a privilege to have her as part of our Woodridge family congratulations from Howard Early Childhood Center J Miss f is a physical education teacher at Howard that's PE and everyone calls her coach she joined in August of 2023 and spent the
022seven previous seven years of her educational career as a PD teacher in a softball coach in different high schools in the San Antonio area her principal ion Muno says the coach fand has redefine physical education to Howard by establishing a program that prioritizes the well-being of the whole child she introduced physical education for prek through three kids emphasizing the importance of foundational motor skills and healthy habits from an early age her belief that it's never too early to start has fostered a culture of inclusivity mindfulness and selfcare through our throughout our campus coach F's positive energy has created an environment where students not only build physical skills but also develop resilience teamwork and self-esteem congratulations we are so proud of all of these teachers uh and I think we're ready to go live so let's
023give them one for Round of Applause I can go live all right welcome to everyone tuning in on Facebook live we're here at alamoo Heights ISD uh about to announce the district teacher of the year we had a committee of teachers and staff uh that uh worked last week Monday Monday Monday this week um to go over all of these very impressive packets from these very impressive teachers and this year I am here to announce that our 2025 Alamo Heights ISD teacher of the year is from Alamo Heights High School I mean that is so awesome BR fruit bouquet yeah that's yeah he's got his hands full so grab something from that I want to give him a chance to say ready like so yeah we hold that yes y'all humble absolutely humble to be
024here and just reminded I work with so many incredible incredible Educators the people who are up here the people in the crowd thank thank you thank you for all the work that you do so many people to thank I want to be brief but I am so appreciative for the people I work with we have incredible Administration in our campus great District administration thank you to you all I work with some incredible people in my department and see of them here tonight thank you for that thank you I want to thank my family of course my wife Hannah my parents who were here mentioned my mom is a lifelong educator herself my grandfather who has passed I was a principal himself and and his wife my grandmother and teacher too my extended family thank you
025thank you y'all alah Heights it's home this is a place that we love it's near and dear to our hearts and it's so neat to hear the theme this evening of how you know all of us do this because we care for the students it's hard work I don't want you to think that teaching is easy there's a lot of late nights a lot of stress a lot of sweat that goes in with it but we love what we do so we're really thankful for that thank you for this award so kind appreciate it congratulations thank you all so much we'll have plenty of time afterwards to take pictures uh hang stay in your seats so we're not done with recognitions yet um do a group photo we're going to do a group photo over
026here yeah hor and go ahead so as they're over there taking photos I do want to recognize our Cambridge teacher our district teacher vi from last year was here to pass the torch Mr Chris thanks for being here so much now uh uh Bren will go on to represent Alamo Heights in the various Regional U District Regional teach of uh competition as well as Trinity as Kevin knows very well there's a gauntlet of award season going on not the Oscars but pretty close all right all right thank you all for hanging out we got one more recognition I'd like to call up uh one of our favorites of the evening is this update from the Alabama Heights High School student council andelle tell us what's going on hi y'all so in student council we're hosting
027three things recently our blood drive will be on Tuesday and we're starting our preparation for our team safe thriving which will be hosted next year and what else uh oh our annual talent show which we taking place March 21st and audition we held the 20th and the 21st and that's basically all for student council yeah well thanks for being here you're welcome everybody thank you all for being here we're going to shift from the recognition portion to the business portion and I want to invite inv everyone to stay for the business portion if you like but if you're here just for the recognition it's a great time to exit the building thank you so much for being how long has Mr Kane been with our district uh 3 years he is so precious I've never
028Liv I mean he is so like amazing did you good that was so amazing oh kids coming in thank you all for being here we will be starting the rest of the board as soon as majority of the folks are outside so uh as you can start making your ways to the exits M had two give it a quick minute and then we're going to jump back into the no I just I'm at the okay having no s to be want to double check if I'm wrong correct all right diagosis as we heard we're moving on to agenda item number four uh it possible action this first one 4 a on pillar one student learning in progress we're going to have a presentation of an Alo high school student trip for JC to Anon Alabama
029later in February uh Mr Victor D is going to present first I would like to say you and your team did an outstanding job at the investure of the brand new business Court courthouse today so thank you for making the whole District proud once again the the kids were related and I I can told the honorable Stacy Sharp now that uh thank you for for asking cuz it on the way back I can't they just couldn't stop talking about the fact that you know said I've never seen so many judges in my life lot of blackes but once again that's you know what it's all about but thank you so much for that opportunity and if anybody ever wants a color card just ask me you know where they're I think there so PR Heights
030and you know and what the school represents District all right uh well uh first of all good evening Dr Bashar for Chris uh we have a great opportunity that occurred here in J TC uh we have a Young Man Logan Watson he's our tank command uh intelligent bright uh finally broke the code here you know we've been trying to do this for quite a while uh he'd be the first individual at Alamo Heights Jal TC or high school that will be competing at the national JTC Army service air rifal uh champ chionship uh and the way that works is that uh they call postal what happen we shoot them in our own range and then we s them in the gr them uh but they only choose uh we do it as a team the
