001good evening it's 6:00 p.m. the Board of Trustees of the brunham Independent School District is now convened I wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone present in collaboration with our families and Community Brenham ISD is committed to providing an exceptional education for all students in a safe environment as the Brenham ISD Board of Trustees we are here to provide local citizen governance and oversight the management and day-to-day operations of the district are the responsibility of the superintendent the 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
002for taking time this evening to join us and for your interest in the Brenham Independent School District at this time Tommy Sullivan will lead us in the pledge followed by the invocation given by Kyle Hafner stand sorryi to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all dear heavenly father we come before you today with hearts full of gratitude for the opportunity to gather together as a community we ask for guidance and wisdom and all that we discuss and decide today help us to work with patience understanding and respect for one another grant us Clarity of thought kindness and our words and spirit of cooperation bless this work of our hands and the minds of our students
003teachers staff may we always strive to create a nurturing environment where everyone can grow and Thrive Let Your Presence be felt in this meeting and may all our actions reflect your love and purpose your name we pray amen amen this this evening we want to begin with special recognition and the campus that we are recognizing tonight as Brenham High School and our bham high school principal Michael Watts will recognize their Spotlight student and employees of the month good test one good afternoon board president board I would like to start talking about some of my students um talk about students of the month first we had three of them and we had a three-way tire so they all get it so one of them is Ree Walker who's not able to be here but um Reese
004is not only excellent student but she also a very positive person she's always willing to help other peers and do whatever she can she always has a smile on her face so that's reing her absence a second uh student of the month is Haisha Williams heisha come on up here while I'm talking she's a very she is very kind to her classmates curious about the world she lives in and does a good job and she's always has a smile on her face and somebody that picks on me and comes in my candy jar every single day so this is Haisha Williams also the next student of the month is Canyon Kaylor Canyon is always on his best behavior tries his best and it's always positive no matter what the situation is and you can bet
005he's going to say yes ma'am and no ma'am and yes sir no sir he's a down Earth kid and who works very hard this is Ken Canyon also my PA of the month is Miss Sonia roochi come on up Miss Sonia Sonia's organizational skills she's a commitment andur doing our attendants accurate for the school and she's a wonderful asset to our campus she's always on top of our attendance which is very very very very important and make sure students are coded correctly uh she's the queen of attendance Miss roochi and my teacher of the month is Miss Carrie pahoda Miss pahoda come on up Miss pra Miss pra does so many things that so many people notice she allows students to have memorable moments School moments she works hard for Pep rallies organizing schools for
006cheer working in class sponsors pioneering the brand for new AP seminar class is remarkable she does everything she's a jack of all trades Miss Broda picture get a picture congratulations I'll answer congratulations people stand thank you thank you all thank you Miss Co loves if we don't have PE Ries said Co loves it with it on pep rally day yeah because he has you twice to go oh yeah hey Raven okay in the spotlight um group this month we're going to be doing is my Avid executive off officers from Avid and Miss mat Ruiz will be introducing them good evening BISD School Board I want to thank you for the opportunity to showcase our beautiful AVID program and students as many of you know Avid is making setbacks comebacks for our students we have been
007successful these past seven years in assisting students in passing AP exams completing dual credit courses applying for college and scholarships and registering for fall classes as a college freshman the success of our students are thanks to the countless hours of our Avid elective teachers Avid tutors and classroom teachers who invest their time in pushing our students to exceed their own expectations here today we have the 2024 25 Avid executive officers who have started this year off strong coordinating a fall Avid social winning most educational skill Scarecrow in the downtown bham scarecrow competition and representing BHS at the nutrition Expo with director Cassandra Davis I will have each officer introduce themselves at this time and provide their insight to how Avid works for them and is making a difference in their life again thank you BISD
008school board for this opportunity to highlight the academic accomplishments of our student leaders hello my name is Valera farro I'm the aid executive president I'm a junior this year and with WEA junor comes up a lot of like workload and all of my classes the work starts piling up so Abid has made a big difference in my life by allowing me to stay organized and on top of all of that work um Miss R is always on top of it and she makes sure that we turn in everything that we get the help that we need through tutorials and that we are also getting prepared for our future now that we're getting closer towards the end of high school and seeing into or looking into what colleges what scholarships can we apply to and it's
009it has just been a great program and um supporting me a lot it has been as like my support system thank you thank you good evening my name is Allison I am the current Executive Vice President for Avid uh one of the things that has really helped me like Avid has helped in my life is learning how to study because like before when I was in Middle School I didn't really study and I kind of just hoped for the best on tests but now I kind of know how to prepare and how to excel excel in classes and exams and quizzes and anything homework anything related and I feel like Aid really has helped ingrain those study strategies in me thank you thank you hello my name is a aalos I am also a junior
010I am the um Avid executive secretary and I want to say that I agree with all most of what they say but like I I feel like it makes it helps me know who I am like we go to a lot of colleges to know which one is more like for us which one suits us more and I feel like I like the one that I'm looking for like it makes me feel like home like you know so I also it helps me a lot with tutorials like I understand more what I'm doing in my classes and that's what I want to say thank you hello my name is Samantha Martinez I am the Avid executive historian this is my fifth year in in Avid and it is has helped me tremendously Avid has helped
