001Good afternoon. It is 1 o'clock. We are about to commence our April meeting for the state advisory council on educational opportunity for military children. We have a couple of council members who are just logging in. Um so we'll give just another minute um to get a little closer to what we can call a quorum. Um, I've just heard from uh today two um members who unfortunately have had um something come up on short notice, a family emergency um and another on campus just staffing um unable to to staff or fill uh cover duties um during the meeting. And so we will be a little short-handed. So I'm going to give it another minute um or two to um see if we have a few more people join so we can move forward with our agenda.
002Well, actually, while I was talking, we had a a couple of more um panelists join, and so I think we can we can go ahead and and get started. So, if uh council members could come off cameras just as we get started, of course, completely understand if you need to go off camera for for portions of of the meeting. We are scheduled until 3:00. Um but it would be nice nice to start um with with cameras on. Um I mentioned if you're just joining, we are a couple of council member shorts uh today. A couple of things have have come up. Um I don't think we have any um major action items, but we do have a lot of things to discuss. So this meeting is recorded. I'll be sure to send out um minutes
003and a link to the recording after the meeting so those uh members who are not with us today um can catch up um and get on track for for for our next meeting. Um but a lot of ground to cover. So I'm going to go ahead and um get started with our call to order. So, this is our call to order. Um, I will start our meeting officially with our roll call. Um, I am Jessica Snyder, the MC3 commissioner designignate from the Texas Education Agency. Um, Dr. John Craft. Good afternoon. Pleasure to be with you guys. Thank you. Nice to have you. Colonel Dolby. I see logged in. We can we can come back to you. Feel free to come off mute and and introduce yourself as present. Um Lena de la Cruz has notified
004me um is um unable to step away from her duties today. Um Captain Huffetler. Hey, good afternoon. Captain Huffedler. I'm the commanding officer of Naval Air Station Fort Worth. Glad to be here. Wonderful. Glad to have you here. Um Nancy Patterson also unfortunately has um not able to join us. Um again I will uh we are recording the meeting and we'll make sure um that minutes and reporting of the meeting are made available to council members who are not with us today. Uh Dr. Roer. Hi. Um hope everybody's well. I did put in the note the the chat that I do have to leave it too. Um and I will probably come off camera for just a few minutes. I need to feed my face. But of course, completely completely understand. We appreciate your uh
005showing us your face for for for roll call. Um we will probably cover the majority of the business uh side by 2 o'clock. Um we do have an update on some um activities that we're excited about that are happening at TEA. Um but again, we will be reporting that portion of of the meeting as well. Um Simone Wentlet Hendricks. Good afternoon. I'm present. Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us. Madison Yandel for our next physician, Kelly Kravitz. Um I don't think Kelly is with us, but we have uh two representatives from her office who are will be presenting to us this afternoon. So, if uh you'd like to introduce yourselves as present, John and Ann. Hi. Um well, um thank you for having me. Um, I'm Dr. Ann Le and I am the HM manager.
006Thank you, Dr. Lei. Good afternoon. I am John Dobbins and I'm a specialist with the HM department. Great. Thank you for joining us. You will notice looking at the rest of our roll call. Um, we've got a few vacancies on the council. Um, and that's actually one of our agenda items today to discuss. Um, so looking forward to having that conversation and hopefully, um, filling at least some of those positions very quickly. Um before we move on, I do want to acknowledge that April is the month of the military child. Um we will have um time at the end for council member uh reports. There are any activities you're aware of that are happening at your installments or in your districts. Um would love to to hear from you um any activities that are that
007are happening to to support um really the focal point of this council which is the military connected student. Public comments is a standing item on this agenda. Um, no comments have been received. We are required um to post an open meeting act um and accept a request for public comments up till noon the day of the meeting. Um, these are simply those procedures for uh and guidelines for public comments. Um, but we do not have any public comments to address as a council today. As I mentioned, um, here is our our full agenda. We're going to start with C uh council membership, but I'll go ahead and walk through the other items. Um we have a couple of things actions taken and a couple of uh actions to be taken or really questions that I
008have for the council before we move forward with some of your membership decisions. Um next we'll move to our operating procedures. Based on our conversation of the council membership, there may or may not be adjustments to the operating procedures. So, I went ahead and included that um as an agenda item so that we could um make any revisions as needed. Um and then we'll shift to council priorities. Um this is going to be an opportunity um for me to hear a little bit from you about how the council has established priorities in the past. Um where we are with those priorities and how you would like to move forward as a council. I'm a little bit behind um in terms of having a a priorities uh conversations for um 2025. Um I think the council
009knows um we're kind of in a transition. I think the first meeting in October I had been in this role for three weeks and then our second meeting for three months and um now six months. So it's it's time to get to work and start getting making some traction. Um, and I'd like to as a part of that uh transition um have that conversation about council priorities and and what you think we can focus on and accomplish uh for the remainder of the year. Um, and then we'll transition to council council member and staff reports. Um, I mentioned we have a a a report from the uh at risk and highly mobile department. Um, and um also we'll turn it over to council members for any reports um from things that are happening in your
010areas. We'll go over upcoming events and then adjourn. So, the council membership. Um, just as a as a reminder, um, at our last meeting in January, the council approved two new exeicio positions for the council. uh one is was to include a representative from the Texas National Guard and the second is to include a representative from the reserve uh component of any military branch. Um these would be exeicio position so they're non- voting members um but would still be able to engage in any conversations and discussions that the council engages in. Um I there were a couple of places where membership is addressed in your um in your operating procedures and the council addressed both. Um one of the sections is about representation um what entity or organization um or sector the uh the individual
011member represents. And then the other uh section is terms and again you you identified both. What you're looking seeing on your screen now is the first section which is that kind of representation. Um so you can see the list here. You may see your own position reflected here. Um this is where you indicated um that you would add these two positions. So this is A and this is new B that the council voted on and by majority um actually without objection to add non- voting ex exeicio members of the council and I've bolded designated by their their respective branch or the agency to include those two positions. I recognized after the meeting that while I think that bolded language is very helpful um it gives some flexibility that that could either be a designation um
012by the by the branch or that tea could identify that member. It doesn't at the same time with me as a new commissioner give me clear guidelines of how you would like to proceed with the identification of these two positions. So in order to move forward with them I just I wanted to have a conversation. I it doesn't necessarily need to go in your operating procedures. It can be just an internal administrative procedure. Um but I'd like to hear from you what this process should look like. I'll throw out some examples before I open up the floor. Um, I could send out a call um after the meeting um to the branches to the representative for each branch um and ask if they have one or more um suggestions for either or both of these
013positions or if you uh if no names were received or if you simply preferred TEA could um reach out to members directly and and coordinate the identification and selection of these members. Um but um again I I I wanted to hear from the council what um how you would like to to proceed um with the identification of these members before we simply went out and and selected them. So the discussion's open. Love to hear from you. It might be helpful to hear from one of our representatives um from an installation or from one of the branches if it I think even just to start. Is this an area where you would have um the right connections or or context contacts um to to be able to suggest an individual? Um I'll make some comments. Um,
014so here at um at the joint reserve base in Fort Worth, we um have um we really have an abundance of both. Um so I can think of of a handful of people um that would that would fit the u the reserve component. Um you know, we have a um essentially what's a wing commander of reserve centers here who was a former base commander um who's you know would be a great nominee. So, um I think um I think perhaps us I think I think fitness and um desire are two things that would be nice and I think we could probably gauge that through some informal conversations. I would be happy to nominate some some folks and just kind of give a a short resume snapshot of of what they would bring to the table
015and maybe we could just open that up to the other um installation commanders to to do the same. And then um now I I'm not sure how we get to the the final names that we invite to it, but I would say that would be a a good start for the vetting process to to get some nominees. So I think that sounds great. Um I think I heard you say you could bring uh a nominee or nominees given that there are two positions. Perhaps that could happen with each installation, but we would need to navigate um discuss how how you would come to just one representative um amongst the the different installations. I could put out there I if the council were open to it, it could also be um if the council were comfortable
016with starting with your installation with your branch um Captain Heller and then follow suit behind you and just the council could decide then we'll we'll pick who will go next. Um couple of different ways we could go about this. Yeah, we would be we'd be happy to do that. We have representation from the uh the 10th air force in the 300 first airwing here from the air force reserve side. We have a a large footprint of Navy reserve um leaders on the base. So the reserve side and then the um Texas Air National Guard um is one of our our tenant flying units um with the 136. So there's there's some names that we could provide. Great. And I I I think I had um overlooked you mentioned that you have probably a a fair
