001Hi, good evening. It is 6:00 p.m. The Board of Trustees of the Brenham Independent School District is now convened. I wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone present. In collaboration with our families and community, Brenham ISD is committed to providing an exceptional education for all students in a safe environment. As a Brenham ISD Board of Trustees, we are here to provide local citizen governance and oversight. The management and day-to-day operations of the district are the responsibility of the superintendent. This is a public meeting of the Board of Trustees. School board meetings are open to all who wish to attend to hear the matters discussed. Audience participation is limited to the public comment portion of the meeting. These proceedings are recorded and I respectfully ask that you please refrain from talking while others are speaking.
002Thank you for taking this time this evening to join us for the interest of Brenham Independent School District. Kelvin Flay At this time, Kelvin Raven will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by the invocation given by Kyle Hafner. Bow your heads. Dear Heavenly Father, please watch over the board, the teachers, principals, and all the staff working to make sure we do what's best for the children and keep the focus on the children. Please watch over our students to make sure they have a great graduation coming up this Friday and everybody stay safe. And please, of course, watch over the community to make sure we have a very safe and happy celebration. In your name we pray. Amen. Keep it simple on graduation. I'm like, "Oh, yeah." Kyle, I don't often comment on prayers,
003but I I would say we should add uh dry graduation. Dry graduation. Okay, next uh we're going to go into special recognition. Uh I'd like to invite uh our MC JROTC Captain Jeffrey Base to introduce his uh I don't know if y'all may have heard of him, national championship uh ROTC. >> [applause] [applause] >> All right. Just push the button down by the There you go. Are we good now? Okay. Good evening. Uh This is too tall for me. All right. So, uh I got a select group of people here. You know, it's the end of the year and it's hard to get people uh lots of the seniors are out uh doing senior things and having senioritis. And lots of people are working. We were gone for about 6 days here recently, so they're
004trying to catch up and get their funding back up for whatever they're intending to do afterwards. But, uh number one would like to show my appreciation for uh superintendent for stepping in uh this year and um give us a lot more funding than we have before. So, and um hopefully we uh did what we needed to do to uh show that appreciation. So, thank you. Um This is the second year in a go second year in a row that I've had the honor of standing here about the same time to talk about these kids right here. And uh probably probably our best year. Not probably, it was our best year uh this past year. If you don't know, I'll let you know right now. Uh second year in a row dual national champions in both
005uh one uh both divisions. Uh one is armed with rifles, one is without rifles. Uh two separate groups of people. We roll with about 40 different people that have to be present and, uh, passing and doing the right type of behaviors in school. So, um, lots of appreciation to them for their accomplishments this year in keeping their head on and keeping focused. So, um, uh, in addition to that, you know, I I try to explain things to people sometimes with like, not only were they Marine Corps JROTC national champions, we ended up going to the All Service uh, national championship in Daytona about 2 weeks ago where we prob- for the unarmed team, we did better than any other JROTC or Marine Corps JROTC has ever done and ending up in second place of all
006high schools in the entire United States regardless of service. So, that was an accomplishment. Um, >> [applause] >> and fell just slightly short of, uh, the ultimate goal, but that was great. And the, uh, uh, arm the arm team competed in the three different divisions. They competed in division two and they won their division. So, that's another accomplishment. So, um, >> [applause] >> on top of all that, I can keep going for days and days and days to talk about the accomplishments of these kids, but we also, there's something we call duo, uh, duo routines that these kids have to do. And, uh, select group of people can do it. There's about 70, I can't remember how many teams, 70 or 80 teams from across the country that came into Daytona to do that. And,
007um, as the announcer said when he came across the stage, he said, "First he said second place, um, Brenham, right?" And he said, "Hold on. This is the first time this has ever happened. Uh, we both we got both first and second place in duos." So, yeah. Holy cow. So, >> [applause] >> but anyway, I can talk all day, but again, I really appreciate the support of the uh, school board, the school district, and everybody involved, and it's a special day for these kids, or a special year for these kids, so that's what I got to say. >> [applause] >> Come on, we don't bite. Shake hands. Congratulations. Kiss babies. That's what I thought. I don't know if I need to bow to y'all. I mean, do I have to like kiss a ring or
008something? Y'all are awesome, man. I'm so proud of y'all. Good job. Good job. That's great. Keep it up. Man, y'all are amazing. That's wonderful, and congratulations. Congratulations. >> [laughter] >> All right, now. I'll grab a picture right there. Thank you, guys, again for representing us. [applause] Y'all are amazing. Captain Baze, thank you. It's unbelievable. Okay, next we're going to We're going to recognize the band winter guard. If I can get band director Joshua Templesy up here. >> [applause] >> Hey. Um, thank you so much for having us today to celebrate these amazing members of our 2026 winter guard. For those of you unfamiliar with what winter guard is, it's an ensemble made up entirely of members of our color guard. It's the group that spins flags, rifles, sabers, and dances as part of our high
