Brenham ISD Board Meeting 10-20-2025 Regular Board Meeting

0016:00. The board of trustees, the Brennham Independent School District is now convened. I wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone present. In collaboration with our families and community, Brennhamd is committed to providing an exceptional education for all students in a safe environment. As the Brennham 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 responsibility of the superintendent. This is a public meeting of the board of trustees. Schoolboard meetings are open to all who wish to attend and 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. Thank you for taking the time this evening

002to join us and for your interest in the Brennham Independent School District. At this time, I will lead us in the pledge. Kyle Ha will lead us in the invocation. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Bow your heads for me. Dear Lord, we thank you uh for bringing us together this evening. Serve our community. We ask for your guidance, wisdom, and clarity as we make decisions that impact the students, the teachers, and families. Help us to listen with respect, speak with kindness, and act with integrity. May everything we do tonight reflect care and unity for the good of all. Amen. >> Thank you, Kyle. >> The public comment portion of

003the meeting is an opportunity for citizens to address the board to make comments to the board. In accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, the board will only listen without comment. Specific factual information and resuscitation of existing policy may be furnished in response to inquiries, but the board may not deliberate, discuss, or make any decision on any subject not on the agenda. No presentation shall exceed three minutes. Delegations of more than five people shall appoint one spokesperson. Persons must identify themselves and the groups they represent at the beginning of each presentation. Persons who wish to participate in this portion of the meeting should have signed up with the proceeding officer or designate before the meeting began. Presentations and language should be appropriate for all audiences. The allotted time will be displayed on the screen. Please

004stop speaking when the time runs out. Thank you for taking time to address the board this evening and respecting this district's policies and procedures. And we did have one Miss Katie Burch to discuss the bond and the Vader. All right. Can you hear me? Okay. Thank y'all. Uh my name is Katie Burch. Um my husband and I live here in Brennham. We own uh Plan North Architectural Company. Um and we are longtime um advocates and supporters of Brennham ISD. Um, I served on the 50 person strategic committee that went on uh throughout the spring and summer. Um, and I was part of a group of 50 people who saw um the district's um challenges and uh opportunities very very differently. Um and throughout that group uh that time period with that group uh superintendent asked

005us what did we agree on which turned out to be a very difficult question as it turns out. Uh we agreed on three things um which you guys know I've I've come up here and presented it before. We agreed that um uh we were very much in support of a $39 million uh capital improvement bond which is uh early voting started today obviously um and avader which would um support our teacher pay and um allow us to bring those classroom ratios down um and support programs uh for the teachers and students. So I just wanted to come up here and tell you guys thank you. Early voting started today. It's kind of game time for all of us. We're very, very passionate about this. We're very excited. Um, and I'm so excited to be here

006tonight with all these kids. Like, it's such a great night to be here because there's so many kids being recognized and um, we're proud of them. That's the reason why we do this. So, I want to um, encourage the community to go vote for the Bond and the Vader. We've done so much homework on this. If you're a details person and you want to ask questions, we have so many questions and answers on our website and uh a million other places. Uh we've been to a lot of groups to visit with them. If we didn't make it out to your group, we still can and because it's not because we didn't want to. Um it's because it's a small town and there's a lot going on. So um I think we made it to everyone

007who wanted us to be there. Um and we've still got time. So thank you guys. Thank you to this board um really for opening the door for the community. Um I just really appreciate the chance to get involved and we want to encourage a four vote for the bond and the Vader for the community. Thank y'all. >> Thank you, Katie. [Applause] >> Okay, next we have the campus spotlight. Uh, the Bron Junior High principal Jillian Wilkkey will recognize our spotlight student employees of the month. >> Have to turn it on. We didn't have these fancy ones in the past. Superintendent Gillantine, President Krennic, and members of the board. Thank you for your time and for allowing Brennan Junior High to recognize some of our incredible student, staff, and members of our school this evening. Tonight,

008we're going to start with our student of the month, Esther Marshall. Here are some of the things the teachers at Brennham Junior High have to say about you. Esther always approaches her teachers with respect and kindness. She is helpful, caring, and greets every person with a smile. Whenever we observe her in class, she continually puts forth her best effort to make good grades and get her work done, no matter how difficult it is. At BJH, we're so proud of the work she has put in so far this year. Congratulations, Esther. All right, next up is our pair professional of the month, Miss Luhan, whom I stole from Krowy. Thank you, Miss Luhan. Miss Luhan has established a routine for our ISS students. She promptly notifies us when a student is placed so that she can

009get all of their assigned work. Miss Luhan is doing an amazing job because she is patient and enforces the expectations of the room. She always strives to ensure their work is completed and turned in on time. Not only is she a rock star in ISS, but she is also always willing to make phone calls to our bilingual families, and she never complains. We love you, Miss Luhan. Last but not least is our teacher of the month. Thank you for showing up. He drives from College Station every day to Brennham. This teacher is new to Brennham Junior High, but not new to teaching. His peers say that he displays unwavering dedication, positivity, and has a significant impact on students and colleagues. Whether it's through one-on-one support or simply showing patience and kindness each day, Mr. Briles

010brings out the best in everyone. According to our staff, these are merely a few things that make him worthy of this recognition. And I would have to agree. BJH teacher of the month is Mr. Mark Bryles. Of course. Okay. Go get your picture made. Come on. You can do it. Okay, next I would like to invite Miss Angela Moore to come up to talk about our BD Special Olympic swimming participants. Hello. Um, I'm Angela Moore and these fine young ladies and gentlemen are part of our Special Olympic swim team. Um, this was our fifth season that we competed in and um, we've hosted it five years. We started in 2018. Um, we have some unified partners that swam on the relays with our teammates. Um, we have Sydney Moore, Katie, uh, Cooper. Where'd he go?

011>> Josh is back is standing sitting back there. He's he was on the swim team relay. Um, so we have, uh, Trent Trenton. We have Ny, Jing, Langston, Will, Max, Sweden, and Ava Spa representing for our BMISD Special Olympic swim team. and our coach um she didn't come up but our coach Kelsey Toy with the um aquatic center has been gracious and helped us with it since I'm not comfortable with swimming and teaching it. So she coaches and I assist her on all that. So thank you for having us. We appreciate it. [Applause] Hey, I I just want to say one thing. I have heard how long and how hard these athletes have worked to get to this point and just want to congratulate you. That's a lot of dedication, a lot of selfdiscipline and

012uh you guys are someone for a lot for us to look up to. So guys, great job ladies and gentlemen. Let me give them a second to clear out. And just like that, the room is empty. Okay. Next, uh our chief communication and communicate community engagement officer, Brooke Tran, will present information regarding and donation of art supplies. Good evening, members of the board. Um, this month we bring you a donation from Paint Warehouse um, from Mr. Robbie Collins. Currently, it's upwards of $4,000. And that's why I say currently because he's just been so incredibly generous. Like our art educators, our theater teachers, um, all kind of put in requests when he reached out to the district. And then once they kind of saw what they were working with, Mr. Henry brought back a truckload. They

013were like, "Oh my gosh, we could do more um with this." So, they called him back up and he was like, "Yeah, come get some more." So, currently we're up to over $4,000 in in kind donations through uh plaster for readymix and uh the pre the premix which have a lot of applications uh in the education world. So, uh it is to formally accept the donation to the school district on his behalf. Was he is he would you like to say a few words? >> Nope. Okay. >> So, >> I would like to make a motion to approve a donation from paint warehouse Brennham via Robbie Collins in excess of $4,000 in plaster dry mix and ready use material to benefit Bernham fine arts department as presented. >> I second that. >> I'm sorry. Okay.

014Archer Archer has made a motion seconded by Bonnie Brinkmire to approve a donation from paint warehouse Brennham via Robbie Collins in excess of $4,000 in plaster dry mix and ready use materials to benefit the Brenham ISD fine arts department as presented. All in favor? >> All opposed. >> The motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Collins. Okay. Next is a public hearing on the annual school first financial accountability rating for the Brennham ISD and chief financial officer Daryl Stlair uh will present this Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the board. Uh, just a couple of things I'd like to point out before we actually start going through the the actual indicators and the data. Keep in mind this is the 2425 report but it's based on the 2023 2024 and in some cases slightly earlier than that

015data. There are some indicators that actually average data from even before the 2324 school year. So keeping m keep in mind this is not actual data or results of the data from the uh fiscal year and the school year we just finished but a year ago. So with that in mind, we'll uh start going through the different indicators. There are about 20 of them. Uh there really weren't any changes from this time last year when I presented this report to this year. So the indicators basically stayed fixed for the last year. Uh there are several that are simply yes or no. And then there are several that uh have a point scale anywhere from zero to 10 points. I think there's a couple of them that have are five points, but it's a a range

016of different types of indicators and different scores that we receive. All right. So to the first indicator uh first one is was the was the complete annual financial report AFR and data submitted to TEA within 30 days of the November 27th or January 28th depending on the deadline for the fiscal year. Since we're in August 31st fiscal year, our deadline was January the 28th. And we did submit our data in time. It was received in time and so we just get a yes, which is full credit for that one. That's just a yes or a no. Second indicator uh wants to know if the district basically received an unmodified opinion on its AFR from the independent auditor. Again, that's just a yes or no. And an unmodified opin opinion, as I know you've heard the

017auditors point out before when they actually do the presentation to you is what a district wants to have. We do not want to have a modified opinion. We want an unmodified and that is what the district received for 24 excuse me for 2324. So we got a yes on that one which was full credit. Third indicator uh were we in compliance with the terms of our debt agreements at fiscal year end? Again, this is a measure that or information that the auditor reviews during the audit process to determine whether or not we have met our obligations, paid our debts uh on time for whatever leases or uh contracts we have and we did meet all of those obligations in a timely manner. So, we got a yes on that one as well. Indicator number four,

018same basic concept as number three, but this time more focused on teacher retirement system, TRS, Texas Workforce Commission, Internal Revenue Service, other government agencies. Basically, did we fulfill our obligations, make our payments in a timely manner to all these agencies? And again, the answer is yes, we did. So, we receive full credit on that indicator. Any questions so far? Okay. Well, we got one more here. Uh, number five, at least the next one for sure. Uh, the total net position was the total net position in governmental activities in the statement of net position greater than zero. This is a calculation that again is done in our audit report each year. And there is a a very specific page in the audit book. It's usually near the beginning of the book where this calculation's done. And

