Brenham ISD Board Meeting 4-21-2025 Regular Board Meeting

001Good evening. You good? Good. Good evening. It's 6 o'clock p.m. The board of trustees of the Brennham School District is now convened. I wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone present. In collaboration with our families and community, Brennham ISD 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 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, so I respectfully ask that you please refrain from talking while others

002are speaking. Thank you for taking time to join us this evening and for your interest in the Brennham Independent School District. At this time, Kyle Hafner will lead us in the pledge followed by the invocation given by Tommy Sullivan. [Music] Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good evening. Again, before we pray this afternoon, we want to go ahead and have a moment of silence for Burton ISD teacher, Miss Kim Apple White, was a sixth grade teacher in Burton. And she also was a 1997 graduate of Brennham High School. So, let's go ahead and have a moment of silent at this time. Thank you our father in heaven, the creator of all

003things, the make of all mankind. We come to you this afternoon with thanksgiving in our hearts. My heavenly father, we just thank you for being so good and just being so kind. We ask that you just continue to watch over Brham ISD. Bless us. take care of us and stand by us. I that you bless all of our students, parents, family members, teachers, staff members, administrators. Bless us all one by one, then bless us all together. And as we come to a near school year, I ask that you wrap your loving arms around us, my heavenly father, and bless us and take care and stand by. We ask for your traveling grace and protection grace on each and every one of us, heavenly father. this afternoon as we do business for the school district. Ask

004you just to be with us here with the board and help us make the the right decision, the best decision for this community and for our students. We thank you for all these blessings, all the blessing your son Jesus name. Let us all say amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, first we have special recognition and at this time I'll turn it over to our superintendent, Klay Gillantine. So, it is that time of year and we have a lot of recognitions this evening as you can see from the crowd here. But I'm going to kick us off this evening uh with a recognition for Natalie Lee Lang here to my right, Tommy Sullivan over there also to my right. Um just a moment to take uh tell them both a big thank you for being

005two incredible board members, the sacrifice it takes to do that. Uh being on the school board is no small task. takes time, patience, and a whole lot of heart, which you both have. Tatally and Nami and Tommy have done it all, helping set goals, reviewing policies, hiring and supporting several superintendent, working through the budget, and always keeping our students, and this is the number one point I could say about both of these two. They always keep our students at the center of every decision they make. And I want to say a big thank you for that. They've shown what it really means to serve a community, listening to concerns, asking the hard questions, and doing the behind-the-scenes work that it that it helps keep our schools running and strong. And uh again, they both do

006that. Uh so many times that they both reach out to me about this and that. And uh so they can be that voice, that voice for you, um that voice in HB, that voice in the church. Um you know, being a school board member, they get hit um with questions wherever they are. they don't get to take that hat off. And we're just so appreciative for the time and energy. So grateful for everything they've both done. The leadership uh that they've given us has has made such a difference. And uh to sit in that leadership seat um of a community, a smallknit community like this one um is probably more attention than uh than any leadership position, I would think. You know, at the state level or um you know, a bigger level, you might

007be more separated. Um you know, they make decisions that affect us all. and uh then then serve on committee committees with you uh sit at little league baseball game games with you etc etc. So um you are really just uh right there where they can reach out and touch you and ask you anything and everything at any time and we're so so thankful for the many years that you've both given to this community and to Brenam ISD. Thank you. [Applause] Yeah, we're going to have a picture if the families want to come up and I didn't know if maybe another couple of board members might want to say anything. Yeah. So, uh I got a chance to start working with Natalie and and uh Tommy eight years ago. Nelly, I want to say thank you

008for just uh when I had some frustrating days even as a police officer and a board member. You uh you took care of me. You said some very nice things. Also, uh uh you were very firm when you need to be firm, but you were professional and you were genu genuine when every time you came to this board and I thank you for that. Sullivan, I appreciate you. I appreciate you taking time let me vent to you when I need to vent cuz I get upset a little bit but I don't let people see that. Uh, and S, I really appreciate you're a God-fearing man and you taught me how to trust in God and everything's going to be all right. So, I'm going to meet miss both of you and thanks again. Thank you.

009[Applause] I've been on the board I've been on the board now for four years and um the guidance that both of these people have given me to make me a strong board member and a better community member uh I just can't thank y'all enough. Um, I don't think y'all realize the amount of education uh time they volunteered for this school. Uh, 12 years on the board is a a very unpaid, high stress position and they volunteered theirselves for 12 straight years time after time and showed up for these meetings and showed up for committees and met with parents and I just cannot thank him enough for their selfless act. I know Mr. Sullivan alone has got over 48 years in education including 12 years on the board. Um, you had a higher calling to teach

010kids and to build them up and we just really appreciate you. Natalie, you have two young kids and the sacrifice you give to this town is amazing. So, thank you for everything. Y'all have huge shoes to fill, but we'll do our best to make y'all proud. Thank you. [Applause] I have enjoyed working with both of you. Uh Tommy and I go way back because I was a principal and he was a principal and uh we we just uh joy enjoyed being together and sometimes principles need that. that need that extra lift when those days aren't quite going like the way you want. But uh we're also friends and Natalie the same thing. I I have learned so much from you. You are such a professional. You are kind, you are honest, and I know there

011were a lot of days when you probably would have rather had time with your family, but you came here anyway. So, thank you so much and God bless both of you and I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful career after this one. Thank you. Well, I didn't come prepared to speak and um only being on the board for two years with both of you, I didn't I didn't get to go to school uh under your toutelage, Tommy, but I have learned uh to respect you. And as Raven said, you're a god-fearing man, and I respect that. I appreciate it. You're an amazing human being. um only two years so I don't have a mass experience on the board with both of you but Natalie you like Bonnie just said you're a professional um I can

012trust in what you're going to say is what you believe and agree or disagree on um topics throughout the last two years I have had a a wonderful time working with you on the board and it's been great so thank both of y'all [Applause] Natalie, thank you so much for your service as our president. I know that guiding and leading this board as the president is beyond challenging and you've done it for 12 graceful years. So, thank you so much. You've given your heart and your soul to Bam ISD and to this community and I'm so grateful for what I've learned from you. And just as Kyle has said, you've carried yourself as a consmate professional and in the moments where we may disagree, I leave the room still respecting you and you leave the

013room still respecting me. and that is largely not present in today's world. So, thank you for all your service and everything you've done for me, for this board, and for Brennham ISD and Coach Sullivan, man, what can I say about you? You are a pillar of this community. You're one of the first names that I ever heard when I moved to Brennham. I got a phone call from Susan Jenkins, one of your good friends, and she was one of the first people that I met upon moving here. And she said, "Have you met Tommy Sullivan?" And I said, "No." And she just went on and on and on for about an hour from the thought of all the great qualities that you had that you were honest, caring, loving, honorable, respectful, and that you represented

014and care for Brend to the core. And I have to say I agree with her in totality. You're all those things and more. And man, we will miss you and we may disagree on some things, but know that I will miss you and I respect the heck out of you. So, thank thank you for all your service, all your love, and all your care for Britam and our community. I just want to I want to go ahead and say this. First of all, I want to thank God for giving me I didn't know it going to be like [Music] this was instilling in me to be who I want who I want to be. I want to thank my parents. I'm no longer here that taught me when when I was a young boy, be

015nice to everybody. Treat everybody the way you want to be treated. And that's the reason when I became a principal at Blum Elementary, I had my three rules. Be nice. two rules. Be nice and wake hard. If you do those two things in life, that's all you really need. That's what our world needs today. If we all just be nice, that's it. Just be nice. We're missing that. And we need to get back to that. I want to thank the board members here for your support. Yes, we had some time that we disagreed, but we still with a team of eight, and that's what it takes. We're not going to never agree on everything. I want to thank my family for all their support for the 12 years. People ask me, "What are you going

016to do next?" I said, "I don't know. I've been in education all my life as a teacher, coach, principal, assistant principal, but I will find something else to do and I'm going to find something else to do in this community to help to help kids. And again, Natalie, and I said it four years ago, I want to thank you for being our board president for eight years. And I said it four years ago. We have the best board president in the state of Texas. And I'm going to say that again. Appreciate all your hard work, time, and effort. Don't know how you did it with Harper. Hats off to you, man. With two little boys being on the board and all your time you put in. And I know it's not was not easy. And

