001Thank you for joining us this evening and your interest in Belton ISD. Our showcase this evening is Tiger Media. Just ahead of tonight's meeting, we had the opportunity to hear from students in the program and tour their new space. Let's give them a big round of applause if you [Applause] would. And thank you, Bella, if you're in here for that for that tour. All right, the time is now 6:20 p.m. and the Beltman Indent School District Board of Trustees are now convened in a regular board meeting on Monday, April the 21st, 2025 at the Belton High School Performing Arts Center, 600 Lake Road, 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 Texas Open Meetings Act Government Code
002Chapter 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, personal appointments, and make policy for the district. This is a meeting of the board of trustees 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 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
003proceedings, I respectfully request that you please refrain from talking while others are speaking and that cell phones are in the silent mode. Please rise if you would for a moment of silent prayer or meditation. If you would please remain standing as our students from High Point Elementary lead us in the pledges 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 flag. I pledge algiance to the one state under God one and indivisible. Please be seated. Let's give these kids a big round of applause if you would. The first item on tonight's agenda is recognitions. We'll turn it over to our communications department
004to lead us in that regard. You will join us please down front. Come stand next to me. Hang on. Good evening. Uh this evening we had the pleasure of having two students from Sparta Elementary with us for the pledge. Second graders Hadley Parsons and Landry Smith. Hadley's favorite subject is science. as from as her friends. She is known as a great friend. She is very kind, respectful, responsible, and especially gifted in arts and crafts. Landre's favorite subject is recess, but he also likes to read, and his friends uh say he's very nice, super fast, brave, and a great friend, and looks especially handsome in his new glasses, which I think you will all agree. So, thank you both so much tonight for your attendance here at our board [Applause] meeting. Tonight, we have the honor
005of recognizing several allstate qualifiers, academic all-state qualifiers. will start with eight student athletes who have been named to the Texas High School Coaches Association academic all-state basketball teams. We have our students from Belton High School, Hudson, Jason, David. Um they were all named second team and coach Phil Castlin. And representing Lake Belton, we have Hunter who was named a first team. Nelson received honorable mention and they are coached by Zayn Johnston. And our girls basketball, I think they're here too in the picture. Am I seeing right? Okay. Girls basketball from Belton High School, we have uh Tyler for first team. Gabrielle received honorable mention. They're coached by Anna Marie Zulof. And from Lake Belton High School girls, Natalie Maldano was named second team and she's coached by Tiffany Barnes. Congratulations to our academic allstate basketball
006[Applause] honores. Congratulations you guys. We also have four academ academic allstate wrestling qualifiers that we will recognize this evening. From Belton High School, we have Tai and he is coached by Scott Clark. And at from Lake Belton High School, we have Scarlet. Uh, second team, Travellis and Caleb received honorable mentions and they are coached by Kevin Grim. So, congratulations to our wrestlers. [Applause] Congratulations, [Applause] guys. And now we are recognizing 10 Belton ISD swimmers who qualified at the state level. We have from Belton High School, Olivia, McKenzie, Liliana, Addison, and Emma, coached by Chris Nip. And Lake Belton High School qualifiers are Gwen, Christine, Brooke, Elizabeth, and David, coached by Coach Hazelwood. Congratulations to our state qualifiers for swimming. [Applause] And the state qualifiers continue. Next, we have nine state qualifiers for powerlifting. From Belton
007High School, we have Bianca, Melissa, Lauren, and Kennedy, coached by Coach Campbell. And Lake Belton High School qualifiers are Elena, Scarlet, Brett, Ja, and Christian, coached by Coach Graves and Coach Rudolph. [Applause] Congratulations, powerlifterss. And next tonight we are recognizing over are these our history qualifiers? I just can't see. Are these our history day qualifiers? Okay. We are recognizing 41 students who represented the district this year at the state history fair at the Bob Bulock Museum. This is our largest group to date and these students conducted indepth uh research and presented their findings through documentaries, exhibits, performances, websites or papers. We are especially excited to share that three projects from Lake Belton Middle School are advancing to the National History Day competition in Washington in [Applause] June. Congratulations National History Day State [Applause] qualifiers. Our
008next round of recognitions are the Texas Association of Student Council's top video winners. and our Belton High School student council earned this honor, one of 10 from across the state at their annual conference. Belton High School's winning entry, Big Red Traditions, Burning of the Bee, showcased the spirit and pride of their campus community. Special thanks to these students and their sponsor, Danielle Connor, for her leadership and support. If you have not seen the video yet, we will make sure to share it with you on social media. Um, but it certainly did capture the spirit of Belton High School and we are super proud of their student council. Congratulations. And now we're recognizing our business professionals professionals of America state qualifiers. We proudly recognize these students and staff who advanced to state level in 24 categories.
009This program is led by Amanda Simpson and Megan Schik. Congratulations. 24 categories for state competition. [Applause] And now for our technology student association. ation. Belton ISD proudly recognizes our students and staff who have advanced to state level in 10 categories. The program is led by Mr. Gustino and Miss Priscil. These categories range from podcasting to future technology and engineering to systems control technology and architectural design. Congratulations for advancing in 10 categories to state [Applause] competition. Our next group of recognizes is um we are proud to celebrate our exceptional students and staff who advanced to the state level in the VEX robotics competition in both UAVs which is unmanned aerial vehicles or drones and robotics. And seven of these students qualified for not national but the world competition that will be held May 16th through 14th
010this summer. [Applause] truly incredible. Congratulations you [Applause] guys. And their instructors are also Jessica Purscil and uh Mr. Tyore. Thank you. And now we would like to recognize Christina Botha. She is the Temple Rotary Club's educator of the month for March. Christina serves as a third grade ELA teacher at Tarver Elementary. She's in her 11th year in education. Her principal, uh, Aubrey S, uh, said in her nomination, she exemplifies the highest standards of excellence in education. Her dedication to student growth is unwavering, consistently demonstrated through her insightful understanding of each students unique learning needs. Christina masterfully designs engaging and challenging lessons that ignite curiosity and inspire critical thinking. We are truly so proud to recognize you as Rotary's educator of the month. And our next recognition is our bilingual leader cohort, our bilingual champions. This
011year, Belton ISD launched the bilingual champions leadership cohort district which was a district-wide initiative of prek through fifth grade teachers. And this was a voluntary program where these teachers gave up their time in evenings and on weekends to invest in learning. The goal was to grow as leaders in pursuit of excellence in bilingualism, biliteracy and biculturalism. This inaugural bilingual champions group are here with us tonight and we are truly so glad to honor your dedication. We truly appreciate all that you do for each and every learner in Belton [Applause] ISD. And now we'd like to highlight our student services department and our department showcase. Belton ISD Student Services is under the leadership of Assistant Superintendent of Operations Dr. Cassandra Spearman. This dedicated team plays a vital role in district operations, managing student transfers, records request,
012attendance intervention, and training and supporting campus administrators. The behindthecenes work that you do each and every day truly makes a difference. You are truly world-class employees. [Applause] And our last recognition this evening is our community partner recognition of Texas Tour Gear. Let's see if they made it down. They did. They made it down from the booth because that's where they were helping us with tonight's uh broadcasting of this uh meeting. Um they consistently go above and beyond to support our district's audiovisisual needs with professionalism and care. Um their support ensures that our schools and departments have access to reliable technologies for events such as this other presentations and our learning environments. We are truly grateful for their ongoing partnership, commitment and support. That concludes as our board makes it up here. I just wanted to
