Brenham ISD Board Meeting 8-26-2024 Regular Board Meeting

001sign public comments for the public hearing okay Bri watch the in for that okay thank you good evening everyone it's 6:00 p.m. we have a quorum of the board with all board members present so we will now call the meeting to order um first up we have public comments for the the public hearing um no one signed up for public comments for that but just just to be sure this is a a time to for anyone to address the board or make comments regarding the proposed School District budget and or tax rate as part of the public hearing to discuss and receive public comments is there anyone who would like to address the board on those issues okay defin to close those doors yeah we will need to close those doors okay at this time

002we will adjourn that portion of the meeting and move straight into our regular board meeting it's 6:01 p.m. now the Board of Trustees of the Brenham Independent School District is now convened I wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone present in collaboration with our families and community Brenham ISD is committed to providing an exceptional education for all students in a safe environment as the Brenham ISD Board of trusties 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 and I

003respectfully ask that you please refrain from talking while others are speaking thank you for taking time this evening to join us and for your interest in the Brenham Independent School District at this time Jared krennic will lead us in the pledge followed by the invocation given by Clay gillentine I pled Al 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 would please bow your heads with me God thank you come to you tonight just so humble to be in your presence as we know that you're here we we know that you're present in this room of Believers God thank you for guiding us in our decision- making for the children of bamias D God thank you

004that we have a room full of people that care about Brenham ISD and the kids of this community God be with us as we make decisions that affect them it's in your name we pray amen amen hey um it doesn't matter we had that like and then we said just we had like get the hearing part and then rolled into the agenda so as long as we just jump right into this um okay to do that again well we don't have to go back but um we still have to go over the okay gotcha okay we're going to uh our CFO darl St Clair did need to go over some things with the um the public uh the proposed tax rate and budget so I'm going to turn it over to him first well it's

005part of the first one sorry to skip over you all right thank you good evening good evening we have a uh presentation to hit hit some of the highlights and the considerations regarding our proposed budget and tax rate for 2425 and we'll actually have uh several of us uh mentioning different parts of or describing different parts of that as we go through the presentation so before we get started I want to say a big thank you to our Collective team not just the cabinet but our principles our directors of other departments um huge shout out to Daryl's team as well there has been countless hours put into this budget this year um and we have been one team with one goal of trying to still provide an exceptional education for all of our students in

006beram ISD regardless of our budget sfalls that we are feeling across the state right now so um up here with me today I have Chief of Staff Christine Johnson I have Sarah bohart um Chief academic officer myself Brook Trey hand uh chief of communications and engagement and then Clair so us collectively with clay have been working tirelessly the last several weeks to ensure that this is a balanced budget that we present to you all today thanks um so just high level of what we're going to be getting in here today um board requirements District requirements um school funding and the state budget assumptions tax rate information Revenue initiatives additional budget variables expense reductions and budget by function and then we'll take any additional questions that you might have after we present today so I'm not

007going to read this all to you this is just more like FYI in case you didn't know these are the requirements by you as the school board um your duty to adopt three budgets a general a Debt Service and a food service District requirements um adopt minimum function levels for each of those funds um and then we will post this on our District's website after you adopt it today and we will uh file this with tea so just as a friendly reminder um we talk about this all the time um but in our Texas Constitution it reads it shall be the duty of the legislator of the state to establish and make suitable Provisions for the support and maintenance of an efficient system in public free schools so local property taxes are the foundation of

008the school Finance system here in Texas I'm not going to get into all of these today did you want to kind of hit some high notes yeah okay basically the um the funding from the state comes in three different tiers uh the first one is just the basic uh what we call the regular allotment or the program allotment the foundation school program and available School uh a bable school fund that give us uh dollars per student and dollars per Ada average daily attendance uh within that system uh there are different categories of funding broken down for different uh categories of students we have sped funding we have dyslexia funding CTE funding GT funding so on uh those all compile together to give us our tier one funding from the state we also have Transportation allotment

009and if we had any new brand new instructional facilities there is an allotment for that as well uh then we go to the tier 2 funding which is more commonly called the Golden and copper penny enrichment pennies or enrichment pennies uh a district can receive up to 17 well in years past a a district could receive up to 17 cents additional to their tax rate even that has been compressed over the last four years I believe now it's down to about 13 cents if you had the 17 cents before compression started uh so that has even been changed over the years and then finally the tier three funding would be for facilities this refers to our existing debt allotment so if you have bonded indebtedness uh previous bonded indebtedness then you can receive some additional

010funds from the state uh depending on your tax rate and your collection rate and a few other factors um yep still you one thing um there's also we we do have the uh property wealth issue uh this has been uh something that's been part of the state funding formulas now for quite some time uh several years ago the chapter 41 status for wealthy districts was overhauled uh and actually a new chapter chapter 41 took its place chapter 49 excuse me chapter 41 the old system was based on a certain amount of wealth per W weighted a average daily attendance and if you exceeded that then you were considered a wealthy district and then you would have to send money back to the state now the calculations are basically done to compare your tier one and

011tier 2 entitlements uh based on your tax collections even with your uh compressed tax rates you can still be considered wealthy if you're collecting more than what the state uh as you compare your as the state Compares you to other districts and other funding mechanisms so that is still a a a scenario that can exist uh at our previous board meeting one of our previous board meetings just recently we did discuss this um and right now preliminarily the Brenham ISD is considered a wealthy District uh but that's been the case now for several years over the past 10 years and at this point so far we've never had to pay recapture and so we're not expecting to have to do that again this year but it's still a process that we go through throughout the

012year and will not be completely determined until we get to the this time next year so as we move forward I want to talk about a couple of obstacles and other things happening because this a lot of these issues that we're seeing in bham ISD as Statewide um it's an issue for a while um but it's compounded to be this was actually the first year that the legis withheld funding from public schools and we're seeing um the effects of that so on the right hand side you kind of see a few things that I wanted to talk to which is attendance-based funding um we've have stagna Ada which is our average daily attendance funding so Texas enrolls by average daily attendance instead of enrollment like some of our counterpart States um the last legislative session

013they uh withheld over six billion from that was actually earmarked specifically for public education that was not signed into a bill so means that money is not still earmarked for the future it goes back into the state coffers um and then unfunded mandates which is something you hear all the time but what does that really mean in terms of spending power for school districts so um just a friendly reminder during our under our constitution they do a available School fund and so that is off of ADA our basic allotment is 6160 which I'll talk about more but that has been the same um number since 2019 we know we've seen a a lot of changes not just for the school district but in your personal household I'm sure you've you've seen the effects um to

014speak to that we see about 19% increase on everything when we're talking about our maintenance and operations this is our supplies our utilities and other operational expenses um current economic forecast indicates that we would need our general allotment to go up to 7950 by 20127 to make up for the inflation increase we knew um in the legislative year that they withheld that fun we really needed about $11,000 per student increase so that 6160 really needed to be like 7160 to make up for the current inflation that we were seeing at the time so you can see this in this next Slide the data in the left-and graph is actually pulled directly from Tea's website if you'd like to find it for yourself but you will see that in 2019 is when they changed to the

0156160 and it has been stagnant since um and just to give you perspective of how we compare to our counterparts in the United States uh Texas ranks in the bottom 10 for per pupil spending here in Texas and then when you adjust Ada for inflation as you see in 2023 um that 6160 has more of a spining power about 4380 so we are kind of at a um all-time low for our spending power in terms of basic allotment um the other misconception I see all the time or I have to address all the time with community members and their understanding is they see the property wealth increasing in Washington County and they're like the district should be what are they doing with all of that money but we are funded your money goes to the

016state they do the calculation and then they decide what we get back off based off that calculation so just because our um our our property tax revenue increases does not mean that our per pupil funding increases so the state just lowers the percentage of the total school funding so higher property taxes really benefit the state's Revenue um not the school district so as a reminder we had over that 6 billion withheld um and then we had uh Governor Abbot come here last spring I believe it was and at the time he was already talking about having over 20 billion in General Revenue um current research shows that this next leg legislative session they will have over $20 billion in their drival revenue fund and then that is separate from our 13.6 billion that we have

017in our Texas rainy day fund um and the reason I want to point out unfunded mandates is because when we looked at this SL legislative session um for example there was 10,000 proposed in House Bill 3 to go to um what did they call it the savings the vouchers right so that spending power is not Equitable to school district funding right because when you look at that 6160 how much of that money is already encumbered in unfunded mandates I can tell you in my department Alone um I spend tens of thousands of dollars in in software that is required by law for us to have as a district one being for example screenshots do not count anymore like you send a screenshot of something you have to have something that's called metadata um to cooperate

018postings on your websites to cooperate social media um things like that so now the district has to pay for an annual software that is grabbing analyzing And archiving this data that is just one of many examples of require ired unfunded mandates in the district so when we're talking 6160 it's it's not really Apples to Apples when we're saying our kids are actually receiving that money when the state is telling us what we have to spend some of that money on so when you look at what's happening around the state we talked to yall back in July about how we were getting information from region 6 that was showing about 80% of school districts are adopting a deficit budget this fiscal year even with those deficit budgets those schools are having ser ious cuts to even

019announce those deficits so this um was just published uh earlier uh last week I believe um in an article and it was just showing um schools around Texas some of our neighbors in conro Klein Montgomery at Spring ISD and Tomball how many shortfalls they are seeing per student funding so if we take Montgomery uh that's right there in the middle and you times that by their enrollment that means they have over a $4 million short shortfall just for this fiscal year um I would really be interested if anybody wants to do the data dig that after all of the school districts announce a deficit budget what is the Statewide shortfall and then if we look at uh the foundational school program um this is uh per people per student um just to show you the

020difference again this is directly off of Tea's website so local is making up about 60 % and then the state is coming up with about 40% some budget assumptions um so this is as of Friday um we're already seeing um continuation and growth literally every day this uh year in the biggest amounts that I've seen since I've returned to bamd um so we're currently with that data that's a 1.3% growth or 4773 um I know just today we had 16 more students attending our school with another 25 in the queue um so it and this this is that's actually a slow day for us um compared to our data last week but it's uh trending but our average daily attendance we're basing on 4500 our weighted Ada is 6542 and then our property growth value