017that show that you care about kids and you love kids and you love this community. But you at your age, you have you have an opportunity to step back, relax, then maybe you can come back again. But for me, but I'm going say then I'm through for me right now with my age. With my age, I'm going to step back and show that this is it for me. And I want to say it to all the people out there, your board member, everybody, students, I love you guys. I love you. I love you. And let's put Brun back on the map. Be the best school district in the state of Texas. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Thank y'all so much for the kind words. And I had to write something because I knew I wouldn't

018get through this without crying. Tommy, it's been an honor to serve with you. these 12 years that we've had together, the memories we've made, the hard times, the good times, all of it. And your legacy for in Brenham ISD is one for the history books. This is just a condensed, very, very condensed version summary of of Tommy's service here, but he was a high school student when our Brenham schools were originally racially integrated. After proving to be a standout athlete at Brenham High School and in college, Tommy came home to serve as an educator and coach in Brennham. For about four decades, Tommy made a difference in our schools, for our students, and for our teachers. When he was principal at the old Brennham Elementary campus, it was the most run-down campus in town, but

019it was still where teachers wanted to be and where parents wanted their kids because they will follow a strong leader. His motto was be nice and work hard. A motto that's still used today at Brenham Elementary School. And if you know Tommy clearly, as all of you do, you know it's not just words that he says, he lives by it. After Tommy retired, he wasn't finished serving in our district and our community. With a total of 48 years, he's ready for a muchdeserved break. I've learned so much from you, Tommy. I'm beyond grateful to call you my friend. You always know how to make us laugh at sometimes the wrong time, sometimes the right time. I know we haven't agreed on every issue, but that has never stood in the way of our friendship or

020the way that we led together as a team. And that that team mentality is so important. And I I hope and pray as the district moves forward that that team mentality will be central to the board leadership. Thank you all all board members, for my family. I couldn't have done this without you. Harper, you and the boys, you're my rock. People think I'm strong, but you've been the strong one. Ty was two whenever I was first sworn in. And the last board meeting that I missed was when Slade Slade wave the night that he was born. So, it's been a long time. And I've missed a lot of games and family time to serve in this role. And I just thank you all for your patience and for your love. And to our BISD family,

021thank you all so much. Thank you for the prayers as as we lead. We can't do it without the prayers that you all have given. I'll continue to serve in other ways in the community and in the school district. And I'll continue to advocate for you and for public education. None of us go into public education because we think it's perfect. We go into it because we love the students. We love our community and we believe it's worth fighting for. And it is worth fighting for. And we need more people standing up for public education now more than ever. So, let's keep fighting for it. And although this is bittersweet, I know the new board members will come in with renewed energy and y'all are going to be an incredible team together and continue to

022move our district forward. So, thank y'all very much. [Applause] Harper, you want to you and the kids want to We doing one at a time or we doing Yeah. Okay. Let's do one at a time, I guess. I wouldn't want to be in I don't think she wants all of us in her picture. take over. I'm standing directly behind Harper. All right, Tommy. His family, his brother. Come on now. Oh yeah. Yeah, that's his uh great nephew. Yeah, we have two. Okay. Thank you for coming out. Thank you all so much. Next, we have our campus and department spotlight and we tonight are honoring ECLC and our principal from ECLC, Melissa's Bunker, will introduce them. Good afternoon. Thank you. Good afternoon, Madam President, members of the board, and Mr. Gillantine. The ECLC would like to

023thank you for giving us this time to recognize a few of our ECLC family members. These fine individuals are part of what makes the ECLC a great place to start the education journey. Taran Arlage is our teacher of the month for the ECLC. Taran joined our campus as a student teacher in 2023 and we couldn't wait for Taran to join our family full-time. Finally, in the spring of 2024, Taran came in mid year, which can be a very tough assignment, but she quickly took the students under her wing and made a classroom her own. This year, Taran has spread her wings even more and has taken on leadership roles on our campus by serving on our friendship committee and bringing fresh new ideas to our PLC. Taran's classroom instruction is top-notch and advocates for each

024student in her class. Here's a few comments about the staff that the staff made about Taran. Taran is so upbeat and positive, and she is always a team player and always does what's best for her students. She loves all of her students so much and shows it every day. Her ambition is admirable. She strives each day to meet all of her students needs and is a joy to work with. So, thank you very much, [Applause] Taran. Latasha Richardson. Come on up, Tasha. So, we lovingly call her Matasha. Tasha Richardson is our pair professional of the month for ECLC. Latasha has been one of the original team members that opened the ECLC's doors in 2017. Latasha can truly be desri described as a right-hand woman to all of our staff members. She steps in to help

025whenever she can. But the aspect I love about Tasha the most is her nurturing side. When you're sick, stressed, tired, or just needing some kind words, she's there offering her secret recipe. Tasha tea. When yelps you get back on track, Tasha's love for people extends well beyond our doors and into the community, feeding so many. Here's just a few things her colleagues have shared about Latasha. Miss Richardson is in incredibly hardworking, always going above and beyond for those around her. She has built fantastic relationships with the student in the school, and she has a huge heart and a passion to work with kids. She is a sweet lady and is always trying her best to help everyone. Simply put, she's awesome. She's always there, not only for her students, but for her co-workers as well.

026Thank you, Tasha. [Applause] You're very welcome. Come on, Mr. Bo. Mr. Bo Torres is our ECLC student of the month. Bo is the son of Adriana Baras Barahas and Ramon Torres. He is a beloved student of Mrs. Carrie Bird's class, but he is loved by everyone on our campus. He always gives the best hugs and constantly has a smile on his face. And inside the classroom, Bo works hard to comp complete his best work and help his friends whenever he can. Each morning and afternoon, he makes a beline for Miss Bird to give her her first hug with a good morning. And before he leaves to get on in the car, it's beline back to her and goodbye. I'll see you tomorrow. With his great manners and caring attitude, Bo is well on his way

027to becoming a standout student at Brennham. Here's some of the things that Peter said about Bo. He has such a great heart and he's always trying his hardest to do the right thing. Ramon is a caring student, hard worker, and a great friend. He always makes sure that nobody is left out. Thank you, Bo. Good job. [Applause] Wait, come back. He wants to get under the bubbles. Congratulations. Thank you for being here. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Somebody lift one of those bubbles. Next, we are going to recognize our um our VFW smart mayor citizen education teacher of the year for grades 9 through 12. And our VFW commander, Ben Seeker, will introduce Thank you for having me. And I got to say this, it feels so much better standing here as as a member

028of this community. It's not as a principal. I got to tell you, man, they had to they had to do that old podium away cuz I scratched it all up. I tell you, thank y'all for having us. Gosh, dog. Really? U teacher of the year. I'm going to just give you a brief uh rundown how this does happen. Every every VFW post in the state of Texas is required to have at least one teacher of the year nominee in one of three categories. Elementary, middle school, junior high, or high school. And anyone can nominate a teacher and we we do sometimes get get them from off the street, but very seldom. And uh of course when they find out, you just don't call the post and say, "Hey, I want to nominate Nanny Mary Sue,

029second grade." I give them that packet to start filling out and they say, "I never mind." And you know, but uh I've learned and uh the central office has just been great about this. Uh we go over there and a couple of us from the post and meet with HR and they know I'm coming sometimes there last few years and we sit down, we talk and they may have a couple people and we look at them and say let's okay which one you think is going to be the best one here and we we do that. uh that's when the paperwork starts and uh the main the main points points that we are looking for for uh VFW teacher of the year are passion for teaching teaching citizenship innovations and use of resources and if

030you throw a little patriotism in there it sure will help. Okay, there are 14 post in our district 17. Some are small and some are large. Conro is in our district. They have their own district I believe over there as big as they are. So our teacher when it wins it it's a good thing and I think the way we do it worked pretty well. This is the third time I've stood up here and told you that we've had a teacher that was state a state winner in one of the divisions in the last 6 eight years. I don't know. So we're doing okay. Um then one teacher from each of those division goes to state. There are 20some districts in our state and there over 300 and something posts. So there are I can't

031tell you how many teachers were in her category but there were a lot and then that goes down uh as she goes as a state teacher and this year is it's really my pleasure and I got to say this I wasn't at the state convention but one or two of the post members were there and after Madison gave her her uh talk to the committee the teacher that got up behind you I believe she said that's a hard act to all of them. So, we did a good one. My It is my pleasure to introduce Madison Ree. Good afternoon. Thank you'all so much for having me today. Thank you to Mr. Seeker. Um, this award is so much more than just me. We have built an outstanding partnership with our local VFW branch and we