011me prepare for my future with all the tutorials and college visits I have experienced I have I now have a good idea on what I would like to pursue After High School I am sure that most of my academic achievements are thanks to the tutoring that is provided in Avid I have been able to look beyond my high school years we have focused and prepared on what my life will be like after high school not not only has Avid made an academic difference in my life it has also given me the most amazing friendships Avid is Al has given me something so much more valuable than just classmates Avid has given me Community thank you thank you hello I'm Jackie Selenas and I'm our Avid um Treasurer Avid has helped me tremendously by teaching me
012discipline and how to study helping me get through my classes and all my homework it has not also brought me Clos to school and um my friends but it's also have um come closer to our community with such as uh student hours and also um Community Services which I've never really done more much of till I was an avid and just just really brought me closer to school got me more involved thank you thank you [Applause] thank y'all so much for being here this is great thank job I know that's nerve-racking but y did good thanks always best while they're leaving I just want to say thank you ladies for doing an outstanding job but Maddie Ruiz needs her flowers now she needs to be talked about she does an outstanding job she goes above
013and beyond extra hours she comes to my office she fights for these kids so I just want to say thank you [Applause] thank you all so much next we have public comment the public comment portion of the meeting is an opportunity for citizens to address the board or make comments to the board in accordance with the Texans Texas open meetings act the board will only listen without comment as items addressed may not be on the board agenda no presentation shall exceed 3 minutes delegations of more than five persons shall appoint one spokesperson persons must identify themselves in 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 presiding officer or design before the meeting began presentations and language
014should be appropriate for all audiences the a lotted time will be displayed on the screen please stop speaking when the time runs out thank you for taking time to address the board this evening and for respecting the district's policies and procedures and we have Elizabeth price we won't buy it okay thank you I'm Elizabeth price I'm here representing myself and my family I want to congratulate the board on um following District process and procedures for removing books from campus libraries I had read about that in the banner press recently and it sounded like you guys were doing the right thing and I wanted to come and express my appreciation for that I think that Community participation and following those procedures are important because then the rules are the same for everyone across the board for
015all the schools for all the age groups um the varied perspectives are important to when you're collecting that input and is important to remember that what is appropriate in one family may not be appropriate in another family we are all unique in our experiences in our family structures in our interests and in our traumas and those are the kinds of things that can or stories that can be found in the libraries that people can relate to that other people may not understand or be able to connect with my child who is back there and wouldn't come up here with me loves military history that is what he likes to read about and so we read a lot of books about World War II and you know there's a lot it's a lot I get I
016get World War II out I get to where it's it's too much and I can't do it anymore but um we read a lot about it and we've one of our favorite authors is Alan Gratz and he writes books for Middle grades that are about war he also writes a series about sports but we don't read those um and so a couple of our favorites are escape from Stalingrad and there's another one called project 1065 these are books that are historical fiction extremely well researched and the main characters of these books are middle-grade kids they're 12 years old 10 12 13 years old so they are in the thick of it and they are fighting these wars they're doing things to contribute to the effort and um it's fascinating and it's amazing to think about
017the impact those kids can have another book that he has written is called ban this book and it's a book about books that were getting removed from a school library and the kids in order to sort of understand what was going on started their own band Book library and began to dig into the issue and go to their district and fight for them to follow procedures and not allow parents to just come in and take books out without them having gone through a process and um the kids did it with malicious compliance uh as their vehicle it's a great fun book so I've brought miss langi a copy because I told her about it and um I think it's a fun read and if anyone else would like to copy let me know I'll get
018some more from the book note thank you thank you and thanks for the book sure thank you next we have the superintendent's monthly update thank you yes I hope everyone get to walk through the Cubs to Career what an awesome event that we're trying to uh really um you know influence this year is uh just our connection with the community and and what a great great way to show that so thank you to Mr Watts and uh thank you Sarah and Travis and the counselors and everybody that was involved in that um we got to walk through I think quite a a few of us before the board meeting started and um just a lot of participation so that was great to see exactly what I was hoping to see this evening and and start
019our evening with so uh want to quickly say congratulations to the Cubs football team if you'all have been watching them they won their first playoff game and are headed to fluger this Friday so we hope everybody goes to watch them um play uh in fluger Ville at 7:00 Friday night uh what else did I want to mention I actually wrote out some notes and and left them in my office as I as as I came over here um oh I did want to say too we've pushed out uh to the staff and my last couple of emails to the staff on Fridays but I don't know that we've talked about it uh really in this in this environment or to the community is our new uh Wellness Wednesdays for staff um really trying to um
020have staff take care of themselves and uh again just another Community Connection we're making is uh connecting with some Wellness type organizations within the community to give back to the the ISD staff and so the ISD staff becomes customers of theirs so it's just a win-win and we're very excited about that and let me also say one more Community plug is our ambassador group uh kicked off uh thank you Natalie for for being there uh this next session is for um myself the cabinet and the board to work with the Ambassador group um about those roles and and Dynamics and would love to see any of you there that want to be there but um again another great way that I feel like we're really trying to connect with with this awesome Community we live
021in and uh really wanted to emphasize that this evening so that's all I've got thank you hey and it feels like Fallout side yeah and we got rain okay um next we have the thought yeah board member comment sorry it's at the very bottom yeah does anyone kle Bonnie yes of course I just want to say how proud I am of all of the classes the the schools that had a program for our veterans um I went to several of the events and they it was well prepared the students were very well behaved and thank God for all of the veterans that we have now who took care of us and in times of war and in times of need and so uh again I I just I'm so thankful that we live in a
