Regular Board Meeting March 24, 2026

001Our meeting will start with the a a roll call. Oscar Morones Wilbert Garcia Noe San Antonio Anita Franco Al Gloria Michael Uriegas We have We have a quorum. Okay. [clears throat] Now, pledge of allegiance to the flag followed by a moment of silence. Thank you. Public comment Okay, we have none. We'll go ahead and go to student and staff recognition. We are going to start with the star students Carrizo Springs Junior High. >> [applause] >> Um for our staff Okay, we have our star teachers Um >> [applause] >> She is a math teacher. But I really want to recognize that our staff teachers really gone above and beyond this uh with cluster PLCs uh analyzing data and really supporting each other in this journey We're all growing together as a campus. And they have done

002a phenomenal job. And then we of course have other staff that we want to recognize. Our nurse who takes care of our health at our campus. Um Miss Veronica Espinosa is such a wonderful person. She >> [applause] >> when needed. And Miss Melissa Vena she has stepped into the role of cafeteria manager and let me tell you they are such a fun time we have a dress-up um day, they're always dressing up. They're always serving our students and our staff These two ladies are very special and they make our campus very special. Now, uh Major Martinez to recognize Good evening. I'm Major Martinez. I'm the Army Senior Army Instructor uh for the uh Carrizo Springs High School and Junior High ROTC uh And so today um we want to recognize Travis who has been the

003battalion uh commander for the last couple of years. the JROTC program for now 4 years. And so we I had the honor um to uh swear her in a couple of days ago at Fort Sam Houston. And so um Patricia will be starting her ROTC career at UTSA and she's going to be on what's called an SMP scholarship, which means that um while she's going to college at UTSA and ROTC the uh military will be paying 100% of her uh college tuition. >> [applause] >> And uh not only that upon graduation she'll be earning her bachelor's and she will also become a second lieutenant, which is a commissioned officer. WHICH IS A >> [applause] >> I HAD THE HONOR HAD THE HONOR OF OF BEING HER INSTRUCTOR for the last year and then training her.

004And so I I mean for me it was just an amazing day when I was able to swear her in. And um you know, she's just an amazing When I first met Patricia I just knew it. I just she was the one was going to be the person my first person that I was going to be able to get a scholarship for 100% and become a second lieutenant and and get her to be an Army officer. >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you. >> [applause] [applause] >> Congratulations to all. For the audience and for the For the board also, if you didn't know UIL is very much like the star test on the effect that it is the UIL competition is for rates them on their musical ability. It's really hard. They get music they've never

005seen before. It's really challenging. And so getting sweepstakes and getting ones is like getting an A on the star exam. So it's a big deal. It's not easily done. And I'm we're very, very proud of y'all. It takes a lot of skill, a lot of patience to be able to do that and get sweepstakes. So really huge congratulations to y'all. >> [applause] >> All right, thank you Miss Thank you. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Congratulations. All right, up next we have our Veterans Memorial High School JV and varsity girls basketball teams. If y'all can please come up. And today we are recognizing both our JV and our varsity girls team for accomplishing district championships. Both teams, our JV and our varsity teams accomplished that. We have a very small group today and you can see

006we're missing a lot. We have one-act play girls that are out. We have softball girls that are out. Golf girls that are out. So this is our group today. We'd like to also recognize our varsity team as you know four rounds into the playoffs this year. That was a big accomplishment for these girls. Give them a round of applause. >> [applause] >> Also in the all-district selections we were able to recognize some of our most of our girls into the into all-district selections. So I'll recognize who is here today with us. We have our district MVP junior Melody Davila. We also have second team all-district Kayla Rios. >> [applause] >> And we have honorable mention Caden Cervantes. >> [applause] >> Honorable mention Juliana Lira. And honorable mention Ariana Rivera. So a big congratulations to our

007girls varsity and JV teams. Mia Garcia is our only JV representative here, but she is here. Thank you everybody for the support that you guys showed us all season long going into the playoffs. We felt it. We saw it and it it just motivates us even more for next year to to get to get after it. So thank you again. Congratulations girls. >> [applause] >> Yes, our JV team also won the district. Overall record, coach? For district play we only had one loss. But 11 and one overall. So very JV team >> [applause] >> Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations to you. Okay, next we have the seventh grade boys basketball team who won the district championship. >> [applause] >> We have Hyman Jimenez. Ross Guerra. Judah Guevara. Jason Lerma. Ryan Cervantes. Cason Diaz. Matthew Avila.