032have had so much support. So it's not just this competition but you know between junior high and high school we also participate in Patriots pin and voices of democracy where again we have our students who are researching and writing um about patriotism about citizenship and what does it mean to be a an American, a citizen. Um, and this is a great way that we can have those real authentic conversations and we can make those connections, you know, the real world application. Um, and so not only that, but Mr. Seeker and our VFW has been so supportive. We have veteran talks where we invite Vietnam War veterans into Bernham High School and they talk to our US history kids to give them their perspective and what they want. Again, real life experience that you can't get

033from a textbook, not even from watching a movie or a documentary. Um, whenever we need something, we call up Mr. Seeker and we have what we need. One year we wanted to take uh students to the movie theaters and see some war films. Um, and we needed some money and BFW sponsored us. And so again, this is not just an honor for me, but it's really an honor for our community that we have bridged this relationship and we have such support from BFW with throughout Bamistd. So, Mr. Speaker, thank you for everything. Thank you. I guess we have to take a picture. Yeah, I'll leave this here. Congratulations. And thank you so much. Raven, even No, she had to watch Laya today. Thank y'all and congratulations again. I'm going to get a little bit else

034something else in here. The BISD supports the VFW and Veterans Veterans Day program on every campus every year. And I got to tell you, what shouldn't have started when you're a grandfather or a father of a kid and you're standing on that gym floor or on that stage, they call your kid's name out, they call your name out as his veteran, and they squeeze your hand. I've been through some tough times, but buddy, that's some of them right there. But it's so great. Thank y'all for doing that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have our Brennham Junior High History Fair recipients and our AVID instructor, Maddie Ruiz, will introduce. Well, hello again. Yes. Um, so we actually have a few different categories of students I would like to recognize tonight. So,

035um, one, not only have we created this great relationship with the VFW, but this year we have also branched out with the Daughters of the American Revolution. So, we have a local chapter here in Brennham. Um, and up to this point, they hadn't been as involved in Brenhamd just cuz they didn't have the connections. And I met Becky Bailey, who is a phenomenal leader of our uh, local chapter at the regional history fair last year. and we got to talking and she said, "Well, you know, I would love to bridge a relationship and and start some things." And so this year, um, our high school students in dual credit United States History competed in the Daughters of the American Revolution Junior Citizenship Competition. And the theme this year was the 250th anniversary of the Navy.

036And so they had a theme and they competed against students throughout the state. Um, so I want to honor our students who won first at state and we actually won going to nationals. Um, we also of course every year participate in the Texas History Fair. Um, we have noticed in the past few years that it's just been junior high that has participated. High school hasn't participated in about 10 years, a little bit more than 10 years now. Um, but this year, I'm very excited to say that we had a high school student who with no strings attached. This wasn't a requirement. There was no grade to this. This was something she was passionate about. Uh, she wanted to enter into the regional competition. She won first and she advanced to state. So, I want to

037introduce both our high school and our junior high history fair students who advanced to state this year. Okay. So, students, when I call your name, if you will just form a line behind me. Okay. All right. And Mr. Cleinsky, would you please come stand with me? So, as you know, this is Mr. Cleinsky. He teaches at Brigham Junior High School. He is the social studies department chair. And honestly, we could not have had the history fair that we had without him. He is pivotal in that movement for us. Um, so we will start with junior high history fair. In the group exhibit, we had Brooklyn Barrera, Victoria Jenowski, and Talon Solic. In the individual exhibit, Austin Daller in the P. No one's coming up here. Okay. Okay. There are a lot of events on Monday

038night. So, um, in the paper, individual paper, we had, um, Leon Hernandez and Audrey Shear. In the group performance, we actually, both of our group performances advanced to state. This was very exciting. Um, and so our first group performance was Charlie Alfred and Ryan Collie. And our second group performance was Avery Gestner, Cameron Johnson, Mallerie Ren, Tatum Weaten, and then we had a group documentary which was Morgan Estep and Ren Royer. So, I'm going to give a moment if we could please give them an applause. from high school. In the individual senior paper, we had [Applause] Avanor. So, all the students that you see here won either first or second in our regional competition. Um, our regional competition the past few years have been at Blind College. Next year it'll go back to Washington on

039the Brazes. Um, we compete against multiple districts, Navasota, Brian ISD. Um, and we still hold our own. we are typically winning most of the categories. And so again, hats off to Mr. Clevenky and his team at junior high who make sure that these students are, you know, really engaging in the historical research process, writing that research paper. They love MLA, right? Like life is wonderful. Now, um, y'all stay up here. The other group of students, this is our Daughters of the American Revolution Junior Citizenship Competition. Again, the theme was the 250th anniversary of our US Navy. There were four categories that we participated in. There was a stamp design, a poster design, a short story, and an essay. Okay. So, all four of these students not only advanced from our region, but they also won

040first at state. And we have one, like I said, that is going on to nationals because she won like the souththeastern portion of the United States. So, anyway, she's going nationals. Uh, if I can have Allison [Applause] Mendoza. Allison designed the stamp. If I can have Drake [Applause] think Drake uh submitted his short essay, short story. Uh, Landry Mendoza, who's not able to be here tonight, uh, submitted a poem. And then Jordy Phillips, I don't know what she don't think. So, Jordy Phillips submitted a poster and she is the one that's going on to nationals. So, she is still representing Brennham ISD um on the national stage. So, again, I just wanted to take the moment and first thank you for letting us honor these students. Um the time, the commitment that they have invested

041in their studies is top-notch. These are your student leaders and again they go above and beyond. Most of these things were not required, not mandatory, but yet they had that drive, that intrinsic motivation that they wanted to not only represent themselves and their family, but our fine district. And so again, we always have to remember who are we investing in it. It's these students here who care, who want to be here and want to better our community and better our district. So again, thank you so much for having us and and recognizing the amazing impact that these students have had. Thank you. Congratulations. I know we have to go [Music] straight. I just want to take a picture of my daughter. supporting her. Thank you all for coming. Congratulations. Congrats. See you. Thank you all

042so much. Next, we want to recognize our Washington County Spelling Bee winners and our elementary curriculum coordinator, Christy Sternado, will introduce them. Hi, good evening. I'm going to have um Christopher and Zayn join me up here. it. I am pleased to stand before you to recognize the incredible success of the 69th annual Washington County Spelling Bee held on February 20th at Brennham High School. This event continues to be a celebration of academic excellence, student perseverance, and the strong community partnerships that make it all possible. We are thrilled to recognize this year's spelling be champion, Christopher Lewis, a fifth grade student at Burton Middle School. Christopher emerged as the top speller out of 26 participants representing nine Washington County schools. After 19 challenging rounds, he secured victory by correctly spelling respiratory and then perpetrate following a

043close back and forth with Silus Johnston, a sixth grade student at First Baptist Church School. We also want to acknowledge our third place winner, Zayn Esto, a fellow fifth grader from Brenna Middle School, who performed exceptionally well throughout the evening. Both students demonstrated incredible composure, determination, and skill. Christopher went on to represent Washington County at the Houston Public Media spelling bee on March 22nd, and we couldn't have been prouder to have him represent Brennham ISD at the regional level. Of course, an event like this doesn't happen without the support and dedication of many individuals behind the scenes. I had the honor of serving as the host that evening and it was truly inspiring to see so many hands working together to make it special. We're deeply grateful to our judging panel. Um and some of

044these people are here tonight um with their own children. Miss Heather Dalmire, staff and academics coordinator at St. Paul's. Um Miss Donna Logan, retired Brennham ISD teacher, and Miss Vicky Curry, superintendent at Burton ISD. Um, our pronouncer, Miss Nancy Erley, is a retired teacher with a passion for language. And we would be remiss if we didn't recognize our campus spelling be coaches. Um, a couple of them are here tonight, too, whose preparation and encouragement made it possible for our students to shine. And finally, thank you to the parents, grandparents, teachers, friends who support our spellers with hours of practice. Is it hours of practice, guys? um reassurance and love. And thank you to KWHI who has supported the Washington County Spelling Bee since it began in 1955. Wow. Um the Washington County Spelling Bee is