021is 10.25% um we talked about ADA a lot because it's one of the major ways that we uh provide local Revenue um So based off of that that budgeted uh 4500 Ada that is our state funding but to show you our current enrollment and again that was as of Friday that 4773 so we have plus 16 students added to that number today plus another 25 in the queue um but our state aid with that current calculation is just over 143 um and if we see the changes and increase to Ada you can see the monetary uh additions that we would receive to that um as well don't add anything yes what was the percentage that we ended up for the year for Ada the um U attendance percentage 93 Point okay yes and so um

022and I we feel confident about this because there's several things that have changed since last year that I can speak to real quickly um so we have an amazing PMS coordinator Miss Alie Simer um she came to us moved to us in that position late I think in December of the school year um but she's been an administrator in the district and she has really taken over and owned our uh PE we call them the peam team youall know them most of the time as the registar on the campus but she's treating them as a PLC Community a professional Learning Community just like our teachers do in our subject levels so they meet um I think twice a month um virtual or face to face and they review data in addition they are providing da

023daily reports to principles they are getting daily reports um and then every week we are all provided in the principes a weekly attendance report on their campuses um another big change is we saw kind of an issue with uh that flexible day so we've removed that program at the secondary level we saw um issues with how um High School exemptions were done at the Christmas time so we've already identified that and have taken proactive measures so we don't have to deal with that again um we Pilot We piloted the pre- attendance last spring um we saw their school districts doing this more for a safety uh issue and safety being top of mind for us we want parents to know that their kids made it successfully to school but secondary to that we're like oh

024well they'll also get a notice if they're not here and they can still make sure that they are here before the the 10: a.m. uh Bell as well so there's been several consorted efforts not to mention uh engagement with stakeholders as far as information we did the last year W's got a freaking car um I mean so incentive I I mean anything that we can do is is being done um on every level as far as shaking the tree and looking through everything um other budget assumptions we have the general fund The Debt Service Child Nutrition and proposed budgets so in the past two fiscal years um we have adopted a deficit budget so this year we are pleased to announce that we are offering uh presenting you with a balanced budget which is why

025under the general fund section funds general fund uh the last net is blank because it is balanced but with our debt service fund and our Child Nutrition fund we're actually seeing um a gross income where we were able to put that money back into those fund balances for those so we have our total Reserve uh total proposed budget um a couple things I want to point out that we are planning or have already made uh plans for for this fiscal year to offset our general operating budget so um I believe you are aware but just in case our general public is not aware this summer we were awarded cycle 2 safety Grant which we have received over $200,000 for um so that is awesome and we have been able to utilize um if you if

026you're familiar with uh government grants it's usually breaken broken down to sections so x amount can go to payroll x amount can go to contracted services and things like that so we have utilized all of the numbers provided to us by the government to offset safety expenditures where they are applicable um the other things is we have title funds you are where we get Title 1 2 3 4 Essa um and so we have looked at all of those how are we utilizing those is there anything that can be offset of the general budget and utilized title funding in addition we have Tom Green Revenue so that's our annual revenue that we get but we also have a Tom Green fund balance so we have already looked at our fund balance and looked at what

027types of um fiscal responsibility that we can apply from there to our general budget to offset those costs as well um to alleviate the general fund um we can um and we will continue to watch Ada and enrollment so we can adjust that if we need with the state at any time if we see any great changes to that and then we are constantly reviewing operation Staffing investment monitoring and then um travel restrictions at this time so again comparing us to our neighbors around the state um the last few years these several of these uh districts around us we've compared to uh I just pulled the most recent data that is on the tea website so if you go to the tea website you will find a downloadable and a PDF of M and ins

028going back a long time um to the 2223 fiscal year so when I put our m and our ins to give us an aggregate total tax rate for the 2223 school year um when we compare ourselves to newcy Waller snook Navasota Somerville cely Brian Giddings Belleville and our neighbors in Burton we are um below all of them as far as taxes and as far as the 1,033 school districts that tea reported on this we ranked in the bottom we were and to give our history um I went back the last 10 yes can you explain to the members of the community how uh how the tax rate is set and what the state's role in that is yes okay yes and I'll have that in my next slide if you want to jump in too

029so um so the Texas legislator established a compress a compressed tax rate in 2006 and 2007 um District's compressed tax rate is the CTR I mean sorry the compressed tax rate or the CTR um is the m&o tax rate multiplied by the state compression percentage which is currently at 66.67% so and you can kind of see that reflected here that law went into effect in 2007 but you can see just looking at the last 10 years that compression if you're looking at that M column you can see in 2015 we were at 1.333 um so we've been been [Music] compressed um and then now we're ending at 6669 um so the reduction since 2015 has been 34.9% I'm going let you speak to that Mark in addition to the uh changes that were made back

030in 2006 2007 as BR pointed out uh further compression was instituted in House Bill 3 in 2019 and that's the current system that we're under so originally back in 2006 most most districts had a rate around $150 that original compression was to bring everyone down to at least a dollar that was the basically 33% loss that everybody had at the time and then gradually rates crept back up a little bit over the next 10 years or so and then 2019 we had the the House Bill 3 compression which now we call our MCR our maximum compressed rate so at this point what we do for the last 4 years and for the foreseeable future we send our property values to tea by August 1st they tell us then based on formulas that they have where

031they compare our values to 90% of all the other values in the district whether we're going to be at the floor at the ceiling or somewhere in between a range a fairly narrow range of a tax rate that we can adopt uh for the last several years there have been more and more districts they're actually hitting the four they're not even in the middle somewhere they're going to the four almost every year and I think that that number of districts is continued to increase over the last few years uh that's where Brena masty has been the last couple of years is at the four so basically we're this year we were put at 6169 originally by tea then we do have the luxury of adding up to 5 cents as long as the board approves

032it which gets you back then to the 6669 that we're going to be proposing tonight so there has been compression going on for a number of years and it's got gotten very much tighter just in the last four years so um our proposed tax rate you'll see the 2023 24 compared to the 2425 you can see that our debt service also known as our ins has remained the same 8 but uh we have the compression of the ml or maintenance from 6 6893 to 6669 um giving us the total aggregate value of 7469 um and then the notes at the bottom are ones that I kind of denoted earlier about what we are still leveraging um to offset the general expenses so a few things that I think are important to um point out because

033presenting yall with this baned budget today was not easy and that is an understatement um and so there's been lots of challenges not just here in britam ISD but across the state um to get us here and so I think it's important for us to take a little bit of time to look at some of those variables so first again let's look at Revenue initiative so our biggest thing is attendance again we want kids here to learn our mission is an exceptional education for all kids are not learning if they are not here at school so we want to make sure that they're here so that they can learn but obviously intendance also increases our Ada which increases our funding so we've increased our incentives to all of our stakeholders we're continuing to work on

034those we're providing additional training and educational materials to all of our stakeholders we are doing those pre- attendance checks and um just for a note Miss alimer gave me data not that long ago so we just started this uh those Auto calls for this FIS schal year for this fiscal year for this school year um and so on the first day we ran those we made 177 calls for the pre- attendance check to let them know their students weren't here but we only ended up having 136 students absence so we saw 41 students between that call going out and actually coming during our attendance check getting to school um like I mentioned earlier we have those weekly campus datas that are provided to our principals to see where their Ada is uh hitting um and

035they're also communicating great with us if they need we want to do a deep clean because they see a sickness going around or anything like that that we can help alleviate that and like I mentioned earlier we've discontinued the half day op optional flexible schedule um the other thing is continuing to monitor Investments this is something we're going to continue to look at as yall are familiar with our investment reports we have text class and pools and uh CDs and things like that that we have uh invested in the past so we are constantly looking at the competitive rates to making sure we are leveraging our investments to get the maximum return um what we're also always looking at our Tom Green County revenue and our Tom Green County fund balance and if we're managing

036that appropriately and offsetting any funds um as youall approved earlier last year we changed our uh tax firm to Prue Brandon and the county followed suit so we are both utilizing Purdue Brandon and they have a 98% collection rate um and then we had the pe's audit in the spring so we are constantly reviewing our CTE and our ccmr um so we're reviewing our students who need a a ccmr placement to earn bonus funding to maximize the return so sometimes you can get funding for CTE but if they complete certain pathway they can get b what we call bonus funding um and then we're always looking at our CTE uh courses to maximize those funding opportunities and then Revenue projects we're very limited um as youall know from my presentation in the spring in what

037schools can do for Revenue so many of you have asked me and I've continued to provide you with updates throughout the summer but we are continuing our Stadium project um to secure uh Partnerships so we can get that across the finish line for you all and hopefully reap those benefits um for our Collective good um and then the other thing that we are still reviewing is our rental agreements um we do a lot of Partnerships and those are important to us but we also want to make sure with all these Rising costs that we're not just rolling uh agreements and we're making sure we're covering fuel custodial whatever uh is needed for those events so that the district isn't covering the cost of of those things um the other things that are a big change

038from last fisal year to this year that I think are important to point out as well so one big thing that we needed to do we had to do um was our employer contribution to health insurance so from last fiscal year to this year to stay compliant we passed that $50 increase per um employee so that's an overall increase of $3,331 um the other increase is we have our uh District property and liability insurance premiums that went up uh just over 61k um our water rate went up almost $90,000 or 2011% from last FIS schal year to this FIS schal year um if you all are familiar we provided yall um the water rate increases the projections so that number is going to continue to grow in the next few years um and that is

039obviously out of our control so those three variables alone account for almost half a million dollar in budget increases to this year's fiscal budget um and then a couple other things that I've mentioned this summer before is just looking at Tom Green County revenues from last fiscal year to this fiscal year we're going to receive about 300K less um again love to note that the county has done a phenomenal job with uh Tom Green County and managing for us this is just a change uh in Revenue they've already split the lease and it is advantageous for all parties involved in a good thing but just looking from dollars last year to Dollars this year it's a a th000 a 300K reduction um this last one is honestly there's too many projects and I would love

040I know cabinet would love to provide you all with um kind of a capital maintenance projects but um several of us have weekly or bi-weekly uh meetings with department heads and it seems like every time we're turning around we have something that's aged out or it has a special part we can't replace the whole thing but we're trying to find a proprietary part and a proprietary person to come work on it or something and it is constantly um costing us and as you'll know ml 80% is Staffing 20% maintenance operation when we're seeing increases like we're seeing over here that really really squeezes um what we can do we talked in the spring a lot about initiatives um but here's a couple that have continued into this year um so first all like I just