019then there are other factors that are also put in there. For example, our net pension liability. There are some liabilities that count against us, but which we really don't have a lot of control. Uh specifically, the net pension liability. In other words, the debt or the the liability that we have when teachers or employees retire and become members active members of TRS. And so that's added back to not uh hold us responsible. And so once all those things those calculations are done our total was over 25 million so definitely much greater than zero. So again we get uh this one's called ceiling passed. So it's just a yes or no but it also is a ceiling indicator meaning if we had not passed this there would be a ceiling that we could not have achieved

020a score above a certain level overall regardless of whatever else we might have answered correctly or had correct answers for good answers for. All right, moving on to number six. What was the average change in assigned and unassigned fund balance over three years? Was it less than a 25% decrease? So, in other words, did it not decrease more than 25%? And unfortunately, it did. Ours actually was about 34%. when you go back and calculate it. Uh I'm pretty sure that none of you were uh would be terribly startled or surprised at that knowing the the last few years of uh budgets that we've had. And again, this is a three-year uh average. And so the three years that are being considered are 2122, 223, and now 23 24. We did pass this last year, but

021last year we would have had 2021 up to 2223 and 2021 was a year without a deficit budget. So that was actually helping us. But since we're only looking at three years, that one has now dropped off and now we have these three years. So going forward, I expect that when we get together this time next year, I'm very hopeful that we'll have another good year in there, 2425, and hopefully that'll bring us back up over the the the limit that we need. The other way you could pass this if your fund balance had decreased too much. Uh you could also have received full credit if your current year's assigned an unassigned fund balance. Excuse me. No, that's the same one. Oh yes, if it exceeds 75 days of operational expenditures. Unfortunately, ours was not

022quite that high as I know uh Mr. Archer has pointed out and a couple others have lately. uh it was about 26 days. So that definitely was not what we wanted. But again, we are working on fixing that. We've already worked on fixing that in the 20 24 year and we're doing even more hopefully to fix that this year as well. So that should be on the rise from this point forward. All right, item number seven. Again, this is uh looking at days of cash on hand. So, not fund balance specifically, but a similar calculation. And we needed to be able to have enough cash on hand to cover operating expenditures. Uh that's current cash on hand and current investments. And unfortunately, again, we did not not for full credit. This one is scaled from

0230 to 10 points. And so, we received two points. Basically, we needed to have about twice as much cash on hand as we did, and that would have given us a full uh full uh full score on that one. Full count on that one. Okay. Number eight, was the measure of current assets to current liabilities for the school year sufficient to cover short-term debt? And again, this is a scaled score between zero and 10. And on this one, we received uh six out of 10. We did actually have a reasonable amount of assets versus our current liabilities, but uh we need a little bit more to get full credit. Uh we would have needed to have about $7 million more in assets, and that would have gotten us up to the full credit mark. The

024way they calculate it, they just look at a ratio. We had to get it a ratio of at least three, and ours was 2.14. So, we were a little bit short on that one. Okay, number nine. Did the school district's general fund revenues equal or exceed expenditures? Well, as we just mentioned, we know we've been adopt we have recently adopted some deficit budgets and we did in 2324 as well. And so, no, we did not have enough uh revenue to exceed our expenditures. There was another way to get credit on this one. And by the way, this is just all or nothing. It's zero or 10. There's no scaled score. There's nothing in between. So, the o only other way to get full credit would be if our cash on hand was greater than or

025equal to 60 days, which we already saw in a previous item that it was not. It was about 41 days. So, not terribly far from the mark, but far enough to not get credit for that. And unfortunately, that's a zero or 10. So, it's either all or nothing. Okay. Indicator number 10. as last year. As I pointed out last year, they are currently not counting that one. They did not count it last year. They just give us the 10 points. It's on hold uh for future possibly reactivation or they may choose in the future to delete it alto together. But right now, they're using it as a placeholder. So, nothing there really to report on indicator 10. Not part of the the uh criteria this year. Number 11, the ratio of long-term liabilities to total

026assets that needed to be calculated to support our uh determin or determination of our long-term solveny. And so on this one, we did actually go up from last year. We got eight last year. We went up to 10. Uh just by the skin of our teeth, we made the cutoff. The the 10 was needed to be less than or equal to 6 and ours was 0 5964. So last year we were just on the other side of 6.608. So we're able to improve just enough to get those other two points this time around. All right. Indicator number 12. Uh what is the correlation between future debt requirements and the district's assessed property value? So again, this is basically looking at not only our debt, but how does our debt stack up to our property values

027to be able to support that debt. And so uh last year we received full credit and this year receive we receive full credit once again. And I would like to point out to uh to get the full 10 points, this is on a scaled score again to get the full 10 points, the calculation that they did had to be less than or equal to four. And ours was only 978. So, which shows we do have the capacity for much more long-term debt than we're currently facing, which as we've been discussing things throughout this summer with our strategic planning committee and looking at the uh the issues regarding the bond that's currently on the ballot. U that's not really much of a surprise that we have the capability of additional bond uh bond debt without any

028issues. Okay. And number 13 was the school district's administrative cost ratio equal to or less than the threshold. So for this TEA has a chart. There's not really enough room to put the entire chart up there. Uh but for a district our size and it is grouped by the different sizes of districts. So for a district that has between 1,00 and 4,999 uh let's see is ADA they expect us to have a ratio that's less than 0.11 to get full credit and our ratio was 0.12. So again very close to the full credit. We got eight out of 10 on that one. Uh but very close on that one as well and actually that was an increase over last year. Last year we had six points out of 10. Darl, can you speak can you

029unpack that a little bit? Those what those costs could, you know, could because of, you know, and and and how you might be able to reclassify those, >> right, >> costs to to change that value there >> strategic strategically playing that game. >> Yes. And and we did talk about this last year. In fact, I had a note uh last year when I presented, I did tell you that I was very hopeful we would go up at least a couple of points and we did. Uh when I first got here, I realized that there were quite a few costs being categorized or coded to functions 21 and 41, mostly function 41, which is general administration. Those are the two functions that TEA reviews and marks those as your administrative cost. So basically indirect costs uh

030connected to to educating children still, but indirectly not directly. And so they compare those indirect expenses to the direct expenses which mainly are functions 11, 12, and 13 I believe. And so that ratio is what they want to see not being excessively high for the administrative or indirect costs that you have. Uh so again, I did notice when I first got here that there were some things being coded to function 41 that really didn't belong in function 41. And so we've been working to recode those things and to reclassify those as appropriately as the code book that we get from TEA allows us to. And so I think that definitely has made a difference. And I'm not going to predict that we will definitely get the other two points next year, but I think there's

031a decent chance we might see another increase. Uh but I certainly don't expect we'll go backwards anytime soon. >> Are you finished with the recoding or is there more to recode and more to look at? I have definitely hit the most urgent areas. Uh I would say well again this is 23 24 data. I would say when we get to 2425 uh there really shouldn't be anything out of place but it's not just that. I mean you may actually have legitimate costs that you can't recode to another function. I think we had well I know we had one that really out stood out to me when I first got here was the copy machine lease. The entire copy machine lease for the entire district was in function 41. It was not broken down to the

032different campuses and the different functions that it should have been. So that was to me a huge hit. Uh also keep in mind we did have more administrative positions payroll in 2324 than we did in 2425. So that's going to be a significant reduction as well. So, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if we get full credit next year. I just haven't sat down with the numbers to be able to really calculate that yet and see. We have a template we can use to kind of predict what our next first rating will be. Uh, and I will be trying to get that done before the year is over just to see where we should land. But, okay, any other questions before we move on to number 14? All right. So, indicator number 14, did the

033school district, I like how they phrase these, not have a 15% decline in the student to staff ratio over three years. So, they look at in this case 2122 studentto staff ratio. They look at 23 24 studentto staff ratio. They take the difference and they do a they do a comparison to see was it above or below 15%. That's the that's the cutoff. And fortunately, ours was only 12%. So, we were under the 15%, which is good because this is another zero or 10. There's no scaled score. There's no in between. It's all or nothing. So, we only had a 12% decline where we could have had up to a 15% and still receive full credit. Okay. Number fif, excuse me, number 15 is also not being evaluated this year. This one was worth five

034points. The other one that was they're not evaluating was worth 10. So, we just got another five points like everybody else in the state because they're not actually evaluating this one at this time. Probably I I would guess that probably this one will go back into the active column maybe in the next year or two. Okay, number 16. I know this is riveting information for a lot of you, but I we are getting close to the end. There's only 21, so I only have a few more to go. Uh number 16 did the comparison of public education information management systems otherwise we known as PES did our PES data uh have a variance of less than 3% compared to the actual audit book that the auditors prepared and that we submitted to TEA and we

035actually we absolutely did have less than 3% I believe last year it was about two 100s no two10s This year it was 0.09. So even a little bit less. Meaning we had very very very little variance between what TEA saw in our PES reports and what they saw in our audit book. And ideally you would want them to be exactly 100% match but we are about as close as you can get. There's always going to be a few things just rounding errors if nothing else. You're going to have a few of those. So, uh, I will commend the PES department for being very precise and accurate with our reporting. Very, very close to 100% accuracy. Okay, it's not working. There we go. Number 17. Uh, this is another either pass or fail. Did the external

036auditor report that the annual financial report was free of instances of material weaknesses and internal controls over financial reporting and compliance for local, state, and federal funds and free from substantial doubt about the school district's ability to con to continue as a going concern. In other words, this is very much related to the question earlier about did we receive an unmodified opinion? It's a little more specific in this case, but this is basically what the auditor sees and what they report. And as long as they said we did not have any instances of material weaknesses or controls, then we get full credit. It's like just a yes or a no. So, we pass that one. No problems on that one. I think the battery in the remote's getting a little weak. Or am I hitting

037the wrong button? There we go. Maybe it's me. All right. Number 18. Did the external independent auditor indicate that the annual financial report was free of any material non-compliance in relation to our grants, our contracts, laws related to local, state, or federal funds. And we got full credit on that. There were were none of those items that were reported by our auditor to tea. None of that was in our audit book. So, full credit for that one. That was 10 points. Number 19. Did the school district post the required financial information on its website in accordance with government code, local government code, Texas education code, and Texas administrative code? And we received full credit on that. Five out of five points. We do have I would say in some cases more than our required postings

