001[Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. [Music] Good evening. I will reconvene into open session this meeting of the Arlington ISD Board of Trustees on May 15, 2025. And we will be back at 6:58 p.m. Thank you for joining us tonight. Our board meetings are open to the public and we welcome everyone and thank you for participating in public education. While our meetings are open to the public, this is a meeting and we have business to conduct. Disruptions are not permitted and anyone who disrupts the meeting or speaks when others are speaking may be asked to leave or be escorted out by the security attending the meeting. We always welcome civic input but insist that we remain respectful and civil. Tonight we will start with our
002pledge of allegiance. We have a student from Frell Elementary, Grayson West, will lead us in the pledges of allegiance tonight. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible. [Applause] Thank you, Grayson. We'll now have a moment of silence. Thank you. to learn a bit more about our student who led us tonight in the pledges. I'll turn it over to our executive director of engagement, equity, and access, Aaron Prowles. Thank you, President Choa. So, helping us with the pledge uh this evening, we had Grayson West, a sixth grader from Pharaoh Elementary. He's joined this evening by
003his mother, Kaia Pena, and his stepmother, Marissa West, and his principal, uh Dr. Glenn Brunk. And he has a couple of siblings here, too. So, thank you for sharing this event with your family. I got to learn a little bit about Grayson here uh throughout the week and this evening. Um, he loves to eat sushi and so do I. And so we're going to talk about our favorite sushi restaurants. Um, he loves math and he says that his mathematics really helps him with his work with the chess club and so he likes being on the chess club. Um, he also has leadership capacity there at at Frell Elementary. He serves as the House of Service 6th grade representative on student council. So like many elementaryaries, they have the house system and he represents students uh
004via student council. um he's participated in UIL academics and won a first place medal for impromptu speaking. And so he's going to tell me some of his secrets about impromptu speaking. And I saved this one for the last because I was really enjoyed talking to him about his favorite hobby. He loves crocheting and his grandmother taught him how to crochet and we had a similar experience growing up so we had something to talk about there. And um when I asked him what's one of his favorite projects and he did a quilt as a GT project at school and I said, "Well, tell me something interesting about the quilt that tells a story." And he said, "Yes." He said it was a story quilt. He said each square represented a year of his life and his
005favorite color during that time of life. And he's still working on hats and gloves and he's even made Christmas presents for his relatives. and he's currently working on a blanket um with his grandmother's help. So, Grayson, thank you so much for sharing the pledge of allegiance today and thank you for your leadership on campus. Thank you, Mr. Palace, and thank you, Grayson, for joining us tonight. We'll move on to the recognitions portion of our agenda. After recognitions tonight, we will take a short recess for pictures and celebration in the boardroom and lobby and all of you are invited to join. So, please stick around for that. Recognition item A tonight is the presentation of our Gates Scholars and I'll turn it back over to Mr. Palace. Thank you very much, President Chapa. So, the Gates
006Scholarship is a highly selective full ride scholarship for exceptional minority high school students in the United States. It's funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It covers tuition fees, room and board, books, and transportation for the full cost of attendance not covered by other aid. The national scholarship supports again national scholarship supports 300 students annually nationally. Okay, let's remember that 300. Okay. Focusing on academic excellence, leadership, and personal success. It aims to help outstanding students from various backgrounds reach their full potential through college and beyond. Gate scholars exhibit outstanding academic record in high school. Demonstrated leadership ability is shown through participation in community service and extracurricular and regular activities and exceptional personal success skills such as emotional maturity, motivation, and perseverance. Ladies and gentlemen of the gallery, we have three Gate scholars from Arlington
007ISD. So three of the 300 nationally, we have three here in Arlington ISD. We'd like to recognize two scholars from Arlington Collegiate High School. Now, they're not able to be with us this evening because they are celebrating their senior prom along with their principal. And so, we did not want them to miss that event, but they have a message for us, which I think we're going to queue up the video at this time. I'm pleased to introduce both Evelyn Rosales and John Wyn as winning the Bill Melinda Gates Scholarship. We're very proud of Arlington Collegiian High School as there was only three winners in our school district and two out of those three are on Collegiian High School Lions. We're really proud of their hard work. Uh this scholarship takes a lot of time and
008effort to put into it and these kids really stuck with it and more importantly they just really worked hard from day one that they were here as an Arlington Legion High School student all the way here until the very end. They've always done the little things day after day that really make the big difference and that's why they're in the position they are and we're very proud and a lot of lie and pride for them. Hello, my name is John Wyn and I'm from Arlington Collegiate High School and I would like to thank the the board for recognizing me for winning the gate scholarship. I would also thank my parents for supporting me and the teachers at ACHs for allowing me to helping me succeed. Um, my plan in the future is go to the
009University of Texas at Arlington to to graduate with a biology as a biology major and become a doctor in the future. And the Gate scholarship will help me do that by financing my education. Hello, my name is Evelyn Josales. I wanted to start off by thanking the board for recognizing me as a Gate scholarship recipient. I also wanted to thank my parents and Arlington Collegiia High School for helping and supporting me throughout my journey. My next steps forward are to go to the University of Texas at Arlington to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. The Gate scholarship has helped me achieve my dreams of becoming an engineer because I'm able to network and connect with many mentors and students who are just like me and also allowed me to dedicate more time to my studies
