001board of trustees meeting. Tonight's student showcase is all about energy, talent, and Tiger pride as we shine the spotlight on the Belton High School Magic Bells. The Magic Bells are more than a dance team. They're leaders and role models. Along with hours of practice, these students balance tough academics, volunteer in the community, and stay active in groups like JOTC, HOSA, Student Council, Astra, and FCA. This summer, they lit up the stage with the Crowdleasers Dance Camp in Dallas, Fort Worth, bringing home the Fan Favorite Award, High Platinum Ratings, and the Overall Technique Award. They're just getting started. With football season in full swing, the Bells are gearing up for spring competitions, including a history-making trip in Orlando in February as the first team from our area to ever compete in the Dallas Team Union Nationals.
002Led by Captain Payton McNeely and junior lieutenants Addison and McKenna Christopher and guided by their directors Rachel Hill and McKenna Ortega, the Magic Bells bring excellence, teamwork, and trailblazing spirit to everything they do. Please give a big round of applause for the Belton High School Magic Bells. [Applause] >> Are you ready? These boots are made and that's just what they'll do. One of these days these boots are going to walk away [Applause] like this. [Music] Like this. Let me bring [Music] out boys inside. [Music] Yeah, baby. Can't let this be on a list. When you look like this and you walk like that, skip the line, baby. Don't look back. Tonight we high class. You know, come on, baby. Let's go. Get down. Turn around. Go to town. Get down. Turn around. [Music] so much
003for that amazing performance. And now audience, if you will please hang on just a minute as the board transitions up to the dis and they will start the meeting shortly. Okay, just because I am disturbed by awkward silence, can we give these incredible ladies a hand? That is a great way to start a board meeting right there. And we have to start right on time at 6:15. So just give you a second to take a deep breath, congratulate the girls, our students, and we'll get started right at 6:15. >> Two minutes or less. [Music] Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us this evening and your interest in Belton ISD. I hope you enjoy the performance by the Belton High School Magic Bells. Let's give them another round of applause if you will. Great job,
004girls. Okay, the time is 6:15 and the Belton Independent School District Board of Trustees are now convened in a regular board meeting on Monday, September the 15, 2025 at the Pittinger Fine Arts Center located at 400 North Wall Street in Belton, Texas. A quorum of board members is present. 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 and 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 of the board of trustees is held in public. However, it is not
005a 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 livereamed 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 request that you please refrain from talking while others are speaking and that cell phones are on the silent mode. Please rise for a moment. Please rise for a moment for silent prayer or meditation. Please remain standing as our students from Lakewood Elementary lead us in the pledge of allegiance and honor to the Texas flag. I pledge algiance to the
006flag 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 pes honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas one state under God. One and indivisible. >> Please be seated. >> Let's give these kids a big round of applause if you will. The first item on tonight's agenda this evening is recognitions. We will turn it over to our communications team to lead us in that regard. Thank you so much. We would like to first of all recognize our incredible students who led us in pledges this evening from Lakewood Elementary. We have Adriana Durham and Killian Rush. Adriana is a first grader who loves recess, especially climbing on the monkey bars. And her friends say she
007is nice, kind, and respectful. And I agree. Adriana Kellian is a fifth grader who says PE is his favorite subject. He his friends describe him as kind, funny, smart, athletic, and is just a good person. And I agree with that as well. So, thank you to both so much for being here tonight. And thank you to their parents. Y'all did a great job. Now, we would like to recognize our magic bells from our showcase this evening. As we shared earlier, uh this summer they attended the crowd-pleasers dance camp in Dallas Fort Worth, earned a fan favorite award, high platinum ratings, and the overall technique award. And we have they are under the direction of Rachel Hill and McKenzie Ortega. And we have our captain Payton McNeely. Thank you so much for energizing our board meeting
008tonight. And now we would like to recognize our math stars. This is a first for Belton ISD. We are recognizing five Belton ISD elementary students who have been named Ma National Math Stars. There are only 2500 math stars nationwide and that represents about the top 2% two to 3% of second and third grade students who perform on aptitude test. From those 2500, 100 were chosen to be math star finalists. So tonight we want to recognize Elizabeth, Jilliana, Ayana from and and Ayanna from Lakewood, Roger from Burell and Rosalyn from Sparta. And we have two Ayana and Rosie who advanced even farther and are two of 100 students in the United States. Um there were 50 in Texas and they are two of those who have advanced and will are going to be part of a
00910-year initiative that provides up to $100,000 in support through academic advising, tutoring, technology, and enrichment opportunities for uh success in STEM fields. So again, this is the very first time Belton ISD has participated in this program. For us to have five that were recognized is amazing. And to have two finalists is absolutely incredible. So you guys are truly our shining stars and we could not be more proud of you. Congratulations. [Applause] Great job, guys. [Applause] Our department showcase tonight. Um, along with our theme that started with our magic bells, we want to recognize our fine arts department. Uh, there are over at the secondary level alone, we have we have nearly 44,500 students that are enrolled in fine arts programs in some variation. Uh we have over 80 fine arts teachers across the district and
010their passion and expertise truly help students discover their talents, develop new skills, and find joy in creative expression. And our magic bells were a perfect example of that tonight. So, thank you um for all that you do, Keith Zilki and Julie Utley uh supporting our fine arts programs. We're truly grateful to have you. [Applause] And in keeping with our theme tonight, we want to recognize two incredible partners in fine arts. Um we have Pivot Performing Arts and Lisa's Dance Connection. If y'all will both come forward. Uh Cara Jantic is the owner of Pivot Performing Arts and they have opened their studio to the Magic Bells for acro training and routine preparation for competitions. And we have Lisa's Dance Connection here as well. They have supported both the Magic Bells and the Silver Spurs with ballet
011technique through the years. Um we are truly excited to have you. Um, as a as a dance mom, um, I love dance and I love both of these places who helped shape my daughter as well through her time and we are just so grateful to have you as partners. Um, uh, we are truly better because of you. Thank you. [Applause] That's it. You know, it won't always work out this way in an evening where we can showcase the talents of our students and community partners that make that possible and amazing staff that make that possible. And tonight, we were able to do that. And so, can we give all of our staff, our incredible students, our math stars in the back? They need to wave. Yeah, they're there. Okay. Give all of them a round