017selection in both positions. Um do they need to be different uh branches? Um at the same time we want to alternate that and open for one for one position, one for the other. Yeah, great. That's a great question. Yeah, so we have Air National Guard. Um, we'll soon have Army National Guard as well, but u tech or Air National Guard on the kind of the Air Force side. So, I I'd probably have more folks to pick from on the Navy reserve side just because we're have more Navy tenants on the base. But, uh, but I think having some diversity there would be good as far as between the if we were to bring, you know, one of each, one from the Guard and one from a reserve component specifically, I think, um, having a different
018service representative would be wise. And I don't think I realized this. Um, Ken Huffeller, did you would have access to both? We do. Yeah, correct. Maybe an air force. Yeah. But as well as well, I would say two branches and also both of the the the position. Yeah. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. We have flag leadership and '06 leadership at the for the Air Force um and the Navy on the installation, Navy reserve I should say. And then we also have Marine Corps and Army um reserve as well on the basis. Thank you. Other thoughts or suggestions about how the council would come to identifying the members for these two positions? May I offer my opinion? Um of course. if uh TEA would uh you know reach out to the branches uh with uh a call for
019designs um I feel maybe then tea would be able to uh provide guidance on what that uh um designate would look like and what is expected to uh from the council members that's uh just a thought that I would like to So Simone, I think I hear you saying putting out giving that opportunity and that's where Captain Heller started was making the call to to each of the branches and letting them um us also providing some information about the role of the council members expectations and then letting them um bring names forward to us. Did I capture that correctly? Yes, you did. Thank you. Thank you. Other ideas. Which of the two options um are other members and and members who have already spoken um uh are preferred? Would you prefer to have a volunteer
020to move forward to help us identify these first two positions? for example, reaching out and working directly with Captain Hubedler. Um or um the second option of of reaching out to separate installations which can include Cap Captain Headtler but would be open to other branches as well. Um I think I think um starting out with a broad reach to see to garner interest um would be good. Um, I think we'll just have to be prepared to then figure out how you're going to um wade through potentially if there are a lot of people who um who apply to it. Let's say you get 15 or 20 that apply to it, you know, how you would handle that um vice um just a direct nomination coming from somebody. And then of course I think after the
021broad goes out hopefully members of the council could could go and kind of carry the water and speak to what the importance is and and um what participating I typically haven't seen um a great success when you just cast the net wide without a little bit of discussion in the background of of what it is and what it means to to be part of. So um I think probably a combination of both but starting with a broad reach to out of fairness and kind of openness. So you bring up a a good point. So um and that is more in line with Simone suggested is starting out with having more opportunity and a a little bit wider of a wider net. um not a completely open call. I think we could could target those communications
022to the different branches. Um and I might reach out to individual council members who have more affiliation um with one one branch um or the other. Um but then when we have multiple um potential candidates, how the council wants to move forward with with selection, the way the language is written, it's designated by their respective branch or the agency. um which leaves that um uh again somewhat open because it's only two positions. Um I think they the different branches could designate um their own candidate but not necessarily the person who would sit on the council because then we would exceed the number of positions that you have. Um there is also the ability in in the language that you um adopted that TEA could make a designation. Um but I would want to be really
023open and and and hear from the the council um how you would like for that selection of um of the the finalists to be made. um potentially it might be a tweak to the operating procedures if you if you wanted to um include that the council might make that final decision. And so that one that's one I'm I'm hoping to hear from from each council member on um about whether or not they would want tea to make that selection from the finalists or whether that's something that you would want brought forth to the council. I would be comfortable with the TEA uh making that decision. I think if you set it up somewhat like a a normal performance description of what the job entails and what a good qualified candidate looks like, then I think
024y'all would be um in the right position to uh weigh the resumes that come back to you. But open it the other way too. Okay, Dr. I agree. Yeah, I'm sorry. I agree with that as well. I think tea would be uh uh you know the finalizing uh um factor here. I concur as well this is not I agree as well. Okay. I think we could also present um how some of those decisions were made. I mean we would ensure we could even if we wanted uh needed but we the need um for transparency to have some administrative procedures around that we would select that we would rotate um uh the different branches as well as representation from different parts of the state and so um I can draft something up like that to put
025in front of uh in front of the council. I'm not sure that we could accomplish this between now and the next meeting. Um but I think we can certainly start in next steps in putting together um the communications for the different branches. So uh we'll definitely things I can promise between now and your next meeting is that we will um make those uh contacts and um provide a timeline an ideal timeline. um we may not be able to um have new members, but I think we can um again make some next steps between now and the July meeting um and have an update for for the council at that time. So, thank you. I appreciate everybody chiming in. I think that um the next um this is actually kind of a little bit of housekeeping.
026Um it mentioned staying on the topic of the membership. Um, so you have two different lists of memberships, some that are designated and appointed and then you have a section um that tea can identify. It's actually if I go back to the uh previous that um oh sorry it's not reflected here but there is in your operating procedures it says that tea can add identify additional representatives for the council. Um and you have that that's an approved set list. Um, one of the positions in this list, um, is referenced as TEA's highly mobile student coordinator. That is not actually a position, um, that exists. Um, I mentioned there was has been the transition. We uh, our commissioner um, has moved on from from TEA as well as the curriculum specialist Sherry Messer who supported this
027work. And then if you recall um uh Jimmy Bowser um served actually this was his his title and identified but it's very specific in the rule and that position I think has been restructured and reformatted. So, it's really just a matter of updating requesting the council's permission to update um this reference so that it's just a little bit more broad um and could be any member from um really from the the highly mobile and at risk population which is um Dr. Lelay and and uh John Dobbins uh department um Kelly Kravitz who you have heard from before in other meetings but who's not here um with us today but has kind of been serving in in that role um after Mr. Bowser left I believe Dr. Bowser. Um so the um language and I uh
028thought that Kelly might be with us today. I think I'm looking to see if I have it in front of me. I believe it is family and John and um Ann you may be able to help me with this. I believe one of the titles that we had discussed that might be a little bit more broad than actual the coordinator position is um military family education liaison. Does that sound familiar? gonna so um my Zoom I'm gonna type that into uh the chat so folks can see it. military family education lison and that would just give us a little more uh flexibility to um identify that replacement and this I don't think we necessarily need to do a formal vote um since it's more of a of a housekeeping um or technical edit I would
029just ask if there's any objections to tea revising the uh highly mobile student coordinator to read as military family education leaison is on and make conforming edits throughout the operation operating uh procedures where it's referenced. Any objections? All right. Well, hearing none, we will go ahead and make that change. Thank you. Uh I think this was just an example. After the the actual positions, the next reference to membership is in the terms that people will serve. Um this is just I've highlighted where we would again go in and make that conforming edit um that there were no objection to um under the terms and that's going to enable us to move forward with filling that position because I didn't have a coordinator to identify. So, we'll work internally with TA since this is also a
030position that TAA TA identified as an additional representative for the council. With this broader language, we'll be able to make that selection. And that position, I think we should be able to officially uh fill for um the July meeting. This is again um just showing you where you decided to put the uh the two the national guard and the reserve component um where you placed it in the terms. So actually just going back um you have one set of positions that are appointed or designated and they serve until there's a change in the post or that member steps down. So if you want to skim that for a moment and double check which which list you're on. The next the second set of of uh terms is uh a one twoyear term with a position
031to extend a term. And so um give you a moment to look at at that list. That is where you placed the representative for the National Guard and a reserveist from um any military branch. Um between the reason why I'm calling this out is between now and the next meeting um I'll be reaching out. I need to to do um look back at the records and documentation um that my predecessor has left to find when people started on on the council and identify um which of those two terms you fall under and if you're nearing the end of a term um whether it's reaching out to about a possible extension or or whether it's already been extended and maybe working with you to identify replacement. So, just wanted to put that on folks radar. Um,