010and extracurriculars at college. If I had to give a piece of advice to younger students, it would be that if you wanted to get good results, you should make sure that you're always putting in enough effort because your dedication and hard work will always matter. And also, we're honored this evening to have our third gate scholar here present with us uh in the gallery today. And so I would like to introduce uh principal Juan Variel, principal Sam Houston High School so that we can learn a little bit more about Abner Mckia Lopez. Thank you, President Chapa, school board and Dr. Smith. Thank you for this opportunity. It is an incredible honor to introduce and recognize Abner Mahia Lopez, a remarkable young leader and a shining example of dedication, character, and resilience at Sam Houston High
011School. Abner has made school history by becoming our first ever Gates Millennium Scholar, a distinction awarded to only the exceptional students in the nation. He is also a QuestBridge scholar, earning a full scholarship to attend the prestigious Washington University in St. Lewis where he will continue to thrive and inspire. Abner's accomplishments go far beyond academics. He serves as vice president of the National Honor Society and parliamentarian of the student council and was named an outstanding student in his ninth grade year. So he started this early on whether leading service projects at M Mission Arlington or mentoring young students at local elementary schools. Amnner leads with humility, heart, and deep commitment to serving others. Amnner's journey defined by perseverance, achievement, and service stands as a powerful example of stu for students who may not see what's
012possible for themselves. By sharing his story, he is opening doors and creating new pathways for those who will follow. We we are incredibly proud of Abner Mahia Lopez and all that he represents. Congratulations to him and his family for this historic achievement. Thank you. Now bring Admiral. So uh I have a little something prepared here. Unlike the um guest uh pledge of allegiance speaker here, I'm not that good at impromptu. So um so first of all I want to take thank the board of trustees for this recognition and having me here. Uh I want to take uh thank especially President Choa and Dr. Smith and the rest of the board. I also want to thank those who are present with me here including my uh family, friends and staff of Sam Houston High School uh
013including Miss O'Brien, Miss Carter and uh Mr. V. Also Mr. Tamontes. Thanks for joining me here tonight. I am extremely thankful to be recognized here along with u the other gate scholars uh in the district. I couldn't believe it myself when I saw the emails header start with the words uh congratulations on Easter Sunday. Um it wouldn't have been possible without the help of so many people. Uh most of all my parents and the AVID program. It might sometimes sound cliche but I I want to thank my parents and for always being there for me. I mean it. uh they always been there for me whether it was taking me back and from school or events or just in general supporting me throughout the way. Um there were many times I felt discouraged or doubted
014my abilities but they were always there to keep me from quitting. Aside from my parents, the AVID program was integral for me and is a large part of the reason why I'm here. Um they helped me build my resume, apply to scholarships, and apply to college as well. Um uh it was thanks to the AVID program that I became a dream big determined scholar um which led to me applying to QuestBridge and also Gates. So thank you so very much Miss Kamargo, Miss Gona, Miss O'Brien and Mr. Talamontes as well as the rest of the AVID program. Um I plan on going to WashU uh which is in St. Louis, Missouri. It's a bit far. Um I'm planning on majoring in biochemistry and eventually I plan on applying to medical school. I plan on doing
015the most I can with all I've been given through Gates. I want to do research, get clinical experience, and again, like I said, do the most with this. Um, for my siblings and the younger generations, I want to tell you to never stop learning and never give up. Sometimes it can seem like you're learning or efforts aren't bearing any fruits, but just trust the process. Um, your efforts will bear fruit eventually as seen here. Thank you. Thank you, Abner. Um, I uh it's great to hear all that you've accomplished. I mean, I I I actually know a little bit more about you because of the scholarship applications you put in for the senior awards at Sam Houston and um you have an incredible story. Um something I thought was really interesting about you is you're
016you're learning another foreign language, aren't you? Yeah. What what are you learning? Uh Korean. Okay. not not an a language that we uh we see many people trying to learn. Um you have an incredible story. You've accomplished so much and you've done the community very very proud by being the first Gate scholar from Sam Houston. Um I went when I was a teacher uh not at Sam Houston but uh many years ago I taught seniors and uh we had some Gates scholars from the high school that I taught at and it was such a big deal and the community really rallied around them and it's just a testament to your hard work um about that uh and in the quality of student that you are. So congratulations. We have a special uh gift for you
017that we give to students that we recognize. Um so at this time I'll ask Miss Fowler um to join Dr. Smith and come down and present you with a token of our appreciation. You are incredible. We are so proud that you are an AISD student and we know that you will continue to make us proud and we're going to follow your successes and you're just you're an amazing amazing young man. Thank you for all you've done. This is a pin that we all wear and we only give those to very special people and we want you to have that pin to remember us by. You don't have to wear it, but if you want to, you can. And we're just proud to be able to present you with that. Oh my. She's nicer than I
018am. You better wear that in St. Louis. Like we we want you to wear that in St. Louis. Come on over here for a second, Abner. This is just a certificate of appreciation for you. Let's look this way at Spence. so he can take some pictures. I just want to say um and Mr. Chapa mentioned this, your story is pretty amazing and what I really love the most is how you focused on your family first and we know how important families are and supporting our students to do amazing things. Your family is the epitome of that and your hard work has really paid off. So you not only have made Sam Houston High School proud, just know you've made Arlington ISD proud as well and you've always got a home here in Arlington ISD. Congratulations.