008Easton Ibarra. And Michael Hernandez. We're missing two, Cadrian Chong and it's going to be Caleb Gonzales. So these boys are my first ever basketball team boys basketball team that I've ever coached. And they are incredible. I will tell you right now that morning practice without fail they showed up ready to work. Afternoon practice without fail they were there ready to work hungry every single day because they wanted to win. I'm I'm very proud of each and every one of them for all their hard work and all their efforts. They went even though it was a short season they were district champions and district tournament champions. So congratulations boys. >> Next, we will have our eighth grade boys basketball team district champions as well. >> [applause] >> So, with this group we have Raiden Cadena, Jace

009Jaime, Jace Hernandez, Anthony Serna, Matthew Ponce, Jairo Montezuma, Nathan Perez, Modesto Vargas, Aiden Covarrubias, and DeAngelo Diaz. We are missing Jayden Lira and Jaziel Corral. Um, can y'all give them another round of applause, please? >> [applause] >> So, this group is another special group and I could not thank them enough for being a good example for our seventh grade team, setting a really high standard and pushing everybody in our basketball program to the best of their abilities. Uh, this group again really special because last year they were co-district champions, so this year they came for it and they took it all and they were the district champions. >> [cheering] [applause] >> And really quick before All right, so you wait before this group guys, they came out hard. They came out every practice. They were

010like, "Coach, we're going to get better every single day." Um, what was good was we had a seventh grade group that was very competitive and eighth grade got a lot of extra work in. Um, but, you know, eighth grade still they put in every work every single day and they never stopped and they pointed out to be district champs and they were district champs, so congratulations to them. I want to recognize our coaches and I'm sure it's like that at at the other campuses as well, but our coaches never take a break. You know, every time we're off for break, they're like, "Ms. Guevara, we're going to be using the gym." Whether it's Christmas, summer, you know, when whenever, they're always working out. They always have the kids working out. They have very high expectations

011and I've always said that some of the best teachers make the best coaches. Coach Diaz is not one of our teachers, but I'm going to tell you he's a coach and he's one of the best STAR teachers when we have STAR testing. He's really good at everything he does. UIL, he's also does UIL academics and I'm going to tell you that these people are amazing. I love our junior high coaches. I'm sure all the coaches are wonderful, but you know, I just had to give them that recognition. They work super hard. Hi, good afternoon. Today we are recognizing for our PLC team of the month our first grade team. So, at PLC our our third our our teams all of our teams meet every Thursday and they rehearse the next week's lesson. So, a teacher

012actually stands up and they rehearse the lesson and they they walk through the kinks of the lesson and how they can make it better. This this month we would like to nominate our first grade team because not only do they stand there, they rehearse the lesson with each other, they go above and beyond that. They they discuss the pacing of the lesson. Any way that Blue Bonnet has questions, how can we make these questions better? If this is a a TEK, how can I vertically align this TEK? Maybe this student needs for me to go down a level or go up a level. And they have just been so impressive in the way they just attack every problem they have until and they don't leave that that PLC until that situation is they're clarified and

013they come up with the solution to whatever problems they might encounter in that lesson. And that is our first grade team. They have done an amazing job and we are beyond proud of all the work and everything that they do during that PLC time for planning. Uh, today present we have Ms. Antonia Martinez, part of that is part of that first grade team. >> [applause] >> Ms. Marisa Martinez, Elizabeth Longoria, and Ms. Elizabeth Manchaca. And we do have three other members, which is Mrs. Cadena, Ms. Nunez, and Mrs. DeLeon that were not able to be here, but we are beyond proud of our first grade team and all the efforts that they put into getting ready for those lesson plans. Thank you. Okay, next we have announcements, communications, presentations. We have a presentation by Southwest