031team consists of four individuals um unforunately you know we keep missing with with the team but we're getting closer and closer every year uh but uh Logan was selected only selected five individual qualifiers he was one of those five so uh great job so of course uh The Next Step going to uh Anon Alabama I've never been to Alabama so I guess you know I have the opportunity to go there uh and what's going to happen U uh the first thing when I look at here we already kind of this is a different environment and I know Logan is not been in in year they got 50 power points going at one time a big building uh you walk in and you'll see some some teams that uh that they're uh well this is all
032they do is their rifle and you think they got weapons you know from you know the future you know type thing there but uh we' worked with Logan as far as research you know it comes down to the bottom line I told them that the weapon that you have is just as good as you know any weapon is just shooting it so it's one pet what a178 mm coming out 600 ft per second out of the muzzle going 33 ft is it who shoots it is the bottom line you protect you on part so uh we just want to make sure that sometimes it's can be over you been in those competitions so but once again I see that as an opportunity not only for him for me for growth and that's you know part
033what we do uh especially in this live year that you know be at that level that he compete and you know he can probably do very very very well um our agenda consists basically of we're leaving here on the fifth flying into andison Regional Airport uh we will check in on the 6th which is uh Thursday uh he'll spend all day doing train uh three positions prone even standing there shooting you know of course pets and all that the good beauty of this is they give them opportunity to mingle among each other you know fires kind of learn from each other uh some people say well you you're not going to tell them my secret which it's not about that because it when whatever they they talk about you can't correct that that day that
034you know time so but it allows for growth for them to get better you know and then shareing information so I'm really looking forward to the opportunity myself with other coaches so the growth part is really important you know for me to kind of you know Logan to come back and also he can help the other members of our Rifle Team and that makes us hopefully that much better for the in the coming year um and then on third Friday and Saturday there'll be actual competition that we'll go through two days of competition and then we should know what the results are before we leave there on uh we be Saturday and we'll fly on Sunday come back to uh you know San Antonio uh but once again uh the beauty to is the government's
035paying for the majority of it so that that's great news there uh and also his mother Miss W will be joining us you know to see her son compete because she's also lated that you know once again at that level that you know nevero or somebody and they're doing that so uh it's great news and it's a great day for ELO Heights CH PC so that's awesome any any questions from Tres on the trip U we're incredibly excited to hear back from how we all do out there but just again and you said just getting there is incredibly impressive so please convey our congratulations to the young man but we're excited to hear how he does good cool well well you all right thank you very much thank you okay we're going to move on
036to item 4 A2 this a presentation of 2025 budget recommendations by superintendent Dr Dana deser just a quick reminder that after the state of Texas froze school funding in 2019 with the insane amount of inflation that we've had all schools are inine not just Al Heights and I will point out that West Lake which is en ISD but Westlake is closing an elementary school um which I think shocks a lot of people who know the Westlake Community and the amount of money that's there that can't afford to keep a school open so I think it's important that we all kind of dig in understand what we got to do um and do it together so Shar yes I'm going to invite um members of my team I'd like uh Dr walkner Dr alaro and also
037uh Mr strer just to join us at the table um my leadership cabinet team has been working really hard um on the information that I'm going to share with you this evening and said they'll be available for questions along the way and i' invite trustees to stop me as I'm rolling through slides and ask questions and at the end we'll have some opportunity for additional questions and also some discussion you all know that um I've spent um a lot of time in communication on our campuses in our community um talking about um the buildup to the 8 legislative session and about the request that leaders all across the state were making for an increase on the basic allotment at that time we were asking for $11,000 to be added and at that time we were
038experiencing um at record alltime Surplus amounts of money that that our state leaders were sitting on prior to start of the session we walked through the regular sessions we walked through four special sessions without an additional Penny being added um to that basic allotment and so I spent a lot of time last um spring uh visiting with my staff visiting with our PTO our parent organizations our foundation talking about the challenges that we were facing at that time not I that mic is on I think I saw the green light um and do I do I need to use this for that microphone no can hear me in the back or no no no okay back to my phone voice yeah um okay so again those communication meetings happened all last spring letting folks know
039the incredible challenge that we're in as we looked to the start of this school year um and so I'm going to just walk us through kind of some big picture information that I shared just for the good of the group I know many of you who are here tonight sat through multiple presentations that I made but I think it's important important for the Greater Community here once again how we got here I'm going to just have you click okay um all right so we start this story historical view that goes all the way back to 2011 um many of us who are here um in the room were in The District in 2011 when we um were forced to cut $3 million in the alah Heights ISD budget because of a budget deficit at the
