Arlington ISD Board of Trustees Meeting - October 16, 2025

001[Music] Oh, [Music] heat. [Music] There are no [Music] I don't want you. [Music] Who's [Music] hey? [Music] Mhm. [Music] Hurry up. [Music] There we go. [Music] There we go. [Music] Hallelujah. [Music] Hello. [Music] Hello. [Music] Ah, heat. [Music] Oh. Hey. Hey. [Music] I'm a [Music] I don't want to [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, [Music] hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] down. [Music] I'm [Music] Do [Music] All [Music] right. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Yeah. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] So low. [Music] All right, it is 7:10 and I will reconvene into open session this meeting of the Arlington ISD Board of Trustees on October 16th, 2025. Again, beginning at 7:10. Thank you for joining us tonight. We're going to move right on to

002our pledges of allegiance tonight. Our student leading the pledges tonight is Williams Elementary student Isabella Rubio. [Applause] 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. Now the pledge to the Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. All right, you may be seated. At this time, we'll take a moment of silence. All right, to learn a little bit more about the student leading us in the pledge tonight, I'm going to turn it over to our chief communications officer, Tiana Northingington. Tina, thank you so much, sir. Well, I want to introduce you all to Isabella. She is joining us from Williams Elementary

003where she's currently in sixth grade. She has her family and proud supporters here. Miss Davis is here supporting her. So, Miss Davis is actually her math teacher and she said they are learning a lot about rates and different things in math. Isabella loves the school she goes to. She shared with me one that she really loves the staff there and said they were so kind to her. Um, so she said they she loves that they demonstrate kindness and support her and she has a lot of peers that have great supportive natures and she says she feels welcome there. Um, on her spare time she plays the piano and also the violin in the orchestra. She takes private piano lessons on Saturdays and so I told her that we would be probably hearing from her very

004soon with those lessons. Um, and I told her she has beautiful hands, so I can see she plays the piano and the violin. Well, if she could play anything else, she said the guitar would be her next choice if she had more free time. Um, we also know that she's been at Williams since kindergarten. She said she plans to graduate from Arlington ISD and I think we're going to see her do that. She's the youngest of four siblings. Her mom Maria and Ael are joining us. Maria is here with us this evening and her dad is um not with us tonight but I know he's watching. We're recording for him. So, shout out to you, dad. And we just want to uh share why she says she loves um her school. She says I've was

005actually selected as the September student of the month and it was for demonstrating kindness to my peers and she says that she loves her teachers. They're simply just so kind. So, we want to thank you so much and we look forward to celebrating everything you do right here in Arlington ISD. All right, thanks for leading us tonight, Isabella. The first night uh the first part of our agenda tonight is for recognitions. After our appointments this evening, we'll take a short recess to take pictures with our honores here in the boardroom and in the lobby. Our first recognition, our only recognition tonight is again we'll turn it over to our chief communications officer, Tyena Northington for our region 11 Texas Association of Secondary School Principles High School Principal of the Year. If I could ask all

006of you to join us. We're going to try something new. So, we're going to have everyone down here so we can shake hands and greet our honore. We have one very special honore tonight. So, I'll let you all get uh in place while I share a little bit about this special person tonight. This evening, we're proud to recognize Dr. Shaina Moore from Sigin High School. Dr. Moore was named the Region 11 Texas Association of Secondary School Principles High School Assistant Principal of the Year. Now, Region 11, as you know, covers 10 counties across the DFW area, making this a pretty significant honor. Dr. Moore's ability to connect with students, especially those who need it most, is remarkable, said her principal. She sees potential in every student and works tirelessly to ensure they feel seen, heard,

007and valued. Her leadership has helped shape a culture of high expectations, and deep care at Sigin High School. Dr. Moore will actually be honored this upcoming summer at the Association's Just Night of the Stars event during their annual conference. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Shaina Moore, Region 11 Assistant Principal of the Year. [Applause] Can we hold her head? I know. All right. One, two. Congratulations once again. This concludes tonight's honors and recognitions. All right. Well, we have no speakers registered to speak on appointments tonight. So, we'll proceed immediately to our ratification uh of of personnel tonight. We have two items tonight. Our first one is ratification of a chief financial officer appointment. Do I have a motion to ratify the appointment of the chief financial officer? So, move. I'll give that to Mr. Wilbanks.

008I'll give the second to Miss Richardson. Trustees will now move to vote. And Miss uh Miss McMurro is joining us remotely. She is, as you know, in a her day job, she's an educator and she is at a conference for educators right now. Miss McMurro, can I get your vote? I vote yes. All right. All trustees present and Miss McMero voting in the affirmative as well. The motion carries seven to zero. Dr. Smith trustees. Tonight I am excited to welcome Mr. Norberto Rivas as Arlington ISD's new chief financial officer. Mr. Rivas is a certified public accountant with a master of business administration and bachelor of business administration from the University of Texas at El Paso. He has over 15 years of financial management experience and education, including having served as the chief financial officer for

009San Elazario ISD. Currently, he's serving as the interim chief financial officer after we hired him in February of last year as our assistant superintendent of financial services. He provides strategic oversight of our financial operations and accountability. Most importantly, he is a great addition to our team in Arlington ISD and he is dedicated to focusing on ensuring each and every student in our district has what they need to thrive. Noberto, thank you for being here and welcome to the team. Thank you, board president Chapa, board members, and superintendent Dr. Smith. First and foremost, I just want to say I'm grateful to be here another day. I am both humbled and honored that you all have um entrusted me with this role. So, thank you to the team of eight. Um, I also want to give a

010shout out to my foundation from home, my beautiful wife and my four kids, even though my little one I think lost a couple of dola points a little while ago. You heard a little kid out there. U, it's been an that's her. It's been an awesome journey so far. My children are now part of the Arlington ISD family. It's a great place to be in. I've enjoyed visiting campuses so far. I've enjoyed talking to our campus leaders, um, engaging with them as partners. I've been to about 20 schools so far and it's really October. So, um, I have time. So, finally, just looking forward to being able to support the team and helping both improve both the staff experience and the student experience. So, thank you once again. Humbled. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Rivas. We

011have one more appointment tonight. It's ratification of an an administrative appointment at Barnett Junior High. Do I have a motion to approve the ratification of the administrative appointment at Barnett Junior High as discussed in close session? Motion. Have a motion for Miss Fowler. Do I have a second? Second. Have a second for Mr. Mike. Trustees will now move to vote. Miss McMurro, I'll call for your vote momentarily. Miss McMurro, can I get your vote? I vote yes. Okay. Miss McMo is a yes. We're still Here we go. Okay. The vote here is six to zero. Miss McMurro makes it seven. The motion carries unanimously. Dr. Smith. Trustees, I am excited to welcome Miss Angie Davis is the new assistant principal of Barnett Junior High. Come on up, Angie. [Music] Miss Davis brings a strong background

012in instructional leadership and secondary education with extensive experience as a teacher, coach, and instructional coach. Her recent role as assistant principal combined with a masters in educational leadership reflects her commitment to academic excellence, teacher development, and student success. She is well equipped to provide strategic guidance and foster a positive learning environment at Barnett Junior High School. Congratulations. Thank you. Good evening, President Chapa, members of the board, and Dr. Smith. Thank you for this opportunity to serve as assistant principal at Barnett Junior High. I am truly honored tonight and excited to begin this new chapter. I want to begin by expressing my deepest gratitude to those who have supported me throughout this journey. Thank you, Alec, my mom, my sister, and so many others for your love, encouragement, and belief in me. Your support has meant

013everything, and I wouldn't be standing here without them. And to my friends and my colleagues who have become like family, many of whom are here tonight. Your support and belief in me has meant more than words could say. Throughout my years in AISD, I have had the privilege of learning from some incredible leaders. Each one has modeled leadership with integrity, compassion, and strength. They've challenged me, supported me, and helped me grow in ways that I will carry into this new role. Williams Elementary allowed me to step into administration and the opportunity to lead and learn and grow. I will be grateful for the experience and relationships that shaped me there. To my Wrangler family, you'll always hold a special place in my heart and I'm thankful for the guidance, the leadership guidance from Chandler Garcia.

014To my new Barnett family, I am thrilled to join you and I look forward to building relationships, collaborating with staff and supporting the students and community as we strive for excellence. And now, as I look forward to continuing my leadership guidance under Vanna Shaw sty whose vision and commitment to excellence I truly admire. So, thank you all again for this opportunity and I love AISD. All right, congratulations to our appointees tonight. It is 7:23. We are going to take a brief 10-minute recess to celebrate in the lobby. And down front, trustees, let's aim to be back at about 7:33. Perfect. Thank you. [Music] Really hard moment right there. I had to waver on my vote a little bit. Yeah. Thank you. [Music] Welcome to [Music] Hey, take a picture up there. Pretty good. [Music] You

015got to go this way. [Music] I know. [Music] Is it real? [Music] So nice to meet you. [Music] I was in the pictures. Hello. [Music] I'm going to [Music] I'll make sure [Music] Okay. This is your birthday. All of a sudden, look at that. [Music] There you go. [Music] Hello. This doesn't [Music] Bring [Music] it down. [Music] Oh my god. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] All right, it is 7:35. We're going to go ahead and pick back up with the meeting. The next portion of our agenda tonight is our open for for open form for agenda items. Miss Aosa, do we have any speakers registered for the agenda item portion of our uh evening tonight? President Chapo, we do not. Okay, having no agenda item speakers, we will move on to our committee and staff reports.

016Our first item tonight is item A is a update from our finance and academics committee and that is chaired by our vice president Sarah McMarrow. So Miss McMarrow, I'll turn it over to you. Thank you President Chappa. Um earlier this week the finance and academics committee and that's comprised of myself, trustee Fowler, and trustee Mike. Um we met earlier this week and we received an update from George Willilifford. He is our partner from Hilltop Securities. We also heard from Jared Zh, our director of school improvement, to learn more about some specific campuses and their target improvement plans and three campus turnaround plans that are in effect this school year. Um, this information will be added to a board agenda in the near future. All right. Thank you, Miss McMarrow. Move on to report item B

017tonight. That is a priority update on early literacy. We'll turn it over to Dr. Smith. trustees. Tonight we have a a great group that are here tonight. I know Diss is sitting over here. You can come on up. Deise and and uh obviously you know Dr. Bule as well is part of our focus is a team of eight. You know that on our agendas we list something as a priority update that directly aligns with the board priorities that you've adopted. Obviously early literacy is an important piece that we want to talk about on a regular basis. And tonight, Christine and Deise are here to give you an update on on our efforts in this area. Good evening, President Chappa, Superintendent Smith, and members of the board. Tonight, we are going to provide an update on

018the structured literacy implementation. This is priority work for us this year at the campus and central office level. It is aligned with our key progress measure of every K through3 classroom implementing uh structured literacy practices by April 30th of 2026. So it's a big focus for us. We know that it's going to make a difference for the students that we serve as we want every one of our students to be able to read on grade level. I'm going to turn it over to Delise Hardy. She's our executive director of teaching and learning and she's going to bring you the presentation this evening. Thank you. Thank you. And good evening, Dr. Smith, President Chapa, and members of the board. Oh, something just happened. There we go. Perfect. I'm excited to be here this evening to be

019able to share a report and an update on their early literacy work that is happening in Arlington ISD. I'm excited to also be accompanied by various members of some of our department teams that are also part of the work representing the many people involved at the district and the campuses that are doing this work on an everyday basis. The purpose of tonight is to be able to provide an update on the structured literacy professional learning, one of the big key lifts that we have been doing this year, as well as to report on the implementation in K through three in our all of our K through3 classrooms to also be able to highlight some of the early indicators of student growth that we have seen in our screener data at the beginning of year that