013say a couple of things. One, um, today was a student holiday and yet we have so many students that chose to come here tonight to be recognized and so we're super proud of our students. Will you please give them another round of applause? And I would just like to say we have incredible educators all in this room and the amazing things our students get to do and the fact that we have students going to worlds, going to nationals, going to state who are doing so well academically as well as in their extracurricular activities are bilingual educators and dual language educators who give up their Saturdays space to learn as a cohort. Um, we have incredible educators in Belton ISD. Will you please give them a round of applause? I'm super proud of their work. All
014right, folks. Um, I will give you a few minutes to exit. We're going to start our meeting here in just a moment. Of course, you're welcome to stay if you'd like. That's awkward. Thank you for being here tonight. We're about to move forward, but I want to welcome the scouts that are in the audience and scout leader. You guys take some good notes, right? All right. 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 business of the district. Becca, I believe you handed me one for non-aggenda and none for agenda items. Right. Okay. So, that
015means we're moving on to item four on the agenda. consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding the adoption of instructional materials for the 2025 2026 school year. Dr. Golden. Yes, thank you. Our assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, Gabby Nino is coming up to the podium. She has along with her team, um Tracy is in the audience and other team members has led a great process as we consider adopting um new instructional materials for the 2526 school year. So, I'm going to turn it over to Gabby. Good evening. Tonight, we are going to discuss our process that we put in place for the consideration of instructional materials and would like to have the opportunity to discuss and and take action on those. Um, we're specifically going to be talking about the adoption of highquality instructional
016materials for the 2526 school year. And we always want high quality in front of our our students, but highquality instructional materials is an official term that we're going to reference. And so I want to talk to you a bit about that tonight. What is new for us in this process is um with the inception of House Bill6005, a process was expanded statewide that requires um the state board of education to approve what is considered highquality instructional materials for districts. they um the the state agency, the Texas Education Agency has put in what's called the EMRA process, which is the instructional materials review and approval process um which annually um there will be ongoing cycles based on different content areas that are um constantly in a review cycle um to make sure that our districts have
017materials available to them. The cycle used at the agency is very similar to what districts have used over time. Um, bringing in different vendor resources to review them in alignment with our TIESS. However, there's an official process in place now where all instructional materials are held up to a specific rubric based on their content area um and requires materials to be 100% aligned to TEACS prior to their approval and consideration for the for districts. um as high quality what's considered highquality instructional materials. The current cycle that we are considering materials in that the Texas Education Agency has as well includes K through 12 K through five reading language arts materials and K through2 math uh materials. They approved the list of highquality instructional materials and that was released to us in November. And so we
018began our process that I'll review with you as well. Um but what is also new is that there is funding attached to highquality instructional materials. We have had for an extended amount of time the name has changed. Um you've heard of tea over time which is the technology instructional materials allotment. It is now called IMTA the instructional materials and technology aotment. But those are dollars that districts receive every year um well they receive in a bienium to support the purchase of instructional materials. What has shifted is that now if you choose um what's called highquality instructional materials that are on the approved list with the state board of education then you are able to access additional funding um to support the that purchase. Um and we'll look a little bit at what that funding looks
019like throughout the presentation. our internal timeline that we have established um that will be repeated. What we have done in this process is create an archavable process that we will use in consideration of any instructional materials um that we are coming to you all with approval for. But it follows a it's going to follow the same timeline anytime we're considering materials. And that first starts which is communication. communication that we are considering um a specific subject, content area, grade level um for review. When the instructional materials list is released, this year it was in November, that will initiate our actual process of um gathering feedback and input from various stakeholders. And we'll I'll walk through who those stakeholders are. Um once we go through a feedback process and and recommendation, we'll have a detailed implementation
020plan for any materials that are selected and we take some some good time in reviewing our existing curriculum documents, our existing practices to develop a solid plan and kick that plan off. Um that plan will always include and typically it'll include over the summer months and into the fall and next school year some professional learning and training of leaders within our system. And then of course there will always be a strong implementation process for resources. I wanted to stop here not only to review what's happened this school year with both um English language arts and math but to really reinforce that we are putting a process in place that can be repeated regardless of what materials we are considering. So in the review process um we are going to always look for opportunities to align
021across our system um and get tighter and tighter in our alignment and service of our students. And it will always start for us with what our values and beliefs are um and how whatever we're considering aligns to and includes the development of our competencies for our journey of a graduate competencies. we developed an instructional framework that guides us when we're making decisions or we're developing learning. Um, and so we'll consider any materials in alignment with that instructional uh framework. We'll always look at researchbased content specific alignment. I want to give a good example here um for you all to consider. uh during the pandemic when we actually first started coming out you may remember that all of our elementary reading t teachers went through the readingmies and so I'm talking specific about researchbased content alignment
022our teachers had intensive professional learning do I need to pause okay we had intentional intensive professional learning on the science of teaching reading so as we're considering ing um instructional materials in the area of reading language arts. We are reviewing them through the lens of the experiences that our teachers have had in learning and alignment to that research. And then we'll also consider alignment to as mentioned before our curriculum and assessment practices in our process. Stakeholder involvement is incredibly important to us. And so we brought um and will continue to bring multiple groups of stakeholders together to review the materials being considered. Our teachers in impacted content areas will always be a part of the process. Our campus instructional leadership team will be engaged in our process. will include district leaders as well as our
023parent and community. I'm going to do highlevel descriptor if that's okay with you all. Um when we talk about our teacher engagement in both reading English language arts and math, we had representation from every campus in our district to consider the materials that were being reviewed. All of our campus was campuses were included and those teachers who were on the committee were also asked to be um key leaders of conversation on their campuses around those materials because we wanted for every teacher who might be implementing to have the opportunity to engage with resources and to understand what the deeper learning might be as a part of the committee. a rubric was established and it was aligned to those system alignment pieces that I discussed already. Um, and those committee members went very deep into the
024instructional materials that were being reviewed and then went back to their campuses to engage in conversations with teachers. Um, and then those teachers gave input into what their preferred materials were in both reading and math. As far as campus leadership, we also engaged every principal and every instructional coach in the same process. But the way we asked them to think was a little bit different. The teachers were thinking about the implementation at the student level from campus leadership including our coaches and our principles. We wanted them to think about the teacher experience and their support for them. So what does it look like for you to be supporting teachers in PLC's using these resources? what data instruments um are available within the resources that help us measure student growth. So we asked for our campus