032that that is uh another action that will be um TA staff will take on between now and your next meeting. One other set of membership uh positions that I wanted to uh talk about with you today that was on um in your vacant uh identified as vacant um during the roll call. There are two positions that are um designated or I should say appointed um by members of the Texas legislature. um the chair of the Senate Committee on Education um or their designate which historically I think that has been a designate and then the chair of the House of Representatives uh for the committee on public education or that that chair's designate. Previously, you had designates for both, but the chairs have changed um for both of those committees um this leg this legislative session
033and before. And so we are hopeful that we will be able to while everyone's in town um while the legislature is in session that we can ask for these two new design. So while it is the hope um that we would actually have these additional designates in place for the July meeting um it will just depend on they're very busy as you know um and have multiple priorities um and so if we are able to get those names um and invitations out in time um we hope to have them join in July but I just wanted to give the council an update as to why those two positions are open. Uh those are those permanent seats um that they either um they step down. Um but the what's not clarified in the rules is that
034they are they serve at the at the at the pleasure of the chair of those two education committees and since we have new chairs at that point they have the opportunity to extend those members or to select a new member. And so that's the process that we're we're in right now. Any questions about that? Okay. Hearing none. Speaking of priorities, um this is an I'm uh unfortunate that we are missing two of of the members. Again, they'll have the opportunity to watch um our recording. Um but this is uh where I would like to transition. actually were on operating procedures, but we did not actually amend your operating procedures. I'm going to move on to this slide, which introduces your council priorities. Um, so again, acknowledging that the that the council has gone through a
035pretty significant transition um with the three supporting TEA members have have moved on. And then I just also acknowledging that up until this point I have failed to establish priorities with the council for this year. Um to date we've we've focused on identifying this membership. So I will say for myself internally uh one of my priorities is to uh more fully um staff for lack of a better term the council. Um but you have some existing priorities from 2024. Um and I'd like to start the conversation with this group today at this meeting. what priorities you would like to focus on for the remainder of the year and even start talking about um and planning a little bit for for for the following year after that um so that we can start kind of hit
036the ground running if you will um because we've got a couple members not with us because we've got new members coming I don't think we need to go very far about the future but I would very much like to uh talk with the members we have with us today about where we can focus where you would like to focus this um for the the remainder of the year. Um so with that, I thought it would be helpful to start with um the role of the state advisory council. And this comes back to what Simone was talking about, Captain Huffsetler, and um as we reach out for new membership, this is something that we need to um clearly communicate. Um and I think it's helpful also for existing sitting council members to revisit from time to
037time. So, what you're looking at here is a list of of the role of the state advisory council. Um, so I'm just going to give folks a minute to to read through that list. Okay. Um, last year for fiscal year 24 or I should say the 2024 year, the council had indicated and this is myself looking back at previous presentations or meetings and minutes. The the council indicated that they specifically wanted to focus on number one um the role of disseminating information about the military compact to districts. Um and I think very specifically had talked about counselors. Um I think so as I mentioned what to help me learn more about the council members and and your own motivations for for serving on this this uh this council. Um want to understand like where the
038group would like to focus their attention for the remainder of this year. again, as I said, less maybe looking forward since we're we're missing a few folks and we're still early, relatively early in 2025. Um, but I think my question here might be is did is number one an area would you like to continue um with the focus that the that the council identified um previously or are you ready to set your sights on something new? Um, I'm going to open up for discussion. I can come back to this slide at any time. I'm going to paraphrase it really quickly and then I'm going to I'm going to show you the 2024 and priorities and then open up uh for discussion. But I just want to pull out where I've underlined things here. So, in
039terms of the rule and the things that you could do, um, it's the dissemination of information about the compact, identifying topics and and and issues that pertain with your parents and students, but also your districts and your schools. Um, you also have the role of advising the commissioner on these topics. Um, advising TEA about dispute resolution, which I've had to fairly recently reach out to SLOs's a couple of times to help me with dispute resolution as I'm learning the landscape. Um, but I can also reach have council members that I can reach out to and then some other expectations about how often you meet and open meetings. Those are the rules. I can go back to that at any time. In terms of the priorities you identified for last year, it was that first uh
040that first role about dissemination of information. Um I pulled this slide from a 2024 meeting. Um you identified stakehold the following stakeholders as a priority. Parents, principles, and registars. Um which didn't sync exactly with other notes that I was looking about about targeting counselors. So um wanted to hear a little bit more about that if anyone um has that recollection. And then also in one of the summaries of of activities that had happened in 2024, I found there were letters that went to installation commanders um military compact trainings that Shelley Ramos and Sher Messer had conducted. I think they did a couple of district trainings for counselors. Um and I think they coordinated those by through council members. um kind of reaching out to districts in their area and who would like to to receive
041a training. I think there's certainly opportunity to continue that work. Um if if that's where the council would like to stay for for wrapping up the year, it's an option. Um but there might be something completely new. Um, so here's where I I would like to hear from you um in terms of whether it's looking at your broader uh roles that you can address or what you did last year um where you think we can uh focus for the remainder of the year um to support military students. Uh if I can just uh so when the council was first established uh the getting the information out about the uh military interstate compact to parents, principles, counselors and all of the stakeholders was uh a high priority. Uh alongside that uh we uh I know that
042TEA uh went out to regions uh to train counselors on the MC3 which um we heard from our counselors in the region was uh very helpful. Um and I feel that this is and uh you know there were some flyers that were created for parents and registars to understand better what the council is here for and what the MC 3 is here for and I feel that this is always going to be uh an area to revisit as you have new parents that join the military as you have new registars and principles and counselors. So I think that you know there was a push for that that was really great in the beginning uh uh when we started the state council. Um and I feel it is always going to be an area that we
043can revisit to make sure that uh new folks in schools, parents and and other areas are aware of it. um you know, maybe not a high priority, but keep it in the back of uh um our toolbox to revisit uh at the beginning of the school year and things like that to push out that information once again. Thank you. I think what I'm hearing you say is don't maybe identify new priorities um moving forward, but don't forget um don't lose sight of that information, communication, and training as an ongoing effort um under the council. Thank you. So, I I would like to um Can you hear me? Yes. Uh I'm not sure and and I'm I'm guessing there's a reason. I'm not sure why we have registars there and not counselors. I don't know. Uh
044for the most part, registars uh are not going to at least in our district are not going to be speaking to parents about the military compact. It will be uh principles and it will be counselors. I'm not sure where where registars came from and why that's there. Um I think I agree. I think that this um needs to continue to be a priority. But if you will go back to the other slide. So, and I know it says council priorities, but then it has the role of the state advisory council. I feel as though the first four, maybe even the fifth one could be like maybe consistent council priorities. Uh the last three kind of seem like um administrative stuff that we have to so I wouldn't include that but I I think one through
045four maybe five uh should probably be u uh consistent priorities uh for this council. That's my input. Thank you. So it's all important. Yes. and which is consistent with the fact that it is the council's role to support those areas. Comments from other council members before I let anybody off the hook. Um, as we think about these priorities, I have a couple of of guiding questions. Um, and again, feel free to direct me to any of the slides you've already seen if that helps you think about these questions. Um, but what are I hear all of them are important. What are the main challenges um within the scope of the military compact? and I can help you identify that um in facing transition military connected students. And the reason I ask that I think you
046can say these are all priorities, but as we get to because maybe not in this meeting today, but as we look ahead for the next year and identifying things that are specific and actionable, where are the challenges um those topics and issues that were outlined in the priorities where you think this council might be able um to provide some support? Jessica, I I think that um the issue is just people knowing number one that the compact exist and then knowing what's in it. I think a lot of times, especially our kids, our military connected kids who are in um school districts such as North Side, uh Northeast, wherever we have them, Judson that have high population, a high population of military connected students, and I don't know what their level of knowledge is, uh but