022country where we can honor our veterans and uh let them know how much we care about them and that's it thank you tell me last week I attended the junior high Veterans Day program and Mr Ben Seeker was a guest speaker and and you all know Mr Ben Seeker takes a lot of pride in his in his in his country and he did a great job of speaking and I just want to say our was students junior high students was well behaved and Mr secer at the end of his speech even acknowledged him and told him thank you a great job so you know that makes you feel good when you have a program like that and your students are so well behaved at that age so again thank you to Junior High staff uh
023for doing an outstanding job thank you um so the timing was perfect but we were actually at uh Reliant field when the Bram Bells danced on the field so that was really cool to be able to see them and support them they did a fantastic job I mean I was a ant dot compared to all the people there but they did a great job I was proud of him um also I was at the football game on Friday uh congrats to us for beating the league City stingr uh the team looked fantastic so looking forward to this Friday and then uh the CT the cubster careers I just want to say uh as usual the community showed up um you just ask for them to come help and support the kids and they don't even
024bat an eye and blue well was here with ice cream I can't even name all the different businesses that came out and set up to show them the different career options that they have right in bittom so thank you to this community for always showing up for the kids and for BISD thank you yeah everyone who at the high school who was a part of putting that together thank you that is incredible to to see how many not just businesses but the students and um the different things that are offered at the high school um at the junior high veteran stay program one thing that really stood out to me was that it was all student Le and that was impressive um and the ambassador program thank you to to Brooke and Aon Tibido who
025are spearheading that and Clay it's that's that's something that um is great to see and I'm really excited that we've got that up and running so thank you great Archer nothing from me okay thank you okay next we have consent agenda we can approve in one motion or pull any items for clarification or discussion I would like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented second okay we have a motion made by Archer Archer seconded by Kelvin Raven to approve the consent agenda as presented all in favor opposed the motion carries thank you next we have our finance update and our Chief Financial Officer darl stclair will present this evening everyone good evening uh just a quick note uh in case you hadn't noticed you have a print out of the investment
026report that's an updated copy I realized not long before the meeting that there were some in was some information on one of our investments that had not been put on the report that was in your board packet so the highlight numbers that you see there are the updated numbers and we've adjusted those already on the on this slide deck on the slide deck yes on on the screen up here I apologize for that all right just our usual information uh you can see here this again is combined in the general fund Food Service fund and Debt Service fund all revenues uh budgeted and currently been collected we're just about at the halfway Mark uh tax collections are coming in quite steadily in the last uh couple weeks so you'll notice that number go up again
027significantly by the time we meet again next month and probably again in January um as I think I mentioned earlier we've already received two of the three payments we'll get from tea for the year we won't get another payment from them until August next year so until between now and then we will simply be receiving our tax collection Revenue okay our uh Ada information and enrollment our current enrollment is at 4,826 I believe that's as of last week uh we're still just reminder that we did Budget on 4500 Ada and our our combined uh attendance percentage or attendance rate so far for the year is still close to 96% so we're still coming in better than we expected better than we budgeted uh so on as long as we can continue to keep this uh
028this rate we'll we'll end up doing a bit better than we thought on DEA Revenue by the end of the year okay then again you have the combined general fund food service and Debt Service um expenses so far for the year uh you'll notice again that our total expenses there at the bottom of the second column roughly $7.2 million and as you recall on the first slide we have Revenue so far about 25 a. half million total so we're definitely so far and that'll stay that way for a while we're definitely outpacing our expenses by our Revenue so things are looking well and uh we are investing which I believe is at the next slide yes okay so uh we are investing our excess cash at this time mainly in the pools uh Texas class
029and tex pool in fact you'll notice well you might not notice U but we we had a two million we moved a $2 million of of excess money to Tex pool since this time last month and we've already increased uh our Texas class Investments by $6 million uh up through the end of October and we've already this month moved another $7.5 million there and we'll probably do another move tomorrow uh before the end of the week before we get too much further into the week uh just trying to keep a reasonable balance in our general operating account locally enough there to cover all of our current needs and expenses but keep as much of the excess as we can moved over to earn as much interest as we can earn for the district and then
030finally our tax collection report and again you can see that on the M side there in the middle of the chart we've collected pretty close to I guess not quite half um 15 million something would be half but pretty close to half for our M and about the same for our ins the percentages usually are about the same for the two different categories uh whatever their budgets are and whatever the collections are usually about the same percentages overall so again between that uh revenue and then our our tea payments that's what gets us to about the $25 million Mark Al together in these three funds are there any questions about anything I don't have a question but I'm just thrilled that the Ada is higher than where we projected it's nice to be in that
031after a few years you know that's how we always used to be and to be back there is very positive let me real quick y'all heard me say it over and over again but that's a lot of work to these guys right out here in these princi principal so um I feel comfortable saying that's not the norm across the state of Texas they're working very hard to make that happen yes I have nothing to do with that I'm glad it's up but I have nothing to you get to announce it um I still am confused as to why we have I know we've moved out of the CDs from bank bank of Brenham but why do we still have anything in Bank of bham at all CU it looks to me like we have Su