009school cut band marching show. This ensemble, the winter guard, competes in the spring semester inside in a gym with a resort corded soundtrack. We are very thankful to the BMS admin for allowing us to rehearse in our middle school gym because, if you're not aware, gym space at the high school is sacred. Um so, we love our middle school admin that has given us um permission to rehearse over in their gym. This group rehearses outside of the school day while balancing band, theater, choir, academics, jobs, and many other commitments. Um we compete as part of the Texas Color Guard Circuit, which stretches from the far side of Houston through Austin, through San Antonio, all the way down into the Rio Grande Valley. Um much of our season puts us in competition locally with winter guard
010units in the greater Houston area. Our winter guard started rehearsing right after the UIL State Marching Band Contest in November. At the end of January, we went to our first contest in the Scholastic Regional A class, finishing in the middle of our rounds. At the end of February, we went to another TCC TCC contest at Paetow High School, where we finished first in our round. This success prompted a classification review that resulted in promotion up into the Scholastic Double A class, a first for our group. This promotion into the Scholastic Double A class put us into a class that had an advancement opportunity to compete at the TCC Circuit State Championships. In March, we went to the contest at Langham Creek High School on that end spring the end weekend of spring break, where we
011finished in the top three in our rounds in our new higher class. At the end of March, we competed at the TCC Area Qualifier in League City, where we hoped to earn a spot at the TCC State Championships in April. After a great run, we secured a spot at state with our third place area finish. The TCGC State Championships was held at Texas State University on the weekend of April 18th and 19th. We want to thank our amazing band parent club for setting us up with a hotel for Saturday night. After an exciting performance on Saturday morning, we waited not so patiently for the award ceremony to begin. As they worked through placements in our rounds, the tension grew and grew. Then we got to the medalist in our rounds and our names hadn't been
012announced yet. So, we were excited to be in the top three. Then they announced third place and it wasn't us. Then they announced second place and it wasn't us. That's when it dawned on us dawned on us that we were the champions of our rounds. We were excited not only to have been promoted to a higher class of competition this year, but to have won our rounds and we found out that our score was the highest score of our entire class at our state championship contest. >> [applause] >> From being promoted into a higher class after our second show to winning that higher class in our first season competing at that level was outstanding. We want to thank our BISD administration, the BHS administration, our Brenham band parents, the Brenham band program, the Brenham Brenham
013band directors, and Asia Jackson, who is an alumni of our program that came back and has worked with us this season for all of their support. We are so excited to see what the future holds for us. Thank you. >> Okay, next if I can have coach Earl Hathaway and coach Tara Filmer come to the front to recognize our boys and girls golf qualifiers for state. me, I had to have any technology ability to stand up here, okay? Okay, these these massive bodies of athletes uh represented us real well. They qualified for the state golf tournament this year. Uh the boys won the district championship, came in third at the regional championship, and participated well in the state championship. Came in butt last, okay, but anyway, we did a great job. It was a great
014experience for all the kids. Riley came in third overall in the district tournament. Regional tournament came in fifth, something like that. Fourth, fifth at district, qualified for state for her second year in a row. She represented us very well, came in 26th overall out of 72 young ladies. So, we're very proud of these guys. We have one senior, that's Levi uh DuPont, and the rest will all be back next year. So, we're looking forward to a good year again, hopefully. Hey, uh real quick, Coach Hathaway. Who was the district coach of the year? Uh that would have been me. Attaboy. >> [applause] >> Okay, next if I can have Brian Gibson come to the front to our monthly pay to ride certificates. Oh, oh, oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Hold on, Brian. Coach
015Young's, I apologize. Uh, but I Coach Young can come to the front and talk about our track qualifiers for state. Sorry about that. I got it. I got it. Um, right now I'll bring up uh head boys track coach Jeffrey Toliver and head girls uh track coach Demetrius Gilliam and let them uh talk about their kids and introduce the regional and state qualifiers. All right, uh good evening. Um, I'd like to uh recognize our regional qualifiers for boys track. Um, in the 4 by 2 we had uh Cartel Brown, uh Depaldrick Moore, Talik Williams, and Ledrick Walker. Um, next the district champion 4 by 4 uh consisted of Chris Hudgens, Traylan Kelly, Talik Williams, and Willie Fuller. Um, that relay also qualified for regionals, um, finished one place out of making it to the finals,
016I believe. Um, next thing um we have long jumper Quincy Adams. Um, he qualified uh regionals in long jump. And then also Quincy Adams was a district champion, area champion, regional champion, state qualifier uh in the boys triple jump where he finished eighth place. Um, getting to state is a huge honor. Um, one of nine kids that got to participate in the state track meet, very proud of them. Um, I believe right now we have what, one senior up here? Is that right? No, none of our seniors are here. So, all these guys will be returning. Um, very excited. We have two freshmen up here that ran on relays for us. And so, uh, for boys track, the future is definitely bright. And thank you, guys. >> [applause] >> All right, good afternoon. My name
017is Demetria Gilliam and I got replaced at um, Ms. Donna Williams as the legendary track coach. So, uh, today we're here to uh, honor and highlight Hikira Williams in her phenomenal season this year. Um, as you watched her, she started to really grow and blossom and hit her stride, um, where she eventually ended up her season as a regional qualifier and a um, seventh place finalist. Um, Hikira, she was a district champion of our district 5A and she finished with the time of 15.98 in the 100-meter hurdles. And she ended also placed fourth place in the 300-meter hurdles with the time of 48.58. Um, the following week she advanced to area and then she placed third place in the 100-meter hurdles with the time of 16.32, allowing her to advance to the um, regional meet.
