Arlington ISD Board of Trustees Meeting - November 20, 2025

001Hey. Like I said, it's on. Don't worry about it. We'll turn up the volume next time. All you have to do is just come like right here. Stand right here. So that's that's as far as you got to go. Soon as you're done, just have a seat. on. Did you see that video? I swear. It is 7:07 and I will reconvene into open session this meeting of the Arlington ISD Board of Trustees on November 20, 2025. We'll begin tonight with our pledges of allegiance led by web student Abdel Estrada. I pledge allegiance 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 pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God and

002one indivisible. At this time, we'll take a moment of silence. All right, to learn a bit more about the student who let us in the pledges tonight, I'm going to turn it over to our chief communications officer, Tyena Northington. Miss Northingington, good evening. Well, if you heard that strong voice, that is Abdel. He is actually a sixth grader at Web Elementary School. He has his family here. Even his aunt came to join him in support. And it's just wonderful to hear the passion. And if you speak with him, he is very quick to inform you that he loves math and he has a teacher and he says that um when talking about that I said well what do you love to learn and and really you told me today you learned about algebra and long

003division and he said that he can tell his teacher has a passion for teaching him and I just thought that was so special because it's very hard sometimes for children to understand math and for you to see the passion that he has in you really brightens all of our hearts and our faces. Um, on the side, you are into soccer, looking forward to the World Cup. So, we've got a huge soccer fan right here in in our presence. Uh, science and reading are his two other subjects that he enjoys with his family. Um, next week, he says he's looking forward to just being with family. And I asked him, does he help cook? And he kind of nods. So, I'm guessing, mom, he's kind of a help in the in the house, but he's really

004a Cowboys fan. And so, he's cheering on the Cowboys on Sunday and again next Thursday. So, that's big. We look forward though to celebrating more things and next you're going to shack and we're excited to have you hopefully come back for maybe some soccer awards that I think you'll be achieving in the future. So we want to thank you for joining us and leading us all in the pledge this evening. All right, we're going to move on to recognitions and appointments. And after appointments this evening, we're going to take a short recess to honor our recognizes tonight. Um, we'll have pictures in the boardroom in the lobby, so stick around for that. Leading the recognition portion of the agenda tonight, please welcome back our chief communications officer, Miss Northingington. And as we begin tonight, I'd

005ask our board members to join us right below the dis, if you would, so we can get ready for our photos. To start our recognitions this evening, we're proud to recognize four Arlington ISD high schools that have earned a spot in the US News and World Report best high schools list. US News and Report evaluates more than 24,000 public high schools nationwide using key measures of excellence including college readiness, state assessment performance, curriculum, student outcomes, and graduation rates. Schools ranking in the top 40% nationally actually earn this distinction of displaying the US News and award badge, which we can show you right here. We have a graphic and we're excited to actually honor four of our own campuses that we have that have achieved this recognition. Martin High School, Sigin High School, Arlington College and

006Career High School, and Arlington Collegiate High School. As you can see on the screens right there, they now are proudly displaying this badge on their website to let everyone know that they are on this list and recognized as well as with a flagged banner in front of their campus so that we can have families know in the community that they've earned this distinction which is really a testament to what that staff does to make sure that those students are supported year round. At this time we'd like to invite our guests from each campus to come forward and to be recognized. So, we want to say as your name is called, join us at the front of this dis for our board photo. McKenzie's coming to take your photo right here. We're gonna start right now

007with Mr. Ben Bolan from Arlington College and Career High School. Almost there. Hold on. Matt, would you like to speak a little bit to this while we make sure we're okay? I've broken a camera before, but she didn't even take my picture yet. So, we're It's an honor to be here. Dr. Bolan does great work and his staff is passionate about what they do at their campus. And um I will say this about all of our principles in attendance tonight, so I I don't waste a lot of air time along the way, but we are extremely proud of their leadership and their work because ultimately it's about what they do for kids and the outcomes that they have for kids. Their passion is seen day in and day out by how they work with their

008staff and their community. So, thank you, Dr. Bolan. Principles, thank you very much for all you do for the sake of the students at your school. We're proud of you. Thank you for stalling for me, sir. I appreciate it. All right. Now, we're ready for our photo with um Arlington College and Career High School principal. Congratulations. Appreciate it. Next, we're honoring Arlington Collegiate High School with principal Jeff Kriger. Congratulations, ARLINGTON COLLEGIATE HIGH SCHOOL. NEXT, WE'RE HONORING Martin High School principal representing um actually Marlene Rody is here this evening for Martin High School. They also earned this designation. We have plenty of room now. I got the big lens. Okay, here we go. One, two. Thank you, Martin. And finally, we have Sigin High School represented by their assistant principal, Mr. Arun Bot. One, two. All

009right. Congratulations. We've got one more. I'd like to ask the audience and our board members if they would like to look at the screens to recognize our community partner award of appreciation. Our honore tonight is Arlington Charities. At Arlington Charities, we have been serving the community since 1978. We are the largest food distribution nonprofit here in Arlington. We serve the neighbor with dignity and respect the same way we would want if we were going into a grocery store. And I've been volunteering at Arlington Charities for seven or eight years now. And I did not know at the time how serious the uh food problem was in Arlington. And Arlington Charities allows people to come and get food and you know maintain their dignity, feed their families. We have a group of volunteers that are really

010dedicated. They come all the time and we have other organizations that help out. Grocery orders can be scheduled on any smart device and picked up via our drive-up service. We also have a home delivery service for seniors and homebounds. Additionally, neighbors can visit our mobile food markets without an appointment. One of our monthly mobile food distribution events is hosted at the Arlington ISD Career and Technical Center in partnership with Arlington ISD food and nutrition department. And I like serving our community, helping out with the mobile food drive. We serve families throughout the district, including those that live outside of the city limits. Arlington ISD is one of our most valued partners and we are so thankful for such a great working relationship. There's always something to do. If you really want to give back, Arlington

011Charities is the place to be. We know that the neighbors come here with more than just an empty pantry. They come here with worry and fear, with hope that someone will care. And Arlington Charities, that's part of our mission. We care and we want to make sure that we're serving the community with dignity and respect. I brought some board members with me. Thank you so much. Um I just want to say thank you guys. It's such an honor. Um especially so early in my um time at um Arlington Charities. Um we do we partner with Arlington ISD in so many different ways and one of the biggest ways is Sigin High School comes out and the 18 plus service. they come out and um volunteer with probably two times a week. I mean two times

012a month and so we appreciate that volunteerism. Um also our freezers just went out a couple months ago and thank goodness for Arlington Nutrition Department. They took pallets of protein for us and kept them in the freezer otherwise we would have lost them. So um we value our partnership with you guys. Thank you so much. Vicki, on behalf of Arlington ISD, I want to present you with our community partner award of appreciation. And while I appreciate the fact that you are appreciating us, we're here to recognize you tonight. Um the fact that you our students are involved in the work that you're doing is wonderful and we're grateful for that. But equally important in our highlight tonight is what you do for our students and for our community because we know that students who are

013experiencing some challenges at home with food and nutrition, it's a big deal for their learning environment as well. So, thank you for what you're doing for our families. Thank you for what you're doing for our students. And overall, thank you for what you do for our community because together we're making it a better place to be for each and every citizen that we have. So, thank you all. We appreciate you. Thank you. Y'all want to get in? And while they all posed for the photo, I just wanted you guys to know that uh this yesterday actually our food distribution included every family receiving two frozen turkeys. And that was with our facilities department. And so those small things that uh people don't see is what's so important for this partnership. And so we're happy to

014honor them. Can we scooch a little bit? Maybe let's bring. Thank you. concludes tonight's honors and recognitions. All right, as we get resettled from that, I thanks to Arlington Charities, they all I think a lot of folks don't know that the extent to which we have this need in our community, but our students today in Arlington ISD, almost 80% of them qualify for free and reduced lunch. So that means that they might get served with us during the day for breakfast and lunch, but there's still a significant need in the community outside of those times. and y'all really feel that gap, especially during a time when um we want food to be a reliable thing for folks and and due to things that might be political and outside of their control. Um sometimes right now

015that's not necessarily the case. Um and then I just also want to highlight our early college high schools. Um Martin and Sigin uh people know about, but I still think that we're trying to get the message out about our early college high schools. That's where students can get their high school diploma and associates degree at the same time. And um I'm not surprised that they're on this list because statewide US average for an early college high school for students to successfully do that is around 40 to 50% of the students will graduate with a diploma in the associates degree. But um our two early college high schools consistently are at 90%. So significantly above the national average. So a real asset to us here in the district. Um, with no speakers registered for our um,

016appointments agenda item tonight, we're going to proceed with ratification of our administrative appointments. Do we have a motion to ratify the appointment of the individual discussed in close session? I have a motion from Mr. Mike. Is there a second? Second. I have a second from Miss Fowler. Trustees will proceed to vote. All trustees voting in the affirmative. The motion carries. I'll turn it over to Dr. Smith. Trustees, tonight I am excited to welcome our new assistant principal at Lamar High School, Mr. Ryan Hunt. Ryan, come on up, please. Ryan holds a bachelor of business administration and management, a master's of education in educational leadership, and is completing a doctor of education in curriculum and instruction. He has served in administrative roles at both ele the elementary and junior high levels with experience in Klein ISD

017and Wharton ISD. His background also includes years of classroom experience at Cypress Fairbanks ISD supporting a strong foundation in instructional practice and campus leadership. Ryan, congratulations and welcome to the Arlington ISD family. Thank you. Um first I would like to thank uh President Chapa and uh members of the board and also Dr. Smith. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity. Thank you, Lamar fam. Woo! Viking a Viking fight never die. Just want to point that out. Uh thank you to my beautiful wife and my wonderful children, Lavender and Bo, who are quietly sitting through this meeting. So, we're doing great. Again, thank you so much. We appreciate the support. All right. Congratulations to Mr. Hunt. We'll take a recess at this time. Trustees, let's aim to be back about 7:30. Time is 7:24 and we're in

018recess. Mhm. All right, we're going to start wrapping up here recess here. I'd ask everybody to return to their seats. We'll begin momentarily for you. All right, it is 7:37 and we're back from recess. We're going to go to our open forum for agenda items tonight. Uh, and I'm also going to exercise my discretion to combine that with the non-aggenda forum for tonight based on the um anticipated uh speakers that we have. Uh, Miss Aosa, do we have speakers registered for forum tonight? President Chappa, we do. We have four. All right. I will start with um I will start with our individual who is registered for non-aggenda to give them the opportunity to to not uh sit. If you have looked at our agenda, we have eight reports and uh we have three action items

019tonight. So, we're anticipating a lengthy agenda. So, if uh Alice Bleecker is here, I'd like to give her an opportunity to speak at this time until instead of waiting until what possibly may be 11 p.m. Thank you, Miss Bleer. Real quick, let me run over the ground rules. You'll have three minutes to speak and then um you you'll get a notification from Mr. Cost. Mr. A Costa will ask you to wrap up your comments at that time if you're still going. And uh just a note that personnel items are not appropriate topic for discussion. So if you for whatever reason feel compelled to come tonight to uh to personally attack an individual with the school district. Uh we do not uh allow that. Um but otherwise you are you are free to speak your mind.

020Okay. So I can tell you if I really love an employee though, correct? We are always happy to hear that. Okay. Um, my name is Alice Bleecker. I live with my daughter and provide child care for her two children and they are students here in the independent school district. My granddaughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes on October 28th, 2020. And November is National Diabetes Awareness Month. Last Friday was World Diabetes Day in honor of Dr. Banting, the gentleman who first administered insulin, um his birthday. So, I really wanted to come in honor of that and just talk a little bit and share a little bit with you of what it was like to have a type 1 diabetic in your school system or what it's like to have a type 1 diabetic in school.

021Um, first let me tell you that we are in a really really good place. Um, she go she's an in eighth grade at Bailey High School. Mrs. Darnell is amazing. She really cares. Um, when she first got her last year, in a matter of a week, she had an extreme low and an extreme high and she showed an enormous amount of patience, which we really appreciated. Now, nurse Nelson at Hill Elementary is an angel on earth. Um, our first year and a half of diagnosis and putting her into school was difficult, very, very difficult. And we ended up withdrawing her. Um, if you were to ask my daughter today, she would tell you that that school was going to kill her baby. You can't convince her otherwise. Um, my granddaughter missed about a year and

022a half of school before we decided to transfer her to Hill because of the things that go along with diabetes and because of some undiagnosed learning disorders. She has a debilitating anxiety issue and Hill Elementary and Baylor Bailey have both worked really well with her and she is currently thriving. So I thought in honor of that, why don't I give you a little bit of education? Number one, diabetes, type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder. The immune system attacks the insulin producing cells in the pancreas and a type 1 diabetic is insulin dependent from the moment of diagnosis on. Diagnosis is usually a lifethreatening event. They told us that if my granddaughter was between 12 and 24 hours away from either slipping into a diabetic coma or passing away. So, Miss Bleer, I'll give you

023another minute to wrap up your remarks. Okay. So, when a family comes and they're putting their student back in the school district, that's trauma. We have just experienced a trauma. We have just been in crisis. And so, for us, you are not getting us at our best. And I just wanted to let you know why that trauma occurred. But I the and the other thing that I want to tell you that the Arlington School District does really really well is follow a continuous glucose monitor for your students and that is life saving. We appreciate that so much and we appreciate what you do in that. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, at this time I will call to the podium Miss Seda Sed. Not seeing Miss Sed, we'll move on to Mr. Eric Kryle. Not seeing

024Mr. Cra, we'll move on to Miss Joanna Cardardoza. Miss Cardardoza, welcome back. I will not not go through the ground rules for you. Uh, Miss Cardardoza, you'll have three minutes starting now. All right. Good evening, President Chapa, members of the board, and Dr. Smith. The majority of you know who I am, but for those of you who do not, my name is Joanna Cardardoza, an Arlington resident, Sam Houston High School alumni, fierce advocate for public education, and the East Arlington community. I am here tonight before you for many reasons. The most important one is because I love the city that raised me. I, like many public education advocates in the state of Texas, are very aware and concerned with the multiple TEA takeovers of school districts across the state. I strongly believe in local local

025control, local stakeholders better understand the needs of their local schools. Onethird of Arlington ISD schools are currently rated a D or F. This is not surprising to many of us in the community and it is disappointing. For years, many have advocated for more resources resources and raised concerns about struggling schools. Dallas ISD has proven that students that have been historically labeled as economically disadvantaged and emerging bilingual learners can perform academically as well as their peers. The time is now to take action to support DNF- rated campuses to address ears of systemic issues, lack of accountability, lack of leadership, and the lack of positive campus environment where staff do not feel supported by their campus leadership. We need a high sense of urgency to improve before we are under TEA's radar due to the lack of

026improvement on all these campuses. We can all agree that family and community engagement are critical to the success of our local schools. But unless we truly embrace, welcome, and value all, student academic performance and parent engagement will continue to suffer on some campuses. The following are some issues that have been reported to me as concerns by Arlington ISD parents and staff. The loss of talented and experienced teachers from one school to another within within the district due to the negative culture on some campuses. Teacher and parent requests for student learning disability testing being lost from at least two different schools causing potential delays in student support. Principles not returning a parents call to discuss how to help a stud student struggling academically. Yes, there is a process on who to contact first, but not all

027parents are aware of the process. Lack of equitable support and large class size class sizes for emerging bilingual learner classes. Banning parents from schools who want to be involved in their child's education. Terminating school administrators who truly care because of political cultural worlds will only affect student performance and teacher morale. Staff accusing emerging bilingual learners of pretending that they don't speak English and a Hispanic majority school district is highly concerning as well. It is my hope that struggling schools will improve and the school district will stay out of the TA's radar. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Cardardoza. And I would encourage anyone who's who's concerned about those issues to stick around for later tonight. We will have um a presentation on our campus and district turnaround and improvement plans. All right, we will move on

028now to the report portion of our agenda tonight. We have eight reports. We'll start with item A, an update from our finance and academics committee. Chaired by Yep, I was going to say this is throwing me off a little bit. Chaired by Vice President Sarah McMarrow. Miss McMero, I will get to my microphone screen. There you go. Thank you, President Chappa. Um the finance and academics committee recently met on November 10th and we reviewed the facilities facility conditions index where um our district administration um specifically Kelly Horn and his team partnered with Corgan architects um just to get an update on each of our facility conditions here in the district. Our um capital needs steering committee also reviewed that information and that will be key in facility planning in the future. Thank you. Thank you,

029Miss McMarrow. We'll move on now to report item B, which is an update from our governance committee. And this committee is chaired by Miss Haynes. Miss Haynes. Yes, thank you. Um, the governance committee met this past Monday on the 17th. Um, and we looked at very very early preliminary drafts of the calendar for next year. Um, they are making some edits and bringing that back to us and then they will bring it here for a presentation for the public to see. And then we also continued our policy review. Thank you, Miss Haynes. We'll move on to report item C, which is an update on delinquent tax collection from our attorneys who have been retained for that purpose. And so, at this time, I'll call to the podium Charles Brady, who is a partner at Linar,

030Gagen, Blair, and Samson LLP. And I see that you're joined by Mr. Ficus. Mr. Fus, welcome as well. Lead us off here. Okay, there we go. Well, good evening uh President Chapa trustees and Dr. Smith. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here tonight. We've been representing the district since 2022 and so we're excited to be here to talk about what's happened since then. Just as a quick overview, my name is Corey Fus. I'm the managing partner of the Taran County Office of Lime Gagen Blair and Samson. And I got to tell you, representing Arlington ISD is a real badge of honor for us. It's something that our firm and our office hold really dearly because the fact that Arlington ISD chose to rely on our services is something that other districts look

031at. It's an attestament. Yeah, it is. It's a great thing to say that this organization did the thorough analysis and decided this was a firm that we wanted to use. But personally, and I know for Charles and my partners and our team in our office, there's another part of that that comes with it, which is the process that we went through was a procurement process that was very rigorous. And I think many of y'all may remember this. This was in 2021 with an outside consultant. Thoroughly vetted every line of our proposal, made sure that everything we said added value to the district, vetted the numbers we provided to make sure that when we said we did this in another district and we think we could help you, that that was true. And at the end

032of it all, he came out to make a recommendation for us. And so to be vindicated that the work that we have done for other districts could be replicated here is really something we hold dearly. Now, I'm going to talk briefly just about the highlights and I'm going to let someone else that y'all know a little better talk about more of the details. Um, our firm is the largest firm in the nation that repres that manages delinquent collections for government entities. We manage over 10 billion dollars in delinquent receivables across the country. Seven of the 10 largest districts in the state of Texas rely on us and all the largest districts in Dallas and Fort Worth repres use our services. The reason they do that is because we put a real focus on what our

033clients need. We understand that you are under immense pressure for a lot of different from a lot of different angles and we need to be a reliable partner that you can depend on. Now, in this pitch about our proposal from 2021, we also knew that what was really important to Arlington was that our voice matched the community. And we can do that as much as we try. But the best way to do that is to get a partner that knows the Arlington ISTD community. And so we did. We got the attorney that all of the partners in my firm think of as one of the greatest lawyers in the region, Mr. Kelly Kernut. And so we partnered with the Kernet Hayer Law Firm to ensure that what we do on your behalf matches the the

034intention and goals of this community. A really important thing I mentioned the importance of taking care of our clients and representing from the client first, making sure that we're responsive to what your needs are. The other thing is our people. We hire and train great people and then we go empower them to take care of our the people that we're working with. You know, you think about the work we do as a as delinquent tax collection lawyers. We're deal with people in a difficult situation. And so, we empower our employees to find solutions and to help them and to be caring. The other thing that we think is really important is, like I said, we wanted a voice that matches the community. We want to show our commitment to Arlington ISTD. Which is why I

035think you would all say that it's easy to find us, our firm or one of our faces, active in the community at events showing up at schools to participate in volunteer activities because we don't think that you can represent a community if you don't understand the community. And so we've taken that on as a mission. Um I think I've gone over the idea that we represent tax accounts for you, but what does that look like? Well, that is a gamut of services starting with the the collection program and a a team of attorneys and staff and collectors. We actually call everybody in our office a collector from the first person into the last person out. Um we have people that speak English, Spanish, and Vietnamese recognizing the needs of the community. We have a litigation

036team for every single civil district court in Tarant County. We also have an appellet team and a complex litigation team to ensure that anything that comes forward that involves a claim of the Arlington Independent School District, we're going to protect and ensure that we can recover that for you. Additionally, we have what I think and I'm going out of order just to keep it fresh, but we have what I think is maybe one of the most important things on our program is our bankruptcy team. It's a separate team in our firm that only does bankruptcy work in advorum collections. They are known across the nation to trustees and bankruptcy courts as the experts in this field and they are the ones that are looked at for solutions to complex problems because we solve the complex

037problems. Your team is also familiar with a lot of the services that we we provide including our legislative assistance both providing advice and counsel to our clients on legislative changes but also advising and providing testimony to the legislature on how changes could be impactful. Additionally, that includes truth and taxation services, school finance updates, and the whole gamut of services that are purely on the finance department side and have are completely separate from the collection program. And then also, we provided our Texas property value studies, appeals, and audit program. And I don't want to like kind of pull the curtain back on that yet because I think there's a little bit more for that. Okay, I've talked enough. I'm just the guy in in the in the office, the person that is on the ground, the

038our partner that is in charge of Arlington ISD, the person that it feels weird to introduce to you because you all know him better than I do. Y'all probably see him more than I do because he's in the district so often working and leading our team to make sure that collections are strong for you. I'd like to introduce my partner who's been practicing for over 20 years and 10 years with our firm, Mr. Charles Brady. Good evening, everybody. All right. Well, uh, thank you, Corey, and and I just wanted to let you know that's Kelly over there and Mr. Glenn Lewis and Mario Perez. They're they've come here to join me tonight. Those are my friends and business partners, and it's a pleasure to speak with you this evening. Uh, President Chapa, uh, Dr. Smith.