032in Money Market there uh not not clear as to why that's still there I think I asked about that last meeting or the meeting before and it's it's still here I'm just curious what the reasoning is and why it's still there I just haven't had the chance I guess to put it on my on top of my priority list but I can certainly address that before our next meeting yeah it sorry I me cut you off uh it just doesn't make sense um so yeah it I would prefer for it to be moved out of there we're an entire percent lower than we're anywhere else almost per lower than everywhere else it just among other reasons it I I think it just makes sense for us to be away from there um I don't know
033where BM National Bank would be if we need to have something local but it just makes sense for it to be moved is is specifically and especially if we are taking advantage of Interest well we're losing out on 3/4 or a percent on I mean a little bit of money is better than no money and a little bit more more money is better than um where we're at so it feels like it needs to be moved yeah and let me say to that Kyle that's a that's a great question um yes they are local and the district is um from my knowledge put a lot more money there uh than we are this year uh unfortunately just you that's that's Financial State we're in we've got a a business to run here and we've got
034to put our money where we're getting the most interest back so we did reach out to Bank of Brenham just today by email to explain that we've had to put more money in uh the the pools Texas class and Texas pool for that reason and asked um you know what sort of offer they could make what sort of if they could do something pretty close and equivalent to what we're getting in those classes so we'll see what that response is and then then move from there so we've just been we've been very you know cautious and respectful of our local relationship but at the same time um have got a uh have got to do what we can with with our financial situation so okay any other questions or comments thank you you okay next
035we have consideration and possible approval to purchase two 10 ton condensers to replace the units at central office and our Maintenance and Facilities coordinator Scott Larson and Chief of Staff Christy Johnson will present all right good evening um we have two um aging units at central office one is currently not operational and the other is at minimal capacity they are R22 refrigerant and so we sought out um four quotes on getting those units um repaired and up and going um it was recommended that we transition those to a 410A unit um and so um of the four um individuals we reached out to we received three quotes and so um we are recommending to go with the one that was um the best fit for us that happened to be the lowest cost from Neva
036Corporation the um the the fund the Tom Green County um money what will be left in that budget after this expense I just yeah I just asked darl to look at that this afternoon so uh currently we have about $500,000 in the fund balance of Tom Green funds we received a new payment this year of about 372,000 I believe it was so uh we do have other expenses budgeted but even moving money out for this expense would still leave a significant amount in our fund balance and just for transparency I know we know about the Tom Green what it can be used for but will you speak to that on what that money can and cannot be used for yes it can be used for land or building Improvement um sort of the functionality of
037the building and building improvements so this Daryl and I were discussing today I don't think in this day and age in Texas uh anybody would want to work in a building without air conditioning so uh this very much Falls in line with what we can spend that money on and and again for transparency when we talk about the Tom Green fund balance that's not the same as the fund balance you typically hear us refer to that's a totally separate set or a totally separate account that can only again be used for the purchase of land or building Improvement thank you um to add my two cents on the air conditioning side from the construction brain um I did some reading and research on these and I'm really excited that Neva is the one that's the
038lowest because uh I made a couple phone calls uh they also work with um I believe Belleville ISD and have done very good their customer service is great so we should be in a really good situation plus um what they recommended with the double circuit unit I thought that was great instead of doing it as one unit which would be a bad idea so I'm a big fan of all of the above I mean it's a good company and it's lowest price and only the only thing I couldn't find on here was warranty information I know on install but as far as Parts Andor labor whether it's coils condenser what they were going to warranty so I would like to get that clarified if we could ask so we do have a representative here perfect
039this is making well hi so look I'm talking good about you and you're here I didn't even know it either way it comes it comes both ways uh the standard warranty is carried on the uh train manufacturing and it's one-ear commercial warranty on uh all equipment including the coil okay which coil is a third party it's an aftermarket because you cannot get that right uh locally so I'm assuming none of the labor is in there if needed that's not a part of the warranty com might have to I know commercial usually isn't but I just wanted to ask to make sure I don't believe so no okay the train typically doesn't carry any labor warranty on that uh on that equipment well that was the other thing it's train which um commercial that's best way
040to go so um yeah that's I'm happy that's why I selected it in the first place any other questions or comments I will say that after being in central office last week the week before it was very warm in there I I commend clay for working in his office there cuz we had a agenda meeting I'm like I can't we got to go so we had to we went to a different office cuz it was it was it was it was good and hot in his office we'll need a a motion to approve I'll make a motion to approve the total expenditure of 4774 and77 from neeva Corporation for the replacement of two condensed units and coils uh for the central office as presented second second okay we have a motion made by Kyle Hafner
041seconded by Jared krck to approve a total expenditure of $ 47,7 4.77 from neeva Corporation for the replacement of two condenser units and coils at the central office has presented all in favor I opposed motion carries thank you thank you thank you next we have consideration of and possible approval to replace the dish machine at Brenham Junior High School our Child Nutrition director candra Davis will present good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board um so as we know there's a lot of Aging equipment and aging things in this District so unfortunately the dish machine at the junior high school was having some issues I've kind of Band-Aid it um for the past few years however about a week and a half ago um I found out there is no more band dating it um