040state level a very different situation that we found ourselves in an 88 session so at that time we did convene a budget advisory Council um there were 20 positions that were cut at that time and cut budgets across all departments and across all campuses by 25% none of those cuts have been reinstated and you know the thinking at that time was that we would see those positions come back over time and we would be able to reinstate the budgets to what they were back then in 2019 we did get some relief with an allocation of how House Bill three um and the basic allotment which is the amount that's allocated per student in every District across the state was increased to $6,150 with that we were able to do some um pretty significant compensation um
041strategy as some some efforts for our teachers at that time um and then we walked into the the 24 legislative session that I I shared just a little bit about already and the additional four special sessions with the $3 billion Surplus at the state and no dollars allocated um to the basic aot um you all are aware of the inflationary costs of um operations in your own homes we fa that same challenge here at the school district spent time um sharing just what that looks like since 20 um 19 and so you can see our fuel um rates have increased by 115% electricity in the district has increased about 100% again with no additional dollars being allocated to the basic law um last year after we had adopted our budget with the information that we
042had and with the hopefulness um and and almost the certainty um that we had in the back of our minds walking through a legislative session with that amount of surplus dollars we continue to face a perfect storm of challenges throughout the year and so in addition to the no change in the alotment and inflationary cost there were um unfunded mandates that we were charged with rolling out you know around Safety and Security um around instructional materials there were up around prek instruction there was a decline in our total Stu student population although there was an increase in our special education student population the decrease in shs funding Medicaid funding um for that population there was an increase in property insurance premiums and a sharp increase in healthcare premiums and so again on top of the
043challenge we hit a perfect storm last fall um in order to walk through the budget challenges of operating our schools this school year in the spring I made campus rounds and Community rounds talking through the efficiencies and cuts that we would need to make so that we didn't experience a continued um extensive deficit and so moving into this school year all departments and campus budgets were cut by an additional 10% um we no longer support our teachers in the use of substitutes for school business days for professional development uh we make programmatic changes in the summer school um offerings last summer we increased class size divisor uh and and you know that divisor changed to 30 at the secondary level and each um grade level at our elementary was increased the divisor as well by
044two students and so we were able to absorb 22 positions um through attrition last year showing that cost Savings of of $2.2 million but again we're walking through incredible challenge as we look at what class size looks like in our classrooms we um appealed to our PTO just to talk about the importance of operating on donated funds for operation versus enrichment you know um back in the day we looked at those extra dollars as really being enrichment money and that that can no longer be the case this year instead of offering salary increase to our our staff members this year we were only able to offer a retention stien for for folks who chose to come back and service this year we increased um facility rentals we increased tuition and we increased our opportunities for
045federal grants as well um Matt stri is going to talk us a little bit about that the implications for our fund balance me meant as a result of those cuts and as we look forward to forecasting for this next year's budget as Daniel was mentioning uh the uh significant cuts that we did uh PR part of this year uh did have an effect but uh we continue to uh be under the strain of no increase in the basical off since 2019 and so that's like an anchor if we look at the fund balance chart here uh it's the column of the ending value you can see that those numbers since 20 2021 have uh continued to decrease and so fund balance uh just to kind of recap is the uh includes both cash on hand
046but then also some receivables and inventories uh for us that the floor of the fund balance is 14 million when you start going below that then it starts affecting operations from the standpoint of being able to make payroll and pay pay our bills so uh you can see that the past five fiscal Cycles uh we are steadily decreasing in that area so again uh as as Dana mentioned on the slide about inflation uh since 2019 there's been significant inflation in our society uh yet the fund yet the basic allotment is still the same at $6,150 uh so we are still trying to budget off of that same number uh and that's a very long time ago without without any increase when we look ahead uh and say okay well what you know since the legislature
047has not done anything in the past several uh legislative Cycles with the basic uh what do we need to do to make it through the next bium I.E the U 26 27 school year uh on our own devices so to speak and so uh what we did is that we looked at okay staff compensation if we were just to provide some type of basic cost of living increase during that period and then also a cost of and also absorb you know cost of inflation on other operating costs as we know lots of things can continue to rise in cost and that also protect our future fund balance what would that do what kind of Target would that be and that's where we were coming up with this $5 million Target uh to cut in in
048operational expenses in order to be able to make it to uh through the 6 27 school year so I'll pause are there any questions up to this point that you want to ask before we continue okay moving right along uh so now we segue from the target where he says $5 million everybody understands why that's the number we settle on and why we're the situation we're in based on what Dr Basher mentioned given that we convened a budget advisory Council which was comprised of represent of all the campuses campus teacher of the year were on there uh and we uh we also had Parents we had grandparent on there um PTO presidents as well as exec boards were represented half of the council were staff members and half of it were parents and grandparents and