045more than just a competition at this point. Um it's a celebration of literacy, perseverance, and the power of learning. So, thank you to everyone who played a role in this year's event, and we look forward to continuing this proud tradition for years to come. [Applause] Hey y'all come over here in the middle. Yeah, come on. Y'all are the star of this picture, not us. Congratulations, guys. Way to go. Congratulations for being here. Way to go. I think I think Brennham and well Washington County is the only county spelling be held anymore. Really? Really? Uh to my knowledge. Now they may tell you differently, but uh as far as I can tell when we started our spelling bee, a lot of the other schools had it too, but uh now we're the last ones left in

046the ca in the county spilling be. Am I right? Yeah. It's a special event. and the and the way that it's with Burton and the private schools. It's that's a very special event. That's great. Thank you. Next, we want to recognize our CSI Lego League and our CSI instructor, Christy Felder, will introduce them. [Applause] Each year the sixth grade CSI students participate in an international robotics competition called first which means for inspiration and recognition of science and technology Lego league. It is organized for students ages 9 through 14. There are three parts to first Lego league. The first is core values where we are judged according to our ability to work as a team and use gracious professionalism and cooperation. Next is a project. We are presented with a real world problem. We then research

047and design a solution and create present the solution creatively. The third component is a robot game. This is where we design, build and program a robot similar to this one. We complete as many missions as possible in 2 and 1/2 minutes on a 4ft by 8t table. All three components of first Lego League count equally towards the team performance. Each year a new challenge is announced that focuses on a re a different real world topic related to STEM. Each challenge within the competition then revolves around that theme. This year's theme was submerged. We had to explore the layers of the ocean and bring our learnings and ideas to the surface as they see into the future. How could we improve the way people explore the oceans? Hi, we are the Crusty Krabbers. We named our

048robot Seabback. Each letter of Seabback is the first letter of each of our team members names. We were hooked on the idea of improving the snow crab population in Alaska. Did you know that less than 5 years ago, the snow crab population declined more than 90%. We created the idea of a one-stop one-stop shop barge that will be placed in the Bearing Sea that will improve the snow crab cooler water temperatures as well as food. The Crusty Krabber barge will securely tackle the goal of global warming issues affecting the snow crab population. Our team received second place champion award at the East Texas FFL qualifier in January. We also received a golden ticket to participate in the East Texas LL Championship Tournament in the state FLL tournament. Hello, we are the Krill Club and we

049named our robot Krilly. Through our research, we discovered that Antarctic krill are considered a keystone species in the Southern Ocean, which means that the entire ecosystem in the Southern Ocean depends on the Antarctic krill to maintain their way of life. Our team's innovative solution was to create artificial icebergs that would provide a more suitable habitat and feeding grounds for the Antarctic krill in hopes of increasing their population. We even wrote and sang a song to present our ideas to the judges. Our team received first place champions award at the East TexasLL qualifier which advanced us to the East Texas championship tournament. Then where we received third place champions award there we also received advancement to thell state tournament. Though we didn't walk away with any awards, we had a great season and made many memories.

050Hello, we are the Snowblazers and this is our robot Carl. Have you heard of the crown of thorn starfish? They cause significant damage to the coral reefs and are one of the major causes of coral decline across the Great Barrier Reef over the past 40 years. We've discovered that the great triton snail feeds on these starfish. Our innovative solution was to transport these snails from the Indian Ocean to the Great Barrier Reef in hopes of slowly declining the starfish population. Our team had always had fun and enjoyed presenting our present our presentation through a game show. At the East Texas first legal league qualifier, our team was awarded the breakthrough award. Hello, we are the Royers and this is our robot, Quantavius. What do you get when you combine red snappers and oysters? The Royers.

051Our team enjoyed creating an artificial habitat, not for one, but for two species. Our innovative solution was to use old shipping containers with limestone on the outside for oysters as well as artificial reef structures on the inside for the red snapper. We enjoyed all aspects of the competition, but one of the highlights was watching our robot sling the scuba diver off the coral reef. Our team was awarded first place in core values at the East Texas LL qualifier. And we also advanced to the East Texas LL Championship Tournament where received second place in core values. We also received a golden ticket to represent our region in theLLL state championship in Hlet, Texas. Of the 1,200 competing teams in the great state of Texas, our team received first place in core values where received this trophy

052and banner. Lastly, our coach and teacher, Miss Felder, was recognized at not one but two of our competitions this season. She received the coaches award at the qualifier and the championship tournament. Congrats, Miss Felder. Thank you, Brennhamd Board of Trustees for giving us this opportunity and allowing us to share our memorable experience with you. Thank you'all so much. What an incredible group. Thank you, Miss Felder, too. Come on up. Just squeeze in. Yeah. Not you. You have to be in front. You're like tiny. All my friends. I'm so excited. Great job. Great job, guys. Go Snailblazers. You come up in right there. There you go. Now we got it. There's a lot of cameras. Thank y'all. Congrats, guys. Congrat Congratulations. Speaking of Yeah, I was I was good. Hey, thank y'all so much. Can I

053just say as a dad that had a child participate in that, how excited they got and how wonderful Miss Felder is at that. She does so good and we I feel like we bring home hardware every year. But this was the first time I got to experience it firsthand cuz my son was a snail blazer. So that's why I'm pro snail blazers. So anyway, thank you Miss Fer if you can still hear us for your time because I know it's a big commitment. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have public comment. This is an opportunity for citizens to address the board or make comments to the board. The board will only listen without comment. No presentation shall exceed 3 minutes. Persons must identify themselves and the groups they represent at the beginning of each presentation.

054Persons who wish to participate in this portion of the meeting should have signed up with the presiding officer or designate before the meeting began. And we have two people for public comment and the um if you'll just keep an eye on the time and the time will start after you say your name at the microphone. We have Jerry Hillman. Good evening. Uh my name is Jerry Homeman and I'm here tonight to thank the current BISD board of trustees for all of their hard work and commitment to our community. This is an unpaid position that requires a tremendous amount of sacrifice. I would like to give special a special thank you to Tommy Sullivan and to Natalie Lang. Uh both of you have been great. Natalie, as the president for many years, you have always represented

055BISD with class and professionalism, giving thousands of hours of your time. You will be missed. As a private citizen, I estimate that I have personally attended approximately 250 BISD meetings to include trustee training. In 2012, I created a pack citizens for 2012 bond sale with the help of Dr. Donald Drain, Ray Weiss, and many others. The community passed a $23 million bond issue with 78% approval. It can be done. The aforementioned statement is to give credibility or credible testimony to what I am about to say. It takes at least one full term, four years, to really start to understand the complexity of being a school board trustee. This includes the required trustee training and the general experience of going to board meetings, etc. I commend each candidate that is running for the BISD school board.

056It takes a lot of courage to run for public office. All candidates are required to submit election forms to the jurisdiction where they are running for election. These forms are subject to open records requests. Should someone believe a candidate has done something wrong, they can submit proof of wrongdoing in a complaint to the county district attorney. Please give all of these candidates the courtesy and respect you would want for yourselves. Everyone has an opinion that they are entitled to. Before we pass judgment upon others, understand that most disagreements are from poor communications or simple misunderstandings built on what someone thought someone else said or did. Please consider giving these candidates the benefit of the doubt. Maybe we don't have all of the facts. The challenges of retaining and recruiting quality teachers, reinvesting in our aging

057infrastructure, and everchanging legislation, funding, etc. are not going away regardless of who wins the upcoming elections. Dealing with these challenges will require people working together with common courtesy and respect. I encourage each of us to focus on the things we do agree upon. You may be surprised what you have in common with others. Let's build relationships and find find commonality. Support your position by building a consensus through thoughtful respectful debate. Let's give each other the opportunity to work together where we can respectfully disagree. Mr. Hman, times up. When we can't, you may find allies on future issues. Thank you very much. Thank you. Billy Sutherland still on. So, uh, one of those areas where we can work together. Last year, our teachers uh Letter Teachers Teach and Texas Church leaders had the incredible joy of