018At regionals, um, Hikira finished seventh out of 16 and she had her personal best time of a 15.84, um, allowing her to finish seventh place in the finals. Um, Hikira's a sophomore, she'll be back for the next 2 years. We um, look forward to watching her grow and continue to progress and hopefully uh, make it to the state uh, meet one day within these uh, 4 years. Also, uh, Coach Miller, he's not here tonight, but I want to honor his um, hard work with Hikira. He worked with her, you know, consistently and daily and really put her in the place where she needed to be. So, um, Hikira Williams. >> [applause] >> Okay, now if I can have uh Brian Gibson, our director of transportation, come to the front for our pay to ride. 100%
019this time. >> [laughter] >> You notice Coach Young's left, so I'm good. Good evening. Um once again, I get the honor of getting to announce our winners from the Read and Ride program. Uh this was made possible by the Education Foundation sponsoring a grant uh allowing us to partner up with The Book Nook and rewarding those students that ride the bus on a daily basis. Um not just the kids that sit down and are quiet, and we love that, but also reward our kids for improved behavior. So, it runs the gamut. I want people to know that this isn't something that it's it's trying to reward everyone for improvement, for great ridership, just being a role model all together, once again, embodying what it means to be a cub in our schools and on our
020buses. So, I have a long list I'm going to read to you. We started with 20 last time. Since then, we have awarded 30 more, uh and we have 10 more to go this week. So, really excited. Uh I don't want to skip anybody, so if you all will just bear with me. Uh Jereth Rivas, Marshall Vaughn, Esther Marshall, Leilani De Leon, Leon Hernandez, Andrew Pauller, Jeremiah Powell, Taylor Holcomb, Destiny Crowthers, Kinlin Garrett, Zariah Morgan, Michaela Moore, Jalia Finley, Paloma Salazar, De'Caden Breedlove, Cherish Grant, Viviana Benitez, Alaya Walker, Dulce Clemente Mendez, Caden Crowder, Arturo Garcia, Bruce Avalos, Christian Miller, Bailey Massey, Claudia Ramirez Wills, Courtney Olivera, A'Mari Garrett, O'Monte Jones, and Dylan Tejeda. So, thank you all once again. Can't say thank you enough to the Education Foundation. Okay, now if I can have our
021elementary curriculum coordinator, Kirstie Stronal, introduce the Cubs to Read program participants. Good evening. I'm pleased to share an update on the volunteer tutoring efforts that take place across Brenham ISD this school year. Our volunteer program continues to be a wonderful example of what can happen when a community comes together to support children. The Through the combined efforts of Brenham ISD, Cubs to Read, Blinn College, and many generous community members, students at all three elementary campuses received additional reading support throughout the year. This work would not be possible without the extraordinary leadership of Suzy and Flammer and Billy Fowler. Suzy and Billy have devoted countless hours to recruiting volunteers, organizing schedules, communicating with campuses, and ensuring that students consistently receive the support they need. Their dedication to the children of Brenham ISD is remarkable, and their
022commitment has been the driving force behind the continued success of this program. This school year, volunteers have worked weekly with students at Krause Elementary, Brenham Elementary, and Alton Elementary. In addition to our community volunteers, Blinn student athletes have faithfully given their time to tutor students and build meaningful relationships with them. These partnerships have provided both academic support and encouragement to many of our young learners. We're also grateful to our campus instructional coaches, Arlene Gomez, Suzy and Maxwell, and Kristie Hinze, who helped prepare volunteers and worked closely with our campuses to coordinate tutoring efforts. Our Human Resources Department, including Delita Alvarez and Jennifer Griffin, continued to support the program by guiding volunteers through the orientation and onboarding process. Throughout the year, campus staff shared that students responded very positively to the consistent one-on-one support provided by
023their volunteer tutors. Teachers noted increased confidence, stronger engagement, and a greater willingness to take on challenging reading tasks. In addition to the academic practice, the encouragement and relationships built with volunteers helped students develop stronger reading habits and a growing sense of themselves as capable learners. Most importantly, we're thankful for every volunteer who has shared their time and their heart with our students. Their presence sends a powerful message message that our community believes in the success of every child. On behalf of Brenham ISD, I would like to extend our sincere appreciation to Susan Flammer and Billy Fowler for their unwavering commitment and leadership. Their passion for serving students has made a lasting impact, and we're grateful for all they do, and we look forward to continue this program next year. So, thank you for your continued
024support, and at this time I'd like to ask our coaches, um Miss Fowler and Miss Flammer, and any volunteers that are here to come forward. >> [applause] >> Oh, we're taking a picture. We're taking a picture. You get in front. Yeah. You know, it's your vertical challenge. I did uh want to say this on the microphone but we really do appreciate all y'all's time that y'all spend with the kids. I know it's making a big impact on them and so just thank you so much for everything you do cuz God knows there's a thousand other things you could be doing so thank y'all so much for everything you do for the kids. Okay, we did not have anybody sign up for public comment so we are going to move directly into the election of our
