001Heat. That's heat. Yeah. Hey, hey. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. But I'm I don't know. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. Let's go. Good evening. I will reconvene into open session this meeting of the Arlington ISD Board of Trustees on December 11th, 2025 beginning at 7:07 p.m. We'll begin with the pledges tonight led by Swift Elementary student Bianca Wright to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I aliance to the Texas one state under God. One and indivisible. Please be seated and join us for a moment of silence. Thank you. All right, we'll turn it over to our chief communications officer, Tyena
002Northington, to tell us a little bit more about the student who led led us in the pledge tonight. Well, welcome. Good evening. We had Bianca joining us. Bianca is a sixth grader from Swift Elementary. And at Swift Elementary, they say we are good people who develop good people. And you met one of them tonight in Bianca. She is joined with her entire family. She's got her younger younger brother in first grade and Tevin in seventh grade with her mom and dad here. And also she's got some of her actually swift cheerleaders. I would say she's got her principal here. We've got Mrs. Padilla the secretary. And she said hiding in the back is Miss Harry. Miss Harry wave. There you go. That was your moment to shine. But uh it really just speaks to the
003culture that her campus has. And she's beams with so much pride and joy when she talks to me and talks people about what she does daily. She enjoys science and social studies and specifically in social studies, she's intrigued by learning about what people have done. And I just think that's so unique that she's ready to see the different marks that people have left in this world and how she potentially can leave her mark. One way I know we'll be seeing her is how she plays the violin. And I told her maybe she'll be coming back to join us as a musician in years to come. She's looking forward to going to Louisiana to visit her family this holiday season. And if she could watch one movie over and over and over again this holiday season,
004it would be Home Alone. Yes. So, I told her that she'd be happy to know that you guys are also big Home Alone fans. As a family though, they watch Nightmare Before Christmas and they enjoy each other's company with family. I think she's eager for that break, but also knows coming back to school there's a lot of work to do. Um, and so she enjoys and and says she has some favorite teachers out there. Uh she's in the running club, choir, orchestra, and also volunteers and is in school, student council, and for the school PTA. So, she has a lot on her resume for being a sixth grader. And I told her to enjoy it as she makes the turn into junior high school next year. And we just adore meeting you, and I know
005you'll be back here playing in just a few years. [applause] Thank you, Miss Northingington, and thank you, Bianca, for being here tonight, leading us in the pledges. We'll move on to our recognitions and appointments this evening, and after our appointments, we'll take a short recess to have pictures with our honores in the boardroom and in the lobby. Leading the recognition portion of the agenda tonight is Chief Communications Officer, Tyino Northington. I'll turn it back over to Miss Northing. Thank you so much, sir. Tonight, we're excited to introduce the symphonic band from Gun Junior High in the Fine Arts Dual Language Academy. These dedicated second and thirdyear musicians, many involved in multiple arts electives, I'm told, bring creativity, commitment, and great energy to every performance. They are just as loud as their yellow shirts, which we
006love to see. Under the direction of Jason Crump, they are here to share some holiday cheer with We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Please welcome the Gun Junior High Symphonic Band. [applause] [snorts] [music] [applause] And as the band leaves, I just want to give them one more round of applause. And also to the parents who came out tonight and video, we thank you so much for being here and coming, bringing your students. [applause] We know when students are involved in so many different activities. It's often a family activity that becomes involved. And so we appreciate our family support as much as we know that it's a big deal for all of us. And performing here is special this evening. So, as these chairs are kind of moved, we're going to ask you guys um I
007want to briefly remind you we're going to watch we have our student of the month video this evening. And so, um just as they reset, I'm going to ask you to turn your attention to the screen um for a special video about our Arlington ISD student of the month for December. Buouie High School senior Constance Watkins. And after the video, our board will make their way down to the front of the DAS to recognize Constance and all the rest of the honores. Tonight, our buoy student of the month is Constance Watkins. She's an individual who has this big smile on her face. People love being around her. She's a true buoy volunteer. She's an AP classes, avid theater and [music] choir. Constance is such a special student, whether that be on stage, offstage, as a
008student. She is lovely to work with. She is a cheerleader to her castmates and her classmates. [music] She's really stepped up these last few years in helping with the choreography. She's been our representative the last two years for the high school musical theater awards that we've entered. I've been with Connie for four years now. And from the moment that we met her here on this [music] stage, we knew that she had something special. We love seeing that Connie has always asked for more her for herself year after year. She's grown as an actor. She's grown as [music] a student. She's grown as a peer. She shows up for people. She shows up for herself. [music] and we are deeply deeply proud of her. I'm so proud of Constance. She's such a hard worker. She has
009grown [music] so much and she's just delightful to work with. She's stepped up as a leader to all of her fellow castmates [music] and I just could not be more impressed with the young lady that she is. She is someone who all the students want to be around and staff love supporting her. I am proud to have her as buoy student of the month. [applause] Constants, I love seeing your video because I could see the different ways that you were modeling uh your leadership in theater and I just love seeing that energy that you brought and so even some of the different takes that Spence had would made your video very fun to edit because you are so dramatic. panic in some of those scenes. So, I I was like, I don't want to cut
010this. It looks so good. But once again, let me introduce if we could ask Constants to come on up. I know our board members want to receive a pin and congratulate you on this award. [applause] That was pretty impressive, that video right there. When they say how much everybody likes being around you, you can see it in your smile. So, thank you for making a positive impact on Buoie High School. Thank you for being what we're so proud of in Arlington ISD, a product of our schools, but most importantly, just a good kid overall that's going to do amazing things in this world. Constants, congratulations on being our student of the month this year. [applause] Constants, on behalf of our school board, we just want to say congrats. Keep going. As a former volunt buoy
011volunteer myself, it just makes me so happy to see you thriving as a student and being a leader amongst your peers. I hope you can go back to that video years from now and just reflect on the impression that you made not just on the peers around you at school, but your principal and your educators that are shaping you and molding you. So, keep going. We're very happy that you're a volunteer and we're really excited that you're here celebrating with us tonight. This is a pin that all of us wear. You'll see Dr. Smith and our school board. Our school board wears this pin and you're welcome to wear it anytime and just think about your experience as a student here in the district. Congratulations [applause] if you go straight to the middle. Okay, scoot
012in. And if you'll hold, we've got a proud principal that's going to come stringing in. And I think he wants you to take a phone a picture for him. Come on. [cheering] He wants you to help him out with Mr. Lopez is also going to take a cell phone picture for him. See? Hold the smile. There we go. Congratulations once [applause and cheering] again. Next we Oh, yes, please. I was going to say next we have Constant say a few words. Um, good evening everyone and thank you Superintendent Smith and Board of Entrustees. First, I would like to start my speech by thanking my mother. She's taught me what it takes to be a young African-American woman in America. Because of her, I have been able to accomplish what I have and when I have.