025leaders to weigh in in that regard. We also had district leaders historically reflecting on our process. An area for improvement for us was to consider, we'll use the language of each and every. We wanted to make sure that we were examining resources through the lens of special education through gifted and talented for students who might be needing interventions or students who may be acquiring English um as their second language. So, we had district leaders take part in the analysis of resources through that lens as well. And finally, our parent and community input. We sent out unique this year to what we've done historically. We sent out communication to families that gave them digital access to all of the resources and hosted an in-person session where we were available so families could come and explore the
026resources that were being considered, get their hands in them, ask questions with some of our um teaching and learning team and weigh in based on putting their hands on the resources and seeing them. So Gabby has that that part has always been a part of our process. The inperson where we made the materials available for somebody to come and look at them. Okay. So the change was making it available digitally as well. Yes. Okay. Yes. We wanted to identify and eliminate any barriers that would give access um to families to review them. We did have families come and take part in the process and then we sent a survey out for them to provide input on areas of strength or any challenges that they observed with the resources and wanted to hear from them their
027perspective on the resources being reviewed. That was quite a bit of information. I'd love to pause. Do y'all have any questions currently about the process that we've put in place for review with stakeholders? No. Okay. So I am going to make some recommendations based on um all of the stakeholder input and review of data as well as the funding implications in our K through5 English language arts um review. We primarily reviewed two resources, one being um Blue Bonnet reading English language arts which is the TEA state adopted textbook. One of the other requirements of um 1605 was that the Texas Education Agency produced a textbook for consideration for all districts. So we reviewed Blue Bonnet reading English language arts and we also reviewed SAVIS my literacy view and both of those went through the exact
028same process of review and based on all feedback from every stakeholder group we'll be recommending to you this evening that we adopt the SAVIS my view literacy resources to support English language arts in the area of math we also reviewed STEM scope scopes and we reviewed Blue Bonnet math resources. Went through the same process, reviewed all materials um both in text and the supplemental manipulatives that would be used and are recommending this evening that we adopt Blue Bonnet math to support math instruction in our classrooms. And I want to talk a little bit about what the rollout plan will look like to support professional learning in both of those implementing K uh reading language arts and math. Um in the 2526 year we've been very very thoughtful about how we support the the roll out.
029I use the example of the readingmies as um learning that all of our reading teachers in the elementary level have gone through. It is foundational deep learning and so when they analyze resources it was through the lens of science of teaching reading. So the materials selected align to that um that researchbased practice as well as um we examined our current recommendations for practices and the materials the resources embedded and the current approach to literacy that we have in our classrooms. There was a seamless alignment and so we'll be able to implement those resources immediately um within our our classrooms in the area of math. The same notion of the readingmies has been developed by the Texas education agency and it's it's called mathmies. Um we have trained within our system coordinators and instructional coaches to
030be leaders of learning and will be rolling out the mathmies with our element elementary math teachers over the summer and throughout the fall. We will be one of the first districts in the state who is rolling out this aggressive plan to provide highquality professional learning for our teachers in math. We feel very excited about the professional learning plan. Um we feel like we're going to um set an example um for what high quality professional learning is for teachers and develop strong alignment in our practices in math. Math has been an area over the last few years that we have had concerns about progress in and we feel strongly about putting an intensive learning opportunity in place for our teachers um with a strong support system and resources to align to that. And so um that
031rollout plan will take two years for the learning implementation and embedding of resources into our curriculum um and support documents. You will see on the screen high school math as well. The reason this is embedded here is to illustrate the ongoing process for review of highquality materials. This is labeled as a continuation. The resource that we use currently in algebra 2 and geometry is on the high-quality instructional materials list. Um, but there were additional added this year. And so we felt like it was important for us to come to the table with those specific content area teams and ask ourselves, do we have the most high quality in place for our teachers and students and made the determination that we did and the implications of change did not outweigh the potential positive impact of continuing
032with the resources that we have and continuing learning there. So these are my recommend not my recommendations our committee's recommendations supported by me um in reading and math both K through five and then continuation in high school math. Very briefly I want to discuss the the funding implications that are important for us to be aware of as we are really thinking about maximizing our resources yes financially but within the the high quality resources available to us. On the first slide, I mentioned to you all that there is funding that is um allocated now um to districts who are adopting the designated highquality instructional materials both in language arts and math. The materials that were selected are on that highquality materials list. And so in addition to the um IMTA funds, the TEMA funds that we
033have available to us, we will also have available a $40 per student um aotment that comes along with those to support the implementation of the materials. We will have to purchase additional supplemental materials. Um, but the $40 will be allocated because we've selected high-quality materials that are on that list in both reading language arts and math. In math, because we are adopting um we are recommending adoption of blue bonnet math materials because it is the state uh board of education TEA adopted materials that's called what's called an open education resource. It will require some printing cost. Because we are adopting that, we'll receive an additional $20 um per student allocation of funds to support the printing of materials. An example of this is um there's some there are some numerousy sprints that will be embedded
034in our curriculum that are a part of the math academy. Those numeracy sprints have some materials that come along with them that need to be printed and that $20 per student will support us with those printing costs. In high school, we'll be continuing with the resource again that we have and we use our instructional materials a lotment to support that material currently and we'll continue with that um funding without view. Are there any questions that I can answer for you all now? Not only about our process, but about the materials that we're recommending for adoption. So, Gabby, do we know if other districts are using this material and what success rate, if any, or experiences that they may have had? We do. So um in particular in reading language arts um the SAVIS learning materials
035were um released previously and so multiple districts many districts around us and around the state had already um selected these resources in the area in the blue bonnet language arts materials. Those were ruled out during um the pandemic with a there was a different vendor attached to it and TEA had a partnership with that vendor and made some revisions to the materials and they went through the review process as well and were just designated this year um as one of the highquality instructional materials. So what we've done is we have looked at data from across the state performance data by districts using those resources. What I will tell you is while we have that data and we can partner with districts, the implementation plan across the state for every district varies significantly. And so while