025board officers which we do every May. Each year the board of trustees elects officers which include president, vice president, and secretary. Nominations are now in order for the office of president. At this time, please raise your hand if you have a nominee. Ms. Brinkmar? I nominate Jared Krynock for the office of president. Bonnie Brinkmar nominates Jared Krynock for the office of president. Are there any further nominations for the office of president? Okay. If no further nominations for the office of president are offered, nominations are closed. Is there any discussion? At this time, I will call for the vote of the office of president. Each member will vote one time by raising their hand. Those in favor of Jared Krynock to serve in the office of president of the Board of Trustees, raise your right hand
026and keep it raised until counted. All seven votes have been taken and all seven votes were in favor. Jared Krynock has received the majority of votes to serve as president of the Board of Trustees. I'll be applause. Thank you. >> [laughter] [laughter] [gasps] >> Nominations are now in order for the office of vice president. At this time, please raise your hand if you have a nominee. Mr. Raven? I like to nominate Bonnie Brinkmar for vice president. >> [clears throat] >> Kelvin Raven has nominated Bonnie Brinkmar for the office of vice president. Are there any further any further nominations for the office of vice president? If no further nominations for the office of vice president are offered, nominations are closed. Is there a discussion? At this time, I will call for the vote of the office
027of vice president. Each member will vote one time by raising their right hand. Those in favor of Bonnie Brickbauer to serve in the office of vice president of the Board of Trustees, raise your right hand and keep it raised until counted. All six votes have been raised and that is unanimous. Bonnie Brickbauer has received majority of the votes to serve as vice president of the Brenham ISD Board of Trustees. >> [applause] >> Thank you. >> [laughter] >> No love up here, guys. All right, nominations are now in order for the office of secretary. At this time At this time, please raise your hand if you have a nominee. Justin Collie? I'd like to nominate uh Calvin Raven for secretary. Okay, Justin Collie has nominated Calvin Raven for the office of secretary. Are there any further
028nominations for the office of secretary? If no further nominations for the office of secretary are offered, nominations are closed. Is there any discussion? At this time, I will call for the vote of office of secretary. Each member will vote one time by raising their right hand. Those in favor of Calvin Raven to serve in the office of secretary of the Board of Trustees, raise your right hand and keep it raised until counted. All six votes have been counted. It is unanimous. Calvin Raven has received the majority of the votes to serve as secretary of the Brenham ISD Board of Trustees. This concludes our officer nominations for the 2026-2027 school year. >> [applause] >> Okay, next we have our superintendent's monthly updates. Well, good evening. We've made it to the final week of school. It's hard
029to believe that it's here. What a very fast uh but productive year we've had. Um as you can see tonight, it's very celebratory uh time of year. A lot of staff celebrations, student celebrations going on. Of course, all leading up to graduation this Friday uh that I know we are also very excited about. Um you know, they say it takes a village to raise a child. Um I see that more and more uh how true that is in today's time. It takes an entire community. Um everyone that was a part of tonight and any part of uh this this school year from encouraging a kiddo to get to school or uh from uh assisting the the uh a campus with tutoring as you saw tonight or all the hours that went into the the training
030uh for these extracurricular events that uh we we highlighted this evening. Takes every one of them, every one of us, every one of you, every person in this room, on our campuses, our neighborhoods to get the seniors across the lines. So, this is a a celebratory week. We look so very forward to this Friday. So, let me touch base on this Friday. I know the media's had a couple of questions as well about the weather. We are tracking the chance of rain so very close. Uh we had a meeting in my office, Mr. Watts, my cabinet, myself, uh Joe Merkley with security, uh we had facilities there, uh Brian with transportation was there. Uh we'll continue to watch the weather very close. Please know that uh it is our priority, my priority to have this
031event on Friday. Um we know that thousands, and I do mean thousands of people are traveling to to be a part or planning to be a part of this graduation uh with their own personal parties, um uh uh time off work, uh travel commitments, et cetera. So, we're going to do our very best to have this event on Friday, even if that means pushing it back. Right now, it is uh at the regular scheduled time on Friday. We hope to make that happen. Um if we have to push the event back on that Friday to make it happen, then that's our priority to have it on the evening that again thousands of people have have planned for. Um if for some reason it gets to an hour that uh Mr. Watson and I are looking
032at each other saying we've got to come up with a plan B, we will push to the following date, okay? So, just uh please be advised that we are we are watching that closely and we are going to do our best to have that event Friday evening as planned. Um want to thank everybody for tonight, for the celebrations, those celebrations that will continue to go on throughout the week, and hope to see everybody at uh at some events, especially graduation this Friday. Let me say it will be a busy summer. Uh board of of uh mentioned that to you probably the last few weeks, last month. It will be a busy summer. It always is. Uh we've got six meetings uh scheduled for the summer uh with a priority, of course, on on budget, right?