013She is the definition of a hardworking person. I love you, Mommy. Next, I would like to thank my directors, Mr. Loba and Mr. Thomas, were always the first ones to listen to me and what was on my mind. They have not only helped me grow as a musician, but also as a person. They're not only amazing directors, but amazing friends. To my theater directors, Miss Hurdle and Miss Treble. I really don't know where I would be without these two remarkable women. They have taught me how to juggle not only obstacles of being an actress, but of being an artist. Because of them, I am more disciplined, motivated, and determined to achieve my goals. They have opened so many opportunities for me, and I'm forever grateful. I would like to thank Coach Ibara, Miss Torres, and
014Miss Blanco for always checking on me and giving me the advice of school and life. I would like to thank my brother for always showing me kindness. My best friends for always making me laugh and giving me support. My amazing cast members through all the years, and my boyfriend for always believing in me from the start. And last, but certainly not least, thank you, Mr. Jones, for always trusting me with this title to represent Buoie. It is truly an honor. I would not have this award if it weren't for you all. I truly love and appreciate you. Thank you. [applause] We have a few more awards tonight. That was so beautiful. Thank you for speaking from the heart. Just taking him back for a moment. I watched your mom watch that reaction and that was
015such a beautiful moment. Um I also want to recognize tonight we have an award that actually was received at the state level for our transportation team. So, our transportation team was actually awarded the Texas Association of School Business Officials or TASBOS's Pathfinder Award last month at the 2025 Tasbo Operations Conference. Here's a picture of them on the screen when they actually accepted that award. The state recognition celebrates teams who demonstrate innovative, strong safety practices and meaningful support for students and staff. So what this means is they're actually nominated for their outstanding accident prevention efforts and the effective collision investigative strategies that they have actually already developed. Their commitment to safety and developing tomorrow's leaders from the moment those students walk on the bus is the work that we see done and that's what recognized at
016the state level. So I'd like to invite our Arlington ISD director of transportation who's already here, Jason Gillis, as well as a few members from Tasbo. In fact, I'm going to ask uh Byron Bryant to actually say a few words, but I don't have Dr. Smith present them the award. Sir, I'm Byron Bryant. I'm the uh vice president for TASBO right now, and we are honored to be here to uh recognize your director of transportation. Uh this is a Pathfinder award that, as she said, recognizes innovative practices, and the work that that Mr. Gillis has done here at Arlington ISD is not going unnoticed. We thank our strategic partner E3 for sponsoring the award and we are proud to present Mr. Gill, Mr. Jason Gillis with the 2005 Tasbo Pathfinder Award. [applause] If we could
017have you guys in the come shimmy to the middle of the board. There we go. [applause] Right. Look here. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Did we get the picture? I want to make sure we got the picture. All right, we're good. We're good. Thank you so much. Congratulations. [applause] As the school year continues, we'll have many of these honores, so it's a lot of handshaking, but it'll be enjoyable. It's all celebrations. Um, we have two awards to present this evening for our local organizations on behalf of our Career and Technical Association of Texas. I'll refer to this as Catap from here on out. Due to the strong impact that these organizations have had on our CTE students, our career and technical education department actually nominated them to be recognized at the state level. First, we'd
018like to recognize the travel sports legacy foundation as the business education partner of the year for our seat cat region region 2. This foundation has been an invaluable partner to Arlington ISD, providing exceptional opportunities for both students and teachers. And that's just as important. Their support plays a major role in the success of our hospitality and tourism program. So joining us tonight, we've actually invited a travel sports legacy foundation president and someone who's very familiar with our district, former board member Kesha Mays up to accept this award. [applause] [laughter] Can you get your one right there if you need it? Congratulations. Thank you, Kesha. Next, we would like to recognize the Greater Arlington Chamber as the career and technical education champion of the year, also for our Seat Region 2. The chamber has been a
019tremendous champion for our CTE students, consistently investing in our students through partners and education. That's a special committee that actually provides invaluable experiences that many people don't realize is through a partnership we do with the Chamber of Commerce. They actually help us develop the what's your big idea contest, the practicum placements and entrepreneurship market expo, and they've awarded up to $500,000 in scholarships over the years to Arlington ISD students. This year, they've also committed to supporting a new summer experience that gives students an authentic look at life after high school. We're very excited to have with us tonight to accept the award of career and technical education champion of the year, the senior director of strategic initiatives, Alicia Collins Butler. [applause] No, I'm gonna take a picture. We're going to sneak him in a We'll
020sneak them in a photo. Yeah, that's later. All right, look right here. Cadence, if you can hold really quickly. We're going to have Michael sneak in. Michael, come sneak in. Come sneak in. Just just for one. Congratulations [laughter] and thank you so much to our chamber partners. [applause] This concludes tonight's honors and recognitions. You know what? So, since we're all down there, um we typically do a recess and and have pictures. Families all can come up and take pictures after our recognitions. We don't have We do have appointments. We have two appointments. appointment. So, ignore everything. Okay, y'all are welcome to stay and take pictures. We just do have two appointments uh to take care of tonight. So with no speakers registered for our appointment section of the agenda, we will proceed to ratification and
021take action our administrative appointments for chief internal audit and our chief technology officer. Do I have a motion to ratify the appointments of the individuals discussed in close session? So move. I have an enthusiastic motion from Mr. Willbanks. Do I have a second? Second. I have a second from Mr. Mike. We'll proceed to vote. All trustees voting in the affirmative. The motion unanimously carries. I'll turn it over to Dr. Smith. Trustees, first tonight, I would like to welcome up Alexis Palasios. [applause] Alexis is an experienced internal audit leader with 24 years of service to Arlington ISD, specializing in governance, internal control, state and federal uh compliance, and adherence to I don't know what standards. The standards [laughter] She has progressed through multiple roles from internal audit intern to senior internal auditor and internal audit manager
022culminating in her service as interimm chief internal auditor. As a certified internal auditor, congratulations. And registered Texas School Business uh association administrator. She is recognized for her strong analytical judgment, clear communication, and commitment to strengthening risk mitigation and organizational accountability. And as a side note, she is truly a pleasure to work with. We're excited to have you in this position. Congratulations. Thank you. [applause] Uh President Chapa, Dr. Smith, members of the board, thank you for this incredible honor and the trust you all have placed in me. I am truly grateful for your confidence and for your support. You've shown throughout this past year. It has been a privilege to partner with the district leadership and cabinet and I sincere I sincerely appreciate your guidance and collaboration. I also want to recognize my audit team. They
023are small but mighty. Um and their dedication, professionalism and heart are the foundation of everything we have accomplished. I truly could not have done this without them. Through every transition, every audit and every challenge, they have stepped up with integrity, teamwork, and unwavering commitment to serving the district. And before I thank my family, I want to share a quick fun fact about me. My parents moved us from California years ago because General Motors relocated my dad and I ended up attending AISD from 8th through 12th grade. Go Vikes. Um, little did they know they were placing me in the district I would eventually dedicate my entire career to. So, thank you to my husband over there, my two my two boys and my parents for their unwavering support. Their love, their sacrifices, and their belief
024in me through long nights, exam studying, and busy seasons have carried me to this moment. I could not be standing here without them. I am honored to continue serving the district that has shaped so much of my life. 24 years professionally and 29 years if we're counting those student years. And I rem and I want you all to know I remain committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and service. Thank you. [applause] I almost forgot. It's my turn again. And now I'm excited to welcome up Mr. Kyle Burgerer, our new chief technology officer. [applause] Kyle is an experienced educational technology leader with a bachelor's of science and information systems from the University of Texas at Arlington. He has served as chief technology officer in multiple districts including Grapevine Collieville ISD and Duncanville ISD