047I think that's the key, making sure that we know what we're supposed to be doing for those kids as it relates to the military um interstate compact. And I think some of our kids, some of our military connected kids uh can sometimes be at a disadvantage because our counselors and maybe even the principles do not know what that compact says and what we should be doing for those students. Again, I don't have any proof. uh but you know you talk to people uh sometimes and and they some of them don't even know what that is right so the knowledge begins with introducing them uh to the combat so I think the education part of it I think is really important uh to get across the state especially those that are near uh military installations um
048so I just think that just the education part is important I think to Simone's point, I think that is what really that that focus area for um was around with the trainings and the flyers um and uh letters to the to the commanders. Um just again how that outreach and letting new as new parents and new um schoolison officers come through um as people move and are are relocated um there's this continuing need for that education. So not losing sight of of of that. Um the only I'll add I I agree with Dr. Roer. Only I'll add is it might be more appropriate to incorporate it into a conversation in and around a pathway uh to being a TEA approved Purple Star campus. Just a thought. I'm I'm sorry. I I missed something. Um what
049was the connection with Purple Star? Well, I I it could be a part of the conversation the education on the MC 3 could be a part of a conversation of just really the pathway to becoming a TEA designated Purple Star campus. To to me, the Purple Star designation is probably going to be of a greater resource to military uh transitioning families and and particularly like say um the population that uh they're going to serve. I I think that I think that the Mig 3 is is important obviously for counselors to be aware of, but I don't know necessarily that it is as important uh for the focus to be on um community or or even parent um education purposes. That's just my two thoughts. Thank you. Well, they're doing something right. Right. I So, I
050mean, it's one the process of getting there, but they're also those Purple Star campuses are a resource. um uh was which is at first where I thought you were going and wondering like what um what information um and best practice do they have to to share um because they're the ones there in boots on the ground if you will in thees um navigating uh transcripts and graduation with stu and relocations with students um so I could see that both sides of that learning through the training through through the designation and and also that we've got over 500 schools in in Texas that um are actively working in this space um and being commended and acknowledged for it. Flashing forward um in our current uh I'm sorry upcoming events in our next meeting I have um
051extended an invitation to the national headquarters to come and talk to the council um about a couple of things. um one to be honest a part of my own education as I'm learning more about the con the the compact the role of the state advisory council and how we work together um I have um uh so I've extended an invitation and expect them to be joining us in Jul a member being joining us in July part of the conversation there is um purple star is is not under the compact they're separate um but it doesn't mean I don't think it doesn't mean that there aren't there can't be connection points points such as the one that Dr. Craft just made. Um, and so one of the things I was going to ask um, in helping
052our our um, our our guest or our presenter from national headquarters, what topics you would like to hear from, and I'm going to kind of pencil that one in if she can help um, identify. I'm not sure how our name is pronounced. Um, sh M I M I M A I. um help us kind of navigate how they can I understand that they're they're they're separate and under different authorities, but but how they could support one another. Thank you. other major main challenges um that you think that there are opportunities um within this council to prioritize and I am going to go um back to this roles and point out um and warning um Captain Hut Settler, I'm going to put you on the spot here in a minute. um this identification of both topics
053and issues as well as um Dr. Ripper, I know you were looking at number five. It's like maybe five, maybe not. Dispute resolution. Um there is that broad awareness of just what the compact is that it exists and um what it what it means, what it requires. Um and then there's just that detailed that that phone call of this one particular student in this one particular issue. um and and knowing how to to navigate that that topic which I think sometimes um even when there's the broad awareness of the compact and maybe even what it means but how to specifically apply it to a certain situation. Um I had a scenario and I I sure the council probably knows this but and this is not a um real u data point. I'm kind of making
054it probably 75% or more. It might be more like 90% of issues that happen. Maybe it's 95 of issues that happen on campuses um with military connected students are resolved by the SLO. Um they are the experts. They're the ones that are there. They're the ones that parents know um and can reach out to and get um immediate support. Um but sometimes it's either um maybe it's more of like interpretation of of of the council or an unresponsive district. um that um or maybe it's just it's it's come to me to to begin with that they've just reached out a parent has reached out to tea first from the website or however they've made that contact um but these specific issues that were that just were stuck on um and maybe it's actually a really
055broad maybe it's really common but that particular um SLO or that particular district hasn't encountered it before um that information sharing is where I'm going um about how to handle specific issues. It's a part of the training. There's a couple of slides. Um but um where I'm going with this is um case studies and I think it was um Captain Heller, there was an issue in your area um and you had some ideas around how that something like that can be brought to the council. And I don't know if you remember the particular issue um or if it's um something that you would like to speak to um but I know you had some ideas about how you know this shouldn't be happening and how can the h how can the council help and I
056hope I haven't like caught him away from his his desk but Oh, you got me. I just trying to get my video going there again so you don't think I'm a I'm a stranger. But uh no. Yeah, I you're you're right. We have gained a little distance from this one. So, I don't remember all the particulars, but I believe it was an 11th grade student who um who had a um who the service member was activated on orders or was sent on a I think was sent overseas. Family returned to Dallas to go to school. And when the service member came back, the family then went back uh from Dallas back to I think it was I think they were in Virginia Beach or they were going to Virginia. I know that. and uh they
057were just having um a really hard time getting that student um processed out of the school properly um in order to um get gained and picked up on the Virginia side of things. And uh it kind of just turned into the the um um I think for this school they hadn't really dealt with a military student transitioning like that previously and uh in an area that there's probably not much of a density of military students moving back to an area where they deal with military students all the time. And so the other side just kind of had their process way that they expected things to go in Dallas. They did not know how to handle it and they weren't they just weren't answering the mail. And so I think as we communicated and then Heather,
058our school leaison, got involved and then you guys got involved, you got involved um that um really just started to um increase the um the speed at which the the district was handling uh the case and they were not putting much attention to it uh previous to us getting engaged. And what the um ultimately what it came down to is the this child was not able to go to school for I think at least two two weeks or so out in Virginia. once they had moved back and were ready to go and this was all because they weren't getting processed out of their school district correctly and so uh yeah so I think when we had discussed um my point was just I don't have a lot of touch points uh with MCP or these
059case studies um but when they do arise we want to have a process by which we can you know expedite the flow of information and uh and take an action as quickly as possible so um I I said it would be beneficial on my end to just know when there are there cases like this and how they were handled and maybe how we got to resolution quickly to ensure that a student um isn't disadvantaged by somebody not understanding the process. Thank you. I appreciate it. Your memory was was even better than mine. Um which was helpful because I think I was just generally going to ask the question, you know, where where are there opportunities? um in that but now I can say in that scenario um not just in case studies in general but
060in that scenario um are there opportunities where there are are are issues there that that can be teased out and and in some way formally addressed. I think one of the issues that uh I'm hearing and correct me if I'm wrong is oftentimes it's schools that are not as aware of uh uh military families and uh you know their transition and uh that often goes back to education. They are not aware of what it is they can do under the compact, how they can help that uh uh family transition as smoothly as possible. Um and we as as the school leaison officers often have that connection with the schools uh to you know move that along a little bit. But if we encounter schools that do not have this direct connection to um the installation
061or are not as aware then sometimes it it it happens you know that they do need to have that education piece of hey this is the compact this is uh what you should be doing. Uh going back to educating I think there were two things I heard from both Simone and Dr. has settler that were not necessarily unique um but were relevant to this particular case which was it was a district that doesn't serve a lot of military connected students so they they weren't familiar. I think that some of the trainings that were set up that Sherry and Shelley did um were in in some part set up by um the the school leaison officers that they knew and they I I believe a council member it might have been Simone actually helped set up
062some of those meetings which not to say it was great to hear that those counselors found that information helpful but it sounds like there's a broader base there um of identifying you know getting this information out to other schools, maybe the contacts that we don't yet have um someone directly to set that up for us. Um is so I guess my my my question that I'm working towards there is is it a matter of continuing these uh the trainings that have started? I've already heard like the training and education needs to continue. um would the council be interested in for the remainder of this year that we maybe find some new areas and districts where we haven't done these trainings before um and giving a broader base access. Is that the way to reach these
