001Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us this evening and for your interest in Belton ISD. Hope you enjoyed the presentation by our Lake Belton High School Interdisciplinary Research Symposium students. Let's give them a big round of applause. The time is 6:18 p.m. And the Belton Independent School District Board of Trustees are now convened in a regular board meeting on Monday, April the 20th, 2026 at the Lake Belton High School Performing Arts Center, located at 9809 FM 2483, Temple, Texas. A quorum of board members is present. Uh please note that Mr. Flores not able to join us this evening. This meeting has been duly called and notice of the meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551. I want to welcome the members of our audience
002and our live stream viewers to this meeting. As a Belton ISD Board of Trustees, we are here to set goals, listen to reports from the superintendent, approve budgets, contracts, personnel appointments, and make policy for the district. This meeting for the of the Board of Trustees is held in public. However, it is not a public meeting. Prior to this meeting, board members received information related to items on tonight's agenda. Agenda items may not necessarily be handled in the order listed on the notice. This meeting is open to all who wish to attend and hear the matters discussed. These proceedings are being live streamed on the district's YouTube channel and will be available for review in the days following tonight's meeting. For the video to adequately reflect the proceedings, I respectfully ask that you please refrain from
003talking while others are speaking and that all cell phones are on the silent mode. If you would please rise for a moment of silent prayer or meditation. Would please remain standing as our students from Sparta Elementary lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and honors to the Texas flag. 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 Honor the Texas flag, I pledge performances or small ensemble performances, the music they perform represents the highest and most rigorous level in UIL competitions, reflecting their exceptional talent, preparation, and dedication. And we want to especially thank their teachers, Tonya Laborn and Terrance Livingston. Thank you so much. Congratulations. It's a good problem to
004have when you need a bigger stage. And as these students exit, we are going to welcome to the stage 46 students who qualified for the National History Day State Contest in Austin, including nine elementary students, 14 middle school students, and 23 high school students. Natural National History Day represents a year-long research journey in which our students conduct intensive primary source research, develop original thesis, and defend their work before panels of experts and judges. Students who advance to state are among the top 1% of young historians in Texas, an accomplishment an accomplishment that reflects exceptional scholarship, critical thinking, and presentation skills. These students are supported by their sponsors, Ms. Babel, Ms. Capron, Mr. Clouatre, Mr. Russo, Mr. Lanway, Mr. Jackson, Ms. Botha, Ms. Hoch, and Ms. Lawson. And also at the state competition, four of our
005entries earned six special awards, and two of the entries earned first place in their respective categories and are advancing to nationals. Truly a remarkable job well done. And as these students exit, we are going to welcome to the stage two Lake Belton High School seniors, Drew Bot and Alex Yin, who have earned the title of National Merit Finalist in the in the National Merit Scholarship Program. After earning semifinalist recognition in the fall, both students advanced by meeting the program's rigorous academic testing and application requirements. Fewer than 1% of students in the US earn this distinction, placing Drew and Alex among the top scholars in the country. This extraordinary achievement reflects years of dedication, intellectual excellence, and relentless perseverance, and it is a proud moment for Lake Belton High School and the entire Big Red community.
006Oh, okay. As those students exit stage left, um we have 60 students who qualified for SkillsUSA in our District 10 state competition across multiple career pathways. SkillsUSA supports students in trade, technical, and skilled service programs by developing leadership, workplace readiness, and advanced technical skills. Their competitions in architecture and construction, hospitality and tourism, health science, arts and AV technology, transportation, and law and public service, these students demonstrate the real-world knowledge and career preparation needed for high-demand industries. We also want to thank their teachers, Michael Correa, McKenzie Pinocchio, Corey Lynn Upton, Alyssa Vargas, Britney Truitt, Britt Sharp, and Willie Lord. And in this group, we also have several national qualifiers who will be continuing competition in June. Congratulations. And now we will recognize our academic all-state basketball students. We are proud to recognize nine student athletes who
007were named in the Texas High School Coaches Association Academic All-State Basketball Teams. This honor represents athletes who demonstrate excellence both in the classroom and on the court, reflecting outstanding achievement, discipline, and dedication. These students are supported by Coach McMullen, Coach Johnston, and Coach Barnes. Congratulations. And now we'll recognize our academic all-staters in powerlifting. We are pleased to recognize 11 Lake Belton High School student athletes who earned Texas High School Powerlifting Association Academic All-State Honors. This recognition celebrates student athletes who again excel at balancing the demands of elite competition with achieving outstanding performance in the classroom. Their achievement reflects discipline, perseverance, and a strong commitment to success. Congratulations to you, and thank you to Coach Rudolph. Congratulations. We also, and we might have some overlap here, have 11 students who qualified at state for the powerlifting
008meet. Earning a spot at the state level reflects exceptional strength, discipline, and dedication as these student athletes have competed at a high level throughout the season while representing Belton ISD with pride. We want to thank their coaches, Coach Campbell, Coach Gray, and Coach Rudolph. Congratulations. And now we will welcome 14 student athletes who qualified for state swimming competition across Belton ISD. These swimmers earned state placements across a range of events, including relay competitions as well as freestyle and butterfly races, reflecting exceptional speed, endurance, and dedication. Thank you to their coaches, Coach Neb, Coach Ferguson, and Coach Prudhomme. And we have two Belton High School wrestlers who qualified for state. We have Melissa Farmer who earned fifth place, becoming the first student athlete in program history to medal at state, and we have Jacob Yurin, who
009also advances as a state qualifier, contributing to a season that produced a school record of 15 regional qualifiers. And they are supported by their coach, Newcomer. Congratulations. And tonight for our department showcase, we want to recognize our facilities, grounds, and IPM staff members. Uh tonight, this group um does an exceptional work, most of which is all behind the scenes to ensure that every campus and district property remains safe, functional, and ready for learning. Together, these departments maintain more than 2.4 million square feet across 20 campuses and 28 ancillary buildings, and care for over 290 mobile acres. Their work ranges from facility maintenance and energy management to grounds keeping, pest prevention, irrigation, and daily inspections of play areas and campuses. We want to thank each and every one of you for all that you do to