025and held leadership roles such as executive director of technology and project manager with over two decades of experience. He brings expertise in technology strategy, infrastructure management, and districtwide digital initiatives. And I was really excited to get some texts from colleagues across the state when Kyle was named saying, "Hey, you just got the best in the state." Kyle, welcome to the team. We're excited to have you here. Thank you so much. Uh, President Chapa, members of the board, Dr. Smith, and the leadership team. Thank you'all so much for this opportunity. I'm excited to be here and join already the great team here because I think we know collectively we are greater and stronger together. And you know technology as a whole sometimes operates in a vacuum and it can't happen like that. So what I share
026with you is that technology doesn't exist in that vacuum. It exists here to really amplify the work of our teachers to elevate the student experiences and really empower all of our families and all the departments that we have to support everything we do here in this district. You know, I'm really excited for the opportunity because we have so much potential here in Arlington ISTD. I don't think I have to tell y'all the amount of opportunity we have before us, right? And I am committed to making sure that we are the most predominant choice for families in this area. And we're going to do that collectively together. And we're going to do that by really creating an environment that sets ourselves apart. An environment that thrives for our students to feel supported, challenged, and inspired to
027chase their dreams. That's what we're here to do. And I'm excited to work with all of y'all and hit the ground running. So, let's get going. Thank y'all. [applause] Thank you, Mr. Bear. I'll echo what Matt said. It's it's we have really high quality individuals here in the district. We try to recruit and retain the best people. And it was interesting when we announced that we were hiring Mr. Burgerer. A little bit unusual on the trustee side is I heard from trustees uh in where you're where you used to work and from folks that I know who work in those districts and said uh to quote one of them, Arlington ISD really scored a coup. Uh congrats to us because they were losing someone that they really really valued. So I've heard you are among
028the best in the state if not the country at what you do. to look forward to the work that you're doing. And Miss Palasios, it's been great working with you in the eight years I've been on the board. I haven't done many stints on audit, but I've done done a few. Um, but it's such an incredible story to grow up here in the district and then to start here as an audit intern and now you're our chief internal auditor. So, congratulations to you and your family. At this time, it is 7:33. We'll take about a 10-minute recess for celebrations with our honores and our appointees. And we'll be back at about uh 7:43 7:45. We're in recess. I want to give our new employees. Sure, David. Hey, hey, hey. soul. So, [music] Heat. [music] Heat.
029[music] Heat. [music] Hey. [music] Hey, hey, hey. All right, it is 7:43 and we are back from recess. We do not have any registered speakers for open forum tonight. I have I'm under I understand Miss Crossno is that correct? That is correct. Okay, we'll move on then to committee and staff reports. We have three items tonight. The first one is an update on our capital needs steering committee. Turn it over to Dr. Smith. Thank you, President Chapa. Trustees, we have uh a few people coming to the podium tonight. Dr. Hill, Dr. Collins, Tyena, Norberto, and Kelly Horn will all be um giving you a brief overview. As you know, we've been trying to keep you updated along the way, but tonight we have some slides to walk you through as well. and um just want
030to make sure that you as trustees are apprised of the progress that the CNSC has been making along the way. Good evening, President Chapa, Dr. Smith, board of trustees, and our Arlington community. Tonight, we are pleased to share an update regarding the work of the capital needs steering committee. Um it's been our pleasure as senior leaders to work alongside this devoted group of uh comm community members. We're passionate. They're dedicated um to serving the needs of the Arlington ISD students and staff. The capital needs steering committee is a devoted group of about 40 citizens across Arlington with representation across the entire school community. They're a diverse group of community members who have a vested interest in the district's current and future needs, ensuring that Arlington ISD remains a district of excellence and a district of
031choice in our area. As you know, we have two committee chairs, Dr. Katherine Parah and Kelly Kernut um who are very familiar names here in the Arlington community and they are strong partners with us in this work. As you'll recall um in October this board adopted the charge to form the capital needs steering committee to review data on district planning enrollment facilities and future trends while engaging the community to gather input on facility needs. Through the community input and community engagement, the CNC will prioritize capital projects through 2029 and deliver bond and board ready bond recommendations in January. The purpose of this report uh tonight is to give our board and our community an update on where we are so far as well as a picture of what is to come. You can see on
032this timeline that we've completed four of our six meetings, including tours of several of our schools, all of which are preparing our committee members to bring the best proposals forward for your consideration. Now, I will turn this presentation over to Dr. Hill, who's going to explain the process of our CNC committee. Thank you, Dr. Collins, uh, and President Chop and board. Uh, again, we are here to just continue this work. Uh while considering the future needs of the district, uh the assessments uh we've conducted district-wide assessments to evaluate facility conditions, program feasibility, and the enrollment capacity in addition to identifying opportunities to modernize, expand, and make sure that we're using the space efficiently. Uh educational enhancements to the programs and alignment for foru uh community priorities. The Calanese steering committee's work uh was focused around
03310-year long range planning including continuation of the 2019 bond program and focusing [snorts] on further planning for our district's capital needs across all spectrums. Uh facility planning is very comprehensive in detail. Uh we have been collecting and assessing uh current conditions and reviewing enrollment trends, observing the conditions of several of our schools and our other facilities as and all which ultimately help the committee formulate recommendations for you uh in the future for consideration. Additionally, we have devoted some time to reviewing the the demographic and enrollment trends across the district. Demographers from Zonda have shared dedicate detailed trends uh with our committee and in summary the reality is enrollment across public schools across the state are declining and that's shown it in Arlington ISD as well. We are an established school district no longer experiencing the
034growth that we've experienced in previous years. Uh, and this is some information that's been shared with the with the committee to consider as renovations, upgrades are reviewed and advance of any recommendations that may come to you in the future. I think that completes that part. Is now I'll turn it over to Mr. Rivas to talk about uh some information on the uh finance and the tax impact for the potential bond information. So, Thank you, Dr. Hill. As we continue to educate our community and the CNC regarding the strong fiscal management of Arlington ISD, on this slide, you'll see the historical tax rates and how just a brief process at the bottom showing how tax rates are levied. We also spent some time explaining public school finance and showing the two buckets and what each bucket
035both the M and the INS what they're used to pay um what they're used to fund and how successful Arlington IC has been on the INS side in paying back and refunding outstanding bonds. This next slide shows you the debt per capita comparison. So it shows all the IC's across region 11 and it shows how we compare versus them. So you see Arlington I towards the bottom tier of the entire group. So we're substantially lower than most of them. What is a bond? We also brought in our um financial adviser George from Hilltop to kind of explain um and inform the committee members what bonds are and how they're used as well as what the capacity is for future bonds. So you'll see a breakdown here with what can be afforded at what level of
036the INS rate. And finally, speaking of bonds, we showed a history and we want to we shared how grateful we are to the Arlington ISD community for historically supporting bond elections that have benefit the district over the past decade. So, with that said, I will turn it over to Kelly Horning to go over the facilities condition assessment. Thank you, Norberto. [clears throat] We spent nearly an entire meeting sharing and explaining the comprehensive work that goes into a facility condition assessment. Our FCA comprises three major components including the FCI or the facility condition index. This is like a grade to a facility but it's like golf. The lower the grade or number the better it is. You can see that over that overall assessment findings for for Pardon me. Let me do it. Yes. Thank you.