014Texas College on a potential Carrizo Springs Technical Campus expansion. Thank you, Madam Chair. My name is Hector Gonzalez. I'm the president for Southwest Texas College. And I believe they're handing out a presentation. Uh, some of you have perhaps already seen this, but um, before I get started, just congratulations on all the achievements for your district. It's a a proud moment to to sit there and recognize from academics to extracurricular to basketball, uh, band, just amazing. And earlier this year I had a conversation with your superintendent and we were talking about our our vision and her vision of the district and listening to her tell me and share with me what y'all's vision is for for your district and for your community, uh, I shared the opportunity that we can enhance that that vision and expand

015the opportunities here for for the community, for the students here in in Carrizo. And and that is by setting up a technical campus. And and the the process, uh, for making that happen would be, uh, annexation into our our our college district. Right now, Dimmit is part of our service area, but they're not in our in our in our district per se. So, that would be the first step is if if the community was receptive to it, uh, our board would consider it and call for an election here in November to, uh, be that first step. So, we could, uh, expand our technical footprint here in in your community. And what that would involve is, uh, approximately, you know, 15 to 20,000 square foot facility, uh, primarily focused on the the technical programs. Uh, we've

016identified welding, uh, construction science, cosmetology, uh, but but those are just the ones that, you know, quickly rose to the to the surface. There'll be additional opportunities for other programs. Uh, there's also a big component in workforce training. These are your short courses like, uh, truck driving, uh, power line, there's customer service, OSHA training, forklift training, all that would be available as well. Uh, the facility would have, uh, space dedicated space, uh, classrooms, uh, to offer perhaps uh additional academics uh beyond the dual credit here for the community. So, these would be like your like a night class in history, government, English, mathematics, you know, biology uh courses like that. And and really what I'm here to do right now is answer any questions that y'all may have uh regarding the the process, regarding our

017vision, see if it aligns with what y'all's vision is for the community. President, I got a question. Yes. Uh Mr. Gonzalez, would this uh uh training facility or would it be open open up to like surrounding counties or like your other facilities or just uh Dimmit County or what would it serve? It It could serve students from anywhere, but it it would be located here primarily to serve the the community of Carrizo and and the county of Dimmit. So, uh but there's nothing to say that somebody from uh Pearsall couldn't drive over and and attend a class. It It'd be open to all students. Okay, that's that's what I was asking cuz I know like some of our kids go to Crystal City or Eagle Pass, right? Would that be the same for them if

018they want to do a CDL class or a course or something? Come to Carrizo and take that course here. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, so 4 years ago we started down a path to expand our technical footprint and and by expanding it, we expanded it in two different ways. To add additional programs that we don't have is one and we're doing that. And the second is to bring uh new campuses, new facilities to communities that uh that that don't have that technical training, that have to travel. You know, when you think about it, the the closest uh technical training is going to be uh Eagle Pass, Uvalde, and Laredo. And And they're all a commute. And so, what we're trying to do is bring it to you here in this community. Well, I'm just going to give

019my opinion. I've been waiting for a day like this to see something like this in Dimmit County. You know, we see it we see it in Crystal City, we see it in Eagle Pass, and I'm all about providing the best education we can for any kids, right? In surrounding areas also, so you know, I know something like it costs money to the community, but at the same time we're providing something the community's providing something for the future of our kids, and I'm all for it. Thank you. Absolutely. And And here you have a This is a rendering of what it potentially would look like. Uh be brand new facility uh that incorporates the class, the the faculty offices, uh the classroom and the lab space. Uh so, we'd be hiring more uh personnel here. Uh

020we wouldn't try to bring personnel back and forth. There would be, you know, from from the area where possible uh to staff the the center. At I just want to give you some some some timelines on to make this happen. So, for a fall 28 opening, this this is the earliest that we could uh open up the facility. In In order to make that date, May by May 26, we would have to our board would have to receive a petition from the county with at least uh 5% of registered voters, so somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 signatures uh that demonstrates to our board that, "Hey, the community is is wanting this. Uh Would you consider it?" And then uh they accept that petition. Uh the next step would be for us to publish a