038on our website, but definitely all the requirements are being met. Number 20. that the school district's administration and schoolboard members discuss changes or the impact of local, state, and federal funding at a board meeting within 120 days before adopting a budget. So, sometime in the four months before y'all adopt the budget towards the end of August, did we have a meeting or at any of our meetings did we discuss changes in law, local, state, federal funding? Property tax values is part of that as well. uh we probably discussed that almost ad nauseium in some cases, but yes, we have definitely discussed that and we always make sure we try to keep the board fully informed when we get especially into the summer once we start getting certified values, even our preliminary values and any legislative

039changes that are coming down the road. So, yes, we did get full credit on that one. >> We better have Yes. And then our last indicator, did the school district receive an an adjusted repayment schedule for more than one fiscal year due to overallocation? Uh we have received overallocation. Uh we have received more money from TEA than we actually have earned the last few years, but we have been aware of that. We have not spent that money. And so this is really not talking about just having an overallocation. is talking about getting overpaid and then asking TEA, can you please help us out because now we're in trouble and we need you to adjust our payments going forward to help us not go under. And we have not had to have that conversation with TEA

040as far as I know at all. So there's no danger of that one being failed. And so we receive full credit on that one as well. No, no rescheduling our payments to help us through a hardship. And that was the last indicator. So the grand total of all the score, all the points that counted towards our score was 76. That is down a bit from last year. And the main factor I think you probably have already noticed is our cash on hand, which we are all aware that's an issue. And like I said, we've been working already through 2425 to improve that and we are continuing to work on that this current year as well. So again, I am quite certain that that score will be going up when we get to our 25 2425

041fiscal year report this time next year. Are there any other questions related to our first report? >> No, I just it's hard to see once you put it in in front of us like this, but I we we call kind of knew where we were where we were going to be. Um, and I I can't wait to see the changes that this board has made in the district. You know, what Clay's been working on, what your team has been working on, the growth that we see, you know, next year, and hopefully we continue to do that. So, I think that's important for the community to know that we see it, we realize it, we're focused on it to increase this. So, just continue the good work. We really appreciate everything. I know this has been

042a interesting couple years for, uh, school finance. So, uh, thank you. And uh like I said, let's let's uh hopefully next year we're doing a little applaud because we got up into hopefully a be I can't promise, but I mean, thank you for the work. >> You're welcome. Thank you all for your support. Appreciate it. Okay, next uh head librarian Charlotte Pulk will talk about the possible purchase of library books. Okay. So, I am coming before the board tonight to go over the first of a few this year of acquisitions for library books for our campus libraries. Um, information was sent to you and the reason I'm having to come before you is because of Senate Bill 13 that was passed at the most recent state legislation and went into effect September 1st of this

043year. Um the process basically librarians will send me their list of what they want. I go through the list. Um I vet all the particular library books, make sure that they meet our selection uh guidance that we use in the district. That was policy. And then we post those lists for 30 days on our school website. Um and then it's open for public comment. Um luckily this particular list that we are looking at tonight um had no reviews on it. No but no comments made on it. Um and then once that 30 days has ended then the board is allowed to make a decision on whether to allow us to purchase those materials for libraries or not. >> I know it's kind of I don't know if it's I don't know if it's me or

044>> No, that's it's me. Yeah, >> can you walk us through uh the vetting process for the books whenever you get a list of them and and what that looks like? >> Okay. So, >> welcome welcome to our world. >> So, what I do typically is I'll look and see like what books are the kids asking for um or like I know there's a new book coming out in a series that is very popular and is never on the shelf. Um, we I take that information. I go to our vendors. I look for uh reviews. I look at the reviews that are sent out. I look at other information. I look at um different librarians that I follow or that I know from going to conferences and presenting with and saying like, you know, hey,

045what are you getting for your campuses? Um I ask I'll ask around like what's a good book? Like if it's not something that we already have in the district, I kind of like read the reviews and say, "Hey, this is a new series. it looks like it would fit with the curriculum or what the teachers are working with or it looks like something that the students would be interested in because of what they're already reading to bring something new in and exciting. Um, then I go in and and vet it by looking at and seeing like does it fit the criteria of what we have in our policy. And there are some books that were not on this list because they did not fit the criteria. So, um, like on the list that y'all have,

046you can see that I've gone through and checked to make sure that it met board policy and and matched with our selection guidance. So, every single one of those books has been looked at by me more than once. So, hours and hours have gone into vetting this list. A lot of interruptions with students coming in and things like that in between, you know, having classes. Um, but it's been gone over multiple times just to kind of make sure there's nothing it doesn't violate the penal code, which is a huge huge thing. Uh, we're in compliance with that with the books that are in there. So, >> and all these are on the TEA approved list. >> There is no TEA approved. >> There's a state. >> There is there's not really an Okay, so TEA

047had to come out with a reconsideration policy. So that came out at the end of August. So it could go into effect September 1st, but that's just for reconsiderations of like materials. Uh there is no list that says we cannot purchase or can't that was originally I think under House Bill 900, but that part was kind of considered it didn't there was a lawsuit. So some of that stuff has not come into play. So there is no magic list out there that says we can purchase this or cannot purchase this at this time and we hopefully never. But anyway, yes. >> Are parents aware of this or do they do they just trust the librarians will take care of this? >> Um, if they're aware of the laws, like it's posted on our campus library

048sites. I try to have everything on there for transparency. parents are getting emails sent to them every single day like at 400 p.m. I think is when it rolls out of everything that their child has checked in and out of the library because that is also part of Senate Bill 13. So those things are all being put into place so parents are aware of like what their students are reading. They also have the option um and it's to go into our catalog and access that with a parent access portal and they can go in and block particular books they don't want their students to read. And same thing with our Sora online ebooks and audiobooks. They have a parent pen that they can use to block go into their students account, see what they're actually

049checked out, and they can also block them from actually being able to check out other books as well. So they have that control over what their students are reading and access to see what they are reading. >> So parents can trust us with with >> Yes. Thank you. >> Quick question, Miss Pope. So when it comes down to it, that's a lot of books to review by yourself. Is there is there a team that works with you or are you are you kind of having to >> lean into that? >> They kind of compile a list of what they want and I have them send it to me because if I'm going to come up in front of y'all, I want to make sure that it's vested. Um, but they do work on the list

050themselves and then I kind of go through and make sure. Now, some of the books are books that we already maybe have in the district, but because of how Senate Bill 13 is written, you have to it's by ISBN number. It's not by the title and author. So, we might have a copy of that book in our campuses under like say a hard cover, but we want the maybe the audio book for a dyslexic student. So, we have to then have you approve that particular copy so that we can get that particular one. So, the ones I'm sending in, this is kind of our practice list. It's not very big this year, this this month. Um, I'm putting all the ISBNs for hard covers, library bound, paperback, audiobook, ebook, so that we don't have to

051come to you every single time we want a different version of that same text because that's a waste of y'all's time. >> Gotcha. So I I have a question again just trying to understand because the vetting process is a lot. >> So if you have if elementary ages or whatever does it cap out you know because books that would be appropriate for an age as we're talking through the vetting side >> how does that work? >> It's level by campuses. So we have like a in our selection guidance which I think I'd given y'all access to in the particular thing it talks about like at elementary you know we're looking at books that if you look there are some that are titled you know four through six. So like at my campus I'm a K

052through four. So I need to look at those extremely carefully to make sure there's not something that's agent appropriate for my kids. >> So it is it is broken up by the different bands. >> Does it make it challenging for kids who are trying to read up or as far as access there? >> It does. Okay. But I tell them go to the public library or have your parents purchase them for you because unfortunately I have to follow the law and the rules. >> Thank you. >> There any more questions? >> You have to do public com. >> Yeah. Do you have anything else before does anybody have any questions? >> Thank you for the time you spent on making sure that you're vetting the books. We appreciate that. Um, I know that's a lot,

053but we really do appreciate your time. >> Thank you. I do it for the kids. They want to read. So, >> that's that's really all I was going to say is thank you because I know that's reading a lot of books is a lot of work and that's a lot of books. So, I really appreciate you vetting them and doing it. And on that note, I'd like to make a motion to approve the purchase of library books as presented. >> Second. >> Kyle Hefner has made a motion. Seconded by Justin Collie to approve the purchase of library books as presented. All in favor? >> All opposed? Motion carries. Thank you so much. >> Okay. Next we have the superintendence monthly update. >> Yeah, thank you Jared. Uh good evening to those listening to us out

054there. Uh just a gosh, we've got a lot going on this month, but this week in particular, um early voting again, as Katie uh spoke to during open comments, started today, uh we are uh a community, a board, a school community that absolutely encourages um that that civil right being taken and voting. So, however you vote, get out there and vote. Um also, homecoming week, celebrating 150 years. It's been a big celebration. Of course, this year I've got theme dress up days going on all week long. The parade, uh, if you have not let Brooke know, Debbie know, if you are in the parade, please let us know. What time do they need to be there? 5:30 Wednesday, uh, for the parade. Of course, homecoming game. Um, community engagement, uh, Sean, uh, the the boo

055bash. I know since I've been here in Brenham, that's gotten more and more attention. So, we were sure to shout that out. But that's Boys and Girls Club. That's become a big event here in the Brennham community, and we appreciate you putting that together, and we've definitely got it on our our things to watch. Um, you know, this time last year as we were making a a hard pivot with the budget, as Darl indicated. I know that was stressed several times, but that's lagging data and that uh markdown in the first rating was all due to uh fund balance that we are turning the other direction and quickly. Um, but I say that to say, of course, this board had a huge focus, this administration had a huge focus on ADA. Uh, and I I

056see that that continues to trend upwards this year. Um, without even us having those public formal conversations about it, um, which is that expectation um, continues to grow and evolve. Uh, so I thank our principles really hard uh, for for their really hard work there uh, in that regard. Um, one more plug for something coming up. Um, Ambassador Academy starts tomorrow at 830. What time, Brooke? Ambassador Academy. >> 8:30. Look, I was right. 8:30 to noon. Um, if you can be there, I think uh the last hat, but I know one of you at least I I said come by when you can come by and we'll um we'll fit you in and give you a chance to say hello to the group. Okay, Archer needs to come in early. So, I just said come

057by, come by when you can come by. But, uh, if you can make it to our second annual ambassador group kicks off tomorrow, again, just a big plug for that and those that might be interested next year. It's our own Brennham ISD leadership team that uh we got to start this this past year that of course led to um a uh strategic planning committee which led to a group making a presentation to you and then some of them moving on even into a pack. So some of these might not know exactly what they're signing up for to be a part of this ambassador program. Honestly, we don't either. That's a very organic group that uh we let them work with us to um take on this community endeavor of public education. That's uh that's all