037Pardon me. Okay, you can see that the overall assessment findings for all of our facilities in Arlington ISD and what our average FCI is across our district. And this slide shows it at 26. Because not because not every need can be addressed at the same time, we categorize our facility needs according to priority levels. This table was shared with our committee to show the most urgent needs in addition to the needs that need to be that are maintained through our local budget and our operations teams. Uh here you find an example of just one of the uh schools that we shared with the CNC. This is South Davis. Uh we toured the campus and then shared a breakdown of the school's FCA to help demonstrate what critical need would be. In fact, South Davis has
038an FCI or grade of 88%. This is very high and remember the lower the score the better the condition of the facility is in. And finally we shared the progress of our current bond bond dollars uh at work for the 2019 bond in order to help the committee understand that we're working through uh the construction of this bond as we begin planning for the next three to five years. And now I'll turn this uh presentation over to Tyena Northing to close us out on the last two meetings and share how we're communicating with the broader Arlington community. Thank you so much, Kelly. Well, our committee members thoroughly enjoyed going back to school, I would say, as they engaged in their scheduling rotation of department updates. Uh this is something that they did after touring Key
039Elementary School. And while in those classroom settings, our CNC was able to listen to and engage with six different department updates to hear their needs and share their findings. Here's a few photos of that work of our team really listening and engaging. Those discussions and updates were in full force throughout the evening with people even writing those their sentiments as they heard from our committee members from the district. We brought everyone back together after we had those six presentations as a larger group for reflections and a debrief. This gave everyone the time to talk, share out, ask questions, and share their perspectives as a team. Last meeting, which was just this Monday, was quite a different feel as a lot of us actually decided to get on the bus and have a little bit of
040fun. We went on the tour around the district to five schools. uh we provided the facility condition assessment of each school to that committee member and we had the opportunity to really have some chatter on the bus to talk about what our schools need and what that looks like going forward from our facilities across the district. Additionally, we have been making sure that we're communicating this work. So, if some of our committee members are not joining us or we have public members interested in being a part of this and watching the progress, we've made it really simple. We've actually added a dedicated website aisd.net/c ETL/CNSC. Each meeting is actually noted on the web page, including all of the agendas, presentations, and a recap article that we're putting together. We are sharing that on social media,
041as well as making sure our people know that they can reach that by searching CNC on our website. We are also accepting feedback from our community. So, you can see that form right there. This is for our website, but our CNSC members have a curiosity card, which you'll see, but it's really for the entire community to provide feedback if they have questions. We're monitoring this and considering all feedback to drive agendas and presentations for those future meetings. We, as a cabinet team, we're proud of the work that the capital needs steering committee is doing. That's why we're all here joining you tonight. We want to thank them for the opportunity, their time that they've invested thus far. We want to thank you for allowing them to explore and see what's ahead for our district. We're
042also grateful for them to be able to share with us and their friends as we work to really make sure that our whole community knows the work that we're doing to drive this district. And we look forward to another update in January. Thank you. Thank you. We'll open it up for comments and questions from the trustees. Dr. Smith, you have your Yes. Trustees, just uh a brief note. when we meet December 17th and also I believe the next one after that is January 12th if I'm not mistaken is a CNC our committee is going to be working to process a lot of information they have been given a lot so far and now it's time to really get down to a process to help prioritize what they might think a recommendation would be for you
043all. So, uh, I encourage you over the next couple of meetings, uh, if you have an opportunity to stop by and listen in, uh, I know you've been rotating and thank you all for rotating through. Um, and we encourage you to do that as well and just listen to some of the conversations because with the amount of information and the experiences we've had thus far, the big work is about to really begin. So, we're excited for that and look forward to bringing you all um, hopefully some uh, really good updates and a recommendation toward the end of January. All right. Any comments or questions from trustees? I have a question. Miss Richardson, then you talked about on the website there's a place that they can go that website in was the back slash CNC. Yes,
044ma'am. When they submit a question or feedback, what happens to it then? So, we're actually alerted via email now and we have parcelled those out to the right committee member to answer. So it might be something um some of them are not related to bond. So we're filtering those because if someone sees a comment feedback form they fill it out sometimes just you know with other topics but if not we're actually sending them to Kelly or sending them to Michael sending some to Stephen so that they're able to address those appropriately. If a community member askked a question that has to do with the current bond that's going through the 2019 bond that we're still in the process of I know on our web page we have bond updates going on where people can see
045what phases we're in and what process. Do you take any of those questions asked and ever answer some of those questions in a more generic public way if if you see that more people might have that same question? Is there a way that you can also add that information to our 2019 bond updates? Absolutely. I know we have an FAQ page, so I think we can easily do that if we see some trends of people asking questions or just bring it in full circle and consider it for some type of coverage overall. Okay. Thank you. Yes. All right. Thank you for the update. Look forward to seeing what Capital needs comes back with. We know we've got a lot of needs to take care of. All right. Next report tonight, item B is a report
046an update on the progress of our academic calendar committee. Dr. Smith, trustees, I'd like to invite Dr. Words and Miss Ginger Cole Leel to the uh podium tonight and they're going to be walking you through the progress of the calendar committee and uh potential drafts for your feedback this evening. Right. Good evening, President Chapa, members of the board. Uh, Dr. Smith, as you know, this semester, um, we've have a committee of stakeholders that have been going through the process of designing the 2627 school calendar. Um, it's an iterative process, and this is the second time where we're sharing with you, um, where we're landing to actually solicit feedback from our stakeholders over the winter break. Um, if you'll recall, previously, uh, we we talked about, um, different things we were thinking about in terms of
047guiding principles. We met with the board governance committee and got feedback around two or three different types of options that were being considered. And tonight, uh, Jinger is going to share with you one um that takes into consideration all that feedback and then we'll utilize your feedback tonight to make a couple of adjustments before we send them out uh for feedback again in December. So, I'm going to turn some time over to Ginger and she's going to share with you those details. Thank you, Dr. Wartz. Good evening, President Chapa, Dr. Smith, and members of the board. Um I appreciate the opportunity to be back with you again to give you an additional update on our development of the 2627 calendar um academic calendar. Um again I want to express gratitude to Sarah Mahoney who has
048been the co-f facilitator in this process as well as our um campus and district uh representatives on the committee. We also have parents and students who we're grateful to for their perspective as well as our community representatives. The charge around the academic calendar is to find a way to balance the needs for um high quality student learning, provide the time and space for that as well as provide time and space for professional learning for our teachers. And so as we've taken that charge into the calendar committee, um we've combined that with some additional working assumptions um that are that we discussed last time as well. So, um, our community finds it, um, often important to end school before Memorial Day, to not start school on a Monday. Um, of course, we need our spring break
049aligned with Tarant County Community College, Tarant County College, excuse me, um, in order to administer those programs. And then we have this list of historically considered holidays that we honor in our calendar. Um, we also take into consideration policy and legal requirements. And so, um, our day is built on 445 minutes. And in order to get to the required 75,600 minutes, that means we have to have at least 170 days in our calendar. Um, we're also required to have two additional days to cover bad weather days, 187 days for teacher contract, and um, not in school prior to May 15th. Because we are a district of innovation, we are able to start school before that fourth Monday in August. Um, we also received new legislation this year that asked us to make um, space for
050teachers to be able to hold at least or provide at least two opportunities for our parents to conference with teachers. And then the last thing that you see checked there is the staff development waiver. So that provides us the opportunity to replace up to 2100 minutes of instruction um, during the school year in order to provide professional development for our teachers. and we have um used that this year and the calendar that we'll show tonight um does provide or the need for a little bit of use of that staff development waiver and the calendar that we'll show tonight meets all of those requirements. Since the last time um we provided a report on the calendar committee um as Dr. Dr. Roberts mentioned, we put out a thought exchange that asked for feedback on the current
051academic calendar that we could use to inform um the one that we're in the process of creating right now. Overall, the sentiment was very positive around the embedded professional learning days versus having um professional learning outside of the working day. Um it was noted that that was an expression of valuing teachers time. They also appreciated the opportunity to collaborate with peers. that was the biggest change in our calendar. So, it was good to see those positive sentiments. Um, there were some pieces of feedback that you see listed here that we considered in adjusting for this year. Um, so there was some commentary around regularly distributing and timing well those professional learning days. For example, the first professional learning day this year um was very close to the end of the first six weeks and also
052um right next to parent conferences. Uh we also took into account the feedback um that teachers were asking for work days to support or work time to support the application of that professional learning. And um there was quite a bit of commentary too about regularly distributed holidays both from our parents and our staff there. Um as Tyena mentioned um when there is opportunity to comment um from our our um community we also get other um feedback that we'll use in other forums. So in this case we'll take a lot of this feedback that we got around the professional learning days and take that into our professional learning design team. Um so it was great that we were able to gather that and not necessarily um that wasn't necessarily influencing the decisions in the calendar immediately.