010prepare our buildings every day. Thank you. And next we'll recognize our community partner, our Fort Hood school liaison officers. April is the month of the military child and we cannot think of better people to recognize than those who serve through our child and youth services as valued community partners supporting Belton ISD's military connected students and families. These dedicated professionals help military families navigate school transitions, stay informed on district programs and requirements, and have and gain access to resources to support students. With nearly a third of our students connected in some way with the military, we are so grateful for the support, the advocacy, and the partnership that you provide. Thank you. I just have to tell you so some of our students who went to history fair and are going on to nationals, National History
011Day, shared some of their documentaries and a couple of them know the story, but I've been sharing it with my adult children because I've been so blown away at the maturity, the selection of music, images, videos has been incredible. And so I just want to say great job. We have so many students in this auditorium tonight that are going on to nationals. We've had some competing at worlds. In fact, we have some students at worlds tonight and throughout this week. And so all of that happens because we have amazing parents that support their students and we have incredible educators that make these opportunities possible. And our grounds team is the best I've ever worked with ever. They recognize that what they do impacts the learning of each and every one of our students. And so
012I'm thankful for you, thankful to our community partners, our military partners are amazing. So can we give everybody around an applause? Well, we've got a really exciting meeting tonight. So if you want to stay, you can stay or uh if you would like to leave, you've got some time to do that right now. Next item on the agenda is public comment. We don't have anyone signed up, so we'll just move on to item four. Action items. Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding the adoption of the vision, mission, values and beliefs, and strategic objectives of Belton Yes, thank you so much, board. As you're aware in February, we brought you a charter asking for you to approve the opportunity for us to launch a steering committee to help us develop a strategic plan as we
013think about the next 5 years for Belton ISD. And that committee has been hard at work. We've been gathering lots of data and Mike Morgan is here this evening and for your consideration, discussion, and possible action, we want to present to you a recommendation on vision, mission, values and beliefs, and strategic objectives. Thank you, Dr. Golden. Trustees, for your consideration tonight. As Dr. Golden mentioned, what we're asking you to consider tonight is a framework that would serve as our primary road map aligning our goals and student achievement, staff development, community engagement, and operational efficiency with measurable outcomes for the next 5 years. Approving these top-level components today would allow our leadership team to go ahead and start working on the district's direction to build out the specific action plans for each of the priorities that
014we'll discuss tonight. As Dr. Golden said, we we we came to you earlier in the year and with a charter to commission a team and to begin this important work. So the plan that that we're discussing tonight is the product of engagement with you and also with members of our school community and the the greater Belton community that began in February. It reflects lots of input opportunities. We we based a lot of our initial analysis or a lot of our initial input around a SWOT analysis to consider strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the district and from multiple community advisory meetings, multiple staff, district leaders, board workshops, and other community groups as well. We are very thankful for the incredible turnout and engagement from our community committee where we had which significantly shaped the initial
015thoughts and also the final product where we had over 60 community members represented in that group as well as the other groups our PTA, PTO, faith-based leaders, our B-WIC group, we had a Spanish language opportunity, our cabinet and leadership team, and for all contributing. We also utilized our staff, parent, and student surveys to identify themes that aligned with what we saw from our SWOT analysis as we worked through this process. So tonight, as you can see here, you see the seven components that ultimately we would like to to make up our our strategic plan. Tonight we're asking you to consider the top four, those that are in red, the vision, mission, values and beliefs, and district strategic objectives. The the remaining pieces, the the individual strategies to support the strategic objectives, the lead measures, the
016lag measures, will be developed by our leadership team and other partners over the next 2 months as to the district's as to our balanced scorecard, and then we would review those with you and monitor those periodically throughout the year. You can see we we we took a little slightly different approach in this this strategic plan and and both of these should be familiar to you and our community as well, but they are labeled a little differently than what we've done in the past. So based on input from our from our steering committee and throughout the process of coming to you with the vision, and and these words are familiar because they've kind of been our tagline for the last 5 years and that is inspiring dreams and empowering futures. And then our mission is empower
017each and every learner to pursue their dreams and enrich their communities. Those are those are something that our our team and our steering committee our community committee still felt felt and believe very strongly in those ideals that we brought in the past. We also asked that team to go through a process and to talk about the values and beliefs that they considered as most important for our school community. The things that we truly truly believe in and aspire to and so we bring to you tonight with five value belief statements that are a direct uh uh result or outcome of the process that our community went through group went through and then and our April 8th workshop we worked with you as a board of trustees to refine those around what you value and what
018you believe for Belton ISD. So tonight we recommend these five value belief statements. They are final versions of the top five that were prioritized by our community group and so we believe in the overwhelming values and beliefs of trust, empowerment, adaptability, community community and high expectations. And specifically speaking to our high expectations they revolve primarily around academic excellence and you'll see that that the robust discussion we had on April 8th was a desire to include innovation and continuous improvement in that belief around academic excellence and and we we would like for you to consider this tonight that we feel like we captured that conversation as well. Um as getting into the actual plan it will it will revolve around four priorities. So in our old strategic plan that we've been operating off of for the