019[Applause] Just [Music] remember here for you. [Music] Are you trying to get the heads out of the back? Go ahead and we'll uh You want to do We'll do that. Hold on one second. Oh, I was going to say we we will we'll have a reception. Yeah, we'll do it during the reception time. Yep. [Applause] Okay, we have one more recognition item before our reception tonight. That's item B, our teacher appreciation week recognition. And we'll turn it back over to Mr. Palace. Thank you, President Chapa. Last week, campuses across Arlington ISD came together to celebrate the incredible impact of our teachers. From yard signs and handwritten notes to breakfast spreads and surprise lunches, our schools found meaningful ways to say thank you. It was a beautiful reminder that appreciation doesn't have to be grand. It
020just has to be genuine. Tonight, we want to close that celebration with a special message straight from the students who feel that impact every single day. We have a special video for our teachers. Happy teacher appreciation week. Thank you to all the teachers in AAC district. Happy teacher appreciation week. Thank you to all those amazing teachers out there. We love you, Lamar teachers. Thank you, Coach Hoff and Miss Scott. Thank you, Coach Stevens and Mr. Martin. Happy teacher appreciation week from Bulls. Go Bulldogs. I would like to appreciate Miss Babcock and Miss G. I would like to recognize Coach Bonga for teacher appreciation week. I would like to thank Miss Williams for teacher appreciation week and that she always thinks of me in her class. Happy teacher appreciation week from Buy. Thank you, Mr. Lopez
021for being the greatest teacher ever. Thank you, Coach Williams, for always being here and supporting me. I want to say thank you to Miss Car for being the best teacher ever. Thank you, Miss Johnson, for always giving me grace in my work. And then thank you, Miss Cal, for being one of my favorite teachers. Thank you, Miss Malone, for all you do. Happy teacher appreciation week. Happy teacher appreciation week. Every person in Jones loves what you do for the school. I would like to give a special shout out to Miss Alasi and Miss Davis for it being their first year and being a wonderful teacher. Thank you teachers for all your hard work. Well, we certainly do appreciate the work of our staff and our teachers and happy teacher appreciation week. Um, I am going
022to just move things around just a little bit uh just in recognition of of what we've got going tonight and how we've structured tonight's meeting. Um, Miss Aosa, do we have any registered speakers for an open forum for agenda item tonight? President Chappa, we do not. I understand we have one speaker for non-aggenda forum, right? Correct. I will go ahead and I I see that she's present, has children with her, and so I'm not going to make her wait until we're done with our close session later tonight. Um, we will go ahead and I see Miss Ed that you're here. Um, Miss Aed, you're not you're familiar with our protocols for speaker. I don't have to explain them to you. Uh, you will have three minutes to speak based on the lights in front of
023you. Um, so when Miss Aosta gives you the signal, uh, you'll have three minutes. Thank you, President Chapa. Uh, I should bring kids all the time then. Well, I'm here to give you uh the tenant appraisal district update. And I do not want to talk about something that your staff already knew. I'm talking about something that that send the postcard to the non-h homestead properties. Okay. So for 22,000 property owners get the postcard incorrectly. They supposed to get the notices. So Tad sent them notices along with the apology note with the protest deadline of June 2nd. And I was one of those fortunate 22,000 residents. And I asked them the question uh back on April 24th on uh Commissioner Simmons uh property appraisal uh town hall. I was thinking it's uh some kind of error
024and yes it was an error in their computers and figure out that it's over 22,000. So they they solve it. uh they send a postcard to all the non-homestead properties but they send postcard to uh all the property owners but notices if you register to any agent they did not send it to the property owner they send it to the agents so that's another issue uh they can send it to agent but you know a lot of uh uh people showed up to appraisal district and said oh we did not get any notice and some of the property owners uh uh so the chief appraiser mentioned during uh an open forum that the county overall on an average county property values went down by 8%. So if you get the notice and your value market
025value is same as last year go ahead and file the protest uh you will definitely get some kind of relief. uh the preliminary value does not include the value of new sales of existing property that's against their own reappraisal plan. they use the last year value and during a May 1st entity meeting I raised that question and um I did not get any uh satisfied answer uh with the new uh BPP exemption the 85% of counties BPP account would pay 0 on the school taxes so it's 80 38,000 accounts uh it's Countywide I did not get the number specific for Arlington ISD. They just gave everyone overall county values. Probably you will get the answer from appraisal district. Uh but they did not give it to us. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank
026you Miss Sed. We will now take a brief recess for photos and a reception in the lobby and we'll reconvene uh up here at the podium in about 10 minutes. The time is 7:20 and we are we are in recess. [Music] All [Music] right. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Come [Music] up. Come up. [Music] Oh. [Music] There we go. [Music] There we go. [Music] Oh. [Music] Hello. Hello. Hello. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Thank you. [Music] Okay, we are back from recess. It is 7:30 p.m. and we're going to do something a little bit different tonight. We are actually going to go into close session after our recognition. So, also at 7:30 p.m., we will convene into close session in the board chambers pursuant to sections 551.071 through 551.084 and 551.089 of the Texas Government
027Code in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act for the topics that are set forth on our agenda. Uh we will reconvene into open session following the adjourment of close session. It's 7:30 and we are moving to closed. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, [Music] Downtown. [Music] Heat up. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hi. [Music] Hey baby. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] Oh, [Music] I [Music] don't a [Music] But I'm alive. [Music] N a [Music] Everything on the way. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] Now, down. [Music] Down. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat.