042when they came out and they expect they inspected the dish machine they're estimating it's about 40 years old um Hobart has never seen a gas dish machine um and these were all Hobart Representatives um years old about 40 is what they're estimating again they they haven't seen one in person and these are the Hobart Representatives so I was kind of impressed that they could you know I could show that to them um however the dish machine is no longer operational because we cannot um get the parts to fix it so we've kind of um worn out what we could do with it um so I have three quotes that I got that were submitted um along with the new dish machine we also have to do electrical upgrades since the p previous one was a
043gas machine we now have to pull enough electricity to run the new one as well as Plumbing there's different requirements now for floor drains than what we previously had about 40 years ago or so um so the quote includes both the labor and the new equipment um are there any questions just to clarify this is coming out of which budget this is coming out of my own budget okay so not not the noral budget okay just wanted to make sure we got it out there yeah thank you Jared so just everyone listening uh the board knows this of course but uh food service is completely different budget than our general fund budget so just want to make that clear yes we uh generate our own revenue and spend our own money thank you what are
044they doing to the floor drain um the current floor drain goes directly from the dish machine down into the ground and they're doing a 12 by 12 um Basin so Jack carrying the floor to put a 12 x 12 uh floor sink into it that it'll drain into and then go down that's risky okay sense any other questions we do have a certified uh licensed plumber and electrician anytime you Jackhammer Jackhammer concrete it means that the pipes vibrate and then you get pipes broken and then you got problems way down the line and it just it makes me nervous I hate Jack Cameron but I know you have to do it for floor drains it's I I literally just did it at a coffee shop about a month ago so um it's not fun but
045hopefully they can be very careful so we definitely need to wash those dishes so we got to um my ladies are going on a little over a week without anding okay can I make a motion yeah absolutely please do God bless I make a motion to approve the quote from commercial kitchens for $65,500 65,00 , 569 for the purchase and installation of a dish machine at Brenham Junior High School is presented all in favor opposed the motion carries thank you my ladies thank you too I hope it happens quickly next we have review of local policy efb our chief of staff Christy Johnson and chief academic officer Sarah bohart will review this local policy yeah let me say something before they get started I know we had a public comment on this this evening uh
046this is uh Library books we had a public comment last month as well um we can't speak to public comments unless it's on the agenda so we did intentionally put it on the agenda because it got some attention last month and as you saw again this month so we just want to be sure everybody's on the same page here um with what the review looked like under previous policy um how there a lot of conversations in Austin and a Bill signed and uh some new legislature and uh penal codes that have now been put into the policy that uh we as all as well as all other isds across the state of Texas are required to follow so um Christ's going to talk through the timeline of that uh uh with our last review and
047now the review we're looking at you know under this new lens if you will and Sarah's going to talk a little bit about just the purchase of library books and how that historically has taken place and um and just our very uh conscientious effort moving forward so ladies so in August of this year um the board adopted update two3 of EF local um and that was expanded to be just EF local from the previous year to EFA and efb EFA is instructional materials and efbb is Library materials and that's what we're looking at today is efb um the pr previous EF local which was in effect during the 2324 for school year briefly address controversial issues on the documents that I shared with you on page 2 of4 of EF local um from last year
048you can see that there's a short paragraph that addresses controversial issues the revisions to EF local um and making it of efb were prompted by the enactment of House Bill 900 this summer so after some legislative push back some legal issues it was finally um enacted this summer so our current efb local which we adopted this summer expanded the controversial issues section to um a section titled prote protection from inappropriate material and this is found on our current policy on page four of six of efb local as you read through that section you'll notice references to penal code and education code again this was adopted by the board in August so any reviews done last school year were under EF local not our current policy which is efb local and then I've shared with you
049some proposed language and revisions to efb local and so what you see that is a proposed change is on page four of 8 and what it is is it's expanding those terms that are listed in efb currently harmful material obscene material and um and and sexually explicit material and it's taken those terms from both the penal code and the Education Code and defined those as there as they are defined in those documents so I want to make that clear that uh you know this conversation has not just been happening in in the Brenham ISD uh school board meetings it's been happening in ISD board meetings across the state of Texas and these conversations have been taking place in ISD boardrooms across the state ofex Texas because the conversation was being had in Austin um so
050we now have new legal language new legal requirements to look at the review through this new lens okay so I just want everybody to be clear on that and really uh the language that we' we've given to you to consider adopting does not you we've already adopted as isds did across the state of Texas um the new policy we're just uh showing where we could emphasize uh by by defining those penal codes out into our local language so either way we must move forward with a review of the library materials uh through this new lens okay I just want to thank the um the committee that participated and um went through the process of reading all of the books that were being challenged or however you want to phrase it um and I know that
051all of us have really dug into this and and tried to look at it from all of the angles and and being very sensitive to hearing specific passages read out loud which are um offensive to hear in that setting um absolutely and and for the Committees to go through the committee members to go through the process and read the books in their entirety which is a huge part of it everything um that I could come up with that would um you know marking out part of the book you know and then you're censoring and then you're going back to what's offensive to one person versus another person and just all of those kind of thoughts always I kept going back to the committee that reads the entire book and is by law and by by
052our policy our local policy supposed to evaluate the book on its entirety and so knowing that we have that and and knowing the the members on that committee who I have the utmost respect for and the the fact that we have the parent notification for any of the books that are labeled as mature so you're putting it in the hands of people from the community who you respect and you're putting it in the hands of the parents who should have the ultimate say and what's appropriate for their children or not um one thing that I would like if we're if we're going to be more specific in the policy as proposed is to include the fact that parents are notified if a student chooses a book that's labeled as mature I think that would be