033That's one of your main functions, to adopt the budget, and we want to be sure that you're prepared for that. Uh the special meetings are all um designated as budget workshops. Uh the first one happening on June 1st. It's going to happen right behind us in this room, this PLC room. Um I want the board and cabinet working there together in a true budget workshop. We'll have principals and directors there uh to answer any questions any of us may may have with that. Um we'll try to have a a hard stop time because uh there's no decisions being made in that meeting. It's informational. Uh final decisions are not made until the regular the final adoption of the budget is not made until the regular board meeting on August 17th. So, uh again, first meeting
034June 1st. Um you don't adopt a budget until August 17th. We want to give you plenty of time to look and consider anything you need to look at or consider. So, as we roll into that budget workshop, please know that I know uh that uh many of us are on lunch hours and that sort of thing. We'll try to have a a hard stop with that, but we want to give you as much information as we can as we progress throughout the the summer. With that, I say thank you all for a great school year. Thank you everybody in this room, anybody listening. It truly takes an entire village or in our case, Brenham ISD community to get these guys across the line and thank you so much for your support in doing that. Come
035out and enjoy us uh celebrate the kiddos on Friday. Okay, next we have board member reports / comments. I think I started with Kyle last time. I'm going to start with you today. Mr. Archer. I just want to take a moment to thank all of our principals, all of our staff, all of our teachers, everybody that has been a part of team Brenham ISD this year. I know it's been challenging in more than one way with the budget cuts and things that happened at the beginning of this year. You guys have been warriors throughout the entire year and we are so greatly appreciative of everything you do for our kids, for our community. And so, thank you for hanging in there with us and I just wanted to say from the bottom of my heart
036that I really appreciate everything you all do. It does not go unnoticed. So, thank you very much. I just want to let all the educators know we appreciate you. You should have received an email last week that we're very thankful for all of you, all the employees, all the teachers, all the assistant staff. We really, really appreciate you and thank you for what you do. What they said. I I with that 100% and then uh just got to go to the uh senior scholarship ceremony, um which was fantastic. We presented our our board member uh scholarship, but um uh the amount of money that is given away that our community steps up for at that event is just astronomical. I think Shawna was like over $600,000 towards our kids' education that comes straight from this
037community. Um Brenham never ceases to amaze me and how big their hearts are and what they'll do for these kids. Uh and then also um I got to view my first daisy chain. Uh I'm not ready. My son was one of the ones that received it and uh please help. Taking advice. Anybody that has something for a senior next year, I'd appreciate it. [laughter] But uh other than that, just so grateful for a great school year. A lot of positive momentum with Brenham ISD right now and just we're just so grateful for everybody that has a hand in it. So, thank y'all. I could go on and on, but these guys here would kill me. And so, uh I just want again to to say what they're saying. Thank you all, those of you in
038the community, those of you who are on the with their boots on the ground every day. We appreciate you more than you know. And we are so excited and so proud of these kids. Uh the ones that were there the other day getting scholarships. They already have their plan for what they're going to be doing next and we're very proud of them. Uh I'm going to say a prayer for all of us this summer so that we have a good summer, a chance to relax, a chance to just um get get together with friends and family and allow ourselves some time to relax a little bit because it'll come soon enough in August. But thank you all for what you've done for us, too. Thanks. I just want to kind of echo every obviously what
039everyone else said. I'm thankful for the teachers and all the boots on the ground. Uh it's been a long year. Um it's coming down to an end very quickly. Um I got to attend the junior high watch ceremony a couple weeks ago last week. That was a fun event seeing I think it was like 130 to 150 students receive watches for academic success. So that's a great program that that dates back to Ben Sikes days at at the middle school which is pretty amazing. I did have the opportunity to drive down to Rice University and watch the baseball team play a playoff game. To to be able to watch our students play in a facility like that was was unbelievable and amazing all the same time for those those students to experience that and play
040at a very high level competitive level. It's unfortunate they lost. PNG has a great team and they're still playing today. So but it's it's it's just awesome to watch those students excel and play at that high of a level. There's band concert tonight. Middle school band performed down the hall in the high school gym. I I know it's probably done by now and I'm sure it was fantastic. They've got the best band director in the district and then there's a junior high band concert tomorrow night. So if you've got some time come watch the junior high band tomorrow night play their final concert of the year. So look forward to seeing everyone out there. Thank you. Okay. I think that the word that kept coming back to me was intentionality. Just intentionality of our educators
041of how you lean in so wonderfully with our kids and making sure that they're having a good time. We're not just checking boxes here in Brenham. Got to be at Alton watch their pajama party for the first grade celebration and the program was amazing. It could have been phoned in. It could have been like well they're first graders but it wasn't. It was excellent in every way. Went out to their field day a few days ago and and watched how it was just executed. The teachers out there when it's hot when it's tired and it's the end of the year but still giving everything that they have. Just love seeing that happen. As you mentioned the watch ceremony. I've never been in a town that has this and I think that that is a beautiful
042thing. I think it's a real right of passage and we're so proud of one of our boys and girls club kids who walked across the stage had one of the highest honors and it was just really neat to see that and also everybody who showed up and um, and even just even Brenham Middle School with their kickball tournament, making sure the kids are getting out all the energy, all the organization that takes to do that. Love that as well. And then got to see a fifth grade promotion ceremony, um, Ms. Laura Sell and Ms. Herda and their and their crew, uh, today. And the extra effort that goes in. Um, our people go above and beyond and I think it needs to be recognized consistently and often. And, uh, especially whenever maybe we're disappointed by