020we were able to give in September. As mentioned by Dr. Bule, the this is one of our key progress measures specifically within the academic growth district priority. And so we're really looking to make sure that we have implemented the structured literacy in all of our K through3 classrooms. It's also really important to note that we have a strong commitment to make sure that we give the power of reading to all kids. It is our commitment to make sure that all of our AISD students are confident, capable readers by the time they leave third grade. As part of our academic growth priority, it is also part of our district improvement plan. It is in strategy one. Specifically, we're looking at three things as we implement structured literacy in all of our K through3 classrooms, including our

021specialed resource classrooms as well. The first one really looking at professional learning for teachers, TAs and instructional leaders. So that includes like principles and APS and instructional coaches as well in providing literacy resources and in making sure that our campuses feel supported and that we provide feedback and we get feedback to really ensure that we are progressing in implementation. There are key three measures of success that we're looking at as part of this implementation. One is that we are making sure that we are implementing across all of our K through3 classrooms. We're also looking at growth in our MClass and in our MClass like through our data, which is our screener for kinder through 2 grade. And we're looking at the use consistently of progress monitoring tools specifically to support what we're doing in small

022group instruction. As we looked at shifting into structured literacy, especially from balance literacy into structured literacy, we really wanted to make sure that part of this work ensured that we built safety and urgency at the same time. And there were three key shifts that we have really been fun uh really focusing on during this beginning stages. So the first one was around visions and goals. Really making sure that we have a clear vision for what it is that we're trying to do. And as part of this vision and goal setting, it was super important that we made sure everybody understood the why. Why is it that we're engaging in this work and the data, where is it that our students are at and where is it that we want them to be? So, we made

023sure that the vision was clear around systematic and explicit instruction that is really grounded in the science of teaching reading. We also really uh looked at the implementation of updated literacy blocks to make sure that all components were part of the literacy block. And we also looked at uh providing clear expectations on the use of high quality instructional materials. One of the big things that we have been able to really work and do this year is professional learning. I want to engage you on there's two uh sides of this slide over here and on this first one this really dictates the work that is being done by the campus literacy teams on the 19 TXRL campuses. So we have 19 campuses that are part of the TXRL which encompasses about 125 principles and campus leaders

024across these campuses that as you can see all six sessions have already been engaged in. So when we looked about and really bringing out structured literacy we've brought it down to these six sessions and so the TXRL campus literacy teams have done all six as you can see represented on the on one side. On the other side, you're going to see the bid training that's offered then to all of the teachers on the other side. So, uh you're going to see on this side that's representative of teachers that are both on the TXRL and on non TXRL and it also includes uh principles and uh IC's and APS who also choose to engage in this work. So, the first one happened in uh in districtwide. Then the second one happened in the September 19th PL

025day. Then the second one happened actually just past Friday on the October 10th TXRL date. We had 588 in September and then we had over 600 in October and we have three sessions still to go. I have here a quote from Principal Cannon who is principal at West Elementary, one of our TXRL campuses. And she states that the TXRL grant and structured literacy focus have aligned the leadership team and provided a shared language that grounds our efforts campuswide. This common language has been essential in helping identify and target next steps, building our campus capacity to ensure we're bending we're building confident, capable readers at West. This is very representative of feedback that we're getting from principles across this work and is also representative of the feedback that we're getting for teachers who are participating in

026this learning. Feedback numbers include an increase in knowledge, strong alignment, and very positive learning environment. What I have for you in this next slide is that we're looking at not only the learning but then how it's being implemented in the classroom. So as part of the work when teachers come to us we give an an implementation survey which is around from last time to this time what have you tried what how is it going in the classroom and so we have here in this thought exchange with a favorability of 80% or above the efforts that teachers are trying to bring the learning back into the classroom. The first one is around the use of the strategies that they learned from the last time to this current time that they are scheduling time to adapt their

027lessons and include those practices and that they're also collaborating around the use of these practices there as well. And so this is how the teachers are reporting that they are implementing in their specific classrooms with strong favorability. We've also been able to engage in campus walks. So we had 24 leaders across various departments in the district in through academic services and through the office of school leadership. We were able to visit four campuses and 23 classrooms in September. Overall some of the strengths that we saw was one they were following that new structured literacy block that we have implemented and using the highquality instructional materials in these classrooms. We also saw that teachers were applying the learning about explicitly teaching components both on the word recognition side and the language comprehension side which is both

028sides of the reading rope. We were also able to share the look force that we had with principles as well with all principles so that they're able to engage in these types of walks as well on their campus to support implementation which directly aligns to that key progress measure too in the academic growth priority. As you in the bottom picture you will see that uh we you'll see some of the district leaders that we engaged in this work. We also looked at trends and some opportunities. what were some things that we were seeing to be able to support implementation across campuses and across classrooms. So, one, we saw the opportunity to really deepen understanding on how we're using the resources for instruction in a way to really involve kids in more active instruction during that

029tier one. And then the other one we were looking at is we we saw just pockets of excellence around and we're like, what are some ways that maybe we can increase collaborative teacher learning that they can visit other classrooms and see other key teachers that are implementing this? I am going to make just a special note throughout the presentation you're going to see lots of pictures and all these pictures are all from our kids engaging in this work and our leaders and our teachers who are part of this work every day. So I hope uh you're able to see the implementation in there as as well. The other thing that we're really proud of is that we are not doing this alone. This is very much a collaborative work. We have worked directly with special

030education and they have provided supplemental uh structured literacy materials and training for all of their resource and inclusion teachers to make sure that when they're in the general ed setting, they're getting structured literacy and also when they're in the resource inclusion classroom, they're doing so as well. We also work handinhand with our world languages department to make sure that our emergent bilingual in in the oneway dual language also have so we have the the regular literacy framework and then we also have the structured by literacy framework as well. It's also important to know that when we do professional learning, we provide both sessions and with the general ed session and the one-way session so that the structured literacy work is provided to differentiate for the different teachers and to be able to support all of

031the students that are receiving this work. Supporting all learners really is important as part of the work. So, we make sure to continue to collaborate uh uh with the structured literacy work. One of the things that we did is as we were rolling out the literacy block and as we were really bringing this out to campuses and to principles and really helping them work through their master schedules, we make sure that we were there for them. And when I mean we, I mean we. It was curriculum and instruction, it was special ed, it was world languages, it was early childhood. We were all there to make sure all kids were being seen as everything was being updated to make sure that everybody was taken care of because we want to make sure that all students

032are able to have access to this quality work. And as we continue to do professional learning, we invite other departments to be part of that to be part of the learning to be part of the work to make sure that we that all learners are feel supported and we invite office of school leadership as well to make sure all campuses feel supported as part of this work as well. It is exciting to be able to also be able to provide additional literacy resources to our campuses. This is in part due to TXRL funds that we've been able to have. It's important to note a few things is that this um the different manipulatives include things like easels and pocket charts and sound walls and whiteboards and magnetic letters and alchin boxes in K through3 classrooms.

033and that this is really being done in a very fiscally responsible way in the sense of we're not just blanketing all schools with everything. It really is in a partnership with the campuses where they let us know if we already have this these are the things that we need to make sure that everybody gets up to the same standard. So we're doing this little by little rolling it out. We've been able to do all 19 TXL campuses have already all been done and we're right now actively working with the other 34. We hope to be done this this month. So this continues to be part of the work that we're doing. We've also been uh really this was in response to feedback. Campuses have anthologies where they uh as part of what they use for

034their decodables and that really works well in their small group. As we were hearing feedback from teachers were like in addition to the small group work with decodables, we want them to be able to access that book maybe in a center or in a station or separately. And so what how we're doing is and in responding to that is we're printing six additional copies of those decodables for our teachers. So we're working actually not only with our print shop but with an outside printing company as well to be able to get those done and copied and stapled and folded and delivered to classrooms as part of this work as well. The other thing that we're going to be working on is also giving guidance to our to our campuses on what to do with all

035those leveled libraries that were part of the adoption. So, how is it that they can re repurpose and use in in addition and in alignment with the structured literacy work? I am um really excited to be able to share with you some of the initial successes that we're seeing. What I have here is some MClass and McLass lectura data. So, this is our beginning of your screener for students in kinder through 2 grade. The top box is MClass in English and then the bottom box is MClass Lura in Spanish. What I'm going to be really focusing your attention on is on the ends of the spectrum. So the red and the blue. The red is representative of our wellb below students and the blue is representative of our wellabove students. And so you're going to

036see in grade one the top bar is from this year and then the bottom bar is from last year. Then the same thing in grade two. Uh the top bar is from this year the bottom bar is from last year. So, when you compare, there's a few things that I'm going to have you look at. One is compare um where we were in beginning of year last year to where we were in beginning of year this year in a few areas. We're also going to look at some cohorts of students as well. So, for example, in grade one in last year in the well below or the red, we were at 37% of our students well below. This year, when we did the beginning of year, we were down to 32 of our percent of

037our students being well below. And then I'm going to move your attention to the other end of the spectrum, the blue. So last year 20% of our students were well above, this year in grade 1, 25% of our students were well above. If you look at grade two, you're going to see some similar trends there as well. Where last year, and we're going to go down to the red, well below, we were at 39% of our students. This year we're at 35% of our students, well below. And I'm going to bring your attention to the other end of the spectrum where we were at 21% well above this year we're at 26%. And you're I'm also going to uh call your attention to some cohort data. So if you look at the uh at the

038last year 24 25 students those are this in first grade those are this year second graders. So last year where there were this specific same cohort of students that were at 37% below this year when they started second grade we had only we had down to 35% well below. And then on the other end where we had 20% of those students well above those same students this year at 26% well above. So you can see both um so beginning your be beginning of year comparison but also student uh cohort comparison there as well. You can see some of those same things in Lectura as well. So when you look at um I'm going to do beginning of year grade one last year was at 35% and then this year down to 33% and then I'm

039going to go to grade two in the blue well above from 29 um we went from 29% to well above up to 33%. I will also do if you look at the comparison of cohort of students in lectura those are the middle two rows of lectura. So last year there were 35% who were well below and those same students this year were down to 26% well below and on the opposite end as well. Last year 25% well above this year up to 33% well above. So we saw lots of gains in just our initial implementation from some of the things that we were able to do last year and starting this year. It's good to see not only in comparison to ourselves but even in comparison to national norms. So what I have over here

040is us Arlington ISD in comparison to the nation. So Mclass dibbles is the Mclass in English and then lectura is the Mclass lectura the one in Spanish. So if you look at the top is going to be the nation and then right underneath it is going to be Arlington ISD. So again I'm going to call your attention to the ends of the spectrum. So if you look at our well below, the nation is at 35% of students being well below. In Arlington ISC, we're 2% lower than that at 33% of students being well below. And then on the opposite end on students being well above, the nation is at 24%, we're at 26% of students being well above. I'm going to call your attention to Leura in Spanish where the nation again at the ends

041of the spectrum. In red, they are at 30% of students well below. We are down to 24% of our students. And if you look at well be at well uh above on the blue end the nation is at 20% of students well above. We're at 29% of students well above. So it's great to see that our kids are doing well not only in our growth but in comparison to the nation as as well in looking at what are next steps. There's a lot of great work that's already happened up to now and more great work that's going to continue to happen. So one of the these are four areas that we want to continue to work on. Number one is collaboration. It takes a lot of people to do this well in our partnerships with

042various departments across academic services and the office of school leaderships in our campuses. We want to make sure that this is reaching all students no matter what program they're in. We want to make sure it is all of our K through third K through3 students. The other big thing for us is professional learning. We've done part we've done the first three. Now we're going to do the other three uh sessions of professional learning. And when we're looking at the professional learning series, we're looking at all K through three teachers. And we're also looking at continuous development of principles and other campus leaders. So that would be like assistant principles or instructional coaches as well. Another thing that we're doing is cross department leadership development. So this is leadership. This is for us in the in