012of applause. We're so proud of y'all. Okay, now that recognitions are completed, uh families and students, if you want to make an exit, you can unless you want to stay for our meeting. Does it break? Next on the agenda are public comments. In accordance with policy beed local, we will take public comments regarding items on the agenda at the beginning of the meeting and comments regarding non-aggenda items will be heard at the end of the meeting to allow the board to conduct the business of the district. Becca, do we have anyone who signed up? No public comments. Well, that takes us to item four on the agenda. Moving on to action items 4 a consider discuss and take appropriate action regarding resolution of candidate nominations for the tax appraisal district of Bell County Board of
013Directors. >> Do we have a I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> Go ahead. >> No, go ahead. >> You got it. >> Okay. Do we have a motion to adopt the resolution nominating Todd Scott to the Tax Appraisal District Board of Directors as presented? Mr. Norwood? Do you have a second, Mr. Preston? There being no discussion, all those in favor, please raise your hand. That passes 7 to zero. Moving on to item 4B. Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding resolution on Senate Bill 12 and parent rights. >> Yes. board. Thank you so much for your participation in our board workshop that took place earlier this evening um where Christine Parks, our communications officer, was able to go through some details on Senate Bill 12. Senate Bill 12 is a comprehensive piece of legislation passed in
014the last legislative session and it is all around um parents as partners and parents rights. And so Christine is here this evening to talk to you about a resolution we'd like you to consider. Thank you, Dr. Golden. Thank you, board, for the opportunity to bring this resolution to you this evening. Um, uh, during workshop, we presented a very broad overview of Senate Bill 12, which is a very comprehensive piece of legislation aimed at strengthening strengthening parental rights and the parental partnership in their child's uh, learning journey. Uh the resolution that we have shared with you and that we are bringing to you for consideration tonight is not required uh by the law or any other statute, but it does serve as a commitment from the district to provide parents with every opportunity outlined in Senate
015Bill 12. Uh Belton ISD believes in parents as valuable partners in their child's learning journey and the administrative recommendation would be to proactively acknowledge our commitment. Um as is true for many um uh the the school year following a legislative year. Um, many times bills are effective with a September 1st date, but components of bills require action from the Texas Education Agency as the rulemaking authority. So, we are in progress in working towards complying with all of the components of Senate Bill 12, but it will take some time as we are waiting for that guidance to unfold. So our recommendation would be again to demonstrate our commitment to complying um with all these aspects uh through the board resolution. >> Any questions for Miss Parks about the resolution? Of course, we had a lot of
016discussion at workshop. Chris, >> just a comment, right? I mean, we know and research shows, right, that when parents are involved, you get better you get better educational outcomes, right? And we've celebrated that, I think, for years. And so, um, you know, a lot of the things that are in Senate Bill 12 are actually things that we already have either already have implemented or already have a head start in implementing, right? Um, so I think it's very well intended. I think, you know, the devil is going to be in the details a little bit. Um, you know, as we're waiting for, um, you know, guidelines to come down from TEA. So, you know, for our parents out there, there there may be some iterative tweaks to some of what's going on, especi, you know, the
017the spirit of what's here and and continue doing the the great things that we're doing to include parents and and what's going on. So, um you know, I think this is this is great to re reconfirm reaffirm our, you know, commitment to uh to again the recognition that that parents make great outcomes. Okay. Uh, anyone else? >> All right, Miss Bass. >> Um, just to echo that the the sentiment of Chris, um, I I think this is a smart idea. Um, because you're right, this is a very comprehensive and it's separate September 15th and so I I think we have um I know we started on the parents as partners actually a few years ago. So, I do think we're ahead of the game in in many areas, but I think this is just I
018think this is a great idea. It's a smart idea and and I love that it's just it's showing our commitment that we're gonna we're gonna be in compliance with the law, but just give us a little bit of time because I'm sure we'll have questions as the details do emerge. So, I just appreciate this this um the strategy. >> You know, as I as I read read the resolution, it is a very comprehensive bill as Miss Bass indicated, but it it's also a great breakdown. It tracks the statute perfectly. Uh and it's just a reflection of the on uh all hands-on deck approach that this district takes to parents and as partners. Okay. So, uh there being no further comments, do we have a motion to adopt the resolution regarding Senate Bill 12 and parent
019rights as presented? Mr. Beck, we have Mr. Beck. All right. Number two, Miss Bass. All those in favor, please raise your hand. That passes 720 to zero. >> And just so that um board, you're aware and our public is aware on our district's website, if you go to the button called families, the very first thing that comes up is parents as partners. You can select that link and that's where you can find this information and much more regarding um all of the ways in which parents can get involved. And we support parents through our district. Well, that takes us to item five, reports, academic progress report, professional learning. Dr. Golden. >> Yes. So, Gabby Nino, our assistant superintendent for teaching and learning has come up to the podium. Um, we have an academic progress report
020um I think pretty much on every board agenda either in workshop or in report. Gabby is here today to talk specifically about professional learning. Um that is something that is exceptionally important in our district. Um we do a lot of listening sessions and receive feedback and want to do nothing but get better and better in this area. And so Gabby's here with a report this evening on our efforts. Okay. So yes, there is an academic progress report um every month on our agenda. But my intent really in this month's report is to illustrate and talk to you about how our professional learning is in service of our academic progress and how we've designed that professional learning um in order to improve student outcomes. So that'll be the focus of our report. One of the things
021that I'm most proud of um in the last really two years, but especially launching this school year, is that we have worked so hard to get to a place where we could say we have a system approach to professional learning because we believe that our learning can build the capacity of each and every adult learner in our system. And so as we've built a a framework for professional learning, um the foundations of that reside in ensuring that the learning is relevant and aligned. So relevant to each and every person who takes part in the learning and aligned to the role that they serve in the district and the student outcomes that they are working to impact. Um our professional learning is data informed and the primary driver of our um professional learning for our educators