049uh we met four times between September and November two hours a chunk and their task was to look at any anything that we do that's not required by law there got to do those things uh and talk about if we reduce the budget by this thing or that thing what would be the impact on our community so that we can inform the trustees as you guys walk into this with Dr Basher about what the impact would be with the community that was their role uh and so we ended up coming up with about 65 things a little less than 65 specific line items of things that were not required by the state and we put them in three buckets just to be manageable about a third of them were in the academics bucket a third
050of them were in the extracurricular and athletic bucket and about a third of them were in the operations bucket and this budget advisory Council looked at each line it and we asked them for one particular line item give us some input about what the impact on the community would be if we reduced by that that thing whether it's a a position or a program in terms of five different perspective or five lenses and they're listed up there on the slide deck so the first is academic achievement and it's your basic academic stuff math science writing reading all that the things that you think you go to school for um the second uh lens was a student experience that's all the other stuff we talked about Pro profile of a learner creativity leadership character how would
051it impact that the third one was Employee satisfaction like that's job morale if we got rid of this thing how would it impact the employees the fourth thing was District reputation and the way we talked about that was if we got rid of this one thing with people in the community say wow this is not the same district maybe I will go into another District that's what we meant by that one and then the fifth one was to make sure that no one uh cut had a disperate impact on special population such as students with disabilities or emergent bilingual students and so for each of those we asked them to say was it no negative impact that would be zero there's a spectrum all the way to 10 which is that's a very high negative
052impact and we worked a lot to get feedback from them so we can come back to you all drer could come back to say this is what the relevant impact we think we the community for those various reductions sorry so I I think it's important to note that as Frank said those were 62 items and we had the entire budget Advisory Group giving feedback across five dimensions and at the end of the day after robust conversation nothing on there was a zero every item on there out of 62 will have an impact on a person on a student on a program there was nothing that was a zero so there were no easy choices here as you all well know so taking all of that data and figuring out how do we begin to organize
053it to move towards decision making moved it into three categories the first one being the things that we identified that would have a minimal districtwide impact and were feasible cuts to make now so those were the first things that we identified um that Dana will talk through later but once those items were identified I'm going to jump down to three then it led to some conversations about some things out of those 62 that just needed to go off the table for the conversation at this moment in time either because they weren't feasible cuts to make right now or because the impact of that singular cut would as Frank said just have a profound impact on our core business or on the priorities of our community so some things were taken off the table but then
054there were quite a few things that were in the Middle where Dr Basher needed additional feedback from you all around the table and those were all of those items that we Ted walk through all right so then you know next we get to uh the conversations that I've had in the fall and then I'm sorry in the spring and then last fall this this fall um and you know the message that I had at that time was Anchored In Hope you know hope for what would walk through in this session um hope you know as it related to devising this plan and and putting it away and waiting until um the last possible second that we we could to to break the glass and implement this plan and I'm in a very different place now
055and I was very transparent with our staff I was very transparent with you all but as we read the the tea leaves and as we saw um what this legislative session had in store for us as we walked through an election in November and that resulted in um you know Champions around school choice and not necessarily Champions around Public Schools I'm in a very different place about the timeline in rolling this out and so I'm going to come to you here and kind of talk you through my recommendations for um tier reductions here in a minute I think it's important um for us to also note that we've heard um from some State leaders already um that our public schools are not underfunded I mean that was a a message that we heard most recently
056from Top leaders of the state that's a very different place that's a very different message um than where we were as we were walking through this in a fall um we also heard that that school choice is the top priority um from from leadership um you heard this week that the com controller put out um some information about the Surplus dollars and and there C that it's misleading and it's really important to try to understand and dig into what that $24 billion budget surplus that's being touted at this time when you do the dollars the math the and cents around what was being asked for in the last session which was an increase of $11,000 to the basic allotment um and and let's also point out that the the top dollar that came out last
057year last session um allocated an additional $90 to the basic allotment as it was tied to Esa legislation Esa legislation is voucher legislation so the the the largest dollar amount we saw was9 $90 we were asking for $1,000 um if you do the math what is needed is18 billion of that 24 there's only 9 to 12 that hasn't already been allocated and so the ask that we had from the last session is actually increased now to $1,300 and there's not enough money on the table for that so as we're saying we're reading the tea leaves there's there's some pretty clear messaging that we're getting that this cannot be a plan that is under the glass that's put away until later in the session this needs to be a plan that we start taking action on