053Um and again we will um as Dr. Wartz mentioned have another round of feedback based on the draft that we'll look at look at tonight. So, how did we respond to that feedback? Um, we had a couple of different um start days on the the drafts that the board governance committee looked at. We um went ahead and honored that request to not start on a Monday, but to start on a Wednesday. So, you'll see that in the calendar. We moved the fall parent conference to after the first six weeks um so that teachers could have the information that they needed to have a meaningful conference. We spaced out the professional learning days and we actually reduced it by one. So we have five built into the calendar this year. You'll see that we have four
054built into the next year's calendar. And when possible we um had work days following those professional learning days. So we were able to make that happen at the beginning of the year and also in January. Um we also added instructional days back in. So this year our calendar requires two days usage of the staff development waiver and the proposal that we have tonight or the draft not proposal, excuse me, um only really requires the staff development waiver for secondary. And then we received feedback to embed the bad weather days within the academic calendar versus at the end. And so we'll talk a little bit about where those got placed. The detail in the calendar is listed here for you. Um overall we have 171 instructional days. Those break down a little bit differently with elementary
055having 169 days and two half days. Secondary has four half days. We went ahead and kept that in the calendar based on the feedback from our high school community that it was very important to have two of those days at the end of um each of the semester for exams and grading. Um the instructional minutes, [cough] excuse [clears throat] me, um uh we meet the 75,600 instructional minutes for elementary and we're just short for secondary, but that would be covered through the staff development waiver of um one day. there are two parent conferences um scheduled into the calendar. That's different than this year where there was one parent conference day scheduled and only for elementary. So the ones that we have in this current calendar um that we'll look at tonight will have two and
056that goes for secondary and elementary opportunities. And then there are some other work days in the calendar um for the teacher contract. There are six total work days, three professional learning days at the beginning of the year and one exchange day at the end of the year. The bad weather days, we were able to um schedule one in April and one in May. We thought those were all outside the testing window. Um but that May one is going to interrupt AP testing and so we'll need to find another place uh for that bad weather day. And then the holidays that you see listed here are honored in the calendar. the one in gray um election day is a professional learning day. So, um students won't come to school on that day. Um but our staff
057will and all of the others listed there are both staff and student holidays. Um so this is what the current draft looks like. I'll walk you through um each of the months to just kind of summarize how it looks visually um all the things that we just talked about. [snorts] So, at the beginning of the school year in August, you'll see that um August 3rd, for example, is a teacher prep day followed by a PL day and those alternate ending with a teacher prep day. So, again, honoring that teachers would like the opportunity to have a workday after those professional learning days. There's the Wednesday start [clears throat] on August 12th. September, we see our first professional learning day after the Labor Day holiday. October is that parent conference day on October 9th. And then
058in November, we see another professional learning day on election day. In December, you'll see a half day on the 18th. And then I'm going to toggle real quick to the secondary calendar. You'll see two half days. So a half day on the 17th and the 18th. Um that in addition to the May half days are the only difference between the two calendars. Um in January we come back to a professional learning day again followed by a work day. February it is a little bit stacked there. So we have a parent conference day scheduled on the 12th, a holiday for both staff and students and then coming back to a professional learning day. You'll also notice that the professional learning days are not on Fridays. We got some feedback um throughout the year that that was
059a difficult day to um have professional learning on. So we've moved those off of Fridays. Uh, spring break is scheduled in March in alignment with um, Tarant County. Um, March 26th is Good Friday. April 2nd is a bad weather day, followed by that May 3rd date that we'll have to move. And then again, ending on uh, the last day of school is May 26th, followed by teacher work day and an exchange day. And then again on secondary, you'll see the two half days at the end. [snorts] So, that was a quick run through. I know it was really fast. Um, but you also have a copy from my understanding um to to look back at. [clears throat] Our next steps um as we mentioned is are to share a draft with the community over the
060winter holiday to get some feedback also to hear your feedback today so that we can propose an academic calendar for January. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and engaging in discussion. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Kle. Miss Valer, President Choa, I really appreciate this calendar. I especially like that the teachers have a professional development day and then a teacher work day before they're back with the kids. And I think that's really important. I think this year maybe it was maybe it was flipped. I can't remember but the professional development and then a work day I think is so important. So thank you. Thank you Miss Fowler. Miss McMarrow. Thank you. Um I I'm so sorry if you mentioned this but I just wanted to make sure I understood. What was what were the top
061trends on the thought [snorts] exchange and um what like what bubbled up most frequently to the top and then what did we address in the in this draft of that feedback? Yeah, thank you for the question. Um so the top comment on the thought exchange um was giving teachers a half day of training and the other half day in their classroom preparation. Um, so that's an example of one of those pieces of feedback that we'll take into the design team as we determine how each of those professional learning days look. Um, but the aligned comments that we were responsive to were having work time after professional learning to be able to implement and that showed up um, not just in the number one comment, but even it was a theme in some of the later
062comments. Okay, great. because I I remember I took the thought exchange way early on, but that was already uh because you know if you take the thought exchange, it shows you what the responses are after you and I I love that because I was able to kind of calibrate, okay, this is what others are saying and this is what I as a parent was was thinking and so I love that application time was built in after the professional learning. I ju I just want to note um you know anecdotally I know that teachers appreciate that they need that time. Everyone needs to hone in on their craft. We as a district really wanted to prioritize continuous improvement and professional learning. On the flip side of that coin it's it's a real it's a real hardship
063for a lot of our parents to be able to take those days, you know, that would that would normally be work days. And so all I'm saying is I hope that moving forward next year we we take the same approach and really um do everything we possibly can to make sure that that time is absolutely worth it for our educators and for our families. I know that we should invest in these days and I just I saw come through on the thought exchange and I've heard anecdotally that for a lot of parents that is really tough to swing. So my hope as a trustee is just that we continue to really make sure that as a as as a district, as a staff, we're making the very most of those days with our teachers. Thank