036yes, we are reviewing that data and we are partnering with other districts about their implementation plans because there is such variability, we really feel like the data um it's not that it lacks integrity, but there's more to the story than just the state assessment data that we have available to measure that. So yes, we looked at state assessment, meaning STAR data to look for trends in growth. Um but we've also been partnering with districts who have been implementing. Gabby, I have a a couple questions and first a comment. Um, I was going to ask a question about the process and ensuring that our parents and our community had the ability to be a part of this, but you answered that very well. So, thank you to make sure that everyone who's included in our stakeholders,
037not just our students, not just our teachers, but of course our parents and community members were involved in that. So, great job. Um, I was jotting down a couple questions. Um can you talk a little bit more about the teachers perspectives on choosing the recommended curriculum a little bit more in depth? Yes. So let me come back to this slide in in particular teachers. So in each of the the subject areas at the teacher level we really ask for them to consider one their learning and I use the readingmies as an example but our instructional framework researchbased practices the alignment to standards and teacher usability and so when they um studied the materials in reading language arts they really felt like one the usability based on what our current practices are there would be a
038really good transition and it addressed some gaps that we have um comes with leveled readers for the classroom. It aligns with being able to provide small groupoup instruction um highly engaging resources in math. The materials that were recommended, they felt like there was um more systemic approach in the math instruction that was laid out in the Blue Bonnet materials. There absolutely is going to need to be significant learning. We have a campus in our district who has piloted blue bonnet materials this year um with a strong support plan in place and so we've been able to see the implementation of that in campus in our district and quite honestly we've had some interest from campus leaders and teachers who have have approached us about that in review. Now what I will say is that in
039the area of math there was more um discrepancy in p there was more split I shouldn't say discrepancy um the stem scopes materials that we reviewed in math last year I came to you all and asked for approval to purchase stem scopes in science and so there is some familiarity with the um design of lessons with the materials that come with stem scopes but ultimately the feedback that we got related to that is that there's so many materials to discern and um support that. They felt like the preparation um that came along with that was did not outweigh the the supports that were embedded in Blue Bonnet Math. Thank you. Appreciate that. Um I can't imagine trying to make decisions on curriculum without having our teachers give so much involvement input. Um other question I
040mean we have recommendations on K through5 ELA K through5 math high school math continuing that but that's a lot. What's the plan for training? Yes. So with um both we have a two-year runway is what um Tracy describes it as which I love. So both of them we have a two-year support plan articulated. It's slightly different for the two as again the the science of teaching reading and the readingmies so many of our teachers have gone through and that's embedded and so we're being we're able to pick up in a different spot with reading. Um the process there will um really be about examining the resources that are embedded and um discerning places where we need to um make a few adjustments. For example, phonics, you guys supported us with the implementation of foundations and
041it's going really well. We're not going to abandon the implementation of foundations. So, there will just be some alignment work on where that's inserted in math. The mathmies will become an ongoing part of our system. Now, again, training all of our teachers this summer and into the fall in math and then working alongside them and where those practices are embedded into our curriculum. What we do see on the horizon is that the um Blue Bonnet math materials will be embedded in the math academy as well. And so we feel pretty good about the support plan in place related to that and some authentic um embedding into our practices as well as we have trainers of trainers um that will represent Belton ISD um and are trained by the the Texas Education Agency and implementation. Anything
042else, Ricker? No. Anyone else? Chris? Uh I got a couple here. So first off, I'll echo what Rocker started with. I mean, this is a massive effort to get here. So, thank you to you and everybody on your staff and everybody from the public um you know, our parents and um who helped kind of work through this. This is no small lift. Um so, I've got some questions around the selected materials and then some of the implementation. Um so, when you when we look at the three sets of recommended materials here, are there any challenges right that uh have been identified and how we plan on addressing those challenges with these three sets of materials? Sure. Um there are embedded in each and that that was question for our staff actually it was question for
043all levels of stakeholders. Let's name the challenges now so they're in our implementation plan. Um in reading English language arts one of the biggest challenges was related to phonics like we are getting started. We're really enjoying foundations. It's we're yielding early um results related to that. And so we've got to lay out those materials and say where's the give and take. Phonics is embedded within the materials that we're recommending, but we don't want that massive system change that we're just getting traction on. So we're thinking about it differently. The phonics that are embedded within the materials, they may be used to support our students in intervention. And so we're really looking at the whole picture of what's happening within instruction. Um so that was one of the primary um challenges within English language arts. But
044we absolutely feel like we can respond to it and have a plan in place for that. Um, in math, like I said earlier, just the um, in examining the two materials, the blue bonnet learning, um, it is a shift in just kind of the order of instruction, there were some, um, challenges just around the new process of learning. It is a shift in the way we deliver instruction in the classroom. And so that was one of the biggest challenges that we faced um in looking at that feedback. But we feel like the professional learning plan through the mathmies is really going to help us with that. Um they did feel like the structure and layout would allow for a greater degree of planning within the lesson um and within their collaborative teams to be able
045to have that support embedded. Okay. So on the K through five ELR, right? So it this is a material that's on the state approved high quality materials list, right? But it's there's it's also not the TEA materials, right? So can you talk to me a little bit about how those materials line up for English and Spanish and the TEICS, right? To make sure that we've got everything covered that we're supposed to have covered for from that perspective. Yes. And I'm so glad you asked that question because I forgot to highlight something with y'all. So, um, the materials that were selected, regardless of who the vendor, the publisher is, if they make it on the state board of education list, they are now required to be 100% TEICSS aligned. That is a shift. It used to
046be 80%. So, all resources that we consider will have 100% TICSS alignment. We just celebrated our bilingual champions in our district. We are working so hard to make sure that we have aligned resources and supports across our classrooms. Um and quite honestly that has been a challenge over time to ensure that the quality of resources available in both English and Spanish are there in SAVIS the materials in Spanish have been approved. So we'll be able for the first time in Belton ISD to roll out instructional materials in our dual language and English um classrooms at at the same time. And so that is a difference um for us in those materials. Excellent. Thank you. Couple on the implementation side. Um so maybe we covered this a little bit in training roll out. Um but what's
047the plan to support teachers in integrating the new materials in um yeah into the daily instruction? So part of the review process asked for people to think about implementation as well. So, we've got feedback on that as well. Um, we will roll out a trainer of trainers model. Um, this year in the current school year, the 24-25 school year, we began a content area cohort lead. So, every campus is represented in content cohorts that come and engage in deeper professional learning with the intent of being able to be leaders of learners on their campus. And so, not only do we have those um leaders embedded now, but we also have our instructional coaching team. And so, both the instructional coaching team and those content area leads will go deeper to support implementation at the campus