043something, but also understand every single day they're showing up and making it happen. And, uh, so we're we're grateful to live in this community. And, uh, love that we are uh, pushing our kids to excellence, but also letting them know that we see them and we appreciate them. So, uh, really proud to be a part of this. Bonnie Shawn is going to give you a run for your money. >> Absolutely. And get him a clock timer as well. Um, Justin, I still have my watch from eighth grade. You know, I I remember those ceremonies. It's, uh, it's pretty cool. Um, the only thing I didn't hear anybody mention was Mayfest parade. I was, uh, preoccupied with a different float, but I know we had a pretty decent showing. I know it was really cool to
044see, uh, a lot of the people out there waving to a lot of green on, but, uh, I going last, there's nothing else to say other than echoing what everybody else said. Uh, obviously, the board, uh, all of us, uh, we really appreciate what the teachers do. They And it's not just the teachers. It's the aids, it's the paraprofessionals, it's the custodial staff, it's everybody. We appreciate all of them. It's a it's a heck of a year and, um, and we we have a an amazing team. So, appreciate them all. Okay, moving on. Uh, I'd like to invite Ms. Cassandra Davis to come to the front to talk to us about a monetary grant for the Children's Nutrition Department. All right, good evening members of the board and Superintendent Gillantine. I'm excited to be here
045tonight and it's been a while since I've got to get up and speak to you, especially since we implemented CEP, so I'm going to use my speaker time here for a moment. Um so this year we implemented CEP where we were able to offer free breakfast and lunch to every child who wanted one. By doing that this year, we have increased our breakfast participation by 6% and our lunch participation by 10%. And to kind of put that in perspective and give some numbers to it, that was an extra 31,221 breakfasts and an extra 50,218 lunches this year compared to last year. So we did great during the year, so we want to continue that through the summer. So we're going to build on that momentum um and we're launching a new meals to go summer
046program. Um the intent behind this is TDA has some options for rural non-congregate feeding, which means that students don't have to come and sit in the cafeteria and eat. We are able to provide and package bundled meals so that they can come pick it up and take it home. Um we've had some options in the past to do curbside, but it didn't give us much flexibility as we have this year. So this year we're doing it as big as we can cuz why not, right? So most districts are doing a five or a seven-day option. Um I've elected to do a 10-day meal bundle option, which means families will be able to come and pick up 10 days worth of meals. That's 10 breakfasts and 10 lunches for families. So strategically we plan to do
047this every other Monday throughout the summer. That will provide five opportunities starting on June 1st through July 27th for families to come and pick up 50 days worth of meals. By doing it every other week like that, we're ending the Friday before school starts. School will start on a Wednesday and we're providing meals up until that point. Um so I'm super excited about it. Families will have two opportunities on Mondays to pick up meals either from 9:30 to 10:30 or from 4:30 to 6:00. So for those families who are working um or for those who just need an opportunity to get out of the house for a little while, we're trying to provide that for them. With that though comes money, right? So, um I had watched a webinar. As I mentioned, this is new
048for TDA and a lot of districts in Texas aren't doing this. I tried to pull a list of how many are actually doing a 10-day non-congregate meal pick-up and I couldn't find one. So, I'm thinking that's because there's just not that many to um list. So, when I was learning about the opportunities that are out there, um there were two other states that were doing a great job and so I watched a webinar from No Kid Hungry who brought them on and they talked about their past experience. Um from that I found out that No Kid Hungry has a grant opportunity and so we always know that school districts need money and especially those departments who are self-sufficient like mine. Um so I signed up to receive um the grant and we actually were awarded
049the grant, which is great. So, that's why I'm here. Um but to kind of go back, we um when we were making all of these decisions and trying to figure out what best would help our community, I had put out a Google Form and I had asked parents to fill it out, guardians to fill it out, um and to kind of get a feel. So, I launched it last Monday. We've been open for a week for those to sign up for the first June 1st pick-up and so far as of today when I left the office at about 4:30, we had 321 children signed up for that June 1st pick-up. Yeah. So, we're really excited. There's a lot more children out there in our community. These do not have to be Brenham ISD students. They
050can attend a private school, they can attend a home school. We're just trying to feed the children here. So, if you have kids, grandkids that are with you for the summer or anybody in the audience or anybody listening, please sign up. Um one of the things that I hear is that there's a hesitation that people don't want to sign up cuz they don't want to take food away from somebody else who might need it more. Um so, I just want to clarify as I have the mic tonight, um that this is all federally funded reimbursements. The The families who participate, the stronger our program becomes. Um we're able to not only help the families in our community, but we're also helping to normalize school food. We still get a bad rap out there, right? So,
051um this is a good opportunity for families to see that the cereal that we have in the cafeteria is not the same one that you're going to get at the grocery store. It's reduced sugar. It's whole grain. Um so, it's an opportunity for some families to kind of see what food that we have. To mimic that, these foods are going to be easy packaged, individually wrapped meals. Um we know a lot of our kids are home by themself over the summer or there's not a lot of opportunity for them to cook either by themselves. Families are working. Um so, these are easy, simple meals that kids can open or put in a microwave and have food to eat over the summer. So, with all of that, I'm asking for your approval tonight um for the
052No Kid Hungry grant. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. >> [laughter] >> This is This is outstanding. This is what our values are. All children. This is helping all our children. This is outstanding. I appreciate that. Thank you. I'll make the motion. No problem. No problem at all. I was ready to go ahead. I'll make a motion to accept No Kid Hungry grant for the Child Nutrition Department for 17,382 for the fiscal year 2026 as presented. I second. Thank you. Okay. Um Kelvin Raven made a motion seconded by Kyle Hafner to accept the No Kid Hungry grant for the child nutrition do do do do do hungry for the Child Nutrition Department at 17,382 for fiscal year 2026 as presented. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Thank you so much for all your work on