043the district level as we continue to grow in our internal capacity. And it's cross department. So it is CNI, it is four languages, it is special, it is various departments coming together and our self speak continuing to build our internal capacity. And we're doing this work in cohort with region 11 which includes professional learning and instructional walks as well. The other big thing is that hand-on-hand work with our campuses is to make sure that we provide support and that could that is through observations and being able to provide feedback and being able to identify trends districtwide and opportunities that really inform the work that we're doing and what else we could do to make this a strong implementation as we look at truly changing both teacher practice and outcomes for kids. And I will uh

044answer any questions that y'all may have. All right, trustees with comments or questions. I'm not seeing any here. U Miss McMurra. Thank you, President Choa. I just have a couple. Thank you, Miss Hardy. Um can you share with our board and community um what you can about how the literacy block has changed? I know that you mentioned on a couple slides that we are taking a new approach with our K through3 literacy block. Um can you kind of expand a little bit on that? So it really was the increase in minutes to make sure that we had time for all components as we're asking them to engage in in specific components about both sides in language on comprehension and word recognition and to have time to be able to do this both in whole group

045and in small group. Really the current minutes that we had did not allow for that. And so we changed the literacy block to make sure that they then had enough time to be able to get done the things that were part of what research is telling us are the best practices that should be included as part of this work. Thank you. And I know that that literacy also includes speaking, listening, writing. So we're still ensuring that those are also components of the literacy block, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, and then my next question was, I'm I'm glad that our in our district calendar, we have more professional learning days um for all staff this year. How are we supporting our teachers who are already strong in their practices um particularly with structured literacy to make sure

046that they too can get meaningful professional learning and keep growing? Yes. So even as we are providing professional learning, we are we there's a few things that that we engage in is not only the the practices and the knowledge, but then how is it that we're also using our instructional materials and that they're able to implement in the classroom as well. And so we have teachers at all levels of comfort and all levels of knowledge of either practice or or their research or where it is that they should be doing with the kids or their special populations. And so we really try to provide a variety of of parts in our professional learning to be able to support their continued work because it's not just learning about what structured literacy is. It's about also learning

047about the practices and instructional practices that that go in with them. For example, if I'm going to be doing this explicitly, what does explicit instruction look like and what are the instructional practices to make that happen? And it could be then how is it that I'm using the high quality instructional materials that I'm being asked to use. Is that the same or different than I was before? and how it is that I'm really incorporating data this year. What we're doing with personalized practice as part of the small group instruction is completely brand new. And so the way that we're bringing in playlist and personalized practice is different than than any of our AISC teachers have done before. And so we're really making sure that teachers feel confident in being able to implement these changes. And

048we are supporting where teachers are at at at different levels. Deliss, can you uh expand a little bit on the and I'm going to mess up the name of the group, but I think there literacy leadership teams on our TXR campus leadership teams and Sarah to your point I think that there's a there's a spot for leadership from teacher leadership perspective on some of this as well. So, will you expand on that a little bit? Absolutely. So, the campus leadership teams are designated by the campuses. So we invited them to be able to to nominate who their people are and be able to choose actually who their people are to be part of the leadership that is being involved in leading this work. And so we see a variety of um people from the the

049principal, the assistant principal, instructional coaches, maybe SSIs and and then even some teacher leaders. So teachers that are more involved or teachers that have a greater level of of knowledge around this and people who are actually leaders in really leading this work on their campuses as well. You will see them as part of the campus leadership team in addition to uh to uh not in addition to doing their regular work in their regular classroom as well. Thank you Miss McMaro. We do have some questions from trustees here. Uh Mr. Wanks. Thank you, President Chapa. And uh thank you, Miss Hardy, for this presentation. This is exactly the format I think we as trustees need to receive um especially on a topic that is so important and we have identified as a board as critical to

050the success of our students going forward. uh and um as one of our board priorities. Um I do want one of the things I wasn't familiar with is the T the TXRL partnership that we have with Charles Buts Foundation. So can you give us some back history on that when we started that and um I think um and then I've got another follow- on question of that related to our national com um test comparisons. So if you could provide some backstory. Yeah. So the TXRL it was there was a process of application that we went through last year and so an initial team started to meet together to be able to go through the learning and to be able to work on the application process and it was a cross departmental team that included um

051of course Dr. Dr. Words. It also included Dr. Bule it included members from curriculum instruction world languages special ed. So even throughout even before we even engage in uh if if we were going to be even part of this work we engaged together as part of the learning to be able to even fill out and do the whole application process. So all of last year we engaged in the learning with TXRL and we engaged in the application process with them. And as part of the application process with them, we were able to really plan out the roll out and we were able to really start thinking through how could really we do the systemic change for a district as big as Arlington. And so they had various districts that were going through the part of

052the learning and they said even if you don't get awarded the money, you can still continue to do even the the learning with with us because they have leaders that are in uh that are part of of this of the Charles Foundation that are really leading this work. We were lucky to submit a wonderful application, wonderful plans, and we were selected as uh as one of the recipients to to receive the money from the TXRL grant. And the partnership doesn't stop there. So now when we continue to work with our campus literacy teams, we they still continue to provide some of that learning that they did with us. Now they're doing it with the campus literacy teams. And then we are bringing that and doing it with all 600 teachers. and we bring it to

053a much different and bigger scale. So, we've been engaging with them and this is great because not only are they knowledgeable around really around structured literacy, but around implementation and they're able to also connect us with other districts across the state of Texas. What have they found to be really valuable and really successful in other places and what can we learn from each other as part of the work? So, it's really been great to have a partner in this implementation throughout the process to help us not only grow in our learning and in our capacity, but even in the systemic change processes as well. Yeah. And again, how much money are we talking about that we receive? It's $250,000. Yeah.$125 this year and $125,000 next year. That's great. And I know changing teacher practice is

054hard. We all get set in our ways, but this is critical. And so I think having that guidance and I'm particularly interested how we go from those 16 is it 16 campuses? 19 in TXRL. Yeah, 19 campuses to 53 elementary schools. Um that is always the hard part. And so for me as a trustee always want to know if we're changing strategy, how many uh classrooms have been trained on that strategy and more importantly how many teachers are implementing it with fidelity. How many classrooms have we changed the practice for the better and changing students lives when it comes to early literacy? Absolutely. Um, so and I like that you provided some of those stats in your presentation. Yes, we don't always get that. So that was a welcome surprise. So thank you for that.

055Um, the other thing Well, I I want to be brief, you know, as my colleagues know, I pro I have six questions down here, but I'll end on I'll skip them and get to the end. what what are the struggles that you guys are finding right now in terms of um what's harder than you thought it was going to be and and where do we what do we need in order to get past those roadblocks? Yeah, it's I don't think it was unexpected as part of change management. We know that it's going to look very different when you're talking about 53 campuses. And so we are really seeing campuses that are all over the place in their implementation thereof. And it's not something that was that's unexpected. It's actually something that we expected very much

056as part of change management. So really it's how do we respond then to make sure that we support all campuses because if our goal is all K through three classrooms, our goal is all K through three classrooms. And so that's why collaborations across departments, collaborations with our campuses, staying very walking classrooms, make sure we get through different schools and different classrooms. And when we talk to principles, we train all principles. And when we give these resources, let's give them to all the classrooms. And and so it's really is a that's really what I think is what we're looking for is to make sure that when we're looking at systemic change is that we're doing systemic change across the system. Yeah. And that's the hard part. Yeah. Yeah. So, and I think having and the greatest

057opportunity both, right? And having a partnership like we have with such a prestigious um foundation is that really knows this topic is uh good to know that we have that that resource at our disposal. Um and with that I mean the the only other big burning question I had is how are we differentiating the but the professional learning but I believe my colleague McMur already asked that. Um so I'd just say thank you guys for this work. It's very important. We in the board know it's important and um we like to see progress being made. So I am interested in getting metrics on that fidelity question. So when can we start getting data on okay we've done those walkthroughs we know that this percentage of our teachers in uh K through two classrooms have implemented

058structure literacy with fidelity. Um so that's a big piece for me. I can answer that one too. And I want to add on one more thing because I I think the lease mentioned this, but I think it's important to note. I think one of the biggest challenges we have right now is there are um very strong opinions when it comes down to reading instruction by teachers often through different um training that they've had and experiences that they have over the course of their career. And one of the biggest challenges we have is to be able to uh acknowledge the fact that our state has done an about face on what they believed was thoughtful literacy instruction for a number of years to the science of teaching reading in the past 5 years. And that means

059as we continue to support and provide learning experiences for teachers, we have to remember they were trained and supported in a very different way over a number of years. So when we talk about changing practice, we're also talking about changing beliefs that they that have been ingrained. And we want to respect the professionalism of the teacher while also shifting in practice to be able to respect the fact that we have better research now than we did then. And so we're constantly working on being able to balance the respect and support with also the need for change and and to thoughtfully work through that so that our teachers feel supported but also that we're seeing the change that we need. In regard to the data on that, I think uh we talked about the the final

060report will come in the spring and that is the guarantee of 100%. And I think I told you all with the KPM, I struggle with saying 100%, but we know how important this is, and that's why we set that target for 100%. So, as we get things up and moving over the course of a few months on how to actually um thoughtfully gather that data and see the classroom practice change, we'll be able to provide you some interim reports along the way. But you can look for that 100% report later in the spring. Right. We have Miss Valor. Thank you. Thank you, President Choa. Thank you, Miss Hardy, for this very, very good report. I appreciate it. And I I hope that people realize with the percentages, how much time and work goes into even

061raising two or three percentages. And so, I love that you also put the number so we can see how many students actually improved. And of course, I love that we're doing better than the national norm. That's right. Yes. Yes. Applaud says, but but I'm really I want to focus on those percentage points because I think it's very important for people to realize what a big impact that is only with a few percentage points. Yeah. So, so congratulations and I I love everything that you reported on and I think we're we're on the right track in Thank you, Miss Fowler. I don't have any other comments or questions from trustees. So, thank you, Miss Hardy. Appreciate the report. We have our next report item tonight. Item C is a report on our teacher incentive aotment. Trustees,

062we are uh excited to have Dollars Johnson here again to provide you an update along the way. Just as a brief refresher, we came to you last year, I believe, with two presentations uh to give you an update and to tell you that we're beginning to study this. Arlington ISD is one of the districts that has not pursued this and so we've done our best to have a deliberate study process to be able to engage teachers and uh in and various stakeholders to be honest uh in developing a potential thing for consideration in the spring of this coming year. So this is just simply an update to you on the progress of that. Good evening President Chapa, members of the board. Thank you Dr. Smith. I'm excited to be here to share an update on

063our TIA study. Our purpose tonight has is three-fold. We're going to share where we are in the TIA exploration process. We're going to summarize some of the stakeholder engagement activities that occurred over the summer and leading into this fall. And we're going to preview next steps on how we intend to gather additional teacher feedback to make an informed recommendation to the board in the spring. The first few slides highlight the steering committee's work that occurred over the summer just leading into the fall. Our steering committee continues to guide this work. The committee includes representatives from the office of school leadership, curriculum and instruction, special education, human resources, academic services, the communications department, and the research accountability department. This crossf functional group provides technical expertise and ensures diverse vers diverse voices are included in this process.

064This group has facilitated teacher focus groups, principal meetings, campus feedback sessions to ensure broad input from all instructional levels. Over the summer, the TIA steering committee reviewed recent legislative changes impacting TIA. The 2025 legislative session brought several major updates through House Bill 2 that directly impact the implementation of TIA across the state. Beginning this school year, the Texas Education Agency in Region 11, they expanded technical support for districts beginning or refining their TIA systems. And districts who have fully implemented TIA now have access to a new enhanced TIA program that allows them to receive 10% more funding. In the beginning in the 2026 27 school year, teachers will have access to a new acknowledge designation allowing even more teachers to qualify for TIA. If you take a look at the white box on the right

065hand side of the screen, it lists the increase allotments available now uh to teachers starting in the 2627 school year. So all existing designation payouts received an increase during the legislative session. As a part of our study, the TIA steering committee reviewed how our nearby districts are implementing TIA. We examined their application um years. We looked at the eligible teaching assignments, system waiting, student growth measures, how they approach hard to measure subjects, how they included their sped teachers, and we also took a look at their compensation models. This comparative analysis has provided best practices, lessons learned, and strategic insights that will inform the committee's recommendation. Across region 11, we currently have uh 94 school districts spanning 10 counties. Of those, we know that there are 51 districts who are already implementing or participating in TIA.