041mentioned 20% of our m is um pretty much supplies so every single Department in the district every single campus in the district has had cuts to their budget um the primary functions or details of those functions that were um cut the most is our substitute our travel our PA Prof our professional development and our supplies so uh that reduction from the 23 24 school year to this year is $1.74 million um it's more than we would like to I know that last year we wanted to be able to keep travel because professional development is important but it's just um not an option with where we're at the next thing is projects so we're constantly reviewing all projects for efficiency so if you remember last fiscal year for an uh we looked at the access control

042project we reduced that project by $300,000 um for this year there was an issue with a high school that we needed to address so now we're utilizing the cycle 2 grants to address those so that's not coming out of the budget so that's just an example of ways that we're trying to look at offsetting the general b the general budget with other resources that are available for us um travel expenditures we've cut travel for professional development unless required or covered with title funds um we have told last year and we're we're sticking to it this year is we are trying our hardest to make cuts the furthest away from the classroom um and the furthest away from students so um that has mean cutting travel separate from what is required or our annual programs for

043our students um we also have our grant applications like I mentioned earlier we were awarded that safety cycle 2 Grant over the summer which is over $200,000 we have several other grants that we have completed and apply for from the exping this summer um some that we are in progress of replying to so hopefully we'll come back with good news on being awarded more grants this year as well and then the big one um all the way to the right so like I said 80% of our m is salaries so our full-time equivalent reductions five pair of professionals one maintenance four and a half custodial 10 administrators and 25 teachers totaling $2.49 3 million in reductions so you look at this on the next slide for uh FTE what that equates to that's a total

044of 45.5 positions that were cut from last fiscal year to this fiscal year totaling almost $2.5 million um something I'd like to point out um is the waivers um so the state of Texas we do a 22:1 ratio if you go over 22 to1 um at the elementary level you have to apply for a waiver um so these are our numbers locally so our pre classes are 18 to1 our Kinder is 22 to1 and then first through fourth grade is 25 to1 it could go up to that um currently when we were looking at uh the what's it called CP the CSP there's so many acronyms in education the CSP uh none of our classes were really hitting that 25 Mark at the elementary level I think we had one at like 23 um and

045it's something that we're constantly evaluating because if we have more kids and we need to add an educator um then we we will do that appropriately so looking at um budget by function so if you look um this is going to look very similar to what you all have seen in the finance reports on the months going by function um so you can see the 2324 actual so that is not necessarily the approved that is like to date what we have spent in that budget um compared to the proposed uh for next year so when you look at that oh that is the sorry that is the budget the actual budg I did shange the actual budget so that uh you can see that the last fiscal year was 60.8 million and this year it

046is 56.6 58379 which is a 6.95% reduction from the 23 24 school year or a total of 4,234 869 in Cuts yeah [Music] questions before you might ask any questions again I want to say and I've said it month after month after month um just a huge thank you to this team um I'm so blessed to have the best in the business around me the principals and directors back there but then uh my cabinet that stands before you so this was extremely difficult uh we've been working all year on this to um reduce the deficit uh for this this this current fiscal year and propose this to you today um again I want to stress to the community that uh you know Region Center said that um 80% probably of school districts across the state

047would not be able to do this um we've seen numbers it look like it could be more than that um we got it done but it was extremely difficult questions well questions SL comment inflation doesn't seem to be stopping and thank you all for working so hard to give us a balanced budget cuz it was necessary is this is this sustainable the following year if things continue to go the way they're going cuz we're looks like we're breaking the piggy banks to do everything we can so if we don't get any more funding is this sustainable no no absolutely not no let me let me let me say this too this this balanced budget um we took an approach that uh that many families take with their own budget or an opperer entrepreneur or small

048business owner might take to their to their budget and that um you know if we don't need it there's there's not a whole lot of what if money in this in this budget okay so um we have a couple of chillers break that total over $600,000 we're going to be back in here with you saying hey you we don't we don't have any extra in this in this budget we we're going to have to move money from fund balance to take care of this so that's where we are and I say that to say moving forward we have we have aging um a aging facilities and uh you know air conditioners break chillers Break um especially old ones so um you know we're going to have to keep that in mind as we move forward

049that no you we cannot uh sustain this year after year um No Way teachers are completely drowning I mean they are and and I know it's it's administration too but you know every position in the district as we saw from where Cuts have been made which is everywhere everyone is overworked from absorbing every position that's been cut and and knowing that teachers have depending on if they're secondary or Elementary have so many more students which means so many more contacts with parents so many more papers to grade I mean it's just they are overwhelmed I'm sure y all saw the article that's been going around that said Texas H was number one for teachers being overworked and underpaid and and I mean to to go two years in a row without being able to give

050a raise when all families are facing the same inflation that the school district is facing and they're absorbing it just like the district is absorbing it and it's not sustainable financially for the district it's not sustainable for teachers and other employees who are doing the jobs of more than one person and we appreciate y'all I'll try not to get emotional because I know how hard y'all are working we appreciate you so much because we know that you are working late hours early hours from central office to every teacher in this district and it's not right and it's not fair and you all deserve more we thank you for bringing the balance budget and it is it's painful to see to see from The Boardroom perspective to see as a parent where the classes have grown

051so much and other cuts that have been made it's it's devastating it's devastating that we are here in the state of Texas when we have what number eight economy if we were a country we would be number eight in the world yet we are in the bottom 10 for States and funding per students it's makes no sense let me add something real quick Jared to to your your question um I want to lean into what Natalie just said you know is is it sustainable again industry standard with Public Schools is 80% of your budget goes back to personnel right um and that just makes sense we're a we're a a service uh we're a people business we don't we don't build anything make anything 80% of our budget goes back to the people serving um

052this community um so when we talk about 19% inflation over the last 6 years which is uh you know those are hard numbers research numbers you can go find that data yourself our the majority of our money goes back to our employees so again we're not able to give them raises because we're not getting any more money to give them raises keep in mind that 19% inflation that we feel as a business as a school business they also feel you feel in your home so for them to be able to take care of their own Rising uh insurance and whatever it might be we are going to have to be able to award our employees um financially um sometime in the near future C I want to say the same thing on this we going

053to have to this is this is stared my 12th year on the school board and we have was was able to give pay raises to teachers staff members up until last year and this year and my heads off to principls uh campus leaders and also central office for keeping our teachers motivated this is not an easy job when we KN we can't give a pay raise right now but our teachers have a lot more students in the classrooms working a lot harder and not getting a pay raise so this is something really we really going to have to look at down the P what you just said clay um to do something for our teachers whenever that chance come because we can't keep going this way and it's not our fault you know we know

054that but it's I'm going to have to give somewhere I mean inflation keep going up and this what 2019 and still um per student is still the same everything's going I go in I go in the grocery store now I'm a single guy I go in the grocery store and I come out with one small bag and it's it's $100 already you know and like got Transportation uh gas and everything it's going up so everything is going up when and it can't keep working like that everything go up and this going to stay right here so the state going to to come through and I'm glad you mentioned this cuz this this week last week I had several guys you know people saying they think when we our tax we when we uh receive I

055a tax collection every penny stays right here in Washington County and a lot of people out there think that but it's not true they think that money all that money stays right here it doesn't go any way it stays in Washington County and I have to you know I have to explain it still like they didn't get it understand it but it's it's avable but my thing is we all thinking about the same thing on the same Pages really we got to take care with teachers and because they doing an outstanding great job and I've been in it and I know it's it's not easy it's a lot harder now that back when I was in it oh yeah my concern too is the students that those classes are pretty big and I know I've

056got children in the district and it hurts to know that our kids don't have the the space and the quality time that they could have and then I think back to what we were told back in the spring of 20 excuse yeah 2023 when it looked like we were going to get money finally from the state you know uh the state is is quick to take away but even when they promise us more taxpayer money or more revenue for this District which has worked so hard to get here I mean it's it's kind of sad and and I'm hoping I'm hoping that there will be some relief somewhere in the future but uh I think we all need to talk to our legislature to and just remind them that there are kids involved in this

057and teachers and families who are affected negatively because of this let me respond to that too Bonnie something that we wanted to be sure everyone understand uh you know as a board I want to be sure everyone else understands you know the last two years the school district had to dip into its fund balance right so when we talk about other districts adopting a deficit budget um to maybe keep things um a little closer to what they look like last year it's because they have a fund balance to lean on to be able to do that uh this district has dipped into that fund balance the last two years we could not afford to do that this year so um I know it was clear everybody looking at the the screen just then but if

05880% of your budget is personnel and you have to reduce your budget obviously you're going to have to reduce your personnel and that's that's just the way the school business goes well going back to the attendance I know there's in the community there's um sometimes questions or confusion about the emphasis on attendance and obviously kids have to be in school to learn but obviously there are circumstances where you can't help being absent for illness or for a death in the family or or whatever and so why penalize those students when they can't help but being absent but the the reason the districts placed so much emphasis again besides wanting students to be there to learn but the districts don't get funded if the student isn't there so even though the costs are the same the

059lights still have to be on the teacher is still paid the bus is still run but the funding for that day it doesn't exist if the student was absent so and and a lot of times for teachers they have to work harder when students are absent because it's additional time to make sure that that they get caught up that they get their assignments that they're communicating with the parent but there's no funding for that extra time you know that's from the student being absent so that's why because of Texas being funded that way that's why there is even more emphasis on [Music] attendance yes any other questions or comments thank you our teachers okay and we will have more with um whenever we get to that item on the agenda to actually adopt the budget

060um at this time we will move into the public comment for the regular meeting and let me pull my 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 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 three minutes delegations of more than five persons shall appoint one spokesperson persons must identify themselves and the groups they represent at the beginning of each presentation persons who wish to participate in this portion of the meeting should have signed up with the presiding officer or design before the meeting began the allotted time will be displayed on the screen please stop speaking when the time runs out

061thank you for taking time to address the board this evening and for respecting the district's policies and procedures and got we have four people signed up um Travis Samoa is first and whenever you're ready just you can state your name and Cas I said it wrong no it's fine I'm Travis Samora thank you and appreciate the time and also compliment uh the board and superintendent on that great budget presentation I know that was difficult and I'm I'm here tonight Travis Samora not representing any other group just here as myself and I do want to respectively request the school board consider the Texans for excellence and education t as an alternative to the Texas Association School boards tasby for both School Board training and insurance management and every Everything those different groups offer both T and