058now and so um it's also important you've heard me talk about this time and time again but it's incredibly important to all of us around this table at at the leadership level that we take care of our people the best way that we can as we walk through this and in order to take care of our people we need to be transparent and factual with information that we have um as soon as we have it and so there's a a push I know you all feel it for communication needs of our staff members as we walk through and as we have to make plans for what next year will look like for our students and so because of th those Reasons I'm coming to you with recommendations first of tier one Cuts uh and reductions
059um that I feel like is urgent that we need to start considering now as we're walking through this first semester this last this next semester I'm sorry so these are these are clustered by technology and testing operational changes in some transition of positions I will remind everyone that we've said clearly and this board has been very supportive of the fact that we will handle position transitions through attrition which means that anyone who um is with us and has a position and is in good standing we still have a position we'll still have a job but they might be um open you know to reassignment in fact many people will be open to reassignment because of this and so just real quickly technology and testing you know Video subscription services and fishing detection eliminating kovat Iowa
060testing purchasing ta open resources and for textbooks reducing our Region 20 Co-op support and eliminating that should say aant language program testing for our Spanish imersion and our dual language students operational changes um we will discontinue the block schedule at the high school there will not be personalization next year um combining our Excel Academy with our credit recovery so there will no longer be an Excel Academy that's housed over at Robin for our students who are Expediting graduation uh we will also uh eliminate the nonrequired summer school that we've been able to provide to students in need of Remediation in the summer and then the list of transition of positions elimin ating secretary at both central office as well as the part-time secretary position at the high school counseling office um eliminating our M school
061suspension and cafeteria monitors as well as our high school testing center position we will be reducing Staffing and we will start using contracted services for occupational therapy the tennis center and we will eliminate contract workers from Fine Arts so let's sit there um for a minute and I'll open that up you and trustees have all seen this I know you've you know sat in it a little while since we've seen it last so if there's any questions that you want to ask I'll answer those um that tier one gets us to $2 million in savings for next year and again the timeline for that is now as positions are are opening we will not be refilling or we will be reassigning so for example the secretary opening at central office this past week and that
062position will not be filled it's to to think too that when we don't refill positions the work is still there right and so the conversation we had at central office most recently is that secretary had full-time position in supporting the work that takes place in this district and so everybody on our central office team has to take a little bit of that responsibility and that work and that's just going to be how we get through this together okay any questions on this tier Lauren well so will there be time for some discussion at the end or should I do you want me to clarify anything on this slide or just no clarification I've got one so the Kat Iowa isn't that a measurement for GT urance so can we speak to me the GT program
063is still there you what we will use map testing instead it's a it's a instrument that we already purchased Jimmy you want to add in that yes uh exactly what she said we will be using map which is our achievement test and we'll also follow up with a paper pencil non-verbal probably in that not for sure um the good that will come out of this is that every child will be considered for GT Services three times a year from kindergarten all the way through so that is a positive outcome but um it does change how we identify students for GT Services great thank you anything else okay moving on to tier two um I don't know how we put this off and so very clearly I feel like a decision will have to be made
064about tier two um changes by February and so we will continue as a team to continue visit um where we are in the session but it is the second conference period in Al high school and at the Junior School that gets us 1.6 million and it also is an increased class size um kindergarten through 2 grade to 22 and that impacts Howard Cambridge woodd so the combination of tier one cuts and then these tier 2 Cuts gets us to 3.7 questions well just a comment I would we recognize the significance of a lot of this stuff culturally we know it's stuff that we've had for a long time that benefits our staff and our students we also know that money is ruthless and if we don't have it we have to adjust like there's just
065no way around it um our hopes still remains in our faculty to deliver Top Class services to our kids but we've got to solve this budget issue and we have to solve it now we can't just sit around and hope that something comes out of a legislative session um because we just don't have the money and like I said earlier Ean shut in elementary school so it's a very serious issue and we're trying to look at ways that deliver the most money and it's going to hurt but we're trying to deliver the least amount of hurt so okay I'm going to keep moving on and then we can have further discussion um tier three pets will be additional positions um reduction of four Elementary interventionists two at Cambridge to at Woodridge um four language program
066assistance both at the elementary campuses as well reduction of three Kinder assistance and the transition of our co- te model of of special services at the high school and at the Junior School um away from two full-time FTE to full-time teacher CER certified teachers in the classroom to a certified teacher and professionals supporting those classrooms that combination of Tier 1 tier 2 tier three gets us to 4.6 in my mind and my thinking um because of the building of the master schedule because of course selections that decision will have to be made uh sometime after spring [Music] break okay so next St obviously are some concertive efforts around uh engagement throughout that legislative session um again I don't I'm not hoping that we're going to see big dollars by any means but it's really um