064you. And with with our staff. It's not just for teachers. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. McMo. Mr. Will Banks. Thank you, President Choa. And um I don't know how you do this work because you have so many constraints that you try to cram into a set calendar like this is is really hard to do. And not to add more constraints to you, but I'm I'm curious because as you know, Arlington as a city and as a school district is very diverse. Uh it's diverse religiously as well. And you know, we've got the typical Christmas break and Easter break, but um are we were we at least cognizant of say in October the Jewish holidays and um the Hindu and Muslim holidays and what how that would affect um our students and our families of different
065faiths across this district? Yes, thank you for your question. Um yes, actually we had an opportunity to speak with the um a representative from the Jewish council um from the mayor's office and the feedback that we received from that representative was that it's not necessarily important to have those days off um from school, but for there to be an awareness in the system that families will be participating in activities um in and around those days um particularly in the evenings. And so, um, we have had conversations with, um, I know Dr. WZ has had conversations with, um, senior staff about, um, our strategy around that. Um, we also have upcoming meetings with our other religious communities. Thank you, Mr. Wilbanks. Any other trustees with comments or questions on the calendar presentation? I have just a
066couple things. Um, and I will start by, and I mentioned this earlier during the recess, I think that y'all have the toughest job among many of the committees that we have because, um, I've been involved now on the board for for eight of these and they change from year to year and sometimes they look a little bit different and we try things and we experiment things with things and the feedback is is always mixed. Everybody has very strong opinions about the calendar and yet we have to have one. And yet if you look around, I don't think any districts really have a lot of calendars that are exactly alike. Like everybody's trying to do things that they think makes sense for them. And I will say that every time we've done something different, uh it
067has been in direct response to staff and parent and community feedback. And so we we end up where we are with the drafts and proposals that we have based on what we think best meets the needs needs that are articulated to us. And so that's always a really tough task. So thank you all for taking that on and for doing this so thoughtfully. Um I had a question on what has the what was the I know we have parent members of this committee. What has the parent feedback from those members been on the approach that we used this year? because I too have heard mixed feedback on this. But this was also I'll get to an example in a minute where we we have a [snorts] at least one of these extended weekend breaks that
068was specifically added in response to parent concerns from the calendar that iteration right before this. So what has the feedback been from the parents who are on the committee? The feedback from the parents on the committee regarding um this current year's calendar. Yes. Um again it's mixed. Uh so there are parents that are appreciating the extended breaks for additional family time and then there is commentary about the challenge around child care that was already mentioned tonight. Um I think the working schedules is always something that's a ch that's a challenge for our parents and that was articulated within the calendar committee as well. Um I think there's an acknowledgment that school isn't going to run every single day of the of the work calendar. um and also uh the experience of it being difficult. And
069so I think that the parents did a great job of holding both of those truths and saying at the end of the day this calendar is for the purposes of um supporting academics and and we understand that our teachers also need that time as well. Okay. And I the example that I have is the the break that we have um next year it's proposed on November 2nd and third but but that is around election day and that is not a break that we used to have and then a couple years ago there was staff and parent concerns about safety and about how many of our campuses were used as polling locations during elections and you know I I felt like if I use 2023 or 20 even this year as an example off-year elections it's
070not in my mind was not so much of a concern. concern, but presidential gubanatorial election years that the the turnout's very high. And so in recognition of those concerns and not wanting to have one year on, one year off, the board at the time made the decision to have election day be a holiday. Well, no sooner than we do that, then we get frustration about the fact that we just had a weekend and now my kids are going to school on Monday and then they're off on Tuesday. And so then that's a little awkward. So we gave we we responded to that feedback and we we gave Monday as the holiday, too. And so then there was sort of mixed feedback on the decision to do that. So it's it's just always a moving target
071and it's it's it's we I just want folks to know we're always trying to respond to the concerns that are articulated to us and so it's always a work in progress. But the best thing we can do is give folks advanced notice that these things I think are coming up. And the fact that no district does it exactly the same as us and we don't do it exactly the same as somebody else I think is indicative of the fact that just I'm a parent too and I have three kids and and dealing with school calendars is is we do the best that we can. So I appreciate that. I do have a question to tie it back to something that we talked about at our last meeting. We talked about our campus improvement plans and
072we talked about some of the work that we have to do in the district to improve improve academically and I was curious what committee the committee's con conversations were around how they feel if this calendar proposal helps us make helps us achieve those pretty significant goals. Um I would say that we didn't have extensive conversations um in connection to the campus improvement plan with the exception of the professional learning being tied directly to and excuse me you said district improvement plans I think um with the exception of the professional learning being closely aligned with that. So those conversations were more connected in line with professional learning um and less about uh how the instructional days or number of days might impact that is certainly something that we can discuss further. Okay. because I what I
073want to make what I'm what my concern is is that because we are close to as I from your presentation we are close to the state minimum number of minutes for instruction and it it to me given the ground that we need to cover I'm just want to make sure that that actually is the right amount of instruction that we need to be having our students participate in given the amount of ground that we've got to cover with them academically. Do we feel like that close to the minimum number of minutes is sufficient to achieve those goals? I can jump in on that. I would say um the uh focus on professional learning in the change in what we're asking teachers to do in the classroom is what is going to help see the academic
074gains. There is a trade-off when you talk about total number of minutes. Absolutely agree with that. I will use our former calendars in Arlington ISD as an example. I think we were heavier on professional learning before the start of the school year. And the challenge with that is is then that's the professional learning for the year. And one of the key pieces of feedback that I heard when I got here was is that we didn't have a calendar that invested in professional learning. Um I don't often quote tea, but I will this time. And our commissioner often says the uh actions of adults are what impact student learning. And so in order for us to change that student learning, we have to change some actions of adults in the classroom and in the school system.