066Is projected that an additional 15 to 20 districts will apply in April of 2026. That means that you have roughly 70% of region 11 districts who will soon be participants in the TIA program. As you can see in this chart, most of our peer districts in the DFW area, specifically Fort Worth, Grand Prairie ISD, or HB, they have already implemented or piloting TIA. Notably, several of our comparison districts, those with similar enrollment uh demographics and accountability profiles are already receiving TIA funding. So when we consider teacher mobility and competitive hiring, this regional participation is significant and important to consider as we study this um this program. The members of the TIA steering committee attended September principal meetings to share and review teacher focus group feedback from the previous school year. In addition, we had a

067lunch and learn with 24 campuses identified by the committee as recommended locations should the district choose to apply for TIA. Building on feedback from last year's teacher focus group sessions surrounding district best practices and data from the campus needs index, the steering committee has identified 24 campuses with the greatest staffing and retention needs for a possible pilot should the district choose to apply for the program. Utilizing TIA specifically at our campuses with the greatest needs allows for differentiated pay consistent with the challenges in those learning environments. Importantly, these campuses will have an opportunity to opt in ensuring local agency over the process and local ownership. Participation would be a campus decision with the identified pilot groups you see listed on the screen. This would not be an individual decision. The objective is for campus administration

068to receive input from their respective staff and have a process of checking the pulse on the campus before opting in or opting out. Employees who are at a campus that opt in to TIA to the TIA pilot, they have the option to initiate a transfer request to a non TIA campus during the annual staffing period. A limited pilot would allow the district to just test our critical systems, review data collection, payout structures on a more manageable scale. As we shared on the previous slide, the principles uh that on the screen of the 24 campuses, they attended a lunch and learn where they were able to ask us questions, voice their concerns, and they were actually able to help give us input on how we can elevate teacher voices from their campuses. Our next step is

069to expand engagement by providing district-wide updates about the study through November. We're going to gather feedback from the recommended pilot programs. Principles and teachers from all campuses are invited to participate, ensuring representation from every school level and program area. These sessions will provide opportunities for staff across campus to continue to ask questions, share their feedback, and help us um put a recommendation together um for March. All right. Any questions? Thank you, Miss Johnson. Do I have trustees with comments or questions? Mr. Wilbanks. Thank you, President Chapa. Um so just curious um uh we if you go to slide four on the distinctions. Yeah. Um in the pay range um on the scale like the new acknowledge or the recognize or all the way up to the master at 36k. the top end of that scale

070is that still tied to um the poverty index for the students in that campus and we actually have quite a number of campuses that would um qualify a TIA teacher to receive that maximum amount do we not I don't know the exact amounts um but um to answer your first question yes it is still tied to the social economic status of the campus um but we do have some who would um hit a high range in some of those levels Yes. Um, and the the new acknowledged uh distinction, the requirements for that seem, I mean, not easy, but pretty low compared to what they were before. Um, I think they have to get a 3.5% on their tests and they have to score for the last 5 years a 50% on the growth measure on

071STAR. Do we know how many teachers would meet that bar right now? Uh we don't have um that data right now, but we can look into it. Yeah, I'd love to have that data if we could get that data um because I think that's important to know how many teachers could be getting a 9 um,000 raise right out of the bat. Now um if we go through the pilot um decide to go through the pilot phase, we have to create a program and it has to get approved. So, if we move forward in the spring, what's the earliest we could get that approved by? Yeah, the application process spans over a couple of years. Um, should the district apply in April, there will be an approval process and then there's a data capture year and

072then the money is received two years after your application has been approved and received. Great. Thanks. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Will Banks. Any other trustees with comments or questions? Miss McMurro, do you have any Mr. Mike? One second, Mr. Mike. I hit the wrong button. Okay, your honor. Thank you. So, looking at the I guess our cross-section with all of the other districts that are participating and then I think I believe you said that um there's going to be a few more. So, we're looking at about 70% participation. Uh do you have any idea on um how this would affect us in regards to recruiting and obtaining uh some of the best teachers if we do not have this in place? It could be a um it it is a retention and recruitment tool

073for other districts. um you can anticipate uh teachers may gravitate towards districts who are currently implementing and receiving uh TIA funds. Okay. And I'll add on to that too. One of the biggest concerns that we have is that u we do have teachers that are moving here from other TIA districts right now and they continue to get funds for their designation for how many years is it? Five years. But after that, if we don't have a system in place, then we would not be able to uh retain them with that dollar amount that they're receiving from TEA at that point. And so the concern for us is not just the recruitment piece because teachers can come here right now and continue receiving funds, but the concern is the retention piece of some of those great

074teachers that we might be getting from some of the other districts. Okay. And then with regards to uh I think it's slide four. Um it looks to me I mean there's always a worry that the legislature will pull funds or not do anything but it seems to me that they are putting more funds into this. Um, do we have any idea on if they're, and this is, you know, you may not even know, um, that they're going to continue this or are they going to pull back or what's the feeling? What's I can help with that. Uh, it right now it appears that this is where the chips are going and the legislature significantly increased the dollar amount for the teacher incentive aotment program in the state of Texas through this last or through this

075current bienium. And um I can tell you from our conversations with DEA, this is a piece of their focus for schools. And as long as uh current leadership remains in place at the agency, this is the this is a program that they will keep investing in uh unless something unforeseen happens in the legislature where to your point, they've cut billions of dollars from public ed before. You never know, could happen again, but right now this is one of their big bets. Okay. And then focusing on slide eight, the 24 campuses that were identified based on the needs index. Um I noticed you talked about an opt in opt out. Are we taking into account um the grades of the school when it comes to the opt-in and opt out provision particularly um schools who have

076worse grades? Um is there more leniency or there's more stringent on yeah you're not probably not going to be able to opt out. You're going to just stay opt in because of the grades. This is one of the trickier questions that you've asked tonight. So, um, here's what I would say. Absolutely. We, we want to make sure that all of our schools are performing at a certain level. You adopted a key progress measure on that and we want to make sure that we're addressing that. We also know that the power of doing this right lies in doing it right for our teachers. And we we have to make sure that we do it and do this in a way where we can create some teacher buy in on a campus to do it. So, we

077want to honor teacher voice and helping to opt in. Should we get in a situation where we know we have an underperforming school and they're not interested in going that route, we would have to have continued conversations with that school about the right supports and what needs to change. And if those things wouldn't change, then we would have to take a different action. But the goal to start with again the the success that we have heard about is where we can have active teachers buying in to say yes to doing it at the school and that's our number one priority if we go down this path. Okay. And and just to finish off um you know I I think for the longest time when we hear about TIA we hear all the rumors of all

078the bad things um on things that we don't want to occur. And I'm very proud of this district and and the team on going through and focusing on this study and getting the input from administration, staff, teachers, uh to get the feeling of it so that we can quell some of those rumors. Um because there's a lot of good that I think can come from this program to identify your best best teachers. I think if you've got high performing teachers, you're going to have high performing students. And if those teachers are going through a lot of the things that they go through every day dealing with students, um, then they should be rewarded for that. Um, and and we think a lot of our teachers and the great things that they're doing in this district.

079So, thank you for the presentation. Thank you, Mr. Mike. Any other comments or questions from trustees? Miss McMarrow. Thank you, President Chappa. Um just a quick question to um that uh you made me think of Mr. Mike. Um do you know going back to those campuses that that um that the um steering committee identified as possible um TIA eligible campuses if we were to um if we were to opt in. I I do just as a trustee speaking for myself, I do I am a tea TIA skeptic and have been for a long time and you guys know that. Um, one thing that I've always said and just continue um to hold tightly to as I learn more about TIA and I study what other districts are doing and not doing and changing as things

080evolve. Um I see districts um you know and less frustration and pain points from teachers if TIA is allocated given something that is more of a controllable for the teacher. So for example if you get an incentive for being a nationally board certified teacher that's a controllable. Choosing where you teach within the district year after year that's another controllable. Um, but where things get kind of sticky, confusing, and even frustrating, and defeating for teachers is when something is based on performance, and they might miss out on a TIA allocation by one kid or one score point or one test indicator. And I just I just wanted to voice that. I think that basing any kind of pay on a controllable is something that would provide equity and support for all of our hardworking teachers. Thank

081you, Miss McMahero. Mr. Will Banks. Thank you, President Chapa. And I just want to reiterate it. My concern is something Mr. Mike brought up um in that this is going to be a competitive get to the point where this may be a competitive disadvantage for us especially when recruiting and retaining good quality teachers. Not only that, it is apparent as Dr. Smith pointed out that the TEA and the legislature is putting all their chips in. There are programs like the um the resource campus designation program where if any campus anywhere has three years of not rated a D or an F over the last 10 years, we can de a a district can designate that campus as part of that program and they receive a whole lot more funds targeted at help improving that campus.

082And a lot of that is require those requirements for things like that where there's a lot of extra money on the table is predicated on in in this particular program 50% of the teachers being TIA um certified and I believe the new distinction would qualify for that and if that is a low bar it's not a low bar but it's a reachable bar for a lot of our teachers that gives us another strategy to play with that comes with a lot of extra dollars. So, I really and would I'm not I agree with my colleagues. There's a lot not to like about this, but I think our hands are being forced in this case. There's just too much money at stake and um if there's free money for teachers that why would we leave that

083on the table? So, Thank you, Mr. Wilbanks. Any other comments or questions from trustees? All right. Thank you, Miss Johnson. Thank you. We'll move on to report item D. This is our Let's Talk report. Dr. Smith, I think this is going to be a great one. Uh, and the others have been great, too, but I think some of you as trustees are wondering what this is all about. So, I think this is going to be a fun one to uh tell you a little bit about something that we're working on. At the heart of this is our focus on customer service for our community. And so, we want to be able to tell you a little bit about what we've been doing and what we're going to be doing over the next few months to

084ensure that we're um constantly working to improve the relationships between Arlington ISD, our parents, and our community. Good evening, President Chapa, Dr. Smith, and trustees. I'm excited to talk with you a little bit tonight about Let's Talk. If you go back in some board bulletins from the past, so you've had a little bit of hints that have been dropped, but tonight we want to provide you with a broader scope of the work that we've been doing with Let's Talk specifically and then where what we want to do moving forward. So the purpose of this presentation is really to provide you with an overview of the K12 Insight Let's Talk platform. K12 Insight is the name of the company. I think the product that we're talking about specifically tonight is called Let's Talk. And as Dr.