067to to be engaged with parameters around the legisl the legislation that comes from the session um Lauren and Carrie are our legislative chairs and we are going to the capital on January 29th we're going to take some students with us we have um appointment set up Frank with five different uh now six different so we will um we'll have a presence there at the capital at the end of January and then our trustees are going to just need to continue the work through budget committees um looking at what we're seeing legislatively making decisions about compensation um also on the radar just conversations about um copper pennies uh you know we have uh gone out for a Vader a voter approv tax ratification election a couple years ago to take the to last two golden pennies
068so all that's left for us are copper pennies that don't have the yield um that the golden pennies do so why don't you talk about that a little bit mat yes uh so there's a number a lot of numbers on this slide but let me just uh draw your attention to where the arrows are um in this uh information what we did is we uh superimposed the additional nine copper pennies onto our existing tax rate and looked at how much additional Revenue that that would generate uh so the changing Revenue in that first uh just to the left of the first red arrow is uh 6.7 million so that'd be additional $6.7 million in additional tax collections for Al Heights ISD uh now copper pennies are subject to recapture and so because of that the
069recapture expense does go up uh so the state would take approximately about 4.5 million of those of that additional U tax collection leaving Heights ISD with 2.2 million uh so in thinking about the CER pennies it's really a one3 to 2/3 split there uh the state taking 2/3 of additional revenues from additional comen Revenue uh in Al height getting to keep one one3 uh what that does in terms of local on the local residents average residents in Al s is um from last year to this year uh that the average residents saw their uh property taxes increased by $477 if we superimpose an additional 9 Pennies on that tax rate then uh that would be an additional $662 uh bringing a grand total increase of $1,139 to that to the average two comments yeah uh
070so comment number one on the copper pennies is like that's not a sure thing right and so every time we've taken a tax issue the voters it gets approved because our community trusts our board pretty well um and so there's there's a level of confidence but there's still a it may not happen and so like if you keep grinding towards that situation without making adjustments you can be in even worse spot if it doesn't happen um and then the second thing just a reminder like the the U the Coalition in the legislature is still pretty wobbly in terms of who's on what side of school Finance so don't just email or write letters to your refs write letters to all of the Reps cuz they're all trying to struggle with like how do we unite
071behind a speaker and like all the bargain chips behind the table like let all of them know that all we're doing every day is going to work for the kids in the future of the state and for some reason the state is squeezing us give us an explanation or fix it um and I think it's an entirely appropriate thing to say and I think it's appropriate to say to every single rep um that's on the list not just your own okay anything else questions conversation okay one I've asked this before but what do we consider an a the dollar value of an average ahisd residents just so so we can understand it's right now just shot at 700,000 probably go above 700,000 this next year okay thank you so an average residence in Al is
072at 700,000 now for folks that couldn't hear that back anything else are you are you going to talk about teacher Rises uh yes Carrie's asking if we're going to talk about teacher raises uh that was discussed when we're talking about the 5 million Target yeah that right off the top staff compensation is is the first priority um and that's how we forecasted the 5 million to to cut important to talk about yeah um okay so protecting you know our our alights culture is imperative in a time that you know of continued Challenge and I think it's really important um for us to focus on the fact that when we put 62 items on the table that's a possibility of $9 million in cuts and so I'm going to try to pull us out and try
073to focus us um on the 5 million that is being protected um as we're making these recommendations um and the reason we're able to protect these things that make our our district so unique is because of our incredible community support and so the foundation support the support of our PTO that allows us to protect incredible programs that you see picture here positions that you see picture here um you know everything that makes and makes us unique and sets us apart from others and so I think that's really important um for us to to Anchor into and and to feel good about um because that's what I have to say I have to I have to get in a good head space at some point um what I am going to say though just you know
074to end this is that our staff is going to walk through this in a way that makes our community proud that makes you all proud um we are going to continue to be a district of Excellence we are going to continue to ensure that we're taking care of kids um our staff's going to walk arms they're going to take care of each other and they're going to continue to share the love for the work that we do the important work that we do here in this District I know that for a fact I've seen this over the years I know who my people are so do you and you know how we'll walk through this that doesn't mean that it's going to be easy but we're going to walk through this in a way that
075continues to make this community proud um I always say that in challenge lies opportunity and so um we're going to take this opportunity to continue to be a district of excellence and we will take care of every child every student every day whatever it takes so with that what do you want what else do you want to talk about two questions for the nties I think Lauren's got one well I just a couple of items of maybe discussion I don't know if you know this is the appropriate time but I'll just go ahead and bring up um by you know by tier so looking at that you know tier one um it's hard to see it cell Academy on there obviously um and I just hope and trust that you know as we're working through