058teaming up with Burnham ISD superintendent and central office staff to raise over $40,000 for BISD's end of year celebration. It was a fantastic event at Silver Wings Ballroom with a catered meal, photo booth, door prizes, and giveaways. Approximately 850 teachers, pair professionals, substitutes, and staff attended. And as they say, a good time was had by all. We're working again this year with Clay, Brooke, Amy, and others to do it again. Obviously, there's been a bunch of tension in the air regarding upcoming schoolboard elections, but we ask this not be allowed to negatively impact our partnership with BISD for another amazing endofear teacher appreciation banquet. For this very important event, I'm asking that we all work together to make this year's celebration just as memorable and fun as last year. The venue has been reserved, Silver

059Wings Ballroom again, and a caterer selected, this time, Tuscanyany Italian Grill, as part of the district's Italian theme this year. Please consider making a worthwhile donation. Calvary Baptist Church has a special fund set up for this and 100% of all donations go directly to the expenses associated with this event. For more information or to contribute, call Christine Geizy. Uh she would be here tonight, but her husband is having complications from a surgery, so she had to be there with him. Uh her phone number is 713-8757800. And then in conclusion, Clayton Gillantine, I don't know if you're aware or not, you have a remarkable staff and it really is a joy to work with them. Thank you. Next, we have a donation for Brennham Middle School Science Department, and our Brenham Middle School principal, Aaron Tibido,

060will introduce this. Thank you. Um, I it's my honor to be here, especially on Coach Sullivan and President Lang's last evening serving on the board. And so before I introduce those people, I do want to share if you are frequent if you frequent board member meetings or listen to them, you've probably heard me say before that Coach Sullivan was my PE teacher in the fourth and fifth grade. And while I can't tell you any specific activities or games we play or that we were taught, I do remember him teaching us that perfect practice is what makes perfect, not just practice. People always say practice makes perfect. And he told us that wasn't true. That it's not just practice. You can't just go through the motions and get better. You have to do things right all

061the time. And I share that one more time because Mario classroom didn't have any desks and I graduated in 1996 as a 40 I think I'm 47 47 year old. Those words have stayed with me and I've used them. So this is a learning institution. So I wanted to share what you've taught me. And Natalie is my contemporary. we were classmates and um got to teach in the district at the same time, even one year on the same campus. And while she taught me lots about um working with junior high students in my one year of doing that, and only God knew how it would serve me now as I'm preparing fifth and sixth graders for exactly that. Um what I've learned from you more has happened watching you on the board. You have taught

062me what true patience and grace really looks like. I've seen it through amazing people, um, men and women who, um, serve each other and their spouses and their co-workers with those those factors. I've seen parents show grace and patience with their children. But I've seen you do it with critics and people who are harsh and hard. And um, while I do not claim to be even close to possessing the poise that you consistently show, I will not forget your example and I thank you for that. So, thank you both. And now I'm so happy that I get to share with you good news. Five minutes without crying. Five minutes. I'm not crying. You're crying. Um, may I have Chris and Lorie Chilei come up, please? Chris and Lori are um two retired teachers. Um, they

063are well, they're retired from the profession, but they have a passion for science and for students and for learning. And so that we have been blessed in Bernham ISD to have them settle here in their retirement. Um and their experience spans from the classroom to NASA and um they have reached out and have offered us an outstanding opportunity. They are making the donation that will fund two of our science teachers going to a science conference in the fall to learn from other science people in the industry as well as other teachers. Um, additionally they're providing um funds for extra equipment. Um, they are are a pleasure for me to meet with and not only um did we talk, they came to our steam night that we had and got to see some of our classrooms,

064meet some of our teachers, see some of our kids in action. And their partnership is not only financial, but they've offered to help us with um some lessons and anything that our teachers want in the way of support for their classrooms. So, um, I want to offer their donation to the board for your acceptance so that it can be used for our campus. Thank you all so much for your generosity. And we we do have to make a motion to to pass, but we would love to get a picture with y'all if that's okay. We'll need a motion to approve. I think Archer's queue up. Sure. I would like to make a motion to accept a monetary donation from the Chernelis for the Rena Middle School science department as presented. Second. I Okay, we have

065a motion made by Archer Archer, seconded by Jared Krennic to accept a monetary donation from the ch How do you say it? I want to get it right. Chileellis for the Brennham Middle School Science Department as presented. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much. Thank you'all so much. We appreciate your generosity. Thank you. Y'all appreciate everything. [Music] Okay, next we have board member reports or comments. And I never remember which side I started on, so Okay, Archer, you want to start us off? Nothing for me. I'm good. Thank you, Raymond. Nothing for me. Okay, I'll save mine for the legislative update. Um, I got to attend the, uh, middle school band concert, uh, comp competition. Uh, I was blown away at what Miss Collie's done with those kids for their first year

066in band. Uh, she's absolutely fantastic. I thought I was listening to a high school or college band. So, congratulations, Miss Collie. Uh, you know, also again, partial cuz my Cooper was there, but, uh, fantastic job to everybody in the band. And then, uh, yeah, just a lot of community stuff this year. Thanks, Terry. Tell me, Bonnie, there are so many great things going on and I'm so glad that we've honored so many of these children and their teachers and their parents to who all work together and and make us a a better district. Uh we visited schools uh during public school week. It was wonderful. Uh the community had the dinner to remember. We raised over $181,000 uh for kids and that was a great event. And then also uh it was assistant principal week

067one week and I don't know how many of us think about it but our assistant principles work hard. They're usually the ones in charge of discipline and uh some of the they they do have some good days but the some of their days aren't that great. So I I appreciate them and what they do. And uh just a reminder we are during we are in the time of star testing. And so, uh, parents, if you have children who are a little nervous, remind them that they can do it. And, uh, we're sorry that they have to take the test, but on the other hand, they do well when they have a lot of support, which I hope we give them. So, uh, thanks to everybody for what you do to help us with public schools.

068Thank you, Kyle. Um, excuse me. Uh, I don't have a whole lot. I do want to mention, I assumed everybody would have mentioned it, but uh we do have a school board election and so make sure you vote. I think early voting starts tomorrow. And I I do want to also address the fact that there's been a lot of negativity um out there in the paper and not the paper, the radio and online and Facebook and everything else. I think we need to be better and be above that and not be so divisive. It's not necessary. Uh it's a schoolboard election without politics and that would be much better if we could keep that in mind when we go vote. That's all. Thank you. Okay. Next, we have the superintendent month. Oh, no. We have

069legislative update first. Do you want to start or do you want me to start? Um okay, I'll jump in and you do the same. Okay. All right. So, the two big things which um you know good and bad. But um first we have House Bill Two um which provides additional funding for public schools. Um there there's some new funding that comes with that um that's outside of the basic aotment. Our we have a small and midsize aotment increase. We have increased funding for special education. Um additional support for the teacher incentive aotment. Um, but the the downside is that the basic allotment per student was only raised 6%. So, we went from $6,160 to $6,555. Um, just to cover inflation since 2019, we would have needed about 24% increase, which would have been $7,790. And

070that's according to the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics. If you're just looking at what a dollar gets you now versus what it got you in 2019, and 2019 was the last time that the state gave us an increase in the basic aotment. And what that means for the district is the the basic aotment is is what we build our budget around. So for giving teacher raises and for maintaining everything in the district, paying for transportation, for keeping the lights on, for technology. So as those costs have increased by 24%, funding hasn't. So that's why so many district why all districts across the state have had to really um cut budgets either adopt deficit budgets or make a lot of um cuts in positions and programs as we have done to um to to keep

071a balanced budget this year. So, um and and that passed and then of course the uh voucher bill also passed and um and just I know hopefully everyone here has been keeping up with that, but that did pass without um amendments that would have required it to go back to voters. Um and and it passed with no um they they won't be taking the STAR test. They won't be um funded. based on average daily attendance. They there's so many things that are different. Um and and people that say competition is good, but the playing field is not level and it's very very disappointing that that passed. Um one thing or two things that I want to highlight. There's a lot of legislation out there that's still um in the process. um you know, hasn't been

072completely passed, but two that I want to draw our attention to. Um the first one is Senate Bill 26. That's the one that would give the $10,000 raise for districts our size for teachers who have five plus years experience and a $5,000 raise for teachers with 3 to 5 years experience. That was passed by the Senate um I believe on February 27th. It was held um in by the speaker of the house until April 9th and then he sent it to the House Education Public Education Committee which is where it still sits. It has not been um put on the docket for a hearing. So, it's just sitting there and that means that we need to be very very active in advocating for that. Since the basic aotment increase was so meager, this is our

073chance for our teachers to get money that they deserve. Um, so I I please, please, please contact everyone who is on the public education committee in the House, um, and Trey Wharton, our representative, to encourage them to pass that funding. What I'm afraid is that the funding bill that now they're just going to let this die because they've passed the funding bill and said there's all this new money in public education, but it doesn't begin to touch the surface of what we actually need to give teachers the raise that they deserve. Um, and then the other one, let me find um Senate Bill. Okay, this is Senate Bill 2928. This is minor compared to the funding, but it does impact us. This one um is in the Senate Ed committee and they're meeting this week.