053this. Y'all got me for another year, too, of all this mouth jumble. Okay. Um Mr. Sinclair, you are up. We're going to review the 2026 preliminary certified values. >> All right, good evening. I'd like to start out tonight directing your attention. This report was in your board packet. We have it here on the side. We have just begun the next phase of budgeting. Each year in April, the tax appraisers from in our case Washington and Austin counties release their preliminary values to us. These preliminary values will be updated as we continue to go on throughout the summer until about the end of July when they become certified values. But, we really don't have time to wait to start trying to get an idea of what our our tax revenues will be for next year because
054as you know, our local tax collections and our state revenue are very much intertwined. So, to not know one means you really don't know the other very well either. So, this is the starting point that we have to begin working on local tax collection revenue calculations. We'll be updating our finance template with this information and fine-tuning as the summer progresses and we get more information. There are a lot other a lot of other moving pieces and parts, but this is one of the biggest ones right here. So, I would like to point out here I've given you the 2024, 2025, and now the 2026 preliminary values. The change column, the next-to-last column there, that represents only the change between last year and this year. And please keep in mind not to try to compare apples
055to oranges. We're only looking at preliminary values. Obviously, we do have the certified values from 2024 and 2025, but that's not really what we're looking at here tonight. We're just trying to look at the preliminaries to keep things consistent. So, you can see there's not a huge amount of change. That last column, the percent change from 2025 to preliminary 2026, not a huge amount of change. We weren't really anticipating, at least I wasn't really anticipating a tremendous amount of change. Uh there have been years in the recent history where we've had double-digit increases in property values, but things seem to have kind of leveled off the last couple of years. So, not a huge surprise here with any of this information. Uh again, this is just the starting point. From this information, uh especially the
056net taxable value there for the 2026 year, uh that's what I'm using to begin trying to estimate our T values that then go into our finance template. Uh the most notable, of course, is the T2 value. That's the most That's the biggest driver of our state revenue and our tax collection uh information. So, just keep in mind, these are very preliminary estimates. I'm going to use these estimates to do more estimating on T values, about uh 10 of them, I believe, is what we're up to now in the state financing world. And then, I'll be using those estimates to then estimate a compressed tax rate, which, as of last night when I checked, TEA has not released a template yet, a tool, a spreadsheet template for us to start in- inputting our data. Once they
057release that, then I can start getting an idea of what our compressed tax rate will be for next year. So, we've got preliminary values used to get an estimate of T values used to get an estimate of a tax rate. So, everything is very uncertain at this point. But, like I said, we got to start somewhere, so this is where we start. And then, as we continue to get updated information both from our appraisal district and from TEA as the summer progresses and we have our budget workshops that were mentioned earlier, then hopefully things will start to congeal a little bit better. Uh, but so far, this is where we are. Are there any questions about the preliminary values? It's a bit overwhelming, isn't it? >> [laughter] >> I'm just glad we have you. I'm
058glad you're here to explain it to us. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay, uh, next we have our finance update, Mr. Sinclair. Yeah, I turned it on. Yeah, we're working on technical difficulties for just a second. While we're waiting, I have a quick question that I'm sure everybody else in this room knows, but I don't. What's the difference between, uh, the T value versus the T two value? Well, there's actually about 10 different T values, so they they are T1, T2, T3, T4. I think there's no five and six currently. There used to be, they've gone away, then we've got seven, eight, nine, so on and so forth. Several of them are duplicates of the others. So, for example, I believe one and three are the same thing. Uh, maybe even five, two, and four,
059and eight, I believe are all the same. So, >> [clears throat] >> basically what happens is the T2 is what the the state says we should be able to calculate our tax collections on. T1 I'm trying to remember here. I've got all this in my spreadsheet, but I haven't didn't look at it today. Um T1 is I'm going to pass on T1. Okay. That's fine. >> T There's three or four of them that are based that are used to calculate our INS tax rate and collections. The other half of them about half are for that, half are for M&O calculations. Basically, the reason why we're up to I believe number 18, 19, and 20 currently, but like I said, we've skipped a few in between. Uh there used to be about four of these about
06015 years ago. So, generally what happens every time they change the homestead exemption value, they have to introduce a new T value. And that's changed quite a bit in the last 10 years. Because what they typically what they have to do what TEA TEA when I say they, what TEA has to monitor is what would our collections have been at the previous homestead exemption rate before the latest one, and then what is it now because obviously that takes values out taxable values out of our pool, and so they have to know what would it have been, what is it now, the difference is what they hold us harmless for, and that helps them calculate then what additional state funding we get to make up for the loss of local tax collections. So, that's why they
061keep adding new T values. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. I think I've got it now. >> I'll probably have I can probably have more information for you at the next uh in our next meeting, but that's that's the rough idea. >> [clears throat] >> Even I will say this, uh you know, Omar Garcia who I mentioned fairly often that develops and maintains our state funding template, even he has put comments in just as recently as last year. Uh >> [clears throat] >> now we're up to the T20 or T19. And his comment was let's just keep making it simpler. So, sarcastically, of course, saying that, but uh just seems to get more complicated every time we have a new legislative session, but that's where we are. All right. I think I need to go back.