076the logistics that there would be you know more attention and to the extent that there could be more resources allocated to uh the credit recovery program and Dana I know you've you know mentioned that so so you know as Services go away and are combined our leadership is charged um with with you know the inant collaboration of our incredibly talented staff we're figuring out again how we're going to meet students needs and we're going to do that um in the right way again in a way that that makes us proud and we you know there's not of course the technology subscriptions that's something we can not really worry about um although that makes work harder for someone um it is it's those positions that um I mean there's not one position on here that doesn't
077hurt you know it's it's difficult so um and we will continue to just bring you updates for the planning um and logistics for how um we will roll out those Services as we walk through next year so one other one that I imagine you know Community hearing and looking at this and um you know having two high schoolers I know that elimination of the personalization for students you know could be alarming I mean I do think that there are kids who are trying to manage you know workload and extracurriculars and so to have that time during the day help manage their workload is really helpful so I know we've talked about um you know just if we can in a cost effective way you know have large study halls or something that you know kids
078could have an option to still you know have some time during the day to utilize um you know I think that would be helpful in the works stay tuned we'll continue to update you on sorry I have two more no you're good go um so moving on to tier two um you know that elimination of a of a second conference period I mean I can only imagine that that is going to hurt you know these secondary teachers and I guess I just think about particularly the amount of grading that they have to do um and so I I trust and I know you all will but just you know really being thoughtful about um you know mandatory meetings and other things you know that they may have to do in order to preserve enough time
079for them to you know feel like they can WR 150 you know kids worth of you know essays or you know whatever the case may be so that was my comment there um and then so the class size especially you know if we're looking at Kinder so that in tier two coupled within you know the item in tier three of reducing Kinder assistance you know I would just say for us as you know a board you know as we really get into the nitty-gritty and see you know if we are able to get any money added to the basic allotment or through copper pennies or whatever else that we are careful with the ordering of these things because it does just seem like if we're increasing Kinder class sizes and taking away assistance I mean
080that's that's a big impact you know kind of from both ends sure and you'll see on tier you know additionally I mean these are our most at risk students we're talking about when we're eliminating interventionists we've got you know special education students with significant needs and so those decisions as far as rank ordering you know will be difficult for us and and hopefully we find ourselves in a place where we actually have the dollars to to have those conversations I'm being very Frank and saying I don't believe that we will be at this point I will say too though I think it's important that you all he as we're talking about um reductions and services reduction in program and positions always in the back of our mind and our conversations are about how would we
081Face things back you know we've got an incredible opportunity for some endowment um Revenue to come in from the foundation over the next few years what does a what what would be phased back in and how could we do that in a very strategic ble way and so you all will have to be part of that conversation as well so that's always going on in the back of mind just has to be so and I do want to reemphasize the expectation that while positions or services with titles may have to be moved adjusted or eliminated the work for the kids is not being eliminated like we'll still do the work we just got to figure it out I mean that's our culture at Al Heights I know how many conversations you and I have had
082over the past several years or I express a concern and you remind me we do at the AL Heights and we come through and I'm shocked and AED every single time and so yeah this this is daunting um but we've got to find the money and then we got to figure out how to serve your kids the AL away so I just want to make that quick comment what else other questions from trustees I know we've been in this like for a while but I I'll just make a comment that you mentioned your staff filling the gaps we are fortunate to have a community that is actively involved maybe sometimes a little to actually involved but I think we can call in our community to support there's there's roles and responsibilities that can be done
083through volunteerism and I I think it's appropriate we're all dealing with this together collectively we all care about the kids so if there's items that y'all can identify that can be filled to offload to volunteering through student you know grandparents parents whomever else in the community I think we should identify that list and try to fill it and support that way too that's a good point [Music] I uh I'm trying to understand and I I know it's for Teacher retention I get it and and that's the second conference period um but I want to understand why you know we are one of the few districts that offer that so um and that's a good thing I think it's a great thing and um however we are where we are now and I'm more curious why
084that wouldn't be in a tier one because if was in it here it if we just didn't even have it we wouldn't be here talking you know and so uh I I know it's important that we have it I know the teachers love it however here we are and we're not just cutting a conference we're cutting a lot of other things and so that to me it seems like that should move down uh and and and be a priority because I mean that just that one thing if we were just like you know the other districts we our our our fund balance right now would be over 20 million let me let Dana like speak to the specifics of the answer but just a reminder that as you look at these three tis we're talking
085January February March I got you and so like it's super tight we're trying to be very very transparent with all stakeholders um in I I just ripped the you know the the knife out of my heart and just say like it's all happening at once just for myself um but going to happen real quick without any news from the legislature so that's how I look at it but I don't know if there's anything specifically you want to add it goes back to the slide that Jimmy was talking about just the process that we walk through this you know what what what you know maintenance and operationally could we sustain immediately right now that was tier one tier two hurts a little more you know and I'm being very clear with you I don't know how