074Um this would keep us from having local control over our start date. We use our district of innovation plan to um set our calendar and give us that earlier start date so that we can get teachers and kids out by Memorial Day weekend which is always something that is voted on by staff. Um and that's what allows us to do that is that earlier start date. It also helps us to keep the semesterers more balanced. So there's there's a lot of reasons why we do it, but that would definitely impact us if that passes. So, that's two that if you if you want to um to be vocal and to advocate, then those are a couple of them. Yeah. Thank you. And I just really wanted to kind of summarize where we are. Uh Natalie

075and I have both done these legislative updates for the last few months. So, just a reminder of how we got here. Um, for those of you that may be listening for the first time, um, you know, two years ago, public schools in Texas didn't get nearly 8 billion, that's billion with a B, in funding because a plan to give families school vouchers didn't pass. The governor chose not to release the money when the voucher plan failed. Now, there are two big education bills. There are some we are definitely watching as Natalie mentioned and there are many many education bills um being looked at but the two main bills that we continue to discuss are House Bill 2 and Senate Bill Two. These bills are about how schools get money. That's House Bill Two, giving more

076money to public schools. And then Senate Bill 2 suggests creating something called an education savings account. that that was originally the vouchers uh which would help families pay for private private schools. So, House Bill Two passed uh with strong support. It would give public schools money um not near the aotment increase uh as we had hoped as Natalie had mentioned uh but uh more money um for for our our students and our teachers. Um there was some uh there's some documentation in there about uh helping schools better support students with disabilities. Um it also uh made sure um that uh core teachers uh that you really need to to hire trained teachers for our core core subjects. Um the bill now goes to the Senate where some lawmakers aren't as excited again in the Senate

077about increasing funding this way. the Senate. Uh Senate Bill Two uh also passed the House uh with a much closer vote. It creates again the education savings account program to help families pay for private education. There's a lot of debate with um as y'all know with vouchers. Uh many changes were suggested, 43 in total, but only one accepted. That change added help for more military families and made the rules clearer. uh because the House made so many changes, this now goes back to the Senate to work out a final version. So again, still very closely watching House Bill Two and Senate Bill 2 and we are definitely uh keeping an eye on Senate Bill 26 as Natalie mentioned. Um that helps us as rural schools compete with the bigger um especially in Brennham when you

078can you know you can drive just 30 minutes down the road to a much bigger ISD and make a lot more money. So, we are really watching Senate Bill 26 and of course the two that get all the attention, House Bill 2, Senate Bill Two, as Natalie mentioned, reach out to your legislators. It's the only way you make anything happen. Thank you. Thank you. Um, next we have your update. Yes. So, I wanted to take this moment um on the on the heels of of the legislature update um to talk about the ambassador program that we've started here in Bernhamd. I want to say uh again as as you saw uh this evening, so many student groups being recognized this time of year and we've got so many more to recognize uh in in May.

079So, um I hate not to mention some of them this evening. we did not forget about you. But I really want to utilize this time um to say this and I I made some notes here um instead of waiting on the te Texas legislature to take action for public schools, I just want us to ask ourselves, what can we do right here in our community to strengthen our ISD? And I appreciate your remarks this evening very much. Um, this year Brenam ISD launched its first BISD ambassador program, giving local leaders a behind-the-scen looks or behind the scenes look, I'm sorry, at how schools operate. Now, in the final two sessions, we're inviting the ambassadors to take the next step by joining us in creating a strategic planning committee. So, some of you have heard me

080mention this a few times. This committee will bring together a diverse group of voices, parents, teachers, staff, community members to help plan for the future of Brenam ISD. Their mission is simply to ensure our schools are safe and fully equipped to meet the needs of every student and educator. Together, we'll build a shared vision for the future of our district through collaboration. And I feel that's something we've really done well over this past year is to collaborate with all our community leaders. We'll look at fresh ideas and communitydriven problem solving. I want to say that again. Communitydriven problem solving, we can make real progress. Our series of meetings uh with this committee will define common goals for the district. What are our needs and what do we need to do next besides just sitting and

081waiting on the Texas legislature? What are we going to do as an independent school district? Review data to understand where we are and where we need to grow. Develop a clear step-by-step plan for improvement. Maximize how we use our time, staff, funding, and facilities, and present the final plan to the community. Um, to make this process even stronger, we'll collect input through the uh community meetings, surveys, ensuring every voice has a chance to be heard. I really want to focus on every voice having a chance to be heard. Um, I've I've heard it echoed so many times, even this this evening. Um, let's be nice, right? Let's work hard. Let's come together. What can we agree on? Kyle, I agree with you. Um, we've been more divisive than we need to be. What are our

082commonalities? Um, I've heard from both sides of the aisle, if you will. What are we going to do for Brennham ISD? What are we going to do next? So I ask you now, how can we come together and agree on some things that need to happen? I'm going to ask the ambassadors who have been with us this year to work with us. I know that uh the people that asked to be a part of that program are all interested in doing something for the the district. Um again, they've got a real good look at behind the scenes of what it takes to run a school business besides the teaching and learning. What does it take to run a school business? Now, how can we improve? And we're asking, we're asking you as a community, as

083community leaders, how can we improve? What do we need to do next? Um, you've heard me say many times, hope is not a strategy. Hope is not a strategy. Okay? So, I uh hope that the state steps up and does something for this ISD, but we are Brennham ISD, independent school district. We are a community uh school. Um, I've said many times, the public school is just that. It's the public. It's all of us. It's your neighbors. Um, it's your family, your friends, the people you work with. It's the people, especially in a small town, that make up the entire community that walk through these schoolhouse doors every day. So, how are we going to and improve the situation for this ISD? I want to remind you that um almost 80% the vast majority of

084school districts across the state of Texas adopted deficit budgets this school year. Superintendent and school boards across the state of Texas saw this coming and then CO happened. CO was a terrible thing. But what it did was gave esser money to schools, federal money that kind of floated schools along a little longer before they hit the financial cliff that they fell off of last year. Again, the majority of school districts across the state of Texas adopted deficit school budgets. They can't afford to operate the way they've been operating. And again, do we just sit and wait on the state to do something or do we look inside at ourselves and ask what are we going to do? What's the next step for Brennham ISD to improve our current situation? So, I'm very excited about this

085initiative. I'll be talking with all our ambassadors over these next couple of meetings about a strategic planning committee. Um, I am not coming to you with the answers. That doesn't work. And I've said over and over again, you will not hear me, the superintendent, say, "This is what we need to do." No, I need to hear from you. What do we need to do? And then help me sell it. Okay? You tell me what we need to do, and then we'll go do it together. But I want to do that in collaboration meetings uh with the public with this ambassador program with several of the school board members avoiding a avoiding a quorum to come together and decide as directors as principles as teachers what's next for Brenham ISD to improve our current situation conducting

086a needs assessment across the board. Again, we're a school business. We're about teaching and learning and we are about kids. You heard me say from the day I was hired, I'm in the kid business. Kids come first. But we are a business. We do have to feed these students. And our employees, all 800 of them, expect a paycheck, okay? One that one that pays their bills and helps them keep up with inflation. Inflation that the state is not keeping up with. So, I want to take a real hard look real soon at what we can do as a local community to support our school district. and uh you'll be hearing back from me about this a lot. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Clay. I'm excited to hear what you and the and the committee come

087up with to support the school district. Next, we have our discussion of the 2025 2026 district budget. Our CFO, Daryl St. Clara, will lead this discussion. Good evening. Okay. Uh we have uh included in your board packet a timeline that the cabinet uh worked on several weeks back to kind of uh plan out the events that need to happen. As we move forward with our 2526 budgeting process, uh we've already begun that as you can see that started back in March. Uh we are currently working on getting all the requested data from principles and directors that should be finished up and we'll be reviewing that information over the next few weeks. Uh once we have a little better idea as y'all have been mentioning tonight of what type of funding we can expect from the