019past 5 years we operated around five central goals. Uh we would we would ask you to consider tonight operating around these four priorities and priority one is is operating around students, priority two staff, priority three community and priority four financial management. Um one thing that we worked with our stakeholders and and our and our community committee on was to come up with the priority statement. This is something that we spent a considerable amount of time working with with you as a board on our April 8th workshop as well. And so the overreach these overreaching statements kind of speak to the essence of each of the four priorities that that we asked you to consider. Um they've been refined uh several times based on input and feedback that we've gotten throughout the process. Uh for example
020you can see in priority two on staff it was very important in the conversation that that the word support be included in that and we agree with that wholeheartedly. If you also look at priority four around financial management to be clear to our community that transparency is one of the ideals and one of the things that we will commit to in our values and beliefs in a priority around around our four areas of concentration. And so I'll dig a little deeper into each one of the priorities and the final uh the final strategic objectives that we're bringing forward for your consideration tonight. You can see that in the objective our priority one around students objectives 1.1 and 1.2 really focus on accelerated academic achievement and ensuring consistent growth and it's in a couple of different
021areas that we want to meet or exceed individual growth targets as well as uh a a total a total perspective of increasing our percentage of graduates who earn advanced credentials in college career military readiness which starts at a young age. And 1.3 uh is explicit to addressing student well-being, student discipline, and mental health. These are these were areas that were identified as critical needs in our community SWAT analysis as well as our when we did our data and we did our needs assessment. Those are areas that we want to prioritize and really be successful in the supports that we have in place for students and staff. And then for objective 1.4 it's around this world of balancing as digital integration. It's it's balancing hands-on learning uh and monitoring screen time while at the same time
022preparing students with emerging technologies and in real world applications that will benefit them after school. For priority two on staff for objective 2.1 we really want to work out a 5-year plan of of strategies to strengthen our recruitment and hiring pipelines. We want to attract high quality candidates and we want to keep them here which leads us into priority 2.2 which was around retention that we we want to have processes and systems in place that focus on employee well-being, employee satisfaction, but we also foster supportive environment so that we retain employees once we hire them. And objective 2.3 is around relative excuse me relevant continuous professional learning opportunities so that we can grow our staff. Priority three around community as these really are are a shift towards a real plain simple language plan to address
023partnerships, communications, and service. So objective 3.1 is a focus on partnering with our local community. Uh we want we want partnerships that not only benefit our students but also benefit our community school district as well. Objective 3.2 is we really want to strive to deliver clear targeted communication that ultimately builds trust. There's a there's a direct connection here back to our value belief statements around trust being the the number one value belief statement or the first value belief statement but uh communication that that targets and and and values and trust and deliver trust. And then finally at 3.3 is a service oriented environment that emphasizes how we treat each other and how we try to resolve issues and conflict as it comes up. And finally priority four is around financial management and and these really
024fall into three areas. Aligned capital and facility planning. We really want to be thoughtful and have data driven um plans uh that that extend it's it's a capital plans around our facility needs and our capital needs. 4.2 we want to strategically prioritize our dollars to directly improve student outcomes meaning uh understanding what we need to to support instructional outcomes and then working budgets to make ensure and make sure that that happens. And then 4.3 is a focus on long-term financial sustainability taking the resources that are available and creating plans that that provide the district the sustainability to be able to provide our services and outstanding instruction for years to come. And so I I didn't throw a lot at you uh just in uh a lot of things that we've spent time talking about in
025workshops and so now I would turn it over the floor over to to our board for any discussion or questions regarding these strategic objectives uh and then asking you to to approve those tonight. Mike could you go back to slide eight the priority statements? So just one thing I'd like to add part of the feedback when we were don't yeah right there. Um when we were with you last and in talking about our strategic plan um one of the board members had mentioned really all of these priorities are in service to our students and so just wanted to point out we were intentional in taking that feedback and so you will see in each and every one of those priority statements a tie back to our purpose which is our students and so just wanted
026to point that out as well. Let's see board what questions you might have for us on product that's before you or process. Any questions? Comments? Absolutely. I just have a comment just to say thank you. I know that this has been really big work in a really short amount of time but just super proud of y'all and and really just engaging such a broad um group of individuals. Um I think that's just been what's been impressive to me is that this is not just a small group of voices. This is a this is a very large collective group of of input. Um and so just really excited to see this really play out over the next 5 years. I guess maybe a question I have is just um can you talk about implementation at KISD?
027I would assume this would may start next school year. Can you just tell me maybe a little bit about that? Yes that's going to I can jump into that. So um if the objectives are approved this evening the next layer of work is to be able to identify the highest leverage strategies for each of those objectives, then develop the lag measures like where do we want to be in 5 years and then back it up and also identify the leading measures um that we would be bringing to you over over the next 5 years in board meetings. So that's that that next level of work so that we can bring our goal is to come back to you in July with the entire plan mapped out. And so um and then yes Aaron for for
028your direct question about implementation it would guide our work even this summer and and into the fall semester. And so our campus improvement plans, our district improvement plan will all be aligned to that work. So um there's a a lot of important steps to take next but this was an important step in the process. Anyone else? Okay. like to take a moment to to thank the steering committee uh for its hard work. Uh this is just another example of how BISD does things in engaging the community when these big projects come up, especially when it involves all the students in our in our district. So, uh publicly want to thank steering committee for all of its work. Um the input is up there on the screen, right? We can see it. So, thank you, committee.