028[Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Come on. Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey there. [Music] Hey. [Music] Yeah. Yeah. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Wherever we go. [Music] Tell me. [Music] around. [Music] kind of hey feel [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hello. Hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] Yes. All right, it is 8:59 and we are back from close
029session. Uh, close session formally ended at 8:51. The board took no action in close session. We've already done open form for agenda item tonight. So move on to our first uh and only action item besides consent for this evening, which is the election of um our board officers as part of our annual internal organization. And this is the only time of year in which uh the president will relinquish the gavl uh to Dr. Smith. And so I'll turn it over to Dr. Smith. Thank you, President Chapa. Uh, do we have a motion and a second for president, vice president, and uh, secretary of our board of trustees? I move that we um, elect Justin Chapa as president, Sarah McMurro as vice president, and Brooklyn Richardson as secretary. I'll second. So, we have a motion by
030uh, Mr. Will Banks and a second by Miss Fowler. Are there is there any further discussion? Okay. At this time, let's vote. The motion passes. Seven in favor, no opposed. Congratulations, board officers, for the upcoming year. And now I have to pass this back. And I didn't even get to bang the gavvel, which I'm very disappointed in. Okay, we will now move on to the committee and staff reports portion of our agenda. We're going to move um a couple things around here, too. Uh we'll start with item B, which is a report on our district priority updates. And this one is on culture. We have a professional learning plan report uh from district staff and I'll turn it over to Dr. Smith. President Chopa, members of the board, I'd like to invite Dr. WZ up
031and Ginger Cole Level up as well. They're going to provide you an update on our professional learning plan. As you know, this was part of the priority that you adopted. We had a specific key progress measure regarding a professional learning plan and tonight they are here to present that information to you on the work that's been done. Thank you, Dr. Smith. Um, good evening, President Chappa, Dr. Smith, and members of the board. Um, I'm excited to be able to report on the work that we've been doing around the professional learning plan and, um, discuss our next steps for that work. Um, but first, I want to start with why, um, we created a professional learning plan to begin with. Um, we appreciated the charge around this and, um, recognized the need to establish a tone
032and a standard for professional learning in our district. Um there are a lot of great things already happening around professional development and training for our teachers and staff and the way that we see this document is a way to align those efforts and fostering an inclusive and high expectations culture around continuous learning in our district. Um in essence we see this as a guiding document and some agreements about how we think about approach and engage in professional learning. Um, of course, the charge comes from our board priority um around culture to establish an inclusive culture of respect, support, and specifically continuous improvement for all our students, staff, and families. So when we thought about that charge around professional learning, um we took an approach where um we expanded on that vision and kind of asked
033ourselves what are all the components that would be required of this first version of our professional learning plan to be able to cast that vision and create a positive culture around professional learning in our district. um a lot of the research that learning forward the national organization that um is sort of the standard for professional learning and education informed the work the work that we put into the professional learning plan. Um and we also explored adult learning theory and best practices in schools that we uh we know promote um teacher teacher practice that um results in positive student outcomes. We also took a look at our current reality. Like I said, we have a lot of great professional development opportunity in Arlington ISD and so we built that into our plan as well. Um, we
034have internal standards for design and facilitation of professional learning. We have a great instructional coaching model and of course systems such as exchange time and our district-wide professional learning days. Um, most recently the one that we had in January this year. And of course um, a lot of feedback came into this plan. district, excuse me, department leaders and campus leaders were able to look at early versions of the plan and really think through and give us feedback about how this is relevant to the work that they're doing and the cultures that they're working to establish um in campus. And again, it helped us just align those efforts and make sure that we were creating something where we're all on the same page. The professional learning plan document has three big components. The first one opens
035up with kind of the why and sets the stage for our collective responsibility in the district when it comes to professional learning. So these are a couple of pieces directly from the document itself. Um the first one talks about our beliefs and assumptions around professional learning. And in there is a highlighted belief um that I want to take a minute to talk about that our learning is not a one-time event. It's an ongoing process. And so when we think about our vision for professional learning, um we want to move increasingly toward a continuous learning model. So learning over time versus one-time events that again are really important for learning um but don't necessarily offer us that opportunity over time for continuous learning. And with that um really thinking about what are the job embedded supports
036that teachers and leaders need for sustained implementation over time. Another key belief represented in this section of the professional learning plan is around goal setting. So the idea is that um we want to work really hard to align individual goals to team goals and then of course to organizational goals and those all wrap around to promote enhanced student outcomes. We also based some of our work on the instructional core model and um specifically in this visual it shows the relationship between the teacher, the student and the content. And so the idea is that stu student learning improves when there's a change in the core instructional interaction. So that is thinking about what teachers do with students and with content. So specifically when teachers knowledge and skills grow then they're able to design and implement more
037cognitively demanding tasks and these highle tasks when we align them to rigorous content then in turn increase um student engagement and learning. So we want to make sure that the professional learning in our system is directly connected to these things so that our students and teachers are growing toward positive outcomes. And of course to do this we think about leaders at all levels of the system. So we drew on our leadership definition um and we want to promote the idea that everyone in our system contributes to the collective responsibility around professional learning. So whether I'm leading myself as a paraprofessional or a teacher or um maybe even a finance specialist or I'm a leader of others where I'm leading a team or a leader of leaders, a campus leader or even our senior staff as
038leaders of organization. We want to make sure that everyone can see themselves in this professional learning plan and understands the importance for um all of the professional learning that we do to point back to those student outcomes. The second part of the professional learning plan talks about the what of professional learning. So what are those best practices that we engage in as a system in order to promote our vision of continuous learning? And so what you see here is the adult learner profile that's based on the research by Malcolm Nolles. And it specifically distinguishes adult learning as different from student learning. And so the idea here is that again leaders at all levels really lean into this adult learning profile when we're designing experiences with our our staff and the people we're charged to lead
039um in order to um create a learning environment that promotes um professional learning. The really um fascinating thing about our recent teacher feedback and our teacher focus group in April is that the feedback that we got from teachers matches this profile um beautifully. So teachers talked a lot about um desiring increased levels of agency and autonomy when it comes to professional learning and learning that's really immediately relevant to the needs that they see in their classrooms so that they can be increasingly successful with students. So our goal is to increase teacher and staff role in growing professionally in a way that's aligned to those student achievement and learning needs. The third part of the plan talks about the how of professional learning. So what are some of our systems? Uh one of the big hows
040we have is our um opportunity in the calendar for this coming school year with the five embedded professional learning days. And so the way that we imagine that relevant just in time and overtime learning happening is in these short cycles where we're planning and doing around the learning we're studying the impact and implementation of that learning and then we're acting so that we're increasingly identifying the teacher practices that are enhancing student outcomes, excuse me, and amplifying those and abandoning the practices that aren't yielding the results that we expected. The learning forward national organization uses this sort of theory of action model and it sort of sums up the the hopes for our professional learning plan. So as we set the standards for quality professional learning and provide opportunities for that in our system then of
041course the idea is that we're all growing in our practice together to improve student outcomes. And so we know our work is just getting started with this first draft of the professional learning plan. Um some of the things that we are um that we know are on the radar coming up. Um one of those things is the district design team. This team is um kicking off the planning for the professional learning days at the beginning of the year as well as the five embedded professional learning days and we're rooting that work in the ideas that are in the professional learning plan. We also want to continue to include campus leader voice and ensure that those five embedded days of learning are really the right paths in order to promote um the teacher practices that will
042result in the student learning outcomes that we're looking for. And of course um we want to continue as we go through these days to get teacher feedback so that we can go through ourselves those quick cycles of iteration and um and improvement from from day to day from those embedded professional learning days. And then the biggest work that we have to do is to figure out evaluation cycles. How are we going to measure our impact not not only of the professional learning itself but how are those um pieces of learning resulting in effective teacher practice and effective student outcomes. So we're excited to report that the key progress measure around designing a professional learning plan it focused on district priorities is now complete. And my understanding is that you also have a copy of that.