021service plan that would be in So, the petition would need to be uh presented in May. So, that gives us two two and a half months to gather the signatures. Uh between June 3rd and June 22nd, we would publish a service plan very similar to what you have now, more detail as to the actual services, actual programs that will be located in your community. Then, in the month of July, between July 3rd and July 20th, we would come and hold a hearing uh in your town uh and give the public an opportunity to ask questions, uh ask about the service plan, ask about the the whole concept. So, that would happen in July. Uh then in August, our board would uh order an election in Dimmit County. Then in November, if if the measure passes,

022then they would canvass the votes the third week in November, pass the resolution, Pass the mic. Uh pass the resolution to uh bring the county into the district, and then in the spring, which would be spring of 27, we would uh secure property, uh get architects to design the facility, hopefully with a summer uh start construction date, uh gearing up to open up in the fall of 28, the August of 28. So, it's real tight uh timelines, but if we wanted to make fall 28, then uh those are the the critical time periods that we have to hit uh uh to make that deadline. And obviously, the the the first hurdle I would say is uh does the community want this? And And that's one of the reasons why uh I'm here presenting to you.

023Uh you know, if the school and and the board, the district uh is behind it, then there's there's a sense that, "Yes, the community is behind this and would like to see uh this uh uh this process and have those additional opportunities here in Carrizo. And it doesn't require any board action. I'm here just providing information. Uh really, the the the action will be on our board uh once a petition has been submitted that, "Hey, uh Dimmit County is requesting this." Madam President, I have a question. Dr. Gonzalez, um you mentioned that there would be about 10 to 15 This would make 10 to 15 um jobs within the community. My question is um I don't know if you remember me, but I was in your financial aid department. I worked with the junior college

024for many years, >> I've then been over on the Crystal City campus as well. Right. My main question is I'm I mean, I'm excited for it all, but knowing what the community goes through for financial aid, will one of those positions be a financial aid advisor located in the area that could also assist with the Crystal City sister campus? Abs- Absolutely. So, so those jobs are going to be not only the faculty positions, but it's also the support system, the the registrar's function, the financial aid function, the business office function, the advising function. And then you also have the the maintenance function to to maintain the facilities. Uh so, it encompasses all those positions. So, yes, to answer your question. Uh In addition, you know, I Earlier today I was in Eagle Pass uh speaking

025with uh the president for Texas A&M International in Laredo, and they are starting a they're they're seeking approval to start a a doctoral program. And I I mentioned to him that about 10 years ago we uh partnered up with UTSA to offer a cohort uh PhD program on our campus, and we dedicated a room where they could come and teach and and the students would come from the entire Winter Garden area every Thursday and and and get their classwork done on on the campus here without having to drive to San Antonio. Uh I mentioned that to him, so there's a possibility that we could dedicate a room uh in in this new facility to expand those uh doctoral programs uh within your community here as well. So, they they they would have nothing to do

026with us other than we would provide them the space, and it would be a A&M International EDD program that would be offered. Uh he was very receptive to that as well. So, those opportunities uh continue to uh present themselves. I have a question. Yes, ma'am. Is there another Is there any other um What do you call this? Uh a technical school like this um anywhere else around Texas through your school? No, but Cotulla is entertaining the same option Okay. that Dimmit is. So, we've been talking to Cotulla. Uh the county judge over there has taken the lead on it. Uh I have visited with the the superintendent as well, uh and they're also very excited to have that. Uh and it's not uh mutually exclusive, so if they get it, you don't we can do

027both. Okay. So, so there's not a Mhm. uh Nobody loses out. Uh so, if Cotulla uh submits their their petition first, it it it has no bearing on Dimmit County's. Question, Mr. Mhm. Mr. Thank you for for all the information. What is the petition process like? Who Who is Who's responsible? Who's uh educating those folks that we would like their signature So, to gain the the the petition would have to be organic from from the county from the region coming up. I have provided the language uh for the petition in your packet uh and it's uh it goes through the the what they would be voting for and uh it just requires a signature and an address. And and then, you know, once we hit 400, you submit that to our board. They they look