062Back. Okay, there we go. All right, so with our regular financial update reports, um go back one more. There we go. All right, so we'll start with our local, state, and federal revenues. You can see there that we have currently, as of the end of April, we've collected about $55 million of of our total revenues that we've budgeted for for this year. And again, uh this, remember, is not just the general fund, it's also food service and debt service funds. Um everything still seems to be on track here. We have, again, we have just one more state payment coming at the end of August. Uh that'll include both our available school fund, which is just based on the enrollment of the students we have, the number of students students enrolled, and then, of course, our
063FSP, our foundation school program, which is the larger of the two. And so, both of those will come to us towards the end of August. Uh our local resources, we'll get to the our tax collections report here in just a second, but we are up to right at 95% on our tax collections so far, current year collections. So, we're keep inching ever closer. We're up about another percent and a half from last month. So, again, we'll continue to see smaller increases there, and but larger increases than our delinquent collections as we continue to go out through it throughout the summer. Okay, the next we have our expenses broken down by function. Again, you can see as of the end of April, we've altogether spent in all three funds right about 38 million out of the
06465 million that we've got in the budget, 66 million almost that we have in the budget. So, our expenses are still tracking with the time of the year it is. We uh we do have a couple of large payments coming up. Well, one really, just our our annual bus lease payment will be coming up in July, I think towards the end of July, middle of July. That's a a large payment, but it's just the one time a year, so that one will pop into function 71 when we get closer towards the end of the year. We also, of course, have our uh bond payments that come up towards the end of the year in August. Uh so, you won't see those show up actually until we get to September and we're looking back at August.
065Hey, next we have our investment report for the month of April. And once again, rates have stayed very steady. The TexPool rates only down by about a hundredth of a percent. Our uh Texas Class rate only down a about a hundredth of a percent, about the same thing. And First Public Lone Star actually had a slight increase in that uh that top rate, the 3.7661 was a slight increase, and then a slight decrease in the interest and sinking. So, overall, not a lot of change for another month, which considering how things were forecasted earlier in this year, this is a very good thing that things are not changing drastically in the downward motion. And then finally, our tax collection report, as I said a few minutes ago, our current collections for the year are now
066up to the 95% mark. Uh delinquent collections are up about 2% 2 and 1/2% from last month. So, I guess that is going to start picking up more and more as we get closer into the summertime. And everything so far is tracking as it should. Are there any questions? I haven't seen and I It just popped into my head earlier and I was wanting to ask. I haven't seen us touch or tap into the Tom Green fund in a quite a while. It's been at least a year. Has that recovered from the overspending that was done like 2 years ago where we had to like double dip in it and then how's it looking? So, I haven't heard anything about it in a while. Excuse me. So, I was just checking on the Tom Green
067fund. I I don't remember where that's at. We did get our revenue payment. We usually get that in I want to say October, November. We did get our revenue revenue payment this year. It comes all in one payment. I believe it was about around $300,000. So, it's down from where it had been the last few years, but from what I gather it's kind of back to normal. We had had a a couple of high years. So, it's back to about what we were getting I think 5 or 6 years ago. Um, we we have one I think it's maintenance tax note payment. It's not a bond payment. It's not secured with bonded indebtedness. It's not concluded in the INS fund. So, we have to pay that out of some other source than INS. And so,
068we have that one payment scheduled to be It's only paid once a year in August. That'll be coming out of the Tom Green fund as it has since I've been here. We've been using that fund for that primarily. We will need to add a little bit of the Tom Green fund does still have a fund balance a positive fund balance. We'll need to be adding a little bit or taking a little bit out of that to go with the revenue for this year's maintenance tax note payment. The good news is I believe we only have four or five more years, maybe six at the most. I think it's less than that. I think it's four or five uh more years on that maintenance tax note. And I will tell you right now, trying to remember
069what that maintenance tax note was and I am not remembering that. It's been Yeah, it's in that ballpark, Daryl. I had specifically asked um Kyle because uh we'll we'll be through with that payment and we'll be through with our bus payment around the same time. So, our M&O revenue um here in four-ish years uh should should jump up considerably. So, excited about that uh that date. So, uh as as Daryl alluded to, uh you remember making some payments with that money because uh I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, but um I'm trying to remember back. I think they were building an access road on uh land that's owned by Washington County. So, during those couple of years, our revenue in uh doubled and then even tripled one year. Yeah, part of the part of
070the land had to be sold, I believe, uh for right of way. A very small part. Anybody else have any questions? Okay. Thank you, Daryl. Thank you. Okay, next we have the consent agenda. We can approve uh approve it as presented or we can pull anything if we need to. I would like to um make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. Archa Archa made a motion, seconded by Justin Colley, to approve the consent agenda as presented. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Uh next is monthly reports for information purposes and then the Board of Trustees at an executive session will be held for the purpose authorized by Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code sections 551071, consultation with attorney, 551074, personnel matters, and 551076, deliberation regarding security devices or
071security audits. The Board of Trustees went into executive session at 7:03 p.m. according to Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code chapters 551071, consultation with attorney, 551074, personnel matters, 551076, deliberation regarding security devices or security audits. All final votes, actions, or decisions will be taken in open meeting. Thank you. >> Oh.