053a good thing to include in policy and and one other thing um just as I was researching more on how how we can be more specific about what is considered obscene because anyone who serves on that Committee in the future will need to know okay what are what is the judgment and and one thing that I read and this is from the um the criminal division of Us justice department um and it it has a Citizens guide to US federal law on obsin on obscenity and there's a three-prong test they call it the Miller test um and it gives three three categories that to to judge it by and I don't know if that because even reading the proposed policy it doesn't really specify that so that might be something we want to include and
054I'm sorry I didn't send this I just printed it this [Applause] afternoon and I think there's one for them too um but those are are one two three if if that's something that we wanted to to include just with the a lot of this is repeated um like if you look at one two three that's the Miller test and then the part below that talks about how how federal law prohibits the possession of obscene material with intent to sell all of that so it just it it continues with the specifics of the law so if that's something that we want to include we can I think it might be helpful to have that three-prong I think we could definitely look at this language as we are creating a new rubric system we'll create a new
055rubric system um with you know again through the lens of of these penal codes and the educational code that we now required to evaluate uh books by so um sir do you want to yeah I mean I think yall shared a lot of information one thing in my um looking at the books that were purchased it was before House Bill 900 and it also was before books had a rating and at the time so these books that have been put into question were purchased way before all of this one thing in speaking to Librarians across the state and then our lead librarian here in Brenham um at this time the books were purchased they did not have a rating system you know which sense has been put into place so really kind of trying to
056track the history of how the books arrived in the library at the time too sometimes they will bundle books that you purchase so um you know they'll say this is what you know it's a way that it's bundled and purchased um but since now with houseal 900 the updated language with the penal code and US seeing very clearly then it gives us room to to look and evaluate and as we're in the process of um in speaking with the Librarians again in weeding out and looking for developmentally appropriate text for age appropriateness of the students under this new penal code and House Bill 900 as well so when you have over you know 1,00 or more 10,000 books in a library it's really being very seamless and the Librarians are doing that now really looking
057through every selection and rating so I feel like from a district level perspective with this new house bill 900 and the penal code we're being very conscientious of how we move forward thank you any questions or so I I wanted to um request one thing so when I was reading through this initially I went Page by Page and you get to a section on page two that's under the selection and evaluation of materials and then right above section number seven it says When selecting and acquiring these materials we will do blank and so I would like to basically see a number 11 under number 10 that says very simply something to the effect of the penal codes stated below will be followed within the selection of these materials because I didn't on first reading I
058didn't realize that those penal codes were outlined below until I actually scrolled down and looked at them and they are a metric for how we are selecting our material so they need to be a part of that list okay I have a clarification question um first of all this section where it says protection from inappropriate material and then everything that's highlighted under that on page four and then uh five so this is the new changes from the new update that we approved am I understanding this correct I'm saying it right at least so based on what I'm reading here cuz I read through this um right when it was sent out I don't remember when that was I read through it that night and then reading through it again to familiarize myself with it I'm
059I don't see how any of the books that pass the review would pass now uh does that am I saying that correctly does that make sense because previously and I'm going just on the specific incidence there was 30 books I believe and 15 were out 15 were in based on excerpts from the ones that didn't get removed and based on what I'm reading here those would not still be allowed to be there they would be removed based on this new language and new guideline is that what you understand as well or am I misunderstanding or misrepresenting what I'm reading here they they were evaluated based on the entirety so if you pull pul just one paragraph out of the 300 or 400 page book you're not just like if you pulled some of those type
060of passages from the Bible and judged the entire book of the Bible based on you know a couple of verses from Song of Solomon or from judges that have sure you know so I think that's the I think that's the all of these tests it's about judging it as the entirety like is is the the whole book is the intent is the whole thing like that or is it just one blip kind get into gray area though huh I said then we're kind of getting into gray areas because I agree it is gray but that's why having the parent being the ultimate person that makes the decision for their child is because there are there's so many books that if you take one thing and I can't after what we heard I cannot imagine I
061I wouldn't want to read the rest of the book but that passed so that's why I'm asking because based on that review from what I'm understanding is that review was done before this was added in here so now that that's correct now that this is here we did a new review then they would take this where it clearly states if it appeals to the purest interest of a minor in sex unity and I don't need to keep reading but or is offensive and again this basically eliminates that book to the lame and Common Sense situation so I'm making sure that I understand that with this being added now if there was a review that would be removed and so we're basically updating to say hey we're getting a little bit more strict we're being a
062little bit more careful being a little more cautious and moving forward we're not going to have that situation but I'm just making sure that I know that that has been removed but but I'm making sure that we're not going to have future issues yeah so the those books that were allowed to remain will be re-evaluated under a new rubric system that has that that has this penal Penal Code language in it so and uh and again I I want to give as Natalie did all all my respect to that committee that took it upon themselves to to read all those books and um great uh what I really feel like was a a a good representation of of this bham Community Committee um but uh to to re-evaluate those books under the new Penal Code