039Um, so we'll go over this the, uh, AISD RFP process in 2021. We made a couple of commitments that we felt were really going to help matters. uh immediately and one was that we we felt like the collection rates could be higher and we also felt that reducing the overall balance of an aging tax role was of of big importance here and I'll show you what I mean by that here in a little bit but we wanted to those were our two goals higher collection rates and redoing reducing the overall balance so how did we do that well the first year that we were in um you know the allyear collection percentage is important because it's the collection percentage of every single dollar that's owed to the district in delinquent tax. And you know, not

040just the first year, not just the second year, but everything that's owed to the district all the way back to the statute of limitations. And you were getting about 31% and in one year, a full year that we were able to work, it was increased by 51% just about, which translated to about $2.8 million in extra funds. and and that's just base tax. There was penalty and interest that was added onto that and uh that number is a whole lot higher with that with that on there. And again, we're not a chapter 41 district. So when we collect money, it goes to the M and you get to keep it. Uh that that collection those collection dollars are are dollar for dollar to the Arlington ISD. That's a big deal. And we saw that there

041was the backlog that there was a backlog. And if you notice in 2015, you were at about 12.5 million. Uh and and it was steady. It peaked at 14.5 in 2019, but if you notice, you're 12, 13, 14. And for that time and and and place, maybe, you know, that was a good number. We we felt like we could do better. So, we got hired. We got hired in 2021. And then 2022, we really got to work on things. And uh there was a rollover period where uh where we worked with the prior vendor together and it dropped to 12.8 and then to 9.5 and then to 8 and I feel like that's a really great number that that translated to a lot of money for the district and it translated to a lot of

042things that we can do for our kids here. Um but that that backlog was incredibly u we we just felt like there was a lot of collections that could be done and that a lot of that was collectible and we were right. It was it worked. Now, uh we do offer value off value added services. Uh the here we are the property value study services every year. uh your numbers at or I'm sorry, your overall values are assessed uh by the appraisal district and then they're compared to the to the numbers that you get at the comprollers's office or that the controller has for determining uh state funding for your schools. Well, when they think that you have more property than you have or that you that the value of that property is more than

043it should be, then you have the right as the district to appeal that and that recaptures all the way back to two for three years. You can go you can do up to three years. Uh so 2021 we got started 2018 which was the year that we could work we were covered uh 21.38 million uh for the district in in property value studies. And the way that those contracts work it's normally a contingency. So uh it starts at 10% you know if we collect this then we get 10% of it if we that that that's how those work. Um and our our contingency on this is zero. We're doing this as a value added service and it's our pleasure to do that. And if you'll notice, uh, it's 21.38 million, but that would have cost

044the district $2.1 million in fees that you're not having to pay. And I think that that's also important. And uh that's a really great that's a really great number. That was two years ago. This is this past year. Uh over a thousand lawsuits filed. But what I what I think is more what I like it's the lawsuits disposed of also uh we filed about 1100 lawsuits but also we disposed of almost 900 and that's how we want it. We if we it's the absolute we don't want to sue people but if if it gets to that point we really want to get this resolved as quickly as possible. And if you notice for every, you know, about 70%, you know, there's a thousand suits that are filed and then 872 from the previous years were

045cleared. And and I like that it, you know, for everyone I ideally for everyone that we file, we close one. Uh, and and that's a good thing. Accounts mailed on, 23,000 letters were sent on your behalf. Um, and you know, also, and I'll turn the I'll turn the, you know, the I'll sort of allude to this in the future, but we've developed a program where we can actually contact people with text. And, uh, doing that's harder than you would think. You have to do it through the service providers so that it's not an 800 number that you're receiving a text for. It's that six-digit number that lets you know that you're dealing with a legitimate company. And uh when you get a number from this, when you get a text from a six-digit company, it's

046somebody who's gone through this process, which I can guarantee just really arduous. The program's ready. We're working with the tax office, and when they think that it's ready for us to do that, then we're going to be ready to send texts, which I think is an even better thing because in today's day and age, a whole lot of people don't do the mail or they they're not as they're not as virulent with the mail as they should be. And this gives us a whole other avenue to contact taxpayers and whole other ways to allow them to pay. Uh that's, you know, you can pay this with with Apple Pay. And if and if it's something that you can clear out if it's a small amount, then it can be done on an impulse. And I've

047certainly made a lot of impulse purchases on the internet, uh Amazon, that kind of thing. Uh it it could be that kind of thing. So, uh, but delinquent taxes collected for the Arlington ISD between July 24 and June 25, $6.1 million. It's a good number. Um, community involvement. Forgive me for the pictures there. I'm in two of three of Oh gosh. But, uh, yeah, it's it this is something that I do whether I was working for you or not. and and it it it means a lot to me to be a part of the lives of the people in our community and the kids especially because that is such a critical time in life and and when we can raise money that's going to help teachers reach out uh do you know just do a

048little bit extra for their kids like we do at the education foundation I've been the judge in our teen court here for over 20 years and and I'm not leaving anytime soon uh but uh we work with your SRO's we work with everybody when they when these kids get tickets. I mean th something has to happen right then and and those volunteer that's how I feel about it. But those volunteer activities I'd be doing no matter what. But it's a big part of the culture at the place where I work and and where I'm a partner and and it's a really big part of who we are and and it's been a real pleasure uh having to it's just an easy part of the incorporation of what we do for a living. and what we

049should be doing in the community. And that's about it. We've, you know, another picture. But, uh, you know, Kelly's here for you. I'm here for you. I'm at I'm at everything. You guys, if you need my cell phone, I'll be sure to distribute it. But, uh, it it's been a really successful three years. We've we've done a good job with the collections. And if there's anything that I can answer, if you have any questions, I'll be happy. Trustees, any comments or questions for Mr. Brady? Okay. Thank you for your presentation, Mr. Brady. Yes, sir. I just wanted to say I I was going to bring up I'm glad you ended with the community involvement because that's how I got to know um you and Mr. Kernut and Mr. Ficus before not only we had the

050relationship with the district, but before I was on the board and before you all had a relationship with this firm that you work for now. You were the chair of the 2011 financial futures committee which is how I met you and you were involved in our committees for many years before you were at this firm and Mr. Ket is is now on our financial futures committee chairing that on our capital needs committee was on several prior capital needs committees before he was involved in this firm. So y'all have deep roots here in Arlington but your community service aspect precedes this business relationship and that says a lot about y'all as individuals as well. And thank you. Aiden graduated and and he was having a tough time in another district and he came here and those

051teachers at those teachers at his schools didn't put up with anything from him and and now he's graduated and he's in college and he's working and and and that's a blessing. Uh what we've achieved as a family and what we've received from the Arlington ISD is more than I could ever pay back. So Mr. Brady, Mr. Fus, and colleagues, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Y'all have a good night. All right, we will move on to our next report tonight and this will be report item D and this is a update on speaking of capital needs steering committee. This is an update on the capital needs steering committee. Turn over to Dr. Smith. Trustees, uh Dr. Collins is coming up tonight just to give you a real brief update on our first two

052meetings and where we're going next on our capital needs steering committee. Good evening, President Choa, trustees and Dr. Smith. I just want to provide a very brief update on where we are so far regarding our capital needs um steering committee meetings and um where we are with our progress. So we have about 35 members that are a me that are participating on our committee. We have parents, staff, students, business leaders, and even some college and university uh representation. Um as mentioned earlier, um Kelly Kernut is one of our co-chairs. Our other co-chair is Dr. Katherine Parro. We're appreciative of the partnership that we have with them. We've also been partnering with PBK um as we're working together as an administrative team to try to put the details of each of these meetings together. Um so

053far we've had two meetings. Meeting number one was really grounded in the purpose of the meetings. We talked about process, provided a district overview, provided some information on um demographics as well as what we called finance 101, which was school finance. Is there really a 101? And then meeting two was um held at South Davis Elementary. So, we started that meeting with a tour of South Davis Elementary and um got into finance 102 as well as um having George Willifford there from Hilltop Securities to present on some uh finance details. Um we had some facility assessments um the FCI was um talked about during this presentation. Um I'm very thankful for Kis Kelly, our principal, who provided um the tours and the details um for that meeting. Looking ahead, our next meeting is going to

054be really focused on department updates. So, we have six different departments that are going to come together and talk about the needs of each of those specific departments. And then, um, meeting number four will be a campus bus tour. So, we're going to get on some of our school buses and drive around and go inside some buildings and then drive by some buildings and just point out some of the features um of those facilities. And then meeting number five, we're going to be putting those pieces together. It is our intention to bring a presentation to the board of trustees on January 8th that is um going to be presented by our committee co-chairs and then um hopefully bring a recommendation after that. So very excited about the work we've done so far. For people who

055are interested in learning more about the work that the capital needs steering committee is doing, I would point them to our district website. There is a great page there that lists all of the agendas for each of the meetings, all of the slide decks that are being used in the meeting. So, um, you can just go to aisd.net/cnsc and see all of that captured there, as well as some photos from the meeting. So, it's kind of fun to see the work that's been done so far. All right, thank you, Dr. Collins. Any comments or questions from trustees on this report item? All right, thank you, Dr. Collins. We'll move on now to report item E, a report from our demographer. Turn it over to Dr. Smith. trustees. Tonight I'm going to welcome Norberto Rivas, our

056chief financial officer up to introduce our demographer um with Aonda Education and we'll go over um our annual report with everyone at this time. Good evening board president Chapz, trustees and superintendent Dr. Smith. I'm going to invite Mr. Hudson Huff with Demographics to present the fall report. Good evening. All right, y'all talking numbers and then we're going to talk more numbers. So, uh, y'all y'all are definitely having numbers night tonight. So, um, again, uh, board president Chappa, members of the board, Dr. Smith, uh, great to be here with you tonight. U,, I know typically you've had, uh, Rocky Gardner with you many times over. Uh, so he is out of state uh, this evening, but uh, but I'll try to pinch it. I'll try to do as good a job as I possibly can tonight

057to keep you informed, but maybe not do as well a job so that you want him to come back next time. So, uh, with that said, I'll I'll kick it kick off the, uh, the presentation here. Um, real quick, we'll talk a little bit about what's happening with the overall economy. Uh, again, when we look at the overall area, we're going to track kind of what's happening with jobs, what's happening with the economy. Um, probably not a shock. You're probably going to hearing a little bit of softness in the in the labor market. Some of that's being discussed uh at the state level, even at the national level. Uh but you can see kind of what's happened uh with your unemployment rate where that's just slightly increased uh over over the the the last year.

058Um what I would say is that we deal still because we've had the population increases. We've still had some job growth. So we have had some ads. So we've added about uh 33,882 overall jobs. um we have had some loss uh related to professional and business services as well as manufacturing. So that's come off a little bit. So you'll see in that that uh chart just right above that where it references an overall increase of 6%. Um so a total net ad of of that job of about 27,300 jobs in the in the uh metro study area. Um but again just seeing some of those things happen uh where where we're seeing a little bit of softness and again um in in the business sector and we're also seeing it a little bit in the

059information sector. Um so u the uh artificial intelligence is playing out a little bit where we're seeing a little bit of an of of that potentially um changing a little bit of industry as well. So um doesn't seem to be Oh, here we go. All right. Sorry, way over complicated that. Apologize. Um, now again, with us evaluating what's happening with housing. Um, we are going to be tracking the the amount of activity that's taking place with single family in the district. Um, now we haven't had a tremendous amount of single family development that's happened in the district the last several years, but you can see that there has been a little bit of an uptick this year. Uh so we do have about 115 homes that have started u this year. Again, the last several

060quarters have had several communities that have had uh several homes starting. Um and then we also want to track what's happening with closings. So you can see a small number of closings. Again, compared to where we were last year, that's increased significantly from where it was uh last year's. And we do kind of evaluate what's happening in each one of the ever uh elementary zones. So you'll see uh really a couple of areas that I would want to just highlight is is again where's the highest level of activities that's going to be in uh in the um feral uh elementary zone done uh followed by uft related to inventory. We're going to look at the under construction uh same general areas. Uh the third spot there is at Wood Elementary. Um so again, just wanted

061to track really where those are. We do have some futures uh that are out there uh in uh in the Sherrod um uh attendance zone. And so we'll highlight those a little bit more in detail as we we highlight some of the some of the detail slides we we'll get into here shortly. Overall, when we look at the district as a whole, uh you've got about 20 active uh subdivisions where we do have some level of activity um taking place right now. Again, about 60 homes currently under construction. Um we show that we have about 420 vacant develop lots uh that are across the district right now um that are ready to be built on and again about 27 future uh small developments that are out there uh totaling about 870 lots total. Um and

062then there is some ground work taking place on a few of those and we we're going to highlight a few of those uh here shortly. Uh again this is in the feral attendant zone. You can see the preserve at forum just north of of uh Interstate 20. Uh and then to the south there where there's a small little development uh called the great southwest crossing. Again just uh it's been platted but no activity is taking place. So, we want to continue to kind of track what's happening in each one of those areas. Even if it's a future, we will try to highlight those. Uh, and again, identify what those things are. Again, we'll we'll identify each one of those developments referencing the price points. Uh, so that you have an idea of what that potentially

063is going to be. Uh, and then that also potentially could impact yield when we're evaluating that. Um again, uh in the uh key elementary zone just south of Dunn is this Spring Park Park Estates small little town home development. Uh 10 homes under construction currently right now. HT Construction's been building those. Uh also in the Dun uh zone is the Green Oaks Preserve. So uh this uh is the Brightland homes. uh there have a price point of 472,000 um to 582,000. Again, showing about 12 homes that are currently under construction in that general area. When I talked about uh the number of futures out there, one of the larger futures that are out there is in the northern section of the district. This Rolling Hills, uh you'll see it's got about 221 total futures that

064are out there. uh the old uh uh Rolling Hills uh country club is where that that uh that is currently being built right now. And then again, a future uh at at uh the Peach Elementary zone is uh the town homes at Ballpark. Uh again, 68 total future lots uh that are that are part of that. Again, that's been just platted this past spring. Uh so could see some activity uh in that area um here shortly. Again, you'll see that satellite view uh as of November of 2025. So, um just uh just literally just have taken a picture in the last couple of weeks of the what what works being done there. So, you can see the streets that are in uh and anticipate those those lots are going to be coming online in the

065next in the next year or so. We'll also look at the multifamily picture. Uh so 800 multifamily units that are under construction across the district. Uh we also see about 2,700 future u future units that are going to be um designed and built to uh including about 580 age restricted uh units that are a part of that overall 2700. uh a few that are um finishing up and one that is out there uh that that's in some level of design uh the Anova Highlands that has 348 uh total units uh at that at that uh in that development. Um one of the things that we do evaluate and we've talked to staff about this is to try to identify for those apartment units trying to understand the bedroom mix uh that's going on within each

066one of those uh apartments. And so, uh, we know that there's about, uh, 44% of these are just single bedrooms and then the remainder of them are two and threebedrooms. So, those typically, if they're going to have over 50% of two and threebedrooms, potentially going to have a little bit larger yield. So, we want to make sure we're tracking that as much as possible. So, especially in a in a district that is grow has has had grown uh has grown as far as the number of multifamily developments that have grown out, um sometimes you'll get these larger numbers that come at you. And uh you want to make sure you have an understanding if it's 70% um single bedroom, probably not going to be too concerned about what that's going to do to you. But

067you want to make sure that those that have a significant number of two and three bedrooms that you know what that number potentially could be because that could bring bring quite a few families and kids into the district. Uh and again, right next to that is going to be this uh the mark at uh at Arlington 2. Again, uh 100 total uh units that were a part of that. um anticipate uh you know construction um starting here soon. Um next to that or u in another area, Williams uh elementary zone is the Merkantile Loft Lofts, 248 total units. Uh and this is being built by uh Bridge View Real Estate. And then a fairly new product that's out there is the uh single family rental um developments that are out there. We're seeing these that

068are are being developed uh in a number of areas across the metroplex. Um you've got Yardley Eden has uh about 226 uh total single family um homes that will be for rent. These are being built by Taylor Merrison um now or Morrison. I I will say that the uh the monthly rates on those for a single bedroom is about 1,700. Um the twobedroom is about 21 to 2200 a month and then your threebedrooms is somewhere in that range of about 24 to 2500 a month. So um those those rentals are are much higher than than what you would see in in many apartments um that you have around the district. But again, that just kind of gives you an idea of what those price points are in those areas. Again, you've got uh overall when

069we talk about um so much of what's happening in the district, we want to analyze what's happening with yield. So, you'll see that you've got about 14,869 uh students residing in about 58,617 um units across the district. That gives you a yield of about that. 254 Um again, we'll kind of evaluate what's happening uh with with the district enrollment um from the last year. Again, you've you've uh had a decrease over the last few years of about 2 and a.5%. Um that that did go up to about 3.8% this year with uh an enrollment drop of about a little over 2,000 um students this year. um we can see kind of the elementary enrollment declined about 3%. Um now I'll I'll share some numbers with you related to those early grade groups as we kind

070of talk through uh those but those are um again we're we're evaluating that cohort growth or cohort drop down in that chart below gives you an idea of what's happening um from one grade group to the next grade group. Uh and so as we uh have a have a few that may be up above a one uh again but but uh but we're in that 96 to 98.99 range in most of those grade groups. So, one of the things that I believe we've shared with the district in the past is we are tracking what's happening year-over-year um related to how many new students are coming into the district and also evaluating um how many students that were here last year that are no longer here and trying to capture that so the district has an

071idea of what those trends are. um so you can have a a better understanding of potentially what those numbers look like and potentially even to a granular um point of even knowing where those those areas are. So um what we do see is that we have seen about the same number of newcomers this year compared to what we saw last year. Um and so we did see about 8,100 uh levers um this year which is actually less than where you were last year. So part of what we'll highlight is really tied into the early grade groups versus um your students that are graduating out and how that that's impacting the numbers. Um but what I would say is when you look at that comparison from from this year to last year's numbers, they're they're at

072least consistent with where you were last year related to the those numbers. Now, one of the bigger things that's out there that's impacting uh Arlington ISD as well as many districts across the state is really just evaluating what's happening with your kindergarten numbers. And so that's tied into birth rates. And so you can see um really if you look at what your district birth numbers were um several years ago um and then you can see where you're at this year um in the correlated year of 2020. Um that is 6 to 700 less births than what you had several years ago. Um and that is impacting what what your kindergarten numbers are. So we do evaluate that kindergarten number in comparison to those district births and track that for the last several years to really

073kind of give us a good idea of that ratio. So that kind of gives us an idea of what potentially that ratio and those starting numbers potentially will be in the next several years. Um so it gives you kind of an idea of being in that 78 to 08 range. Now you will see that uh one of the positives that I would say even though it's an overall lower number um that that ratio was a little higher this year. So we did have more um we did have more residents and kindergarten students in that from that overall number in the district this year. So that was a a positive compared to some of the ratios we've had even though in the last couple of years. So when you look at the overall um one of

074the things that I would say is that you're when you look at that 12th grade um group and then you look at your third grade or your kindergarten group that's part of the challenge is the smaller number of students that are coming in in those kindergarten levels versus the number of of seniors that are graduating out every year. that is is why we see some of the loss that we currently see um that contributes to that. Um so what I would say is we do think as time goes on we will start to see that leveling. So you are going to reach a point in time where that kindergarten level should maintain and where you'll see kind of several years out where we start to hold that number somewhere in that 3100 kindergarten students level.

075Um, and where you start to see where the district should start to um, minimize how many students are going down every year is because you're finally going to get to a point in time where your senior class and your kindergarten class are going to start to finally level. Uh, so that's where we would anticipate again seeing some enrollment drop the next several years, but could potentially see that start to level out as we get into that five, seven, eight year range. So then when we do look at this uh related to the the overall campus capacities and and and where your numbers are, the district is in a place where you currently are um in a good place related to to to overall capacity uh and and and student numbers at each one of those.