028at that and say, "Okay, there is interest in the community." And then we go through the process after that. Uh but it it's just a matter of collecting uh the signatures. So, we would need a champion uh in the community to uh to collect those signatures. So, would that be someone that we need to hire or or that come from you guys or something we um put out via our HR department? I I'm just trying to visualize the process because whoever's doing it would definitely need to sell it. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong. You're absolutely right. >> Mhm. Uh uh that that is uh the big hurdle is to sell the person to sign it and then say, "Yes, I do want this and I would support it in November." And is it

029a door-to-door? They going knocking on doors? Can they go stand at HEB and Walmart and what would that process look like? Uh absolutely. I I think uh those uh those hubs of where people visit uh perfect example is HEB uh perhaps uh Little League baseball games Okay. those kind of venues. Uh if if y'all have somebody in mind um we could work out some support to uh get it get it funded. I can't fund it through the college, but we can fund it. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Mr. Morales, I noticed that you listed four technical labs here. Hopefully with the uh hopes of adding more maybe. Correct. Just with these four, what's the timeline for students to that enroll from anywhere to complete these technical studies? Okay, great great question. So So, there's two uh two

030populations that we want to target. Uh first is we want to closely closely align with your dual credit technical in the high school. So, the programs in the high school are the equivalent of 1 year at the college. So, take welding for example. Uh they they do uh junior senior welding. They graduate with a level one certificate. Uh Once this facility is completed, they would be able to enroll in the year two program. Uh it would take them 1 year and they would finish with their their advanced uh welding certificate. And that goes for all the other technical programs as well. So, the high school is 1 year, we would do the second year. The second population is if you have a student that didn't enroll in any technical program in the school in the

031high school, they would come and enter as a freshman and and complete year one uh level one in in the first year, complete level two in the second year. So, that's uh a 2-year program for the tech site. Uh so so, 2 years would be the the max it should take them to complete it if they have no prior dual credit uh technical training. Um There's also uh we sent in our application for a a Bachelor's of Applied Science Business Management degree. So, that's a a bachelor degree, a 4-year degree. Uh There's room to incorporate that into this facility as well. And that is uh specifically targeted to all of our technical students. So, they could go through welding. They don't lose any credits. They get to take 45 credits from their welding program and

032apply to their bachelor's in business. So, we're we're that's been submitted. We're waiting for the response from the from the state of Texas. So, for example, you have some students that can take the level one in high school, but uh let's say community member adults that want to come in. Uh anybody can apply to be a student. Correct. And and perhaps sign up for the CDL, the truck driving or technology, the power line. Correct. Would that be a 2-year program for them? Okay, so the power line is uh 16 weeks. And the truck driving is 4 weeks. So So, we For anyone. Which Yeah. For each one. Thank you, sir. I'm very excited about this. Uh I can't thank you enough. Everything that you represent is positive and success. Well, well, thank you. Thank you.

033>> to do what we can to continue serving the region and serving, you know, particularly your community. I have a question. Yes. Okay, you say on here that the it says that the approximate cost is 100 per year. Is that like under 100 you you would say or a little bit over? Do you have or is this kind of a rough average? So, yes. So So, that's based on the average uh home. So, being part of the district, it would be uh subject to our ad valorem tax. And right now our tax rate is 12 cents. Uh 5 years ago it was 15 cents. So, it's going down about a penny, you know, every year. Uh so, it it's based on that 12 cent >> Okay, 12 cents. calculation based on your average home. And

034would that be fixed throughout or is that subject to change? That's fixed. >> I say, it it's been going down. Okay. Um this um $100 per year, uh how would how would the homeowner pay for it? Like in a property tax and who who would be collecting it? Is it the school or the the county? Yes. So So, it would be a an ad valorem tax, a property tax. And uh I don't know does the county have a central uh Uvalde County has an appraisal district that assesses and they also collect. The y'all collect your own or does is there a No, the appraisal district does. The So, the appraisal district would collect those funds. And then, you know, we would pay our uh our share for you know, like the school pays the appraisal