058my comments for this evening. >> Okay. Next, we have a board member reports and comments. Archer to start with you. Nothing. >> Um so I wanted to make sure that I thanked Brennham Game Changers for the big event. Um, if you were involved in that thing, that was a emotional fantastic day. That was just shocking to see how hard these kids work. I made a couple notes and some of them, the theater group painted the court at Krowy, but they did it playing theater music from Broadway next to the football team that was working on the playground. So, the dynamic between the two was quite interesting, but it worked out really good. Uh we had the uh Brennham Bells were powerwashing at uh Alton which is they had a blast with that. We had the

059soccer girls putting up sheets and hallways at Brenham Elementary School. Mr. Shawn over here was getting down and dirty on demolition of an old bridge. Um uh who else? We had the cheerleaders painted a awesome mural at the gym at the middle school. Uh while there were other people outside planting trees. I cannot tell you how hard these kids dug it and worked. I mean, those girls, the soccer girls gave up on the spatula and just started digging in with their hands to get the glue on the back of it. They were getting after it. So, to anybody that that's out here that heard this, thank y'all for the help. Thank you Brennham Game Changers for organizing that for the district, for transportation, uh, everybody that was involved. It was just absolutely unbelievable. So, um,

060also one more here, the baseball boys, there's an outdoor courtyard if you get a chance to walk by it. Those guys worked six hours pulling weeds and hauling in wheelbarls full of dirt and gravel and it looks amazing. So again, thank you to everybody that was involved in that. Uh thank you to the teachers, the principles, everybody that came out and supported. So anyway, I just really want to make sure everybody in the community knows how awesome of a day that was. I don't have much to say, believe it or not, but uh I I just I just was so impressed that we had so many of us pulling together. And I mean, it's so much more fun for the kids when they have their buddies with them. And uh it was just it was

061so well organized and everybody had a had an idea of what was going to be going on, but until you were there and saw it, it was just it was incredible. So, uh, that's all I really had. But, uh, also, uh, just a reminder, we all need to make sure we vote this week, next week, or, uh, uh, uh, November the November 4th, I should have known. Yes. Thank you. >> Good job, Bonnie. That was under 45 seconds. >> Somebody write this down. Um, I've I started knocking out some of my training as a new board member, so that's uh obviously a lot of fun. Sean and I are handling some of that stuff together. Um, excited about this week. Obviously, we've got some pep rallies going on tomorrow at the junior high. Uh, so

062Miss Wilky, looking forward to what you guys have planned over there at the junior high tomorrow. Um, it's a big week of volleyball. We have two more home game uh volleyball games at the high school. We've got some junior high volleyball going on uh Thursday night. Uh, let's all celebrate our uh small thing going on. on the football team at 7-0. Um, so we went to Brian last week and and caught some of that football game. It was a lot of fun to to watch those guys on the field. So, uh, junior high, uh, let's not leave out JV and freshman football. I think they've got some winning records going on, too. So, we've got a good program and and a lot of boys coming up and they're putting in a lot of work. Um,

063especially some hot days and some early mornings. So, uh, we haven't seen any, uh, relief from the weather just yet. But, uh, junior high's got some playoff and seated seated games coming up in the next week. And then, uh, let's all go watch those cheerleaders cheer at those football games. So, uh, and then I'll see everybody at the homecoming parade, uh, on Wednesday. So, a lot of things going on. It's obviously a busy week for everyone. Um, it's a, you are obviously making memories. Staff's making memories. So, let's just continue to help them make their memories. And, uh, don't forget to vote. Thank you. >> Um, seventh grade B team's still undefeated. Also, just FYI, you know, they're still haven't had a score touchdown scored against them yet. They're they're killing it. Just if you're

064looking for a game. >> Well, let me just jump off that. Uh I I have a unique seat to watch pre-athletics uh each and every week and I see what's happening as we're building our athletic program. Uh but what's been even better is listening to the character as the coaches are speaking into uh these young men and women and the confidence uh you know having having a middle schooler myself watching her confidence grow because of the dedication. And so the pre-athletics program, what it's doing, not not just building our athletics, uh, but also building the character of our kids. I think it's a great thing that's happening with our community, but also going on to the campuses and seeing the participation of our administrators, our teachers, uh, for our spirit week, and just the the

065all-in attitude. And, uh, just the pull together has just been really encouraging. And, uh, again, just going back to our unified athletes tonight. Uh, love seeing them represent us so well across the, uh, district. and uh even even on the day of the event how well they just uh carried themselves with excellence. Uh so it just makes us proud to be part of Renomist and to be a Cub. Okay, next uh the chief hold on start over. Chief academic officer Sarah Bohart is uh going to present the campus and district improvement plans uh with the ability to update as needed. Okay, while she's pulling the presentation up and looking for the clicker so I can click the slides for y'all, um I'll just kind of share a little backdrop about the district improvement plan and

066campus improvement plan. So, part of the district improvement plan and campus improvement plans has to do with the Every Student Succeeds Act under the United States Department of Ed. through that we receive funding. In order to allocate that funding, we have to show comprehensive needs um and problem areas of practice that we then identify as a district and campus to work on. And so it's it's tied to that. Um we must annually develop and submit these improvement plans to board um review and approval. I think also what's important to know is that the district improvement plan establishes a district framework for student achievement and overall system improvement and then the campus improvement plans come right behind the district improvement plan. And so for tonight I'm going to spend a couple minutes um you have I

067think it's like a 68page document uploaded if you were following me along in board book. So, if you want to read all 68 pages, um, we worked really hard on it. Um, but I'm just going to step out for a second and do some highlight overview for you and then absolutely can answer questions. Does that sound good? Probably. Nope. All right. Here we go. Wake up. Okay. So, the first I'm I kind of share a little bit of a success for you. Part of this process is doing a comprehensive needs assessment. If you're following along with me in boardbook, under that needs assessment, you'll see there are pages and pages written um and uploaded data. One thing that I found looking for some hope is that when you look at our overall achievement versus student

068growth, you'll see that our achievement achievement for all students, this includes all kids, you know, for reading and language arts, which would be meeting grade level is a little above 40%. In math, it tracks the same. In growth, you see that we have about 63 64% of our students showing growth. So achievement is going to be how many are meeting grade level standard in masters. It's a state you either passed it or didn't. Right? Where growth is saying did the student from third grade to fourth grade maintain where they were or show growth progress, right? Individual student growth. What we know is over time growth will catch up with achievement. And so if you look at this data, although I know that our district received a C- rating, I know that we are doing a

069lot of things I'm about to share with you systemically to help improve student outcomes for all kids. I think it's important to highlight as we were reviewing data, the emphasis on growth because eventually growth will catch achievement, right? So, um, part of what we've really leaned into is leading together for instructional excellence this year. And these are our principles and Miss Montes, um, really working on instructional leadership. There's been a guiding question that we have used for every meeting um and every PLC professional learning with principles and instructional leaders is how do we know that every student on our campus has access to a high quality teacher? We understand that it is the teacher that makes the difference and that classroom research supports that. So this year we've really um spent time building sustainable systems

070that are going to continually evaluate our instructional leadership, strengthen teacher practice and improve student outcomes through that. Um if you see our principles, our assistant principles, our instructional coaches, um the leading and learning team, this is everything we're trying to lift this year. We it we're elevating a lot of these systems were in place, but we have elevated them. I'll go briefly over. So number one, um, K12 literacy framework. Literacy is a need. I have a slide on literacy as well. We've worked very hard to understand what researchbased instructional strategies are tied to literacy. And we're writing a district framework. We have elevated the teacher mentor program. So we have brought teachers in and trained them um on how to actually mentor looking at observation, feedback, and student work. um ongoing job embedded professional development.

071We're using data to drive our practice. We have all the instructional materials that the school board has allowed us to um purchase that is helping have good TIESS resource materials in front. We have a rigorous and robust educator evaluation system leaning into teacher incentive aotment. We've created PLC facilitators, mentors, instructional coaches, all as a way to have some teacher career pathways. and we're leading ongoing instructional leadership teams and this is happening on the daily in our campuses. So here I'm going to kind of share with you a little bit. One of our performance objectives is tied to early literacy instruction. We have a prek goal in there as well. If you're following along with us on performance objectives and strategies, some of our key strategies that we're using really have to do with this driven

072literacy practice. um understanding what good preK through 2 grade literacy instruction looks like and then helping provide observation feedback for our students um for our teachers tied to that. Um we know that early literacy proficiency in K2 is the strongest predictor of future success and long-term academic outcomes. And so we put an intense focus on that and set a pretty rigorous goal for ourselves. That is actually a classroom this year of one of our teachers that is working through the HMH structured literacy framework. So there's an objective and a strategy you'll find. So student achievement, I promised the principles this would never make social media and it didn't make social media. It just made this. Um so we led a um principal PLC once a month. Um we're working in conjunction with NIT which is

073one of our approved providers. One of the first things we asked them to do when they got in, I guess this was our early September meeting, this was September, is we had them pretend they were actually with the media and that they were going to write a newspaper article for the media and they had to come up with their headlines. And so, um, they all and and we were there as well. So, we all wrote something to celebrate. And what you can see in that is that our principles are engaged in doing the work daily and finding great success in how they're seeing their campuses transform with a focus on excellence. Um, student achievement. Our objective is to raise our star meets performance by 15 to 17 points across reading, math, science, and social studies.