029Yeah, absolutely add to that. One, thank you to the board for nominating individuals. We We have community members, we have parents, we have a student that joined us from the superintendent student advisory council. We had teachers, we had staff. What really stood out is that you can form committees, but not everybody can always commit to attending the meetings. And and I will tell you um just based on the attendance, there was a lot of commitment um and interest in this process. And so I I echo that and I'm super thankful. Um they they showed up, they expressed their opinions, they participated and helped us get to this point. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Morgan. Thank you. All right. So, let's I'd like to take an action now. Uh we have a motion to adopt the vision,
030mission, values, and beliefs and strategic objectives as presented. I already have two up. Mr. Beck. Ms. Bass. All those in favor, raise your hand. That passes 6 to 0. Thank you. Well, that takes care of our action items this evening. Moving on to reports, academic progress report, gifted and talented, Dr. Golden. I apologize. Yes. Well, as you can see, Gabby Niño, our assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, has come to the podium. So, annually we are required to come to the board and provide a presentation surrounding GT services in the district. Um just as a reminder to the board, approximately I'm looking at Deanna, two, maybe three years ago, with your support, um we were able to identify um a priority around this work. And so, incredibly proud of Deanna's work and Gabby's work in
031really studying our GT services and what we could do to improve those services. And so, Gabby's going to give you an update. Absolutely. I do want to echo um Deanna Lowsmith, Dr. Lowsmith has done an incredible amount of work in this area and has really helped us grow systems and processes um to ensure that we have exceptional GT services for students in our district. Beyond an annual report that's required, um I get to share some highlights and evidence of progress as well as some continued focus area needs for us that will support the needed strategic um decision that you all made um to support our our work um specifically in gifted services. Let's start by just looking at five-year enrollment trends. Um the the top red line is our student enrollment in Belton ISD and
032the black line at the bottom just shows you by the numbers and percentage the number of students um who are meeting eligibility as um in need of services for being gifted and talented in our district. So, um if you look at '23-'24 um until now, that's when you start to see an increase in the number of students who are being identified. Simultaneously, that is when um Deanna stepped into this role directly supporting gifted and talented students. And so, um I I think that we'll start to see some stabilization in these numbers. We want to continue identifying more students. Um the state stays within 8 to 9% and we have now identified 11.8% of our students as gifted and talented. Um And and with the practices that we're putting in place, we may continue to see
033more. I suspect that we will see some stabilization. Um as you can see, back in '21-'22, we were under the state um percentage of students who were identified. This year is the first year that our gifted and talented students are included in the annual taper report. Um what you can see as highlights from that report are that 88% of our gifted and talented students meet or exceed grade level expectations. Um we see continued growth with our students who are gifted and talented maintaining an 83% growth rate in both English language arts and math compared to the region and state. And we see that 100% of our students um who are gifted and talented have graduated within the four-year range. What I really want to point out is that first bullet around academic excellence is a
034student who is identified as gifted and talented, their brain operates um there in a a different way. And so, oftentimes students who are in a standardized assessment will not demonstrate the degree of knowledge that they have because that standardized assessment provides some barriers and limits their thinking. Um many of our gifted and talented students will push the boundaries um and do not like being put into a box for um lack of a better word. Also, highlights from the data. Here you'll see some strengths as well as areas that we don't love that we are working on and we expect to see growth in. As it relates to approaching and meeting standards, our students in Belton ISD who are gifted and talented are performing within the same um range as the region and state. In the
035approaches area, slightly above. In the masters range, our students are performing slightly below the state and region. That is a concern for us and I will also point out that we've made some decisions um that we'll discuss briefly that we think are going to directly impact that. And I'll point back to the timeline for identifying students as well. We just didn't have a really solid strategic plan in place for direct support of our students um and have been working very diligently on that. So, our strategic plan specifically related to gifted and talented services um really emphasizes five areas that are aligned with the state plan. First of all, the learning experiences. Have we um asking questions in this area? Do we have specific designed experiences that engage our gifted and talented students um aligned to
036their unique learning needs? Um high-quality professional learning for those who are providing direct services to students. Um we have strategically planned to engage our parents and involve them in the education of their students um differently, understanding what it means to be um a child who is gifted um and has unique talents. Really have been working hard on our identification and assessment processes and then ensuring fidelity of services. On the next slide, you'll see just the first four areas emphasized with some highlights and accomplishments that we want to bring your attention to. Related to learning experiences, in this uh '25-'26 school year, we worked extremely hard to ensure that every single child who is identified as gifted and talented has a teacher with them in either English language arts or math that is certified as a
037GT teacher. Here's why this is super important. We'll talk about direct models in just a bit, but a child who is gifted and talented is not just gifted and talented for 45 minutes of the day when they receive direct services. They are gifted and talented all day long, every day. And so, to be able to say that they have a certified teacher with them um is very important to us. We've also built in curriculum units um that are specifically designed for those direct services that our students are receiving and then have embedded enrichment supports into our curriculum. As it relates to professional learning, our GT teachers have on-demand professional learning available to them um that they can access anywhere, anytime, not just during the the school day. And we also have district systems embedded now
038that allow um not only our department, but also our campuses to monitor progress with their gifted and talented teachers in the professional learning they're taking part in. We have done a ton. I say we. Deanna has organized alongside our um leads on each campus, but nominal parent nights um to support understanding of giftedness and engage families, including things like family game days um where the entire family has come to engage in experiences that really challenge your brain. Um campus showcases of learning. And we are adding a specific summer camp this summer that prioritizes our gifted students um called Camp Invention. As it relates to identification and assessment, um we have both campus placement committees now as well as a district-wide placement committee. Um and so, we have procedures throughout the year related with assessment windows