076So do you have room in in the in the current campuses that you have and again even at the high school level where we show that Martin High School has u has been at at a challenge with capacity numbers um should as as those smaller grade groups come through that uh you should have uh room there again at that Martin High School uh should should be dropping down into a spot where it's well within and its capacity. The only other thing that I do have and this is a little bit different than what we've done in the past is we are referencing a range. So again, when you'll see what we've provided related to um what we think um the next year or two is going to be related to our overall projections, those are

077in those mid- projection range. So So again, that's really what we would propose that that's where we anticipate the numbers being. Um but as we do we talk to districts about um and your finance folks typically have always done this as well a little going to be a little bit more conservative. So be somewhere between the mid-range and the low projections when they're thinking about budget and staff um going into the next few years. Um but then again also knowing that there can be some shifts and changes that take place that could potentially um surge some numbers. Uh and so with that, you would always want to make sure that you evaluate what those high projections potentially could be at uh at the district so that you make sure that you have the the facility

078capacity to be able to accommodate all. So overall, again, district has seen it seen a decline and and we do see the impact uh of of what we're seeing related to charters choice and some of our homeschool numbers. Um but a large percentage of what we're seeing is really tied to again those small grade groups um or those lower grade groups and some of those numbers dropping at those levels. Um so I mean and we see this at the state level. So um it's this this the overall um state enrollment has kind of stayed level or has even gone up a little bit with all the population growth we've had. But if you look at the kindergarten numbers um in first grade numbers from the state numbers um from 22 to this past year um

079there are at least seven or 8 thousand less um kindergarten students than what we were um you know a couple of years ago. So again we're seeing that at the state level. So with that said happy to answer any additional questions you may have. Thank you trustees with comments or questions. Miss Valor, thank you President Ja. Thank you for this report. This was very interesting and very enlightening. Could we go back to slide six? Yes. Let me see. I need some help. Um I'm at least making me feel better because I was trying to figure out that's okay. I I have notes what was on there. That's okay. I I can pull it here. I can I can know what my my concern is the starting price of the houses that are $469,000. And I

080know it's not your fault, but but I'm just I'm I'm bringing that up because that and the in the two-bedroom rentals that is not allowing young families to come into this area that we want to attract and have those kids be part of our AISD because I don't know of very many young people. I don't even know that older people can start out a $469,000 house or pay over $2,000 for a rental. And I just think that's that's part of the problem with us is we don't have housing that people can afford. And another problem I think that we have is a lot of our students are very transient and they move from apartment to apartment and sometimes we lose track of them. But I have to think that one of the biggest problems that

081we've got this drop in enrollment is that families cannot afford to live here. And that bothers me a lot. I don't know what the answer is. I I I know there's one developer that she's looking at some more affordable housing and and I'm grateful for that. But when we look at all these places and and the Old Country Club and these places, they're they're pricing out families. And I don't, you know, maybe maybe people can afford that that are moving here with businesses, but the average family that we would like to attract cannot afford to live in those houses. And I think until we can provide um more economical housing, we're going to keep seeing this decline. And that's sad. That's very sad to me. But thank you for this report. Absolutely. Dr. Smith, I

082I do want to add, Miss Fowler, just so you know, I I've had that exact conversation with some of our city officials because as we're talking about development for the future, we also need to think about how we have single family homes that are affordable for young professionals to come live, work, and play here in Arlington. And um even when we talk about teacher recruiting as well, we want them to live and work here. And so, uh, I do agree with you wholeheartedly. The price point and the fact that we have a lot of families that are staying in their homes for a long time in Arlington is a great thing, but we're not regenerating uh opportunities for young families to buy homes at that point. And we've got to we've got to constantly have

083that dialogue with our city to uh try and make sure that we're we're thinking about that for the future. Thank you, Miss Fowler. Mr. Will Banks. Thank you, President Chapan. Thank you, Hudson, for this presentation. Uh, if you can go back to slide one, I want to kind of start with what we're seeing at the state level. You know, you talked about the employment um picture and the fact that we all know we're we're about to go from the eighth largest economy in the world to the seventh largest economy in the world here in the state of Texas. And it's attracting a lot of new people to Texas. But when you look at enrollment in public schools and the demographics, you mentioned it, you know, uh, kindergarten numbers are declining and because of the birth

084rate largely due to the birth rate. I'm having trouble squaring like the number of people coming with the declining birth rates and how that's having an impact not just here in Arlington ISD, but statewide. I know Rocky in a presentation like a year or two ago just discussed it in depth but um explain it again to me if you can. Yeah. So, so we do have the birth rates do tie into what those kindergarten numbers are. Now, what I would say when you look at the overall enrollment and that's why I say when you look at the TEA numbers by by year um those numbers still have been level or even up um because some of the families that have been moving in are moving in with students that potentially are in secondary. And so

085they're those secondary numbers are staying fairly level. Um and you also have some fairly larger kindergarten numbers that that were in several years ago. Um so it's the new new numbers, new families that are coming in that that are having less kids. Uh and so that's that's part of the factor. The other challenge that we are seeing related to the overall numbers is kind of an uptick with um expansion of private schools. So you're seeing some of those numbers and then we're also seeing things that are happening related to homeschooling. Um so you do see an increase in those numbers um that we've seen the last several years um compared to where we used to be. So um we're we're now having um discussions about um families that are grouping together to put together what

086they reference as micro schools um that are larger co-ops of home schools. And so that those those um are helping to contribute to some of those earlier grades um having less students in those earlier grades. And again, we're seeing that not not necessarily specifically in Arlington. Um but we're seeing that across the state. um even small districts are um and even some of the out what I would reference is more of the outlier um rural school districts that um are are being challenged by some of those those those homeschool numbers even to a larger extent than what you're even seeing in the metro areas. But again, we're we're seeing some of those um trends that are impacting that overall number in those lower grades. Yeah. And we're not only seeing it across the state, but

087here in Arlington and even in my very neighborhood, there's a micro school just a few doors down. Yeah. So, uh, great. They have a great mom that's a great educator. Um, but we're all seeing those trends. Um, and you know, we Miss McMurrow and I were at the North Texas Area Association of School Boards meeting last night in Colin County in a very high growth district. And the question was asked of all the districts that were there last night, who was seeing declining enrollment trends? Pretty much everybody but one district raised their hand. So, we're all seeing, especially here in North Texas, declines in enrollment across the board, even in districts you think would be high growth districts in Colin County. So, um, with that, uh, if you could go to I think your slide

08816. No, I want to go to slide 20. 21. Well, you mentioned the Rolling Hills development. Um, if you look on slide 15, that's up or I'm sorry. Anyway, you mentioned the rolling hills. That's going to be the biggest largest increase. The large feature that had over 200 lots, right? And so those would feed into Shared. Yeah. But it's also right there on the border with with Butler. And I looked your slide 21. I think is that the one with the uh functional capacity. If you look that by campus campus number that was 21 shared. We've got plenty of room for those folks. The problem we have with being a district of choice is parents from that neighborhood don't necessarily go to shared. they typically go to Butler and Butler is over functional capacity. So,

089um I think that we need to be careful in looking at districts like that and figure out how can we make shared their first choice u by putting in programs of choice. And so I think when we look at those developments going in that are going to impact some of our schools and traditional theater patterns, it really behooves us as a district to look at and see what we can do to even out um where parents choose to uh send their kids, especially in that area of uh North Arlington. And that with that I think that's all my questions. Are there any other trustee? Miss Fowler. Thank you. This is probably a Dr. Smith question, but on that on the slide that talked about that we're losing our second and third graders. Have we done

090any kind of like exit interviews or a study to see what in particular is causing those second and third graders to leave? Yes, we've actually had people out canvasing trying to understand um why families are choosing other options in our district. I don't know numbers that are targeted specifically for second and third graders, but we're absolutely trying to understand if people are making a choice other than our school district, what's the choice and why are they making it? And I think that's key information that we're going to have to continue to study in this. Um sometimes it's a little hard to get that information. and our canvasers are not always super successful. Uh you know, door knockers uh a lot of people don't answer doors anymore and uh but we're doing our best to try

091and get that information for uh some of our population that basically have just left our system and we don't know exactly where they've gone. And I I think our first grade teachers are doing an incredible job. So, I don't think that we can say that it's something going on with first grade that makes them leave in second grade because I know those first grade teachers are are doing really incredible work, but I'm just curious as to why second and third would leave. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Fowler. We'll go back to Mr. Webex. Sorry, President Choa and and Hudson. I had one more um question for you and um in your projections in your model, how did you account for the variability and the unknown of what the new voucher uh

092system is going to do to enrollment um across the state and also with Arlington ISD. we are being a little bit more conservative when you look at um and even if you take into if we if we were to go back um if you go back to your kindergarten numbers go back to I think it's slide 18 um you'll see that just just in that you know again you're referencing that that that enrollment rate of that 0830 um you'll see where we where we've dropped that um dropped those number that that ratio down just a little bit again not trying to make any any dramatic shifts related to that, but just trying to be a little bit more conservative of what we could potentially see um in some of those lower grade groups. And so

093we are accounting for u a slight modifier related to what those those cohort numbers are for the next few years uh as we get a better understanding of of what that overall impact is going to be. So I would say we are being a little bit more conservative with our our cohort numbers uh for the next couple of years. And again, that's just an example of of how we're um dialing that back a little bit from where you've been the last the last year or two. Yeah. Uh thank you for that. Um I see our C CFO right behind you. And one of the questions I had for him earlier this week on our comprehensive our annual comprehensive financial report is this was the first year I think where in our original budget for last

094year. Um we typically under estimate the revenue we get from property taxes based which is based on enrollment actually attendance but roughly on enrollment. Um and Mr. Chop and I go way way back. Um, I see one of our chairs from our financial future committee, but I used to chair that committee for a number of years and this is the first time I've ever seen us overestimate. And the reason why was, you know, the declining enrollment that was hard to predict. Well, now we're going into a whole new era of unknowns with the voucher system. And so that's going to make Unfortunately for Mr. Rivas, his job much more difficult and and I'm sure it makes your job difficult too as well in terms of predicting enrollment. And so that's just going to put more

095strain on us budgetary. You know, anytime there's uncertainty, uh it just makes it life difficult for everybody. So yeah, I was I was going to say we u and I believe we've talked to the district staff about this. We are um working on an additional data set that we are trying to to gather as we go into this spring. Um it's it is going to be more detailed related to identifying the mobility of what's happening with um with students and trying to identify specifically um a more detailed approach based off of devices and tracking of devices uh of of what your private school numbers are, what your home school numbers are. Um so at least we can create kind of a baseline of what those numbers are this spring. Uh and then we'll be able

096to evaluate that uh in greater detail as we go into um next school year to see what those numbers look like compared to the baseline year this spring. Um and because the challenge is is to try to figure out um what are those trends going to continue to be and if are they going to continue to grow or potentially um or will they somewhat level off. So the one thing that I would say that potentially could be a gamecher is going to be the online enrollment. Um so a lot of districts um have have seen declines in their overall enrollment because of online and and students and families going to other options in other districts because they had that available. Um, and so now there is the ability for the the districts to re-evaluate potentially

097offering some of that online programming and there could be the the possibility of bringing some of those um students back into the district if if those uh if those options are available. Thank you, Mr. Wilbanks. Any other trustees with comments or questions? Okay, I had just a a question on and I don't remember which slide it it is um but I will quickly find it. It was the newcomers and levers slide slide 17. Yes, at the very end of that line chart on the second half of the slide between 2023 and the present that line has trended positively. What is the what should I take from that that we we we seem to have bottomed out um at about 2700 levers annual difference in 23 24 and now we're at 2,000. What does that signify?

098I mean I I would say from this from that perspective you you're having you you truly are having less students leave the district um from what you had several years ago. So from that standpoint, it I would consider that a much more positive trend. Um so it it is again with the amount of mobility that the district has because of uh the multif family that's in the district that some of that's just going to naturally happen. Um but but you do have you are retaining um you are retaining more of your students than you have in the last few years. Okay. So and I know this is not your this may not be the right question for you, but you're the stats guy who's in front of me. in the basket. Um, that coincides with

099the introduction of our free universal prek4 program. Is it possible that that trend is at least in part attributable to us making that decision and that we would have more levers today if we didn't implement that program three years ago? Uh, I strong possibility. Uh, the only thing I would say is from from looking at the last few years of your overall pre-K numbers, your prek numbers in and of themselves haven't haven't gone up significantly. But what I would say is having those pre-k programs only solidifies um taking care of your families and potentially um providing a different level of loyalty there than than what you've had in the past. So yes. Sure. And and Mr. Wilbanks touched touched on this and and um I remember the report that he was referring to that Rocky

100gave. I think it was at um a North Texas area association of schoolboard meetings hosted that we hosted last year at Barry Elementary. And it's a real interesting statewide phenomenon because I feel like for the last few years um the the narrative around this has been, you know, individual school districts are failing in some way because they're losing kids. And it it's now becoming clear that this is not just an isolated district trend that can be attributable to necessarily specific factors unique to a specific school district. It's part of a a much larger narrative coming out of CO that in some ways the factors were present before CO and maybe CO accelerated those trends. Um because in you know I was Mr. Wilbanks mentioned it, but 11 years ago we had a a pretty comprehensive

101demographic study done as part of our 2014 bond program and at the time we had about 65,000 students and it said somewhere in the 7 to 10 year range we'd go up to 69,000 students and the literally since the year that study was done we have lost students every year. Um but if you look back statewide and you know first I think that was a lot of well what are we doing wrong but it's now clear it's part of a statewide trend. Do you have a sense of whether or not that statewide trend in Texas where we have a lot more people moving to the state but public school numbers essentially staying static to declining overall. Is that a national trend or is that a Texas trend? Okay, I'll uh let me let me say

102it this way. What what I think the part of what we're seeing is that you have a lot of families that have been moving into um the state of Texas and they've been moving into our public school system areas. Um but what they are bringing is their experience from other states and some of the experiences that they have in other regions. And then they sometimes make those school choice school choices not based off of what's happening here but what they experienced in their previous experience from where they came from. And so sometimes they that's why whenever we do have increases in numbers um they may look to alternatives rather than public schools because their previous experience in other states potentially wasn't as solid as what many in the local area that we are used to

103have had experiences within that. So, I think that is part of what we're seeing is when you have the population increases that we have and why doesn't that translate into significant numbers, birth rates do figure into that, but then also those experiences of a very um diver diverse group moving into the area with diverse experiences um potentially is why they're more open to new choices um different choices than what we would traditionally see in the in the local area. So, um I don't know if that kind of No, that that that's help that's helpful because what I'm what I'm wondering about is is the numbers and they're not in your presentation. I'm referring to the presentation that sort of shows the trend line in growth in public schools in Texas and then it just sort

104of it sort of dissipates pretty rapidly, right? Yes. in in in my mind it coincides with and I I've been in public ed in some way as either a teacher or a volunteer or now I'm on the board for for almost 20 years I've been on the board for eight and during that time the narrative around public education in this state has changed dramatically in my opinion for the negative especially in the last 3 to 5 years and in correlation of course it's not causation but the decline in people choosing public school in the state seems to pretty readily line up with that shifting narrative around public schools. And so, do you have any data or and in your experience, have you looked at the potential effect of of that what I will call negative

105negative negative uh narrative around public education in Texas? How does that affect what you've presented tonight? Is that is that a factor as well? because I know we've talked about school choice and declining birth rates, but in my mind in at least here, there also seems to be a a potential another cause that that at least in your presentation might not be accounted for. I I I believe that the challenges with with the the data that we're collecting related to that. Um I do believe that that data um is happening. Um but we don't have it um we don't have it formally documented yet, but I do think that that is going to be coming. Um as as this year we will most likely see um from TEA a significant drop in the number than

106we've had the last few years. Um and that will to me that that will be a starting point of evaluating what that impact has been. Um again I I think because we're evaluating these numbers and the numbers have been for all intents and purposes level. Um even with all the growth that we've had the overall state numbers have been fairly level to a little bit up. And I would expect that this year with everything that has happened and with what we're seeing with multiple clients and again referencing um all just about every district with the exception of a few are seeing those declines. That that in the larger number should be fairly significant. And that will be a starting point to see if that is a drop, a one-year drop or because of um because

107of the vouchers, if we'll see this for a couple of years. But I do think that that's we we'll be able to to begin to be able to collect a lot of um value data to be able to identify exactly what you're referencing that because I'd look forward to to seeing that because you know that the the the quoteunquote Texas miracle is not is not a new I mean the state has been growing very rapidly you know for decades and it's only very recently that the enrollment in public school has not kept up with the growth in the population as people move here. So I think it's it's something unique about why people are choosing to not choose public schools that is a more recent phenomenon. So um if there are no other questions I

108I don't see any. Thank you for your report. Thank you very much. Okay. I understand we needed to reset our presentations. Are we good? Okay. All right. We will pick up then with this is report item F, a priority update on campus needs and our campus needs index report. I'll turn it over to Dr. Smith. I don't know that I need to introduce Dr. Collins to you. Um, as you know, this has been a priority area for us in one of our key progress measures last year, but this is a followup to a board request to have us make sure that we talked a little bit about now how we're utilizing this in our system. So, Dr. Collins is here today to uh walk us through that. Good evening, trustees. We're going to um talk

109a little bit about the campus news index. And the purpose of this presentation is really to talk about um how the utilization of the campus needs index is informing um strategic staffing and resource allocation. And so I want to give you a little bit of background information. Um you know historically the data that is most readily used in public education to identify need in a school district is our educationally disadvantaged percentages. Right? Those were never intended to be the factor, but it's something that feels standard across the nation. So, it's something that's used as we think about free and reduced lunch percentages. And so, our charge last year, we set a KPM to establish a campus needs index specific for Arlington ISD. And we did that in two phases last year. So, the first phase

110in the wintertime, we partnered with Strive um and learned about the opportunity to learn index. You guys will remember we had a board workshop on the opportunity to learn index. We spent time with our principles talking about the opportunity to learn index. And in this index there were 34 unique indicators that fell across four different categories um that were used to determine um different areas of need for a specific campus. And so you'll remember a big heat map that listed all of our campuses down the side and those 34 indicators across the top and you could just see where different campuses popped. um on that heat map where they stood out to be different than their peer district or their peer campuses. What we heard from principles whenever we talked with principles about this information

111was thank you for digging in and learning about our schools. These are things that we knew and felt about our schools, but now what we're seeing is how we compare to other schools within the district. And so after we had that initial information from Strive, what we did was we worked with our research and accountability team in phase two and they ran some regression models to determine which of those factors maybe carried the most weight um in the system and was there a combination of factors that we could put together that would give us the best predictability as we think about um student success. And so after lots of information, Dr. Lopez and her team identified five factors that gave us 73% se 73.7% accuracy in um identifying which of our campuses are most um

112at risk where they have the most need. Um so after we had this information we brought it to you and presented and that's the last conversation that we had with our trustees. Since then, we've been utilizing the campus needs index. And so, what we're going to share with you tonight are really those two um main points that were on the intro slide, you know, how are we using this for strategic staffing and how are we using it already for resource allocation. So, as we think about strategic staffing, uh one of the very first ways that we used the campus needs index was at Larsson Elementary with a staffing initiative. We launched this initiative actually late spring last year and it was really focused on recruiting and retaining the very best highly qualified educators to boost

113student success on that campus. And so that was a unique initiative. HR partnered very closely with us as we tried to do something different and to try something different. Lararsson Elementary was the number one campus on our uh campus needs index that showed that those students may need something different. So that's why Larson was identified. The office of school leadership campus support assignments were also impacted by our campus needs index. So you guys know that we have four elementary um eds that partner with our elementary principles and what they were able to do early summer was to reallocate um those different um learning community groups and then to make sure that we had um an equal distribution of campuses across each of those different learning communities. So no longer do we have one learning community

114that's hyperfocused on campuses with high needs. Instead, all of those campuses are equally distributed across those four learning communities. And that we have gotten very positive feedback on that redistribution. We've also used the campus needs index thinking about staffing allocations for the 2526 school year. So you know um in the spring we look at projections and try to think about how many second grade teachers are going to be needed on a campus or how many junior high teachers are going to be needed on a campus. And so we used the campus needs index whenever we had numbers that were very close instead of saying we're going to go ahead and move that teacher and if they um end up having the numbers come in that we'll hire a teacher at the last minute instead we

115left that certified teacher on the campus so that there can be some could be some consistency knowing that during the leveling process if we wanted to move them we could do that but we decided not to pull um if it was a really close number for our campuses that were in highest need. And then finally, for strategic staffing, um during the leveling process after students have arrived in our buildings this fall, um we work together very closely with the OSL team and um our HR team to think about, okay, now that the kids are in our buildings and we know exactly how many third graders we have, we know exactly how many seventh graders we have, what are the different positions that may need to be moved? and our campuses that again that were borderline

116um if they were high on the campus needs index we were more likely to leave a position then we work to pull that position over to another campus. Any questions or comments about strategic staffing before I move on? Okay. So then the next big bucket is thinking about resource allocation. So you have heard our HR team talk already about the teacher incentive aotment. um in the planning for that and the campuses that we've identified to potentially pilot that with us in the future are our campuses that have the highest need according to the campus needs index. Um we also are using this as we think about technology device prioritization. So we know that we need to refurbish our devices for technology think student devices. Um and whenever you have over 70 campuses where do you

117start? And so the campuses where we're starting are the campuses where our students are most in need. And so they're prioritizing those campuses first. Um, everyone will get the new devices, but where we're starting is with our campuses most in need. Um, we also have an initiative right now right now uh with Bailey Group who's doing some instructional coaching um on our campuses. You're going to hear more about this whenever we're talking about tip and tap plans later in the meeting, but the Bailey group coaching um did take into consideration um our campus needs index. Um and then the academics team has prioritized support for our campuses that are highest in need. So as you think about the role of an instructional specialist and our curriculum team um they are spending um more time on

118our campuses with highest need as opposed to saying everybody gets the same type of support on every campus. So again um oh and we do have one more zerobased budgeting. So, the ZBB initiative that we're um going through right now um regarding um the 26 27 school year, the whole idea of ZBB is to allocate funds to our campuses that are most in in need, right? And so, it's going to allow us um to think differently rather than just budgeting the same way on every campus. So, looking ahead, since I had to turn in slides for this presentation, I've already had others who've talked to me about, oh, here's another way that we're using it. An example is um our communications team is looking to refresh and rebrand some of our campus logos, and they're

119going to start with our campuses who have the highest campus needs, right? So, if when you have a large number of campuses, how do you know where to start? Instead of going alphabetically, let's start with those campuses that have the highest needs. So, it's just good to hear that people are continuing to use um this data and this information. Um there is not a need to um redo the campus needs index year after year because our communities aren't changing necessarily. If our feeder patterns stay the same, then really the campus needs index shouldn't shift. Our idea is that every 3 to fiveish years, that's when we would reconsider unless we have a significant change in population on a specific campus. So any discussion about our campus needs index and the way it's been used. Thank

120you Dr. Collins. Trustees with comments or questions. I've got Miss Fowler. Thank you President Choa. This was very good. So on the technology part will will it be uh devices that the students can take home? So we are actually working on a onetoone take-home device initiative. So we are in the planning phases for that. We are very excited hopefully to be hiring a chief technology officer um in the near future, but we've been doing a lot of the background planning for that kind of an initiative. But we're even thinking about our elementary campuses right now that um you know students have devices that are old and tattered and the batteries don't keep power and those kinds of things. So even for those devices that we anticipate might would stay in a cart on the campus

121when we're trying to figure out who's going to get them first, it's going to be these campuses that are most at good. And then do we know whether in those neighborhoods um are the students going to have internet? And I know during COVID we provided hotspots. The district paid for it to provide hotspots for different neighborhoods. But that's something I think we need to look at too because you know it's wonderful to take the device home, but if they don't have internet, they're not going to be able to use it. Yeah. So that's actually one of the factors on that opportunity to learn index, the 34 indicators. One of them is about Wi-Fi access in the community. So that is something that we're paying attention to and we agree with you there are a lot