043Again, thank you for the opportunity to share about this work and um I look forward to discussion and feedback as we continue to move into the next phases of our work. All right. Thank you, Miss Cole. Um we have some trustees with comments and questions. I'll start with Miss Fowler. Thank you, President. Sorry, Miss Fowler. Do you re There you go. Thank you. Thank you, President Choa. Thank you for this presentation. A lot of time and effort put into it. One thing that I want to make sure is that we always have a professional development that is really um exactly what the teacher needs. As a teacher, I know many times I've been to professional development and I'm thinking, why in the world am I here? This has nothing to do with me or the
044the course that I teach. So, I want us to always keep that in mind and make sure that it's really meaningful. these teachers are giving of their time and their expertise and we need to always make sure that it's it's geared to what they really need. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Fowler. Miss McMurrow. Thank you. I just have one brief question. Um you mentioned um that part of this process would be keeping an eye on things and abandoning practices that aren't yielding the results desired. How will success be measured? Yeah, that's a really great question. And I think that's something that um we are still working on figuring out. So those evaluation cycles that we were talking about um are something that we want to um be able to establish some lead measures
045so that we know along the way what are those key points that we're looking for. The current way that we are measuring professional learning and um teacher feedback around that is through our feedback system in our professional learning management system. So we get early feedback. The gap that we have in our system that we're working on is how then do we monitor that teacher practice and implementation impact on student outcomes along the way. Great. And I know that you guys have a current practice of if a teacher prof or any professional attends professional learning there is instant evaluation. Even if it's quick QR code or if it's a paper evaluation is that going to be part of the process still for you guys to get feedback? Yes, we'll continue using our professional learning management system
046for that. Awesome. Thank you, Miss McMarrow. Are there other trustees with comments or questions? All right. Dr. Smith, I just want to thank uh Ginger and Stephen and a group of people who put this together. For those of you that don't know, Learning Forward, Learning Forward is the national organization that really drives what highquality professional learning looks like in systems. And the plan that they've developed is very well aligned with the standards for professional learning from learning forward. So, we're excited about this big step. As you all know, and we say this to our uh administrative team often, if we want to improve our schools, the way we have to do that is through improving our practice in our schools with the adults. And that doesn't mean that there's anything wrong. It means that we're
047committed to constant improvement on a daily basis from every position in every department to get better. In order to do that, we have to create the system where people can access learning and growth. And they've done an excellent job creating that system. So, I wanted to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Smith. We have one more report this evening, a governance committee report, and we'll turn it over to our chair of the governance committee, Vice President McMurrow. Maybe if I can make this work tonight. Thank you. I got it. Thank you, President Chappa. Um, our governance committee met a couple weeks ago and TASBY is still in the process of um, completing their comprehensive policy review. So, we will be having some policy reviews coming to y'all for consideration very soon. Um, just
048a little legislative update. As you guys know, um, House Bill 2 substitute is in Senate Committee on Education right now. They did have a hearing today starting at 9:00 a.m., but no action was taken. So, the substitute the substitute bill of House Bill 2, which is proposing $55 now for the basic aotment, is still in committee, and that was a substantial decrease from the $395 basic allotment proposal that originally came out of the House. Um, so I want to commend our board um and share with our community that our our board is making daily contact with these senators in our delegation that share a piece of Arlington ISD. And I want to invite our community, any teachers, parents, anyone watching um to join us in that advocacy effort. Um these Senate members or these senators
049are Senator Birdwell, Senator King, Senator Hancock, and Senator Royce West. The session ends on June 2nd. Um so I I just really say that with urgency. Please continue to make that contact and um I really appreciate the efforts of our governance committee and our entire board. And we are not done advocating yet. Thank you. Thank you, Miss McMurro. We'll move on to the consent agenda portion. Dr. Smith, sorry. Oh, okay. Uh, we will move on to consent agenda now. Um, does anyone have any items that they would like to withdraw from consent for separate consideration tonight? Seeing none, we'll move on to approve the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So move. Have a motion from Mr. Wilbanks. Do I have a second? Second. Have a second from Miss Fowler.