063schools that are a little less connected? I would say yes. Is there a are there other ideas about how to reach these um these campuses that aren't like already directly connected into the the military student network? So, I'm not sure, but uh is there uh and and correct me again if I'm wrong, does TEA have uh uh meetings with uh superintendent and and uh all school districts uh public school districts? Maybe it would be worth mentioning, hey, you know what? Um this is the MC 3. Are your schools aware? And see, uh um what the response is there. the commissioner does meet with superintendent. Um I want to say monthly if I'm remembering right. Uh so you know someone on the commissioner's staff could you know kind of make that an agenda item so um
064the commissioner could get that out to all of the superintendent. The other idea is to, you know, kind of work through all the all all the region service centers uh maybe with those executive directors. Um they usually touch uh all of the school districts in their uh region uh some kind of way uh through their superintendent with regional advisory councils, those types of things that um we have each month. So I think there are different opportunities to get the message out and different avenues um so that people know that the training is there or that the information is out there. Great. So I think it is what I'm hearing is that the 2024 council priorities that just happened to be on this slide where we talked about parents, principles, registars. I'm hearing other administ ESC's
065um can be an opportunity and that's not to disregard any of the stakeholders you've already identified but you've identified a few more of of additional administrators. Maybe it's district level. Um potentially um I can reach out and see what our our our connection points are with the with the commissioners staff um and those agendas. April would have been a great month to do it with um the military uh the month of the military child. Um, but it's always it's always a good time to talk about uh military connected students. Um, so I can definitely add that as a next step. Um, and then our ESC's using them as as a as a resource. Um I will say in that instance too going back to um while um the the school leaison uh officer Heather was
066immediately on top of this situation I was a little I was a little sluggish in my response um as I have kind of mentioned navigating the space and I work in a non um monitoring position um in my my day job uh my regular 8 to5 um that we don't have authority to intervene um and so learning a little bit more about my position um and uh what opportunities I have to reach out to a district level and have a conversation about staff and Dr. It was actually um a registar who gave misinformation about when and how a student could withdraw um that actually delayed the students um with withdrawal. Um and so I think kind of across across the board um school staff I I uh counselors certainly I think are are a big
067target for ensuring that credits are are um awarded and that that part is happening seamlessly. Um but some of the rate the registars are gate holders as well for um enrollment and and and withdrawal proceedings and that's actually what delayed this particular topic. And so I can bring that forward. Again, this this idea of case studies is is interesting to me and having this kind of repository of how we can kind of share that information across across the state as well. Um I mentioned we don't have to figure out all of your priorities for 2026, but I want to come back to um to this slide. Um what do you feel like question number two? I'm going to continue to to to talk about and ask number one again as as we move forward to
068thinking about where the council can go next. But in the immediate year, um what areas of focus would you like to see um uh that show progress that we are that we are um being successful in supporting military connected students this year. There are some of the things that we've done before, which you can always piggy back on those if you're looking. Uh the trainings, uh flyers, uh letters to installation commanders, um in our next update or our end of year update, what are some of the things that that you would like to uh see us accomplish? All right, I have a question. My Zoom keeps freezing. So, if I start freezing, tell me because I don't want to be the guy that's freezing freezing on Zoom and I feel like I've talked too much.
069This is I'vecliped my time from the last sessions for the last year. Um, are we able to put our finger on like where um is there any reporting that goes into where all of these military students are going to school if we were to put that in? Do we do we have a do we have that there? I see somebody I see you're putting perfect segue to um our update that we're going to have. We're actually um I think I mentioned we have an update from staff. We are going to take um as we wrap up this conversation, we're going to take a a a quick break and then we're going to come back and watch their presentation and there uh if you have questions after that, if it doesn't it's not at the level
070of detail that you're looking for, let us know. But um we're about to hear from that team. Okay. Well, perhaps the question will be I my wife is a special educator and when I think about a student that has specific needs, obviously the school, the parents and the student are all going to be on the same page with their IEP or whatever they're bringing to the table in the classroom. And so I think um it will be hard as I think about the DFW Metroplex and where we can, you know, where the information dissemination goes. There's obviously going to be people that continue to expand out to other districts that are unfamiliar with military and if we know where they're at, then we know where to train. But assuming you might have some data on
071that. So over and I think where you're going with that is what we talked about started to talk about like targeting some of Oh, I think you are freezing. Sorry. I thought you were I thought you said over like over and out, but I think you I think you just froze out to other districts that unfamiliar with military if we know where they're at. You're good. Oh, okay. That's what I thought. Um, yeah, finding some of those other areas to uh uh to target. But if I can just pull from what um Dr. Roer said earlier, I know he mentioned he had to to jump off it too. Um what we heard Simone mention um is um like that we need to continue to promote the the awareness. Um and and I mentioned like I
072think there are still opportunities there. It will always be one of the roles um of of this council. And so if it is um continuing trainings for districts for this year um and looking to target some of the areas where either high both high number of students that are served as well as some of our lower um density areas that may not have this information ensuring that they know the compact exists and have access as well. It can be both. It can be a two-prong approach. Um I would say anything and uh that you would add to that you would like to see us do and target this year. I think uh uh maybe also uh take some of the you know trends and and cases from the field uh and present them and how
073they have been resolved or how they should be resolved um and discuss them uh during a council meeting. Oh, even bringing a case study to the council. At first, Simone, I thought you were going to mention in incorporating them into the training um which I think has has started to happen and we can continue to do that and bring new ideas, but um did I hear you say also bring to the council? I think uh that would be helpful you know to hear from the field what is what are the trends what are the things uh that uh um are happening in the districts uh and then you know just discuss the resolution process um Captain Hudeller Dr. crafts. Colonel Dolby, would that be helpful information to you to see to have an example maybe
074not every meeting um but to kind of as a standing item to look at a case study so that uh I think Captain Hudsetler mentioned it's a little removed from him um at times but putting um giving you some real examples. Yeah, I'd be great with it. I wonder too, Simone, if um we couldn't have a Oh, Dr. Craft. Oh, sorry. I I was just going to say I think I' I'd be great with it. Absolutely. Um I think we might even reach out to um some of our school leaison officers too, Simone, about presenting the the scenarios in in their area too. Yes, those are your subject matter experts. They have them. I know how to resolve them. So, that would be great. Yes, ma'am. All right. Well, I will um I'll go ahead
075and wrap up this discussion for now. It sounds like just continuing some of the work that had been started um which has been on on a little bit of a temporary pause. we can resume that work. But um just kind of planting seeds for the continuation of of uh this conversation when we um it's always a little confusing. There's the end of the quarter which is your July meeting and then the end of the year of course at the conclusion of of 2025. Um and so we're mid year just kind of gearing up and and looking ahead. Um so we really have some options about formalizing priorities whether you want to do that at the end of the quarter or the end of the fiscal year but we can at least start kind of thinking
076about um opportunities looking at some case studies um but in the meantime continuing the good work that this council has started um with with trainings with that um I'm looking I mentioned I'm going to give just it's a it's a long time to be um listening and talking. I'm going to give us just a a short break here in a moment while we um transition and have our other team set up to present staff updates. Um let me get a couple of slides ahead. Oh, I did have one other question about what information the council needs to set priorities. Um we can have uh that conversation. I heard data, so I'll go ahead and record that. Um, I will include that question in my follow-up uh communication to the council members as we prep for
077our next meeting to continue this conversation. Um, so our next um uh and really last um substantive agenda item will be u a tea update on the military connected student program. Um we a lot of interesting data points to start with and then shifting to some of the different initiatives that are happening um here at TEA that we want the council to be aware of. Um some of this information might also be helpful as we think about um uh where and how the council can council can focus u its priorities in coming years. So looking forward to that. But I'm getting to give folks a little a five minute break to stretch your legs, grab a drink water, and come back for that presentation. So, I'm gonna flash this screen here and we will resume
078at 2:15. So, giving you just a little more than five minutes. Um, if you will come back to your laptops at 2:15, um, we will resume our our conversation then. Thank you. It is 2:15, so I am calling the council back to back to session. Um we are um joined by two tea staff members from the at risk and highly mobile and I think I'm saying that backwards. So Dr. Lei, I'm going to let you um introduce yourself and your team. Um I will be doing the the driving here in the slide deck. So I'll try to to keep up, but feel free to prompt me um if if we're not uh on on target or where where we need to be. Um can I ask one question? Can anybody hear me? This is Colonel