122more um factors that we need to con um consider rather than just do we have enough devices for kids to take home. It's about changing instructional practices in the classroom. It's about what are the things we're asking students to do when they are at home. It's about do they have access with Wi-Fi. So we know that it's much bigger than just assigning a computer and sticking it in a backpack to take home. So it is a very big conversation that's been happening and um we're excited to hopefully get to pilot on some campuses this spring. Thank you. Yeah. And if I could add one thing, I just want to make sure we're clear on this. We don't have the funds to do a onetoone take-home right now. And so, while we're making the planning efforts,

123etc., this is part of the capital lead steering committee study that has to happen as well as this technology refresh because the items that you brought up are very good points. They're also expensive points and we have to be able to make sure that we can fund some of that refresh uh if if we're able to do some of the things that we want to do like send some devices home. Dr. Smith, Miss Fowler, thank you. Any other comments or questions from trustees? All right. Thank you, Dr. Collins. Thank you. We'll move on now to report item G, an update on our teacher retirement system active care study. Turn it back to Dr. Smith. Trustees, um Scott and Holly are here again. We had a workshop last month on this topic. We told you we

124would bring in a report at this time to give you an update on the study itself. The workshop was designed to give you the background information on some of the key factors involved in in uh what we have to study every time and uh Holly will take it away from here and I think Scott will add some things in at the end. Thank you, President Trapa, trustees and Dr. Smith. Um I appreciate the opportunity to be here this evening to present this report to you and the purpose of the report is just to give you an update on tier active care and the current state of our healthcare. So we have 8,500 employees approximately who are eligible to enroll in our medical. Um this year I can share that we had about 4,900 employees enroll

125in TRS active care medical. Last year I shared with y'all that we we tended to have this decline but you can see this year we saw about a 325% increase and I believe that might be due to y'all's um decision to increase the healthcare contribution by $33. So I I thank you for that. um because we had decline every year until this year. So I I think that that shows that that was u meaningful and evident to our employees. Um however, we do have about 40% of our employees who are still declining coverage. That doesn't mean they don't have medical, but it means they're not in our medical. Um most of those employees are actually our our hourly or salary non-exempt employees. About 64% of those declined and then out of our salary employees, we

126had about 28% declined. But it it says to us that our hourly and um non-exempt employees, it's it's hitting them the hardest because they're not able to enroll. And um we believe that might be to due to our premiums. Um over the last several legislative sessions, they gave the state, meaning they gave TRS active care funding to help those um those yearly increases from going above 10%. In our last board reports and in prior years, I've shared that we tend to have a 10% uh increase every year. However, TRS has reported that they're no longer going to have that that future financial um funding and they also have no reserve funds. So, what does that mean? It means that we could see more than 10% increases. We don't we don't know right now. Um but

127that's what they've reported to us. So, with that, you know, future rates are unknown. Um, we also have to consider withdrawals out of the current plans. We do have districts that are leaving um, TRS active care and we also have districts that are returning into TRS active care. When they're returning, we're finding that some of those are actually high claimments and they were elite because they were out they needed to get back in because it was costing them too much money. So, if they're high claimments and they're going into the plan and they're they're regionally in our region um, that could cause some market um, issues for us. Um, I also um found out that uh the marketplace or the Affordable Care Act um is estimated to increase in Texas in 2026 by 24%. And

128right now they have open enrollment. It's uh it ends um January 15th. So that gives opportunities for employees who are currently in uh the marketplace to return to um our health our healthcare plans. um that would be considered an qualified event, but we don't know if they're returning to our plans whether they're low claimments or high claimments. And so I say that because um we we've been talking about how our claims are consistently over 100%. Um every year we have the opportunity to notify TRS by 1231 whether we want to opt out. Um and when you did that, you didn't have an opportunity to opt back in ex uh until 5 years had passed. But this year the leg the law changed um with the current legislative session that we had and they said you

129can opt back in but you have to pay a fee and that fee is up to 40%. Um and because we are above 100% in claims um we're probably going to I mean I would assume that our claim or our fee would be much higher towards the 40%. Um so that's a challenge for us um if we were to consider leaving. Another challenge is that we don't know what the rates are going to be for TRS until probably May or June. And so when you have to make a decision by 1231, um you're you're kind of going into with the unknown what is it going to be in May and June when TRS releases those rates. Um I've also discussed with y'all that we continue to have rising premiums um about 10% a year. But

130in addition to those, we're also seeing increases to other things that are burdens to our employees like their deductibles are going up and their co- insuranceances. So, it's costing our employees money and we recognize that. Um, additionally, TRS Active Care has done a request for proposal. So, currently they have Blue Cross Blue Shield. Um, but when when they're doing this, they're actually looking for potentially what we call a new BUA, which could be a Blue Cross Blue Shield, a United Sigma, or Etna, and any other providers that are interested in uh bidding. Um, right now we don't have any information on who's bidding, who's not bidding, but um, you know, it could change the way the plan design is based on who um, TRS chooses to elect. So there's differences between fully insured and self-funded.

131With the TRS active care, that is considered a fully insured model. And so a fully insured model is when we pay the employer pays premiums to the insurance company but the insurance company takes that risk. Um and so right now it's here active care is taking that risk. A self-funded uh employer was self-funded definition is when an employer is actually paying the claims but then the employer is taking the risk um based on the premiums they they're collecting from their employees. But there are some advantages and disadvantages to each. Um with the the fully insured plan, it helps because um there's established networks and it also helps again because they're taking on that risk. But it does limit plan design options um and um it doesn't help us when we want to try to do

132unique things um for our employees because we're limited to what TRS Active Care um designs those plans and how they want to establish them. But the advantages for the self-funded plan is it gives us an opportunity to customize what we want to do and how we want those designs to look for our employees. Um, and it also provides better flexibility. However, it also gives us a risk. We as the employer would take on the risk of what those costs might look like if we're paying more claims than what we're bringing in as premiums. There are some protections like stop stop loss, but they're not guaranteed. Um, at our board workshop, I talked about the um, historic historical claims ratios and I want to highlight these again because they're really important. Um, we have consistently been

133above 100 122% or more. Um, last year or the 23 24 year we were at 137%. And each year I request claims from TRS and then we do some analysis to see where where we're going to be. Um, and so we look at that um, a couple of times a year. But remember, in order for us to be um sustainable, we need to make sure that we're bringing in enough premiums against our claims. And so, for example, right now we're our premiums that we're giving TRS is about 37 million, but we're actually paying almost 45 million. So, TRS is taking the hit right now instead of the district. And that's that fully insured model that I just described to you. So, I want to um share some feedback that we've had the the past couple

134of years. Um the the slide here is from 2024 and this was when we asked our um this was department and campus feedback. We asked them if we had lower premiums um would they would they want to consider leaving for an alternative plan and they said yes um primarily and then in that presentation we asked what action they wanted to pursue and they said they wanted to consider switching. Um this slide here is from our healthcare steering committee that we had in 2025 and a lot of these slides are are around costs and you can see premium costs for them. They're they're dissatisfied right now with uh our costs. Um in addition they find that lower lowering medical premiums are extremely important to them and they say that they would consider alternative health care pre

135plans if we had uh less costs, lower premiums. Um, and then I also wanted to determine how they felt about our networks and the importance of our networks because we know if we leave uh TRS Active Care that could change the networks. Um, this slide here um was a question that we asked them and we gave them a few options. One of which was to stay with TRS active care understanding the trends and we went over the claims data with them. So, we were very transparent about what that looked like. Um, we also asked them would they want to stay in TRS understanding that we we need to enhance our wellness plans so we can reduce those claims. And then last we asked them did they want to leave TRS active care effective 91 2026

136to give us more capacity and control. And you can see there it's really about 5050. Um, we had 55% um that said they wanted to stay and um 46% said they wanted to leave. Now, what I want to point out to you is that it's clear and it's evident that our employees want lower costs. They want lower premiums and they want us to consider alternative options. However, I really believe that it's not just about leaving TRS. It's about really they want lower premiums and until we can get our claims data under 100%, it's going to be challenging to get those lower premiums that they want. Um, so, you know, we need to keep that in mind as we're navigating through, you know, some difficult decisions. Um, again, if you opt out of TRS active care,

137we wouldn't be able to opt back in for 5 years. And understandably, um, if we were in the situation where we couldn't get our claims down um, and we needed to opt back in, we would be um, subject to that risk stabilization fee if we needed to opt back in before the 5-year period. So ultimately our goal is that we need to focus on reducing our claims uh below 100% so that we can become um uh market competitive and hopefully enhance our book of business. So before we go into the discussion, I'm going to give Mr. Kale an opportunity to speak. I know he's got some input that he'd like to share with you. Thank you, Holly. Good evening, President Choa, board members, and Dr. Smith. I I'll keep my comments brief and then between

138the two of us, we're happy to answer any questions you might have. This is a really important subject. We all know it's an important subject. It it impacts employee pay in the negative direction just like the gracious uh adjustments that we've been able to approve the last um several years have impacted their pay in a positive way. Uh it's a it's a national epidemic in terms of health care costs. It's not specific to education and it's not specific to Arlington ISD. It's complicated and it is one of those things that honestly I believe that the simpler we make the discussion the more likely we are to be able to have an impact on it because you can get caught up in in rabbit holes otherwise and and talk about it a lot and not do

139much to make a difference. Our current challenge is honestly TRS active care is not the problem at least in my opinion. TRS Active Care has purchasing power of over 440,000 if I remember correctly participants. That's a lot of purchasing power and I know firsthand that they utilize it. The challenge is in terms of why our rates are so high is because it's it comes down to utilization. How many claims um that that plan makes versus the premiums it brings in combined with the rising health care costs that are going on across the country. We have limited impact on the TRS book of business because we're one district in one region and a very large population. So when we do really good things as a district, healthc care, uh, wellness or otherwise, it's helpful, but it

140doesn't necessarily impact the whole lake, if that makes sense. The ideal situation is to be able, and Holly made some references to it, to be able to impact a smaller pool, i.e. our district specifically, but you cannot get out of your dis out of your particular large pool of TRS coverage when your claims ratio is over 120%. When for every dollar that you're you're collecting in premiums, you're actually paying out a $1.20 in claims. You're not going to have a lot of interest in what Holly just referenced as a book of business. We did have about 325 folks that joined the health care plan this this year and I agree that that was probably in large part based on the additional contributions that this board approved to make it a little bit more cost-effective but

141at the same time we still struggle particularly with our SNE salary non-exempt and hourly population to even have affordability to participate at all. to Holly's point again that that population may come back in to some degree with the Affordable Care Act um increase in premiums that are going on nationwide and their open enrollment and change opportunity to come back to us. But that doesn't necessarily address our issues. We have got to to make some concentrated efforts in a very structured and purposeful way to help individuals understand how to drop our actual claims. Not because we don't want people going to the doctor when they need to go to the doctor. Of course, we want them to do that. That's why we have healthc care coverage. We would never want any anybody to interpret it that

142way. But there are a number of things that we would like to bring to you in the near future to talk about how we influence it in a meaningful way. Usually suggestions, conversation, training. We've done that. We've made some impact as a result of that. But I'm going to suggest in in future discussions some more structure both in incentives and in controls of the plans we do have. And if in fact we can reduce our our claims within Arlington ISD and get closer to that 100% ratio, we have more leverage to go out in the market, build our own plan and have even greater capacity to impact that design, which will keep that momentum going to address cost, either neutralize it or in some cases make it make it actually go down, which would be

143a nice change. So I I just wanted to add those comments. We are happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you, Mr. Kale, Miss Stambbot. Trustees with comments or questions. All right, I have Miss Richardson. Thank you for your presentation. I I know that we've asked a lot of questions before and we've looked into what is truly the issue with TRS. We've heard it from teachers who employees who've been unsatisfied for a while. One of the things I found interesting that you pointed out was it is not necessarily a broken system as much as it is we who may not be using it properly. And right now because our claims are so high that even if we wanted to get out, correct me if I'm wrong, even if we wanted to get out,

144we can't right now because of that they're at the 127% mark. Is that correct? We we could choose to get out, but the probability of having a premium that would was offered to us that would change quickly after that first year of getting out is high. Okay? You know, I I want to honor whatever group might be offering us that opportunity. But having worked with a number of different organizations to model and look at our options, like I said a moment ago, at least this is for me, the simpler for me I make it, the simpler I can kind of grasp it. And that is if I'm paying a dollar and 20 cents in claims and I'm collecting a dollar and I want to go to a different organization and say, "Hey, can you can

145you charge me less even though I'm going to still claim a$120? Can you charge me 80 cents?" Their answer is going to be absolutely not. So what I don't want to do what the what I don't want to I I feel a burden and a responsibility um to make sure that if we are going to make a change we do it in a way change in and of itself is is a challenge and can be painful people having to mitigate um new processes change doctors all that that in and of itself is something that most people don't really want to do and if we're going to do that I have to have for me I have to have the level of confidence that we're going to be able to keep cost at least where it's

146at with a downward trend. And right now, the volume of claims to the premiums that we're collecting does not make that realistic. What would we need to do to get at that 100% or below marker to feel make you feel more secure? I thank you for the question. You know, we've done a lot of education and we've done um all sorts of things through wellness. I think we need to put structure in place that has greater incentives that that leverages the money that we do contribute as a district toward individual premiums and in return for that and maybe even increase that with with the board's approval at some point if we make that recommendation also then talk about what the individual responsibilities are of an employee and how they have to take individual responsibility for

147their particular health care. you know, most of the big costs that hit us as a plan that impact our ability though to um have have competitive claims to premiums ratio, they are costs that come from things that are not paid attention to along the way. And just one example, if if I happen to have a cholesterol issue and I go to my doctor and I'm part of the wellness plan and he tells me that, "Hey, Scott, you've got to take care of that." and I ignore it, there's a good chance in some period of time before I retire from the district, I could have a coronary issue that's going to cost two, three, $400,000 where I could have had a very manageable situation, not just from a cost perspective, but obviously from a humanistic uh

148perspective for myself and my family. So, there's quite a few things. There's simple things that people still don't necessarily understand and may not be incentivized to do yet. If you go to a urgent care center that says emergency room on it because you have streped throat and it has those words emergency room on it. Most people don't realize you're getting charged emergency room rates, not urgent care rates. There's things like that, but there's also self-care and the incentives and the controls that say if you do this, you get rewarded. If you don't, there might not be uh there might be somewhat of a impact to you as a cost um regarding the premiums that you do pay and and what the amount of those premiums are. So what I hear you saying is that we

149need our employees to take individual responsibility for their health, but also as a district down the road, we may need to consider different incentives to incentivize them to do so to help us lower those premiums that then would give us a choice. because it was obvious by the surveys that you did people would like to consider an option but you are not com you and your team are not comfortable doing that until you can guarantee they would stay at the same if not lessen but you don't want to do anything that would get us out and a year later we would have heartburn over do you have districts that you know of that have gotten out and have not had good experiences yeah there are at least two different categories and um of districts uh

150that have gotten out one that have just gotten out and realized is that um they their their claims have gone up significantly. They've taken the responsibility for the cost and they're currently trying to get back in to TRS active care. There are other districts that have gotten out and gone into consortiums and that consortium has proven, at least in one example I'm thinking of, to be finance financially insoluble and it broke apart and then they were in a similar situation. I don't want to put our employees through that. I don't want our employees to to carry this ongoing burden of cost that seems to be an epidemic across the country. Um, but I want to make sure that we do it properly. And that doesn't mean let's just keep looking at it yearon year and

151nothing changes. It means we start to get very proactive about building incentives and controls so that on an individual basis we incentivize and reward people for doing the right thing to take care of themselves and at the same time drive down cost so that we do then have the leverage to go outside and get our own plan and manage costs more effectively. Thank you. I appreciate you. Yes ma'am. Thank you. If I could add one thing too, and I know that was just a a Q&A, but that all the burden doesn't rely on Scott for the decision. I won't bring you anything unless we can have the guarantees we need for an extended number of years because we I if we made a change and we got out for a year and we know that

152the reason employees want to get out is because of premiums and the premiums go up, we are doing a detriment to our staff and we won't bring that we won't bring you those proposals unless we can have the guarantees that we need. Thank you, M. Richardson. Uh we'll go now to Mr. Will Banks. Thank you, President Chopa, and thank you, Dr. Smith, for saying that. Um, because I just see a lot of bad options and a lot of risk. And if you look at our loss ratio the last three years, it's varied from 127, spiked to 137, now it's 122. My guess is it's going to continue to spike. And how long have you been in this district? Going on 12 years. Just about 12 years. 12 years. And I think when I was on

153before I was on the board when I was chair of financial futures and even before that I think you've had this same conversation. We we didn't have the option of going out back then but you were pushing uh wellness plans and and take you know empowering and educating employees and so we've been at it for 12 years and this is where we are. So, I don't want to be a pessimist, but I think we're only going to be able to change around the margins. That's my guess. You may think differently. But let me ask you another question. If I was an accountant or controller for the state of Texas, what health care plan would I be under? Uh, the state has a separate uh healthare plan. What's the name of it? I am starts with

154an E. I can't remember the name, but anyway, there's a separate healthcare plan. There is. And what are their rates? ERS. Thank you. ERS. Yes, sir. And what are their health care rates compared to TRS? I I don't have them in front of me, but the inference you're making, which I agree with, is that they are typically uh lower than ours TRS and they're affordable for hourly employees. And I think the answer to this question which also has a low I can be sanguin though here that even though there's a low chance that we can get legislative action to move but I think the real solution is that we need to have we need to double down on our legislative priority. I know it's been on our legislative priority for a number of sessions is

155we need to advocate that teachers belong to that plan. It makes no sense that you've carved out a group like teachers who are doing God's work and really driving the future of this state into an inferior plan. We need to double down and we need to get our colleagues across the state to double down and make that happen. That's the solution to me. or or a parallel to that modifying the funding um or to the extent that it's much more even if you had two separate plans for a variety of plan design purposes your funding um increased for TRS when in fact what Holly showed you a moment ago is that the state looks like they may be pulling back from giving TRS supplemental support this year for active care. Yes. Yeah. and we've got

156to double down on advocating against that as well. So, um, yeah, it's we're stuck in a situation with no good solutions. So, that's it. Sorry to editorialize. Thank you, Mr. Will Banks. We'll pass your soap box over to Mr. Mike. Oh, I'm on. So, I mean, what I just got from that exchange was we've been talking about this for 12 years. And what I don't understand is how can different school districts who have opted out make it work? For instance, didn't ISD? They've opted out and they're making it work. 12 years is too long. Like I I'm of the proponent that we need to opt out. We need to do our own thing. We need to put something together that works for Arlington ISD the same way that other school districts have been able to

157do it. I just don't understand why we're still pushing this can down the road. Last year we talked about it. We push it down the road. I haven't heard anything that says we are exploring other options. we're getting, you know, things put together so that we can bring it to the board to say, "Hey, here are the options." All I'm hearing is push it down the road and wait. And as much as we want to talk about wellness plans, the data shows we've talked about wellness plans for how many times and and it's not working. Like, I feel like we've got to do something else. We can't keep talking about it year after year. We need to take some decisive action. And if these results of these surveys say we want out, I'm all for

158that. Mr. Mike, may I respond? Sure. So, first of all, I I regret that that's the message that you heard and and I'd like to offer what I believe is a clarification. Few things. One is that Denon ISD was actually one of the organiz one of the districts who went into the consortium that doesn't exist anymore and they they similar to other districts that were participating in that had to find alternatives that were unsettling in that transition with their employees. Second, there's at least one other district right now after having a little bit of my own market review in the last few days, including conversations with UEA, who've seen uh their costs go up dramatically and are trying to actively get back into TRS active care right now. What we've done in the last um

159five years in particular, if not a little bit before with the wellness plan is we've installed the educational component of wellness. We've never installed a incentive and accountability standard of wellness and there's a big difference. And the second one comes with um some change and challenge for our employee base and it will be the intention of of providing that option. And you you made a reference that um we may not be doing anything to prepare and I would share with you that that just isn't isn't true. That well I'm not saying that you haven't done anything to prepare. I haven't heard anything that says, "Hey, here are options out here that we have researched and we put together plans." All I'm hearing is we have we have too many claims, so we should stay here.