050Trustees, let's move to vote on consent. All right, all seven trustees vote in the affirmative. Consent agenda unanimously carries. We'll now move on to our superintendent comment because we already had non-aggenda form earlier tonight. Dr. Smith, sorry, I got a little jumpy with my red button earlier. Um, I did and I wanted to gavvel back. Um I did want to add real quickly on Miss McMurro's uh advocacy statement there. We obviously in resources, your priority on resources was to maximize resources to promote a thriving district while maintaining sound fiscal management. Arlington ISD has maintained sound fiscal management for a number of years. In fact, better than a lot of school districts. That's the result of work from the board of trustees and our former superintendent, Miss Moss, our former CFO, um, and all of the
051the team that went into that. So, we're in a better situation than many districts, but as I was talking with another superintendent recently, we've all been rated to the highest rating possible by TEA on our first report on how we handle financial accountability and transparency. We all as public school districts have been doing that on a regular basis and Arlington ISD I believe had a perfect score this last year if I'm not mistaken. So it shows that we're doing exactly what we're supposed to do. Yet we're still faced with this deficit budget situation and that is because the legislature isn't doing what they need to do to fund schools adequately according to the constitution in the state of Texas. So I do encourage everyone to do that. I did um film a video earlier today
052that's going out to our staff just to explain to important House bills that are being considered right now that I think are important for us. We always ask staff obviously we want them to share exactly how they feel. We're not asking them to share our agenda, but we're asking them to make contact with those ad those legislators and share their thoughts because public school matters in Arlington ISD. So, um, that video will be going out to staff tomorrow, thanks to Spencer McKenzie, and, uh, we will continue to work to make sure that people know the story of Arlington ISD during this legislative session. While I am dismayed about their actions this week so far, I still have hope that someone along the way will um, bring a voice of reason to all of this for
053public schools. I wanted to note also that right now we in our community have this going out. Many of you have been at events with me over the course of the week and you've heard me mention this. This is a link to a thought exchange. This thought exchange is one simple question and this is feedback directly that's going to be taken to you board of trustees when you get together in a workshop coming up on strategic plan. Part of your job as a board of trustees is to set the vision of the school district. And so this question was directly targeted to help give you community feedback on that. And the question is simply this. What are your hopes and dreams for the students in Arlington ISD? We ask people to participate in this. And
054so please take this opportunity, share this amongst all of your networks that you have as trustees and get as much voice as we can from our community because that input is going to ultimately help you as you land on a vision for the district moving forward. Okay, I think I have to read a script now. So, here we go. Uh, it may be the end of the school year, but that hasn't slowed down our amazing students. Here are just a few highlights in my superintendence report. That is not the right picture. Um, so first, I got to visit Spear Elementary recently with Arlington Police Chief Al Jones for our annual Take 25 talk. We spent about 25 minutes talking with fourth, fifth, sixth, and sixth graders about being safe this summer. And we want to
055encourage all parents and guardians to do the same with their kids. Our Martin High School archery team did it again. They went back to back, defended their title, and are the 2025 national champions. Can Yes. Give them a round of applause. Congratulations to these exceptional student athletes who excelled at the state tournament in Belton and then at the Western National Tournament in Sandy, Utah. And congrats to their coach, Alexander Villanoeva. Many of you got to attend your the annual what's your big idea award ceremony recently held at UTA where hundreds of our elementary and junior high students were celebrated for their entrepreneurial ideas. That word didn't come out right. I have no idea uh I have no doubt many of these students will keep dreaming big and turn many of their ideas into reality in
056the future. Thanks to our partners in the Chamber of Commerce for putting on this contest every year and helping to inspire our students to become future business owners. Did you all know that all six of our traditional high schools had girls flag football teams this spring? They're sponsored by Yes, the They're sponsored by the Dallas Cowboys and they played great football. It's been a great opportunity for more female athletes, female students to get involved in football. And I'm grateful to all our coaches who have embraced this sport and given these students a chance this year. We also want uh all of our students to be safe as we wrap up the school year and with lots of events like prom and graduation. That's why Arlington police officers and firefighters spent the past month visiting Arlington
057ISD high schools sta staging a mock fatality crash at each of them and talking to students about making responsible choices. Thank you especially to Dr. Michael Hill and all of those that helped get this organized for the sake of our students and their learning experience. Finally, last slide. Just a reminder to everyone, the best event of the year is coming up. We have graduation June 2nd and June 3rd for the high schools that you see listed there. And we can't wait to see all of our students crossing the stage. That concludes my report this week. Thank you for Thank you, Dr. Smith. We'll now move on to trustee reports this evening. Do we have any trustees with reports? Miss Fowler. Thank you, President Choa. Well, hot off the press, I got a text message from
058Coach Beni over at Sigin, and he says they may be the smallest high school in AISD, but they're one of the best represented. They had 10 students signed for football. 13 total athletes that signed to play at the next level. All of those from one high school, and it's our smallest high school. So, I applaud Sigin for everything that they're doing and congratulations to those 13 athletes and thank you so much to the coaches for all that they pour into the students. Thank you, Miss Fowler. We'll move along to Mr. Wilbanks. Thank you, President Chapa. And I'd like to give a big shout out to Pierce STEM Academy who invited us down to their STEM showcase last week and um it was very impressive. I think Spence may have a few picks or maybe not
059but uh the kids were able to showcase all the wonderful things they're doing in each and every grade level. um from even preschool where they design boxes uh and turn them into designs uh of uh different animals or different cars or different uh robots. And uh the thing I was blown away with is they're teaching the upper grades entrepreneurial skills uh to start their own business market. Uh there is one group that was doing economics of looking at um when uh they offer uh swag to the students to sell and they keep track of their profits, what their profit margin, what the highest grossing item that was uh sold that semester. uh a lot of great each teacher uh sponsors a different uh club and you know the economics club track the profit and gross
060margins on the items sold. There's uh even in language arts they use an oscilloscope to talk about uh poetry and how the pitch and delivery of um the poetry uh how that changes into the uh soundwave on this oscilloscope. So they're really threading uh stem throughout all of the classes. Uh, and the kids were just totally engaged. The hallways were packed. Uh, a big success in the community. So, a shout out to Principal Sarah Brooks and the staff at um, Piery STEM Academy for creating such an engaging um, environment that fosters the love of STEM uh, here in Arlington ISD. Oh, there's a few Look at that picture. Yeah. So, all right. Thank you, Mr. Will Banks. We'll move on to Miss Haynes. Am I doing your pictures first, Sarah? Am I doing Yes. Yeah.