062tasby claim excellence in their similarly stated missions such as in in t their mission they say is seeks to implement provide guidance to the current public school policy Frameworks training organization and other resources to Aid Texas Independent School Districts their boards administrators and teachers in achieving these critical objectives and one difference between the two groups is T does not endorse the woke policies uh such as Dei which is a divisive political objective has nothing to do with education and that is not needed in the teaching environment um it just doesn't belong there and T does not focus on that type thing where tasby has that on their uh website that they support that and you know this just get back to education and once again U like I say I I request that you consider

063t as an alternative uh both for training and insurance management and appreciate your time thank you do you know that person oh there Mr Vanderpool it's him that's her husband yeah okay yeah s vandero I'm just going to read the letter from my wife um so it says Dear president of L board trustees I'm writing to express my hope that you'll join te Texas Education Exel and education and VW membership in tasb I must write this because the future of our children is at stake I believe in Brenham schools and want the best for the school dist District last year I spoke at this meeting provided facts about why BISD should pull out a tasb and I'm not going to reiterate those single most important issue is that tasb does not represent Traditional Values of

064Washington County and Brenham ISD for that reason alone you should leave te holds traditional standards and customizes its services to each district last year Miss Lang you said that tasb was not progressing if that is the case then why did they support the current administration's provision to Title 9 before our Texas Attorney General suited the doe and told them not to told the school districts not to follow it why if they're not Progressive do they openly support diversity educate equity and inclusion and if they're not Progressive why did they support the National Association of school boards who compared parents to domestic terrorists to the Biden Administration and took him two years after that and several Congressman Texas Congressman to bring this up before gasb pulled out of the nasb this community supports girls who do

065not have Boys on their teams in their locker rooms this community supports parents being involved and vocal at their school board meetings this community is not hateful to parents who choose to homeschool or send their children to private schools further tasb is a monopolistic organization takes a cookie cutter approach to train board members their goal is to arrich the organization and not help the school boards what's the chance over a th000 school districts are facing Financial lows while tasb sits on a $95 million budget surplus could have anything to do with the fact they're all trained to follow the same TB self-enriching policies what is a ASB accomplished for brandom ISD I'd say nothing I'm not here to create division I'm voicing my concern because I believe Brenham schools virtue of this community gsb's policies

066and principles have contributed to the deterioration of our school district it's time to S the Lan tasb and join te and personally I'll say for your budget I'm glad to see that at least are going to start off with a balanced budget I know it may not be at the end of here but congratulations on that thank you next is Scott [Music] Cole good evening bis school board members and superintendent Gillan te my name is Scott Cole I'm a resident of brunham and a concerned citizen for the welfare of the children in our district and the wise use for tax dollars I currently work for Germania insurance company and have been in the property and casual insurance industry since 1978 and am a licensed insurance adest I'm here today to speak with you as a

067friend and as a co- laborer uh for the bment of our school district I have concerns with our membership in tasby as you know tasby has been the only nonprofit organization in this field until recently for 75 years tasby promotes guidance and policies that shift control control away from parents and even Schoolboard trustees into the hands of unel elected administrators and even tasby itself districts pay membership fees of around $11,000 a year while contracts with tasby are vague or do not exist at all contractual agreements showing tasby fiduciary duties to school district members are not present which I find odd coming from the insurance industry because insurance agents and insurance companies have fiduciary dut duties to policy holders that are codified into law tasby actively works against the interests of parents tasby publishes and indoctrinates

068with their team of eight which is nothing but a gas light to neutralize School boards and transfer power to the superintendent and their team tasby teaches that once a Schoolboard trustee gets elected they are responsible to and work for the district not for the voters that sent them tasby recently released guidance for schools promoting the adoption of transgender policies that allowed men and girls bathrooms Conformity to Preferred pronouns and even lying to parents for these reasons alone I would recommend that we get not give one cent to tasby it is our moral duty to defund the darkness and fund the light in short tasby is promoting a radical ideology on their policies and training of Schoolboard members the students themselves are paying the highest cost by the dangerous environment we're forcing them into we should

069not be supporting tasby with our tax dollars now there is an option to tasby and that is Texans for educational Excellence both Carol ISD and Princeton ISD North Texas districts extremely well highly regarded have left tasby and join te has anyone checked with either of these boards to see what their experience has now been with one year with te I agree with board members Archer and Hafner that for these reasons we look to find an alternative to tasb if we check with Carol and Princeton isds um about the AL the alternative may be te let's not allow fear to force us to stay in a business relationship with a partner that we don't agree with and who is trying to take over control of our district and capture our children one child at a time

070by their woken agenda let me know if I can be of service to you in any way as you navigate this decision and thank you for your attention to this matter than you and for your work thank you Walt Edmonds it's probably shocking anyway um good evening um board members and all the other folks working so hard here tonight um I give you thanks and commend each of you for your hard work and applaud your efforts to assist our kids in receiving a a quality education and this is why the public schools of Texas were created so that kids can Beyond learning to read God's word so that they may be saved they can also begin to rationally think and be successful in the public business Arena however we've all heard the expression if you

071always do what you've always done you'll always get what you've always gotten I ask you is this goal of nearly 150 years for Texas Public Schools being met that is they can thoughtfully consider God's word that they can rationally think and will they be S successful in starting and running a business will these kids have this at the end of their education their public education last year I and many members of our Community came before this board me meeting to ask the school board members here tonight to stop our District's membership and the taxpayer funded tasby organization and investigate membership in Te the Texans for excellence and education as an opportunity to correct to correctly counsel you to counsel you with what most folks would call our Nations and our District's Traditional Values those that

072have successfully educated most of the folks in the in this room and those on this board this te organization is growing with more school districts heading over to them why not give them a try or just do without counsel to our board we can get insurance elsewhere under our current leadership and Council here are just a few struggles emphasizing why we must or why we need to do something different Our Stars testing scores for our students have been steadily decreasing our school School District rating has been steadily decreasing our school district's debt has been steadily increasing and except that our board CFO and superintendent resigned in the last year and so we had the opportunity of gaining qualified individuals step in a few months ago our debt would be greater still I'm very thankful to

073hear real numbers tonight this is amazing and I I applaud everybody's efforts in getting this for us um and the last thing I wrote was that our our state schools and our district is being settled with just one other thing Medicare fraud debt I'm asking what has tasby really done to help us seriously we pay them a bunch of money but what do we really get out of their Council except I would say a diminishing return so I'm going to ask that we please again this year step away from tasby and do something different thank you very much thank you okay next we have consideration and possible approval of a monetary donation to The District from Run for the Youth of Washington County Joe Robertson with Run for the Youth of Washington County will present

074information regarding this good evening Madam president and Brena myd board members thank you for having me I appreciate all that you do for uh Brenham ISD in service and and for the community we appreciate it uh so my name is Joe Roberts I'm the current board president for the run of the youth in Washington County uh each year the run of the Youth of Run Run for the Youth of Washington County whose mission is to serve the community by fostering the physical health and instilling good character in the Youth of Washington County host the Bluebell fund run the 46th annual run held March 23rd this year uh included over 4500 participants uh that's a 5% increase over last year um and I might add that each one of them had at least one or two

075ice cream sandwiches or fud bars at the run and their family members uh um so the event held here at Brenham ISD included a 5k a 10K a half marathon and a one mile fund run the success of the Run would not be possible without our board directors many of which are here today I'm going to list them real quick if you'll let me uh Derek Eep vice president Michelle check uh Treasurer Shay yers our secretary and then members Jennifer Griffin Danny Youngs M Michael Watts Lee Lyndon and Katie Alford as well so without their help it wouldn't be possible um we also have um the race day support provided by volunteer Brenham istd coaches and athletes and our race director and her team on behalf of the board of the Run for the Youth

076of Washington County we're pleased to present a portion of our proceeds to the 2024 run in the amount of $95,600 to Brenham ISD for the benefit of Brenham High School and Junior High athletic programs so thank you thank you that is phenomenal the work that y'all do the hours you put in and the commitment to the community is just unprecedented and we we thank you so much if if we could get the board and um and the the district representatives to come up um yeah we can we can vote and then we'll take a picture okay I move okay this is a good one move move to approve a 95,7 monetary donation from Run for the Youth of Washington County to the athletic department to be allocated to activity accounts of various Sports to Foster

077physical health and instill good character in their part participants as presented second okay we have a motion made by Bonnie brinkmeier seconded by Jared krck to approve a 95,7 15 monetary donation from Run for the Youth of Washington County to the athletic department to be allocated to activity accounts of various Sports to Foster physical health and instill good character in their participant participants as presented all in favor I opposed the motion carries thank you again e that feels better that feels better thank you'all again next we have the superintendent's monthly [Music] update thank you yeah just a few things that have kind of been asked about over the last month or so and and like to bring these these sort of trending topics to you of course you just heard an elaborate presentation from the

078cabinet uh Brooke with her very very Prof professional presentation um we were in the in my office as a group um even this afternoon again uh going over data so I I can't stress enough um just my thank you to them and all the principes and directors um out out here heads departments out here tonight um a few more things with that uh you know Brooke had in her presentation some of the Houston area in a news article I sent some of you um this past week and and to all the staff was was uh out of the 24 school districts that have already adopted in the Austin area their budget 18 of those were deficits of shortfall so again I just kind of wanted to to stress that that you know there's another Central

079Texas area and I am anxious to see as Brook said how how much of you know how much is that total deficit across the state remembering we talked about this in our meeting today remembering that of those deficit budgets you know people cut to get to that point so that's what that's what they're left with but still what does that look like and then what is that total number how many districts did did adopt a deficit budget um I was going to uh report out here on enrollment um put beat me to it in her presentation but uh we are are definitely climbing that's great news I sent y'all even uh uh some numbers today uh 64 students thank you Ally for these numbers allly and her P's team do such a fantastic job I'm

080going to stress as Brooke did that uh her her role in that position has been huge um as Brook said students in seats is learning it's to their betterment uh it's also fiscally advantageous for the district so thank her so much for all the work all the initiative she's taken um in that regard but uh we have 64 uh more students today than we did on the 10th Day last year and it's been a a pretty standard Trend since day one hadn't it alley somewhere between 45 to as much as I think 702 two I started to say two 72 on I think Thursday wasn't it was as high as we have seen so we're we're Aver averaging right around 60 more students a day uh which is a great thing so we're excited about