079Dalby. Yes. Okay. Sorry, I've been unable to get my microphone to work the whole first half, so I played with it during the break and I I got it. So, sorry to interrupt. Well, before we get started, was uh anything in particular that you wanted to weigh in or chime in before we we transitioned to the to the the slide deck? The only one really was the last the very last slide you were talking about of uh talking to my counterparts and me around the active duty side. Um, it's really just ed continued education. Like a lot of parents aren't aware. It's trying to get them aware of what they're entitled to and and principles and everybody else. So the the biggest struggle we have is a lack of knowledge across that. Um, but as
080they find out about it, they they do a good great job of adhering to it. So I think the left side which you did in 24 is good to continue. I would love to just push a little bit into one of the things you said was about the the parents and that I think is one of the areas that was identified in 2024 that I'm not sure just in reviewing you know records and documents I see the trainings that have been happening with counselors. um any thoughts or ideas and you can postpone and bring them in July, but how we might how do we access parents um and communicate to them what their rights are and their what their children's rights are. Uh I think just this is firsthand experience. I think one of the
081ways that we could do it, especially in these large military towns, is these independent school districts have either on their registration page or however you register because when we went to register for the school, we needed an address. we needed all which we really didn't need because we were active duty but that was not clear so my wife got very nervous about it. Um I think where you register and how that that splash page or whatever it can be on a school district would help inform parents. We continue to try and do it through our school leaison but you just you can only reach parents that are willing to learn because they're not actively out seeking that knowledge. But we continue to try and find ways to at different events and everything else to get
082the school leaison out there to educate. That's great. I love the website idea. Simone, it looked like you might have come off mute for a minute. Did you have something to to chime in? No, I just wanted to say the schoolie is on office, but uh Colonel Derby beat me to it. Thank you, sir. That is something too as we continue this conversation um is then zeroing in on um we've got the broader strokes of that responsibility, but what are the what are some of the actionable steps? So I I appreciate the concretness of like we've got websites in uh in these high military um connected student population areas. Um, and then we we've had some conversation too about how do we also get the information that those that that are the roads less traveled
083or that have fewer uh fewer of these students but that are actually sometimes the the problematic where district students aren't getting the support they need because of the lack of awareness. Um, and so I appreciate your you're coming off mute and um and and chiming in before we transition to um to our next presentation. Thank you. All right. So, with that, I'm going to turn things over uh to the next group. I'll let them introduce themselves. Okay. Thank you so much for this time and opportunity. Um it is an honor to be here at the state advisory council meeting to be able to share some of the exciting program and resource updates from the agency's military connected student programs. Uh John and I have been listening to a lot of the comments and um and
084we're just super excited to be able to share what we have. Um the AY's military connected program team members are presented here on this slide. My name is Dr. Anne Lei. I am the new manager of the HMR programs overseeing the infrastructure and project planning of our division including military connected program and also the Purple Star campus designation. I am joined here by Oh, you're on mute, John. You're muted. Sorry. Uh good afternoon. I am John Dobbins. I'm an HMR program specialist at the Texas Education Agency. I also work with military connected programs and purple star campus designation. H also as an Army veteran myself and a father of three children of my own that have served in the United States Army, two or that are currently serving, our work with military connected students is
085extremely important to me. All right. On our next slide, um we would like to provide a high-level overview of our continued efforts to support our local education agencies, which you'll hear as LEAs, and also our education service centers, um which we refer to as ESC's, in providing excellent education to our military connected students while their families are stationed here in Texas. Um we will be bringing you updates on developed data briefs uh resources, trainings and information about our 25 26 purple star campus designation application process. Um we first would like to start off with the data and uh cap uh when the captain mentioned the data I got super excited. I am such a data person. Um and so on our next slide Jessica if you could go to yes our military data brief. We
086wanted to briefly update you. You have a QR code here which you can scan. But if uh everyone is all right, uh Mr. Dobin is going to drop some links for you just in case you are interested in going to some of these data um briefs that we will be presenting. We have recently updated our military student identifier um where we also refer to this as our PES infographics with the most current updated information. Um that's the 2324 PES data. Um PS is uh reported every uh four times in the school year. This happens to be the fall snapshot which occurs in October. Um this is significant because currently right now we have nearly 215,000 u military connected students that are attending public and open enrollment charter schools. Uh this resource itself is very helpful
087for schools to assist them in understanding the requirements of identifying military connected students. um and also it provides uh some frequently asked questions regarding the identification to assist the schools who are um enrolling the students. On our next um slide here, this is brand new. Uh we took a look at um developing a statewide uh but also regional data brief. So we've developed uh 20 regional data brief which corresponds to 20 of our region education service centers. Um, our statewide is a one-pager front and back. And this helps to support the strengthening of infrastructure implementation and support for military connected students across Texas, but it also includes information about our purple star campus designation. Um, this data report uh is prepared using multiple year trend analysis. And so with that, we are looking at 2022,
08823 and 24 fall snapshot pen data. And this allows um an opportunity for our state and regional partners to gain understanding of data trends but also discuss ways to enhance the implementation strategies for supporting military connected students. And um Mr. Dobbins have is going to drop that um link to the statewide data report and on the next slide I want to go ahead and break down some of that information for you. So briefly we'd like to highlight some of the components of this statewide data brief. So this is looking at um the overall Texas data for military connected students. The first section provides a high um level overview of Texas military student identifier or MSI or PE's data codes um across the three-year analysis. Uh we report the overall statewide counts by the school year
089as you can see by the columns but also by individual MSI types. Um so in Texas we have six PES code in which they correspond to active duty, national guard, reserve, prek, our veterans and those who were fallen in the line of duty. And at the very bottom you'll see the total military connected students count across those three years. Um what you can see that's significant is from 22 to 23 we had an increase of over 20,000 military connected students. And from 23 to 24, which is the most data that we have right now, we have close to 13,000 increase from the year before. Now, the largest percentage of growth that we have is going to be in the PES code five, which is veterans, and six fallen in the line of duty. And as
090an informal data analysis and talking to some of the school districts, we do know that this is some of the areas that people are growing in because of um the increased awareness that um we have included into our PE data. But as we are educating our um schools and our districts on how to identify our military connected students, this is where the growth is the most because they were unaware that there is an actual um identifier code for these two um two areas. On the next slide, our next section of the data brief provides an overview of the counts of military connected students by ESC region. Um, with majority of our military students in ESC20, which is San Antonio area, um, ESC2 and ESC4. This information helps uh stakeholders to understand the importance of connecting
091and partnering with our ESC military champions because some of our LEAs um who are located in ESC regions are not located near an installation such as ESC4, but ESC4, which is the Houston area, is um the top three with um student population who are military connected. And so it is important for us to be able to connect and educate um and and have that partnership with our installations. On the last section of our statewide data brief is our purple star uh campus designation. Here it is a lot of information. It's broken down into our ESC regions. Um but you also see the total number of military connected students and then each year that TEA has awarded the Purple Star campus designation. So Purple Star rolled out in 2021 school year and as you can see
092we had 116 total campuses identified. Now the designation is held for two years and so you'll see a drop in the number for 2122 school year but if you look all the way to the most recent designation 2425 we have 542 campuses identified currently right now we have 69 uh2 designation between the 2324 and but we have opened up our 2526 campus uh purple star applications for our renewals and So this is an opportunity for our uh stakeholders to understand how many purple star campuses were awarded by each of the regions and then comparing that to the total number of military connected students. Um and then the last of our data brief that we have just wanted to make you aware that if you are interested in some of these data we like uh I
093had mentioned before we developed 20 regional data briefs u for our ESC's. So each of our ESC's uh education service center has a military champion that's designated um to help support our local education agencies within their region. Each of their um ESC's received a one-page of the report that mimics um the same format as our statewide data brief. So looking at the PS or MSI codes, the increase the numbers across the three uh different um data analysis, but also the purple star campus designation uh awards um in the five years. And so how that has helped the ESC is identifying um which campuses they can help support or which districts that they can help support in improving and strengthening their support and services for our military connected students. because along with this region report, each