085Smith mentioned, this is um in direct alignment with our marketing and engagement priority. We are trying to improve customer service in our district and we believe that this is a tool that will help us to do that. I want to thank our friend Hillary Robbins who is here from K12 Insight joining us tonight. She's been a partner with us um on this journey for nine or 10 months probably. Um and I also want to give a shout out to Greg Stone. Greg is a part of our web services team. Um he's not here this evening, but he has been instrumental in the piloting that we've been doing and so I'm just so thankful for him and his leadership. And then Khala Mack with K12 Insight has been a great partner for us as well. So

086what is Let's Talk? I'm going to break down this definition into three pieces for you. So the first piece says it simplifies access for our stakeholders. So, think about how many times as a parent or a community member that you try to go on to our website to find an answer to a question or to figure out who you need to call or email about a particular topic. So, Let's Talk is going to streamline that for us so that it's a one-stop shop for people to go to find answers. And so, we'll talk about uh what that looks like. The second piece that you see in the definition is that it automates workflows for faster resolutions. And that happens in a couple of different ways. So the first way that it does that is you

087um identify um owners in the district who are best able to answer a question. So right now what oftentimes happens if I have a kid that left their lunchbox on the bus, maybe I go onto the district website and I see oh the director of transportation and I'm going to email the director of transportation and say my kid left their lunchbox on the bus. Well, the director of transportation is probably not the right person to answer that question, but that's the name and face that we have on our website. And so that's where people go. And so then what he has to do is to forward it to somebody else. It's going to reach back out to the parent to find out what's the bus number and what day was it, right? So then the

088communication goes back and forth. And so this uh through using Let's Talk, it's going to automate that. And I'll show you some examples. And then third, it makes it easy to deliver superior customer service. So, not only can we deliver that customer service, but it also provides metrics back to us as a district. So, we can see where we're doing well and where we're not doing well with customer service. So, think about when you go to get your oil changed and when you leave, you get a text message on your phone that said, "How did we do today?" So, it's kind of that same approach that we've answered your question or we believe that we've answered your question and our stakeholders get a feedback form and they get to rate the our customer service and

089what that looked like. And so that allows us to be super targeted. So this is kind of what communication complexity looks like in a school district. So over on the far left you see different inquiries that come in and then the next column you see from a lot of different stakeholders. We get these inquiries and they come through a lot of different methods, right? We have email and text message. We see have people that post things on social media. They ask a question face to face and then all of those questions go to lots of different stakeholders in the system. So getting answers to questions is very very complex um in public education. And so with Let's Talk, what we want to do is um focus on what might go wrong and turn it to

090a right. So I'm not going to go over all of these, but I just want to highlight a couple. So because it's so complex, sometimes urgent messages get missed. So for an example, my admin assistant has been out of the office this week. Um, I have a stack of emails and I go through those emails one at a time and I have no idea how urgent something is and if it's number 37 in my email box there, it's going to be seen by number 37. Right? There's no way to prioritize um a message right now. Um the idea of missing student information. So sometimes we get a question from a parent that says, "My kid left their um lunchbox on the bus. What school do they go to? What is their bus number? What grade

091are they in? Um you know what day was the day that they left it?" Right? And so all of that um information is provided automatically. And so we'll talk a little bit about that. And then over on the far right, the idea of sticky notes equals note tracking. I am a sticky note um user. And if you open up my laptop, you see lots of sticky notes that are my to-do list. And whenever I finish with a sticky note, I take great joy in wading up or tearing that sticky note in half and throwing it in the trash, right? That feels like accomplishment to me. But then later when somebody has a question, you have to go back and find where was that sticky note or where did that originate, right? And so Let's Talk

092allows you to track that history over time. Um, and so then you'll see down there in the bottom, right? That idea of tracking our service quality, tracking the way that we provide services um, for our families. So then this is what it looks like um, whenever you're using Let's Talk. We still have lots of inquiries coming from lots of different people in lots of different ways, but it all gets funneled into Let's Talk that then allows us to provide really great customer service. Um it's um we call it a unified service desk. So here in Arlington, we have been piloting Let's Talk um since this summer. I'm going to highlight a couple of specific ways that we've piloted so far this year and show you what it looks like and then talk to you about

093what we want to do moving forward. So, um, registration and transportation are going to be the two that we talk about this evening. So, this is an example from transportation. So, the whole reason that we wanted to pilot, um, in transportation is because we get lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of questions at the very beginning of a school year. And so what we chose to do was to pilot with summer school to see if we could work out all the bugs and all of the kinks so that at the beginning of this school year we could have a different approach for our families with transportation. Our goals were to create efficiencies and to eliminate duplicate inquiries because we know what happens is I'm going to call and then when I have

094to leave a voicemail in a couple of hours I'm going to call again and then I'm going to send an email and then I'm going to call again. And so you may end up with four or five inquiries. that's really the same inquiry. And so we wanted to try to eliminate those dup duplicate inquiries. We also wanted to answer frequently asked questions quickly. If somebody has a question like I left my lunch box on the bus, what do I need to do? Like we know the answer to that and it is the same answer if you call me today or if you call me tomorrow. Right? That is an answer that we can provide pretty easily to people. Um and then we want to create a culture of shared responsibility using the data. Innesota we

095don't want to just give answers but we want to make sure that we're providing answers in a way that feel like customer service that feel like support and we want to get that data and be able to use it with our staff members. So what you'll see on the uh right hand side of the page there is an example of email. So you'll see up at the top the email toggle has been chosen there and then it says send us a message and you select a topic and you'll see that there's a scroll bar there. So there are a lot more um topics there for transportation, but for example, the lost items question is going to go to a different person than the sign up for bus notifications, right? So on the back end, what

096it's doing is it's going to route that inquiry to the right person in transportation. The um customer would enter the subject and the message just like they would a regular email. And then down at the bottom, they're going to enter their name and their email and their phone number. The other thing that Let's Talk's going to do on the back end is it is going to look at our student information system, and when there is a match with a name and an email or a name and a phone number, whenever our um team gets that email message, it's going to say, "Here are the three students that match that cell phone number in the system." and you know who they are, which campus they go to, what grade they're in, so that you're not having

097to go back and forth with that parent, you have that information already provided to you. So, pretty robust. We also used the product this summer to help with um student registration processes. Um our end goals for helping with student registration processes, number one, we wanted to offer multilingual support. So, when our parents are signing their students up to be a part of Arlington ISD every summer, we know that not all of our families are um asking questions in English. We wanted to be able to provide multilingual support. We also wanted to deliver exceptional experiences. So, think about our elementary campuses that are closed for many weeks in the summer and parents are trying to register their students and when they have questions, they're calling their campus trying to get answers, but they're having to leave

098a message because no one is there. or the office is not open um all of the weeks in the summer. And so what this will allow us to do is to use a chatbot kind of feature to answer those questions for our parents. Our ultimate goal then is to retain the students in the district. We want parents to be able to ask their questions so they can get their kids registered and they stay with us. We want them to feel like they got the support that they needed. And so what you'll see there on the right hand side is an example of what a chat would look like. So what can I help you with today and can you tell me how you're connected to Arlington ISD? And then, you know, just like when you're

099shopping for a couch or any of those kinds of things that you do online, you can use that chatbot feature. The chatbot uses data that we provide to the ser the service or the system. So, we can load things like our school calendar. We can load things like our student handbook. It can scour our website. And it's only going to use the things that we provide to provide answers to families. We can also provide kind of a frequently asked questions to the chatbot that would allow us to say, you know, if a person has a question about, I left my lunchbox on the bus, then here's the answer that you should provide that family. Um, and then if the chatbot can't answer that question, it's going to send an email to the right person to

100be able to answer that question. So, here's an example of streamlining back to school and a couple of uh processes there. So on the left you see someone who um put in an inquiry there. We've masked some of the data because we didn't want the name of the student to be there, but you can see kind of what that looked like was someone answering some easy questions. And then on the right, I know that it's too tiny to read on your screen. Um but I want to talk talk to you a little bit about what this dialogue looked like. So in the first box, um the person from the district says, "Thank you for your email. Um we've given you access to the parent self-s serve. You'll need to create your username and password. If

101you have any questions, let me know. I can also help you. If you want to try to see both of your kids under one username, I can help make that happen for you, essentially. And then the parent responds and says, "I'm still having trouble. Here's the message that I'm getting." And they put in a screenshot. And then our person was able to answer back and say, "I'm so sorry that you're still having trouble with this. I've aligned our system and I've made your password, your driver's license number. That should help um work for you." And then the last one, the parent says, "Thank you so much. It's working. I really appreciate your help." Right? So, it's just kind of that back and forth that allows us to provide great customer service. What I love about

102this example is this person wasn't only providing answers, but they were saying things like, "I'm so sorry that this is hard for you right now." Right? I'm so sorry that this isn't working well for you. So, we're providing some empathy as well, rather than only answers that people are looking for. So, here is a little bit of data from our registration processes. Um we received 146 dialogues over a given period of time um in the summer for people trying to get their students registered or having questions about being registered. The average dialogue age for those 146 dialogues was 0.4 days. So that the comments were resolved, right? People had their questions answered with um less in less than a day. And then down at the bottom of that, you'll see the customer service score was

1037.6 six out of 10. And so that allows us to see other people think that we did and providing them answers to their questions. And then over on the right, you'll just see the different kinds of dialogues that were provided to us. So people expressed concerns, lots of questions were asked, people provided suggestions and comments and compliments, right? Those are the kinds of things that came in during our registration process. Something that we noted um thinking about our customer service score trend. So you'll see there that we launched um in June. So we had no customer service scores and then in June when we launched 7.6 was our first kind of metric where we were providing customer service and then the next month we went up to 7.9 and then the next month we went

104up to 9.9. And so what's happening is that we have people that are looking at the data and they're able to look at the um dialogues that are going back and forth and talk to specific people about when you answer questions. These are ways to answer questions in a way that feel like support for our community. This we love. All right. So, our product implementation plan. So, back in January, we had our initial um conversation with Hillary and team. She came and talked to our senior staff team. Um and then it was our transportation and student registration pilots that happened over the summer. In September, we've already had an introduction for some of our central office departments. And then we will train all of our district staff who will be um the users of Let's

105Talk November 11th and 13th. And then we plan to launch let's talk in a broader scale on our district website on December 1st. So where we are right now is we have teams who are thinking about what are the different kinds of questions that people might ask for my particular area. So, if I'm the bilingual team, what are the kinds of questions that I might get from um stakeholders regarding bilingual education? And they're figuring out what are those different um subject areas and who are the right people to be able to answer those questions and they're going to start building all of that on the back end. Um so that on December 1st when we launch, we have that all tied in and ready to go together. And then depending on um what all of

106that ends up looking like, that will help us determine with our communications team what that promotion to stakeholders needs to look like. We know that we need to uh work with our campus principles. We know we need to work with others at the central office who are not necessarily going to be users, but they need to know about what we're doing. We know we need to work with our um community, our parents um for them to know, you know, exactly what's going to that's going to look like and how our website um look may change a little bit. And so that is our intro presentation. Wonder what questions you have. Thank you, Dr. Collins. Trustees with comments or questions? Miss Richardson, this makes me excited. This seems like we have finally been able to take

107a lot of the complaints and frustrations we've had and you've streamlined it. You've heard what we've shared as trustees. You've heard what we've shared to you as parents. I know that I've talked to both of you before sometimes about the communication and the frustrations that if I feel this as a trustee and I know the ins and outs. I cannot imagine how a parent who doesn't know the system well, isn't familiar with technology or has a language barrier. So, one of the things that I really liked that you showed us that it's going to offer is multilingual support. We know that we have 87 different languages spoken here in our district. that is a need and before we can enroll these families we can help these students but when we are not able to communicate

108on the basic level of needs that's hard that is not setting them up for success in our district so I love that we're going to do that thank you also for sharing that we are going to treat this like customer service because we say all the time that our business is kids our business is people well if that's what it is then where is the customer service and do they feel valued do they feel appre appreciated and do they feel like at the end of the day when we talk to them that we respect them because we've said in our district priorities that that's going to be culture matters. Well, this aligns right with the culture that we've talked about. Thank you for making it efficient and easy. I feel like what you showed on

109slide 10 with that back and forth with the parent of I can't log in. I've tried this. I tried this could have been me sending this same. So, it's something we all go through. And the fact that we can have a frequently asked question area, but I like too that it shows that it was resolved within eight hours. You're able to see how quick that timeline is happening. Because as parents, we often feel like, at least for myself, when I send in a question, I can send it to four different people. So, if I send it to you and it's number 37 in your email, I also send it to uh Greg Stone and it's number 38. and then I leave a voicemail and I may have also tied up four people all looking for

110the same answer and you're duplicating your work. So, I love that we're going to take the redundancy out of it and it's going to make it more efficient for our staff. So, thank you for providing solutions to problems that we have expressed for a long time. Great. I appreciate it. Thank you, M. Richardson, Mr. Will Banks. Thank you, President Choa. Wow, this was great. So, now the secret's out. So I was wondering why my inbox at the start of the year and we have all these transportation problems was eerily quiet and I think it's had to be in large part to this. So a huge success at least from my perspective with my own inbox. Um as a consultant who do a lot of these process um software integration or technology integrations uh across clients

111one of the critical success factors is that with the client we have to establish a clear owner of this project uh product. So there's a product owner and I think you alluded to that in your presentation. So we have a full-time employee that's so is to work with this or no? So we don't have a full-time employee that's dedicated only to this. Greg Stone is a member of our web services team and he is dedicating a lot of his time to making this happen and he is really holding the hands of each individual team as they're trying to figure out who are the right people that need access for the different um kinds of questions that people might ask. So, he has already been a part of our team, but this is a big um

112lift for him right now. And it's something that um he is very proud of the work that he's been able to do and we're seeing those successes and he's a champion for us in this right now. He's on Tyenus and the technology team, he kind of works both together. So, as we roll this out wider and wider and wider, do we anticipate the need for a full-time product owner for this product to make sure that it's successful as we roll it out across the district and across departments? I'll tell you I'll jump in on that. So, uh I've been a part of rolling this out in other districts and um but I don't know that that is needed, but I will say this that if it is needed, we wouldn't be afraid to do it.