081that uh accountability I've been asked about accountability Sarah uh gave you some numbers was probably a couple of months ago a few months ago maybe I just wanted to let everyone know that there is a pending lawsuit unfortunately again uh with the state um that came out of Travis County so as far as the issuance of an A through F rating as well as the other target support School Improvement designations those are pending and subject to change just based on that judicial ruling so um Sarah reported out our data and that's all we have at this time uh people were again asking about you know star scores and again that a through F rating and and those designations but uh we just don't have that based on that uh pending lawsuit so um I wanted

082to I'm I'm so thankful for our speakers um Mr Edmonds Mr Sora our our meetings and just getting to know you as as I have appreciate um your leadership and you being here tonight Mr Vanderpool Mr Cole um I want I want to address um I you know I knew that was going to get a little or that is going to get a little attention this evening so I wanted to say just real quick for people that may not know and uh I know most of you do but we do have listeners out there so um i' I've come across just um some confusion as as this this topic continues to sort of trend um that tasby tasby is a service organization it is not a regulatory organization and uh I've had that um misinterpretation

083heard out there I I've heard it myself isds as as most all of you know are regulated by the Texas Education Agency tasby is a service organization they provide a lot of different Services um everything from professional development to insurance and we are absolutely dedicated to looking at other options we've talked about looking at other insurances um we've already got that marked on our calendar don't we darl that we are are going to look hard at other other options we will always want to consider all options I just want to make it clear that tonight what is on the agenda is about the policy renewal so tasby offers um legal policy which is you know Natalie mentioned this in her last meeting but that's federal law state law Court decisions that are compiled into a

084legal board policy as it applies to public education uh we can quickly run and look at uh Financial policy Personnel policy student affairs of course leadership and learning the accountability peace uh the community relations the governance um a ton of legal policies that us as a state entity government organization have to uh comply with so it is a quick legal guide is what is what they provide to us the local policy is just that it's a reflection of local decisions made by this school board so um what we are looking at tonight what what the board is looking at tonight what they are voting on is you know do they continue to get their legal policy from tasby which again are those laws that are given to us basically in an online binder if you

085will easy to find laws as they apply to to our government entity or do they consider another option and uh I can say and I think I can speak for all of them if there's another product out there provided by another organization um just as we are with insurance we will gladly give it a fair look lastly I want to promote uh this ambassador program you've heard me push several times um it will hopefully become an annual program that provides citizens of our community with a better understanding of public school operations specifically tailored to the operations of Brom ISD so we're looking for for leaders in this community to come in the program will provide participants with reasoning from any of the district's operational decisions just as you heard from the cabinet tonight you would

086hear from each of them um as as they present on everything from board member roles and responsibilities I could probably have some boards speak to that if I could talk one or two of them into speaking at the investor program I'm sure I could um you would hear from myself the cabinet you know principales directors about their different Lanes I say all the time yes we're an academic institution we are obviously also a business uh from Food Service Cassandra to Transportation I'm sure Bron's back there somewhere to all the different things that we touch we are a community so what does that look like and then how can we partner with you uh to better ourselves so very very soon applications will come out for that I kind of foresee that being somewhat like a

087leadership Washington County but directly about the community of the ISD and and not the larger community so uh running point on that will be Tran and Aaron Tibido so have more information about that to you very very soon thank you okay next we have board member comments or reports um I never remember which side we started on Archer you want to go first okay Raven I got a chance to uh Walk The Halls at the high school during the first week of school I was very impressed uh with the kids and and the parents parents were very nice I stood out outside in the hot sun I was sweating a little bit but that's okay the parents were very very nice so I appreciate that that's all I have thank you jar so I we

088attended the uh football back to school banquet this Saturday which was fantastic they had all the kids from middle school our junior high but JB Varsity serving us it was really cool they got them involved that was an absolute blast uh got to go to the open house at the middle school I got a sixth grader now so I don't like it uh also went to the volleyball game got to watch the Cubs ter uh Cardinals and I have cousins there so that worked out even better for me cuz we won so and uh I haven't stopped hearing about this vehicle at the high school L thank you wherever you are I appreciate that won't be quiet about it so that's an awesome thing uh I want to say publicly I think that was John

089Hill and Apple Ford thank you all for that that was mind-blowing how this community comes together and that incentive alone is going to get so many kids into the school so just thank you so much for that that was fantastic that's it tell me okay f y'all know me I'm always going to promote Brena myd we've had a great start uh you know we had Miss meet the teacher that some of us got to visit with band marchathon They marched from uh I think First Baptist all the way to some of the the businesses but also at at this at the uh central office the other day that's the band it was hot and they were marching and they were playing their horns and everything and so that was great um uh the Brenham Jor

090high band concert was the other night uh some of us were there uh and uh the Cubs banquet ja uh Jared already talked about that but don't forget now on September the 6 we're celebrating the 149th anniversary celebration at blind recognizing Brenham ISD the oldest public school in Texas and so um it's open to the public but you do have to get tickets if if you're interested in coming and you can call the office or you can look it up online but uh we're very proud that we are the first and oldest public school in Texas so shout out to Brenham myd and everybody here who supports us thank you very much thank you um I don't really have anything outside I'm going to Echo what Jared said um big shout out to John Hill

091and Apple for for the incentive for the high school I think that's amazing and whether you're a Ford buyer or not it's that's something that's worth considering and that's huge for them to partner with us and help and I think it's just it's it's awesome that watts and Hill work together to get that done so I think it's a big deal and I just free publicity for something like that I'd like to at least mention the name again so shout out to Apple Ford thank you okay next we have our consent agenda we can approve in one motion or pull any items for 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

092consent agenda as presented all in favor opposed motion carries thank you next we have um consideration of possible approval of a resolution by the Board of Trustees of the Brenham Independent School District providing for the defeasance and calling for Redemption certain currently outstanding obligations directing that the board secretary or his design effectuate the Redemption of these obligations authorizing the execution of an escrow agreement and other matters in connection therewith our CFO darl stclair will present information regarding this hey when you touch that your flashlight on your phone went off how we did okay I just have a quick introduction to this this topic here and then our financial advisor uh Steve Perry will be uh filling in some more of the details for you uh basically this is something the dist district has been doing

093now for a while uh we've been able to take some of our Reserve Debt Service fund balance our ins fund balance and use some of that money to pay down the principle on the bonded indebtedness that we already have in place we make uh semiannual payments in February and in August each year on our on our debt schedule uh which includes principal and interest payments and so when we have the opportunity to pay down the principal a little bit sooner than scheduled then in the long term that saves uh expenses on the interest over the life of the loan and that of course translates into uh benefiting the taxpayers and having less excuse me less cost down the road I'll goe and turn it over now to Mr Perry to supplement that thank you darl

094uh that was a a great overview of how the process works um basically when you Levy an ins tax the only thing you can really do with it is is pay Bond payments so if there is an excess at the end of the year which oftentimes there is we take that and we defease bonds it just basically means you pay them off ahead of schedule uh we've been able to do that over the last couple of years to the tomb of about $2 million so you had a bond that went out to the year 2043 we've now paid it off paid it down so that the last year is now 2042 uh and cut some of that maturity off too so about $2 million and over time uh it's about a million dollars of Interest

095savings so far uh so it it's a great program um we get to the end of every fiscal year we look at how much money's available uh then we go identify which bonds we want to prepay uh based on which or make the most sense for the district um then we go out and pay them off so U again it's a great program for the district thank you I remember the last time you were here you you mentioned that we were one of the lowest in the state as far as our debt in the district and just wanted to to point that out again no that's right like in the analysis that you saw tonight and setting your budget you're you're definitely down toward the bottom and districts that have an ins tax rate the

096very very bottom thank you great thank you any questions yeah are we I just call it the D Dave Ramsey effect but it is are we concentrating on one particular Bond every year or is this been moving around to the different ones well it it was moving around to the different ones but you have one Bond outstanding now so it makes it sort of easy for us so we we go out to the last year um interestingly it's it's a taxable Bond because interest rates got so low we did a taxable Advanced refunding so we can defease those bonds and the way the math Works um you actually have to pay less you about 695,000 to pay off 710,000 just because of the way the math works so right now it's a great environment to

097do this yeah thank you that's fantastic you bet any other questions or comments we'll need a motion to approve um where are we I make a motion to adopt a resolution approving the def defe of certain outstanding obligations of the renom Independent School District as presented second we have a motion made by Jared kennick seconded by Kyle Hafner to adopt a resolution approving the deance of certain outstanding obligations of the Bram Independent School District as presented all in favor opposed the motion carries thank you thank you next we have our finance update our CFO darl stclair will present this that's going to be [Music] okay like what're all out the room all right these uh next few slides will be the the usual updates for each month as we've been going along uh just to

098give an overall view of the the status of the funds and Investments and tax collections uh first up we have our actual versus budgeted excuse me uh Revenue collections uh the revenue budgets have not changed throughout the year they've maintained constant value you can see there on the right side the actual collections as of the end of July uh we are up now to 43,7 182 uh of course that will increase again actually already has increased and I'll I'll mention that here in just a second um but through the month of August the collections will continue to come in tax collections come in we just received our final State payment our final uh fsp and ASF payments for the 23 24 fiscal year uh just last week uh that was a 3.6 million ion doll

099payment the final one and we will continue to receive uh some tax Collections and that information is not reflected in this data since this is only through the end of July and we just got those payments last week you can now see our our budgeted expenses versus the actual expenses again uh there are several pieces uh even though we're at the end of the fiscal year this week but again with this being through last month there are several pieces that won't show up until I give you this report next month uh those would be the uh regular August payroll the last regular payroll for the year that's been completed now uh across the the the district we also have um what we call August acrs for all the 10-month salaried employees uh that is basically

100the amount of money that teachers and and Aid earn in the month of August but since they don't get their first new check for the new school year until September we have to book uh on our books we have to show how much earnings we should have paid them that we didn't actually pay them till the next month and we have to book that as an expense uh so although that is an extra expense and basically equates to like an additional 13th payroll run for them uh we do get to reverse those expenses from last August so basically it's not exactly a wash but pretty close so it's not a tremendous expense that gets added at the very end of the year but it is a slight increase in payroll expenses that's already been taken

101care of and we again will be reflected on the next report that I give you next month and then of course we still have invoices that we're working on uh will be any goods or services that we receive through the end of this week will still need to be build to the 23 24 uh fiscal year and that budget so there are a lot of factors in play especially right here at the end of the fiscal year both revenues and expenses continue uh being posted and my intent next month at our regular meeting is to bring you my best estimate of actual revenue and actual expenses and the bottom line change to fund balance uh should be able to put together a reasonably accurate estimate for you by then he next up we have our