048level as well. We will absolutely have fall learning um for all teachers who are getting new materials. Our big challenge with professional learning that we're pushing our team and and our whole community is thinking about what job job embedded ongoing professional learning looks like. And so there will be cycles that are put into both um content areas to support ongoing at the campus level and district level. Okay. Um if you I have a couple more if you absolutely questions. Um from a supplemental material supplemental um instruction, right? I it don't think it's on this slide. It might be on the next one. Um, you know, we talk about supplemental materials, um, trade books, leveled readers, um, I think there's also the math manipulatives kit, right? So, what is the plan for those to make sure
049that one sort of the any supplemental material we get is is aligned with what we're doing. And two, to make sure that we're they're being used in a consistent manner um to support what we're trying to do in the classroom. Absolutely. So let's talk reading um English language arts first and the alignment that you just mentioned um when we review the resources implementation with fidelity and reducing variability across the system is so critically important and the resources feel very similar um of course improved but there are materials that immediately our teachers can pick up their pick up put in their hands and they will feel um comfort with them. they will feel the supports embedded for how I use these and our students will like this will feel familiar to our students that I'm going
050to get readers on my level that I'm going to work with my teacher in small group or independently with um and so that is that's what would be the supplemental materials really in the English that's the biggest in the English language arts in math um there is a a large cost with math manipulatives that come along with the um instructional materials beyond just the text. We have a high volume of math manipulatives in our classrooms right now. Um, and so what we'll be able to do is look at the content of the kits and do kind of a crosswalk of what is in our classrooms right now to maximize those resources and build in any resources that we may not have at this time. That's a big lift, right? Um, what we won't do is
051have a delay in getting those resources into the the classroom. So there there's an aggressive So, so that that 138,000 that's shown on the screen for the supplemental math manipulative. So, that's like a that's a fill in the gaps or or that's like the worst case scenario number. Okay. Yes. So, we have a a a better estimate on those systems. Um but but yes, that is our that's our best case or our best estimate of what those costs will be. Sure. Okay. And my last one, um how long are these adoptions last? So what historically um they are driven by proclamations that's gone away which is why there's an every year the agency will be reviewing materials and they have now a scope and sequence for the foreseeable future. However, we want to adopt materials
052that are so tightly aligned that there's going to be a long time that we have those materials in front of us. We are not looking to change on our teachers and our students. Um, so as long as the standards are in place because there's a 100% alignment, that's how long you would want those materials to stay in place. Now, as we've been um strengthening our practices around data informing our decisions, if we start to identify gaps in resources, even if we are going all in, you will have new gaps emerge. So, we can go back to that list and say, hey, do any of these resources help us fill in the gaps? But as long as the teaks are in place, the materials should stay unless we identify a need in our data or a
053gap in the resources. When the teaks change, then we will need to reassess um what those are. Awesome. Thank you. Anyone else questions for Gabby? Thank you, Gabby. That was a very comprehensive report. Thank you. Um moving on to a motion. Do I have a motion to approve the adoption of instructional materials for the 2025 2026 school year as presented? Miss Bass. Do I have a second? Mr. Norwood. All those in favor, please raise your hand. That motion passes seven to zero. Thank you. Thank you, Gabby. And Gabby, thank you to your entire team. This is a great presentation. and it represents hours and hours and hours of work throughout this school year and so just thank you to your entire team. All right, next item on the agenda is reports. I've got the next
054part and Dr. Golden, I think you have the report after that, right? Okay. Each year, school board members must complete training that is required by the 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 members for board member continuing education. Number one, local district orientation. Two, orientation to the Texas Education Code. Three, post- legislative update to the Texas Education Code. Four, team building. Five, additional continuing education. Six, evaluating student academic performance and setting goals. Seven, identifying and reporting abuse, trafficking, and other maltreatment of children. And eight, school safety. I am proud to announce that each board member has successfully exceeded their annual continued education credits for the reporting period May 1, 2024 through April 30, 2025. A
055copy of the annual training report is included in the packet. So all trustees, 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 in the community and conducting business for the district. So a big shout out to each and every one of you. Okay, moving on to item 5B, superintendent report. Dr. Golden. Yes, thank you. Thank you board. So, I know you know our vision for empowering each and every learner to pursue their dreams and enrich their communities. And so, I want to highlight a couple of events and things that have been going on in the district that I feel like are really beautiful representation of our staff working to pursue this vision for each and
056every student. And just starting with these first couple of this first picture here is the recent science fair that took place at Purle Elementary School. Um so I had the opportunity to be a judge and I will tell you one okay I'm a former science teacher so I was super excited to see these projects. More importantly I was excited to see our students thinking on display. Um the students had to think about a problem they wanted to explore. They had to create a hypothesis for whatever that was that they were wanting to explore. We um had the opportunity to look at data and data collection. Each of them collected data around their experiments had to display and represent that data and draw conclusions. Um it was an incredible experience. design thinking is very much alive
057and well in these students. Um I was super impressed with their communication skills. They were so articulate and able to explain um their projects and why they chose these projects. That was um really fun. Uh one of the students um it was like a clown in a box, you know, you crank it and then it pops up and scares you. And he collected data on whether or not it scared you or not. And I assure you as there's an embarrassing picture of me that it did scare me. Um even though I knew it was coming. Um but their why behind these projects were was really intriguing and I was super proud of our students. I think um I got to see some from first grade, second grade, third grade, and they went all the way
058up to fifth grade. Um you also know as a part of our vision we want to empower the future of our students and empowerment being that they grow academic knowledge and skills. They also grow journey of a graduate competencies. Um and these are just a few examples of this happening for our students. And so um you see our penguin project practice um that's on your screen. It's the top um lefthand picture. And um I'm super embarrassed to say I'm forgetting the gentleman's name, but there is a gentleman in the middle of this picture. He actually is an actor and is playing George Washington in the musical Hamilton. Recently was playing in Austin. Um one of our staff members that organizes the Penguin Project was there asking for her play bill to be signed. Struck up
059a conversation with him. He was so excited what we were doing and our commitment to each and every through the penguin project that on his day off for participating as um a lead actor in Hamilton drove all the way to Belton from Austin to be there for the students in their practice. It was incredible. Um we have incredible staff who were spreading the word across the state of the great things happening in Belton. I'm super proud of that. You also see um images of our reverse job fair. Um and I will tell you having gone to this last year and this year, the growth of our students in our Delta program is incredible. Their communication skills, the quality of their resumes, um just seeing their growth was tremendous and thank you to so many of
060you who were able to go to that as well. You see my superintendent of the day u bottom left hand side. She did a great job. She went to all of my meetings. um some she um I think wanted to fall asleep in. She didn't find as riveting as others. Um but she did a great job and asked her what what really surprised her about the job and I think it was um the number of meetings that a superintendent goes to. Um but she did a really great job and I was super honored that she was there with me. You also see our unified track meet. Um our students have advanced. I'm super excited about our athletes um that participate in unified track meet. And then there's another picture of um the Purle Science Fair.