160And that's not what I want to hear. I want to hear is what we have some proposals there that actually work or don't work so I can make a decision to say, "Yeah, this is the right route to go." But to continually hear to stay in because of X, Y, and Z to me doesn't do me any justice to verify with these stats here showing that people say we want out. I would suggest that what people are saying is we want lower premiums, which which is not necessarily the same message as we want out. If they get out and they have higher premiums or more unstable premiums, they're going to be very unhappy. I don't want to if I'm giving you any impression that I think being static is okay, I apologize because that's not

161what I'm trying to No, I'm not saying that. All right. But but what I see here in this on page 8, 83.4% say consider switching from TRS active care to an alternative medical plan option for 2025 2026. So that tells me they want out because they want lower premiums, right? What I'm saying is when I'm not hearing something on where we're moving, meaning I think last year when we talked about this, I heard there was some convo with regards to some type of plan or something being put together. I've never heard anything past that because we decided not to opt out. I would like to hear something in a report saying, "Hey, here is what we have here. This is what they have said based on the 127%. Yes, I understand. This this is the

162cost. This is the cost and it's not viable for the district. But I'm not hearing that. All I see is the are these results. Yes, sir. I I understand. And the reason at least for tonight and and I heard you and happy to to respond in future presentations to that content that you're asking for. The reason I'm not bringing that to you tonight is because in the work and the development of those alternative plans that a substantial amount of interaction with third parties including one of the largest systems which sits right next to us at THR is I was sitting right in the room with the THR rep and I looked at him and I said because lots of conversations right how do you how do you do uh how do you manage your pharmacy

163cost how do you man it's it's complex having all those conversations I said stop I need to ask you a straight question I said, "If we get out, explain to me in simple language, and I'm pretty versed in it, how we're going to get stable claims and or lower claims when we have a claims ratio in the 120%." Because others other organizations we had worked with had assured us that was the case and it in fact assured us that THR was a part of that. And I'm now talking to him directly as a repres and he he to his credit, he was transparent with me. He said, "You're not." He said, 'You not until you go through some transition for several years and you actually get the benefit of those independent small pool controls that

164we don't have in place today. So I can certainly bring with Holly a presentation that says how we get there from here and I have a very strong idea of how to do that. It's going to come with some absorption of things will be different and we have to go through somewhat of a tunnel to get to the other side. But I do absolutely hear what you're saying and I'm happy to do that. Yeah. And and and that I think a report like that would help justify any decision on whether we stay or opt out. Yeah. Because then I can go to the community and say, "Look, here's the data. Here is what it says." But I think right now It it doesn't say that. You see what I'm saying? Like I mean, we have

165the stuff, but it just doesn't say that to justify just staying in one spot. Yes, sir. I understand. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Mike. Are there any trustees with comments and questions? Mr. Kell, I I have a few. Um I'll try to run through them with you. I I just want I just want to clarify. So, we we've heard Mr. Mike's point, several presentations over this over the last, I'd say year, year and a half. Um, but in in last year, there was sort of an overwhelming sentiment that that we wanted to get out, which we now have the steering committee data from this year. And in this, we now know that based on the chart you provided on on table 9 or page nine, it it seems like it's less of a we

166just don't like TRS. The real issue is is premiums. And so that the numbers this year on folks who went out of TRS or reported that when they were surveyed is is actually substantially lower than the 84% last year. Right. Yes. Okay. So this year it's a majority of folks were said actually we should stay in TRS unless we can sort of guarantee the lower premium depending on which question which chart. our our collective sentiment we believe is that the m it's it's close but I would still suggest that the majority of people want out but I will say that I believe the majority want people want out because they need they want and need lower cost. Okay. So because the the steering committee the chart on on on page 10 u is is roughly

167um I'm bad at math but it's high 50s would like to say stay with TRS. Yes. Okay. Fair enough. So it's it's more mixed this year. Yes. Okay. And if to to get the data that Mr. Mike is asking for, which I I do think is I mean I I can understand why we would like to see numbers in front of us. Two points on that. One, does it cost us something? Do we have to go hire a consultant or something if we want to go out and we want to price the market and we want to see what the market looks like with our number, our data compared to TRS? It it can c it cost us money if depending on the number of requests we make of TRS to get our data. Okay.

168Um I believe we have we have a limit of how many times we can get data without it subsequently costing us money. The complexity of the situation is the timing of when that data is available when the plan year ends. So, for example, we have to get out and I I was trying not to get you all um into the weeds and and if you want to happy to, but by having to get out in December, we're in the middle of a plan year and there's not a insurance company that's interested in, hey, what does your data look like last year so we can forecast what we want to charge you for 12 months from now. So, the way that they built the legislation when they did say you could get out was awkward at

169best and unhelpful at worst because in order to get those bids, you're using data that isn't current. And now you're you're getting feedback from the people who will bid on the business to say, "Okay, I'm giving you a projection, but I can't necessarily give you hard numbers until we get further." Well, at that point, you've opted out. So, that in alone is is a challenge. It doesn't mean the exercise can't be run. It doesn't mean we haven't worked with at least two different consulting groups in the last year trying to understand our premise. And the reason we're not here tonight saying, "Hey, we think it's a good idea we move that way is because we realize that we don't have a lot of leverage based on what we're taking in in premiums versus what we're

170putting out in costs." Are you aware of any district in the state that has opted out of TRS that has found sustainably lower premiums? No, I am not. I'm not aware of it. Okay. And and I I asked that because just to give historical context because we've kind of been through this we've kind of been through this journey together. Um when I first got on the board, this was a big emphasis for the board at the time was we were trapped in TRS active care because districts had at one time opted in many years ago and that it was a good deal at the time. That's why everybody opted in but there was or opted in but there was a catch is once you were in you were locked in. And so when I first

171started working on the board on this issue, you we all went down to Austin and we sat in some state legislators rooms and and you made the case that there needs to be a way to get out and there was actually a bill dropped on behalf of Arlington ISD with a bracket around us that we were going to be the TRS active care opt- out pilot. Yes. And I believe it got out of the house but didn't get out of the Senate and it failed. But what it did start was a conversation between you and TRS about how do we make this work because this isn't going to work and eventually a bill was passed to allow districts to get out. And so it's in large part because of the work that you and your

172staff have done over many years that we're even in the position to have this option. It turns out as with every other industry in the country for the last several years, the ability to have lower premiums has has not materialized. I I I believe anywhere. I mean, I I I I you know, I I have health care for my family, too. And my premiums are up substantially over the last few years. I mean, almost year on year um um a lot. And it is enormous burden on our teachers. I I understand that. But, um there is a if if no one has quite figured it out and we know that with an expense ratio over 125%, we kind of know what the answer is going to be. Um, and I'll bookmark that with when we

173started doing this, you at the time I remember emphasizing saying we have to do something to get our expense ratio down and we were at 106%. And you thought that was high then and we'd have to do something to be competitive and we have only gone up by over 20% in cost since then. So, it's sort of like to your point of saying, um, hey, we'd like lower premiums. We'd like you to give us a good deal, but we're going to cost a lot more than your average customer. That's a hard deal to find somebody to give us. So the question I have with all that lead in is you've been working on this for so long. What do you think we need to do? Because I don't know if there's a market solution at

174this point because everybody everybody's going through this. What do you think we need to do as a district to meaningfully lower our expense ratio if that's what it's going to be to get lower premiums? I know you've talked about adding some structure to this and everything else, but I don't think we've increased the incentive for the wellness plan in some time. It's been $51 a month for some time at least since I've been on the board. Is that something is that a concrete action we can take? So to make change there. So I'll try and do this briefly. Lots of very salient points as we've had this conversation. Uh I very much respect Mr. World Bank's opinions and I I appreciate that it feels like uh you know this is this is not going to

175move. Um I actually do believe there's a path and thank you for the question. Here's the path. Uh quick quick quick analogy when some when someone's driving and we've all seen them, hopefully it's none of us on the freeway going 95 miles an hour in and out of traffic and that person says, "I want the same rates as the four of you who are driving 70 and driving responsibly and it's not fair. I should get the same rates." Well, no, they shouldn't. They're greater risk and they should have higher rates. But when we think about that in terms of health care as a as an individual person, as an employee, it doesn't necessarily translate the same way. people feel like, well, wait a minute, I I don't necessarily have to. It's my business. It's private.

176It's it's healthcare. Let's not go there. But the reality is there's two steps to get there. Step one is what all we've done with with um wellness so far is we've done education and awareness. It's what the health It's what the uh wellness plan is today. It tells you what your numbers are, but it doesn't have any real controls. It doesn't really have any any big uh recognition benefits. We have money as a district that we pay above the state minimum which is in addition to what we offer in the $51 a month for the wellness plan. those dollars. In my opinion, I believe we should come back with a recommendation of how to better leverage those dollars and how to increase those dollars with the understanding that it is there's some quidd proquo for

177individual expectations that are managed confidentially between the employee and their doctor and the wellness plan. So, if Scott says, "Hey, you know what? Your cholesterol is too high and I'm I I'm not motivated to do anything about it. my premium and how much the district contributes because I chose not to do anything about it. It's confidential, but the wellness plan communicates it back to the district. He didn't meet his requirements substantially higher than it could have been if I done it. When we do those things, we will drop our claims. When we drop our claims, we will be marketable to outside u entities and then we can become a self-insured plan and greatly modify our programs and even continue that progress. I 100% believe that that's possible. I also believe it is a difficult transition

178that employees will have to understand. You're telling me that my I'm only going to get this much if I don't do anything. I mean, that's there there's some some education and some transition that'll occur there for sure. So, I I just have two two more questions on that. So because you mentioned the self-funded plan and I know that some that that's come up before. What are the drive do you know what the drivers are that sort of make us uniquely expensive as a healthc care proposition? Like what are the drivers about our our employee population? Because on the one hand we got a lot of young employees and that would seem to mitigate against the type of costs that we're seeing. So there's two short answers. One is education in general has a kind of

179a biodal distribution of younger folks versus folks that have been in the career a long time. Greater costs with the um as all of us age certainly myself included different types of medical needs and care that come with cost. And in education when you have predominantly uh uh women of maternity age you have that cost which is much more focused than it is necessarily in another industry. put those together and the ERS plan, I'm not speaking for anybody, it's just an opinion, doesn't want to integrate the plans because it changes the risk model. So that's true in education in general in Arlington specifically when we look at our at our individual results and it's not about did we have 100 more claims it's about did we have another 25 that were over $400,000 and those

180$400,000 random number but those those claims those are the ones that can actually if we could stop them early because we have incentives and accountability and meaning you don't get get the contribution you might get otherwise because you don't follow the the expectations of the plan, those claims, they go away. Our costs are completely different. And it really is the top 10% of the of the claims that cause the vast majority of the impact to cost. So that that actually segus right into the last question I had for you. So I I think we're hearing and you've you've said this before, but that we need to incentivize folks to do wellness and we need to rethink the way that we do the wellness plan. Yes. Based on what you said, the counterveailing concern I have

181is based on the risk profile of our employee population and what we kind of know how that works in practice. If we were to create incentives for more people to join our health care plan and increase the number of people from our employee population in it, would that potentially have sort of a unintended consequence of our premiums continuing to just go up? Yeah, it could. But it's also true that if you're bringing them in within the profile that you now have established a new norm that says if you're in this plan to get the premiums that you that you know are available, you have to behave in ways X, Y, and Z. Now you have a different norm and now you have greater buying power because you have more people in the population. It's never

182going to be the 440,000 that are in TRS active care, but every incremental um number that you go up in your own plan is helpful for buying power. So, I don't necessarily think it's it has a negative outcome because you'll have more buying power. Maybe marginal, but you will. And you'll also the people coming in, you're not going to um use the paradigm that's been in place, which is you're here and there's no real expectations to get those those rates. You can it's it's human behavior change that really we're trying to to help support. Sure. when because I'm we're not I'm going to assume here we're not hearing a recommendation that we need to take board action anytime in the near future to to withdraw from TRS. When can we expect some sort of proposal

183back on to to start going down the road of taking these actions to enhance the way that the wellness plan works and make it more effective at at Dr. Smith's uh discretion anytime within the next 60 to 90 days in conjunction with the planning cycle coming uh both at the end of the uh budget cycle and planning as we could also then build in whatever costs we're talking about incrementally we might add from an incentive standpoint I think that probably makes the most sense but Dr. Smith, I'll defer to you. We have it slated for the end of January. Okay. We look forward to seeing that. If there are no further comments or questions from trustees and I don't see any. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Mr. K, Miss Stanb. We'll move on

184now to our final report item this evening. If you're keeping count, this is number eight. Uh this is report item H, our district vision statement report. And I'll turn it back to Dr. Smith. Dr. Collins has presented half of those, I think, too. So, um, we're glad to have her up. She and I will tag team this one a little bit. Um, this is simply a report for some feedback from you all based on work that you've done in spring and summer. We're bringing it back in the fall. Yeah. So, the purpose of this presentation really is to talk to you about the process that we've gone through regarding our district vision statement. If you guys remember back in the wayback time machine, you worked on the board the as the board of trustees on

185vision statements. So during our May 21st workshop, we did some vision statement brainstorming activities. We were sitting at small table groups and we um did lots of brainstorming together and came up with some ideas for something that might um resonate um around the room. Then we came back together on June 5th at a workshop and we started trying to refine some draft statements. When we left that meeting on June 5th, we had four draft statements that the different table groups had crafted together. We stood up um on the wall and looked at those draft statements and then left some feedback. And that's kind of where we left it with you guys as the board of trustees. So since then, our administrators have been at work um trying to take some next steps with our vision

186statement. So on October 20th, our senior staff conversation started with those four draft statements and we were trying to figure out could we take the four draft statements that you guys wrote over the summer and how could we mesh those together? There were definitely some words that were repeated in those statements. There was kind of a cadence or a rhythm to some of them that we were trying to emulate. And so what is it that we could do um to take your feedback and um move forward and consolidate into one? And so we did come together and um draft a draft statement that we wanted to take to a larger group of um stakeholders. So then on October 28th, we met with principles and other key leaders in the district and there were 97 people

187in the room and we just shared a draft statement with them and we wanted to get their feedback. We used a tool called a consens. And let me see if I can click in that picture. So this is what the consens looked like on the wall. And so if you were in the one, you know, 90 to 100 range, you're on the left side of the wall. All the way down to the 0 to 10% range was on the other side of the wall. You can see lots of clustering there. Um on the left side, what we asked people to do um on October 28th was to give us their feedback on give us a percentage on how um you could support this statement. So the draft statement. So 100% I'm all in. This is

188the right statement. 90% H I'm not so sure about this word or I have some other ideas. Then what we asked people to do was to give us their feedback on the back. What is it that would take your percentage higher? You know, is there something that sticks out for you? So then on November 5th, we considered that feedback. We had it all typed up and our superintendent's executive council looked at every piece of feedback that was provided by our attendees um during that meeting to try to figure out what are our next statements. And then we came back together as a cabinet team on November 10th and um had some continued conversation and decided at that time that we wanted to bring to you the draft statement that we shared with the principles on

189October 28th because in general that feedback was very very positive. Of the 97 people um in attendance, 40 of them gave it a 100% like I'm all in. Um 26 was were in the 90s, right? So we had some really high percentage of kind of agreement. Um, so that's why we decided to bring to you tonight that draft statement. So, Dr. Smith, is there anything you want to say before I do the big reveal? So, kind of drum roll, please. Right here we go. Here's our draft vision statement that we want to bring to you. So, dream big, learn boldly, shape tomorrow. So, I hope what you see in this are some of those words and phrases um that we talked about way back in the summer. Um, I'll share with you a little bit

190of the feedback, some of the things that people said that they were struggling with with this draft vision statement. The word boldly had a lot of conversation um with our principles and then in our SEC group and cabinet team as well when we came back just you know is that the right word? What does that word mean? That it felt kind of awkward I think um to some people. We did get some feedback that was you know do we want something that looks like a more traditional vision statement? something that looks a little bit more formal. Is this more like a tagline or a motto, you know, for the district or is this really um the vision statement? And then the idea of parallel structure. So, we had some English teachers in the room who

191just wanted to make sure that we had parallel structure as we were looking at the idea of three sentences or one sentence or whatever that would look like. So then the next slide is just discussion because what we want to hear from you is your feedback and your thoughts about our draft statement. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Collins. Do we have comments or questions from trustees? Miss McMarrow. Well, hang on, Miss McMo. Hit the wrong button. There you go. And it's still not going through. There we go. Is it me? It's me. Thank you, Dr. Collins. Um, and I I want to say thank you to everyone who participated in this. That's really exciting. So, I'm I'm mildly obsessed with what our vision statement is going Well, okay, let's ditch the world word mildly. I'm crazy

192about it. Um, I lose sleep over it. I I I really want our vision statement to reflect not just who we are, but where we want to go as a school district. And we've done a I mean, it was it was so hard, but it was so worth worth all the discussion and the thought that went into developing our board priorities. And at the end of the day, I really, you know, developing and and adopting a a vision is going to be the board's work. This is absolutely something that's in our charge. And um I really want to capture the like you always say, Miss Haynes, the student experience that we want to provide our kids. And so I think about our identity and it is amazing what our educators can do. And I I

193want us to up our game in the experiences that we offer our kids. I also remember that workshop that you mentioned where um the dream and kind of like how Arlington is the American dream city. We wanted we wanted Dream to be part of our vision. I know that that trend like really shined through through um everyone's table discussions. So I did want to I did want to suggest um uh a slight revision to this. Um, I was I was just going to throw this out there for consideration as we work through um fine-tuning this draft. I wanted us to consider unlocking potential, unleashing dreams. I think that that's a little bit more concise, but just as impactful. I really want us to have a clear, memorable brand that Oh, sorry. unlocking potential, unleashing dreams,

194because that's where we want to go as a school district. Our kids have potential and every educator, everyone who who every adult who's part of our school district, we want to unlock that potential and we can unleash dreams and we can keep that theme of dreams in our vision statement. I just think it's really important that we have a clear um brand that reflects where we want to go and also who we are, what our identity is. And I want I want us to have a vision statement that lends itself to a sense of pride, something that everyone can remember and um share. And I I love all the work that went into this. Um I just wanted to throw that out there for consideration. Thank you. Thank you, Miss McMurro, Mr. Wilbanks. Thank you,

195President Chopa. And thank you, Dr. Collins, and thanks for everyone who put in this. This says, and this is getting there. Um, it's not quite resonating with me. I just heard Sarah's comment, and I like the um not alliteration with the unlocking and unleashing, but the parallelism. Uh, and again, my when I look It takes me a while to get the aspirational where we want to end up. Um it does what we have here does speak to the student experience but you know the really genius one I think speaks to not just the student experience but defines us as the destination for the best and brightest um educators not just in Texas but the country because we know to shape escape tomorrow or dream turn those dreams into reality. We need top talent to help

196those kids unlock their uh potential and dare I say what was it? I'm playing with Sarah's writing over here on the screen. David can't read your I can't read your what' you say Miss McGro unlocking potential and unleashing dreams. Yeah, we we to unleash those dreams, we need the best and brightest educators from across the country, uh if not across Texas or this region. And so that that's my hope for our vision statement is it not only incorporates what we want for our students, but sends a clear message to educators that this is the place for them. And I don't know that the one that's up there does that. I really the more I keep looking at the like Miss McMurro probably should consider a second career in the ad world, right? This is your

197I'm talking to myself. I'm talking through this and and I I don't know that we want to Yeah, let's I'm curious what our colleagues, but I think I would like to take this and hear more about the input because a lot of important people worked on this and and um have a chance to maybe be sold on this and also explore ideas like this one that Miss McMurl threw out. I think doing another workshop. Um maybe just a more intimate one uh if we're going to be called on to approve this and make sure that we get the um thoughts and concerns from staff and all the people that have put into this and come up with the one that takes this and takes it just to the next level. Thank you, Mr. Wbanks. Other

198feedback from trustees, Miss Richardson. I am hesitant to give any negative feedback ever because I I think that's we already have enough negative quite often. I have to be honest though, I don't love it and I hate saying that to you guys. I I know that so much work was put in. I know we workshopped it and we sticky noted it and all this and so for you to come up and present it and to be like I don't like it. I I feel bad. I feel like a kid has brought me their drawing that they worked on really hard and I'm telling them to that I don't like their gift. But it we have wanted this for as long as I've been on the board and Sarah Vice President McMuro, you have talked about

199being passionate about this and when I read it, it just was like, well, okay, that's cool for another district, but that's not us. I want it to be something that we are happy about. We are excited about. We want to put in break rooms and on the walls that we have in our boardroom and we walk in. That is us. Not just us right now, but whoever is in this in our place 5 years from now. I want it to invoke a passion in us. And I'm just it doesn't make the mark for me. And I am so sorry, but it is ours and I want to own it and give you honest true feedback. So, thank you. Thank you, Miss Richardson. Mr. Will Banks. Thank Thank you, Miss Richardson, for your honesty. I I

200I don't know that I hate it that much, but the one thing she say I did not say, no, no, that I that it doesn't resonate with me as much as it doesn't resonate with you. I'll say that. Sorry, I didn't mean Hey, I'll take that back. Spence, edit that out of the live feed. Um, one thing that I think would help, you know, and Miss Northing can help here. I know there are a lot of firms here that do identity work and help. What we're essentially talking about here is not just our vision, but our tagline, which is such a critical part of any firm's identity. And it maybe in our workshop if we could bring in an outside firm to help us just refine this and make sure that because the important thing

201is what Miss Richardson said is that it's going to reflect who we are. And I think that's the one thing that she she finally put into words what was bugging me and that was for for me and is that I don't know that I like what she said. I don't know that it captures who we are. So I I wanted um just note y'all are doing exactly what we wanted you to do. That's right. This is not an action item. There's a reason it's a report and we're asking you for feedback. We took what you did in your previous workshops. We had our all of our principles, no pressure, but like maybe hundreds or thousands of people in our district weigh in on the No, just kidding. We had a group of people weigh in

202on this and we wanted to bring this back and get your feedback again. So, don't feel bad about giving your feedback. This is exactly what we wanted you to do. Okay, we still have folks um lined up here. We're going to go back to Miss McRo first. Thank you, Dr. Smith. And yes, I agree. You know, inevitably there's I mean, this is really important and so inevitably it's going to take us a while to get there and that that takes real discussion. I the last thing I would want to do is not share any sentiments that we have because we have to get this right. We have to nail our vision statement. we as a board have to be passionate about it and that that is going to ignite what comes after that so that

203across our system we can we can have that same sentiment and so um one piece of context that I forgot to add was and I think Mr. Will Banks, something you said reminded me the sense of pride we want everyone to feel, including staff and the the student experiences that our educators create here in Arlington ISD, I really do feel are exceptionally unique. Exceptionally unique. And I I I shouldn't even just say educators, our bus drivers, our CTE programs. It's it's amazing to see what our students do after they leave our system. And I just really think that that needs to be reflected and commended even in our vision statement. And that's kind of what made me think of adding in unlocking potential because that is something that our staff has proven they have the

204ability to do and I'm just I'm really hopeful that they feel a sense of pride um with the vision statement that we do eventually arrive at. But anyway, I just wanted to add that context whether we go go with unlocking potential, unleashing dreams or something else. Um, I'm just really grateful for this discussion because it's really important that we get it right. Thank you. Thank you, Miss McMarrow. Miss Haynes, hang on. I'm having trouble with my There we go. 10 o'clock. Yes. Thank you. So, chiming in just to agree that I don't I don't love the draft vision. Um, I'm not using any harsher words than that, Mr. Wilbanks. I'm just saying I don't love that. it's not speaking to me as a parent, as a trustee, as a stakeholder in the district. Um, to