102investment report and you can see here excuse me you can see here that um we've basically have the same Investments we've had we have the Tex Pool Texas class lonar uh pool Investments that we've had for a while uh we also have uh CD Investments excuse me uh we have one still at renham National Bank and one actually we converted one CD to the money market account at the bank of Brenham uh there have been some more shifts in those those funds moving them to the general operating account uh again we like I said we just received our final State payment of three and a half roughly $35 million uh but since that did not come in before payday and we needed to make sure we had plenty in the bank to cover the last

103payroll we did move some of those funds over into the general operating account but now that we have last payment from the state and we'll get another payment in September and another payment in October from the state so I'm hoping that by the time we get to October we can shift some of those excess funds back over to our pools and where we uh we can have better Investments and and our excuse me earn more interest there so right now things are kind of in a more liquid state but we'll move be moving them around uh once once we have the opportunity here soon and then finally our tax collection report uh again you can see that we've collected just about all of our uh budgeted or all of our taxes uh we're collecting at

104about a 97.2% rate both on the m and the ins uh for the current Collections and um we're actually we've actually over collected a bit on what we budgeted for tax collections we're slightly over collected there which is good news that's always good to receive a little bit more than you plan your budget on so that's a very positive note for this this year so far and we'll still have this is again through July excuse me through July so we'll see a bit more collection by the end of this month okay any questions about any of that no I I just want to thank uh clay and Daryl and even Diane for being proactive about the tax collections because we have seen a sizable increase and very very pleased to be switching with Purdue Brandon

105it's been a big payoff for us so thank you welcome anyone else um only question I have is when or do is there a plan to move Bank of Brenham money out of Bank of Brenham since they're the lowest return right now well actually most of what we've had there recently has been in the CDs and right I believe they've been paying a little bit less than yeah a little bit less than renom National Bank uh those were in place before I I got here we have actually converted those now and actually the money has even been moved to the Brom national bank accounts uh again that's something we I can have a conversation with them to see what kind of rates they can offer going forward uh to make sure that we're at least

106getting something competitive yeah I mean the daily rate right now should be higher than that so um I just didn't understand why it would still be there at a daily rate if there's a daily rate other places that would be higher so okay thank you anyone else thank you and thanks for staying up there I'll be here for a while yes next we have our uh budget amendment for the 2023 calendar okay uh just uh to kind of review uh this process how this works each year I know we're all very excited to approve the new budget soon but before we get to that we also need to consider the final amended version of the 2324 budget uh each year as we get towards the end of the fiscal year uh we need to take

107a look and see if any of the money that's still available that's been unspent or in the fund in the different functions of the general fund The Debt Service fund and the food service fund if any of that needs to be redistributed based on the final expenses the anticipated expenses uh that we will be posting right up until the end of this week and honestly you know we will still get invoices in September and possibly even in October that's not unheard of hopefully not much beyond that for goods and services that we've already received by August 31st and so in that event those expenses still have to be charged back to the 2324 budget uh so to make sure that we don't overspend a function which is not a good thing to do uh that

108will be something that our Auditors always will be looking for and uh that's it's best to not overspend any of the functions in our budget so in order to try to ensure that we don't do that it's often times necessary to reallocate the funds in the different uh functions of each budget Now The Debt Service fund does not need a reallocation uh you have a report in your packet showing that there's really been no change there the the budgeted reeven the budgeted expenses are can just stay exactly as they are there's a very slight change in the Food Service budget which we'll get to in just a second but first I would like to uh point out the changes that I'm proposing uh that we make for the general fund Budget on your report you'll

109notice that in that middle column there's a listing of different values some are positive some are negative the ones in parentheses are negative so for example on Function 11 instruction what I'm proposing is to take $700,000 away from that function altogether and then you'll see there's other functions where there are positive numbers uh for example function 51 PL main plant maintenance and operations U showing that I'd like to increase that function by 725 so altogether shifting money some deductions some increases amongst those different functions but the bottom line is there's no change to the overall budget so if you notice at the very bottom we had a 54,2 78,500 [Music] can't can't make an a 100% accurate prediction on how things will end but uh the experience that I have tells me that there are

110some functions that need to be shored up a little bit more and then some that probably won't see very many more expenses so we can reduce those so that is the the uh proposal there is to change those budg budgeted functions in the general fund by those amounts that are presented but not changing the overall budget then uh finally the Food Service uh report is the next one just a small change there there's only two functions in the Food Service budget function 35 is by far the majority of the expenses for the Food Service program there is also a function 51 for their utilities and I would like to propose moving $10,000 from function 35 over to function 51 but again that's a neutral overall change so it does not change the entire budget from

111what you um approved this time last year are are there any go ahead any questions we will need a motion to approve I'll make a motion to approve the amendments to the 2023 2024 District budget budget as presented second okay we have a motion made by Kelvin Raven seconded by Jared krck to approve the amendments to the 202 3 2024 District budget as presented all in favor I opposed the motion carries thank you next we have adoption for the 2024 2025 budget for General operating interest in syncing and Food Service I make a motion to adopt the budget for the general fund dep service fund and Child Nutrition fund for the 2024 2025 fysical year as presented second okay we have a motion made by Kelvin Raven seconded by Jared kic to adopt the budget

112for the general fund Debt Service fund and Child Nutrition fund for the 2024 2025 fiscal year as presented before we vote are there any comments or questions on the budget anything you want to add this basically it's all it's just by fund and function as as is appropriate for you all to adopt it uh based on the information that we saw earlier at the budget hearing it's the same numbers that you saw there thank you all in favor I I opposed the motion carries thank you next we have um adopt a resolution setting the 2024 tax rate for maintenance and operations M and Debt Service and CFO Daryl stclair will present this as well okay you did see some information I think there was there were one or two slides in the hearing presentation uh

113showing the the proposed tax rates uh just so everyone is clear we did have a special meeting on August the 6th I believe it was to set a proposed rate that was published in the newspaper uh that was 8 cents .08 per $100 valuation for ins and 67 cents exactly for the M rate those are the rates that cannot be exceeded between that publication and tonight and so tonight what we are proposing is an the same 8 cent uh value or tax rate per per $100 valuation on the ins rate and an M rate of 6669 Which is less than the 67 cents that you approved back on August the 6th so both these rates that we're proposing uh would properly fund the 2425 budget that you just adopted okay any questions thank you we'll

114need a motion I'll make a motion to adopt a resolution approving a property tax rate of 7469 of which 6669 is for maintenance and operations and 08 for debt Services as presented second okay we have a motion made by Kyle Hafner seconded by Archer Archer to adopt a resolution approving a property tax rate of 7469 of which 6669 is for maintenance and operations and 8 cents for Debt Service as presented all in favor opposed the motion carries okay thank you very much thank you I hope you get a very good night sleep tonight next we have consideration of a resolution for an inclement weather day and superintendent clay gillentine will present I guess if you have the document there in front of you uh board this is uh from that July 8th day when we

115closed um due to bad weather the hurricane weather um you know our employees are paid by days their uh contracts are by days uh this is for employees that are 226 250 and 261 days uh that were still on duty on contract during July 8th um as you know uh both the County Judge uh and the governor I don't have that language in front of me but declared it a disaster area uh due to the the the weather all the district surrounding districts around is closed as well so this is pretty standard to be able to give them their their rate for that day for you to approve this resolution who wants to read the resolution no I'm kidding I'm kidding we will need a motion though this one doesn't seem too long right um

116I'll do it again I'll make a motion to adopt resolution to compensate staff for the bad weather day while the district was closed on July 8th 2024 as presented second we have a motion made by Kyle Hafner seconded by Jared krck to adopt a resolution to compensate staff for the bad weather day while the district was closed on July 8th 2024 as presented all in favor I opposed the motion carries thank you thank you I like seconded a lot this a lot of today next we have consideration of Texans for excellence and education membership and this was added at a board member request so it's open for discussion sorry I'm trying to get used to these new mics I would I would like to say just one thing very simple in the last 2 years

117our district has spent 21,000 $ 67925 on our membership to the Texas Association of school boards the Texans for Education Excellence cost $5500 for 2 years with the first year free in last year's discussion of this same topic we were not aware that we would be facing the deficit that we currently are and as such I cannot support number one an organization that supports the values that do not line with our community as our community members have said but also with the deficit considerations and budget considerations it seems to me to be common sense that when you have an organization that offers basically the same services at a cheaper price why I go with them that's all I have to say thank you so much so I uh want to come in here open-minded and

118not use any Buys so I um took the liberty to look at te's website I called him I emailed him like I heard earlier some one person said look at another product the other person said uh do your research they never call me back their their website is very generic and as I've heard I've only heard two schools so that makes me think they're not established so I can't go with a company who doesn't call you back cuz first impressions are very important in my opinion they don't call you back either email or phone they haven't been established with only two two school districts so why would she even why would she waste our time going that that that organization so I'm going to push back on that thank you at the presentation that um

119there was a representative from te here last year and they were trying to get established and had these different services that tasby offers and they were promising that they were going to have those same services but they didn't have any at the time didn't have any examples and so one of the things that I asked at that presentation was when they had those policy Services which are are some of the main services that we use by tasby that are very cost effective compared to using our own attorney to update policy um and so they said that they would get back to us when they had examples of that and I've never heard anything else from them on on any of that so same thing it was promises but no um you know no follow through

120um I I did look at um and and before we look at the the different um what we're comparing with the policy because it's it's not Apples to Apples but I just want to ask if there is any board member who has seen policy presented to us to adopt through tasby policy services that goes against your values have there been any policies that have been presented for adoption that go against your policy are you talking about like the most recent policy updates I'm talking about anything you've been on everyone has been on the board for over a year now some of us a lot longer and we've adopted a lot of policy in that time and I've never seen anything presented for policy for us to adopt locally from tasby that went against my values

121and I'm just wondering if anyone else has brother I've been on the bo now this is my 12th years like I said earlier and I can said ason said no I have not it's been I've been very pleased and I looked at uh this morning and earlier this afternoon the same thing I think right now only state South Lake Carol and one school district so that's to me that's kind of scary to for that many years almost two years now and only maybe with two or three I could be wrong I don't know but I'm thinking only two or three school district have said yes to this company uh what however you want to call it [Music] but you know not return returning phone calls um that's that's that's the number one that's the key