022is student performance data. I'll show you um how we also use teacher feedback um to design our professional learning in a responsive way that's flexible um to ensure it's meeting their needs but but bas primarily driven by our student achievement data and our professional learning exists along a continuum of those that we serve within our district. So, it's important to think about um as we talk about each and every adult learner, the different access points. If you think about our adult learners as consumers of learning, the different ways that they have access within our system, and they really fall in three different areas that we might call continuum. There's districtwide learning experiences that our um educators take part in. um many of them have a name that uh the goal is to create an engaging
023experience and some of our naming um helps us with that. So we have spark that's available to all of our educators and that's our summer professional learning conference and the idea behind spark is that this is a place to spark new ideas um to spark new learning and new strategies for yourself as an educator. We also have district-wide required training um and learning. At the beginning of the school year, we have our ignite districtwide learning that every single teacher takes part in um and it's to ignite the school year around our shared purpose. And then um in the spring we have our recharge learning that the intent on recharge is to really in its name recharge us to finish the year strong around our shared purpose. So, those are experiences that um educators have access
024to districtwide. They also have small groups of learning that you've heard me talk about professional learning communities with teachers planning for the student learning experience. Anytime we have like groups of professionals that are engaged in learning, we would call that a professional learning community. And we have specific content cohorts that learn together, role alike learning. Um, we have a very robust robust early career support system in place now for all of our new to profession early career teachers. And what we've added this year is a learning cohort for our mentors rather than just assigning our um new to profession teachers a mentor. Christie has done a phenomenal job in building out a learning cohort for those mentors to help invest in them so that they can be a stronger support for the teachers that they
025are mentoring. And then of course an individualized opportunity to engage in learning. This comes in lots of different formats as well. Um we have a weekly learning series. Every Tuesday we have what's called fuel up. Um and this is really growing this year so people can continue fueling um their energy for learning. Um so those are choice sessions that are individualized. You may receive um specific coaching from an instructional coach on your campus that's individualized or even that mentorship from an assigned mentor um that is personalized just to you and your learning needs started with some of those foundations um specifically around relevance and aligned. On this slide I want to pull you all the way to the right with what our goal is in our professional learning. Our goal is that um we are
026ensuring that there's high quality curriculum embedded professional learning experiences um that emphasize data responsiveness and I'll give you a good example of that in just a minute that emphasizes professional learning communities those professionals that are coming together in service of students. We've got a strong emphasis on our new to profession um teachers and an emphasis on individual professional growth. I want to give an a specific example of data responsiveness so that we can pull a thread through these other experiences that I'll discuss. But I came to you in the spring and all throughout the summer really highlighting some of our successes but also some of our challenges and a continued um challenge that we've faced in um Belton ISD is seeing the level of growth that we want to see in the area of math
027across our system. So, our math data has informed the reality that across our system, every single elementary teacher is going through the foundational mathmies. We set a goal to have everyone trained by December. In the next two weeks, we'll be at 100%. 100% of our fourth and fifth grade teachers have already been trained in the foundational mathmies over the summer and to launch the school year. And within the next two weeks, 100% of our elementary teachers will be trained. So that's an example of shared learning for all for all of our elementary math teachers that is content specific and responsive to data. The the shared leadership um if I could replace that word, I'd say alignment. That's become our word of the year. Alignment. Alignment. Alignment. Professional learning cannot reside within Christy as the director
028of professional learning or within just a principal as the lead learner on their campus and leader of learning. We are aligning the learning outcomes in each of our different uh work groups whether it be principles, assistant principles, instructional coaches, our content coordinators and then in those teacher cohort groups as well. And so it's those alignment efforts that we're taking to ensure that we meet that goal. responsiveness. I talked to you a little bit about flexibility and agility. Um we have implemented some systems and quality control measures. Um and I say we we've been working towards them and really Christiey's done a great job of making sure um they're assured measures. We have quarterly interest surveys that have been launched so that we're getting um feedback from our teachers around needs and the strengths of professional
029learning that exist. We'll constantly be coming back to our student achievement data asking if we have learning in place to support our growth goals. Um, and after every single learning session, we have a consistent feedback survey that is conducted now that ask what's the content area, what's your grade level, your location, and did the learning meet your needs or not, and also suggestions for um things to continue, celebrations within that learning, as well as areas to improve. And then we also have a quarterly afteraction committee. Now oftentimes we've talked to you over time about a summer professional learning committee that came together or a spring committee. This is a standing group of stakeholders that represent many voices in our system that are coming together quarterly and will look at um continuous improvement data for us
030as a habit of practice. So just some data that tells us how we're doing so far. Last year, at this time in the school year, we had a 84% positive response rate. And the year before that, we had a 74% positive response rate to the learning that people um were experiencing. As of today, based on any professional learning that was offered over the summer in Spark, in our inspire new teacher academy, in our new teacher kickoff, in Ignite, and in our mentor training, we now have an 89.7 positive response rate from our participants that are telling us that the learning is meeting their needs. And I believe very strongly, it's because of intentional planning for relevance that is informed by the needs of our students. And it's all job embedded with um role specific learning.