113What one of the key things that we know that this does is reduce the redundancies like Trusty Richardson said, it also cuts down on the passing people around to four different people before you get the right one to answer the question. So it significantly reduces frustration time for the customer but also frustration time for the people in the district that are trying to get the right person the right information at the right time. Um we have seen it work well without that product that dedicated person but if we need it we would absolutely consider it. The the the payoff is great. And I know I was going to save this to the end but I'll I'll interject real quickly right here. Trustees, you get a lot of questions that aren't necessarily trustee questions. They might

114mostly be administrative questions. And frankly, I love communicating with our community, but I imagine you know how many questions that I get that I'm not the right person to answer that question. We have 8,000 employees in the district and to get the right person answering the question the first time is a huge win for a system. And I think that right there is worth the investments that we will have to make potentially whether it's a dedicated person or teams of people to make sure that this happens. Well, I want to give Hillary and Jennifer kudos. Jennifer is is quickly become a district leader and statewide leader. She might have even presented recently on a webinar across the state uh with leaders across the state on how we're uh lifting this up in Arlington ISD. Great

115job, guys. Really appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Will Banks. Miss Haynes, thank you. Um, so is it safe to say that the majority of inquiries that come into the district are via email and reach out through the website? Um, and not phone calls. I think phone calls are a part of it as well. Okay. And so, but this particular program will will solely address the website increase in emails. So, it can also be kind of like a call center. Like you can use it to enter in calls as they're received. So, for example, if my admin assistant fields a phone call that really should be answered by someone on Dr. Hill's team, it can be entered into Let's Talk and routed directly to Dr. Hill as the next person to be able to answer the

116question. So, you can use it that way as well. Per I know. Are we intending to use it that way as well? Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Miss Haynes. Go back to Mr. Wanks. Yeah. One of the questions I had that um Miss Haynes um or your answer remind me of it sounds like this is a full-fledged help desk ticket system and with all the bells and whistles and benefits of that. So that's great. We've needed this for a long time. So again, thanks. Our technology team was very very very impressed with how robust the ticketing system is. you know, our technology leaders use ticketing systems all of the time and, you know, talked about that, you know, eventually maybe this could be something that they would even, you know, begin to use

117in a more robust way because, um, number one, they appreciated the customer service and the way that Let's Talk worked with us to make sure that all of the things ended up in the right places, fielded to the right people, but number two, that it was robust enough that, you know, it can be used in lots of different ways. So, it'll be interesting to see over the course of a couple of years as we learn even from other districts and the way that they're using it um how it could also help with ticketing, you know, across our system. Thank you, Mr. Wanks. Miss Fowler. Thank you, President Choa. So, I love this. I think this is one of the best customer service things we could ever do. How are we going to let parents and

118community know that we have this? Yeah. So, we're going to have to partner very closely with Tyena's team. Um, as we think about communication, we know that we want to um, number one, begin with our principles. We need to make sure that our principles know and understand this big change that's coming. And so, when we have some facetime with principles, we will walk them through a demo so that they can see what it looks like. At the beginning, we're not planning to have our principles or our campuses have a lift with Let's Talk. We're planning manage it all at the district level right now. We'll have to kind of see where it ends up um, in the future. But then we'll also have to figure out what are the different ways that we need to

119communicate. Um, some of you actually saw some of the changes that happened with transportation and thought we had some errors on our website at the beginning of the school year because our director of transportation, his information for contacting him was taken off of the website when let's talk was put in its place and the assumption was, "Oh no, we have an error." Well, really, we did that on purpose because we were trying to route people through the Let's Talk system instead. So, people will begin to see some of those changes, too. And we want them to not be um alarmed by the fact that there are changes. We want them to feel prepared, but really it's very user friendly. It looks like big buttons on a web page that, you know, takes you to the

120right place and it looks like a chatbot that you, you know, see on any other website. So, I think that it's going to be pretty user friendly, but we don't want to catch people off guard or for them to think that we're having errors on our website. Well, and it's wonderful to have this, but if people don't know about it, we're not going to get the traction that we're hoping for. Yeah. Yeah. This is wonderful. Thank you. I I think one of the key things is is we and it will take a while as we transition this it will take the place of email communication largely in our system from outside inquiries. Now will email still be there? Absolutely. like and there still be some of those that were answered. But what happens is is

121when you start getting customers that are getting their question answered through uh a chatbot that actually gives them the right information at the right time with our information only. They're not searching the web for the information. This is what we load into it. So they're getting Arlington ISD information right off the bat. I believe in Dr. Hill you I won't put you on the spot, but Dr. Hill presented uh with Jason Gillis a month or so ago on transportation. We had 2500 inquiries I believe in from July through September in transportation through let's talk and mo the majority of those were answered by the chatbot with information that we had uploaded already. So, it significantly reduces that. And while you may have heard, to Jennifer's point, you may have heard, "Hey, somebody noticed that the

122director of transportation's email isn't there." You're right, it wasn't. And we did that on purpose to start to route things through the right area so we can get people their information faster. So, we'll continue to talk about it more. We'll continue to make some system changes so we're routing the inquiries through the right system moving forward, and we'll monitor that data along the way. As Jennifer said, one of the nice things that we can see is we're actually able to keep when we uplift this real- time data and have real-time conversations as a leadership team to say, let's take a look at how many of our inquiries are not closed yet. What's our customer service score and what are we doing about it? And we can do that now. Whereas with current email systems, you

123cannot do that. Miss Richardson, that makes me think of one other question as you're saying all that. Who is going to own this process in this bill? Is this going to go through technology? Is this going through marketing communicate? Like who who takes ownership over this? Yeah. So, right now it's all routing through me and I'm the kind of the lead project manager, but I'm I'm not the one doing all of the work, right? It's the work of our teams that are working um you know to make sure that everything gets implemented. I do think that eventually it will be a partnership between our communications team and our technology team feeling connected. Uh something that we know that it's going to happen is, you know, if if we see um repeat questions coming through the

124chatbot that the chatbot wasn't able to answer, well, we can load that information into the chatbot so that the next time somebody asks that question, you know, it's ready to go. So, it's not like we launch it on December 1st and everything's good to go. we have to continually monitor it and it's going to take time for us to make sure that everything is exactly the way um that that it should be to be able to meet the needs of our families. I think this is amazing. I think the only thing that could go wrong and I don't want to see that happen is if it becomes no one's baby and when nobody is in charge of it. We can have all the great things in the world in our district, but if nobody is

125taking responsibility and monitoring, then it can go to the wayside. And I don't want to see that happen because this is a great idea. I do think that it'll be my responsibility to make sure that with our cabinet team and our senior staff team that we're analyzing the data to make sure that we're providing the customer service that we want to provide and that's where my leadership would come is to be able to share that data and on a recurring basis that we're looking that at that together as a senior staff team and that's how we'll know what implementation looks like. Thank you. Any other trustees with comments or questions? Miss McMarrow, are you good? Okay. Thank you, Dr. Collins. Thank you. We have one item left on reports tonight, and that is a update

126on our 2024 2025 parent survey results. Dr. Smith, I've promised Dr. Lopez that I will never call on her unexpectedly in board meetings, but I'm calling on her tonight because it's expected. Uh Dr. Lopez and Dr. Stewart are going to be here. You all know we provide you an annual report on our parent survey, and tonight they're providing you those results. President Choa, members of the board, and Dr. Smith, thank you so much for your time this evening. Um, yeah, the purpose is to present key findings from our 2425 parent survey, highlighting strengths and challenges while demonstrating alignment with our district priorities. So, I'm going to start with our why. Uh, why do we administer a parent survey each year? Well, we believe that our families are our customers and we know that families have

127choice. So each year when we administer that parent survey, we use that as a tool to be able to start meaningful dialogue and to identify solutions to core needs that our families are telling us that they have. The district um or excuse me, the the survey is designed with parent input to do four things. to identify and mitigate u barriers to involvement to um increase trust and communication to make sure that we're addressing perceptions of the school environment and then to inform datadriven actions. So the the parent feedback has led to many tangible improvements. One example is the significant increase actually in the survey particip participation rate over the last couple of years that leads to more accurate, reliable and generalizable data. And um so we what you can see on this slide, we had

12810,988 participants on the survey just last year. That's roughly 21% of our families participated and gave us their feedback last year. Um the picture shows an idea generated from a parent idea that that we should start this campus to campus uh friendly competition to encourage those participation rates to increase. And so this uh picture shows the uh learning community principal leaders who had uh the largest participation rates compared to the campuses in their learning community. One metric that we are able to um to calculate from our parent survey data is our net promoter score. So an an NPS is reflects the net of parents that are likely to recommend the district versus those that aren't. And so you can see here on the slide, our NPS was a 41. That shows strong parent satisfaction. Um,

129not only did we meet the 2025 board priority key progress measure to go from 39 to 41, uh, but compared to, uh, cross-industry benchmarks, that 41 exceeds what, uh, Bane and company would, um, define as favorable, which is anything larger than 20. And the question from a few weeks ago that survey monkeys uh, great category, which is anything larger than a 30. Now NPS is used in uh K12 settings some K12 settings but contexts vary and the data is not publicly available. So, so those crossindustry um benchmarks and and scales help us to provide context to understand what does a 41 mean um when when that's our NPS and again that 41 shows that that parents are enjoying their experience for the most part overall enjoying their experience here in AISD and that's a reflection

130of the hard work of the campuses and the district teams. Um, we want to make sure that we don't just achieve this goal and we move on. How parents feel about their experience in Arlington continues to be important and that's why you see that it's also um a key progress measure uh for the board priorities for this school year as well. So, we're looking to increase the 41. Um, the NPS is uh like I said a calculation of recommendation for the district. We're also able to calculate the PEZI, the parent engagement and satisfaction index. And that's a metric that's influenced by a parent's likelihood to recommend the campus that their child attends. Um, and so the the ingredients for the PEZY varies by school level, elementary, junior high, and high school, but but basically it

131focuses on um similar key areas. So, how how the school gets caregiver input, how the school um provides opportunities for involvement, the communication about uh events and activities and provides timely student updates and um and then that student behavior perceptions including bullying. And so being able to focus on those key areas, principles are able to have a good sense during the school year about what's working and what they need to focus their efforts on in order to ensure that they are making sure that they're boosting that family um engagement and satisfaction for the campus that their their child is attending. Um and so as you can see on the slide here, the district moved from a 3.7 to a 3.8 and that Pezy index. So that that doesn't seem like a large gain. Um but