205Sarah's suggestion, I do I do like that a smidge better. I don't love the word unleashing, so I'm also throwing that out there. It reminds me of dogs, and I love dogs, but I don't know that that's the sentiment I want. Um, I wrote down the word uplifting dreams. I like that a smidge better, but I also don't know that I love love that one. So yeah, that's sounds like I know. I'm sorry. That's Thank you, Miss Haynes. Uh, Mr. Mike, the the first thing I thought of was Star Trek. Like that's that's what came to mind to boldly go where no one has gone before. My language here. Oh my god. And I don't know if I like that because I really like Star Trek. Um, but I think what I envision in my

206head as far as a vision statement is something that incorporates our goals as a district, but it's something that's aspirational. Uh, and not saying that this is bad, but it it doesn't it it reminds me of Star Trek. And so I I don't know how to feel about that when we're trying to think of the district. Do that make sense, Dr. Smith? That makes sense. Right. It does. Right. And so I mean, I love Star Trek. I just and and I don't know if I I like the other suggestions that um have been brought forth. You do or don't? I I I don't I I don't I don't think I I probably like this better than the other suggestions so far. Um but yeah, it just to me it just doesn't incorporate like the goals

207that we're trying to put forth. Um, and even like the the wording of it, it doesn't seem like we're we're doing things now. It's it's almost like this future context. You like the the dream big. Okay. The dream is something that you're thinking about in the future. Then the learn boldly. I feel like there should be more present tense. Um, I mean, the shape tomorrow, I I can see that. Uh, I I think it's a good start. It just it just reminds me of something other than what I should be reminded of if that makes sense. Got it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mike. Miss Richardson, I as we sit here and we're thinking about this out loud because it is something we have to vote and adopt. So, we're going to discuss it from

208we don't we don't have to vote on this down the road. No, not tonight, but down the road we would. So, that is something we would not. So, we're going to talk about here. So, one of the things I wanted to think about is we have the head of our communications department here, Mrs. Northingington, and yes, this is ours, but I was wondering because you are sitting here with us, do you have ideas that you would share with us just because we are saying we don't love this? Do you have I always have ideas. I love it. Um I think there's a lot of different things listening to your sentiments, uh listening to how you guys are talking about this. Um there was a lot of discussion about the word dream and we as a

209cabinet team, as an SEC team, we kept that at the forefront of our discussions. And Miss Richardson, I didn't hear dream. Sorry, Miss McMar didn't hear Dream in your suggestion. So some things when I was listening to even some of the previous um board um workshops I took that in consideration even from a year ago uh listening to the one I was absent on and just trying to see how we formulated this what you all said because it is your vision statement and so it's interesting to hear some of the comments tonight knowing that you guys were so passionate about certain words that really resonated before. So, I love hearing there's a vision, a desire for a vision statement, a desire for purpose that it resonates as a parent, as a staff member. And so,

210I do think there's options and opportunities to grow this. Um, you know, there's discussions that we can have with different firms. There's, you know, structure. Is it a sentence? Is it statements? We want it to be short, memorable. Do we want to have capitals? Do we want to have periods? Is it stacked? Uh there's all types of variations of this that really go into the details as you all decide, but we really want to work on the wording first. So there are ideas, Miss Richardson, we can easily work to bring you some other ones. Um but we also can go down a different route. So I'm writing down feverishly everything you guys are saying. Tina, one thing to note, I think Ms. McMurro's proposal did include dreams and she said that it we needed to

211have it include dreams. So Okay. Unlocking dreams. Yes. Unlocking potential. Sorry, it's the unlocking. Yes. Unleashing. Unleashing. Unleashing. I agreed with Yes. Nothing about dogs or Spock. Miss Richardson, did you have more? No, that was it. I just think that we have all been so pleased with Miss Northingington and the communications department and the media team that we have that before we think about going outside to a firm or spending money on something that we have so much talent here in the district. I want to use this talent. I want to use our own employees. I want to use our own students even to challenge them. You know, what does that look like to say? Here's what they came up with. Here's what our board's feedback was. Anybody else? Would you like to contribute? Because

212so often the brilliant idea comes from in-house and quite often it can come from places we don't expect or our own kids. So, I want us to be able to own it. I want it to to be something we are proud of. But this missed the mark. But thank you for letting us be honest with you and and hear what we want differently. I appreciate that. Really, our vision for tonight was to hand it back to you to say, "Okay, help us play around with this." Right? It was not our goal to bring you a proposal that we were looking for a rubber stamp. So, we are not offended by any of the conversation we're having this evening. Thank you, Miss Richardson, Miss McMarrow. Thank you. Um, so not to belver this, I just really

213like this discussion. Um, some of y'all might throw tomatoes at me here, but I don't think we need a firm. I think I think we're almost there and I think the board this is our work and we can absolutely do this. Um we honestly haven't had much dialogue about this. We had the original workshop and there was a lot of like small group dialogue but I don't recall a lot of whole group discussion. And so I'm grateful that this is an agenda item because I do think that we we are capable of coming up with a good vision statement. Good point about the unleashing. Um, and I that's all fair. One more thing I just want to throw out for consideration. We could tweak it to be unlocking potential, empowering dreams. So, just throwing that

214out there and I really appreciate y'all um for listening. Thank you, Miss McMurro. We'll go back to Mr. Wilbanks. Um, and I might be in the minority here, but I've done a lot of work on um, corporate identity and I've seen when people try to do it inhouse and it's great. We it's very critical that we get the voice of the employees and the customers. In this case, it's our employees and our students and parents. But at the end it really t like this work is hard and there are a whole cadre of professionals who do nothing but this and having someone that is a professional that can listen to these conversations and hone it in and polish it. So it does capture the essence of what our identity as a district is is very

215important. So I would lobby bringing in a consultant for to help facilitate and then maybe uh a few hours available time to just polish and make sure that we're all as an whole organization happy with the result and it does reflect our identity. So I would push that we you know it's time to bring in the professionals at this point. We've done a great job. We're almost there. As MC Miss McMo said, we just need someone to help us get to the finish line. Thank you, Mr. WBanks. Are there any other comments, questions from trustees? Okay. So, Miss Fowler, just want to say that in my opinion, Tyena is a professional and I I value your opinion and your thoughts and um would like to see what you can do with kind of changing this

216up a little bit and then bring that back to us. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Fowler. Um, so as someone who as my career I uh in my day job I am a writer for a living and I frequently in the position of having to to first draft a lot of things and incorporate feedback from a lot of very opinionated people um and then being in the position to create try to bring that to creation and then maybe critique some of the ideas that they think are very brilliant that maybe in the whole they don't work out. Um, and then being told that my own brilliant ideas are not maybe as brilliant as I thought they were. Um, writing is incredibly hard. And I and Tiana, I'm glad you brought it up because I was

217going to bring it up too is we we did have an entire workshop. Um, the back half of which was was on this and we had a lot of discussion around it. And um, the words that popped up that I remember were dream. Um, we wanted something in there about learning because we wanted to be student focused and we wanted to be have something in there about the future and and creating tomorrow. Um and so I think given the direction from that workshop, this was a very good attempt at that. Um uh Dr. Collins, you said that the you summarized the staff feedback. It was a little bit where I was like the only thing that really struck me was the I had a little bit of uneasiness about boldly. Don't hate it. Um don't

218you know but it and I could go with it. Uh but I think this was a really good attempt at the feedback that had been given. And so the other thing that I would that I would emphasize too um that I think hit me Dr. Collins when you showed your last slide and it was the feedback forms which we couldn't really read but they were it was considerable feedback that had been given uh on this is that ultimately the decision to adopt this vision statement uh rests with us as the board but it's the district's vision statement. It's not the board's vision statement. And so while we ultimately have the sign off on this, I am glad that we are incorporating extensive staff feedback on it because this is reflective not just of of us

219um but of a lot of people in the system including our staff and students. And so inevitably given the size of that task and the number of people involved in the strong opinions we all have over something that realistically is going to come down to being a sentence six to 10 words something along those lines. I think it's it's not surprising that we have some disagreement on this. But I do I do feel like this was a very good um attempt based on the feedback that was given the last time that we discussed this. So, um, with that, there's no further comment or questions, and I don't see any, um, we will move on, and I'll turn it back over to Dr. Smith. So, trustees, we will bring this back. I'm not sure when yet,

220um, based on some slate of our our board planning things, but we will bring this back to you for another round and keep those brains working on what you might think. But we'll we'll go forward from here. We've got a couple ideas that we can work on. Thank you, Dr. Smith Tyena thank you Miss Northingington Dr. Collins. Um I have seen multiple hand signals from both the audience and my colleagues up here on the dis that we've been going for over three hours and people would like a momentary reprieve um from this and so we're going to take a recess. Um trustees if we could try to be back at the dis at at 10:25. Um we have been going for a while and and we have um you know minor things to consider going

221forward is our annual comprehensive financial review um the targetive improvement plans and turnaround plan for the district uh and casting votes for the Tarant County um appraisal district board. So just a few more things that we need to do before we leave tonight. So if we could get back to the dis uh soon that would be great. Thank you. It is 10:19. We're in recess. Heat. Heat. All right, it is 10:29. We're back from recess. We're going to move on with our agenda tonight. Uh we just completed reports but we um we do have a speaker who was registered for the open forum on agenda items who is not uh present had let us know that he might not be able to make it and I have um he is here now and so I

222will give him the opportunity to come uh speak to the board. So at this time I'll call up Eric Kryle. Uh Mr. Cra is here to speak on our agenda item on the Taran Appraisal District Board of Directors election. Uh Mr. Cra, you know the rules and uh you have three minutes. Busy running around the county. Um time was fast. You you can go on. Okay. All right. Okay. That was a mistake. Signed up. All right. Um and so, you know, last last meeting I signed up and I I didn't make I had to leave before you got to the non-aggenda. And uh I've been thinking about I've I've talked to you guys enough. You you know where I stand. So, I'm going to give you a little bit of information about how this stuff's

223gone down so far tonight, but I'm going to tell you a story about me. Um, but before the story, um, right now the the votes based upon everything that's happened tonight, Wendy Burge is sitting about 460. Mike's sitting at Mike Alfred's about 460. I'm sitting at 250 and say is sitting at about 80. So, that's where we are. So, so here's the story. Okay, y'all know I ran for this last year um for the appointment, but I also ran in the uh election as well and the election was in what May and then the appointment was in September of last year. Well, before before I decided to get involved in all this election and TAD process stuff, I ran for my HOA board um in 2021 and I lost uh at that time I lost

224like 40 to9 40 votes to nine. That's how small the community was. Well, now we're up to 734 um 734 lots. And so in 2022, I ran again and I ended up winning that election. I had a had a 40% voter turnout in our community. I ended up I ended up doubling up the uh second and third place. So, fast forward, I do my two Well, I was scheduled to be off the board in uh May of 2024, but my wife's eight months pregnant. I'm running for the TAD board, and I'm I know I'm not running for reelection for the HOA, so I let the board know that I'm going to step down. So, I stepped down on uh March 31st so I could basically be home with my wife and uh I'm happy everything's

225going along. You know, I lost the election by 35 points and then I didn't get appointed last year and I'm happy. I'm just doing my thing watching Netflix and whatever, right? I get a knock on my door in January and uh it's one of the community members. Hey, would you consider running for the board again? No, shut the door. February, another friend of mine comes back. Hey, would you consider running for the board again? We really don't like the way the president's taking the community. No, don't want it. Don't. There's too much drama in an HOA if you've never been on a board. March, one of the current board members comes, would you please run? I said, the only way I'm going to run is if you and I run together on a ticket. So,

226we ran together on a ticket and I ended up getting almost as many votes as I did last time. So, now I'm sitting back on my HOA board. And I say all that to say those are the people that know me the best and they wanted me back. So, when you cast your votes this evening, I'd ask for your consideration. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Crow. We'll now move on to the action portion of our agenda tonight. We have three action items. The first one considering approval of our annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year ended on June 30th, 2025. I'll turn it over to Dr. Smith. Trustees, this is Mr. Rivas's second uh um podium visit tonight and he'll introduce our auditors to give you our overview of our annual audit results. Good

227evening, board president Chapa, board members and superintendent Dr. Smith. Before I bring up our auditor, um I do want to just point out do have Bridget Lewis, executive director of financial services and our new director of accounting, June North, just because it it does take a lot of work to get to this point in time with the audit. And that's why it is my favorite part, my favorite presentation all year long because we're done and I don't present. So I will be introducing Miss Lauren Neen. She's the audit manager for Whitley Pen. Hello trustee members. President Chapa, Superintendent Dr. Smith, thank you for having me this evening. Um, as Nort said, we are here to discuss the audit results for the 2025 fiscal year. So, an overview of the audit process can be broken down

228into roughly about four steps. Uh, the audit is driven by a risk assessment. So we um when we obtain an engagement letter from the district, then we determine what has changed, any processes that have been different, any changes in staff and we base our risk assess assessment over these discussions with management. And then around uh May June we actually go on site with the district and uh obtain an understanding of their internal controls by uh discussing uh the processes with the various departments and then we will actually test some internal controls to determine if they're operating effectively. Um and and we do that in order to rely on the numbers at your end to um do less substantive testing um where we obtain audit audit evidence to substantiate your balance sheet, your revenue and your

229expenses. And we do all of that so that we can come here today and issue an opinion. There are three types of audit opinions that you uh you can receive. Uh the green light is the unmodified and that's what you want to shoot for. that's the highest level of assurance that you can receive and that shows your users of the financial statement that they can rely on your numbers. Uh this does not opine on the health of the district. Um but if there was any uh issues or any thing that we would need to bring to your attention, we would do so. Um but there is no such thing that we need to assert today. Um, you can also receive a modified opinion or a disclaimer which basically says that we were unable to audit

230a portion of the district's numbers or a disclaimer. we were not able to audit anything and so as I said they we conduct a risk assessment over the various departments and the main areas that we cover is it since it's ingrained in in every process um ps uh state revenue and your state aid and ADA um and then non-payroll payroll these are your larger expenditures and then we'll do some testing over other revenue procurement and then specific specifically uh federal specific tests for single audit. So when we come back out year end and conduct substandard procedures, there's different types of audit procedures that we can accomplish and the basic ones are analytical procedures which is a flux analysis what changed from last year. We'll also do predictive tests um you know taking data and predicting

231numbers using that vouching of actual invoices, payments. uh we'll confirm with third parties such as you know your the banks um the debt and then we'll also obtain thirdparty reports that are public information from tea the comproller uh the summary of finances uh to help substantiate um the numbers that we're testing and we do all of that again so that we can opine on the financial statements and we did issue an unmodified opinion on the financial statements uh because the district also does expend over $750,000 of federal funds. We do also conduct a audit with uh governmental auditing standards in addition to just generally audit standards as well. Uh we also have to issue two additional opinions uh because of that and we had unmodified I unmodified opinions for both. So and there was no

232findings for internal control related to financial reporting or to compliance. the single audit. Uh we typically do release this with your ACE. You will see today that you have a stapled copy. This is because we are not able to release the single audit portion of it which has your schedule of federal awards. Um so you'll see that that is actually not in your act for today because the OM the office of management and budget which is responsible for releasing the compliance supplement on an annual basis has not released that. Um we do have a draft which we have conducted our audit procedures and uh issued a preliminary opinion of unmodified on your single audit but we cannot release that report until the um office of management and budget has released the compliance supplement. So we

233do um anticipate this to be in January and we have that scheduled to present the single audit then um if there are any changes TA and our firm are closely monitoring it and we'll be discussing with uh management if we need to delay it at that time. But um for uh today we want to uh provide you with the results of the major programs that we tested. Uh for the federal we did title one and SR3 and as I said there was unmodified opinion over both federal programs and no internal control findings for the governmentwide financial statements. So this is your entire outlook. It's your long-term assets, your long-term debt. The district had 2.4 billion in assets and deferred outflow. The major components of that is cash and investments uh which is 805 million. Um

234your capital assets net of accumulated depreciation is 1.3 billion and then your receivables is 97 million. And the other side of that for your liabilities and deferred inflows is 2.1 billion. Um the main components of this is acred wages of 60 million, bonds payable of 1.4 four and then your non-cash liabilities related to pension and oped uh of 246 million and 148 million. So uh that leaves an ending net position of 274 million. So switching to um from governmentwide to general fund. This is your operating fund. This only contains your current assets and your current liabilities. So all current resources your actual revenues um was $591 million. Uh this was less than budgeted by 11 million. Um however expenditures um also came in less than budgeted as well with 17 million under for a total

235of 634 million. Um the this did leave a deficit, but the the district did a transfer to um eliminate this of 43 million that was approved by the board from the local capital projects fund. And this ended uh the year with a fund balance of $270 million, which was the same as last year. This is just a little uh different outlook on your uh revenue side of your general fund. Um you can see the main categories of local, state, and federal. Um they're very close to you know what you budgeted and uh same pigraph just broken up a little bit differently. So um as you can see uh the majority of the revenue is from property taxes and then uh followed by state aid. Uh state revenue is the contribution. This is a non-cash contribution

236that has an offset of expenditures from the state for your TRS contributions that they contribute. Um and then your federal revenue and local revenue make a small portion for the expenditures in the general fund. Uh actuals um was 300 or $634 million. This was under budget um in every category as you can see except security and monitors. But this left you with um you know uh under budget of $13 million in your expenditures and the main category of your expenditures is instruction and related services as a district should be in the state of Texas. Um and then as you can see uh your uh instructional and school leadership follows that with your student support services uh facilities and maintenance and then uh security modding general admin and other make a very small portion. So the

237general fund balance over the past few years has been um you know the unassigned has uh increased in 2025. Um and that's been through strategic moves of the district. Um using the un the assigned um balance as a safety net. Um but this again would be used for emergency and not for uh continuing purchases in the future. So uh a healthy unbalance is roughly uh 90 days is the recommended uh fund balance and the district is about 175 which relates to 42% of your assigned and unassigned fund balance as a percentage of your expenditures. So that's saying that if the district stopped having had no more revenue that for 1755 days you could conduct your operations. We do have additional communications that we are required to communicate to the board. Uh we were engaged uh

238through a formal engagement letter on fee February 17th. Uh we do have two uh audit risks that are assumed in all of our governmental audits. This is not specific to the board and there was nothing that we found um indicated that uh we found any of these risk at Arlington ISD. We just had to incorporate this into our risk assessment of management override since there are controls in place, but there's always the possibility that management can override them and revenue recognition. Um we also had no disagreements or difficulties with management and we are independent of the district. This year there was a new implementation of Gazsby 101 which is compensated absences that was implemented by the district and did have an effect on the financial statements. Um there was also no consultation with other auditors

239that we are aware of. Um and there was no opinion shopping. Any questions? Thank you for your presentation. Trustees are there comments or questions? Okay, I'm seeing none. This is an action item for tonight. No questions. Okay. Um, this is an action item tonight. So, I will ask if I have a motion uh to approve the annual comprehensive financial report is presented. So, moved. Have a motion for Mr. Wilbanks. Do I have a second? Second. I I'll give that one to Miss Fowler. Okay. So, motion for Mr. Wilbanks. I have a second from Miss Fowler. Trustees will move to vote. All trustees present voting in the affirmative. The annual comprehensive financial report is approved. Thank you, President. Yes, Mr. Will Banks. Thank you, President Chapa. Uh, thank you to our uh our friends at Whitley

240Pin. They did a tremendous job this year. And I also want to call out our own internal audit department who assisted with the financial audit. So, thanks to the work of our staff and helping on putting this together. Thank you, Mr. Will Banks. Okay. Our next action item tonight is to consider the approval of a resolution casting votes for the Tarant appraisal district board of directors. Dr. Smith, I understand we have a staff recommendation on this. Trustees, I appreciate your time this evening on on the many reports and the important action items. As you know, this is an important action for us to take as a school district. My uh proposal to you this evening is that uh the board consider casting 130 votes for Mr. Eric Kryle and 30 votes for Miss Wendy Burgess

241for the TAD Appraisal District Board of Directors. All right. Thank you, Dr. Smith. And just to clarify, the staff recommendation is 30 votes for Mr. Kryle, 30 votes for Miss Burgess, and the district has a total of 160 votes. Okay. Okay. We do have a staff recommendation on this. Do I have any trustees with comments or questions? Repeat the numbers 130 and 30. 130 for Mr. Kryle, 30 votes for Miss Burgess. Okay. I have no comment. I have no I have a request to speak for Mr. Mike. Mr. Mike, I just have a real quick question. Um, if if we know that if there's a tally already on where the where the votes stand, would it be reasonable and prudent to just cast all our votes to just one person or is that too much?