061Couple of quick celebrations. You heard so many tonight. And when I think about accountability, and I have a slide in here where I'm going to talk about accountability. We have a community-based accountability system. That's in the goals that our community said were so important and that our board adopted. It's in the financial transparency and expectations and different ways in which we have to present our budget and our data. It's also in the recognitions that you do in each and every board meeting. And these are just some of the students that um I wanted to highlight. Um we have students that as I said earlier tonight are advancing to worlds, they're advancing to nationals. We have our Skills USA students. There were so many students that competed and are going on um to the next level
062of competition, nationals, whether it's our teamworks team. You see our t-shirt design team. Um Belton was well represented by our high schools at the Skills USA competition in Corpus Christie this year and they did a great job. Yes, we had a a soldier return and so had to throw that picture in. We are working so hard to have more of our students become purple star designated campuses and this just to me this is a beautiful image. Our military families go through so much when they're deployed and to be able to see a student see their mom or dad for the first time in um in some cases a year, it is just very heartwarming. but also we understand our military students have um connected students have unique needs and we need to work to meet
063those needs. And then you see everything from pre-prom. I'm glad there's not a picture of me dancing. That would be embarrassing, but that could have happened. Um as well as you see our teacher of the year celebrations happening across our campuses. We have an art show that took place um at Southwest and just super proud. also wanted to uh mention state accountability. As I shared just a few minutes ago, you know, public schools are held accountable in so many ways. Um many of the ways I've already mentioned um another way in which we're held accountable is through what is the state's version of the accountability system. And so, um, just as a reminder, you're probably hearing in the news that a lawsuit had been filed a couple of years ago against the Texas Education Agency,
064um, regarding the, um, change in methodology and not really giving school districts time to adjust to a changing methodology. And we did a couple of presentations with you showing the impact of that. a school district like ours can have the exact same score they did last year going into the next year, but drop a letter grade based on the new uh methodology. And so that was kind of the essence of what that lawsuit was across the state. And so we um as you see in 2019, we had an A throughF system. Um we went into COVID in 2020 and so A throughF ratings were cancelled. We didn't have STAR that spring. In 2021, we had STAR. Um, but A throughF was cancelled because we didn't have all students returning to public ed. Then you see
065in 2022, um, there was a A throughF partial, so part of it was released. And then you go into 2023 and again your methodology of um how the scores are calculated or changing during that time as well as the assessment itself was changing cut scores were changing as well as it went to where students are now required to take it online. So all of that is happening and so that's considered your star 2.0 that you see there. um still under an A throughF um system but the STA the scores were not released by the state and then into the 2024 again star 2.0 No, the scores were not released by the state. Um, in Belton ISD, we did release our district scores. And so, just as a reminder to our board and to our public,
066our 2022 and 2023 state accountability results, we discussed in the July 17, 2023 board of trustees workshop. And so, if someone wanted to go back and take a look at that, that is available. Um we shared with you at that time the change in methodology the impact on Belton ISD and that we were um considered a C under that new system in um on August 19th of 2024 during a report during a board of trustees meeting. We also shared um data with you. We shared the specific data in both those two meetings but also um the district's rating at that time. So again, I put those two dates um back up there just in case somebody wanted to reference those um presentations. And so tomorrow, I believe it's tomorrow, I'm looking for Christine to confirm
067for me. Um we'll be sending out um reminder letters to our parents that they can access and they've been able to access their student scores um online. that's been available um every year that we've administered the um STAR test, but also giving them the district rating again that we released in these meetings as well as what their campus rating would have been um in 2223 and 2324. I don't believe the state is releasing 2324 data because I think that is still under lawsuit. Um but they are reduc uh releasing the 2223. So, we'll be sending those letters out to our families. And then I believe later this week, maybe on Thursday, the state will be releasing data. And so, with that, that's the conclusion of my report tonight. Any questions for Dr. Golden? Okay, then
068that takes us to item 5C, board highlights. Trustees, this is your opportunity to share prominent highlights from last month. If anyone would like to share, please do. Okay, Miss McDonald. So, I attended a Belton City Council meeting, learned about a new car wash is coming through. That's always interesting. Uh, you can find out some great things that are happening in the city at the Belton City Council meetings. I also attended uh Southwest Elementary, the gifted and talented showcase. I met some really good friends over there. I met Christopher, a third grader who's working on a project to clean the earth. Uh what's interesting, what most interesting to me about Christopher is that he says that he's like Albert Einstein. And he I took a picture of something that he had on the table for everyone
069to read. And it says Albert Einstein was like me because he was a big genius. He liked math and he also liked science. I like math because it has division and multiplication and I like science because we do interesting things. The other young man that I met over there was Angel. Now, Angel was a little bit more challenging for me. He had a project where he was going to reuse the Frost from Alaska. He has a whole plan where he was going to get his project patented so that he could get the credit. and for a $10,000 buyin, you all are welcome to join him. Um, so he it was very very interesting. I I like the idea of his project, but he also gave me some homework. He had been working on a color
070by number project. He had been working on this prototype, and I'll show this to y'all. He'd been working on this for a long, long time. And so he gave that to me. He trusted that with me. This is what it looks like when he finished coloring it. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't show that to y'all. That's what would look like when he did. And so Suzanne took home of his prototype, made a copy of it so it wouldn't mess up. And this is what it did look like when Suzanne sit down and did it. And don't do the crazy art crayons because they're just like wax and it doesn't work out real well. I'm just saying. Just don't do that. And so, and the other uh gifted and talented uh program that I attended was
071over at Burell. Over at Burell, I met Everett. He was a third grader. Oh my gosh, he was so tall. Ever created an electronic device that was it's an intruder deterrent. So it would you could sit it at your front door at the at the front gate and as people came in it would make this noise that he said would scare intruders away. Pretty cool. And then there was Millie, second grader. she did a project where she created this box where you could it was very colorful on the outside but it was made uh primarily so that you could keep all of your artwork in it. So just keep it nice and protected so it wouldn't get dirty and so those were the good things that I did. Thank you ma'am. Anyone else? Rucker um
072also went Temple City Council and uh got to participate in their blue zones listening sessions. I think Dr. Golden was did that as well. Um, got to go to a tennis tournament and see the coaches and all the efforts that they put on. And then got to go to my first district track meet that was here at Belton High that had Lake and I think Lake hosted the following week. And man, there's so much talent with our students that are running. Um, I only wish I could have run that fast when I was younger. Um, and then I guess about a month ago they had the the the district-wide STEM night was here at the high school and that was so well attended and put on and so um hands-on for the students that were
073there with their parents. They were just interacting with their parents. They were into it. They were listening. They were asking questions. High school students were showing the the devices that they had made. So, shout out to um everyone in that department for putting those on throughout the year. Thank you, director. Miss Bass, uh just a couple I'll share. Um one actually today, uh Janet and I got to go to the recognition lunch. I won't share too much in case she wants to to add on to it, but it was just encouraging to see and celebrate so many of our staff, not just our teachers, but um people that have been in our in our custodial work or maybe they were bus drivers or coaches, but it was just really encouraging to see um the the
074common area at LBHS just full of people that have been here for 10 up to 35 years. And then it kind of ended bittersweet because then we we celebrated the teachers and or staff that were retiring. Um but just appreciated getting to just to get to partake in that little bit of celebration for them. Um I know it's it's it's just really I'm thankful that they choose to be in Belton and so get to partake in that was fun. And then a few weeks ago Dr. Golden had a picture on there the spring fling. Um, I I just have to say I I'm so incredibly thankful and proud to be part of a district that that really does celebrate each and every students with special needs. There are so many opportunities for them and their
075families. And for those that you Cub Scouts that are listening, we have a prom for students with special needs. And it was just really cool that we got to we do that for them. I mean, they dressed up and it was fun. I'm just super thankful for the staff and the teachers. They put that on. Um, and it was just decorated so well and just it they were treated like royalty there. So, those were the couple of things that I got to do. Thank you, ma'am. Anyone else? Chris, I'll try to hit a couple things nobody's talked about. Um, had the opportunity to go to the CTE Industry Advisory Council lunch. So, I went there really wearing my employer hat. Um, and then uh Denise started asking me questions and so I switch quickly moved
076into I saw her in here somewhere. U quickly moved into my uh BIST hat as well. Um but we got to really um we we came together here in at Belton High School and uh met for lunch in the new CTE uh culinary space and got to talk through where we are with uh our pathways and our pathway consolidation and our new pathways and what's going on with our industry partners. Okay. And so we had folks from all over the Belton and Temple area. Uh everything from uh Temple Chamber to uh Don uh Don Ringler Auto Automotive Group uh MTC Engineering um uh Extrago Banks uh and you know the list goes on. We had all kinds of folks kind of representing all around to really hear about hey here's the feedback that we getting
077that we're getting from you at least once a year but but most likely twice a year when we meet with these folks. Here's the feedback that we're getting. here's what we're doing with that information here. Here is how we are um keeping our curriculum from a CTE standpoint up to date and moving forward so that you the employers are getting the best quality folks you can when they come out of Belistd. And so that that did lead into a conversation around the journey of a graduate um and a great reminder for everybody in the room about how that came about and how that impacts them. It was unanimous agreement that those are still the things that uh uh we in the employer population still very much value uh in students coming out of Belton ISD.