088state next year, uh we'll be working harder on trying to figure out exactly what our revenues will be. uh the finance template, the state aid template that we use that as far as I know probably most every district uses to predict their state revenue for the coming year. Uh that will be updated uh as things progress at the legislature and once we have a clear picture on that we'll be able to move forward a little bit faster. Uh, as you also know, we have deadlines that we must meet, notices that must be published in the paper, the certain items that the board has to address as we move forward each year with the budgeting process. And so, we've outlined those uh just for your your benefit there. You can see that. Does anybody have any

089questions or comments? I know. Um, I mean you can look at it whenever you know tomorrow or whatever, but I noticed there was um there's a budget workshop for board of trustees on June 2nd and then there's one on June 1st. So I think one of those [Music] Yeah. So just I think just adjust that whatever the I mean I know Yeah, I noticed that just a little while ago. I think what happened when we were adjusting the de the timeline last week uh what we intended I think to put in there was June but when was typed in June 2025 came out June 1st 2025. I I don't think those those dates are not hard and fast. We were just trying to allow certain uh general dates and timelines especially with with the board

090involved. Uh some of those are more fit uh more firm like uh the the uh April 18th date we just had last week closing for campus administrators and directors. But again, some of these other ones coming up are u not the exact dates that we're planning. They're just uh supposed to be round round numbers uh things we can shoot for. And I just want to thank you for the work that you've done and acknowledge how difficult it is going into the beginning of the budgeting process having no real idea of what the state is going to do. I I the the size of school district budgets and to immediately start the budgeting process behind because of waiting on what's going to happen with the state. I just want to acknowledge you and your team. um

091for what's coming. So, thank you. It's difficult every two years. So, the other years are much simpler usually, but yes, every two years is a little bit more difficult, but at least we're not a July 1st start year. That would make it even more difficult. Yes. So, so Darl, salary increase is being discussed in these in these discussions. We're not there yet. We're still waiting to see what we what our options are on the funding, but but yes, we are starting to take we're just now getting data from the directors and the principles outside of payroll, the the requests that they have for their supplies, their travel expenses, those types of things. That's always the starting point. And then once we get into the next month or so, then we'll start having a closer look.

092Discuss I'm sorry. Discussions for all employees. Excuse me. Discussions will be about all employees get the sal increase. Yes. Yes. Yes. Very good. Yeah, that's again we can only build a budget off of what we know and right now it's it's the revenue that uh you know looks very similar to the revenue we received uh this year. Um with that said um we know again that there's a specific bill about uh teacher raises um especially for rural schools um schools with 5,000 students or less. Uh we know that uh the aotment that's being thrown around while it's not what uh we would like for it to be um a a percentage of that is specifically for teacher raises and we know in house I think I can speak for the board and all our administrators

093that our primary focus is teacher raises. Uh and then just to be very frank as we move into this conversation with the strategic planning committee um a lot of the conversation coming from that group again has been about teacher raises. Yes. And that's what I'm concerned about. I think all should get a raise. So they're not defining what a teacher is. So uh that's going to cause a problem. They're trying to solve a problem. They're going to create a problem. So I think it should be all employees. my opinion, but uh cost of living is going up. I'm hearing I'm hearing employees saying it's about time and so we got to make that happen. We got to make that happen. Thank you for that. I agree with you. And next we have our finance update.

094All right. We'll have our our usual information that we share with you each month. Uh we have first of all our various revenue streams, our local, state, and federal revenues uh in the general fund, food service fund, and debt service fund. Those three combined. So you can see there that we've raised just about $10 million shy, well actually about $9 million shy of our expected total revenue for the year. the majority of our tax collections have come in. Uh point to that I'll point that out here in a second we get to the that report. But uh overall we're basically waiting on one final uh payment on state aid from TEA which will not come until August. So that'll not change much for a while. Uh again most of our tax collections have been collected

095and so the uh the the majority of what's out there right now is becoming delinquent. So we'll see a increase in delinquent collections and a little bit less in well quite a bit less in current because most of the current's been collected. And uh then our federal revenue we did receive our charters reimbursement payment for this year actually came in a little bit better than we were expecting. So that was pleasant to see. Uh so most of our federal revenue outside of the food service program, of course, there's still quite a bit there to collect as we finish the year and uh get reconciled and balanced for the year. Uh you can see there our our ADA percentage, our 94.6% up through last week. Uh we're still looking very well on what we budgeted. We

096budgeted on 4500 ADA and we're still holding very close to that and expecting our state revenue to not dip or drop below what we budgeted for the year. So that's maintaining very well. Okay. You can also now see here our um current expenses and incumbrances and and again just I might have pointed this out in the past but the numbers in the yellow columns those are a combination of actual expenses bills that have actually been paid and incumbrances that we expect to be paid in the near future. So it's not not every one of those dollars has been spent but probably more than half of that probably 3/4 of that or more has actually been spent as compared to the budgeted amounts for each function. Uh I would like to just point out one thing

097in case you might have noticed. There is one new row of data there that has not been there prior to this meeting and that would be on the second uh set of numbers function 81 the facilities acquisition that is the direct result of the approval of the cafeteria project that was done at last month's meeting. So that we did not have a function 81 budget until that was approved at at our last meeting. And so now that's been added in there as well. And no, that money has not been spent. That is an encumbrance. The project is just getting started. So, we have not spent that money and we will not spend that for a while. But it is encumbered already. And then you'll see we have our investment report. Uh our tax, excuse me,

098our interest rates are holding pretty steady. The uh the rates at the two at the two pools that we have most of our money at, text pool and Texas class, I think have only dropped about a tenth or two10 of a percent in the last month. So again, holding very steady. Uh better than a lot of predictions from back earlier in the school year. We're trying to again keep as much as we can in those higher yield accounts. Basically only moving money over as we need. Uh really just for payroll each month. We just did a wire transfer today because payroll is coming up later in the week and trying to only bring it over when we need it a few days ahead of time and only what we need to get through payroll and

099and just closely monitoring that. So if we uh see that we have brought a little too much over, we can move a little bit more back as soon as we get through the pay payday. So just trying to keep that money in those higher yield investments as long as we can. And then our tax collection report and right now we are at the 94% mark on our current year collections. Uh again about where we would expect to be at this point in the year knowing that we'll probably hit hopefully 98 to 99% by the end of the year. So, we still will continue to bring in a few more uh pieces of current year, but as I mentioned earlier, uh mostly we'll see uh a big increase in our delinquent collections at this point moving

100forward throughout the rest of the summer. So, again, tax collections are doing well and where we expect them to be this time of the year. Are there any questions? Thank you for the update. You're welcome. And I guess you're staying right there for the Yes, ma'am. budget amendment. Yes, we do have one budget amendment for your consideration tonight. Uh I just found out about this myself because this was originally uh approved by the board in February last year uh that we had a junior high chiller replacement. I believe it was that was uh approved. And at the time, I believe y'all were informed that it would probably be about 40 weeks before the parts would come in and the installation could take place. And actually, it probably was a little bit closer to 52 weeks.