063language um so that's exactly right so what we'll do um we'll take any recommendations here from the board today um as uh for for a local update um as well as Natalie will take uh this information here and we'll get to to work creating a new rubric um that the committee will use to reeval reevaluate any books in question thank you will that be this would that be the same committee that worked on it at the at the beginning or will there be a new group of people to work on the Matrix well so good question I've had this conversation a few times you that commit that committee took it upon themselves to read all those books uh so they they know the know the books it'll be in a in the new local policy
064um the committee is is led by the CH Chief academic officer um so um Sarah will definitely be a part of that uh the high school principal so Mr Watts will be a part of that process so there will be some new faces and some some faces that were there before as well thank you yes ma'am thank you next we have our Bram high school schedule review and our chief academic officer Sarah bohart and bham high school principal Michael Watts will present yes and I also have um Travis is here too if we need if we have questions for him from CTE director so um I'm GNA let Mr Watts kind of explain a meeting that we had with stakeholders and then I'll kind of share some of our rationals and reasoning good afternoon currently
065Bram High School seniors offer two periods of early out or late arrival on October 30th Bram high school committee of department heads counselors APS and executive District team met with region uh six represent to review the Brenham High School graduation attendance and College and Career military ready Pro uh um progress and funding formulas for Ada and CTE course related to seniors early out and late arrival we met for a little over an hour at the high school state corop committee voted to reduce early out and late arrial opportunities from two periods to one to meet our district and campus goals of providing exceptional education experience even for our seniors so they are ready for the future thank you principal watts and so highlighting um some of the key things that we really talked about and
066discussed with region 6 had to do with maximizing our average daily attendance through our Ada um enhancing our CTE and we have Travis Gonzalez our CTA CTE coordinator as well with us really enhancing the CTE participation and completion rates as tied to how the state defi defines college career and Military Readiness improving our student outcomes and Readiness for the future that this that they want um and continuing to improve School culture um and raising those expectations so in some the Strategic reduction of early out and late arrival to one class period enhances funding potential and supports a culture of accountability academic commitment and future Readiness reinforcing the broader goals of Brenham ISD and CTE programs so it's it's really just us sharing that we met there was a group of us principles um APS counselors
067region 6 and the department heads and really looked at a variety of data from our seniors and what the potential would be and this was the decision that we came to going from two periods to one period period so are there any questions or feedback or thoughts for us with I guess a lot of these kids that are if we take out that class A lot of them are going to go into the CTE classes do we have the facilities and the staff to handle that much more in those classes so and I can let Travis speak to some of that too when we really looked and met with region six they ran projections for us about when we remove like so early out late arrival is two periods what we are anticipating is that
068we don't have a crystal ball but that probably 50% of them will join the work you know be able to go into a work practicum program and what was really great tonight it Cubs to careers I was able to stop by Bluebell and the two people that were at Bluebell actually graduated from Brenham High School and so I started talking to them and they said when they were high schoolers they actually worked at Bluebell and so they made that connection and so I shared with BL the two Representatives um that really just about how we're really working to increase that Workforce Readiness to go from Brenham High into the be able to have the future that that senior wants so this what we are anticipating is that it should increase that as well as we
069talked with the department heads and really thought about Julie haer Camp Travis Mr Watts Amanda dismukes our secondary curriculum coordinator um sat down and really met about what are other courses we would need to be prepared to offer if the seniors for that new extra class don't choose the CTE path so we've added like a college career and Readiness class that would help us with um TSI passing rates and we were trying to offer a different variety of courses as right now the course selection guide just went out we're anticipating to look at numbers and then as we get to see numbers of what students are selecting we can make adjustments can I suggest a things you need to know Class A things you need you need to know yes the things you need this
070is how you reset the clock on the microwave that's right simple things tie a tie I suggest that Common Sense 101 there you go right yes well we still I mean my Blaine still will call Doyle and ask crazy questions all the time so and then my daughter in vet school still calls us and ask us crazy questions so things you need to know class right I'll that yeah yes so that that's the high school um watts and I Mr Watts principal watts and I have had multiple conversations with Julie haer camp with CTE with department heads and really thinking about the future um and what our long-term five-year goals are for brinham and our brinham graduating seniors and so we felt like this would be the right decision although we know removing something right
071about early out late arrival is going to be hard for some senior years that could be anticipating two off periods but what we believe is we want the Integrity of the Burnham high diploma to mean that you're ready for the future that you want and so we want to ensure we're able to provide that and this was the decision we felt like was best so that's just the information item any other feedback for us thank you all very much for the work you put into this we're up next to CTE yes so I'll wait for you to say it oh no go ahead CTE advisory committee okay right so I will kind of start us and let Travis um talk one thing that we are really excited about is looking through how to continue to
072expand it goes back to what you just saw with Cubs to Career which really was a vision um of Julie haer Camp our lead counselor and Travis Gonzalez our CTE coordinator about showing the courses that Brenham ISD offers and pairing it next to a career and that really goes back to CTE and and really what we have done in the last couple of months um to really enhance that so Travis held a CTE advisory committee meeting with stakeholders from the community and I'm just going to let him share a couple brief highlights with y'all and then we'll just talk about our Big Goal it's just information item so thank you all right thank yall um so I held my CT Advisory board meeting on November 5th um and we discuss everything from finances to enrollment