074You can see our daily strategies are there. And we understand if we can get students on grade level, um, then that just has them a better future, brighter success. our special uh special populations focus. You're going to hear from Miss Montes a little bit later and she's going to really dig into what Telpos is, but it's another um measure that they use for our accountability tied to our Spanish speaking students and their ability to learn English in our school system. And then we also have um our special education is really working hard on STAR growth um and looking at growth over that achievement. Um, our key strategies are tied to Summit K12, sheltered instruction, emergent bilingual high yield strategies, systematic data monitoring, differentiated instruction, and integrated supports. What you'll see in this picture was last

075week, Miss Tibido during her teachers PLC time took a whole team compare like we had district and campus representatives and teachers walking rooms looking for evidence of certain strategies that if a teacher is delivering will yield to student outcomes. Why this is important is because we're beginning to name what effective instruction looks like. We're beginning to talk the same language about delivery of instruction and identify key strategies. Once we all understand what the high yield effective strategies are, then teachers are able to reproduce that. So they actually were walking and learning together in classrooms. Um we have a college career and military readiness goal which is really tied to our future readiness. So you can see we want to increase our CCMR. We have our key strategies there. We know that CCMR is our indicator

076to post-secondary opportunities and it also reveals their future readiness. So we um I work with Travis Gonzalez, um principal Michael Watts, um head lead counselor Julie Hercamp, Tracy Campbell, a whole team of us are working to ensure that is happening. Um safety and culture, we're doing 100% compliance with school safety and standards. really working on that learning environment and positive expectations. So there's goals written about that. Um teacher quality and retention. Um our objective is to reduce teacher turnover by 10% and then also to continue speak that language of TA test which is their evaluation and and we want students to grow. We also want our system to grow capable teachers. So we're measuring that growth. We've strengthened our new teacher academy. This is our kickoff this summer. a picture from our kickoff greeting our

077zeroyear baby teachers that are their zero years in teaching. We also are doing the teacher incentive aotment and I think it's it's a rigorous process that's going to use student growth and their test to determine a teacher's effectiveness to see if they're eligible for an aotment. Um and that is a rigorous process that really looks at evaluation a different way and we're also in our data capture year doing that. So um student success hinges on that teacher effectiveness and retention also will help stabilize our campuses and it also helps just reduce all the effort of bringing new teachers in. I think you have your zeroyear teachers and then you have teachers also that come to us with different years of experience. This year I want to say we had over 60 new teachers join Bernhamd

078out of a total of like 400 something teachers. So, it's really important that we have these systems in place to retain those teachers because we are pouring so much into their development. We want them to stay in Brennham. Here is um this summer again having to do with our literacy. You'll see lots and lots of literacy goals in that dip. And it's really this is this summer a group of us, our first cohort that went through training on researchbased instructional strategies. We've written a vision statement so far in our framework which really talks about building that community of confident, proficient readers and writers and through our systematic and rigorous literacy instruction grounded in those researchbased instructional practices. And then um we're also doing a lot of work on building a strong foundation in math. This

079is a picture I took last week of principal Agat Alton um assistant principal Meloda and the instructional coach Christy Henzy with our NIT representative. Actually, they had walked rooms all morning. I joined them for the debrief and they were calibrating on what does effective math instruction look like and then determining what feedback to give to teachers to help those teachers grow in those capable skills. Um, and then here's our kind of where we ended with our leadership. So, I just kind of grabbed a couple performance objectives and several strategies to highlight for you out of that 68page document. Um but there is a lot in there. We are working so hard. Um if you see this group of leading and learning and principles, it is every day non-stop um with a focus really on improving

080those outcomes tied to building effective systems. >> Thank you. Um kind of some of the principles in the back. I'm looking at y'all. Have y'all seen a change in the classroom, the teachers, with the programs that Miss Bohart has kind of brought in? Is it a lot more aligned and uniformed across the across the grades? Okay. Because that's kind of what we were lacking, right? Was >> well with H2M. Yes. But it's right now we're in the implementation phase of materials and then we're working on instruction as well. So we have the materials now. We have to make sure the delivery of the materials is right exactly where we want to be, which is why we're doing all these great things. Sir, >> can you be louder? I can't hear you. >> The reason the

081reason I'm asking is because that's one of the things that we as a board have been saying like we we have so much we the board has been trying to do and Clay and his cabinet and Sarah's team and everybody. And so I I I want to see the feedback from the principles like, yeah, it's getting better. We have the material. We're aligned. We're that's where we want to be. And that's what I need we want the community to understand, too, is we see where we are and we have a vision for where we're going to be. And it's because of the things that we're doing like this right here that's going to get us there. We just have to continue to stay at it and to not lose focus on it. So, thank y'all

082for all the hard work that y'all been doing and countless hours of training and everything. It's a lot. I know. Thank you'all. >> Yeah. No, thank you for bringing that up. I wanted to point it out as well. Um, you know, we spoke earlier to Daryl and about the fact that we had lagging data there, uh, that we have actually turned this ship, if you will, 180 degrees and feel great about the direction with our fund balance. It's very much the same conversation here. Um, we feel so very confident in the direction we're going. The principles have heard me speak to this a couple of times lately. Um, I know that in the near future, we'll see the fruits of that labor. um when you make an academic change as we have as hard as

083we pivoted and in several areas you don't just see the results of that overnight you have to you have to you have to run that race for a little while before you start to see the the results so um yes I I feel very good about the conversations that um the principles and Sarah and her entire instructional team are having uh and feel great about where we're going to be this time next here. >> Thank you so much because it takes a leader to build leaders and you've done such a great job. I I think back to where we were just a few years ago and where we head are heading now and the fact that you've got so many on board and we've got some pretty good principles too and they work together and

084uh I'm always impressed when I go on the campuses because they're out there watching going on seeing what's going on and everything and uh yeah if we don't get these kids reading by second grade it makes it that much harder as they grow up to the to and the latter. But it's it seems like everybody is finally coming together and and following each other and and building something that we can be proud of. Really? >> Thank you very much. And your people, too. >> They're good. >> There we go. Just a question. So, this is a lot of addition, right? And so, when you take something and we already got a heavy load, so how has that worked as far as has this have these replaced other things that have been in place? uh you

085know when we look at the on the elevate excellence looking at the circle uh because a lot of our you know our our schools our administrators teachers they have a lot on their plate so is this replacing it is it refining it is it how much is it adding to their plate in order to uh execute it and maybe is that clear what I'm what I'm asking >> I can speak and then we certainly can let principles speak I we use the word elevate because PLC's were already in the district the district has already invested years three I don't know how many like three to four I'm not sure um in PLC so what we have done is elevate that PLC in that we have a structure there's steps to effective learning that we're using

086there's um teachers were teaching every day teachers just were doing it with teacher created materials that they had created that that I will say if I'm cooking you cookies in the kitchen from scratch and you know let's say Miss Montes is cooking you cookies from in the kitchen from scratch. Our recipes may be very different and mine might be delicious and hers might not taste very good, right? Because we're all cooking in the kitchen from scratch. My cookies would be delicious. Anyway, I say that to say I would say that to say teachers were doing the best they could with what they had, but there was not a coherent vertically aligned instructional material that was at grade level. And so teachers were teaching every day, but now they have materials. The pain point is learning

087those materials. The pain point is shifting. Um, I'm we're like this is our first year real real focused on all the instructional materials, but last year we began as well. So, I would say teachers are going to say it's overwhelming because they're having to learn those materials. Um, we had a mentoring program before. Now, we've just classified you have to spend 12 hours in the fall and 12 hours in the spring and you have to so like we've elevated the system because we needed to elevate the system. So I think we've had to get out of our comfort zones and all be willing to learn new things. These principles have led these initiatives just like champions and have been change agents and shift makers making the shift happen and without their support we would be

088going nowhere. Um so they're instrumental. I don't know if they want to add to the lift. I mean, >> okay, >> I want to say that it's not a magic bullet because we have these resources now, but they're not perfect either and they're new. They're created by the state and they're recently adopted. We have veteran teachers who are feeling um like newbies because there's still a lot of extra time and a lot of internalization. So, the lesson plan's there, but you still have to you have to go through it. You have to own it. You have to understand it to figure out where your students are going to struggle or how you're going to scaffold this because our kids have not been receiving on level work in the past few years and so it's a

089challenge for them every day and to I'm going to use your recipe analogy. My mom and I can follow the exact same recipe and hers are going to be better. >> And so that's where we are right now as well. we're doing those morning walks. It's because although our teachers now have the same recipe, the quality of the cook's not the same in every class. >> It's the delivery. It's the delivery. >> So, we're getting there. >> It's the delivery. Like, it's every day we're getting better >> every day. Yeah. Because you can have the material, but if I don't know the effective practices on how to deliver them, the materials are not going to come off the page. And so, we're working really hard. That's that language of practice. What does an effective teacher

090do? How do I recognize that move? Um, and we're working hard with those learning walks. And so teachers are gonna feel like I was at Brennham Elementary today and had a conversation with Stephen. And part of it was, can I quote you a little bit? Is that okay? Part of his conversation had to do with never well for the last year and a half there has been an intent focus on observation and feedback on going into classrooms and help and it's not to get the teacher it's to perfect practice just like a coach is going to get out on the field and watch their player execute the play but the coach has to watch that film. The coach has to see that play. The coach has to find where does that player need to put

091their shoulder in a different way before they make that hit. That is the same thing we're trying to do now with teaching. So, it's an intense focus. I think to say it, if we keep our gas, I mean, our foot on the gas and we continue to work together, we're not going to leave anybody behind. Everybody's going to go with us. We're all in this together and we're going to get through it together. I think when we come out on the other side, we'll be pleasantly surprised. >> Well, no, I I just love that. I think is you're getting the framework and the quality level that you're expecting and so now everybody can just rise to that. So, thanks for all the hard work. Appreciate it. >> Yeah. >> Um, two things. First of all,

092kind of want to tie into what Clay said because I I I said it a while back at another meeting probably a year ago uh when you had just started implementing I don't know if it was something different. Anyway, we knew that this was going to be a two to threeyear process and I know we're a year and a half into it and to turn a cruise ship around, it takes a lot of effort and a lot of um work. So, the principles are doing an amazing job and so we have an amazing team. Uh they're all very good. You are doing an amazing job and all your team is there. So, I said two things. So, one, I know it's going to take a little bit more time to continue to write the ship,

093but it sounds like we're on the right track. And number two, it sounds like we need a cookie cook off to decide which one makes better cookies because I think we need a taste test. >> Absolutely. We can do that. Cookie cook off. Cookie cook off. >> One other thing I want to say as principles, I'm so extremely proud of you guys because I know how hard this process has been. It's learning a completely new playbook and being a freshman and going on the field and trying to find the right receiver and sometimes getting intercepted or fumbling or whatever it might be. So kudos to you guys. And then I want to say one of the first conversations I ever had with Sarah after she was hired, she said to me, "Archer, the most important

094thing is that we're all aligned in our instructional strategies." And I said, "What does that mean?" And she explained it to me. And now a year and a half, almost two years down the road, I understand the importance. It's basically like before one person was speaking Spanish and the other one was speaking Chinese. Now we're all learning to speak the same language and cook the same cookies and that's a huge deal. It >> and they have to taste good. >> Way to go. But that alignment is is the biggest thing that you do and it's so huge. So thank you. >> Yes. >> For that. >> Yes. I I do think too just to say our parents, those of you that are parents, I know are feeling some of this grade level material. One of