242Just just asking. That's a that is something that the board um board can discuss. The board has 160 votes to allocate. Um based on Mr. Kle's representations earlier um he reported that Miss Burgess is currently sitting at about 460 votes, Mr. Alfred at 460 votes, Mr. Kryle at 260 votes, and Miss SED at 80 votes. From an administrative perspective, we would support that. Mr. Mack, do you have any further or would anyone like to to We do have the staff recommendation. There's not a motion pending. We can have discussion. Anybody else want to chime in? Miss Mr. Wilbanks. Thank you, President Chapa. And uh what does it take for a candidate to My understanding is there's not because there's four candidates, there's not a threshold. There are two open positions and the top two vote

243getters at the end of the day after all entities cast their votes will be the two elected to the board. Um, Miss Burgess and Mr. Alfred are the incumbents. Um, beyond that. Okay, Miss Fowler. Thank you, President Choa. I was thinking that there was something about it's better to have our votes at least for two people, but I can't remember the reasoning. Um I just because we're all kind of free flowing here, we'll just I'll just open anybody up who wants to to talk. Um, Miss Richardson, the way I I knew that in the past how we voted was that we put the majority of our votes on one or two candidates, but then we put one one to five on everybody else. That way, if we wanted to do a recall, we could. However,

244my understanding is that it has weakened our vote. And so, we want to put the majority as much as we can on one person or two, but also that the likelihood of us being able to recall or even doing that was wasting our one or two votes. So, it's better. I do like what Mr. Mike said that if we know that Mrs. Burgess is already good with her 460, is there any reason to not go ahead and fully support Mr. Kryle if that's where we think it should be going? Is that uh just a perspective on it? I again administration would totally support that. Um there are while a lot of entities are casting votes this evening, there are numerous entities that still can vote after this and so um I think a lot of

245eyes are on all of the entities casting votes tonight. Um the two candidates that we proposed are Mr. Kle and Miss Burgess and we absolutely support votes in whichever way the board would like to split those up. Thank you Dr. Smith. I personally would not be in favor of casting votes for anyone other than Miss Burgess or Mr. Kryle. I'm open to the board's discussion of how to allocate those votes. Um based on based on the vote totals that I'm that have been reported that I have also seen, I am in favor of allocating a majority of those votes to Mr. Kryle. Um substantively I I cannot um the the primary reason to support Mr. B miss Mr. Mr. Crow and Miss Burgess at this point for me um there's been a lot of activity

246on the TAD board um over the last two years year and a half that has um in my opinion this this what used to be a fairly sleepy board dedicated to making sure that appraisals were done efficiently and trying to peg the market and and in some respects has taken upon itself to decide that they're going to create tax policy and school finance policy and that has resulted in significant negative consequences for school districts and municipan ucipalities. The city of Arlington this year for the first time in many many years ran a deficit in large part attributable to the changes that TAD made. Um there has been state legislation on this point that was supposed to clarify that appraisals were to be conducted annually and my understanding is some members of the TAD board including

247one of the current incumbents are not necessarily committed to following that new law because um they think that they they should be doing something else. And so um Mr. Cra has represented, Miss Berdus has represented that they support going back to the way Tad B did business before. And so, um, I will only support candidates who, um, are going to to go back to the way that business should have been conducted at TAD. And that does not negatively impact, um, school districts most especially. Okay. The staff recommendation was 130 votes for Mr. Kryle and 30 for Miss Burgess. Do we have another proposal to consider or is there a motion? Mr. Mike, I I would I would like the my colleagues to think about proposing all the votes go to Mr. Cra. I think that

248would get him to 390. And if we still have some other entities voting, that may help push him over the edge so that both of the candidates that we support make it onto the board. So, what I'm proposing is that um we give all 160 to Mr. Cra. Okay. Mr. Mike, would you like to move on that? Yes. I make a motion to amend the proposal. Well, we don't have a motion. So, you you can make the motion as a main motion. Okay. So, I make the motion to allocate 160 votes to Mr. Kle. Okay. We have a motion to cast all 160 votes for Mr. Kryle. It does require a second. Do I have a second? I have a second from Miss Haynes. So, I'm just making notes here. Okay. There is a motion

249pending now. We can have discussion on the motion. Miss Richardson, I just wanted to correct the math number that you did. Um, if we put if 130, he already has 260. We put 130 on it. That would bring us to 390 with the extra 30 that we would take away from Burgess. That would actually put us at 420. I'm at 420. So, just I just want to correct the math on that. Thank you, Mr. Richardson. Is there further discussion on the motion? And again, that motion is for all 160 to go to Mr. Crow. Okay, seeing none, trustees will move to vote on the motion to allocate all 160 votes to Mr. Kryle. All trustees vote vote in the affirmative. The motion carries. Uh we'll cast all 160 of our votes for Mr. Crime trustees.

250Thank you for that. We'll move on to our last report tonight. That is report or agenda item action item. That is report I keep saying report. It is late. It is an action item. It is action item C. And this is on our improvement and turnaround plans. Dr. Smith trustees. Dr. Champion. Oh, he's already at the podium. Dr. Champion's coming to the podium and I think he's being joined by Jared Zh who will walk you through uh all of this. I don't see Oh, I do see uh Dr. Dalo over there as well. Thank you, Dr. Smith. President Chapa, members of the board, thank you for allowing a two-eek delay. We were planning on presenting this a couple of weeks ago, and we got some information that changed everything. And so, um, thank you for

251for that opportunity. I want to remind you this is all about state accountability, not federal accountability. We're happy to talk about federal accountability if you would like, but this is we're specifically talking about state accountability tonight as we talk about our targeted improvement plans and turnaround plans. Um the the information we got two weeks ago was that the plans that you have seen in the past are no longer what the commissioner is going to approve. Um it used to be that each individualized school had its own plan and what the commissioner is actually looking for is a comprehensive district plan. Um which actually aligns with research that district plans matter. We believe it as a school district. And so at the end of the day, part of what frankly we had to get through was

252being a bit resentful of want of needing to change these things, but then getting to the realization that actually this is something that we believe in, that we believe that district work can help move student outcomes. That's what we we do all the time. So, we also saw it as an opportunity to lean into the board and district priorities as well as the values and belief beliefs of the school district and to come up with a plan that was not just something we could live with, but something we believed in. And so, what you have in front of you is is is that plan. I was going to say are those plans, but it actually it is that plan. Um, and so with that, let me take you briefly through what we're going to be

253rolling out tonight. We're going to talk about the TEA things and why we're we are where we are. Um, and the main thing around this is remember that there was litigation in 23 and 24 that slowed the release, meaning they were all released. Three years were released simultaneously. Um, which is why you're seeing so many school districts talk about five years of FS, which is what this chart shows. Like what happens whenever you have your first year of F all the way to year five, which is what our our our district to the west um just encountered in Fort Worth ISD. When you hit five years of F, you're in closure or board of managers. With great deal of respect to Miss Cardardoza who spoke to the board earlier, it is a heightened sense of

254urgency we all have about not achieving that marker in Arlington ISD. And so with that, I'm going to have Jared talk a little bit about the schools that we're working through. Jared. All right. President Chapa, members of the board, Dr. Smith, thanks for letting me add some information here on the presentation. And here we're really just going to we are going to dig in a little more specifically on our school and schools plural and just the district overall for the last couple years. So, this one really looks at the impact of what what Brad was just talking about with all three years coming out at once. Just how did that impact our system and how did that impact our specific campuses. So you can really see right here um how these are our campuses who

255have anywhere from one to three years of consecutive unacceptable ratings. And uh campuses get a consecutive unacceptable rating from really two ways. It's either getting an F overall rating at the end of the school year or it's from getting an overall D rating for three consecutive years. TA looks at that as almost the same as an F. it adds another year. So either one of those can get a campus uh and what what TA considers a consecutive years unacceptable. And then how a C how you remove that chain of unacceptable ratings is by earning a C- rating. When you earn a C-rating, it wipes out any count you had of consecutive unacceptable accounts and gets you back to zero and moving in in the direction you want to move. Oh, there you go. handsree right

256there. Um, so this slide really shows us just the historical trends of the of the district right here. Shows us back, you know, you can see back to 2019. But I think what really jumps out at you when you look at this is when you look between 22 23 and you see the change in the where the accountability system was updated, the change in the star test and you can see how that impacted um our district with our number of DNF campuses. But then I think the other important thing we want to look at here is when you see then moving forward from 23 24 25 we do see an increase in uh our A a through c campuses and a declining rate of our DNF campuses um over that time. And then this this

257slide really digs in just a little more to the last two years instead of looking at the whole la last five years I did really looks into how we did in 24 how we did it then to 25. You can see that we went from 34 uh DNF campuses down to 24 DNF campuses which if the appeal goes through for Peach will actually be down to 23. So about almost a 30% reduction in our DNF campuses last year which lines up with our key progress measure uh this year still of really trying to reduce our number of DNF campuses by 50% this year. And then this is just a very quick reminder. Some of you guys have been here a while and heard about the tips a lot and taps are really kind of new

258to us last year. And then uh this year all of a sudden we have all these categories. So when you look at these, this is just a reminder that a target of improvement plan is what we're talking about when we say a tip. And that is when a campus really has entered their first year of an unacceptable rating. That's when they would initiate a tip. And then if they didn't move out of that unacceptable rating, that's when they kind of hit that second bullet where they would write a tip again. And now they go ahead and write a tap and in case they don't move out that that year and then they would implement the t the turnaround plan the next year. And then that's the last category is if you weren't successful with those

259targeted improvement plans, then you would implement your turnaround plan that you input. And that's the cadence the system usually would go through when you don't have three years released all at once. And we had campuses who went from zero unacceptable ratings to three unacceptable ratings um with the release of this of the scores. And then this kind of this table looks similar to the other similar colors and everything, but this flips it and looks at instead of our uh count of unacceptable, this is really look at the intervention requirements just like we just talked about the tips, the taps. So this is where the campuses fall in relation to that. The ones who had the multiple years unacceptable ratings have the turnaround plans and then the campuses that had their first unacceptable rating or the

260target of improvement plans. But I think what's really important to point out on this slide is the kind of orange or peach, whatever color that is, um, column right there that we do have campuses who have targeted improvement plans who aren't under intervention requirements by the state. Um, so Shered, Larson, and Goodman are all campuses who have a are participating in a TIP due to grant requirements. So that's just part of the grant. It's not an intervention requirement. They're all have good academic standing. And then also wanted to highlight Foster Elementary School on that list because if you're looking at those lists, you're saying Foster is a B campus. Why are they why are they on that list? Even though Brett said we weren't talking about federal accountability, they are doing a target of improvement

261plan because of federal accountability. So they're the first they had a they were comprehensive support year one. They made progress to get out and they're in 82. So they're heading in the right direction, but that's why they're still doing a target of improvement plan when they're a B campus. So, I just wanted to point that out about them and board. What you're seeing here is the the presentation we had a couple of weeks ago had a couple of slides in it that I'm seeing in this this particular presentation. Um, and so I'm going to turn our attention to the plan itself which was included in your packet. Um, and the key to it is the focus area that we are focusing on as a district is intensive curriculum and instructive intensive curriculum and instruction improvement.

262That's that's the focus. So, actually tonight we're asking for your approval of the plan. That's actually what you're approving. Like that focus for us is what we're doing. The strategy is specifically around implementing systems to ensure the consistent use of district adopted high-quality instructional materials with fidelity to make sure there's rigor, productive struggle, and appropriate pacing. And in order to do that, we have three years worth of detailed plans that were included in your packet that include implementing a system, then deepening the system in year two, and sustaining the system in year three. And some of the the pieces that we are are doing through that plan is ensuring high-quality professional learning that that surrounds these pieces um that we're monitoring the implementation. Dr. Collins recently talked about the Bailey Education Group. This is where

263that comes in where they are actually um being with our we have tier one campuses that are in that third year of F and every one of those teachers in a tested grade level is having one-on-one coaching um starting the week after Thanksgiving until the time of the test. And that's that's what Bailey Education Group is doing. They're also doing it what we call our tier 2 campuses, which are those with two Fs and Sam Houston High School. There's a there's a handful of selected teachers that Bailey Education Group will be will be following there. In year two, in year two, we are deepening all those things. And one of the one of the key milestones that we have in year two is actually the implementation of Blue Bonnet learning in mathematics. um what is

264also known as Eureka math and we have run a small pilot at Foster Elementary School in K through two this past year and have seen some strong results on that particular math strand and so there will be a lot more to come around that. Um and then in year three it's about sustaining all those pieces and ensuring there is PLC alignment and that we're able to deepen across the school district. And with that, um, I'm happy to take any questions that the board may have. Thank you, Dr. Champion. Dr. Smith, trustees, I just wanted you to note, so you saw Dr. Champion, we had a glitch. So, what was presented was not what's in board book. That is that is the former presentation that we actually adjusted. So, we're going to take just a minute

265to pull up the correct presentation that's a actually uh posted for the public and that you all received so that we can actually look at those slides because we want to be super clear about what these are for our presentation this evening. Thanks, Dr. Smith. Yeah, I'm happy to take questions. We can while that's loading, does do trustees want to start with questions or comments? I don't have any at this time. Dr. Champion. Thank you, President Chapa. I was wrong. Richardson. Yeah. Um, the HQIM, what are we already using for our English language curriculum that's approved by the state? HMH is the is the curriculum that we are we are currently implementing. Okay. And we know that we looked at third grade, especially math scores that dropped again. Do you feel like the curriculum that

266Blue Bonnet offers for math and science is what will help turn that around? I do. I believe that um in in working with with my colleagues and looking at the the research around blue bonnet um learning for mathematics again eureka math um it is a process processoriented curriculum it's a spiraling curriculum that that cycles through it it it is not a curriculum that takes a traditional algorithm the way that most of us frankly were taught mathematics which was just learn the formulas look at the things and and without a deep understanding of what mathematics actually what what does it actually mean that 1/4 is equal to 25% is equal to 0.25 like how does that all work? And so it includes a lot of manipulatives, a lot of very um um tight leans for our

267teachers and and that's actually a win for for us. That is based on the feedback we're hearing particularly from campuses who are who are working on tips and taps that teachers are looking for a a bit narrow a bit of narrowed curriculum so they know what to teach. The goal is not to stand in front of kids with a script and read a script. The goal is to understand what the lesson's about. Then internalize that lesson and be able to teach it from your heart with your what we know best about teaching and learning, which is teaching it from your heart and soul and and to to the students. And so it it offers that opportunity as well. I want to be clear though that it is a shift. And one of the reasons that

268we're excited about this particular strategy with these particular schools is that we're going to be able to to do a essentially a pilot with 20 schools and and try to imple and and work to implement this with fidelity um to then be able to see what it looks like. I can tell you I was just with Jackie Burton, the phenomenal principal at Foster Elementary two days ago where they ran a pilot in K1 and two and she said that the results they're seeing, you'll appreciate this, in third grade with the students who have had two years of Eureka math there that the students are walking in incredibly well prepared for third grade math. The teachers are like, who are these kids? Because they've they've been able to learn the how and the what behind all

269the mathematics. So when they have that foundation they are automatically we know will do better because when you have that firm foundation you can implement and use and then build upon. Are we going to be able to see data that's going to back up what she says because we know that people have different feelings. They can say they see it. Are we going to be able to see the data that already supports what you're saying? Yeah it's a great question and one of the things that we are doing right now is our curriculum assessments are happening. They're being finished up right now. house will be able to take a look at those. Um and then we will be able to take a look at what Foster has. And again, that's an that's a that's one

270school that did it one time. And so I I appreciate that um Trustee Richardson that um we need to take a look at that particular data. And we also need to look at the data at systems that have actually implemented at a system level as well. I think that's fair. One of the things we do know though is that this processoriented teaching of mathematics is very effective if it's implemented with fidelity and and and this is difficult to do in any school district but particularly in a district where we have allowed um a lot of options in our curriculum central. the idea of moving to something that's that's a whole lot tighter than that is going to uh be be part of of our work in leading through change management as we work through as

271we work through these pieces. Are we having frank conversations with our leaders and teachers on these campuses that they truly understand the reason this has to be done with fidelity is because if not we can easily be like our neighbors in the west right now. We have seen what has happened. We It is no longer a what if tea could. It is a now you know that's on your desk. 100% right. It's 100% right. We We have had very frank conversations with our with our leaders. Our leaders have had very frank conversations with their staffs. Um again, I'm just fresh off my conversation with Jackie. Um but she uh two years ago she looked at what what happened with her accountability numbers and she talks about leaving 67 points on the table like getting down

272to understand exactly what the need is and every one of these campuses that are in in this boat. They're working with their executive director. They're working with Bailey Education Group. Everybody is using the same language. our curriculum and instruction department and our world languages departments have been phenomenal at at providing support to these schools as well. And so that's continuing as well as we as we move forward. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate you bet you taking questions while we are 100%. You bet. Were there other questions? Dr. One comment that I want to make to your reference to um uh Miss Richardson, the we have to remember that there is no uh just one answer for all of this. We have to have high quality instructional materials and we have to have great instruction that

273accompanies that. and where one of the things I've struggled with the most in this conversation where we are right now is what highquality instruction looks like when you end up with more scripted lessons. But where I started to shift my opinion some is when I started to take a look at data over the past few years of the body of teachers that we have in our system. It looks significantly different than it did in 2019. We have much newer and more inexperienced teachers and we're grateful that they're here. In the same breath, we know that we have to provide more curricular resources sometimes or more u um I should say it like this, more focused curricular resources sometimes with a a less experienced body of teachers. And so as we've shifted into this based on

274feedback that we've gotten on these um on these plans, as we've shifted into this discussion on using Blue Bonnet and and as Brett has referenced, it was called Eureka Math before that and we were piloting it at one of our campuses. Um using that can help support what our teachers are saying to us and saying a streamlined curriculum with right supports would be beneficial for them. And we're targeting the area of mathematics because in the presentation that we had last week or last month, I believe we all talked about we have a significant issue in math and this is the area that we want to focus in on. So that idea of highquality instructional materials paired with highquality instruction is what we really have to get to and this provides the scaffolding for the teachers

275to be able to provide that high quality instruction along with the materials. which is which can can I may I comment on that? Yeah, go ahead. I fully thank you. That's exactly right. I I don't want ever to come across as if one curriculum resource is going to solve the solve the day. But one of the things we appre one of the the moments that we had where we realized we were on the same wavelength as our friends from TEA is um they that there there are three key things that we're looking for at the beginning of the implementation of this plan. One is that we're using highquality instructional materials with fidelity. The second um is that we that we are in a scope and sequence. This is this is a really important piece because

276once you get behind, you never catch up. And so and so it's it's difficult because students walk in the door and they have gaps and they have needs and what you want to do is stop everything and fill in those needs to get and and in fact what we know is you teach the lesson and you scaffold up. And then the third is making sure that there is productive struggle that or productive grappling where where students it's not easy for them and it's not impossible for them but they grapple with it and they they work hard to try to figure it out. And those three elements um help lead to some of what Dr. Smith was just just sharing about high quality um success in in classrooms and schools. All right. Thank you so much.

277I apologize um for for the delay. The the So, I'm going to jump right in. Thank All right. The focus is intensive curriculum and instruction improvement and the the strategy as I read out loud to you and here it is in black and white to implement systems to ensure consistent use of district adopted HQIM that and I'm these words are important. Fidelity to ensure and then here are all those things. rigor, productive struggle, and appropriate pacing. And in order to accomplish that, we have some milestones in year one. The first one is around professional learning um and ensuring it's it's so ironic that this plan is in place after this board adopted a calendar that had professional learning days that were embedded in the calendar. Those days are being used to actually work on these

278exact things. We know that that some of the some of the feedback we've gotten is that we there's some things we can do better and this plan is actually going to help us kind of refine some of those pieces as well. So that's that's good news. Um the second milestone is to um ensure that there are protocols for monitoring so that we can see that it's actually happening. The third milestone is that district and campus leadership teams that's important too. This isn't a campus on their own or the district coming in to do. It's campus and and district coming together um to uh implement a system that results in a I love this such a great phrase content agnostic internalization protocol. Um which is where you you have the lesson plan and you internalize the

279lesson. Um and so that you're not just reading from a script is what that one's talking about. And then lastly, this school year, uh, monitor and adjust the instructional practices to ensure that researchbased instructional strategies, that's what that's what Arby's is, um, that those are aligned with HQIM. I mean, we couldn't get any more alphabet soup than that. Year two of our tips and taps. So, look again, look at that first verb in our strategy for year one is implement. Year two is deepen. It's deepen. The same things that we're talking about. This is where we're talking about the implementation of blue bonnet learning mathematics um contingent upon it being adopted following the statemandated process. Um and then also to strengthen the instructional leadership and calibration um at the right pacing and rigor. Refine PLC's

280y'all know that's a key. Um work on teacher expertise. Refine the use of data driven decision-making. This is where we look at individual kids and and improve the process. And then lastly, sustaining a culture of accountability and support. And lastly, so we've had implement, we've had deepen, and now it's sustain. Um, and so we embed this through PLC's, we sustain teacher expertise, and we ensure that our our datadriven decision-making systems are refined to monitor and support. And so that's the the plan in a nutshell. There are a lot of action steps beneath each of these milestones. Um and we are working the week that we're back from Thanksgiving to be very clear. Um Dr. Smith has made it very clear. He's played a very active role in helping us uh develop and thinking about what

281next steps are, who's going to own what to ensure that we are moving this work forward. The sense of urgency is alive and well in Arlington ISD. And with that, I'm happy to take additional questions that you may have. Right. Thank you, Dr. Champion. Other comments or questions from trustees? We'll start with Miss McMarrow. Thank you, Dr. Chamian. Yes, ma'am. Um, so I, um, we got our slides updated. I wanted to kind of, um, continue what Miss Brook, Miss Richardson started talking about. Um, so the the weaving in of the the Eureka math that was a um was that feedback from TEA that we got to add into this tap our our taps? Uh, it wasn't it wasn't feedback. One of the things it was specifically around Blue Bonnet or Eureka. Um, it was it

282was really about high quality instructional materials. because our math is up for adoption. We're in a gap year right now. It offered us an opportunity to really think about what's the best approach and and by we I mean um Dr. Wartz isn't here but definitely his whole team and and all of us thinking about what is it that made some sense. Meanwhile, Stephen actually went and visited some some districts and talked to some districts that have implemented um blue bonnet math um and so that had that had some influences on it as well. So it wasn't that tea at all said you need to do blue bonnet. They said you need to have an HQIM. That's state approved and there's some other letters that go with it. And we know that the state is pushing

283it. Am I correct? Okay. Absolutely. Um and I I know that at the same time we're also finishing up our own curriculum audit for our our written curriculum and so um and developing a response plan to that. And I I absolutely understand that we're pilot FOS. It's great to hear what you shared about Foster and I'm appreciative that this is being piloted and kind of slow rolled with with campuses that need something different. Um learning can't wait. It can't wait um for a response to a curriculum audit that's going to probably be a multi-year. Um, I just I really just want to say on the record to my colleagues and to any educator, any any parent watching that it's important to me that we hold tightly to the art of teaching. Yes. Um, no matter

284what happens because that is why educators get into the profession. And um I just want us to really continue to strive at the same time for our own guaranteed and viable curriculum that allows teachers to infuse the art of teaching. Um I understand, you know, the the climate that we're in and I understand what TEA is doing, not just in the West, but across the state. Yeah. Um, but I I just I do appreciate that you guys are are looking at data that comes from, you know, this pilot and I'm happy to I Foster is a great success story. Um, but I just want to really keep an eye on on what comes of this and um, again, I'm I'm really hesitant, but I I I really just appreciate the data that you guys shared

285and I I do appreciate that we're kind of slow rolling this. And my only question was since we are talking about this midyear, you mentioned a scope and sequence. If we switch to this immediately, are there going to be gaps created because we have our own scope and sequence and then if we make the switch to Eureka? What does that mean for the standards that students have learned so far if it doesn't align with their scope and sequence? That's exactly right. So, I want I want to be be clear. Okay. um that um we are not switching to Eureka right now. Okay. We're what's happening is we are um we are using our current scope and sequence for the rest of this school year. Okay. and ensuring that we are and frankly we are narrowing

286that curriculum um somewhat with high quality lessons and the goal I just want to echo 100% of what you just said that we know that a highquality instructor who loves what she or he is doing in the classroom and builds relationships with kids and like believes in the lesson that they're teaching makes all the difference. Yeah. And so nobody nobody in the world it wants an automaton to read a lesson. And so when we hear things like scripted lessons, it can I will tell you as somebody who started my career right after the big blue notebooks where everybody had to be on page 67 on November whatever um like that like I don't that's not it's not effective on its on its own. And that's why this notion of that weirdly worded internalization protocol is

287actually really important that these are highquality lessons that are that are clearly are clearly aligned and in this spiraling curriculum that then allows for teachers to to get the lesson and figure out how to how to make it their own utilizing the materials that we've got. So they're not having to go to find teacher pay teacher materials or something that they pulled off the shelf or wherever that that lands that the materials are rigorous. Part of what we may find from the the curriculum management audit is that some of the materials that are being used don't match the rigor of the TESS, you know, I mean, and and that's part of the the challenge that we're running into is we've got to ensure that that rigor is really up there. Yeah. Yeah. I hear you.