039um and making decisions around placement of students um into gifted and talented um services. And those are definitely adds for us. The reason that fifth fidelity of services was not included on this slide is because I I to talk a little bit more in depth about it with the coming year. As you all are aware, we have now for the first time in Belton ISD designated individuals on each campus who will provide direct services in addition to the classroom certified teacher to our gifted and talented students. Our innovation specialist in the coming school year will provide direct services to students as guaranteed to them. Um and there are research-based recommended times that our students will have available to them um K through high school. So in kindergarten, based on research and this one's a little
040harder for our campuses to um stomach and you may have questions as well, but for our kindergarten services, they our kindergarten identified students, they will have a pull-out um experiences between March and May at least two. It sounds like that's all, that's the questions that we've gotten, that is not all because we have our intervention um our innovation specialists on campus. They'll be consulting with um our teachers and working in the identification process and providing experiences to all students that will support us in identifying students um and ensuring experiences are available to all. But this is absolutely a research-based practice um nationally for students. In first and second grade, they will experience at least four out four pull-out experiences uh two in the spring and two in the fall and two in the spring, and
041then our students will be clustered in classrooms with a certified gifted and talented teacher. And so you you do start to identify students who are coming to us in kindergarten and then in the beginning in first grade you can really cluster them to ensure they're having those grouped experiences. Third with fifth grade will have two two times a week pull-out services um between 45 and 60 minutes guaranteed to them um as a part of their master schedule and instructional experience. They too will be clustered um with GT students in their English language arts and math classrooms. In middle school, we now have a GT pathways um elective course that was supported by you all um last school year. And then we also have strengthened our advising for students to ensure that we have um our
042gifted and talented students as well as others accessing advanced coursework in all subject areas. And then in high school, we added um three years ago AP Seminar and AP Research. These are um specifically recommended for our students. They really align to the experiences that we offer even in our elementary grades. They're based in research in areas of topic and interest for individual students. And then of course our advanced coursework in all other subject areas. So this will be our guaranteed service model moving into the next school year and this is what we mean when we say fidelity of services. And because we will have secure staff members to support that, we can ensure that our our students will be getting these experiences. In addition, we have extended learning opportunities that have built been built in
043for students. If you have had the opportunity to celebrate alongside us, um our National Math Stars um is an elementary program. Uh we had 163 students in second or third grade that performed at the 95th percentile or above in the nation um based on their STAR Renaissance math scores. Um you all celebrated a few of our students that have a significant amount of financial investment in them and college advising beginning in elementary school all the way through and their graduation and beyond. This summer we're excited to add um Camp Invention um specifically for our students who meet eligibility for um extended learning uh for gifted and talented services and we just want to extend for them. Our teachers who will be taking part in the delivery of this are primarily some of our innovation specialists
044and so this will serve as job-embedded professional learning for them as well and we are thrilled that our students will benefit from that. Um with that, we'll just share with you some continued areas of improvement for us. We have designated GT leads on every campus as well as the teachers um that are identified as gifted and talented teachers. And so we will continue investing in them through learning, um building their uh leadership capacity, direct support for our innovation specialists in designing exceptional experiences. Very proud of the identification and placement processes that have been put into place both both at the district and campus level and we will continue the curriculum writing um to ensure that every student has access to high-quality um curriculum that's aligned to their unique learning needs. And with that, I just
045want to turn to discussion with a few pictures and highlights on the screen um to support that discussion. What you see here are some images of the parent engagement experiences that we've had um where families have come together and learned about giftedness and also engaged in activities to support that giftedness. You see images of our campus showcase um and some family game days. I will tell you just as a side nugget that's not um emphasized here, Dr. Golden brought up that we had actually uh Dr. Morgan did that we had bilingual family um engagement in the strategic planning process and one of the events that they highlighted that they wanted to see more of was opportunities for their students to showcase their learning, specifically um one named their GT one named experiences. So with that,
046I want to have any questions answered or just engage in discussion. Any questions or comments from the board? I just have a comment. Uh thank you for all the work and uh Dr. Love Smith everything. Uh it's always great to see the presentations, but it's better when you talk to parents and kids in person and I've been to a few of these events and seen them over the past couple years and parents are just extremely engaged. Kids are excited to learn. The family game day there, I believe that was at Chisholm Trail earlier this year and it was on a cold Saturday morning. It was really cold and it was packed and kids couldn't wait to get in the door to learn and they were there for quite a long time. So it just shows
047the growth that's gone into this program and uh just underscores what's going on in Belton ISD. So thank you. Anyone else? Yes, I I wanted to ask a couple of questions on on eligibility. Um so uh I I just jumped on the the TEA page about gifted and talented. It it talks about a gifted and talented student is a child or youth who performs or shows the potential for performing at remarkably at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience, or environment and who um and so it has three different designations here, but it says exhibits high performance capability in an intellectual, creative, or artistic area. And so the the intellectual, creative, or artistic, possess possesses an unusual capacity for leadership or excels in a specific academic field.