122right there that's like he wasn't here in our school district you know Administration principles on their campus you know you know you return phone calls I don't what time of day or night you return your phone calls and if you're not returning phone calls to me that's that could be scary to me but like I said for 12 years I've been very pleased and we have as many school district in the state of Texas and if that if they were that great I think we would had more School District than now I've been aware and I've worked with the school district for a long time including with uh tasby um and I listen when I was listening to you clay talk about all of the different things that we are getting from them the services

123that they have the way that they've supported us in the past and even looking for a superintendent uh they have been there for us I've never heard anything about them working against parents I haven't seen anything about tasby working against parents or talking about woke or Dei in any shape or form um I I've had a good experience with them with training the training they offer is very good um sometimes it's kind of lengthy but uh it it really does seem to matter to them that they want to help all school districts and that they're there when we need them and they have been there when we needed them so te may be a great opportunity for us in the future but right now I don't think they're ready can I can I speak to

124this abut not a voting board member but I do I I do want to clarify what you know again they offer a lot of services so if we want to look at the Region Center uh for maybe services that we would have gone to Daz before whether that bhr services or a curriculum service or whatever that might be if we have in the past if we have in the past leaned on tasby for that and uh it's the wishes of the board for us to to lean more on the Region Center for those type of things we can certainly do it when the insurance renewal comes around and that's by far the biggest expense right I mean by far uh we will absolutely again it's on our calendars we will take a hard look at

125other insurance companies and and bring you um several options and that's your decision make to make I just want to make it clear that that today what today you're looking at and voting on is about the policy renewal so um you know we historically as all districts I was talking about this with the cabinet in fact earlier today you know I've never seen this on an agenda before in all my career until last year um but it's because you know there's never been any competition to uh to asby as far as policy goes so um I I I am all for competition and as I said earlier if there's if there's another organization um to or whoever that can provide a similar service um a good service at a fair price that's what we're all

126looking for right whether it's our financial advisor or insurance company or or the Min many uh services that that we employ uh that's what we want is a good service for a fair price so um you know if there's other organizations that can offer a good policy service for a fair price then um absolutely we will we will take a hard look at it and I I'm going to pull up just so we can see examples of the policy that each organization offers but I will say that as far as competition I can open my driveway and say we've got another skating rink in town but it's not competition for Silver Wings and I mean that's the equivalent that we're looking at and and just so you can see because we don't have a visual

127here but I'm going to pull up on the website so we can look at the difference in the policy that's offered can you can I yours on I don't know if it'll pick up okay so this is our this is Brenham isd's um policy so if you go to the Brenham ISD website and Board of Trustees and then board policy is there and this is what we pay tasby for so here's all the different sections of policy and again one of our roles as board members is to adopt policy in accordance with the law so if I just pull up um we'll go to personnel and and then what you see is all the different um parts of law that are covered in policy that pertains to Personnel so employment DCd Employment Practices for at

128will employees so here we have the legal framework which is first and then we have the local policy so the way this works you have the law Texas Education Code and other laws that apply to us as an employer and then from there the policy is created based on court cases that pertain to the laws so it's not just the law it's how the law has been interpreted by the courts um sometimes there's guidance from tea that's that's part of that but you can see here on the legal side the the different policies and then the sighing of the cases that contribute to why that is in the legal framework so so that's the legal side and the attorneys at hasby because there are so many districts across the state paying for it that's why

129that service is more um economical because they're we're sharing that with the attorney with the other school districts to pay for those attorneys um and also to note a lot of the colleges in Texas use tasby for their policy services including Blen okay so now if we switch to local policy we base our local policy adoption on the law and then on the legal policy so that we know okay we let's say we have a question on at will employees well the first thing we need to do is go to the legal side and make sure that we're not creating an adopting policy that's outside of the law because that can mean lawsuits for us which is obviously not what we want so the local side and I mean you can read it but this

130is this is just an example it's very easy to search um if you have a question which as a board member as a parent there have been a lot of times where I've wondered what what our policy is what the law is it's very easy to find easy to navigate on our district website one of the other districts that or I guess the only District that I know of that went to te is Carol ISD and so I was curious what their policy looks like if they have because at first I think they were using tasby and te but um but they have parted with tasby so let's look at their legal [Music] policy and while it's loading I've already looked at it it's it's not legal policy it's just a 3,500 plus PDF all

131the BL all of the Texas Education Code [Music] and it's taking a long time to load it's loading it's cuz it's over 3,000 thanks so it's just the Education Code there's no policy there's no legal policy so as a board member if you had a question about you know something with local policy you have nothing to go to except a PDF of Texas Education Code and then you will call to your law so then you're calling your attorney and paying an hourly rate yeah okay so then their local policy um we went to Personnel for ours so we'll go to theirs and then I think they just copied and pasted their old tasby you know so it's it's the same so that's transferred over but I guess they can't transfer over the legal side without

132the copyright issues with tasby so we are not comparing Apples to Apples and I don't want to see us as a board put ourselves put the school district in a bad situation for something that nobody on this board can answer that anything that's come across in policy has been against our values so if if we're happy with the policy provider the service that they are providing and the competition is not the same service then I don't I don't in my opinion it's it's an easy Choice it's Common [Music] Sense okay so I'm going to address as much as I can and run down my list here um cuz there was a lot of information first of all Bonnie you mentioned you didn't see anywhere where it says anything about Dei and I'll go to tas's

133website right here on their admission beliefs and values tasby statement of beliefs you have to click an extra link because they don't want to show it but tasby statement of beliefs and I can read this we believe in and are committed to supporting diversity equity and inclusion pretty sure that stands for Dei promoting dignity and mutual respect striving for eradicating systemic racism and providing opportunity for all um last time I checked diversity equity and inclusion or Dei is grouping people and judging them based on race ethnicity religion ability gender sexual orientation and not based on Merit and achievement so it's on their website so okay but kle hold on let me finish okay it's on their website it's in their mission statement of beliefs so policy statement you're asking me to judge their lawyers which

134I don't trust but not the overall umbrella of the organization itself also if we go back to last year they mentioned I don't know the exact date I for some reason October rings a bell but before I was on this board um I think it was National Education Association I don't remember the exact School Board Association thank you National School a member of right no they were and National School Board Association called parents terrorists I was a parent still am uh called us terrorists I brought it up nobody cared not a big deal to y'all and then tasby took 8 months to leave that Association to be distan thems but did really issue of retraction so that means they agreed with it and took them eight months to finally say hm the pressure finally they

135got from Congress and uh and Senate excuse me representatives and senators in congress and Abbott who have all said that that was bad and they left because of the pressure now next thing on my uh list I make sure I miss at all lobbying and I know this is Fort versus tasby because tasby is next we're kind of grouping into once and I'll I'll address T in a second but for lobbying tasby has done exactly what for us as far as lobbying because last time I checked uh I'm I'm pretty sure I think Brooke said 80% is the number of districts have a deficit budget if they're supposed to be representing us and trying to help us if they're lobbying for us and us meaning school districts they pretty much suck at their job because

13680% of districts are failing have deficit budgets and we're trying to be a part of a losing team they they are failing at their job we haven't had a rate increase in Ada since 19 and before that it was quite a while before uh and they have just epically failed in lobbying they're the biggest lobbying group I think they have $100 million in their bank account whatever you want to call it $100 million and what are they doing with that what are they doing with that taxpayer money they're not helping us because we're sitting here fighting cutting pay and cutting jobs not pay cutting jobs and we're struggling to barely barely pass a balanced budget after all the work they've done it has failed tasby it meaning tasby has failed to help us do what

137we should be able to do much easier and the last thing I'm going to say no in their policy updates they have not had anything that goes against my values specifically because they change in a one to an A and A two to a b and they strike out words that have a plural then they change it to a singular and then the next time they do another policy update they do the same thing but the bottom line when all said and done I was elected my constituents elected us 13 people last time four people this time have elected us to represent the commun I haven't heard one person be Pro tasby I've heard 13 plus 4 now 17 people be Pro te and the bottom line is it's free zero cost so you're telling

138me it's not going to cost us anything to try joining a brand new organization they're brand new so that's why there's two last year there was zero right cost zero to join a new organization that is trying as a nonprofit very openly nonprofit new organization that all they want to do is provide alternative services to tasby they will help and have helped Carol ISD I spoke to their board president get insurance outside of tasby helped them could have helped us we didn't join last year we could try it again this year and see what happens it won't happen I know this is a a mute point at least it feels like it but I'm at least going to uh State my case it makes no sense if somebody's offering something for free to not give

139them a chance to try because this doesn't have to be either or we can do both because we've already joined tas's insurance so therefore we have to probably renew tasby I can't vote for them just out of principle but we can do both this doesn't have to be in either or it can be both in conjunction or con why would we pay to be a middleman for insurance if we can do that on our own if we go out for insurance bids if we want to look at other options besides tasby they don't have a pool like tasby does because our there tasby is our provider because it's a pool so why would we need te this is about policy it say join them as a membership right is that what the next agenda item

140is to join them as a member of a group for the policy Services that's what this one is approval a membership Ral with membership renewal Association of school bottom line is but if we take tasby completely out of the conversation just delete them all together from this conversation and we focus on just item 14 which is considered possible approval for Te membership one question just one is there anything to lose by joining well I'm going to say this and I said it before it may be free but if you up for a death the death pen penalty in the court you going to get a free law you going to get one you pay for the best best one you can get that's my comparison that everything free is not good for you uh two

141school districts I'm assuming because the gentleman came up there and said that two school districts are are affiliate with this this organization within a year within a year I'm not going to roll the dice on that to be clear if we were to join them today we would still be a part of tasby and then a whole year from now would be when we would officially be if we decided to leave tasby a year from today when we had this meeting again is when we would vote again to decide to stay or leave but there's two that two years ago made the decision to move and last year spent all year separating themselves from tasby look what they got the look what they got the same and by the way those policy I didn't I

142made a note those policy updates those policy updates were paid for right like the policy updates were paid for correct like this last one we just did was $1,00 right so policy updates were paid for so it's not like if we leave tasby or join T that they magically go away they've been paid for that one that you showed up there said 2021 so that's 3 years old it's not like that policy update disappeared we don't get to like it's not that it's proprietary that they're going to take it away from us because we left them as a website is tasby so it has to be completely redone renumbered restructured that's why Carol doesn't have the the legal side of it you own your local policy you don't own their legal document with all of