132putting it into perspective, the calculation that approximately 10% of the 10,988 participants, the respondents on the survey increased their score by one full point on a fivepoint scale. That would lead to that tenth of a point increase of the district on the Pezy. So that's a lot. That's quite a bit of an impact. Um, and it that's not exactly how it's calculated. There's obviously um many that some small some large shifts that vary by campus, but that's kind of gives you a sense of that 3.8 and that increase is yet another uh win, another reflection of the hard work that the campuses are are doing to ensure that the the families are engaged and satisfied with their experience. I'm now going to turn it over to Dr. Stewart. Good evening, President Chapa, members of the

133board, Dr. Smith. I'm grateful to be here today and share what we're learning and continue to learn from the parents and also the campuses. Um, as Dr. Lopez mentioned, we saw strong gains in both participation and satisfaction last year. Um, I decided to reach out to the principles who showed the greatest gains on their PEZI score. um in concert with what we did last uh presentation with the staff survey um based on Dr. Collins question what are people actually doing to drive these gains. So what you see here is a collection of seven themes that basically captured the the array of strategies that principles reported when we asked them how did you boost your pei scores or how do you think you improved them and it's just based on their perspective. So tonight I'll walk

134you through a few concrete examples that illustrate um how those can be brought to life. So at Hail Elementary, they know that families come first because families are key to student success. Leaders greet families at arrival and dismissal and Fridays are for family lunches. If you ever go to their Facebook page, you can see grandparents day and you can see the grandparents sitting with the kids. It's beautiful. Um teachers also reach out with positive phone calls. They take the time to find great opportunities to share with the parents how well the students doing in the classroom. And they also share resources to help parents uh support learning at home. At Starret Elementary, they reestablished their PTA uh and had been dormant since COVID. So, this was a huge shift for them. And now that PTA

135acts as a decision-making partner in campus initiatives and broad plans at parent nights, the teachers share concrete examples of grade level expectations. This is critical because in the parent responses and the open-ended items, a lot of people said, "I don't really know how to interpret what my kids are doing. Is it on par with their grade? Is it just good for their class? I need some type of perspective to help me understand what their performance looks like." So, they share those concrete examples and they also provide skills that parents can reinforce at home. Their new annual tradition of Polar Express deepens a sense of belonging throughout the school community. And then at more we have popsicle parties are used to incentivize survey participation. And the parents did say work with the kids. The kids can

136get us paying attention to things. So you don't always have to just email us or send us a text. The kids will come and remind us we need to take care of business. So that was that was fun to hear. One thing that parents also reported was that they want to participate in more engagement, but they get the notifications too late in some circumstances. So at Moore they defined a clear monthly event calendar so that parents need to take off they have at least a two-eek notice to know if they can join and partake in the activities. Uh one other driver that they mentioned that they think improve the parent satisfaction is student behavior. So they uh the leaders work with the counselors at the campus to give tool to give tools to the students

137so that they could express themselves and be proactive about self-regulation so that basically get ahead of the problem before it starts. parents noticed there's a decline in a report of problems at school or bullying uh and then their satisfaction uh conser increased in concert with that. So now we're going to move on to secondary. Typically we know that secondary parent engagement tends to drop but if you look here at Nicholls high junior high we went up by 0.9. These schools had some of the highest gains out of all of their campuses and they're quite remarkable. At Nichols Junior High, the leader and the staff focused greatly on transparency around the school's growth journey academically. They hosted a parent night where they talked about academic progress, interpretation, attendance, and school climate. Uh, and the key feature

138there was a Chick-fil-A dinner. We can all buy Chick-fil-A, but sometimes it's nice to be taken care of. Um, so that was a that was a key lever there. Uh, they also said they shamelessly take any opportunity they can to celebrate their Mustang pride. Uh, one example that the principal shared was, uh, when their orchestra students were, uh, rated superior for UIL, they got t-shirts made, the staff got t-shirts made with the kids' names on the back of their shirts like a team, like a sports team, and they celebrated that. They also have very large cheering sections at the games next to the parents and they're very visible. So, that that was huge there. Sam Houston High also had great gains. They were intentional intentional about leveraging key touch points such as required events like

139registration, freshman night, and senior night to ha have parents come in, give them a space to ask questions and provide input. And so they also themed their open house this past year um Texan roundup and they basically showcased all the extracurricular activities that set their campus apart. They showcase clubs, fine arts, things that parents who are very busy won't necessarily have the time to research and uplift to their students. To boost their survey participation, they raffled the 50-inch TV. So, that's exciting. Collectively, these campuses show the impact of acting from the heart and also uniting with their staff to strengthen productive partnerships with parents. Uh here you'll see a summary of the open-ended comment themes about what parents thought the child's school did well. Most feedback highlighted general appreciation, teacher celebrations, student well-being and inclusivity

140and then leadership across the campus in various ways. And you'll see here that the end count basically reflects a number of comments that were themed with that that topic. This is a summary of parents top suggestions focused on academic transparency, safety, and coordination at dismissal. By the way, those numbers went down greatly. Um, and a lot of parents have commented that they've seen a huge improvement since last year's survey about safety and coordination of transportation. So, it's getting better. Um, and then also timeliness and responsiveness of communication and school in general school safety. What I want to point out here is for the academic transparency and communication. Uh, parents are mostly focused on concrete tools to understand what their child is learning and how to support them when they're at home. So, that's something that

141I know a lot of campuses are also working on. Uh, as well as timely grade release and interpretation of reports. So some parents are still struggling to understand what report cards mean, especially at the lower levels and how to make sense of that. So they want to be involved. They want to support the teachers. They want to be engaged and that's really really good news to hear. I want to give a shout out to Erin Parales and the family and community engagement team. They invited us for the third year in a row to speak to their families. Uh it started with the title one family council and now we meet with the family engagement council. uh presented basically an overview of the parent survey results and then the parents were sitting at beater pattern tables

142where we gave them a matrix of all the strategies that those top campuses that we just talked to you about um basically highlighted what they did and we wanted to get their opinion. Is this impressive to you? What of these strategies would be most compelling? Um does what you heard about the survey results resonate with you and the families that you speak with every day? And then where do you want us to continue to improve? So, they started by saying, "Yes, this seems this reflects what we're seeing. We're happy to see so much more engagement. We're happy to see more staff buy in." They said, "Were staff required to do all these things like going and cheering at the game and wearing the t-shirts?" And we said, "No, they just wanted to." And they said

143that reflects well on the school and it makes them feel like everyone's on the same page and there's great leadership. They appreciated the fact that feedback is is being acted upon in tangible ways. And then when we asked what do they want to see a continued focus around um they said so many of these campuses highlighted great examples of how to do good communication and they said can the principles all get together and kind of exchange these ideas. We'd love to hear more of that. Um a lot of parents also want to volunteer more at the campuses. So I know that in various cases there's different setups and structures to how that looks. Um and they just said we want to have an easy way to get into the campus have access. we want to

144support what they're doing, but it can kind of be um a workaround to try to get through that. Um and then the early childhood report cards again and then continued behavior support. So to conclude, these parent survey outcomes highlight the intentional outreach and community building that's happening behind the scores. I'd like to now open the floor to thoughts and discussion. Thank you. Trustees with comments or questions. Miss Fowler. Thank you, President. One moment, Miss Feller. Sorry button. Thank you. This is wonderful news. And you know, we've we've often wondered why don't we have more involvement or why are people leaving? And I think this is so wonderful to see what all the things that we're doing right and then maybe some areas that we need to work on. But I love this. I think this

145is going to be a great tool for us to learn more about our parents and our community and what we can what we can improve on. So, thank you for sharing this. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Fowler. Miss Haynes. Yes. Thank you. Um, so one of the things I don't I don't have a question. I love the presentation. I always love hearing the the parent feedback. Um, I completed the survey myself. I really want one of my campuses to get a banner. So, I'm going to push that next go around. That's fun. But what I did want to highlight is when you talked about Starret, um the principal when you were were looking for feedback on the growth made a point to mention the formation of that PTA. And so our Arlington Council of PTAs

146has worked very hard to partner with Starret um to get that to get their PTA active and to get volunteers to serve and bring that back. And so I think that that is important to highlight the um extreme importance of having a PTA on a campus and how it really does benefit all of the stakeholders on that campus. So for any of our PTA people watching um I know that that was um a lot of work to form that PTA, but it it is working and it is building community and it is improving the culture there and so I'm truly thankful for them. Yeah. Thank you. Yep. Thank you, Miss Haynes. Any other comments or questions from trustees? Miss McRo, do you have anything? Okay, Dr. Smith, the only thing that I do want to

147say, um, we're super thankful for Natalie and Jana and, uh, team that have helped us not only get this out there, but I I if you looked at the participation data, you see that in two years, we've gone from 6% to 20%. We're still not happy with 20%. We still want to keep improving that and getting a broader sample of our community responding to this, but we're very grateful for the efforts that they put in. You mentioned the banners. They've been champions for trying to get some I don't know if you know this or not, but they're competitive, like hyper competitive, and they've been champions for trying to to really push this into uh increase participation. So, we're we're not only grateful for them giving us the overview of the data and seeing progress, but

148the way they're championing this as well is important, too. So, thank you both. Thank you, Dr. Stewart, Dr. Lopez. That concludes the report section of our agenda for tonight. Uh we're going to move on to our action items. We've got a we've got three tonight. Action item A is approving our capital needs steering committee that we called for uh the formation of at our last meeting. is do I have a motion to approve the capital needs steering committee members with vacancies uh with the delegating authority to the cap the community engagement committee to fill any vacancies in positions on the capital lead steering committee motion have a motion from Miss Fowler do I have a second second have a second from Mr. Will Banks trustees will move to vote. Miss McMurray, can I get your

149vote? I vote yes. Okay, Miss McMurray is in the affirmative. All six trustees are here as well. So, the motion unanimously carries 7 to zero. We'll now move on to action item B to consider the proposed termination of probationary contract employees Zundra Dillworth. I have been informed that this particular action item requires some magic uh motion language and so I will make the motion uh tonight. I move to accept the superintendent's recommendation and to propose termination and non-renewal of Zundra Dworth's term contract and further move that the record of this action reflect the following. Before voting on this motion, the board considered a draft letter a draft of the letter to Miss Dworth proposing the termination of employment. The superintendent reviewed with the board the reason or reasons for making his recommendation regarding the employee.

150And the board considered the reason or reasons and any other information provided by the superintendent. And that by passage of this motion, the board directs the superintendent to prepare for the board president's signature a final notice of proposed contract non-renewal and termination for Sundra Dillworth and ensure that the notice is delivered not later than 5 days after this meeting. directs that the notice of proposed contract non-renewal and termination include the time limitations and procedure for requesting a hearing before an independent hearing examiner. Directs the superintendent to notify Aabalam, Bordell, Hansen, Powell, and Munoz of this action and requests that office to contact and retain an attorney on behalf of the board if necessary to advise the board concerning legal matters upon the receipt of a recommendation from an independent hearing examiner. authorizes Eko Bomb, Mardell,

151Hansen, Powell, Amuno to consult with the superintendent to approve the final notice of proposed contract non-renewal and termination and to take whatever actions are necessary and proper to present the case in support of the proposed termination and directs that a copy of this motion be attached to the minutes of this meeting and the final notice of proposed non-renewal and termination of employment sent to Zunder Dillworth. That is the motion that I have this evening. Do I have a second? I have a second from Miss Fowler. Is there any discussion from trustees? All right, seeing none, we'll move to vote. Miss McMo, can I get your vote? I vote yes. All trustees present voting in the affirmative and Miss McMarrow as well. The motion carries seven to zero. Uh we do have an action item C.