031Let me go back to this really quick. Another really exciting thing for us, we focused very much on empowering leaders. We had over 80 sessions offered in our summer learning that is all choice. People don't have to come to that, but we really wanted to celebrate investment in yourselves as professionals. and we had over 80 sessions offered facilitated by over 50 um leaders of learning and many of those were teacher leaders in our system. And so we're excited to see our teachers stepping up to lead learning for each other as well. So here's what we're seeing beyond just the number of 89.7%. There's some successes in the design of highly engaging experiences. Um logistics is a success for us in Ignite. We've gotten lots of feedback around the challenges with logistics over time um that
032we've been working to be responsive to. And a lot of times logistics does mean location, but it also encompasses the environment that people are experiencing learning in. And then I just shared some of the data about the quantity of experiences that people had just access to over the summer. Some challenges that we um are continuing to address is processing time. you can go to phenomenal learning, but if you don't have time embedded to think, what does this mean for me? How do I apply this to my students? Um, we've got to work on allowing that and building that into the experiences that we have. And I'll be honest, we get it with principal leaders. You're giving me a lot. I need some time to process with my colleagues. We get it from teacher leaders. We
033get it from all of our work groups. So, that's something that we're working to address. While logistics were a success for Ignite and Spark, we had a challenge with our logistics. And one of the challenges that we face is that we don't have large group spaces for professional learning. And so what happens is we end up being dispersed all over our district instead of in a concentrated location. And we're seeing in that feedback um that that that is a challenge for us and providing quality experiences for large groups of individuals. And then I'm just going to highlight a couple of recommendations. Uh continuation on the intentional design of learning related um to student needs. So you can see that highlighted in recommendations. Um ensuring that there is high quality engagement strategies embedded. Um and again
034that spark challenge create the feel of a learning conference of us for us. when you're thinking about how you're designing even just the experience logistically or environmentally. So up here, these quotes, I won't read them all to you, but they're just a few of the comments that we've gotten back um from our participants around the new intentional design is really working for me. Um the mentor training that I had has been the strongest I've ever needed. It's helping me be a better support for the teachers that I'm supporting. Um, and then there's another comment around the intentionality in the the connection to student needs related to continuous improvement. I've highlighted these throughout the presentation, but this is specifically called out because I want you to know um, we believe so much in continuous improvement and
035really valuing and supporting each professional in our system to grow as an individual. And these are some of the continuous improvement um practices that will be a habit for us not just by happen stance. That quarterly group um that I shared with you around afteraction um will be a system practice for us um as a design team. We are working to make sure that we have clearly articulated long-term goals but also short-term goals. And an example of the short-term goal would be the mathmies that I shared with you that we have an aggressive um learning targeted focus that will have a positive impact in the long term for us as well. Um, and then we will, something that's super important to us is that we're using our professional learning needs also to inform our academic
036calendar so that we give that processing opportunity throughout the year to our staff so that we can continue maintaining the progress towards our goals. Um, and so those are some of the the guaranteed steps that we'll have in place related to continuous improvement. And with that, I want to answer any questions or discussion that you have about how our professional learning supports our academic progress. Gabby, I'll first say that's that's enormous growth from 74 to 84 to 90% rounding up uh to 90%. That's incredible. Um so great job. I wanted to ask I see high engagement listed in several places here. What's an example of high engagement in these sessions? Um so the thread today is mathmies and that does not imply at all that that's the only professional learning that we've had. Um but
037we used a structure that the state has put forth, right? But our um our instructional coaches, our curriculum coordinators and our curriculum documents and resources were present for that learning. And so I'm not just engaging with content that I'm learning, but I'm engaging with the resources, the materials, the instructional timelines that I have and interacting with my colleagues around how I bring this material to life. So um having the right resources in place to support the learning allows you to engage differently. And then those those role alike groups, I was together with third grade teachers, I was together with first grade teachers in a specific content. Those are strategies that we use to engage people. Great. Um, one more. How does how do you see the role of mentors playing in this in the professional
038learning as well? >> That's a big one. We could do a whole um session just on that. So the reality that like I'll go back to my my first years as a as a teacher and there's several of you um on board who had that experience or in your profession there's a first year and all of us come to our profession having studied feeling like we're equipped and there's some degree of do I want to own that I'm having a challenge with this or not and a mentor is somebody that's there just in time right in time to help you work through some of the day-to-day challenge challenges and help you see around corners. Um, one of the the things that I love about what Christy has done with mentors this year has built out
039a year at a glance based on what we know and research these cycles that people go through when they experience something new. You've heard us talk about the um October slump that educators have. So, she's been working alongside mentors to plan for prior to October, how do I support a teacher with what they're about to face? And they have a calendar of these mile markers throughout the year um that demonstrate how we'll support teachers through that time. Um if you're interested in learning more about that, Christie has actually placed that on our professional learning website. So you can go into a link on our mentors and you can see what their year at a glance looks like with a plan for how they'll support teachers throughout the year. >> Chris, >> um this is interesting.
040I don't know what this says about my social media feed, right? But I I see lots of stuff sort of nationwide about criticisms of professional development and PLC's and all that kind of stuff, right? >> Um I I don't see that here. Right. So what I see here um and like the data doesn't show that that's a problem here, right? Um what it shows is that we are using our academic data to target what we need to do, right? From a training standpoint, um it shows that we're listening to our feedback in the um in the uh response ratings uh that have just gone up over the last three years. Um, I mean it it shows that we are being very intentional around not sending people to training that they don't need to go to
041or or not sending people to training that they're getting for the second or third time. Right? It it shows that we're trying to really make sure that we are elevating and recognizing the fact that teaching is both an art and a science and you don't graduate from school as like a master teacher on day one, right? Like you don't do that. And um and so you know it's the investment that we're making in the learning for our teachers pays off 20fold 30fold 150fold however many kids they're seeing you know o over a year. Um, I think it's so important for us to continue the investment from a as a as a board perspective, right? As we look forward into the future because again, like this is what helps our our teachers hone their craft, right?