094of the ESC's also had an opportunity to meet with um our program to be able to look at the local education agencies, which is the school districts and open charter schools, and looking specifically at each of those campuses, what the numbers are for their military connected students based on PE's code, and um having a discussion with us on how they can improve and strengthen um their support so that they can help identify more of our military connected students. Um, do we have any questions about the data before I hand it over to Mr. Dobbins to share about Purple Star? Uh, Dr. Le, I was wondering if you could um speak briefly and I apologize if you um already provided this definition, but if you can speak a little bit to when you refer to military
095champions um uh to what you're referring. Okay. So um each our our military champions at the region center because it's not grant funded um these are volunteers at the education service center. Um, these staff members hold different roles such as federal programs or student support. And the executive director of each of these education service centers has identified a staff member who will be overseeing the support and services for the school districts and open enrollment charter schools um in the area of military connected. So, uh, we meet with them, um, uh, quarterly to be able to provide support and answer technical assistance questions. And that way they can help to support, um, their, uh, their school districts. This is also a good way for us to strengthen our local, regional, and statewide partnership across Texas um,
096in ensuring that the same quality support from the state is being provided to all of the school districts um, within uh, within Texas. Thank you. All right, I'm going to hand it over to Mr. Dobbins. Thank you, Ann. Our next update highlights an amazing, impactful tool that was released in January 2025, the Purple Star Rise TA learn course. This course was created to support Texas schools with the implementation of the Purple Star Campus designation. Whether the campus is new to the Purple Star campus designation or has been a Purple Star campus for some time, the content, information, tools, resources, and guides in the course will support the rise of Purple Star campuses across the state of Texas and beyond. And Ann's going to put the link to this course in the chat. Anyone can take
097this course on the next slide. Uh, no, we're good. I'm sorry. That's the correct slide. Uh, Purple Star Rise is a five module course that walks participants through all aspects of the Purple Star campus as a nation and unique elements of supporting military connected students. The course can be taken in one sitting or broken uh out into individual settings and subsections and is adaptable to the learner's needs. The course is free and available to all learners within and outside of the state of Texas. Participants who complete the course will receive a certificate with three continuing professional education credits. Each content module is designed to build upon each other as the in uh as information is presented to the learner. Format is aligned across the entire course. 10 unique tools were developed for Purple Star Rise
098to serve local education agencies. And we will get into these tools a little bit more in depth in just a moment. Next, we'd like to share some updates and information about the 202526 Purple Star campus designation process. All right. On the next slide, uh we do have a timeline with uh important dates for our purple star campus designation application process. Um we held a purple star interest meeting on March uh 19th. Typically, we do hold an interest meeting in the fall and the spring, but due to the transition with Dr. Bowser, we were unfortunately unable to hold uh an interest meeting in fall. We had a very good turnout for our spring one. Um, our application window opened Friday, April 4th. Um, we currently have four submissions at this time. Um, but we did enhance
099uh the rigor and also the support within the purple star application process this year. And so we are very excited to see um the the strengthened applications that we will be receiving uh to be reviewed. Uh we are offering two office hours. Um the first one is going to be uh this week. um it's going to be the first one to support any applicants who are just starting off their application and may have questions. Um we do have uh a lot of first timers who have shown interest in applying um for the Purple Star campus designation and so we we're going to see a lot of first- timers um and renewals uh for this uh this round. Our second office hours is going to be scheduled towards the end of the window to help support
100any last minute questions and inquiries that uh potential applicants may have. And then it will close Friday, June 6. Um after that uh we will be doing our application review process this year. The internal and external reviewers will have four weeks to review the application and then we're going to take July to be able to clean up any of the last minute tasks that we have and then we plan to announce our uh awards in September of 2025. And then I'm going to hand it over to Mr. Dobbins. He's going to share um the information about the 10 uh purple star resources that were developed and are available for our field. And as I go through each of the slides, uh, AM will be dropping some of the links in the chat. Um, also in
101a bit, we'll drop our link to our military military connected, uh, inbox on our email. If you need additional slides, I saw a couple people were having trouble opening some of the some of the links we're giving you. Just email us. We will get you the links. On this slide, we provide three resources to assist campuses during the Purple Star campus designation process. There is the application overview and checklist, application guide, and application rubric. Campuses should be utilizing these three documents while they are applying to receive the purple star campus designation. On the next slide, we have the frequency frequently asked questions uh provides answers to common questions TA previously received during the purple star campus designation application process. We have the annual calendar and timeline resources offers key considerations and recommendations for the campusbased
102military leaison to guide monthly and annual planning for the purple star campus designation. On the next slide, we have uh key terms. Uh having a shared understanding of common language helps to facilitate seamless transition, enhance student engagement, and build strong supportive school communities and effective purple star campuses. The Texas laws and policy requirements helps effectively provide campus transition support to incoming military connected students. On the next slide, add just we have two unique uh unique tools to support the military to support campus military leaison's roles to coordinate staff professional development on unique needs related to military connected students and the importance of fostering partnerships and collaboration between schools, local military installations, community stakeholders, and veteran service organizations. Lastly, on the next slide, we have resources outline the required elements that are needed for the campus
103military web page uh for military families and best practices for implementing campus transition programs to support incoming military connected students. And this was from some of the questions earlier. This is a great resource that will help with a lot of the information our families need. Any Purple Star campus, we have requirements of what is needed on the web page and a lot of the a lot of the concerns or information uh that was shared earlier that wanted to be shared out should be on this military web page on each campus. Um, one of the things we didn't put in here and we would be remiss to not mention is during this application process um, we have heard a lot from the field about having an example of applications that are um, appropriate and things like
104that are or an example of just an exemplar and that's what we built out for this uh, this year as well. We've built out an exemplary application uh multiple examples that um potential applicants can look through and see the responses of um just stellar uh application uh uh responses in there so that they can be guided into um filling out their application to make sure that they meet the requirements of our Purple Star campus designation. But on top of that, we also provided calibration activities for our reviewers who will be reviewing the application that mimics a lot of the application exemplar. So, not only did we provide additional uh resources for our applicants, we were providing additional resources and examples for our reviewers as well. This helps to align and calibrate between our internal and
105external reviewers, but also alignment to the Purple Star Campus uh criteria as it's stated in statute. Um and making sure that we're upholding um the the law, but also the requirements so that it is fair and equitable across um all the applicants that we we do receive. All right. uh on the next uh section of just kind of I just wanted to call out um I did not intend to ask the question before um or ask for the answer be let me try that again ask the question but and then answer it as a part of this present uh of today's meeting what I'm trying to say is so many of the things that the questions we were asking was we were talking about priorities are things that are are being implemented or that exist
106I had in full disclosure had not um seen this uh other depart this is another department's presentation um just want to call out on this slide us purple star campus designation webpage requirements um creating an effective campus web page which Colonel Dolby was just talking about and so I hope council members are taking some notes as we continue our conversation we'll we'll summarize and share this deck with members who aren't with us as well because I think this actually would have been a really nice launching um uh for the the conversation about some of the kinds of things um that are actually already being done and how um the the council can support um and leverage resources that are in existence um to do exactly the things that we were talking about and and promoting
107awareness across the state. So, um thanks so much and I will turn it back to you Dr. Absolutely. When we were listening to the comments, we got super excited. We're like, we want to show you. So, yes. Um thank you so much. Um uh our our next level of support that we do have um on our next uh slide is our purple star campus support. This is a brand new PLC series. Um if we go on to the next slide, you'll kind of see the flyer that we have developed. So this is new um our 23 24 and 2425 purple star design. Um they're part of our threepart professional learning community or PLC series. First time ever that we have this to offer. Thanks to our partnership um with Military Child uh Education Coalition, it's