048Um so even before I got on the school board, one of my uh I guess a pain point that I that I had was was gifted and talented and the I guess the restriction of it seems like the only way that a child can can become a gifted and talented student in our district is to pass uh an IQ test. And and there's one or two different IQ tests or similarly related, but I felt like that doesn't represent some of those other things like the leadership or creativity or or even the intellectual. Um a student who would score in the 99th percentile of of like um math or English language arts, 99th percentile and would not qualify for gifted and talented and they'll be left in the in the classroom and not able to participate.
049Um so I wonder why is it that we have had that such a restrictive I guess I'm trying to really just better understand I mean it even looks like we're higher than the average in the state at around 12% where it's normally about 10, but why are we restricted with only those specific tests to get in? So I will do my best and Dr. Love Smith might jump in. Um every district in the state of Texas has to determine their own eligibility criteria um and they are based in research-based and norm-based assessments. What I will say is one of our continuous areas of improvement is our identification and placement processes. And we are higher and what I would say is that part of the reason we're higher is because we've strengthened those processes to where
050we may have said we were using certain assessments before, we were, but were we getting children to the table to engage in those assessments and we've seen a significant increase in the number of students who are eligible. As a part of continuous improvement, yes, we do have those eligibility assessments that we use. We um Tell me the NNAT. NNAT. The Naglieri is one of our assessments and in the last um year and a half, we added looking at our STAR Renaissance growth and academic standards as well. So we do have the ability to expand our view and then we serve the whole child. What I will say is that with the um dedicated personnel on every campus, and I don't want to put everything into that, but being able to have dedicated personnel on every
051campus to serve our gifted and talented students and to engage in consultation with teachers on every campus. We believe that we will be able to bring that to the table in our identification processes and ask, are we using comprehensively everything that we need to to identify students? Um so that wasn't a direct answer to your question other than to say we do we have added additional measures in the last um 2 and 1/2 years we have and by having dedicated personnel it allows us to come back to our identification methods and ask ourselves, are we identifying everybody that we need to and serving them in the way that we can? But every district uses their own um assessment instru- instruments, so we can expand it. We have to determine if that's what we decide we
052want to do in our district. Okay. Thank you. If they're If we're having these these breakout sessions with English language and I'm I'm kind of thinking of elementary school particularly, but these breakout sessions with English or math and that. And if there are students like the national math stars that was in like the the second or third to last uh slide and and they're not qualified as I don't know if all the national math stars are even qualified as gifted and talented or if that's just a you know separate statistic there, but if they if they are performing at high levels, are they ever invited to go to those classes even if they're not uh specified as gifted and talented students? Yeah, so right now in our current design um our campuses use what we
053call WIN time and so it within their master schedule one of the teachers on their team is who's most often providing the direct services. As we move into the 26-27 school year, not only will there be guaranteed time for direct gifted services, but our innovation specialists will also be providing services um and innovation and STEM experiences for all of the students on our campus. And so yes, everybody will have the opportunity to engage with those individuals as well as have um the classroom experiences. We do cluster for our GT students, but can do intentional placement in classrooms as we're planning our master uh schedules and rosters for students. Thank you. Anyone else? No additional questions? Thank you, Gabby. Thank you, Dr. Smith for your work on this. Okay, looks like I get to brag on
054the trustees next. Um moving on to item 5B, board training credit report. Goodyear school board members must complete training that is required by state board of education and the board president must publicly announce whether each board member has met their training requirements. There are eight training areas for board member continuing education. Number one, local district orientation. Number two, orientation to the Texas Education Code. Number three, post legislative update to the Texas Education Code. Number four, team building. Number five, additional continuing education. Number six, evaluating student academic performance and setting goals. Number seven, identifying and reporting abuse, trafficking, and other maltreatment of children. And number eight, school safety. I'm proud to announce that each board member has successfully completed their annual continuing education credits for the reporting period May 1, 2025 through April 30, 2026. A
055copy of the annual training report is included in the packet. Board, thank you for your continuous commitment to the communities and families within Belton ISD. Annual training, while important, is just one small part of the countless hours on campuses and in the community. So thank you to all of you guys. Uh That takes us to item 5C, board committee reports. Uh the first one is budget committee. Well, thank you. Yes, sir. So we uh in our budget committee we received uh the updated on the spring 2026 demographics um for the district, so uh showing relatively flat uh enrollment projected for the for the next year here. Uh so we'll so we incorporate those assumptions into the into the budget as we work through that. Uh we had a very high-level discussion on uh virtual school
056and some of the economics of of that and uh I know that it'll flesh out as as the administration works through it, but uh certainly an interesting interesting concept uh that could be a a net revenue generator for for the district. Um we discussed the revenue bond we probably did the reimbursement resolution uh about a year back, I guess, or less than a year back to uh to cover some of the athletic field improvements. Uh I think right now that we we're the direction is kind of holding, waiting and seeing. We do have another 18 months after the uh improvements are actually made to make the decision to whether to to finance that through the revenue bond or not, so it's not super urgent and where it's kind of where we are right now, so