042Hone the art piece of it, understand the science piece of it, understand like how to adapt to the science. Like I'm I mean, next to teaching our kids and keeping them safe, right? I mean, make helping our teachers elevate, right? I mean, should be the should be the next thing there. And so, I'm just I'm so excited to hear about what's going on. Um, it sounds like we're going down an awesome path. Um, you know, my only question is, is there anything that you need more from us? Like, how how can we better support what's going on? Do you need anything, you know, differently from us to to make sure that this continues? I would love as we work towards more clarity um in what our professional learning structures are for you guys to take
043part and I'll I can um make sure that I'm communicating those experiences but come and see and be present um understand a little bit more what we mean when we say we're designing engaging experiences for adults as well would love to see you there I also want to address your comments there there there are gaps that show up in our professional learning so I am very proud of the growth but you gave an example of I've been through this before. We've had um teachers even as much as this fall who participated in something in the summer and then they felt like it was repeated in the fall. So there are nuggets when we're coming back to this constantly that we're going to keep getting better on. Um but so ask the questions when you hear
044things like engage, but I would love for you guys to take part as well. I I would just add so there are standards for adult learning just like there are best practice and standards for educating children. And so I am really proud that one getting our own teachers in front of teachers leading some of our professional learning was one of the areas that they were asking for. And Christie and Gabby and team have worked to really identify um teachers who have um exemplary practices and want to be able to share um in areas of need within professional learning. So I'm incredibly proud of that and also a commitment to implementing those standards for adult learning. None of us want to sit while we're sitting and getting right here. Um uh we've we've asked Abby to
045do that. We know that a child doesn't want to sit and get for hours at a time and neither do our staff. And so we're constantly working to ensure that what we're delivering that it also the process of delivery is aligned to best practice. And to Gabby's point, sometimes we get it really on target. And but the good thing is we're asking every single time, getting feedback so that if we don't hit the mark, we can get better and better. And so I appreciate the continuous improvement lens through which we're approaching our professional learning. >> Anyone else? >> Thank you, Gabby. That takes us to item 5B, board committee reports. We've got budget, facilities, and policy. >> So, first will be the budget committee. That would be Chris and Brandon. So, I guess when you
046guys can give us a quick >> So, we met on the ETH and I mean, let's be honest, a lot of the heavy lifting was done over the last month or two, right? Uh, and so we came back together on the ETH and um what we took a look at was um what we think is going to be the the final projection for the fiscal year. Um and so you know I think that'll come to us uh next time, right? Yeah. >> Yeah. >> October. >> Um we then started to take a look forward into 2627. Oh maybe maybe. >> Okay. Um we started to take to take a look forward into 2627 and what that what that budget looks like. There's a whole lot that we don't know, right? And so um you know
047and so we're making some guesses and making some assumptions, right? We know, you know, based on, you know, this legislative session and how things shake out, there's still a lot we don't know about special ed and how that's actually going to come in. Um, it looks like we, you know, just based on how everything plays out. Um, you know, we would expect that we might be also a million dollars shorter uh on the back half of the bianium. And so, um, you know, it doesn't look as good in 2627 as the the budget that we just passed um last session. And so we did do a little bit of brainstorming around um assumptions and ideas to potentially move the needle um in 2627. So we got to get I think we're we're starting to try
048to move the goalpost out a little bit where we're looking right and and to to be looking several years out into the future um with the with the best information that we have at the time. So um Brandon, we missed anything? >> No. All right. Good. >> So nothing on special. That's that's still way out. >> Yeah, man. I >> Yeah. to the end of the year. >> Oh, wow. Okay. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thank you, Chris. All right. Moving on to facilities. That would be Yeah, we met on the 10th. Uh really only three main things in our meeting. Um went over the opening of the Delta facility and some of the challenges that we've had there. You open any new building of its size. There were things they had a sewage problem
049uh that arose getting taken care of. Still working on the kitchen. So there's the ins and outs of opening a new facility and I think we're hoping that we have that closed or closed out completely done. We have a temporary occup temporary certification >> of occupancy. It's good for 30 days. If we need another one, then we can get another one from the city before we get the the final one. Um discuss some real property that's out there that we've been talking about as a board. And then the only other thing that probably of interest to the board was, you know, closing out the some of these 22 bond projects that we had and, you know, I don't know how much of the board knows this, but in all these major projects that we do,
050we have an audit system that goes through. And so at the end of any big construction project, you know, you have change orders, you have everything that was done. And I mean, it's it's a lot. And the bigger the project, the more change orders. That's just the nature of commercial construction. You know, you have overruns, but you also have savings. And you know, this board, this school district years ago, I believe actually starting maybe with the in the 19, we decided to have an outside auditor come in. And what they do is they go ahead and take everything. All the billings have to come from the contractors at the end. We have what was supposed to be spent over here and it's their job to consolidate all that and to find out, okay, yes, we
051approve this, no, we do not approve this. Because as change orders are done, people have to sign off on them along the way. These are big projects. these companies have nobody's trying to get away with anything. There's just a lot going on and it we have to know manh hours. We have to know all this. So, us closing out these bond projects is a little bit longer than some districts. And you be like, why? That's the reason. There's a lot of districts that don't do this. But, you know, we've seen upwards, you know, 1 2 3 million in discrepancies over the years that, you know, it's nobody's fault. It was just, hey, you said you were going to order this much material, but it looks on this billing like we only ordered this much. you
052were charging us for this much. It's going back and doing it takes some time. So that was really the only other thing. The main part was Delta and then closing out those audit projects. I think contractors have their numbers, our audit. So now they're starting the reconciliation process. Should be done with that in the next 30 days. >> Rucker, anything else? >> Nothing else. Rucker. Okay. Thank you guys. Okay, that takes us to policy committee. I'm sure you guys have been quite busy. >> Yeah, get even busier. >> Riley and Aaron. Yes. Turn this on. Um yeah, we had even though we had about four items on our um agenda on the third, we could have easily gone for more than our designated hour. But uh first was the policy update 125, which is in