086we're not going to do tier two cuts and I will be very honest with the staff about that so I want us as as a staff and as our leadership team to be planning that tier 2 is going away and I feel uh the responsibility to make that decision with you all in February early so um to me there might be some wiggle around with tier three but I'm not sure CL that's fine and then also just a quick contest is trustees and so anytime you're talking with a group you know whether it's like mule team or PTO or something like that maybe bring up the budget situation and say hey if you ever need someone someone to talk about it to your group I'm happy to do it or another trustee or Dr Maser
087or whatever I kind of elbowed my way into two PTO meetings and I'm happy to do more um but basically at the end of it I'm like you want to know how to help write a check that's it there's there's no there's nobody coming in from the West on big horses to save the day it's like we have to write checks that's all it's going to take as as many as you can write as often as you can write as big or small as you can write just write checks to your school um and I think when I get to that kind of like more kind of Ruthless message it opens a lot of eyes like wait are we seriously in that spot and I'm like yes we are please write checks um so as
088often as you guys interact with different groups and different stakeholders if you can figure out a way to Edge that into the conversation and say look I'd love to speak to anybody who will you know have me there um I think it'd be great and great help for our community it's also you know imperative that you're interacting with your your state your your legislators so it's like this this was a presentation that was publicly made at our school board do you know what's going to happen in El Height's ISD next year do you know what we're walking through this year do you know about our class size and it's not one call it's not one email it's um you know it's being persistent about that and we as a community need to do a a
089better job about being persistent in that message and holding them accountable to answering um to the to the challenges that we're facing and experiencing so any other questions from the trustees Dr Shar any closing comments or I am all commented out thank you very much so we're listening and asking great questions okay uh thank you all very much right here at the end of the table for being here and helping with the presentation um and I just do want to express a further message of thanks that like I this is incredibly hard work um it's not the same as when we're doing aspirational lesson planning in program planning uh but you guys have approached this with the same heart for the kids as though you were creating new curriculum for them and so I really
090do appreciate y's heart for our kids as we try to walk through all this and figure this all out um for everybody parents staff students and everything okay so we're going to move on to the consent agenda um so these are items that have been previously considered by the board and are considered routine and we canect with one motion but you guys take a look let me know if you want to pull anything out I am going to mention as we always do the donations um we have $33,000 and roughly $300 in donations um this time around and so obviously we're incredibly grateful for it all to take a look at the uh items on there let me know if you want to point anything out okay um do I have a motion to approve
091the consent agenda so move thank you Ty do I have a second I'll second thank you Lauren all in favor please say I I any oppos the motion carries so I think the only committee report we have is budget but I I think that we can all agree I looked at that going so I'm going to I'm going to say that has already been done asked and answered U so we'll move on to item number seven business recommendations uh Mater I think you're going come to the table we're going to have a consideration to call the May 3rd 2025 Board of Trustees elections uh this is just the standard call for the election uh and there's three places up for for election this may and so uh we just meet the U requirement by deadline
092and stuff on the as this be approved cool and I know we have this stuff on the website here Brown so everybody can always look at it um I will tell you that I picked up my packet this morning and already submitted it um so I intended to R for reelection but just wanted to put that out there I don't know if there's anything else to cover before I have a motion I've been here for all of three months and I intend to actually run for election rather than appointment will be on the ballot I don't think you're supposed to say that glad you hear thank goodness yeah I'm the third spot uh thanks but I I do not intend to refile Ryan thank you for your service we're going to you got me for
093a few more months we're going to no really he's going to hate it but we're going to love it um okay so do I have a motion to call the May 3rd 2025 board trustees election so move thank you Brian do I have a second second thank you clct sure all in favor please say I I any opposed motion carries okay so we're going to move to calendar review do Sher what do you got all right um okay regular me we are School Foundation meeting David you have on the 22nd um Excel graduation on the 30th at 12:15 again we so nice to have so many of you there with the last one um building committee meeting February 5th clay Bryant David um also on February 5th Ty who will be representing us at deac
094February 6th we have a followup budget committee meeting U GMP is on February 12th at 11:00 another Foundation board meeting data for you on February 19th and then our regular meeting of the Board of Trustees will be on February 19th there any questions about okay no questions all good okay well uh before I Mo move into our next two items if there are no objections we'll take a short break and we'll enter into executive session for Texas government code section 55101 all of youall that came today thank youall for being here um when you have questions please out thank you for being here and we'll reconvene at 7:25 7:2 julan she just doesn't want to run against anybody doesn't want to run against anybody