075And this is our lever to pull for that. So to to to be direct to your question, we understand the trade-off. We could add student additional minutes as well, but we feel also that we still need to invest in the professional learning and spacing out the professional learning is far more conducive to adult learning than it is frontloading at the beginning of a school year. So, we realize the trade-off, but we believe that this is this is where we are right now and this is a good lever for us to pull. We may need to talk about expanding number of student days and minutes in the future as we talk about how our students progress and learn. Um, if we have students that come to us significantly behind in their learning for whatever reason that
076may be, we know quality of instruction in the classroom matters, but also time to actually learn the material matters as well. And so I will say that that balance is really hard for us right now and we may need to pursue additional student learning days in the future. I just don't know that it comes at the expense of professional learning days as well because we also have to invest in that professional learning. Yeah. Thank you, Dr. Smith. And to be clear, I I'm in strong support of continuing the professional learning days as they were this year because I do think it I do think that it will be more conducive to professional learning than frontloading them. And I and I do think that it will help align our that will help align with the goals
077that we have set for our student achievement. But I just do I do we have schools that participate in extended year or anything like that? Is that taken into how does that work in connection with this calendar? So we do have school we do have extended year programs and we strategically select um students to participate in that. Another thing that we have um put in for is we have applied recently for a grant to consider um an extended year for specific targeted um places where we know kids might need more days of learning. So it's like Dr. Smith said, you you have a specific number of contract days with teachers and a specific number of minutes for students. you're trying to find the sweet spot to develop teachers and ensure that students have enough adequate
078time to master the curriculum and where there are opportunities to extend the year. Um we do that in the summer and then we're also considering options for um extending school days based upon, you know, strategically where in the system is needed the most. Okay. And I think that addresses my concern. Yeah. So, okay. I appreciate that's all the questions I have. Well, we got Miss Fowler coming back. There we go. I remember back in the day, professional development was at the end of your workday. So, professional development would start at like 3:30 or 4 and you'd go till 6:00 or 6:30 at night. And I always thought that was so horrible for teachers to have to stay that long, and I was one of them to stay longer during the day and then get home
079and have to do dinner and and grading or whatever you need. So, I like the way that we do this and not putting it at the end of the day for teachers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Fowler. Those are all the comments and questions I have. Any others from trustees? And I see none. Thank you, Miss Kol. Thank you. All right, we have one item left on our reports tonight and it's a report on our student survey results. I'll turn it back over to Dr. Smith. I'd like to invite Dr. Collins and Dr. Jana Stewart, our director of research, evaluation, and analysis, uh, to provide to you an update on our student survey results from last year. Good evening again, trustees. Um, as you know in Arlington ISD, we invest in parent, student,
080and staff survey opportunities. And so we have previously brought you results on parent results and staff results. And so tonight, uh, Dr. Jana Stewart is here to present findings from our 2425 student survey, highlighting some of the strengths and alignment with district priorities moving forward. I'll turn it over to Dr. Stewart. Thank you, Dr. Collins. Good evening, President Chapa, members of the board, Dr. Smith. Um, see, so we all know that Arlington offers an enriching student experience. Thank you. [laughter] The student survey highlights where better access to supports is needed so we can direct resources and scale efforts that help every student grow. The survey helps us to understand the academic experience, support social and emotional skill development, and also promote a positive climate. These photos highlight some of the student experiences at Arlington, like
081the ones we saw earlier tonight with the gun band, um that support both academic and social and emotional growth naturally, from top performing marching bands that build teamwork and respect to CTE showcases where students explore and demonstrate their passions across 13 career clusters. This year, we strengthened our survey administration fidelity and that allowed allowed us to yield results that are more representative and provide a more reliable estimate of student sentiment among our target population which is comprised of sixth, 8th, 10th, and 12th graders. Historically, we do a stratified sample because we want to allow room for other surveys that might need to go out so students aren't over surveyed. Uh, as you can see, the total engagement rate grew quite a bit. We went from 41.3% to 68.1%. Um, and that's due to, like I
082said, strengthened processes, extra reminders, and we also replicated the same successful approach that we took with our other surveys, which was an outstanding student voice award. So, you'll see a photo of that up there as well. So, from each learning community, the highest campus engagement rate was awarded with a plaque and also a certificate signed by our superintendent, Dr. Smith. That brings us to our uh student engagement and well-being index, which we call the SUEIE. It's not related to any college sport. I'm not a sports fan, but I've heard it means something else. [laughter] So, this measures students overall experience based on explanatory items from each survey factor. This is different than our other surveys because it scored on a 4.0 scale as opposed to the 5.0 scale. We wanted to reduce the abstract thought
083and kind of ambiguity of having that neutral and make it more intuitive for students. So, it's a smaller range that people can score in. Excuse me. And uh we increase from a 2.7 at the district level to a 2.8. Typically we talk about that in terms of how many hundreds of students would need to change their score by one point holding all else constant. In this case it's one way to look at it but it might be um better to look at it through other ways because we had such an increase in the sample size and a different cohort of students taking the survey altogether. So it's probably due to the growth is probably due to a combination of smaller improvements across many many students, responsive efforts at the district and campus levels, a larger
084more representative sample and like I said the different uh cohort on this index. It's uh like I said it's comprised of multiple items for multiple factors. One of the highest scoring factors was a critical thinking item where we asked students to um state their agreement with the statement, "My teachers make me feel capable of solving tough questions." We increased that item average from a 2.9 the previous year to 3.1 this year. We also saw growth on several other items related to school safety and social and emotional development. So that was the big picture what. This is the how. This is how staff responded to student survey insights. I connected with district and staff leaders to learn more about that and I'll give you some details here. So at the district level, two district teams shared
085how they acted on these results, giving concrete examples on how they supported student belonging and school climate. First, we have guidance and counseling. They worked to make counselors more available. They had a very concerted effort to make sure that counselors weren't doing more administrative things that weren't necessarily aligned with being able to provide timely uh and direct student support when students were in their time of need. They also expanded the capacity of the successful care clinic. Uh if you don't know about the care clinic, it gives students access to statelicicensed therapists at no cost. Uh they also offer more bilingual counselors in Spanish and Vietnamese. And now we have the TAT uh tele medicine therapy which is parent approved teleaotherapy that's available to students during the school day, after school, and also during holidays. And
086last but not least, you see a picture here of a bunch of kids with those t-shirts and you see some life rafts. That's our hope squad. The hope squad grew from 19 to 27 campuses in response to this as well. Um this is where they train trustworthy students to recognize signs of isolation and struggling and um just being upset at school. And uh those students are then nominated by their peers to go through that training process and then guide their peers to a trusted adult and also provide friendship. And next we have at the district level the behavior support team. And there's a lot of acronyms and jargon that I'll try to pronounce as correctly as I can. Uh, but they delivered systemwide training to help teachers create psychologically and physically safe classrooms using the
087science of behavior, PBIS, and restorative practices. They also implemented datadriven campus behavior support action plans tailored to individual campus needs and promoted character strong lessons which help teachers and counselors directly teach TIKS aligned positive character traits and personal skills. Now for the exciting part which is the campus response. So campuses with the highest SUI growth shared strategies behind their gains. And then I examined each campus's data to see which survey items for their particular campus reflected their efforts that they shared with me. For simplicity, I'll focus on one key example per campus. At Duff, staff greet students daily and work to build connections during breakfast, lunch, and transitions. Students take active roles in class leadership activities and new students are invited to lunch bunches with the counselors to make connections. Their standout item that corresponds
088with those things is the adults at my school really care about students. So they went from an 80% positive to a 92.5% positive. At Frell staff made a concerted effort to develop critical thinking skills through verbal and written tasks. They integrated weekly social emotional skilluing lessons across all classrooms and revived their student council to give students meaningful voice in campus decisions. So their standout item was my teachers make me feel like I am capable of solving tough questions. They went from a 61.6 to an 82.5% positive. So it's encouraging to see this intentionality yields good results. On to secondary. Bull's junior high staff took part in a campuswide book study on how to be responsive to students and make learning more enjoyable. They increased family contact and strengthen safety protocols to ensure students feel secure.