061Okay. Okay. Because I also have one that's no pictures if I'm doing that for Okay. Well, I'll just start. Um, so it is food allergy awareness week. um across the nation. Um and so I wrote up something that I just wanted to read just to bring awareness to food allergies and the many many students we have in our district that live with food allergies on a daily basis. Um so one in 13 children have a food allergy. So that's roughly two children in every classroom. And food allergies are not a lifestyle choice. They're a life-threatening condition that requires our attention and understanding. And as a mother of a child with food allergies, I have experienced firsthand the challenges and hardships that come with navigating this reality, especially in a school setting. Um, I do want
062to take a moment and express my gratitude for the incredible food allergy support that we have here in AISD. Um, I know that our staff genuinely care about the well-being of our students. From my own personal experience, my son's teachers, principals, and coaches have been well trained, diligent in their efforts to ensure that he's included when it comes to food centered celebrations. Um, all while taking the necessary precautions to make sure that he is safe. Um, however, just because our experience has been somewhat seamless doesn't mean that our work is done. Um, we must continue to educate those around us about the seriousness of food allergies. It's crucial that we cultivate inclusive environments where families can send their children with confidence knowing that they will be safe when they're not with them. Um, I'm committed
063to spreading awareness and advocating for our food allergy students and their families. Um, and I hope and invite all of you to join in these efforts because together we can create a community that prioritizes safety, understanding, and inclusivity for all our children. Our food allergy kids and their families are absolutely worth it. So, I encourage you to um just have a conversation with your families. The more we talk about this, the more it is going to become second nature to make these accommodations for these these children in our district. Nice shirt. Yeah. Yeah. My shirt. I love it. So, all right. I also have another one with pictures. Legislative update part two. Maybe we uh recently made our people. It's been a while. We didn't we didn't do this update. Um we made our third
064trip down to the capitol. Um if you were a trustee that went on that trip, will you raise your hand because I and Dr. Collins came with us. Dr. Collins was awesome. Yeah, she was fantastic. Um so we visited the capital again. Um this time with a focus on advocating for assessment reform. We split up and were able to meet with how many? A lot of people. 11 10 11 it was a lot. Um we split up and were able to meet with them. We even were able to have an impromptu meeting with Chairman Buckley in the hallway thanks to Sarah um flagging him down. Um so that was wonderful. Um I think that we did make some some headway in the avenue in the arena of um assessment. I think that we were heard
065and they listened and I'm hopeful that um our work down there um you know will come to fruition. So, thank you guys. All right. Thank you, Miss Haynes. Miss McMahon. Thank you. And yes, I agree. Dr. Collins is a natural at advocacy. We were so happy she could join. We did miss you, Dr. Smith, but Dr. Collins was great. Um recently I was able to attend uh career day and be a speaker at Bryant Elementary. Um they organiz we we have a lot of schools doing amazing spring events and u due to the nature of my job I'm not able to make many but this one was really special to me because the counselor at Bryant Mrs. Nicole Davis was my former fourth grade teammate at Lyn Hale Elementary and it's been really neat to
066see her growing her career and she put together the most phenomenal career day. Mayor Ross was there. There were first responders. And I felt really honored that she asked me to come. So I asked her, "Do you want me to talk about being a schoolboard trustee or do you want me to talk about being an instructional coach?" She said, "Both, please." And then I shared with fourth graders that day about both jobs. And then at the end, I had three separate um classes vote on which job they think pays money. And as smart as they were, I have to say all classes got it wrong. So, just for anyone watching, school board trustees, we don't get a paycheck. Um, but it was it was very fun. And here we are with the wonderful Bryant administrators
067and um counselor Mrs. Davis. And man, those Bryant bees are so smart, so insightful, and I just know that one day they're going to chase a career that they are passionate about. So, thank you, Miss Davis, for opening that door. Um, and a few weeks back I was able to uh we were invited to the Sam Houston High School PEK induction. I did not really know um much about this event, but I was so excited when I arrived and everyone you see sitting there in the Sam Sam Houston cafeteria are eighth graders and their families who will be joining the PEK program at SAM. And that's one of four PEK programs AISD offers. This one at Sam Houston is logistics and mechatronics. Don't ask me details about what that means, but these students and their
068families learned a lot about it. Um, and they were able to tour the learning spaces for the PEK programs. And uh, Dr. Villal shared that it uh, it is anticipated to be full. The cohort coming in um, of incoming ninth graders is anticipated to fill up. And I love that they invited them in as eighth graders to get them excited and um have their names and they all signed an an induction frame that will be displayed in the hallway. I just thought it was so neat and it really instilled a sense of belonging to those incoming uh ninth graders that are current eighth graders at Workman and Carter. So um I believe that PEK is amazing. think that's pathways and technology and again this is just one of four programs we have in AIC open
069to all high school students so parents please look into PEK it's awesome thank you thank you Miss McMo and I meatronics I did not know much about either I except I've recently learned that it has something to do with the semiconductor industry yes which is a huge part of um our technologically rich world so Miss Richardson uh you have the next report. It has been a busy couple of weeks since we last saw each other. This week we had the privilege to go to a volunteer lunchon. The really great thing about this volunteer lunchon this year is that our CTC students planned and executed the entire event. They actually came to Aaron Pales and his team and gave them three choices for themes. Then from there, they narrowed it down. They had a budget. They
070did all the decorations, the setup, they had the food vendor, everything, including the day of when something went wrong with the food. They were the ones who handled it, not the staff. This was part of their practicum for the end of the year. And they were able to do it all hands-on and have a great learning experience while we also celebrated all of our many volunteers across the district. We attended the other night leading with light. It was a celebration to be able to celebrate all of our different lead teachers across the district. Our Micah was the host of the event and kicked it off. It was very different. We had it over at our athletic center and they had everything from finish that line to strike a pose of your favorite inspirational teacher. Again,