053your board packet. Um EIO was just literally just a very short word change to show just clarity and to reflect current practice. I mean, it went from combined grade to average of. So very minor change there. Um, also in 125 was FTE local, which is on admissions and school safety transfers. There was there was an added criminal offense to the list of data collection. Um, they added bullying, but it's a very specific Texas education code bullying and and I would if you want to look that up, um, it's in the end the back of your consent agenda. And so I thought that was very interesting. Um, there's certain parts to to being able to add this to the bullying. There were certain parts to it. So, um, that was a very specific one that was
054added in there. Then we talked about Senate Bill 12 and the parental rights. We, that was a big chunk of time, which I won't go over any of that because we just did that in workshop. Uh, and we talked about that resolution, um, in in that meeting. And so, um, appreciated, uh, just getting a lot of heads up on that. We've kind of had a little bit of time to digest some of this before you guys. Uh, we also talked about Senate Bill 10, and I thought it was great. A good way to remember Senate Bill 10 is that it has to do with the Ten Commandments um in which um we can we have to have those displayed in a certain area, a certain size if they're donated. And so there's some logistics and
055specific guidelines. Uh and so we'll learn more about that as as those are donated. Um and just the process of how that that's going to happen. Uh and then the last one we talked about was the student code of conduct. Again, it Dr. Spearman, their team had to go through the the student code of conduct with a fine tooth comb to make sure it reflected all of the legislative changes that had to be reflected in there. And so I that was a big big big chunk of time. Um so super thankful for them and I know there was a lot of changes uh with House Bill 6 which which is on the behavior. Correct. Yes. I'm getting some hot head nods and other um legislative pieces, but big big changes in student co. I know
056there was one about um um every campus has to have a CBC and y'all remind me of that. It it's someone who has that's specifically over behavior and that is their single role. And so that's kind of a big change for us. Um, but just just really want to just take this time while I while my mic is on to just say how incredibly thankful I am for our district leadership. I mean, they have had to work so fast with everything that's being that's coming from Austin, but also at the same time working very thoughtful um about how we're going to implement this and how it's going to play out. And so, just incredibly thankful for the work um that they're doing to make sure that we we are compliant with the law. um but
057also doing it little bits at a time so we're not just completely overwhelming our staff. And so just really thankful for them and even walking alongside us so that we're understanding this as well. Um but just appreciate all of you guys um and the work that you're doing. >> Thank you, Erin. Riley, anything to add to that? >> Okay. Well, the legislature was busy this summer, were they not? Oh, to say the least. Okay. Um, Dr. Golden, your turn. >> All right. >> Thank you, board. >> So, a couple things I'd like to highlight since the last time we were together for a board meeting. Um, in this picture, you see some very happy Charter Oak cheetahs. So, I'm incredibly proud of um our Charter Oak team. So when we look at the vision of
058empowering each and every to pursue dreams and enrich their communities, this image is representing a lot of ideas and hard work to create um what is called the grove and that is where they took the idea of um a space in the back of the school and worked with their PTA, worked with teachers, worked with their students and have created an incredible space for our students to grow vegetables, to be able to grow herbs, and this was studentled in so many ways, and I'm incredibly proud of them. They had their ribbon cutting ceremony, and that's what this picture is from. And so just appreciate their focus on healthy food, getting their students really involved in um creating gardens and am also incredibly proud of how intentional they were to ensure that each and every learner
059could access that garden no matter um their abilities and special needs so that each and every student in that school could enjoy that and participate. So I'm incredibly proud of their work. also have had lots of opportunities to get into classrooms and get into schools across our district. I'm incredibly inspired. I had the opportunity to speak at the Care Leadership Network event last uh Sunday evening and um had the opportunity to tell them I wish they could see what I get to see every week when I go into schools. So on the far left side, these are students and they are they are painting their school with kindness and so they were there putting up incredibly positive um comments. This is going to change every month but it they are working as part of the
060team to create a culture of kindness and that's it that's um a chism trail and then in the middle you see an incredible classroom. That is a classroom where I got to watch a teacher doing an incredible lesson. She was getting them hooked and talking about sentence structure and sentence fragments and her you can't see it. Her learning targets were so aligned to the curriculum. So on target her students were focused and getting ready to do some great writing. And on the right hand side I'm incredibly proud of Lakewood Elementary School. They are very very intentionally and strategically designing their enrichment time and their um intervention time. And so I had the opportunity to go into one of those sessions and the students absolutely could tell me what they were doing, why they were doing
061it, and they were all engaged. And so just a great picture of also the engagement of our teachers in right there meeting the our students needs. She was jumping from table to table. Um and each table I asked the students, "Does every table work on the same thing?" And they were like, "Absolutely not. We don't all need the same thing." and I thought that was brilliant. So, I'm super proud of them and super proud of their teachers and as well as incredible academic experiences. These are just some snapshots from um our Patriot Day and and different campuses really recognizing um our first responders. And so, some of these pictures are from Purle, Burell, and Hubard. And I had the awesome opportunity to go into Purle and the teacher in one of our art classes said,
062"Would you like to tell Dr. Golden what you're doing?" Um, they were not shy and I had multiple students grabbing my hands and dragging me into the classroom and they wanted to make sure I saw what part of the project they worked on, but more importantly, they talked to me about why. And it was an incredible flag that they had created. It was the length of multiple tables. um and just their words of affirmation for our first responders and they wanted to show me the specific word that they worked on and what that word meant and why it was so important to them. And so I'm incredibly proud of our students, particularly proud of our teachers for creating the conditions in which when I think about enriching their communities, when we want our students to
063give back to their communities, part of how they learn that is they get experiences during the school day at their schools of why it's so important to give back to those that give so much for us. And so just in closing, super excited open house for Delta information coming on that. It's in October, so we're going to be really excited to have you in the Delta Learning Space. I've been in there multiple times since school started. The staff's incredibly thankful for this community for investing in that space for our students and they're doing great things in Delta and I can't wait for you to see it. >> Thank you, Dr. Golden. Well, that takes us to item 5D, board highlights. Of course, this is our opportunity to talk about some of the things that we've