095the things that principal said was before we had aligned instructional materials, students were not always receiving grade level material, right? And so our teachers are having to understand how to deliver high effective instruction and then our materials as well. So we're all feeling it, right? >> Did you say something? >> Does anybody else have anything? >> Yeah. We're going to talk about cookies. I can tell you >> more cookies. No. Uh, great work. Keep it up. Uh, on that note, I'd like to make a motion to approve the campus and district improvement plans with the ability to update as needed. >> Second. >> I couldn't even talk. >> Okay. Justin Collie made a motion seconded by Kyle Hafner to approve the campus and district improvement plans with the ability to update as needed. All in

096favor? >> All opposed? Motion carries. Thank you for all the hard work. Okay, Mr. St. Claire uh is going to talk with us about approval of hell damage invoices from Parson's roofing and bill for property restoration. >> All right. Good evening again. Um per our board policy, any expenses over the $35,000 mark uh do require board approval. And as you will recall, we had significant hail damage back at the end of May and significant repairs and uh water cleanup all throughout the summer. Uh which is obviously well well well over the $35,000 mark. Uh we have at this point in time received all but I believe one payment uh from TASBY for our our claims. There's one invoice that is still under review, but I believe probably in the next few days, later this week

097sometime, it's going to get approved. It's about a $1.2 million uh invoice that's pending. Uh but outside of that, we have received all the other payments that we need to now turn around and pay to Belffor and to Parsons for the services they have rendered for us already. I did put in your board packet the uh grand total for the Belffor property restoration invoices right now that we have is 3,341,582 and the collective total of the Parson's roofing invoices that we have which I believe should be the end of theirs. I don't believe there's any more uh Parsons roofing coming uh is $324,515. So those are the the two different amounts to the two different vendors that we're looking for approval so we can go ahead and make payment to them and get this on

098our 2425 books as we have already started the audit last week working with the auditors for the 2425 school year because these damages obviously were done in the previous year and so we need to be sure to get these paid get these on the books as previous year uh and as I also pointed out in the uh board document uh we've received everything that we're planning to pay out at at this point other than the roughly $117,000 deductible which was outlined to you I know uh probably two or three meetings ago maybe three meetings ago now. Uh so outside of that and then the one additional payment and invoice that'll be coming probably later this week. This should just about get us where we need to be for getting our payments made. want to make

099sure I heard you correctly. Um, and just get straight to the point. The total bottom line, what this is costing the district and how much is coming out of our fund balance is what number? I think you said,000. >> Yes. >> And fortunately, because of the reimbursement resolution that was passed earlier, we should be able to reclaim that >> in the bond thing. >> Should we receive bond funds later, we can reclaim that even. So, >> go vote. Okay. Um, does anybody have any more questions on this? Thank you for that one, Kyle. >> We will need to take action. >> Second. >> Okay. Kelvin Raven made a motion seconded by Kyle Ha to approve the payment invoices for Parson's roofing and ble property restoration for hell damage repairs as presented. All in favor? >>

100All opposed? Motion carries. >> Since you're up there, it's time for our monthly financial update. >> Okay. All right. So, we have our September information that we present here at the October meeting. And there'll be a couple of peculiarities I'll point out here when we get to them in a second. Uh just because of this time of the year that we're at this point of the year. Uh so first of all, we have our budgeted and actual revenues received so far. Uh we've budgeted a grand total of roughly $66 million in revenue for this year. Right now we received about 10 million of that. Uh we've got about 1.2 2 million in local and almost 9 million in our state payments so far. Just a reminder, you're probably getting kind of tired of me hearing

101hearing me say this. We get basically three payments a year from TEA, our foundation school program. We received one in September. We'll get one towards the end of this month and we will not get our third and final one until next August. So by the time I report to you next month, we should have the bulk probably about 70 to 80% of our total state revenue already in hand by the end of this month, which is good. That means we have that money set aside and and ready to go. And of course, tax collections will start soon in the fall here. Uh and so we'll be uh showing a lot more re realized revenue uh once we get to the end of next month and then the coming next couple of months as well. Uh

102we have our investment report. Uh not a tremendous amount of change in the rates although I believe they were I didn't didn't look at it before I left my office but I'm pretty sure they were down about a tenth to maybe 1500s of a percent. Not much of a change from the previous month. still holding pretty steady at well over 4% at each of our investment pools. Uh again, probably the some of the lowest balances you'll see. Uh like I just said, we'll be getting state more state aid here uh later this month. And then once tax collections begin picking up, then we'll have a good bit more we can move over to those accounts. Uh if those are still our higher interestbearing accounts, we'll try to keep them there as long as we can

103to earn as much interest revenue as possible. And then uh finally our tax collection report. Uh this is one of the peculiarities I was mentioning. This is still the 2024 tax year data that you're seeing here. Typically we see the switch from the old outgoing tax collection year to the new year in October. So, normally next month you would start seeing the updated numbers as far as the levy collection amounts and and so forth uh for the new year. However, that may be delayed possibly until we get to November. I'm not sure exactly. I get these reports at the end of the month, so I'll know when I get to the first week of November uh what has changed on the collection reports, but eventually soon we'll start seeing the actual 2025 tax levy data

104and collections. But for right now, this is still continuing to show increases to last year's collections. >> Daryl, does that have anything to do when with when the tax bills themselves are sent out? Because I know like I went to go or my mom went to go pay her t her property taxes today and the bills are not ready yet because of the November election. Correct. >> Correct. that that's what I've heard is the the appraisal office is planning to wait until the election is over to make sure that they know exactly what the correct rate is that we need to be taxing our our community on. Uh it they could be done sooner, they could have been sent out sooner, but then you run the risk of having refunds and possibly having incorrect information.

105So I think their plan is to wait until we know the exact outcomes of the election to make sure everything is correct the first time around. So yes, that's why I'm not sure that I'll have new data for you. I'm thinking I probably won't have new data and new reports for the current collection year probably until November, which means you'll see those in December most likely. Any other questions or comments about our financial reports? >> Thank you as usual. >> Oh, sorry. >> Wait, one more. >> One more. I missed that one. Uh so this is just our budgeted versus uh expended um expenses by by function across the general fund, food service fund, and debt service fund. All three of those combined into this one report. Again, you'll notice that we have a pretty

106large budget compared to what we've actually spent. But one thing to keep in mind and I I think I pointed this out last year this time uh those those lovely August acrruals that we have where we have to calculate and post on our outgoing books uh expenses salary expenses uh for staff and employees who earn money in August but don't get paid their first new payment of the year till September mainly teachers and aids. And so now we see the other side of that because now there's a credit being posted. So, in most of the functions that have significant uh 10-month salary payroll, uh you'll you would notice that the the amounts are pretty low because we've got large credits being posted on top of the se September payroll, but they're about the same amount.

107So, it washes a lot of that expense out. So, you'll see the expenses pick up more going forward from month to month is more than what it looks like right now. But other than that, uh things are proceeding pretty much normal with our expenses. Any questions about the expenses? >> Thank you, Joe. You're >> welcome. Thank you. >> Next, we have the annual bilingual and ESL program report. Uh the ESL bilingual coordinator, Sarah Montes, will present. >> Uh good evening, members of the board. Uh like President Krennic said, this is the annual bilingual ESL uh program report required by TEA. Um I just wanted to give y'all a little bit of background about who our students are. I'm I didn't realize I >> Oh, sorry. I didn't see the light. Um who they are, how

108they're doing um in their uh English proficiency journey, and then some of the things that we have planned for them and for our staff. Let me see which way I click this. >> Yep, there it goes. Okay, so uh our emergent bilingual students, uh they're not just students that are in the bilingual program. there are any students that we have in the district that speak more than one language and are not considered English proficient. So, uh right now we have a total of 682 in the district across all seven campuses. Uh 440 of them are served in the ESL program and 233 are served in our bilingual classes. And then we have just nine students that are identified as emergent bilingual but their parents uh denied participation in any of those services. So uh one

109of our programs that we offer here is uh the bilingual transitional bilingual early exit program. That means that instruction is delivered in both English and Spanish. Um the goal is you know for them to develop their skills in both languages and be ready for all English instruction by about third or fourth grade. Um that's taught by a certified bilingual teacher and uh they're working in Spanish when they first start off and then we transition them into English instruction. So, something that uh I one of my first projects that I worked on um when I took this position was a revamping of our bilingual program framework. Um there was a lot of talk of percentages and minutes and things like that, but um we really needed something that was clear and coherent for the teachers and

110also included a a logical progression to English. So on the framework that I have here, Spanish is uh coded in red, English is in blue. And so you can see that yeartoyear there's a little bit more in English, maybe about one subject area. So it's something clear and finite that's easy for teachers to follow. Um, and of course any of the years that show English and any of those subjects, bilingual teachers are able to give them support in their first language as well to make sure that they understand. We also offer um English as a second language, ESL, and there's two different models of it, but really just the main difference between them is a contentbased model would mean that any teacher that student sees within the instructional day is ESL certified. So like a

111second grader, if they have two teachers that they see, both of them have that certification. A pullout model would be um a student that has at least their language arts teacher who's ESL certified. So um imagine a high school student once they get into having eight different teachers, it's hard to make sure that every single one has that. As long as their language arts teacher is uh appropriately certified, then that would be considered a pullout model. Um but in both of these models the um instruction is adapted for their language needs. So teachers who are certified in that way they've been trained on strategies to use with those students. Um a lot of the bulk of what I wanted to talk to you all about tonight is explaining what it is and how that affects

112our students, how they can show growth and what that means for the district for accountability purposes. Um, I know we talk a lot about STAR and how that affects accountability, but Telpas is a part of that also that people often don't realize. Um, so it is a test that the kids take. Any EB student kindergarten through 12th grade who's not considered English proficient yet, they take a language test. There's two parts to it. Um, in the spring and there's one piece that tests listening and speaking in English and then another that does reading and writing. So, it's not a pass fail test, but they're rated in each domain um on a fourlevel scale. So, beginning, intermediate, advanced, and advanced high. An advanced high would mean that they're on level with a native English speaker. They

113also get a composite score um that I'll talk a lot about uh in a little bit. That's kind of like their average. It's like their overall score. Um it's weighted a little more heavily on reading and writing, but that's kind of like their their average. So any of those students who have not yet met the criteria to reclassify as no longer emergent bilingual will take Telpus every spring. Even if they have denied uh participation in any of those programs, they still are required to take Telpus. Um and their results they do affect accountability like I mentioned um in the academic growth uh domain and closing the gaps. So our EB students um between Telpas and STAR they hit us in a lot of places. So um you know it's important that they're successful both academically