108designed for school professionals and educators at campuses across Texas that have earned Purple Star Campus designation. We've also extended this out to our ESC military champions, which we've mentioned before at the regional level to attend so that they can strengthen the support that we provide to our LEAs in their region. Um the PLC series includes a professional development training and an accompanying uh office hour in which we discuss, answer questions, clarify any um uh information that was presented to them at the PLC. Each of the PLC is unique and it's a great way to tap into a network of peers and partners to support military connected students and be presented with researchbased tools and resources to share best practices. Um on our next slide, what you'll see here is one of the promotional um uh
109flyers that went out into our uh social media with the help of our uh MSE. Um we developed a unique purple star campus listerve based on the uh 23 24 awardees and 2425 awardees. This list serve is over 700 um participants in there. Um we have marketing and promotional announcements that go out uh monthly in Facebook uh LinkedIn, Twitter X. Um and this has positively impacted our reach and attendance for military related training opportunities such as our Purple Star rise course completion, but it's also reached local education agencies who were unaware of Purple Star campus designation or supports and services to our military connected student population. Um and then um before we go into uh the next slide, we also want to mention that we are developing a Texas cohort of uh education service center
110military champions and our TA staff members who will be participating in uh MSX GTS summit um in Washington DC this summer. We're developing this cohort to strengthen the support that is provided to the uh school district and open enrollment charter schools um and so that we can help to continue the uh efforts to bring more support and services to the unique needs of our military connected student population. I'm going to hand it over to Mr. Dobbins to share out the remainder of our updates. Thank you, Ann. On this slide, we provide a preview of the three topic areas of our three professional learning community professional development uh sessions. We have the purple star implementation. We also have campus transition support and our last one will be May 21st where we'll focus on best practices for
111purple star campuses. During this PLC, we will also discuss military initiatives. On the next slide, I would just like to thank you for allowing us the time to give you an overstar o overview of our purple star designation program and our efforts to support military connected students. And lastly, uh before we conclude our portion, we'd like to share that we will be uh recruiting volunteers to be 202526 purple star campus designation application reviewers. We currently have eight of our state SLOs's that have volunteered. Uh should you be inclined to share out or help us recruit additional SLOs's in your area, we have a QR code with more information or email us uh to we'll drop our email our military connected students inbox and we would be happy to share this with you. The more volunteers,
112the marrier. And lastly, do we have any questions or comments? I've got a comment. You guys are doing great work. Good job. Was very good. Appreciate all that. Uh at the end of the day, you know, as we all know, um from our own kids and those close to us, um this is all worth it at the end of the day if uh we can help streamline something that is a a very difficult process for a lot of families. So, thanks for what you're doing. Thank you so much. Well, I want to thank Dr. Lei and doc and Mr. Robins for joining the council today. Um the purple star as I mentioned it's a separate initiative is not actually directly aligned with the military interstate compact. However, one of the sessions that they're presenting um
113is on transitions, classroom transitions. Um the purple star is a recognition of of campuses that are distinguished in their support for military students. And a part of that is how well you're implementing the compact, ensuring that students have access to the support. um and and rights that they're entitled to under that compact. So, there's definitely connection points. Um I think the council has um a lot of opportunities to look at some of the um training and resources and supports that have been developed around the purple star application um and in reading in reaching some of its own goals and priorities. So, I just want to thank you again for for your work and for presenting um to this group today. This is the group that we the council just broadened the language um instead of
114being a a specific coordinator but a liaison um for military education uh support liaison um and so we will um work with Kelly Kravis their division director um to identify that council member um who will be exopicio um but participate in future conversations and then we'll just continue to receive updates from the great work um that our highly mobile at risk team um is doing in this space. So, thanks again. Um, at this point, um, oh, I also want to make sure that volunteer opportunity, um, and access to the slide deck will will be included in the minutes that we'll we'll send out to you before the end of the month. Um, opportunity for any other, uh, council member reports. Hey, this is Damon Dolby, Colonel Dolby. Um, I just I think this might be
115my last meeting in here. I'm retiring in June. um or transitioning, whatever you want to call it. Um I will have a replacement coming in not too distant future. But I just want to say thank you to everybody here as my son has gone from Miami where he was Spanish speaking to Korea and then to here it's a tough adjustment for them as is. So to have a program that that helps these kids kind of welcomes them in is a big relief for somebody for a seven-year-old that's really just been around the world. So thank you all for all the work you're doing. It does matter. We want to thank you for your service um and um both on the council and um in in your your your military career. Um please reach out and
116let me know who to start sending those invitations to. Colonel Dolly will work with you to identify a replacement. Um on on that u note, we do have um as I mentioned other um potential new council members at our next meeting, some that might take us a little bit more time because of that identification process. But one that I failed to mention um is the council representative. And I apologize. So I just wanted to let the staff know that that is something we're actually actively working with our counseling um and student support division here at TEA. Um and hope to potentially have a a school counselor joining at our next meeting, too. So, we will be minus a colonel um hopefully plus a counselor um and and also Colonel Dolly's replacement. Thank you so much.
117Other updates from the council members. We're hearing none from the larger group. Um uh just a reminder I have um extended an opportunity an an invitation to the national headquarters uh office to have a representative join um the council's next meeting just to give kind of a high level overview of u some updates from from u from the national headquarters um as well as how they I've also asked for one of my questions is just to tell us a little bit about um what some of the the activities of other state advisory councils um as we look at priorities. Um, I just asked to pull a couple of ideas um uh from other states in in space that their their councils are are working within that you might want to consider um as we start
118to look at at um where we can go from here together. Um and then a tea staffing update. Um I have not yet um hired a replacement um for a curriculum specialist Sherry Messer's position, but I have um filled the position of uh the position I held in curriculum before I stepped into the division director role. Um and that's going to help me hire the curriculum specialist who will report to that uh uh to that person. Um, and so we should, um, hopefully, if not in our July meeting, um, start the new quarter um, with also someone to help me with the logistics of the meeting and make sure that things like minutes um, are getting out on time to you. Um, so we're making some progress um, with one hiring, but um, hope to
119make one more. And then that third TEA position um that has been open that was previously um filled by Jimmy Bowser that council just uh took action today that will help us to fill um that with a member from the team and the highly mobile um at risk highly mobile at risk uh division. So that is our TEA staffing update. Um last just upcoming events uh reminder that our next council meeting is Monday July 21st. um you'll receive a tentative agenda in advance um with your panelist link and then if there's something you would like to add, please reach out to me um and we can integrate that into our update. Right now, our tentative agenda for the Monday, July 21st meeting, please save the date. Um and you can share that with your replacement
120uh Colonel Dobby so they have it on their calendar so we can have a seamless transition. Um we'll have another update on on progress we've made in filling out. That's my priority for for the council this year is to fill in some of those vacancies to the extent that we can. Um so hopefully we'll have an update for you um on progress that we've made in July. Um we will continue the council priorities uh conversation. Today was fairly broad. Hopefully we'll have more members and start to to narrow in and identify some some actionable next steps. Um we'll have um meeting dates. uh we'll we'll propose some meeting dates for you for the next uh four quarters because July is the last meeting we have on the calendar. Um and as I mentioned we're we'll
121have that MCH 3 update from national headquarters. Um my call there um one if you have any other agenda items you would like to propose today I'll give you just a minute to mention those. Also, if you have any topics that you would like to hear from from the national headquarters, um I'll give you a minute now to do that or you can reach out to me um by email. So, I'll pause here and see if we have any suggestions for our next agenda or topics we would like National Headquarters uh to address. Perfectly fine. And if nothing comes to mind now, if you think of something, uh, don't hesitate to let me know. Um, or when you receive the tentative agenda, you can always, um, I'll give you a window of time to suggest,
122um, additional items, uh, before we actually convene. With that, uh, thank you so much. As always, um, feedback is a gift and we welcome your feedback each meeting. Um, so if you have a moment to snap that QR code, it will also be included as a link um, when we send the meetings. Um, opportunity to let us know how we're doing, as well as to let us know, um, what we could do differently, what you would like to see in the future. Um, any, uh, comments or feedback that you have, we would appreciate and welcome. Um, but with that, I will go ahead and call our meeting at 2:53. We are adjourned. have a great rest of your week and we will see you in July. We will be you will be hearing from us
123before then. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Jessica. Great job. Thanks all.