078Um, we also talked a little bit about um kind of recapped back to our uh most recent I think GPA calculation changes, right? So, a couple years ago, uh, when we made some changes to really try to incentivize folks to explore a little bit in their high school process, uh, high school journey, um, to really try to figure out at this stage in the game what what do they want to do or maybe more importantly, what do they not want to do um, and really try to explore those pathways and so um, I don't think the group in the room really uh, had realized that that uh, we had done that actually. Um, and so it was a great conversation with them to to understand that. So, um, just want to say thank you to
079Denise if you're still in the room. um and anybody on the CTE team who was a part of that and certainly any of our employers that were there. It was always a great always a great time to come together to really talk about the great things that are happening and and how our kids are getting prepared to go out there into the world whatever that next step may be. Um also had the opportunity to hit several of our UIL warm-up concerts in any in in many different ways whether if you didn't go to one you missed you missed a a amazing uh performance by anybody. So, the the two the two high schools, right, from a um from a band standpoint, from a choir standpoint, um I think uh uh New Techch also from an
080orchestra standpoint, um all of those presentations were just absolutely amazing. Like those kids are fighting way above their weight class when it comes to performance. Um uh I do want to congratulate one of our own. I hate to say this publicly, Suzanne McDonald. Um I know you kind of glossed over this Manuel when you were talking about training, but Suzanne has taken back the training crown. Uh, and so, well, I thought about saying it. I could take it for a year. That's all I could hold it, apparently. So, uh, thank you, Suzanne, for putting me in my place again. Uh, and then, uh, I got to be a prom prom dad. Uh, and so got to go through, uh, you know, all of the prom goodness. Um, uh, in the floor household, um, my wife
081took to making the bouquets and bineers. Um, that was super interesting to, uh, to watch. I clear I I I was advising that was it. Um but uh all the pre-picture shenanigans and and getting everybody ready. So that was good times all the way around. So uh and then I'll plug uh we've talked about it a couple times. The uh penguin project coming up uh what first weekend in May, right? I think is when it is. So um again, if you haven't gone to one of those, you should get out there. That is probably the most heartwarming uh activity you can go to. Yeah. Um Erin touched on this, but yes, we did the teacher recognitions. Um you know, they're uh what do they call it? Service awards. Is that what it's called? And then
082um some retirees. That's who we honored today. And that I was so pleased with the attendance. We don't always have that good of attendance, but we've kind of switched some things up that it's a little bit more conducive to their schedule. And they were they were pleased as punch to come over there and have a nice lunch and be honored. So I was I was happy to be part of that. I do want to point out that the one of one of the things that always strikes me about this district is how teachers go above and beyond to make special moments for their kids and to help them to be successful. What you saw tonight with so much of this is hours upon hours of extra work for a an individual who happens to be
083employed by this district but is going out on their own to spend time with these kids and teach them more and give them enriching experiences because of how much they care about their future success. And that is just that just makes me so happy to be a part of a district like this. Thank you John. Hey Jeeoff, I hope you're going to talk about something that's near and dear to your heart, and that's the Special Olympics. Um, yeah, I want to hear I want to hear about that. That's actually that's one of the on the list, so I'll get through the other ones fast. It's been mentioned, the reverse um job fair for special needs students. I I got to enjoy that this year. It's my first year to go. It was wonderful. like to
084just call out a few of the businesses because there's a common theme through that is our local businesses that have employed and it would have been and I'm going to miss some and I'm sorry because it's been a while but it was um Grand Avenue Theater, UMHB and Bubba's 44 were a common theme and Goodwill I'm sorry were a common theme of employers that they had worked with and so you know it was a wonderful I think Dr. Golden had mentioned it. Very impressive these resumes, their communication skills. Uh, very impressed with them. Uh, reverse prom. I haven't been able to make it the last few or sorry. Yeah. Um, well, not reverse prom, pre-prom. Um, but I think it was actually after the prom this year because I thought I'd missed it. Anyways, this
085was the first year I'd seen it at the Harris Community Center and it was it was wonderful. You know, I am fortunate some of these kids I've actually known since they were little to kind of see them grow up, come out of their shell and they do at this event. They a lot of them rather sell that was wonderful. Uh and then Special Olympics. So, you know, this is going on a little bit, but you know, this is the second year we've had Special Olympics at Belton ISD for track and field. I think we've had other events. Second year for track and field. So, I need to personally just kind of call out Lauren Marx is the one who runs that. She takes care of that for Belton ISD. And when you hear Special Olympics,
086I think that you assume that there's this large group of people who show up and put this on. And that is not the way Special Olympics works. Last year they had one person. This year they had, we'll call it three. The fact is it is a group effort. Our entire special ed department, it does not happen without these people out there making it happen. Over 250 kids from nine district school systems were there. This is a huge event. Um I'm fortunate I get to MC it. This is my second year and I'm pretty sure the person who controls that is sitting out there um the head of special ed. So I I'm just plugging myself for next year to be able to do it cuz I know for a fact there's a certain young lady
087that works that event that doesn't want me seeing it. Um but the it is such a wonderful event. It doesn't happen without our people and not just special ed. I'm going to call out our athletic department. Okay. They are out there working. This is a Okay, you figure 250 kids and if if they didn't run this thing correctly, this thing could easily go till 10 at night and they moved on the fly. They changed things as needed. They had separate events running because they had to because we had so many kids that are there. So, if you ever get the chance uh to attend it, highly recommend it and we have several of those events. of the year. The track and field is just the one that I get to be involved in. And again,
088special thanks to Lauren Marks, the special ed department. It is a wonderful event. I made tons of friends. Um, you know, because they love the microphone and so I don't care if you want to talk, talk. Um, so it's a really good time. And that was last Thursday. I don't know if you remember last Thursday there were 50 mph winds the whole day. Uh, Coach Skidmore had to go get me weights to put on all the papers because papers were blowing across the football field. Um, great time. Um, other than that, I I do have a project that we've been working on with kids from New Tech uh to be named later, but it's it's a group of kids outside of my comfort zone. And here's what I can say in working with a group
089of kids that I don't know. And I think this goes for Belton ISD. They're and they're underneath under underneath the leadership of a guy named Mel Peterman. Um, and what I can tell you is, you know, when we get out of our comfort zone, my comfort zone is athletics and agriculture. And I know those kids, I know those systems, but I've worked with a group of kids now that are involved in technology and video and film and all that, something I know nothing about. Could not be more impressed with their hard work, their dedication. We handed a project to them and then they had to deal with the pitfalls of, hey, we're scheduled to do something at this day. Hey, guess what? It's raining. And then this person called and said they can't make it.