073um Staffing facilities and um you know ccmr is probably one of our biggest pushes right now um right now I believe that the CTE is carrying the campus which is good when you talk to other Schools they're nowhere close to the numbers that we have um and also going back to the early release late arrival we need our kids now to be reach completer status by the time they're seniors and so that's three or more courses for four or more credits and what you're seeing with schools that have early out late arrival is that you're seeing a bottleneck at the concentrator status and they never reach that completer status which affects our accountability um so just starting uh the year 23% of our seniors had already reached completer status that are in CTE um almost
07448% of our students were uh met their ccmr requirement and I've been working through the last 189 kids who haven't reached it and most of them are already on the plan to meet by the end of the year so I think we'll see a large um ccmr uh percentage by the time we uh have this conversation in May um our Pathways uh tonight you saw all 13 of our Pathways that we have to offer here um I think that we have really good staff I think that we could support uh the students that'll be um remaining from early out late arrival um and in saying that what we want our students to be is we want them to be both College and Career ready um and so that helps us um with outcome bonuses as
075well so the state says that if we reach certain points and kids are both College and Career ready um then they'll give us a bonus to help support those students even more um and so that's kind of something that we're trying to push right now um is getting them both College and Career ready um we are working with Blen trying to set up some level one certifications which would help us uh quite a bit especially with our act programs because some of our certifications um are a little bit harder to obtain than others and blend's been a very good partner with us so we're really working to get that set up um our long-term goal you know I want every student to reach ccmr through CTE that comes through our program our goal is 75%
076by the end of uh next year um and I think that we're going to you know be well over that um and so then concerns from CT advisory committee um you know our facilities are aging uh we know that you know and so that's something that it's really hard to expand when we don't have places for for other teachers to go um and then Staffing um their concerns were um we used to have a dedicated secretary and CTE counselor that could help with that ccmr reporting and so that's things that they talked about on that um other than that we had really strong Community ties uh we have our Greenhouse that's going to be delivered on Thursday uh that Brian's uh donated to us and then for our Cubs careers this evening kex uh was
077one of our sponsors and they uh donated $4,200 worth of ads uh for their um Airway so um and then we're expanding our ctsos so our uh CT student organiz ganizations uh we now have we always had F HOSA add it Taffy um we have skills USA and then um we're also going to start an FCCLA and I believe that that's a good thing because that helps get kids involved in the programs and want to stay in the pathways um and gets us a lot more Community by in when they see those kids participating outside of the classroom so that is my summary of that thank you have any questions questions or comments for us so one thing that last year when I first got here we did um a region six came in and
078really did an audit of CTE and one thing that when Travis and I have the opportunity and um Mr Watts to really visit with them one thing that they continually stress to us about looking at Brenham and just everything that Brenham has is that we really could be a regional leader and a premier destination for career focused education and just just how important that is and so we've been working very hard to think about ways to enhance and increase so we're working hard I keep telling Travis all the time keep your foot on the pedal keep the foot on your pedal and I I tell them all the time how many kids have passed your IBC how many have your IBC I was out there talking to all the people um in the 13 Pathways
079and I'm like how many ibcs do you have what IBC do they offer so we're very focused on our in goal and working very hard so um just for so the community this how many different programs does CTE offer I don't need you to go through them all cuz I know it's it's quite a bit but so so we have 13 individual Pathways um that we offer name um so our largest ones uh when we look at seed hours uh a is the largest one with about 660 seed hours um and then we have cire with 560 seed hours and then our healthc CARE program is around 280 to 290 seat hours so those are our big three programs okay thank you I just wanted people to know that there's it's not just a or
080welding or this there's lots of options that they offer in the CTE program so I really this is your chance to shine Travis like I want you I want you to get it out there to the community yes sir and we appreciate everything y'all do I know any any program and with CTE being so Hands-On it's only as strong as the teachers who teach it and we have phenomenal teachers and you're a phenomenal teacher and we appreciate everything you do for that program and that is also right extra funding too right yes sir that's the key thing right there the kid to get that own hand you know activities but also we need every little Penny we can get to help out so appreciate you guys for looking ahead and planning ahead and we we
081do appreciate that that's good leadership that's what we have here and and not every not every school district has that and the kids are so excited and they in enjoy what they're doing they some of them don't necessarily like to read English literature all day long and so this gives them a chance to do something with their hands and uh sometimes they find out that there's something out there for them uh rather than College we're not discouraging but I mean there are a lot of young people that can get into a role uh right away after they get get finished with CTE and all of a sudden they're making money while some of their peers are still trying to uh pay pay off their college debt yeah so uh it's a win-win for everybody so
082thank you'all for doing that you're probably going to have an increase in your construction classes cuz all those kids playing with that nail gun was something they've never got to do before so that was a genius move by y'all to give them tools I think okay that's it thank you okay yes great thanks guys thank You' okay we have monthly reports for informational purposes and we will go into executive session at 711 p.m. for the purpose authorized by Texas open meetings act Texas government code section 551.074 personel matters on Section 55107 6 deliberation regarding security devices all final actions decisions and votes will be taken in open meeting thank you have a good evening if you're leaving e e e at 7:37 p.m. we've now reconvened an open session and with no further business before
083the board we'll now adjourn thank you have a good evening