064attended, any um events, that kind of thing. So, anyone want to take the lead on that? Of course, we just had our conference, so we've got some things to share about that, I'm sure. Anyone want to take the lead on it, Chris? >> I got volunte. >> All right, there we go. That's that's the theme. Um, yeah, we'll start out with another case where I was volunte. Uh, so there may have been a Bronco community pep rally. Um, and uh it's possible I may have participated in the danceoff uh at uh the 50ard line. Uh if you were there and didn't know it, uh I was the banana. Uh so you'll just have to figure >> whatever. Uh I was that >> Yeah, my my agents got a little talking to after that one. >>
065Chris the banana. Um, now I also uh got an opportunity to go visit a new uh new new tech uh tennis match. Uh, and so I went over to UMHB and was able to catch them uh prior to coming to a meeting that we had. I gave them all pep talks and their warm-up courts. Uh, let them know to uh show Cameron what uh playing the Dragons is all about and got them all fired up. So that was good. Um, uh, let's see. I've been doing the band thing. Uh, so a couple road trips under the belt since we last met. been doing a lot of prop building um there and then certainly the conference. Um does somebody want to go into the conference or you want me to? No. All right. All right. So
066conference-wise um you know day one of the conference we all hit um got a lot of our required trainings um taken care of. So, um, we did some identifying and reporting child child abuse training, um, you know, updates to the grievance policy, um, updates to the Open Meetings Act, um, and then we we could have a little bit more leeway in the next two days. And so I learned a little bit about the, uh, My Texas Future, uh, website and, um, and what the new requirement in 2627 is going to be uh, for students to be opting into the My Texas Future website. So, I got a little bit of research to do to to understand that. Um, a couple of us were in a actually I think Aaron and I were in a session
067on developing clear and uh compliant operational procedures. So, that was a that was an interesting one actually. I thought that was going to be a snoozer, but uh I thought that one was pretty good. Um I went to a session around uh how do you create your teacher pipeline and how can you take uh folks that are already in your system potentially as paraprofessionals uh as an example and kind of work them through particularly a program uh that's called teachworthy. Uh I didn't realize at the time that we were already participating in Teachorthy. So I learned a little bit about uh a little bit about that and so I may have some qu some follow-up questions coming. Um, we had a an amazing legislative update. Uh, I've got two pages of written three pages of
068written notes on the legislative update. Uh, there was a lot. Um, so this is going to be fun for the for the policy committee. Um, >> uh, hit a session on uh more around retention, right? So questions that we as a board could or should be asking uh around uh retention. um and then went to an awesome session with uh Dr. Golden around um a guide to developmentally aligned artificial intelligence. >> And so yeah, that was a good session like that was maybe the one session like when it ended we're like what is done already? Like c can we talk more? >> Um and so there I think we we took several things out of there. Um, and then we presented on our leadership pipeline uh and what we're doing for our uh principles and
069and APS and and all that stuff. So, a lot going on. >> Yeah, you guys did a good job. >> Anyone else? >> Okay. >> Um, like Chris, got to go to the conference with the rest of us. A lot of training. I think you covered that pretty well. Uh, been to a few football games. Haven't been to a varsity game just yet. Uh, but I'm planning to go this week and been to a few a lot of varsity tennis matches. Got to see Belton versus Lake play and Belton beat Lake for the first time in their history, I believe. So, it was a it was a it was a good match. It was cool. Yeah. On tennis >> and uh it was just cool to see a lot of the parents on both sides
070there. It was really good atmosphere and environment. Um just excellent camaraderie on both both teams and coaches. Uh, I got to go to Charter Oak for the grow, the ribbon cutting for the garden, and that was just everything you said, Dr. Golden, just a great example of our community pouring into our schools, whether it's parents, whether it's teachers and the kids being a part of it. And then, uh, getting to see the kids plant afterwards and get their hands all dirty was was really great. Um, and then I got to go to the Belton City Council for our youth for Belton High School's youth advisory commission swearing in on Tuesday. I know we have that in Temple as well. Um, I guess they get sworn in Temple City Council soon, but that was really great
071to see that, too. >> Thank you, Rucker. Anyone else? >> Um, I need more processing time on from the conference. So, um, truly I do. Um, I I did take pretty extensive notes, but I need to go back through them. um because there were there are some great things that I think just have really even prompted some questions that I have um that maybe we we really are doing a lot of these these things. But um yeah, no, I I do want to have some followup on on um from what what I learned because I enjoy it. I always I mean the teacher and me I I thoroughly enjoy the conferences um because it's just it's either it's either encouraging that wow we're we're really we're rocking and rolling we're doing great things or wow
072that's something maybe we've not thought about we could even even use that or like us sharing our knowledge we're helping other districts um get better in what they're doing. So just love that we get to do that. Um appreciate that the district um just does allows us to go. Um, I do want to just kind of a shout out that the the last slide of Dr. Golden's um her remarks. There was the picture of the cheerleaders and it just and of course my daughter was kind of front and center, very cute. Um, but just just a a highlight of I'm so proud of our high school groups, whether that's the cheerleaders, the Magic Bells, the football, the band. They always they do the summer camps, but then they invite the kids that our elementary or
073our middle school kids to come participate on a Friday night lights or get to sit up with the band. And so I'm just I'm proud of our high schools for not forgetting about our elementary middle schools and just including them in different ways throughout the year. And so just just a shout out to them. >> Thank you, Erin. Anyone else? Uh just again the the conference was great and since nobody else uh already took the lowhanging fruit I want to highlight uh Dr. Golden and Chris did an amazing job um presenting in uh in the session that Belton ISD led about uh developing our leadership pipeline. So u way to go >> um there were some things that I went to I know I know Chris and I were well I was in the AI
074so I was just sitting at the table with with Dr. Dr. Golan and Chris and listening to Dr. Golden and Chris and some other guy. I don't know who that guy was. >> I don't know. Jeff. >> Yeah, Jeff. Yeah. Somebody named Not Jeff Norwood. Another Jeff. Uh so I just sitting there listening to you guys and just uh thinking, "Wow, this is this is pretty cool. This is really going to it's like having a maybe five or 10 tutors in the in the classroom with the teacher, right?" So, um, one of the interesting things it was, I think Brandon and Riley and I went to the talk on separation of church and state, you know, the religion and schools. And, um, I guess we're going to find out at some point with with the
075fifth circuit, Holly. I think there's a case at the fifth circuit, right? That's maybe at some point may go to the Supremes, right? So, um, that was an interesting talk. All right. And that's one of those that went by very quickly as well. So interesting to see what the courts are going to do with that because I know it's going to impact a lot of folks. Okay. Um well that takes us to the consent agenda. Would anyone like to pull something from the consent agenda for discussion? Riley, >> I would like to pull J uh class waivers. >> So you would like to pull six J class size waivers. >> Correct. All right. >> Can we look at the slides on those so that we have an idea of what I'm talking about? >> Yeah.