143the the legal side which is why they don't have that right which is what that one was was was local it was 2021 and the we base our local policy on the legal policy and if you don't have a legal policy provider you don't have access to the current policy so that you can make policy in accordance with the current law so it would end with wherever correct and then it would go towards T's policy updates if we chose to go with that but they didn't have any legal policy they that's what we asked for last year that we haven't got and obviously Carol who joined it doesn't have it either because they just they just don't have it posted cuz I know they have it I've spoke I've spoken to them a good guy

144he's got it they called you back T yeah yeah calling me back I've talked to her a couple times okay well again I want to come in open open-minded but they hadn't called me back hadn't responded and they not established with only two and I believe Fair argument yeah no argument there absolutely I mean they're new yeah they're they're brand new this is I think second year or little over two years I'm I'm not arguing that at all 100% myit the same thing from last year is like we don't really know what resources they're offering because they haven't been able to provide us with anything that was what I said last year I said they're just not established enough to show us what we're going to get when we actually join them I said once

145they can come to us and show us this information which they didn't they had a whole year to do it I would be very go I would go into that meeting with eyes wide open and just want to see it but there's nothing there yeah I mean she came and and spoke about what she offers and then um I called her to ask her if she was going to be able to come cuz arer I know had put it on the agenda and I asked her if she would be able to come and she said actually I'd rather not and I'd rather not send anybody down there because we had lots of negative phone calls and uh threats about coming from other non-board members but from other people in the community so we would like

146to sit this year out it's like wow they were threatened which don't where it came from but I she's not going to lie to me about it but far policy updates Community they came huh they race from brittle yes sir yeah but didn't you just say the community was behind te yes absolutely so there's other people that called and said it I'm not saying I appreciate them talking and and the reason 13 people yeah I'm just but you're also saying they were scared that they didn't want to come because there was a push back on the opposition that they didn't want te they said they receive threatening phone calls is what she told me I got on this board and I got elected to be representative for for my constituents as you want to call

147them which is why everybody that I talk to is still in support of tasby I'm not getting those phone calls that say they want out they went out they went out I appreciate everybody's opinion but my J my job on this board is to make sure that those things don't happen regardless of who's over us it's to keep all of that from happening making sure that we have a superintendent that with my ideals and principles and administrators and that's why I'm on this board to make sure we don't see that in BR I completely agree we didn't have that superintendent and I'm glad that we've made a change and uh we now had very clear evidence two years in a row of what even the people that don't want to come talk have spoken I

148hear about one thing more excuse me this is the number one thing I hear the most about all year security is number two this is number one and it's middle of the year it's Christmas it's Easter it doesn't matter what time of the year it is it's when are youall going to leave tasby and it's all I hear about no matter where I am no matter what position I'm at no matter what situation I could be in the grocery line at HB I could be walking through Chick-fil-A it doesn't matter this is the number one thing I could ask and it's fine I understand that I clearly I'm I guess archers agreeing with me I guess the two of us are in the minority here with giving giv t a chance to at least try

149but to answer I don't remember if it was Natalie Raven Jared one of yall ask question what do they offer they're an olart situ uh olart provider so you tell them what you need they provide it just like tasby they have different Services they have co-ops for energy we don't need that there are different services on their website for just like we have buyboard through tasby but what like what do they who who are they vendors for who is their vendor list so that we can look and see I mean that's that's something that it doesn't exist it's not and I don't even know how they're I say it doesn't exist it probably does it's probably something that they don't have public it would be my only guess I don't have that answer though like

150I said I don't work for Te they've been I just like them I do my all my training through them and or their sister organization is where I've done all of my training I haven't done anything through tasby and I'm not going to but and it's because of all the things I brought up before and it's fine uh I see I know and I I fully understand everybody's argument Raven they are very new and there's not a lot there you're right it's a generic looking website I've even clicked through there and it took me a minute to find what I need you're right they don't have Services listed they don't have a list of vendors absolutely correct they don't have all that but what they do have is Dei what they do have is a

151very generic where's your stance on transgender Well we'd like you to divert back to the schools no have a statement have a backbone and they don't have one so I can't stand them and I will not be affiliated with them at any chance I get you so that's my statement and I'm I'm I'm going to be done I'm ready to move on I'm going to say what you said you know I've been on an education in this district for 36 years on the boy with 12 after 48 years I have not one time had a person in this County or town come to me and say when you when are you guys going to let tasby go I don't that's that's strange I mean 48 years not one person have come to me and said

152let need do away with t me this is something that and you I think you made a statement too K what what have they done for us well you go to the convention they make you better board members you know they make you a better team you know we we supposed to be a team of eight and I'm going to say right now we are not a team of eight this right here there it is not good for this board in this district and this ter this community we are not a team of eight and the way this thing is going we'll never be a team of eight we got to come together and get this thing right well there's so much more that we agree on than we disagree on and tasby is such

153a take three step back small small portion of what's happening on the board and it's taken Focus over the most important thing that's going on right now which is the budgeting process and what's happening in school districts with the def funding of public education and we are focused on a policy provider I mean it's to the public the focus is going to be on the division when this is the one thing that we haven't agreed on Dei has a totally different meaning now because of politics than it ever used to okay if if you want to listen I'm listen Okay and Dei that's got the negative connotation that I know of it's about hiring practices is that correct no it's not about hiring there are hiring practices sorry yes there is hiring practices but there's

154non- hiring practices as well there's lots if because if you just take the terms diversity our district is very diverse our community is very diverse our board is very diverse in the past that has always been a string our differences can make us stronger because we all are different we're coming with different perspectives we're representing our different communities our students are very diverse Equity I mean Archer has a foundation where he fights for Equity Equity is part of Education our the way that we are scored in our academic ratings it looks at are we being Equitable are we providing the same educ ation for students or Equitable like for students with dyslexia they need more assistance in certain areas that is equity in education terms so I don't see how that's a bad thing unless

155we're going to get rid of everything that makes learning Equitable and I mean that would mean speech that would mean anything that helps students that have something that they need extra help on so get rid of all of that if we are not going to be Equitable in education what's the other one inclusion that's everything special ed is about including them so that and and not just special ed but that's just one example of being inclusive so that they're in a classroom and not down the hall like they were whenever we were kids I mean these are different terms educationwise than they are being thrown around politically so you can make it bad words or I mean if we really believe that all of those are bad well then let's make everybody look the same

156come from the same places because the community doesn't exist without diversity and you can't educate all students give them an excellent education if you're not being Equitable and being inclusive so those terms mean something different in education and if we aren't open-minded enough enough to say hang on this is something different here because again nothing policy-wise has come across I mean you you both said that there's not been any policy that's put before you since you've been on the board that goes against your values so this is something that is created politically it's to be divisive a lot of the funding that I've read for Te is the same people that are P pushing vouchers so when public school is in the news when it's negative because of divisiveness like this well that helps them

157that pushes that agenda because if everything about public education that gets put on the front page is negative well that's easier to support vouchers but if we can come Together As Leaders if we want to be effective leaders then let's focus on the real business of educating students agree on what we can agree on which is almost everything then we can move forward and be effective leaders in our community let's not choose to focus on the very very few things that divide us let's get together and get some work done for this [Applause] community in short I agree we do need to do that because like I said about eight minutes ago let's just move on because it's nothing's going to change but I drastically disagree with your uh description and definition because what diversity

158equity and inclusion is and has always been from the beginning is not putting people based on achievements and merits and needs it's putting people in separate buckets and separate categories and purposefully diversifying everything and saying okay we're going to put all of these type of people over here and we're going to put these type of people over here so what has done that does what you're saying it's on their website those terms are on there what have they done or what has our district done I'm not saying our district same thing takes people in separate buckets same thing that happened in other school districts where they have girls playing on boys teams and boys playing on girls team in locker room I said in other states it no it does happen cuz it has happened

159and having uh according to UIL it cannot happen sure until it even happened in the Olympics but my point is it happens and it has happened in other states and my my very simple point is really simple it's on their website and if they're as blatant to say it on their website then it means that they believe it and it means that they want to separate and it is divisive and I don't like it and I want nothing to do with it and it goes way further so let's move on clearly we need to make a motion for this but I don't think anybody wants to make a motion uh I mean I can make a motion for it but I don't think there's it's going to be voted on let me open hang on

160I got arer I'll make a motion to approve joining Texans for ex Texans for excellence and education t as presented I second okay we have a motion made by Kyle Hafner seconded by Archer Archer to join the Texans for excellent in education all in favor I all opposed I the motion fails next we have consideration and possible approval of membership renewal with Texas Association of school boards I make a motion to approve the contract renewal with Texas Association of school boards tasby has presented second we have a motion made by Kelvin Raven seconded by Jared krck to approve a contract renewal with the Texas Association of school boards as presented all in favor I I opposed I motion carries thank you next we have a public hearing regarding the proposed application for a high school

161equivalency program and to review the performance of the program proposed under this application uh consideration of an application to tea for the high school equivalen equivalency program to continue to be offered as a part of our credit recovery program and our chief of staff Christy Johnson will present good evening we've offered the high school equivalency program since 2011 annually we must hold a public hearing and apply to the state for renewal of the program the goal of the program is to prepare students for the high school equivalency exam there are a handful of students in Brenham ISD that benefit each year from the program based on their very unique circumstances specific eligibility criteria are determined by the state a student could be court ordered to the high school equip VY program or they could meet

162the following criteria they're 16 years old they're at risk for dropping out of school the parent is an agreement that the program is in the best interest of the child and the student is not making progress towards graduation instruction in the high school equivalency program is available through um an online program we currently use essential education additionally students are able to come up to the community ed building during the school day for assistance with um making progress in this program um once they complete the curriculum in the core academic areas they're able to take the high school equiv equivalency exam um last year we had one student that tested and there were seven students that were participating we've reached out to those students and currently we have four that are participating in the program and

163they're actively working on it any questions or comments I make a motion to authorize the administration to submit an application to the tea for the high school equivalency program to continue to be offered as part of our credit recovery program as presented okay we have a motion made by Jared krck seconded by Tommy Sullivan to authorize the administration to submit an application to tea for the high school equivalency program to continue to be offered as part of our credit recovery program as presented all in favor I opposed motion carries thank you next we have monthly reports for information purposes and did we have anything for executive session okay all right well unless there's any objection we will adjourn with no further business before the board at 8:24 p.m. thank