090Y'all have to fix this and it was put back on them, y'all. And they did it. And I was so impressed with a group of kids that I don't know. I don't know their parents. They didn't grow up coming to my house, which is typically the kids, you know. And so anybody who tells you that, you know, not just Belton IC, but that public ed, you know, we're failing our kids. No. No, we're not. No. Our kids are doing great. You just have to be willing to look behind the corner as to what's really going on instead of what you see in the media every day and you'll be impressed. You will be impressed with all of our kids at all of our campuses if you let them shine in the world that they're meant
091to shine. So that'd be my Thank you, Jeff. Okay, that concludes uh tonight's report. Emanuel, I'm sorry. Just a point of privilege. Sure. the previous item around the superintendent report. Something Jeff's just said reminded me of a question that I was gonna ask Dr. Golden. May May I ask that question? Absolutely. Okay. You were uh you were talking about the uh accountability ratings being released. I I think I also saw something about um uh distinctions being released as well. Is is there but I I can't remember where I saw it. I can't find it. Can you tell us about that? Yes. So, distinctions had not been released prior and so we are super excited about that. Belton ISD has received 15 um distinction designations in high school, middle school and elementary school um in areas
092of whether it's performance in English language arts, math in some cases um top 25% growth. If you remember, campuses are grouped with like campuses across the state and they're measured against that performance. And so we had several top 25 um% academic growth, some in science, some in post-secary readiness, closing achievement gaps, and so um we did receive 15 of those. When will we see the results of that? When when will that be made available? That I believe we've embedded in our letter. I'm looking at Gabby. um the letter that I'm sending out tomorrow. So, it's embedded in that letter. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Chris. That's great news. Yeah. Okay. Moving on to the consent agenda. Does anyone wish to pull an item from the consent agenda for discussion? No one. Okay. So, that
093moves us to a motion. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? Mr. Nurwood. I have a second. Mr. Preston, all those in favor, please raise your hand. That passes 7 to zero. Okay, moving on to item seven, board requests for new information and reports. Trustees, anyone at this time would wish to request any new information or reports from the administrative team? Yes, Chris. Yes. So we just in our workshop previously this evening uh we talked a little bit about the teacher incentive aotment and the uh ways that evaluations uh the ways that we will identify whether that those criteria have been met. One of those things is the essentially the evaluation process for our teachers. Um it's one of the areas that quite frankly I know very little about. Um,
094and so I would love to get some additional information and even potentially consider a workshop on um, how that process works. Uh, the tests. Yeah, sounds like a appropriate request based on what we heard today. Okay. Anyone else? All right. That takes us to public comments regarding non-aggenda items. I believe I have one individual Sir, as you approach the podium, I'm going to read a few things into the record if I could. All right. All right, sir. Uh if you give me just a moment. Okay. In accordance with district policy beed local, any person wishing to address the board of trustees during public comments shall sign up before the meeting, which you've done. In order to comply with the Texas meetings act, the board may not respond to comments or otherwise discuss or act upon
095any issues that are not posted in the meeting agenda. Participants will be allowed three minutes for public comments regarding items on the agenda. And of course, this is a non-aggenda item comment. We have a timer on the screen that shows you the audit time and that will Can you see that? Oh, it's up there. Three minutes. And the board shall not tolerate any disruption of the meeting by members of the public. And sir, you are Kyle Pierce. Is that right? Okay. So, uh, if you will just state your name for the record and where you reside, and then you can begin. Uh, my name is Kyle Pierce. I live here in Belton. Ready? Yes, sir. All right. Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. My name is Kyle, father
096of four and a parent of a sixth grader at BMS, my son, River. River's bright, imaginative, he's so kind. He's also neurode divergent and uh his diagnosis is ADHD. And despite his best efforts and ours, he's struggling with uh um not with the content that's being delivered to him, but how that content is is being delivered almost entirely through his schoolisssued Chromebook. In theory, using technology in classrooms sounds efficient. However, in practice, especially for students like River, it can be a constant mindfield of distraction, frustration, and failure. His math teacher, who's awesome and wonderful, recently told me that River continues to struggle with staying on task during class. He can't help from clicking through tabs or straying the game sites or watching YouTube videos that his friends share with him at school. These aren't behavioral
097issues. They're executive functioning issues. And that's an important distinction. We're expecting our middle school students uh whose prefrontal cortex isn't even close to developed. Um, we're we're expecting them to resist the temptation of a screen designated or designed for multi- multitasking, gaming, and entertainment. And for a neur divergent student especially, that's like handing a child a video game console and act asking them to ignore it while they do long division. I couldn't find the data for BISD, but in Texas, nearly one in five children are neurode divergent, and we're asking a significant portion of our student population to learn in a format that actively works against their cognitive profile. Doing math homework with River is exhausting anyway. Uh, but the screen makes it so much more difficult. Screenbased platforms add friction instead of removing it.
098Writing out answers with a finger or a mouse is uh no different than trying to sign your signature on the credit card machine. And one accidental click can submit an answer prematurely with no chance to revise. And this causes frustration and in our house often a potential meltdown. It's not about ability. It's about the system and fa and it's failing to meet the students where they are. I'm not here asking to eliminate technology. I'm asking for moderation uh for the option to complete more assignments especially in subjects like math on paper and I'm asking for consideration of how digital tools when over when overused can become obstacles rather than assets. This isn't about my son. It's not just about him. It's about every student who wants to succeed but is quietly falling behind. not because
099they don't understand the material, but because the method is working against them. I'm happy to answer any questions and give information or examples. Again, thank you for your time and thank you for what you do on behalf of our kids. Thank you, Mr. Pierce. Yeah, and we'll follow up with you. Thank you. That takes us to item nine, close session Texas government code chapters subchapters D and E. The time is now 7:54 p.m. The board will now go into close session for a student disciplinary matter Texas government code section 551.082 B personnel Texas government code section 551.074 074 item one summation evaluation of the superintendent and then 9C consultation with attorney text government code section 551.071 071. [Music] The time is 8:53 p.m. and the board will now reconvene in open session. All action items,
100reports, and consent items for this meeting have been addressed. There being no further business, this meeting is adjourned at 8:53 p.m. [Music]