057we'll uh we'll wait and see on that, but certainly will be something that we bring uh back to the board and then we uh certainly began the conversation on potential stadium naming rights as an additional revenue source to uh fund stadium upgrades. Thank you for that report. Anyone have any questions for Mr. Bozone? No? All right. Well, let's go down to the facilities committee and this it would be Jeff or Rucker. Jeff. Well, uh budget committee pretty much with 90% of what we just covered in our facilities committee as well. I'd like to thank admin for not making us sit through a what now long demographics presentation that I've sat through many years. So thank y'all for that. Um I think the only other thing that came across facilities and literally was the exact same
058meeting. I think that they just hit, you know, record play over. Um Talked about some of the things that are in the consent agenda here as far as improvements to one of the buildings, things that will be taking place, time frames, you know, some of the some of the issues that we're trying to figure out. Switch gear in Belton ISD not as easy as you'd think because when they pull it to change it, it's going to take four or five days, it's going to be four or five days with no power. And you know, I don't know if you've ever been up there during the summer. School's not empty during the summer. Um we talked about Christmas. Well, if we have a freeze, I think we don't want to live through that again uh with
059busted water pipes and no power. So just trying to work through how how we're going to have to keep How we're going to have to have our high school down for four or five days to switch it out. But beyond that, Rucker, did I leave anything else out? Sounds good. Okay. Are there any questions for for Jeff or Rucker? All right, let's let's go on to uh superintendent's report, Dr. Goins. Yes, thank you, board. I just want to hit some highlights since the last time we met. I'm going to kick this off. This image is from our recent Special Olympics track event that we held at Belton High School. These are our Belton students and survey um made delicious and seriously delicious lemonade and cookies and were able to set up shop and sell those
060goods for participants at the Special Olympics event, so it was just incredible to see them there um and showing off their talents and their hard work. So as we think about our vision for which now are after the action district for inspiring dreams and empowering futures, um we have a group talking about um inspiring dreams. They are at Worlds right now and the this is our robotics team and our Belton New Tech um robotics team. If you think about it, it's just a few years ago when we launched robotics in our school district and so this is the second year in a row that we've made it to Worlds. Um I said this before. I I always get excited. Where where is the Worlds competition going to take place and one day it would it
061is going to be, you know, Japan or Italy, but um we're in St. Louis. And so um much more economical and super excited. So they're they're as we speak and so we're anxiously awaiting the outcome of this competition and we're so proud of our students for making it to Worlds again. Also, you know, ensuring exceptional learning experiences for our students. Um tonight's um student recognitions gave you lots of examples of those. Um some additional ones just to highlight for you. Um we have students helping lead the way for inclusion across Texas and several of them have been selected to serve on the Special Olympics Texas Regional Youth Leadership Council. So not only are they here supporting our students, but they're also being recognized for their leadership across our state. We're super proud of them. Um
062as we recognize tonight our SkillsUSA students, so many have advanced to nationals, so that will take place in the 1st of June in Atlanta, Georgia and the image you see there is our construction trades um students and super excited. They won state again. Um they've won that many times and they have their eye on the national championship and um incredibly impressed with the build was really hard um at this year's state competition. Um no student group actually finished, but our students got further than any other student and they did an exceptional job and so we're incredibly proud of them. You you see history fair or national history fair students and again I mentioned this earlier in the in the meeting. I watched several of their documentaries. The one that I was talking about was one
063that was done on the Vietnam War. Our students also did one on the history of Sesame Street. It's fascinating. If you've not seen it, you have to see it. It was so well done. They invited me one Sunday to their watch party and and it was it blew me away. Our we have an incredible we have an incredible coaching staff in this district but you see us celebrating one of our amazing coaches for your 100th win. That's Lake Belton High School. We have advanced and won district and excited to see what our girls are able to accomplish as they continue on. As we I went too fast. Sorry. Let's There we go. So also part of the culture of this district is really valuing giving back to our community and then supporting our students no
064matter what department that you're in. And so a couple of things to highlight here. Some we have some pictures of staff and students from Leon Heights, Lake Belton, Lakewood, Belton High School all supporting Purple Up. There is y'all know we've had a significant increase in the military connected students in our district and with the leadership of Dr. Spearman and our campus principals we have upped our game in Belton ISD in supporting military connected students. We've added additional Purple Star designated campuses and and I am excited that we're going to we're not going to stop till 100% of our campuses are Purple Star designated. And then of course you got to recognize our amazing grounds team. This is a luncheon we had for them. They did amazing work in our ice storm. What it took to
065clear our sidewalks and our areas was incredible and it we certainly had great support from the cities but this group of men and women did an amazing job and thank y'all for celebrating them tonight. And then finally just wanted to highlight it's it's kindergarten roundup time. So May 4th we're doing a big kindergarten roundup thanks to Dr. Spearman and Denise Sharp and our campus principals. They've come together to really look at we can do a better job of communicating kindergarten registration and really being able to highlight the incredible kindergarten programs across our district. Our campus principals and their teams have created some really great marketing to really help people see what's really happening in kindergarten classes across this district. So really excited about the increased effort to get the word about the word out about