288I hear And I think like the other parts of the plan, the facets of the plan that you described, PLC process, doubling down on that, instructional coaching, I think that that's going to support our teachers through this. Um, but again, I do believe that we have the capacity as a system to develop and and offer resources where teachers don't don't want to go on TPT. They have what they need. And so, I do hope that we can continue that work as a system. I understand why we're doing what we're doing and time's ticking. Um, but thank you for listening to my thoughts and answering my question. Can I also say one quick thing tied to this is also I think the proof of the pudding is in the eating, right? And so at the end

289of the day, we we know we need to do something different. The reality is we do have 20 20 schools that are on a tip or a tab. And so I think this does offer us the opportunity to say let's let's see where this yields. And we we are even moving to Eureka Math um in the fall of 26 is moving pretty quickly. We're going to have to be doing some training simultaneously in the spring. That's going to be part of our our our plan and thinking about how does this how does this align with what we're doing as a as a as a system. So I think I think there's there's a lot of moving parts still to come and we're always happy to update the board as needed. For sure. Thank you. Yes,

290ma'am. Thank you, Miss McMurro. Mr. Will Banks. Thank you, President Chapa. And thank you again, Miss McMurl. You said a few things that really resonated with me and that is learning can't wait. And we do have a problem and some areas that need to be addressed now. Um, but thank you for sticking up to holding true to the art of teaching and respecting the teachers that we have in our system. Uh, and thank you for your reassurance on that, Mr. Champion. Um, where are you said one of the things that we're waiting is for Eureka Ma or Blue Bonnet Math to get through the IMRA process. What's the timeline for that? Blue Bonnet Math actually is already through the IMRA. Well, well done on using the term EMRA process. It's it's approved. It's it's out

291and and ready to roll and um it is it's all available online um and is completely free. people can get on and take a look at it. It's It's good to go. Hm is the one that we are waiting to get approval through the IMRA process. I I misunderstood that. Okay. Yep. Yep. All right. Thank you. Yep. Thank you for clarifying that. And so for my big question, I think you know what I'm going to ask or at least have a good idea based on our little sidebars we've had at different workshops. Um, this all comes down to all these great ideas that are in this plan being implemented with fidelity, right? So, how are we prepping to check for fidelity? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. And that is um it's it's frankly it's the it's

292the key to the whole thing, honestly. Um, and so the good news is it was a cross functional team that came up with this plan. This isn't one department. We literally cut across um the entire district office to to work through this. Um the week we're back after Thanksgiving, we are actually taking um a full half day to look at the plan and talk about who owns what and how are we going to progress monitor as this rolls forward. How are we going to take a look at the success criteria? What is the su success criteria? What does support look like? all those pieces and make sure that it is clearly mapped out who owns what and what it looks like. And then we're going to be on a rhythm to that OSL will own

293um being on a rhythm to regularly check in together to come together because we have a a number of pieces of support that are all coming in to these to these schools simultaneously and they could very easily step on each other and trip all over each other and we're we're trying our best to to try to separate that and pull that all apart as well. So, it's important for our team to be be part of of that work as we talk through what the what success looks like and then have owners report out what we're seeing. Well, um I feel very confident. Thanks. I've set up here on this dice for seven years now and I always ask that question. I get reassurance, but the data is telling me we haven't really been very good

294about measuring for fidelity. And so that's something I'm going to be really critical of going forward because like you said that is a very critical piece and we need to get it right. Yeah. Yes sir. So thank you. Yes sir. Thank you Mr. Wilbanks. Mr. Mike. Thank you for the presentation. Um it's a little different from what we're used to because TA decided to um change things again. Uh so I assume that for the campuses they still have their own plans that they're working on to move the progress forward. That's true. They every campus has a campus improvement plan. Okay. Um and so that that work continues. Um we met with the campuses that had spent literally months developing their um tips and taps. We met with them yesterday and said Kings X that we

295are now moving this is this is now the the plan. Um but the good news is because every campus has a campus improvement plan. It is the work that will continue um on their campuses. And um are we incorporating because I know the presentation before Dr. Collins put forth with the um the needs index with the strategic staffing the one school Larson was identified and they did some strategic staffing and I don't see Larson here on these unacceptable years are are we employing some measure of that with um these schools here as well that's correct so the again what we're these tips and taps are specifically around state accountability Lson Jared talked earlier tonight about if you if you get a C on state accountability, you break the chain. Yeah. Of of failing. Larson hit

296a C last year. Um and so they've broken the chain. So they don't have a tip. They don't have a tap. They're I was going to make a joke, but I won't. They're they're tapped out, but they're they're they're not um the reason you don't see that Larson does have some intensive efforts going towards it. it's not reflected in this plan because they're not one of the schools that that has a DRF. And and so I bring that up. Do and and it's just me thinking that that strategic staffing the way that we looked at the needs, right? That that may have played a factor into the school doing better. It if that the the strategic staffing actually occurred um after the the the test was taken that that all those things were were based

297on. So what we're what we're looking at looking for in Larson, they they hit their sea in part because they got some really nice growth points. They did a great job and we need them to sustain that moving into next year. And so the strategic staffing, our big bet is that's going to help sustain their success that they had last year. Okay. And then just finally, I I I acknowledge um some of my colleagues about um you know, there there's always reservations, right, when when you're bringing in different things that different to the district. Um but the data is there. We we see it and there are three schools that are in their third year of unacceptable. Um and that's a reality of the situation that that we're facing. And surely it would not be

298good for the community as a whole um if we were to get into the position like our neighbor um overall that would be unacceptable. So I'm the plan that's put forth I think it's very good. The administration and the district leadership has taken a very hard and thorough look at to what we need to do moving forward. Um and and I think it's it's something that is prudent and wise and will do good for our district. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Mike. Dr. Smith, I wanted to add one thing to Trustee Mike's comments at the beginning when he mentioned asked the question, do campuses still have their own plan? I think it's really important to note a couple of things in in the key timelines here. Uh Dr. Champion mentioned why we paused. We

299were developing the plans like we had in the past that were very campus ccentric, but the feedback that we got from the visit with TEA was very explicit that they wanted a district-wide strategy. And so that's the shift that we had to make in these plans because the feedback that we actually got, I think, to Mr. ZH that day was your taps aren't going to be improve uh approved the way they stand now. You're missing district-wide strategy. So that's where the shift happened because we paused at that moment and said their guidance from TEA is changing to us and we need to adapt. That's the the reality we live in. We need to adapt. Hence the reason we shifted to the district-wide strategy of the highquality instructional resources and the appropriate learn professional learning and

300support that goes with it. So I just wanted to make sure you all knew why that shift was happening. uh it was based on direct feedback that we got. Yes, we absolutely still have to have individualized plans for the campus, but there are some district-wide things that TEA is is specifically looking for, and that's why we took this action this evening. Thank you, Dr. Smith. Uh Dr. Champion, I have a couple questions and just a couple comments as well. I I'll start with the can we go to slide seven the historical trends slide. So I we have talked about this before but I we are here and we've talked about this in large part because something happened with 2023 and we got our scores all in a pretty short amount of time this year officially.

301There was the lawsuit that held them up, but we kind of knew from internal projections based on what TEA told us the new evaluations were going to be that this shift had occurred before now. And so, you know, we we we have a lot of catching up to do, but we we've been trying to course correct and you can see that that was the case because we did improve even from 23 to 24. We improved even more from 24 to 25. So it's not the case that we are just now trying to oh my gosh we got three years of data we got two years to fix it like that. I don't want that impression to come across because that that was not true. That being said it it is you know in 2019 that's

302what data is up here. I think that was what the second year of the A throughF system we had shown substantial improvement. Then then in 22 we looked we looked very well. And so I I have said this comment before, I will say it every time we have this discussion because I think without this context, it's a really unfair discussion, not just to us. This isn't an AISD problem. There are districts, there are hundreds of districts across the state that could put up a very similar chart to this. And from 22 to 23, it looks like they cratered and actually I would venture to say probably the majority of districts across the state. And TEA told us when they reset the system mid year during the 22 23 year that this would happen. They said

303that most districts could expect to do worse. And I just want to reemphasize because I think this gets lost too. They didn't just say that we were going to do worse because we were playing on the same, you know, by the same rules. They specifically said if we had kept the rules in place, you might actually have schools that show improvement, in some cases substantial improvement, but under the changes we're making, they'll actually look like they did worse. That's right. And that was the message that was sent by the TEA commissioner to districts. And then on top of this, this is all happening when we're coming out of COVID. So we're all talking at the same time we're talking about COVID learning loss and how we're going to fix co learning loss, the system by

304which we're going to evaluate how well we're doing that and mitigating the effects of that. We're going to substantially change it midy year and then we're going to hold districts account accountable under a system that's very punitive. And so I have said before, which district are we? Okay, we're a big district. It's a big standardized testing system. You should not see big changes in a valid standardized testing system year-toear, especially in a district that is large. And what do we have here from 2022? Only 6% of our campuses. So I'm just going to ballpark. That's like five campuses were below a C. And then the next year, half of our campuses are below a C. I I mean I I can't but help think that that has a lot more to do with the changes

305that were made to the accountability system and not what actually is happening in our classrooms in this district. And so having said that, we've got to, I think, in our next legislative agenda have some sort of push to have the state legislature adopt a minimum threshold for state takeovers. Um because we can't school districts can't operate under a system where we feel like now Miss McMurro said several times I understand that we're on the clock. I know that we got to do this. There are things we're a big system and we're dealing with pe we're dealing with children and you can't turn big systems and you can't change children on a dime. And so the things that we're talking about doing take time to do. And if anybody had the silver bullet to this, everybody

306would be using it and we're all looking for it. And you know, TEA is doing these takeovers now. And I would say, what is the answer? What is the systemwide fix? Because you're wiping out a board. What is a systemwide fix that you know about that somehow is going to work that these other folks weren't doing? And I would say we've mentioned the phrase, you know, our neighbor to to our west several times tonight. And I don't want that to come across in a negative way to our friends to the west in the sense that Fort Worth has certainly had its challenges. But let's be clear, the state is taking over one of the largest school districts in the country on the basis of one campus that no longer exists because it was part of

307a consolidation plan that the board that they wiped out approved. And it's a district that I think was performing systemwide at a B under the same accountability system, but because of one campus, TEA is going to take over the entire district. There has to be a minimum threshold, I think, going forward to justify a takeover because it's going to force districts like us, I hope we don't do this, but maybe others to take actions they otherwise wouldn't take just so they can find hurriedly try to get a quick fix and do things that maybe are maybe not. They're sub-optimal for the art of teaching and what is right by our kids. so we can get a boost on a one-day test um that we know is not the right thing to do by kids because

308we know there's so much more to education than what they're getting on the STAR test and which to be clear at the elementary and junior high level the accountability system produces a a letter grade that is 100% driven by star. It's just different ways of slicing and dicing star. So I want us to make sure that we focus on the things that actually matter. But I understand we're under a system that that that doesn't. So I guess by that's a long lead into my first real substantive question for you is we have we have been here a bit and we've seen this coming. What really are we going to do different that we can expect improvement under this I'm going to say a game that we have to play at some level with these accountability

309ratings because we we've heard before we need to focus on high quality instruction and curriculum. We've heard before we need to use data driven instruction, right? what what in what actually will change? What are we going to emphasize differently this time around? Yeah, thank you. I I appreciate I appreciate that question and I did appreciate the introduction as well. Um but the the thing that's different is the term here in our strategy um uh district high quality instructional materials with fidelity. And frankly, that's that's the key word in in this phrase. And and I'm I I cannot speak obviously to anything that happened prior to about July in this school district myself. Yeah. And one of the things that that I have heard in conversations um is that that and and and it's true across

310most systems that there is a lack of fidelity whenever you choose things. and and some of that is by choice. Like we and which isn't it's not always a bad thing. Um but one of the keys to this particular plan is that we're going to focus on that notion of fidelity. We're going to teach the the the rigor of the TEIK and make sure that the materials that are being used are at that that level of the TEIK and that we're going to actually monitor that it is on pace that it is within five days of our pacing calendar. I mean like our the observation tool we're using has three simple things. We're starting with it is literally that is it is it the high qual is it the HQIM? Is it that instructional um

311uh material? Is it within five days of the scope and sequence? And is there productive struggle or productive grappling that's happening in the classroom? And and with that narrow of a focus, one of the things that we have seen um with districts that look a whole lot like us that have a lot fewer D's and Fs, that's actually what they've done is a lot again, no silver bullet. You're exactly right. And one of the strategies they've done is implement with fidelity implement with fidelity a lot of these things. And so that's that's our big bet with this plan. Okay. And and and to be clear when we say implement with fidelity, we're talking about requiring teachers to change the way that they practice. No, some teachers. Um I think I think there would be that

312would be there would be some shifts in practice. But I I will tell you um um board president Chapa I was uh recently at Peach Elementary School and they we were in a cla a four third third fourth grade classroom. They were teaching with fidelity. They were they were within five days of the scope and sequence. They were using the instructional material. In this case, it was it was it was district approved and it was one of the most engaging, fun classrooms I had been in in actually a long time. It was phenomenal. And so I I believe I strongly this is this is why we had to create a plan honestly that we could believe in because the idea of creating a plan where a teacher stands in front of a class and teaches

313a lesson from a script it's it doesn't align with what this board has said are their priorities. What the the values and beliefs that you have put into place doesn't align. And so we believe that you can do this and still have that joy in teaching that that we have just discussed um as we were we were moving through. I I mean I've had the the pleasure of actually seeing it in the last few weeks. Um and so I believe there is a way to approach this that is very successful for students number one and for our teachers as well. And and I and I and I appreciate that. I I want to be clear. I I don't I don't want to and I keep using Miss Morrow's phrase, the art of teaching. And as

314a former educator myself, exactly. We want to preserve some teacher autonomy. We want to preserve the things that are valuable about teaching. But I'm going to be very blunt tonight. I have heard the word fidelity the entire time I've been on this board. And and I know that you're not responsible for anything that happened before July, but but I don't entirely agree with the premise that we weren't doing it before. I don't think the change in accountability scores shows that we weren't doing it before. But I do think some of our screener data show screener data absolutely shows that that's not happening. And despite the promises that have been made over many years now, that has not happened. And there are some people who are just not doing it. And so I want to be

315I want to level set with the teachers in our district and and I needed to modify my phrase with everybody's going to change of practice. some, but some are going to have to because if everybody were practicing with fidelity today and with rigor, we would not be where we are. You bet. And that's just absolutely the case. So, I want to level set with teachers in the district that there are going to be and I want you, Dr. Smith, you and Dr. Smith to know that I as a board member support emphasizing the message that this is a district that has a lot of challenges and if you're not ready to meet those challenges as a teacher and to if needed change your practice, this is not the place for you. it has reached that

316point and I don't enjoy saying this but if you don't enjoy ch if you're not willing to change your practice a little to do the things that you're talking about in a positive way that preserves the autonomy of teaching and the joy and art of teaching Mike Morath and his folks as the Star Telegram reported yesterday you will be reading from a script so I want to be very clear with the folks in this district that what you're saying has to happen for us to prevent that from happening But at the end of the day, also to make sure our kids are learning and succeeding. Correct. And that is the expectation that has to be set. I don't I don't want people to get the wrong idea that we're continuing to have a discussion about

317implementing things with fidelity and it not penetrate the classroom because frankly there are campuses in this district where it's not happening. Not uniformly. I mean, Dr. Champion, you and I taught in in hard to teach school districts where some we were taught teaching is leadership, right? And the most important thing is the teacher in the classroom. And we had colleagues who did not live that out some days. And that is just in any profession. But it is it when it affects kids and when we are told that the way to fix it is the things that we hear year after year. We have to have some skepticism about it. But I do believe that the plans that I've seen with the commitments that y'all have made that if we do do it with fidelity, those

318changes will happen. But I don't want there to be any misconception that it will require change in this district. Business as usual has got us here with some folks and that has to change. And so I don't I normally don't take this tone and so I hope folks the five people who watch this um nope, they went to bed. But I I do want because I have been sharing this message with folks more and more over time. It has things are going to have to change because if if they don't change, I do think it's a new day and age in this state and the way that we approach education. I've talked that about that a lot and I don't want that to come to Arlington because I don't believe it's best for our kids.

319And so if we have to do things differently, we got to do them. And that's that's just where we are. I do think these turnaround plans um are a good way to accomplish that. And I had one final point to make and if we can jump to the slide that says um it's the it's slide I can't read that maybe 12 it's the one with the campus plans list. Yes. Um I also don't want this to come across as this is a a problem that is confined to a particular part of town that was suggested earlier and and I I sympathize with that heavily because that's where I came from. But in a district that is today almost 80% of our students on free and reduced lunch um with a large number of English language

320learners and and that's us as a whole. Um if you look at the the schools on this list they are not exclusively on one part of the town and in one side of town but what they all have in common is these are schools that have high rates of mobility and high rates of poverty. We are not dealing with a particular part of town. We're dealing with a a persistent issue with poverty and so we do need help in the community and other supports. We are not going to curriculum and pedigogy our way out of this. We need other help in the community. Um and we need more supports to to help our students who are coming from poverty because I think that is really the root problem of where we're at and the overlay

321between poverty and accountability systems is pretty well known. Um but it also shows that there's learning gaps there. So I at this point not seeing any other further lights. If we there there is an action item on this tonight. Um so if we could have a um I will make the motion to approve the targeted improvement plans and turnaround plans as presented and I'll need a second to take action on that. All right. Second from Mr. Wilbanks. Trustees move to vote. All trustees present vote in the affirmative. The motion carries. Dr. Schmidt, I want to thank Dr. Champion and Mr. ZH and a whole team. Dr. Lopez is back there. Dr. Bule's back there. We've been I told you it's been an interesting couple of weeks. We've spent a lot of hours together wrestling through

322some of these things and your dialogue at the dis tonight suggests that you have been as well. So, thank you. I also wanted to note I appreciated the board's comments uh that many of you made and I want to reiterate this because I I need to the urgency has been there and you see it in the improvements that have been made and just to reiterate maybe the same thing that I've said to tea. Remember we were doing a curriculum audit. Why? Because we wanted to ensure we had high quality instructional materials in our classroom. Remember we were focused on leadership development. Why? Because we wanted to ensure there's successful implementation and change management for these things in the classroom. And we were doing these things already. The urgency is still there. It will continue to

323be there and we will still pursue the same culture of joy that we've been talking about as well. Finally, the last note that I wanted to make is um I see Chris over here. The report that is in board book was the correct report. We just had the wrong report projected for you all earlier. So I want to make sure everybody understands the correct report was um publicized earlier. We just had the wrong one pulled up during Brett's initial presentation. All right. We will move on now to the consent agenda portion of our um agenda. Anybody uh wishing to pull an item from consent? All right. I don't see any. Uh, is there a motion to approve consent as presented? A motion from Miss McMurro. Do I have a second? Second from Miss Valor. Trustees

324will move to vote on consent. All trustees voting the affirmative. Consent carries. We have no more speakers registered for forum tonight. So, we'll move on to our superintendent report. Dr. Smith, how about I postpone that one since it's midnight? Okay, we'll move on to trustee reports. Are there trustees with reports tonight? I did, but man, it's late. Okay, we will move on. And at this point, there are no more items on our agenda to address out and open. Um, we do have one matter to return to close session to to discuss. Although I do not believe we well and we there's no action related to that so we will not return to open. So at this time uh we will recess and reconvene into close session in the board chambers pursuant to sections 551.071 through

325551.084 and 551.089 of the Texas Government Code in accordance with the to Texas Open Meetings Act uh for the topics that were set forth on our closed agenda for this evening. The time is 11:54 and we will move to closed.