114and then in their uh linguistic journey. So just for an example too because I've learned better by seeing like what are what are you even talking about? What does Telus look like? Uh I have an example of a writing prompt that a student would receive and then also a listening prompt. So, um, it's a little different from STAR in that not everything is textbased. They're not responding to text. A lot of it is, um, some of times opinion or responding to a picture like this and things like that. I also had an example of a speaking question and a reading question. Speaking is an area that's really tough. Um, not because the kids aren't able to speak in English, but because they're testing with a microphone and having to record themselves. So there's a lot

115of logistical things and they get shy when they have an audience around them. So that's an area that's usually kind of tough for them. Uh the picture on the top is showing some of our junior high students. Uh something that I've implemented this year are the Telpus talks. So I've started going around to different campuses and meeting with all the EB students and talking to them about what is Telpas, why are you taking it, and explaining to them that there is a possible expiration date to this. you can test out of Telos. You don't have to do this forever and ever, which is a shock for a lot of them. They're like, "Oh, I didn't I didn't know that." So, um, I've been giving that presentation to some of the campuses and then meeting with

116students, myself or ELPAC administrators to go over with them individually what did they do last year and what are their goals for this year. So, that's some uh junior high students thinking hard about what they're going to do. Okay. Uh this shows our Telpus composite scores just across the entire district and this was for the last test in the spring of 2025. Um so this is their average scores across all seven campuses. Um we have the majority of our kids are kind of living in that intermediate and advanced area. And then in a little bit I'll break down um the different grade bands like kind of what that looks like and how it changes as they they move up. Why would a student not receive a rating? >> Oh, that's a good question. >> So,

117it would likely be because uh for some reason maybe that student was absent on testing day and they were never pulled to make it up. Um, so that's something that that can happen, but I'm hoping for 100% participation because it's a window, so you you're not going to miss that whole month. But thank you. That's a good question. So uh like Sarah mentioned uh growth is a huge focus especially for Telpus and this was our uh student growth last year. So it would be comparing their scores from the spring of 2024 to 2025. So we had a lot of students that stayed at the same level um 84 that moved up a level and a couple that jumped up two levels. So um that's pretty significant. But some things to consider and I'll show you

118an example um are that staying at the same proficiency level composite score doesn't necessarily mean that they did not grow or improve. And I'll give you a really good example of it. Um also we have a high number of newcomers that have been coming into the district over the past few years. That's students that are in the US for three years or less. And so their growth is going to be a little bit slower. You know that's to be expected. Oops, went the wrong way. Okay. Um, another thing that is a change in how growth is measured from years past to this year that I wanted to make sure that y'all were aware of because it's it's a little bit different and this affects our growth points that we're getting for accountability. So, this is

119a sample student. um say that on last year or this year, same scenario from in their listening domain they grew uh one level. speaking they grew one level reading bad test day they dropped uh from advanced to a beginner in writing they stayed the same both years their composite would still work out to be an intermediate so in the past like this last year and years before we would still receive a growth point for those students because they grew in two domains even though they're composite didn't change. So a change that TEA has made for this year is the composite needs to move. So in that same scenario, we would not get a growth uh growth point for that student. So that's just a change to the way that they are counting growth that um

120I just want to make sure that y'all were all aware of. And so I mentioned about how the composite score doesn't always quite tell the whole story of a student's growth. So there's four uh domains that are on the test. So imagine student A, their first year they have two beginner scores and two intermediates for intermediate composite. Okay. The next year they improve in one area, one beginner, three intermediates, but they have the same composite. It didn't change. Third year with this score, they still have an intermediate composite. So that student, you can see the progression that they've made and the growth they've made, although it's truly not reflected in their composite score. So that's a change that's been made, but it's something that I kind of wanted to have uh in the back of

121your mind so um that when we get that data after this year, we're able to interpret it correctly. All right. Within the grade bands, elementary, their composite scores, um and that's across all three elementaryaries look like this. we have a lot more in beginning and intermediate. Um, but I wanted to, you know, take into account that that includes kids in the bilingual program. So, at that point, they've had two, three, four years of all Spanish language arts instruction. That's what we start with for language arts. So, their English is still um catching up to that. So, I'm I would expect to see lower uh composite scores at that age level. Then at the middle school and the junior high, we had a lot more kids shift to intermediate and advanced. So, um, a lot of

122our longer term EBS, that's kind of the age range when we're starting to reclassify and and exit from the program. High school, it kind of shifts back the other way, but if you notice when I've switched between them, the overall number of students is much less because at uh the high school level, a lot of those kids have already reclassified and exited. So the kids who are left taking Telpas are newcomers uh who've been here for a shorter amount of time. So the ones that are still taking it are having a little bit lower scores. Reclassification means um to exit the program. That means they're considered English proficient. There's two things that students have to do to do that. They would not take Telpus after they reclassify. They need to first receive advanced high composite

123score on their Telpus test and then also pass their star reading. But if you got advanced high on Telus, you're very likely going to pass your star reading. I don't think I've seen one yet that didn't. So this year, um I know I came in pretty late in the game. Um this needs to be done before the first day of school. So, um, my LPC administrators were very helpful in, um, looking through different data points and we were able to reclassify 30 students this year. So, they will not be taking anymore and they're very happy about it. Uh, our staffing, um, some things that we're doing uh, to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers. Um, like Sarah said, also, finding teachers in Texas is tough across the board, especially bilingual teachers. So, some of the

124things that we're focusing our efforts on are growing our own people that we already have in the community, in the schools that have the capability and just need support to uh either finish their degree, take those tests, and get certified and things like that. Checking in with them and um supporting them in their certification. Um, a big part of that is, um, we have a ton of certification trainings that are available to them in different formats, some in person, online, self-paced, things like that. And, um, we reimburse their test fees once they go and take their certification test, waiverss, and exceptions. If we have teachers who are serving EB students and they don't have the appropriate certification, we have to apply uh for a waiver exception to TEA. So, right now um for this school

125year, the current year, I'm looking at five bilingual exceptions and 23 ESL waiverss. So for next year going forward, I think a lot of this can be um can be fixed with some more strategic student placement. If we have one ESL certified teacher, all the EB students need to be with that teacher. And those are some of the conversations I've had with principles um and also identifying teachers who are um who need to be cert become certified and looking at how to support them. So last year there was one teacher in the district who took and passed her ESL certification test. This year my goal is four. Um we need to um the goal that TEA sets is to decrease your waiverss by 25%. So that would be seven less waivers for the following school

126year. So I think with being a little more strategic and then focusing on key teachers who are in language arts and English that we can uh we can definitely meet that goal. Uh professional development highlights. I'm not going to read through every single one, but um we have some trainings that are coming out soon for um starting from me to our um PLC facilitators that will be going to all campus um all campuses and all content areas that are about um strategies to use with EB learners. Um there's some a couple of conferences that teachers will be attending and of course uh like I mentioned lots of certification support for people that are um that are looking to do that with my campus administrators. Uh another thing I've implemented is um are the monthly principal

127meetings. I told them, "I'm sorry y'all are gonna get sick of hearing from me and me bugging you, but I think it's important to meet with them face to face and talk about things that are specific for their campuses, the student needs, staffing needs, and any events or um things that are going on on their specific campus. Um so far as a result of these meetings we have established ESL class at the middle school and also at the Brennham Junior High a separate class where um kids are able to work just on their English language development and also at the high school ELDA class English language development and acquisition which has the same the same purpose. It's um a class specifically for them to work on English acquisition apart from their content classes. And with

128that um we also have a dedicated curriculum that they're using. So there's a set of workbooks with a teacher book that's specifically made for newcomers to the US um called Ready Setite Go Newcomers. And I've also established monthly meetings. I told them they were going to get tick uh tired tired of me uh with the LPAC administrators. So these are um sometimes the APS or head uh principles that focus on EB um documentation on the campus level. So we meet once a month uh just to establish consistency so that we're all speaking the same language, we're all meeting our deadlines, and we're all using the same processes. um LPAC procedures, how to use our online platform for recording that and um organizing uh EB student records. So our example uh folder on the slide um

129is our new system that we have for paper documentation because we found that we had some paper things floating around and uh digital things floating around. So we're going to have both. Um and so that's a system that uh we've implemented across all seven campuses. So that'll follow the students as they move up. >> How is Mr. Jose Altuve doing in your class? >> He's great. If you if you look on there, he actually uh reclassified, so he's doing really good. >> For the record, the example folder she has says Jose Altuve on it, so we know he's little, but come on. >> Yeah. Well, he reclassified, so he's doing really good. And that was my last slide. Did y'all have any questions? >> You're doing a great job. I mean, this is so much

130for one person to jump into, but you've done done miracles here. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Just had a question. Um, whenever we're looking at at at our EV students and uh we deal with our special needs community, uh, how is that reflected in in these numbers uh because they're being included in the classes as far as how the implementation because obviously having to overcome a language barrier and then also just a learning disability, those pieces. Does that play into that? And do we have statistics on that as far as how many of our kids uh that are in these programs may have a learning disability? >> How many are are doubly identified? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Um I'd have to look. I don't have the number on top of off the top of

131my head. Um how many of our students are uh double exceptional. Um, but I do know that they are out there and any decisions that are made about them as far as um, assessments, classroom accommodations, and things like that, our ELPAC committee, which is like the EB committee on campus, um, and our AR committee work in conjunction with each other. And we have ELPAC uh representatives that if an EB is served in the special education, we have to have an ELPAC representative in their AR meeting who also brings that um consideration to the table and talks about linguistically how that can affect um what they have going on in um in their classroom. >> Does that answer your question? >> It does. I just I guess what I was wondering is are we do we

132have the capacity to serve a kid who is who's on listed both in both ways and so that we're able to serve them and having individuals that can be able to help them meet their needs as well. We do at some campuses um have special education teachers who are also ESL certified. And so um they are also uh teachers that are kind of on my list I'll say for um continuing education and certification because that's a need everywhere. But um yes, that is a special consideration. >> Okay. Does anybody have any more questions? Uh glad you're here in this district. um we had um our star test scores weren't the best. So, I really look forward to you working with Sarah and everything she has to to help our ESL because it's really important that