089Their item was my teachers push us to do better. And they went from a 72.3 to an 82.7% positive. And at Buouie High, they emphasize morning greetings. They begin each Monday with character strong lessons, have robust teacher development centered on trauma-informed practices and how to provide instruction that reaches all students. Their berooted theme frames a lot of this work and emphasizes being where your feet are and just growing. Their item is I am good at managing my feelings and that's been a perpetual um lowscoring item on the survey for across a lot of campuses. So they went from a 51.1 to a 73% positive. And last but not least, Arlington High intentionally acknowledges students in the hallway, combining practical checks with positive interactions to make students feel seen. And teachers are committed to implementing strategies
090that address key survey items that they actively track throughout the year. One of which is, I have at least one adult I can talk to when I feel unsafe at school. They went from a 67% positive to 84.4% positive. So, these results show the progress we've made and the opportunities ahead. We have detailed item level data disagregated by campus in the board bulletin that's coming out tomorrow and you'll have a link to that dashboard to examine further. I look forward to your comments trustees with comments and questions miss. Thank you. Can we go back to the slide with the sueie baseline? [laughter] I also just wanted an excuse to say that again. Okay. So, we have sixth graders, eighth graders, and 10th and 12th. Okay. So, when they take this survey it and you mentioned
091that this same grade level will take that with this these same grade levels. We'll probably take that again next year to be consistent. That way we can kind of track not cohort longitude longitudinal data but grade levels say this average. Yes. Okay. So, with elementary, the improvement was last year's sixth grade responses versus the year after that. So, yes. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I was reading that correctly. Um, that's that's great news. I do appreciate the success stories and I look forward to digging into the data we get um through board bulletin. Thank you. Thank you, Miss McMo. Other trustees with comments or questions? I'm I'm missing none. Thank you, Dr. Dr. Collins. Thank you. All right, that brings us to the end of our report portion of our agenda tonight. We
092have no action items, so that will take us to the consent agenda. Are there any items on consent agenda that trustees would like to withdraw tonight? Seeing none, we will move to vote on the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Motion. I have a motion from Miss Fowler. Do I have a second? I second. I have a second from Mr. Will Banks trustees will proceed to vote. All trustees voting in the affirmative. The motion unanimously carries. Consent agenda has passed. That brings us to the open forum for non-aggenda items. Miss Crossnet, do we have any speakers registered for non-aggenda forum? President Chop, but we do not. Thank you, Miss Crossno. That brings us to our superintendent comments. Dr. Smith trustees, thank you for uh your work in the last couple
093of weeks. I think yeah, there it is. We have a superintendent report tonight. Tonight, we want to focus in for our priority on our academic growth piece and specifically to make sure that we're talking constantly about how we're continuing to grow and meet our um HP3 goals and our accountability focus. As you all know, we had a tea appeal that was granted to Arlington ISD in the past couple of days here, and I wanted to talk just a minute about that. Um, one, I wanted to give Dr. Natalie Lopez and her team a shout out. Uh, it was Dr. Wartz and Dr. Lopez who in June when we got scores back said we need to take a look at our rescores and we need to figure out how to to get them in and get
094some things rescored. And so with their initiation, we got the rescore process going. As everyone remembers, there was a a back-end issue at TEA. We submitted everything on time and they did not calculate our rescores or score our rescores in time to get included into the accountability scores that were released in August. And that's what led us to having to do an appeal and everything. But the thing that I really wanted to highlight was the work of Dr. Lopez and her team because the appeal isn't just saying, "Hey, we should have gotten this in a three-s sentence email." It is actually we had to prove and calculate everything for every school um that we were we were concerned about the amount of work that they did over a two-week period in September to ensure that
095we actually got the right information into TEA and get it submitted on time was absolutely phenomenal. And so the leadership of Dr. Lopez, Dr. Stewart, the entire team that works with that entire department was really exemplary and I wanted to make sure we thank them for that work. The the reason being and I've said this numerous times in the last week and I will continue to say this is I want our public to hear very clearly that we want our scores to represent what our students know and can do. We know that with AI scoring that has come in over the past couple of years that there are questions about that and I think through this rescore process and appeal process and tea granting the appeal we have proven that that is a concern that
096we need to keep our eye on moving forward. We want our public to be well informed and in order to do that we have to have accurate scores and accurate accountability systems that reflect that. It takes a ton of work to get there. I also want the message to be clear that we aren't satisfied just with the results that you see here, nor the 38 other campuses that also improved in either domain or overall scores. We actually know we have big work that we're continuing to do and we're proud of the work that we're seeing in our district to address that. And I thank you for your discussion earlier about the calendar and your realization that we do need a lever to pull in order to help address practice in the classroom so we can
097address student outcomes. So, thank you for your support and having these discussions. Thank you for your patience as we had to um go through that appeal process. It was a really long wait from September to December to get that appeal back, but we got information back that um we didn't even anticipate. We didn't appeal the district rating, but yet TEA said through the rescore calculation, we're changing your district rating because of all of the things that you all did and what you approved. So thankful for our team to do it. We're grateful that TEA um objectively looked at the evidence we provided them and we're proud of the outcome that we've gotten so far. I also want to make sure I highlight a few things along the way that uh have happened over the past
098few weeks. First, we're going to start with Sigin volleyball head coach Melissa Walker, who spent her Thanksgiving break helping others throughout our community. She led an effort to collect 95 Thanksgiving meals from Sigin Athletics for our community and her booster club bought 100 turkeys to give away to families in need for the Sigin community. Thank you for your work, Melissa. I also wanted to note we have a uh new courtyard at Martin High School and I hear that President Chopa is a really good painter after this experience along the way. Uh last month, Martin High School officially opened its newly re-imagined courtyard and uh some of us were there to celebrate the transformation that was made possible through student leadership, community volunteers, district support, several generous grants, but probably most importantly, no doubt, we want
099to make sure we give a big shout out to Martin teacher Sharon Miller who spearheaded the project. It's now an outstanding space for outdoor art projects in a garden. And it's a great place for students, teachers to go get some fresh air, study, collaborate, or take a break. As you all can remember, and I hadn't seen it before, but I hear that the courtyard was not in the best repair over the past few years. So, their efforts um not only to make it something that they're proud of, but something that our students can use for learning experiences is is truly outstanding. Um, where did I leave off? I got talking for a second. The courtyard project has been a true labor of love, one that has taken two years to bring to life, said Martin
100teacher and national art honor society sponsor Sharon Miller. So Sharon, thank you so much for all the work that you have done to make this a reality at Martin High School. This next one is pretty darn exciting as well. You've probably heard about Arlington High's senior Abby Moore, a star athlete who plays baseball. We first profiled her back when she got to play in the Women's Baseball Classic in North Carolina, and now she's made even bigger news. Abby was drafted last month for the inaugural season of the Women's Pro Baseball League. She'll barely be a high school graduate this August when she suits up as a pro baseball player. Abby also isn't just a great athlete, she's a great student, too. ranked number two in her class. Congratulations, Abby. And that concludes my superintendence report
101for the month. Thank you, Dr. Smith. That'll take us to trustee reports tonight. Are there any trustees with comments or reports this evening? Going once, going twice. I see some folks who are thinking about it. Okay, we will not have any trustee comments or reports tonight. So, all items on tonight's agenda have been addressed and that brings us to the end of our evening. No matters remain to be discussed in close session. So, we have no further business. It is 8:41 and this meeting is adjourned and we will see you all in 2026. Hey, hey, hey.