066high quality kindergarten experiences in Belton ISD. And that that is just image from Belton Educational Foundation's recent golf tournament. We have incredible volunteers that come together to raise money for teacher grants and student scholarships and we're heading into student scholarship season and so just wanted to thank these incredible leaders and the entire Belton Education Foundation board for everything they do behind the scenes on behalf of our teachers and students. Any questions for Dr. Golden? I I heard Michael Corilla ask you the other day when we were visiting Belton High School if you were going to Atlanta. Oh yes. Our students and they have been on a campaign to get me to Atlanta. And so I'm excited and yes I'm going to go see them compete. You are definitely everywhere. Okay, that would take us to
067item finding board highlights. Trustees if anyone wants to share any common highlights from the last month, anything? Rucker? I got to go to the end of year teacher recognitions for our teachers who had reached milestones and then those who are retiring. Always special time. The district wide tennis tournament was multiple days and exciting to see it was put on really really well here at Lake Belton High School. But the highlight for sure for me was the the crosswalk dedication for Leonard Harris at Leon Heights. It was really touching. It was really touching. Our kids have gone to that school and I got to share at that dedication that when my wife and I were looking for a house 18 years ago we were driving on Main Street and he was just smiling like he always
068and just loving the world. And Mr. Harris loves those kids so much and I think one of the the cooler things cuz the the whole presentation was about him but when it was over he turned around and there's a chain link fence separating him and the students who were there and all he wanted to do was talk to the kids. And that's just who he is and he's a special person and it's just really cool to see that lining up for him too. Thank you Rucker. Anyone else? Yeah. Okay. Didn't get to participate or I mean I'm not going to participate. Y'all don't want me to be me be me on a stage but I got to go to South Belton they put on a performance Annie Jr. And what I loved about it is
069the partnership that they had with Belton High School. So the middle school students got to participate on a bigger stage. They got to have the mics and and just really all that they just I think they felt legit if that's still a word that's being used. But just really proud of of those students over there. And it was really touching at the end the eighth grade students got to give their final bow as being in theater in middle school and it was very sweet. Lots of tears but just a really great performance. I think what's really unique about theater is the the directors always know who to put who in in what parts because the Annie the girl who played Annie was perfect. The person who played I mean every part was just so strategically
070perfect for those kids and and it was just a really great performance. Went to the PTO leadership meeting that was I think last week maybe the week before and I hadn't been able to go in in a few months and so it was really just neat to reconnect with some of those ladies and what they're they're coming together and learning. Melissa Lafferty was there really helping them learn about just the the do's and don'ts of fundraising and just you know that that financial that money transactions and so I think that was really impactful. I I even learned a lot and it was really great that there were some new schools that were represented as well and so that was really great. And then we were actually here. I stood right over there on Saturday night
071cuz there was no room and no chair available in this room on Saturday night or Saturday afternoon. Lake Belton Silver Spurs had their spring showcase and it was incredible. I mean not only did the high school dancers perform but the JV dancers but also the middle school teams got to come and perform too and there's just the talent is just it's just incredible. I'm just so blown away. But not just that the talent but what they're performing is is a result of what they're those dance teachers are teaching them and it's just I'm just blown away. If if y'all don't ever get to see a Silver Spur Silver Spurs it's kind of a tongue twister there or a Magic Dolls perform it's they are incredible y'all. Just really remarkable. So yeah, it's been a fun
072month. Thank you Erin. Anyone else? Well I uh Dr. Golden I went to visit a few campuses. Uh you had to bail out on me on the last one night, yeah. Wow. Yes sir, I did. Yeah. But I had a good visit here at Lake Belton High School. That's always fun to go and you know, approach some of the some of our staff and the ironic thing is that when I go thank them they thank us for being there which is uh it seemed like they're more appreciative than we are, you know, which is really nice. So it's good for us to get out to to see our staff and and tell them how much we appreciate them. And then Dr. Golden and I went to the the T. B. Harris Alumni Association banquet last
073evening which recognizes uh the African American students that graduate not only from from the Belton schools but also from Temple and Killeen. So that was that was a fun experience. Very was enjoyable, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah. Somewhat comical. Yeah. Yeah, that you were put on the spot a little bit but they I I just didn't know that I was speaking. But we did it and I think the students most importantly felt really supported. They got scholarships last night and so it was exciting to hear where each of the students plans to head after high school. It was a it was an honor. I think you were a bit surprised that they mentioned that they watched the Golden Moments. You're reaching out to all kinds of people. Right? Everywhere. Yeah. Okay. So that takes us to
074the consent agenda. Does anyone wish to pull anything off the consent agenda for discussion? I don't see anyone say anything so we'll move on to motion. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? Mr. Olson? I second. Mr. Rucker? Okay. Okay, uh all those in favor, please raise your hand. That motion passes 6 to 0. Any public comments on non-agenda items? Where's Becca? She's up there. Oh, she's not? Okay. Well, that takes us to um item eight on the agenda, closed session, Texas Government Code Chapter Subchapters D and E. The time is 7:35 p.m. and the board will now go into closed session for A, student disciplinary matter, Texas Government Code Section 551.082. B, personnel, Texas Government Code Section 551.074. B1, summative evaluation of the superintendent, and then item C, consultation
075with attorney, Texas Government Code Section 551.071. >> Mhm. >> Where are these? These are on the bottom. Dude, there were just There was one in the back with the amps. There was one in that drawer. Right? Just put them all in the Like there's a drawer in the rack back there. Just put them If they have questions, I can answer. I think he makes one of that microphone and a little speaker as well. Yeah, as well. And the front row speakers as well. I don't know if you need two. >> The time is 8:49 p.m. and the board will now reconvene in open session. All action items, reports, and consent items for this meeting have been addressed. There being no further business, this meeting is adjourned at 8:49 p.m.