152Uh it was a dis it was an uh discussion topic in our closed session this evening and is noted on the agenda that if action were necessary on that closed session item that we would be taking action in open session and so uh we do have action item 4C and I will make the motion on that one as well. I move to authorize the district's general counsel to resolve the ringer at all versus Kamal ISD at all matter as described in closed session. I make a motion. Do I have a second? Second. I have the second from Mr. Willbanks. Trustees will move to vote. Miss McMarrow, can I get your vote? I vote yes. Okay. All trustees voting the affirmative. The motion unanimously carries. That is our final action item for tonight. So we'll move

153move on to the consent agenda portion of tonight's meeting. Are there any trustees who wish to pull any items from consent agenda tonight? Seeing none, we'll move to vote on consent agenda after we have a motion. Do I have a motion from uh to approve the consent agenda as presented? So move. I have a motion for Mr. Wilbanks. Do I have a second? I'll give that one to Miss Richardson. She didn't even talk. I can't. It was Miss Hayden. Yeah. Somebody else said something. It was Miss Fowler. Okay. Gotcha. Not entirely entirely off. I will give that one to Miss Haynes then. Okay. Trustees will move to vote on the consent agenda. Miss McMurro. Can I get your vote? A vote. Yes. Thank you, Miss McMo. All trustees voting in the affirmative. Consent agenda agenda

154unanimously carries. We'll now move on to our open forum for non-aggenda items. Miss Aosta, do we have any speakers registered for non-aggenda forum tonight? President Chappa, we do. We have three. All right. So, this is a routine part of the board's agenda for regularly scheduled meetings. This segment of the meeting provides citizens with an opportunity to share their views with the trustees on items that are not on the agenda tonight. It is not intended to be a discussion or debate and trustees will not respond to their speakers. Derogatory comments aimed at an individual will not be tolerated. Personnel matters are not appropriate subjects for open forum and no student identifiable information should be shared during open forum. You will have three minutes to speak and when Mrs. Aosta not notifies you that your time is

155up, please end your discussion. If you have any documents for the board to review, please hand them to our chief operations officer, Dr. Hill. The first speaker we have on the agenda tonight is Jordan Tulius. All right, Mr. Tulius, you'll have three minutes. Good evening. Thanks for your time. My name is Jordan Tulius. I have two children in one of your AISD schools. Um, five weeks ago, my son was standing up for a boy being bullied in his class and the bully um threatened to shoot my son. Uh my son shrugged it off, went back on with his day. A week later, the same boy being bullied by the same classmate and my son again stood up for his friend. This time the classmate threatened to shoot him again. Uh one student overheard this and

156told a teacher. Um, in the stu in the school's defense, um, this part of the incident was actually handled correctly. They pulled both boys into the office, called the police, and called my wife who came directly to the school. The police came in to question my son. Um, they left with no additional steps uh, communicated to my wife who was on site. Uh, I'm not sure what was said to the school, but what I do know is that the school did not request to find out if the parents were registered gun owners, which is actually pretty easy to do. My wife and I assumed incorrectly that this district has a zero tolerance policy for threats of gun violence, which you don't. The following Monday, we had a meeting with the vice principal of the school.

157We were informed that the child would be returning to classes that Thursday. the schedules had been adjusted and our child would have um no classes with this young man. Um the series of events that came next were unfortunate and mishandled over and over. Um I was told this student would serve an inschool suspension away from all students. To think about his error and judgment only to find out that this student, a sixth grader, spent time with second graders uh in my daughter's class uh and attended lunch and recess with them. The stayaway agreement was signed by both boys. All teachers were notified. Uh this agreement was broken 5 days later when a teacher sent this son into my child's classroom again. Um I'm told the student is being searched daily before he is allowed in

158school. Um I have no proof of that. I'm supposed to take the word of the people who um messed up the first two times. Um, after speaking with Dr. Hill and no returned email from uh Dr. Smith, um, we were told that there wasn't anything more that could be done punishment wise for this student who threatened to shoot another student on school property twice. and our choices were to either essentially deal with it um or uh potentially transfer our children to another campus, which would be honored if that's what we decide to do. It seems as though my wife and I are the only people taking a threat like this seriously. My question to the board, um the chief operations officer, the superintendent, and the school administrators is this. Are we waiting until something awful

159happens until we institute this as a policy? Does it have to happen for it to become real to you? Instead of waiting for these students to act on their threats and uh naming your policy after their victim, Mr. Julius, I ask you to wrap up your remarks. Maybe we institute this policy now and maybe save a life. Thank you. All right. Our next speaker this evening is Miss Seed. Miss S you have three minutes. Good evening uh President Chopper, Dr. Smith and trustees. I'm say and I'm here because I'm one of the Terren Appraisal District Board of Directors Candidate. I'm the only one with the candidate with the experience, complete knowledge of duties and function of appraisal review board commonly known as ARB. The ARB is a vital link to the journey property owners and

160the entities experience when they're discussing the protest with the appraisal district. And the perfect example is the July 16th ARB hearing when there was a conflict of interest and uh ARB attorney did not disclose to Arlington city attorney and there are several other cities but Taran County attorney Arlington ulis halam city that it's a potential conflict of interest during the hearing. City of Arlington does not have that kind of knowledge. Uh you guys voted for me last time, so I'm giving you one update. And uh I don't know if you have that information or not, but last year TCC had 505 votes figured out. It was wrongly allocated to them. They they had only 267 votes, not 505 votes. and Arlington ISD. I back calculate and once I did my calculation last year you had

16146 vote. That is absolutely wrong. You had 427 votes. 21 votes were given from Arlington ISD to TCC because of the chief appraiser office did not done their job correctly. They did copy paste for TCC. It was a mistake. And I talk about that at TCC meeting tonight that you did not have 55, you had 267. And that two the rest of 238 votes came from the other entities. It it was your right and your insiders are sitting there. I am an outsider. I know but uh you need to look into it. Uh the nomination period is already closed. Uh you will get the ballot by October 28th or 29. Uh probably before October 30th. Uh let's see who you vote this time. But but please vote for someone who has experience who can look

162into it. And it's a very easy to look into it. It's not the rocket science. It's very easy. Uh probably uh a seventh grade math genius can do it. Um since January of 2025, I have attended all the TAD's closed door entity meetings. I attended those meeting on behalf. Can you give me 30 more seconds, sir? Uh you need to wrap up your remarks, Miss. Okay. Going forward, my plan is to implement 89th legislative session uh within the property tax code focusing on uniform and equal treatment to taxing entities. Unifor uniform and equal property appraisals and the taxpayer. The accuracy and integrity of your tax will be my priority. Your time is thank you for your time. Thank you. Okay. Our last speaker this evening is Mr. Eric Cra. Mr. Crow, you have three minutes.

163President Traa board. Good evening. Uh last minute add- on. I wasn't going to come down, but then when I decided to, I know President Chaba, you always got your colors on and everything, so I figured I'd represent the Steelers this evening, but uh it's not doing too well right now. So, um look, I've been here. I've talked to you guys plenty of times before. So, there's not much more I can say. There a couple things I want to bring to your attention. If you watched commissioner's court meeting on uh Tuesday, they had a simple tad um cost share agreement that they were supposed to be voting on. Well, they tabled it and um it's software that the appraisal district uses, Taran County uses, and Taran Emergency Services District uses. So, they table it and I'll

164let you watch the comments if you want to, but um I reached out to Bobbit and I asked him if they don't renew the contract what the cost is going to be. Well, he said the cost will be four times the expense. Now, on the surface, it doesn't seem like it really affects you, but it does because they're going to need the software that they use. It's aerial photography that they use. If Tarant County backs out of the contract and the appraisal district picks up the contract on its own, guess who pays for the extra expense. So, keep that in mind. Um, I want to talk real quick about the reappraisal plan. And I I think well, I don't know if many people know this. So, at the March meeting, they um they came out

165of executive session and they made a comment about the employment contract of the chief appraiser. I got the employment contract through the chief appraiser. They took out his metric for his bonus for schools to pass the property value study. Um they were never going to they were never going to amend that reappraisal plan to change the um property value study if the schools got in danger. And um anyways, here's the employment contract. You can read it. Uh, and the last thing I I want to say is, um, you know, there's a video Mr. Campos released the other day. Um, the U vote numbers that he used in that video, all I'm going to say is they're wrong. And I'm not going to tell you how I know I but they're they're wrong. So, if anybody

166wants to reach out to me, I'll go into more depth on it. Um, but anyways, thank you all for your time. Thank you, Mr. Crow. That concludes our open forum for non-aggenda items. We'll move on now to superintendent comments. Dr. Smith, trustees, as I get started tonight, one of the things I wanted to highlight, and I didn't get a picture in in time for this, but I took it today. It's great to go to a thing like the state of the city and have Arlington High's jazz band playing. So, I wanted to give a shout out to their jazz band uh for their their performance today. They sounded outstanding and it's always nice to show off our students and the amazing work that they do. Um, I get to highlight one of our favorite partners

167during my superintendence report this time and that's the Arlington Police Department. APD officers often go out of their way to support our students like Detective Ryan Munoz who recently investigated a theft where a family of a Swift Elementary student got scammed trying to rent an inflatable for her birthday. The detective knew that put a big damper on her party. So, he got together with one of APD's crimerevention officers, Cody Adams. And together, guess what they did? They threw a surprise birthday pizza party for her and her entire class at school. We want to thank APD for doing things like that for our students. We love and support APD2 and that's why uh Crouch Elementary's annual night out event is so important. Fostering community and building bridges with local law enforcement. Thanks to principal Jamie Stevens

168for hosting that fun event. You all know about the showcase and ribbon cutting that we had at Glasby Field last Thursday. But that wasn't the only showcase at Martin last week. The school also hosted a project lead the way showcase for STEM and CTE teachers from across the state. We're a leader in these areas. So, it made it made sense that our teachers and students demonstrated and shared some of the incredible things that we're working on and doing here in Arlington ISD. We do these incredible things because we have incredible people, but we wouldn't have incredible people without our dedicated HR team. Texas Education Human Resources Day was earlier this month. So, this is a great time to let them know how much we appreciate them. I'm glad HR was able to celebrate last week

169with a team breakfast. Speaking of celebrations, Ashworth Elementary celebrated their 30th anniversary earlier this month. We had c we had fun celebrating with a lot of former teachers and administrators from Ashworth. And nobody makes learning fun like our prek team. They held their third annual preK and kindergarten STEMtacular on Tuesday night, welcoming hundreds from across the community for lots of fun STEM themed activities. They partnered with the Fort Worth Museum of Science, dressed up as superheroes, and had a STEMtacular time. And that in concludes my superintendence report for tonight. Thank you, Dr. Smith. That brings us to trustee comments and reports. Do we have any reports from trustees this evening? Miss Richardson, we have a couple of exciting birthdays coming up that we wanted to celebrate. Um, Dr. Smith, we know that you have a

170big one coming up next week. But more than that, um, we wanted to recognize and celebrate our very own famous Spence Roberts. It is his birthday today. He takes such good care of all of us and each of us that Is that not his last name? Are you laughing at me? Robert Spence. It's Spence Roberts. in my head and we call him Spence. I I didn't even know he needed another name besides Spence. He's like Madonna with one name, but it's Spence's birthday. And I feel like he takes care of all of us. He's always behind the scenes. He's always behind the camera and he never gets the shout out that he deserves for taking care of all of us. So, on behalf of all of us, I just wanted to tell you happy birthday,

171Spence. Thank you, Miss Richardson. Start calling Spence Madonna. Any [Music] other reports this evening? Okay, that brings us to our secretar's report. Madam Secretary, do we have any matters that have been reported for further consideration tonight? We've got it. Yeah, we got it. Here we go. We got it, Mark. Okay. All right. All other items on tonight's agenda have been addressed. We have no other matters to discuss in close session. There being no further b business this evening, I'm going to adjourn this meeting at 9:38 p.m. We are adjourned. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music]