076Can Can we uh Riley, I think what we'll do is let's go ahead and and take a motion on the rest. We'll pull that out. >> Okay. So, we'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented absent 6J. So, I have a motion on that, Mr. Norwood. Second, Mr. Beck. Okay. So, we're voting on items all in six through uh let's see A through N except for J. Uh so, if you would please vote on that. That passes 7 to zero. Now, we'll take up 6J and have a discussion on that. Go ahead. while they're while they're pulling up those slides. Um I I think the slides show a lot. That's kind of what I want to speak to them. >> It's on page 115. I don't know if that helps, but >>
077page 115. >> Mhm. >> Okay. >> Well, yeah, 115 116. Um, so while he's pulling that up, the the class- size waivers, particularly the schools that we're talking about, um, High Point, Chism Trail, and Hubard Branch. So, that's the the first concern I have. Um, those are schools that are I don't I guess we could say right on the precipice or I don't I don't they all in the TEA ratings uh from last year. uh had a D. And so particularly particularly those schools I'm concerned about uh that are the ones that we h are have the are requesting the waiver size for or the waiver for and then I'm even more concerned about Hoverard Branch because so there's a total of nine in the whole district. So one coming from High Point. There we
078go. Thank you. Right there on that slide. So, one coming from High Point, two coming from Chism Trail, both in the fourth grade from Chism Trail. And then and then at Hoverard Branch, it's two in second grade, two in third grade, and two in fourth grade. Um I think I think it's implied that uh if we have to actually pass a waiver that classes class sizes larger than this are definitely not recommended. Um, and so I'm concerned about that and and would like to hear more and and of how we've come to this point and yeah, I guess can we can we have some explanation of how we've gotten here? >> Absolutely. Um, so Todd Schiller, our assistant superintendent for human resources, is going to come up and talk about um the waiver process board.
079It is not our desire to come with a waiver. Um, anytime we have a class that goes over the recommended number, um, we have positions that are posted and it means we are working to fill those positions. Um, we are always are not able to fill a position prior to a time limit in which we need to bring a waiver forward. Um, we still have every intent of looking for highquality teachers at these schools and those positions are currently posted, but Todd can add some detail to the waiver process. >> So, what I'll add to that is with the spring demographer report that we get in March, April time frame, from that point forward, um, we asked them to kind of we asked them to break down class um, enrollment numbers, projected enrollment numbers by
080class, um, for each campus. And so we start monitoring that in that March April time frame from that from that spring demographer report and then we look at that periodically through enrollment that we're seeing enroll applications submitted for enrollment um throughout the summer months and then start really watching that. I can tell you that the the impact of these specific classes the the enrollments higher um than what than what those initial projections were for those specific classes. And so, um, we realized that towards the first day of school, um, and then started looking at, um, possibilities, um, as, as Dr. Golden stated, we have positions open right now for that, but finding a certified qualified individual to fill that role, um, is a little difficult this time of year. And so, in the interim, while
081we're still searching for that, um, we've appointed a couple of aids for Hubard Branch to kind of help out with those class sizes. Anyone have any questions for Mer? Go ahead. >> Um, so our teacher contracts are not specified to a school until they're renewed that year, right? So, how so how could is there anything that could be done in the interim regarding teachers or or transferring or anything like that or instructional coaches in the interim for a school like this that's that's struggling. I I mean and I do and I'm glad there that we're having the two what what are prayer professionals. What are they >> educational aids prayer professionals? >> Okay. I'm glad there's at least those that are going to be there particularly for Hoverard Branch, but um I guess I and
082I guess it's not for this meeting to decide, you know, what we could do, but that is this is a big concern to me. Um and that's why I pulled it. I um let me think see if there's anything. Well, someone else is going to say something then I might have one more. >> Todd, do you know like how many students are in these classes like in general? Like is this a waiver to go from 22 to 23? Are we going to like is is it 25? Like you know where >> these are these are class size waivers of 23 all with the exception of one of them which would be a waiver of 24. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I mean I I understand the concern. Um I actually think bringing the aids in is
083a really positive thing to do. So thank you for bringing the aids in. I have a concern about actually taking these classes and parting them out, right? I mean, there aren't enough students to actually create a another section, it sounded it sounds like. Um, and if we were to look at potentially like moving other people around, we're now talking about disrupting many classes worth of of kids who have already started school. Um, and so if we're truly talking about a class of 23 is is do we do more harm than good, right? I mean, we have to look at we, you know, if we're going to get the aid in there and we're going to support the kids in that classroom, right? We've now got two two bodies in that classroom who are really, you
084know, making to, you know, trying to make sure that we we are doing the right thing in those classrooms versus, you know, pulling folks from other places. we're now impacting two, three, four classrooms for the kids, which which doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense from my perspective. So, um I mean, thank you for for taking the step to bring the aids in. I I think that's a great step. >> Todd, can you speak to um the process for making these determinations because I think it's important board that you know Todd does not make this by himself in his office and so can you talk about the work that you do with campuses when we're in these cir circumstances? Absolutely. We we visit with each campus principal. We talk about potentially the possibility
085of class leveling if there's room there. Um and we talk about the the teachers that they're with. Does it make the most sense for those students to be in those in the with those specific teachers. Um and then um we also talk about um we talk about as a as a cabinet. We look at these numbers all throughout that enrollment process as well from from starting from the April time frame all the way through weekly almost um through the first few weeks of school. >> Could you explain what the waiver means? Does this mean we're waving it for the year? Like >> Yeah. >> So enrollment is going to change throughout the year. We do know that. But as we stated earlier, like we are, you know, we've got positions posted. We're trying to we're
086trying to fill with the qualified individual. So obviously if we were able to find an individual for that classroom that's a fit, those class sizes could potentially come down, adding that additional section. >> And sometimes also what happens is you'll have a student move out. >> That's right. And so while one student pushed a class into a waiver by one student, sometimes they have a student move out and then that class goes back down. But we monitor that um throughout the year to really pay attention to our class sizes. Todd monitors it very closely and then brings those to cabinet for us to take a look at after he's had a conversation and worked with the campus. Right, >> Rod? Anything else? Okay. Thank you, Todd. Okay. Um, let's go back to item 6J. Do
087I have a motion to approve item 6J, class- size waivers? Mr. Norwood, give me a moment. I need to make a note of that. Do I have a second, Mr. Preston? All those in favor, please raise your hand. That passes 6 to one with Mr. Beck being opposed, right? Is that correct? >> Just so you guys know, I'm being more specific now because of our minutes, we have to make sure that we get the votes correct on the record. Okay, that takes us to public comments regarding non-aggenda items. Becca, anyone signed up? No one is signed up. Okay, the time is 7:28 p.m. And the board will now go into close session for 8A, Student Disciplinary Matter, Texas Government Code Section 551.082. 8B personnel Texas government code section 551.074 regarding personnel matters and formative evaluation
088of superintendent and then finally um 8 C consultation with attorney text government code section 551.071 071. One. Okay, the time is 8:34 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 8:34 p.m.