133we get those up to where they need to be. So, look forward to all the hard work and just thank you for everything you're doing. >> Thank you. And actually, since you said that, can I highlight one thing that um to kind of shout somebody out on their star scores or EBS? I I left it out of my presentation just for time sake because I know um they there's a lot of information that y'all hear, but I looked at our EB um star and EOCC scores compared to EBS across the state. And last year our um algebra 1, our EBS outperformed EBS across the state of Texas by a lot. It was considerable. I don't I don't want to quote the exact number. I believe it was 15 20%. >> No, thank you for that

134information. >> I can share that data with y'all to see. I left it off for time sake, but I did want to shout out that department specifically. They did amazing. And I let Mr. Watts know that as well. >> Yeah. >> On their star EOC scores, um, Burnham High School for that algebra one earned a distinction, which meant out of their 40 schools that they're compared to, they were like in the top. >> That's great. That's I look for growth in other subjects, too. So, Half of them met on their algebra one. >> Awesome. Thank you so much. Okay, next the coordinator of safety and security, Joe Morley, will give a safety and security update. Good evening. Um, our commitment protecting our students, staff, and community through proactive systems, partnerships, and layered safety measures. With

135that being said, I would like to intro introduce uh Sergeant Sierra Randall, Brennham Police Department, our SRO supervisor, and then she can in introduce her team. >> Hello. This is uh Corporal Ortega. He is at the Brennan Middle School. This is Corporal Gibbs. She is brand new. She is currently >> training here at the high school and then she'll be rotating out for to finish out her training and then she will will find her home. And then this is Corpal Casproitz. He is here at the high school. And this is Corporal Malinowski. She's currently at the junior high. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Commitment to safety. Student staff safety remains Brenham ISD's top priority. We continue to review, refine, strengthen safety protocols in collaboration with our local law enforcement, emergency management, and state agencies. Our

136layered approach focuses on prevention, protection, and preparedness. Maintaining confidentiality. Remd employs multiple systems, tools, procedures to ensure the safety of all students and staff members. For security reasons, not every measure can be discussed publicly. Uh sharing specific operational details could compromise the effectiveness of certain systems. Provide uh information that should remain confidential. We want what we can share is this is safety is not a one program or one person. Uh it's coordinated, it's layered, it's effort supported by our entire community. layers of safety and security. We got the standard response protocols, uh, compliance and training, three levels of reporting, and a community partnership, standard response protocols. Most uh, every campus has posters posted throughout the campus um, on backa ID cards. Uh it's about hold lock down secured uh evacuate shelter in place and we

137make those readily available in case of a a time of a high stress situation. Oh my gosh, what do I do? They just called lockdown. Oh, let me look on back of my ID. Let me look at the poster in every classroom on the wall. It's going to tell you exactly what needs to happen. There you go. Yes, ma'am. And uh with that being said, we're we're required by law to do some of these uh emergency actions monthly and some where we're not required to do it all per the state. We take uh we take measures and we practice these on a monthly basis. Not every one, but throughout the entire school year. Um one or multiple are being practiced each month. So, compliance and training, regular drills, law enforcement coordination, annual safety audit audits

138per the TEA and state mandates. Uh, some new bills that were passed down um was House Bill 33, which requires each school district to purchase and have on hand a ballistic shield and an entry tool for each campus. um purchased through different vendors across the state, but each office has a a ballistic shield which was required and approved by TEA and uh as well as an entry tool. Law enforcement has been made aware of their locations in case of a time of need, not only for them, but for our staff and students as well. And uh during also training during the summertime, our partnership with the local law enforcement, they conducted uh CRA training, which citizens response to active shooter or active attack training, as well as our standard response protocols. And uh it was

139hours of training that they presented to all of our staff members uh elementary as well as secondary campuses um on several different occasions at different campuses which discuss what they need to do, what they should do in time of a emergency situation. Um they also oversee every campus. Obviously we have eight different campuses and we have five SRO's up here. So they oversee the uh coordination of uh contracted officers is what we call them offduty officers working security at other campuses as far as uh reporting. So Vinnham ISD has uh three layers of reporting. Um, we have an internal in-house reporting form that anybody can uh make an anonymous report and this falls under David's law which is required by by uh state mandates and um this is found on our website. They can click

140fill out this form or click this form actually what it says and they can put their their information as far as what they want to report. Is it bullying? Is it a mental health issue? Is it a threat of violence weapons? substance abuse, harassment, intimidation, and so on. Persons, anyone across our district can can file an anonymous report which that report then gets sent not only to me but to other administrators and um depends on which campus uh the report is um talking about. Then we share that information with the campus administrators who then will conduct an investigation uh to mitigate or prevent any crimes or um to get prevent bullying from happening. Uh the second layer of oh let me back up. Uh since day one of school we have had a total of

14128 reports come through that anonymous reporting system. Second layer is Crimestoppers reports. um very similar to anonymous reporting, but that's just in-house. Crimestoppers is statewide and persons can get paid for what they report. Um we have had a total of 10 payouts, 16 reports, but only 10 turned out to be fruitful. And with 10 payouts, we paid a total of $665 to persons filing um reports that turned out to be fruitful for stuff as far as a fight that campus administrators did not know about, but it investigated and turned out that it was true. uh numerous vapes and um yeah, it was vapes in a in a fight so far this year that were paid out for. And then the third layer is uh 911 calling, also known as SPAT, silent panic alert technology. And

142that is on every district phone, every classroom, every administrator's office, maintenance shop, uh, transportation where any staff member or student has been trained. And there's even a little card that gives instructions on how to push it in case of an emergency. They push one button. Uh, and that message is then sent to our local dispatch and it's an automated uh, message saying send help to Brennham High School room 202. That will notify every law enforcement agency, every first responder, EMS, fire, um, sheriff's office, obviously the PD, and they're all going to respond to this location to help out the person that pushed the button. Yeah. Any questions about that? I don't know that we spent a whole lot of time talking about that until now, but that was a huge initiative, Dr. Collic, you and

143your team, uh, taking that on and getting that done so that that accesses in every classroom, uh, every phone, every every office across the district. Um, that that red button, right, that uh that that you would push in in the case of an emergency. So, um, again, that was a huge task to take that on and get all that done. So, we appreciate that. >> Is there a button or something uh in this room? >> There's not a phone in here. No, ma'am. >> Okay. >> But there are quite a few law enforcement officers here with us today. So, I I feel okay. they'd like to uh talk more about additional things layers that we are doing for the safety of our campuses. And we are proud to announce that we are going to kick

144off watchd dogs, dads of great students. Anybody y'all do y'all know what that is? Okay. So, it it was in the district years ago, faded away. We're bringing it back. But what is Watchd Dogs for our people at home? Watchd Dogs, dads of great students is a family and community engagement educational initiative. Uh there are two primary goals of watchdog program to provide positive male role models for students demonstrating by their presence that education is important to provide extra set of eyes and ears to enhance school safety and security and reduce bullying. Watchd Dogs began in 1998 in a single school in Arkansas and has since grown into a nationally recognized program that has brought hundreds of thousands of fathers and father figures to schools, classrooms, hallways across the country, creating millions of hours of

145inschool volunteer time and having a tremendously positive impact on an educational process. Some of the benefits is uh student gain positive male role models. Schools gain an extra set of eyes and ears. The presence of a father or father figure will provide an additional deterrent of bullying enhancing a sense of security and building and help create an environment conducive to learning. There's no annual fees. Fathers get a glimpse of their students everyday world and learn about the increasingly complex challenges and decisions today's youth are facing. As a result, they can learn to relate better to their student and connect with them. Fathers gain a greater awareness of positive impact that can have on their students life in three critical areas including academic performance, self-esteem, and social behavior. It goes on and on. It's a great

146program. I've had so many um I've read so many positive things about it. Have not heard one negative thing about it, but it is going to help our community in a whole. Open our doors in a right positive way to our parents so they can see the inner workings of our school and be part of their students life. >> Yes, sir. >> I'm super excited about that Brennham ISD is doing this. I had it when I was in school. Actually made friends with a lot of the Watchdogs. They were great u mentors for me growing up. And I think it's fantastic that we're doing it. One question that I had is I don't remember. Do the men that volunteer, do they have to be current parents or can they be um grandfathers or >> Yes,

147they can be they can be a a a parent, a father, a grandfather, an uncle, um a male positive impact of a student's life, >> right? >> They can participate. They will have to go through our in-house training as well as the watchdog training. Now, this program has been in effect since 1998. They've done everything from A to Z. We don't have to reinvent the wheel. We're just going to follow what's already in place. Later this week, we'll send out some information to all the parents if they want to participate and there'll be a timeline. We'll have a pizza party. We'll talk about the program more and we'll educate or I'm sorry, we'll train the the father figures that want to participate. That way they can start coming into our schools and uh be a

148positive impact. With that being said, this is uh one of the shirts, a style of a shirt they will be wearing. Very instinctive. Has a patch on the front and it says watchdog on the back. They will have to check in. They will be considered a volunteer for our school district. So that's volunteer training they have to participate in. um parents or father figures, they will have to purchase their own shirt. Be a good good program. >> Thank you, Joe. >> Yes. Any questions for us? Anybody have any questions before y'all leave? Um I know y'all had a very long day. Sorry for putting y'all at the back of the agenda, but we really appreciate y'all staying and uh just being here because we know y'all's presence with the kids every day. So, um, y'all

149have just as much impact on it as the teachers do. So, especially, but it's a positive impact from what they see, how they see law enforcement officers whenever y'all are there with them. So, really appreciate all the hard work. >> Okay. Next, next we have the consent agenda. We can pull any item or approve it as it is. But before we do this, I wanted to point out um 16B election service agreement between Austin County and Brennham. Um we already have one in place for Washington County, but because some of our kids are in Austin County, we also have to have one with Austin County. We should have done it before. So that's why we're doing it now. But it's just because we have kids in Austin County. So we already have one for Washington

150County. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Kelvin Raen has made a motion seconded by Justin Collie to approve the consent agenda as presented. All in favor? >> All opposed? Motion carries. Uh next we have monthly reports for information purposes. And then uh an executive session would be held for the purpose authorized by Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code section 551.071, 071 consultation with attorney and 551.074 personal matters the board of trustees went into executive session at 808 p.m. According to the Texan open meetings act the Texas government code chapter 551.071 consultation with attorney 551074 and personal matters all final votes actions and decisions will be taken in open meetings. That's it. It is 8:49. Executive session is finished and with no further business before