071our CTC students did the food and the appetizers for the event and were able to be showcased and treat our lead teachers with something a little bit different. Athletic signing day was this week and we had so many athletic athletes from across the district. We have Arlington High that was able to be celebrated. Our own Lynn Wyn and his wonderful wife were there to see their senior student off. He's going to be a incoming freshman at Austin College, but sweet to be able to watch him and his kiddos. All of our high schools across the district were represented well. We have pictures from all of those. You want to go to the next? As you can see the picture, these the coaches are just as happy as the kids are. And watching them shake hands
072and give the hugs, the families in the stands, it was incredible. There was as many female athletes re represented as male. And so it was nice to see that it was not one or the other, but they are all going on to have some phenomenal opportunities, not just here in Texas, but across the United States. even have one headed to West Point. So, we have some brilliant students and some very athletically talented students as well. This past weekend was a musical weekend across Arlington ISD. Martin High School performed Once Upon a Mattress. They are so talented and they even had a live orchestra that performed with them which was made up of course of their own orchestra students. It was wonderful to see them and be able to laugh and a little bit of a
073Mother's Day treat to get to go enjoy a show. Also was Mama Mia at Lamar High School. This was special. Um the girl in the pink shirt is one of our slab students, Carara. Cara has been with us for multiple years. Cara had brought a group of friends to see it, but I was very touched that when I came in by myself, was going to sit down. An 18-year-old kid asked if I would come sit with them. When an 18-year-old kid invites you to sit with them and their friends and laugh and enjoy, you never say no. So, it was great to spend the evening with Cara and her friends and to see the talent at Lamar High School. This past uh week, we had Mother's Day celebration. President Chapa and Trustee Larry Mike and
074myself were invited to Corey second grade to help serve all the food and to celebrate the mothers. This is a tradition that they have done for some time where they have different food vendors come in. But then the children do songs in Spanish and English to celebrate their mothers complete with booklets, a photo backdrop where they can have photos taken with their mom and to tell them everything that they love about them. We went to Arbor this past week to celebrate our seniors graduating. Kylie, Taylor, and London were all given scholarships that were selected by our own Arbor Realators here in Arlington, Texas. And we are so thankful for the partnership and all they do to contribute to our students. Travel and Sports Legacy Foundation. You may see some familiar faces here. We have former
075president Kesha Maize, who is the current president, but they had a panel of people there. One of those was our very own coach. We also had the owner of Prince Lebanese there and they were talking about what is the travel industry and sports industry going to look like and how are our students being used. It was amazing to see all the different partnerships that we have going on. But also in the bottom lefthand corner that is London who we saw earlier who was given a scholarship by Arbor. This is Justin. They both have paid internships. Taylor, sorry, Taylor. These both have paid internships this summer and we are so excited for them because how cool is it that you get an internship, but you're getting paid for that as well. West Elementary hosted their reading
076day and trusty Fowler and Larry Mike and I were able to go. Also, Larry Mike may prefer to call Mike Morales. Miles Miles Miles, I'm so late. Miles Morales. Miles Morales came and the kids were so excited and all they wanted to know was if he would climb walls. Yes. It was great to be able to go to West Elementary, but also that Barnett came and they took part of their day to come and read to all these students and in different classrooms, but loved how they were pouring into these kids and didn't uh didn't just stay in their own bubble, but were able to get out and share with others. this right here. Larry Mike, will you turn on your microphone? Thanks. We went to um Sherid Elementary today and one of the things
077we got to learn about was their spring fling that they do. They have partnered with David Lewis and our food department, but also Arlington Charities and with Eric Neil and Paige Payne. They did their first ever spring fling, had all the food donated, and parents were able to come and get three bags of food for their children along with play games and have Kona ice. Yeah, she's doing great things over there at Shared. Um I think when she first got there, the scores were um really low, like in the 50s. U now they're hopeful that when the scores get get released there's going to be mid70s maybe 80s. So um the culture is definitely changing there and I think it's indicative of what we are doing here at Arlington ISD um throughout the school. One
078of the things that impressed us most was she talked about when she first started there that they did have different issues in their classrooms. So when she started as a principal, she moved her office to the hallway and she worked from the hallway to be present and be available to what the students need but also the teachers. So it was great to meet with principal Hicks who is also our teacher of the year principal of the year. So it was great to see here. Also while we were there they were setting up. Many of you are going to recognize Barbara. Barbara is the librarian there and they surprised her today. She is retiring after 45 years as a librarian in AISD. So, congratulations to her for all she does. We typically see her at our
079meetings. She has been to many of our board meetings and served on many district committees as well. So, congratulations to Barbara. Oh, this is Young Junior High. I think I visited this Monday um meeting with principal principal London and seeing the great things that she is doing there. Um, without Brooklyn, I don't really take too many pictures. I I just talk a lot. Um, but one of the things that you can see is a show choir there performing. They use every piece of that real estate inside, outside, you name it. Um, they use that to the max and she's very proud of the school. It um it's a little different as far as the the architecture. Like it reminds me of a bank vault when you first walk in. Um, but they're they're doing great
080things there. Um, and once again, another good school. All right. Are there any other trustees with reports tonight? Right. Oh, we have We want to wish good luck to our four destination imagination teams that are headed to Globals. They left this morning at 6:00 a.m. and we'll be back on Monday. but want to wish them good luck at Globals and can't wait to see what they do and how well they're going to represent Arlington ISD. Okay, seeing no other requests to speak, we'll move on to our secretar's report. Madam Secretary, do we have any matters reported for further consideration? We do not. Okay. Well, all items on tonight's agenda have been addressed. We have no matters to discuss in close session. There being no further business, this meeting is adjourned at 9:43. [Music]