101Uh that was done, I believe, in March, February, March. So, it just got finished recently. Uh so, this was approved, but as it was pointed out last year to you, it would not be paid for until this year. And now it's done and it's time to pay the bill. So, as you were told before, uh we're using our Tom Green funds to pay for this uh roughly $124,000 expense. And the budget amendment tonight is simply to uh asking you to allow us to move some of the Tom Green fund balance into the current Tom Green budget. Was not actually in the budget when the year began, but the the funds are in the Tom Green fund balance. We just need to reallocate those. So we can spend them at this point because it took so

102long to get here. Did they honor the original price or was there any type of an increase? It was actually a little bit less because when I looked it up in last year's board packet, it was 126,755 is what you approved. So it actually came in just a hair less than what you were told. I'll take it. I'd like to make a motion to approve the budget amendment as presented. Second. We have a motion made by Kelvin Raven, seconded by Bonnie Brinkmire to approve a budget amendment as presented. All in favor? I oppose. Budget. The motion carries. Thank you. All right. Next, we have our consent agenda. Thank you very much. And we can approve in one motion or pull any items for discussion or clarification. There's no objections. I' I'd like to make it

103a a motion to approve the consent agenda agenda as presented. Second. We have a motion made by Jared Krennic, seconded by Bonnie Brinkmire to approve the consent agenda as presented. All in favor? Opposed? The motion carries. Thank you. Next, we have a transportation department update and our director of transportation, Brian Gibson, will present. Hi. Good evening, President Lang, board members, President President, Superintendent Gillantine. Um, just wanted to kind of go over I have a bus driver voice, so forgive me. It carries. Um, go over the creation of transportation for Brennham ISD and uh let you know the savings that we're uh offering the district and also the service that we're offering our students and our parents. Um, we're the only department in this district that is open almost 14 hours every day. A lot of

104people don't realize that. Uh, first employee comes in between 4:45 and 5:00 a.m. every morning. Our last employees locking up typically around 6 to 6:30 depending on how our traffic and everything's going with our students every day. So, we are running uh longer than anybody else. Um, with the creation of this department, when I got here, part of the things that we were trying to implement was just to bring a better service um, to the district, better transparency. So, some of the things that have been added over the last two years, brand new fleet of buses, um, camera systems, six camera systems on every single bus. Some of you last year that were here got to take a tour of some of our buses, all air conditioned. Um, with that had a great transition. You

105know, of course there's challenges when you come in brand new, starting fresh, uh building new routes, all of those things, but um just trying to do our best serving our community while at the same time looking at logistics um being our key point, safeties, uh being of our kids being a key point, and then also being fiscally responsible as our next key point. So, putting all those three things together, uh, trying to create the best transportation department that we can for our citizens and for our students. Um, if you'll go over the presentation, I believe some of the papers that you have, you'll see what um, the prices of what had been uh, the budget for the last several years uh, for Brennham ISD. Um, you know, part of our uh, bringing things in house

106was to provide a service, like I said, that would save the district some money. And if you would look at some of those numbers, you'll see that last year alone, uh, even with the expense of paying for our buses, uh, we saved this district almost $700,000 in one year. Um, so I'm very proud of that fact and we continue to try to save this district money and find the best ways we can uh, to serve all of you. Um, pretty much keep it short and sweet with that. If there's any questions, um, I'm happy to answer them. Like I said, my door is open. Some of you have come and visited me before and I'm always happy to have those visits. I just I just want to be sure everybody heard that that by bringing

107it in in house uh a lease to purchase fleet of buses, it's a uh seven-year lease. Yes, sir. So, so ownership, when we say lease, I want make sure no, we're not giving them back. Right. Right. Sevenyear lease to own. uh with with that payment uh we still saved and I and we gave our uh our transportation department a raise as the employees are making more money now considerably uh that came over. So let me state that um most of the drivers came over uh to work for Brennham and were able to make more money than they were making with the contract company. Thank you so much for the pres. I'm sorry. No, go ahead. Do you still do you still have enough drivers or is that an issue? We're we're close. Uh some of

108principles and people in this room will tell you you see me uh every other day probably driving a bus in the afternoons, but I'm a I'm a firm I'm a firm believer in leader uh leadership by example. So there is nothing in that building and nothing in this building that I won't ask anyone else to do that I won't do myself or have not done. Um so we do still need a few drivers. Uh, but we are we have never had to say a bus is not running. They all run and they all get our students there every single day. That's huge. I'm proud of that. Yes, ma'am. That's great. Yes, ma'am. We appreciate your work in getting this up and running because it was anytime you have a new program, a new department um

109in the district, there's there's going to be hiccups. And you have done an incredible job. And I know the board um took some heat for making this investment. But it's one that has saved taxpayers money and provided more safety both with buses that have seat belts and six cameras on every bus, air conditioning. We're doing better for students and for our community. And if you don't mind, I want to say I couldn't do any of it without the support of this board, without the support of these principles and the APS in this room, and with the staff that I have. um 3 months from the time this board uh voted to build a department to attaining buses, uh building routes, getting everything going. That's a heck of a challenge. But once again, I have to

110thank everyone's that supported our department getting it done cuz we did. And uh President Lang, thank you again uh for your compliments, but uh also our transparency to our parents. Um, I will say I'm very very proud of uh some of the folks in my office and with that camera system. Literally there's no secrets on our buses. Uh, uh, you know, some of y'all are very aware that parent has a concern. We're going to look into it. It's not just he said, she says, or he says, he said, she said, she says. Uh, that camera tells the truth. It is what it is. Brad, can you repeat that again? the place year savings on the transportation the voice year 700,000. Yes, sir. I I want everybody else to hear that too. And and may might

111I add might I add that once the buses are paid for that uh that savings will continue to be even more uh because we are paying for 40 buses on a 7-year lease. Uh which of course buses do need to be replaced but not at the budget that we're spending on a regular basis now. So the savings will continue to come in uh the longer that our department is up and running because we took a hit on that and not we took a big hit on that when that point happened but to do that to save that kind of money year after year and then plus give the bus drivers a pay raise. Yes sir. And and that that's that keep that keep drivers for you know want to come work there you know and

112not leave. So, well, and also a win-win there by by saving money and then plus giving the drivers a pay raise. And we also took over our white fleet. So, that's another thing to consider. Um, the repairs and maintenance of the district's white fleet, maintenance vehicles, SUVs, vans, uh, was all taken in and that wasn't even part of the proposed RFPs that went out. So, additional savings on another side that, uh, we're taking in house. Um, just two quick things. I I can't remember if it was a House bill or Senate. One of you may have to help me out on this, but there was a bill proposed in the legislative session right now that said all buses were going to have to be retrofitted with three-point harnesses, which luckily we didn't know this, but

113it's a good thing we did. Our buses have the three-point harness, so we don't have to take money out of fund balance to go back and retro our buses. So, that was just another little side note that is is great for the district that we don't have to look back. We can go forward. Also with with everything we've been talking about with safety and security of our kids, the fact that we have the the the the seat belts, the three-point harnesses in the buses as well as the cameras, it just gives us that much more safety for the kids. So again, all these things, it was difficult decision to make. We kind of saw the we saw the numbers and we knew it was only going to take time before we could actually give the

114community the numbers to see that the decision was made in the right way. And and I do think now hopefully people can understand why we did that then. uh $700,000 year one added safety and security for the students. I mean, I think it was a win-win. Difficult, yes, but I do think it was the right decision by this board to make that call. Thank you for all your hard work. Uh and um yeah, thank you for your entire team and everything they do to keep our kids safe and getting them to and from school every day. Thank you very much. I'm going to end on one note. Tomorrow just happens to be a bus driver appreciation day. So, if anybody gets a chance to see a bus driver or a bus monitor, please thank them.

115I don't have a job without them first and foremost. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next, um, one of one of the things that we have to do annually is report the board members compliance with training requirements. Um, which by the way, I did see a lot of bills passed that or that are still in process that would add more training. So, y'all have fun with that. The board president is required to announce the name of each board member who has completed the required continuing education hours, who has exceeded the required hours, and who is deficient in the required continuing education hours. Completion of annual training is an obligation and an expectation of any board member under the state board of education rule. This report serves as a progress report on training hours the board members

116have received since the last announcement of training compliance at the regularly scheduled board meeting in April 2024. In the last 12 months, board members Tommy Sullivan, Jared Krennic, Kelvin Raven, Bonnie Brinkmeer, Kyle Hafner, Archer Archer, and Natalie Lang have completed the required experienced board member training. And I just want to commend and thank you all for taking care of that. I know since we weren't all attending SLI together, it meant a lot of outside um hours to get that done and I appreciate your time and commitment to do that. Okay. Next, we have monthly reports for information purposes and um and then we'll go into executive session at 7:46 p.m. Where's my notes? for the purpose authorized by Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code section 551.071, consultation with attorney, and 551.074, personnel matters. All

117final actions, votes, and decisions will be made in open session. Thank you'all very much. If you're not waiting around, have a good evening. Okay, it's 8:19. We've now returned to open session and have discussion on the professional contracts for 2025 2026 school year. Uh, I'd like to make a motion to approve the professional contracts as presented. Second. We have a motion made by Jared Krennic, seconded by Kyle Hafner to approve the professional contracts as presented. All in favor? I opposed. The motion carries. Thank you. And if there's no objection, we have no further business before