035district for assessing and for collecting and then we would kick in as well and pay them to assess and collect as well. So, for everybody it would be a different amount based on the valuation of their of their home. their home. Okay. Dr. Morales, with that our students would go from out of district tuition to in district tuition, correct? Correct. Correct. So So, it's about a $1,000 savings per uh per 12 credit full-time load. And in addition, right now uh we've partnered with the Kate Marmion Foundation and they've uh agreed to cover the tuition for every high school graduate that comes to us. Um so, you know, this was in place last year, it's in place this year. And and any high school graduate, not any, all high school graduates that want to come to

036Southwest Texas College, they have zero tuition. President Franco, if if so allowed, we we have our high school principal, Mr. Cantu, we have Ms. Ponce. Would they be allowed to ask any questions cuz we are we're asking from our perspective. Would they Are they allowed to do so in this? If you have any questions or any input, it would be just go ahead. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Anything we're not thinking of up here. Okay. be a savings for the families. Okay. Of course. Thank you. Thanks. The other thing I forgot to mention is as being part of the district, uh you also have representation on the board. So, right now we have a seven-member board and and I've had conversations with with them about expand We have the ability to expand it to nine. So,

037the the the sentiment on the board is if if assuming both LaSalle County and Dimmit County wanted to be annexed and voted to be annexed, they're prepared to increase their board size from seven to nine and appoint somebody from Dimmit and appoint somebody from LaSalle until that election comes up. So, you would have representation at the district board. I have a question, uh Mrs. Pearson, uh with this annexation, would this mean additional money for our for our foundation school fund? I don't know, sir. I'm sorry, I really don't know. I guess we would have to ask if we would if we received any would receive any additional spending from the state. From the state? No, I I don't believe the two are tied. Any other questions? We we could You wouldn't receive additional funding, but

038what we could do is say for example, you wanted to expand into dual credit cosmetology. So, you wouldn't have to fund the lab, you could use the lab that's there. Uh where where it saves you that expense of having to build and buy the equipment. And that's just one example, there could be others. Uh and that's how, you know, maybe the funding doesn't go directly, but uh we could help offset some of those costs. My last question, uh President Franco, just something else that came to mind. So, um again, back to the getting the signatures prior to doing so, are are you all allowed to um advertise? Are you allowed to put something on social media? Are you allowed to put something in the newspaper that we're we're you're going to we're going to have

039a representative out you know, and the re- and the reasons why is that allowed? You know, pre- what pre-message I should I that can't think of a better word. Subliminal messaging, you know. So, you know, once we get past the signatures, then yes, we can We have to publish a service plan. We have to hold a hearing here, but we have a foundation that could fund it. The college itself can't. Yes. >> could kick in money to to help spread the word. Okay. Yes. So, what we would need is just direction. What would you like for us to do to help you gather the signatures? And you know, through your superintendent, she can contact me and I will talk to my foundation and write a check for that. Okay. Excellent. Uh you have my my

040contact information there. Please, if you have a question that you think of tomorrow or the next day, feel free to give me a call. Thank you. This is exciting, a great opportunity for our Dimmit County. Absolutely, we're excited. Hopefully, this time August of 28th we'll be you know, breaking in our new facility. With Fast Vote? Before LaSalle County. We could do it a day apart. Thank you all so much. >> Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to item item seven, Loadstar governance, March 2026. We have the board goals and goal progress measures, the MOY map reading and math K through three, goal two, GPM 2.1, 2.3, and goal three, GPM 3.1 through 3.3. Good evening, Superintendent Pearson, Board President Mrs. Franco, and Crystal City School Board. Dr. Criselda Alcaba, research data and accountability coordinator for

041the district. I'm excited to show you our current state of data for the district specific to our elementary campus for today. So, I would like to ground us in our district mission and vision to provide every child a quality education in a safe environment and to our vision of inspiring lifelong learners. Today, we are at our March board meeting looking at our goal two and three GPMs for K through three. Our next board meeting will focus on our middle of year data for our sixth and seventh grade students, and May will be followed up with our CCMR progress. Looking at our goal two, our third grade students who score meets grade level or above on the STAR reading assessment nine. So, if you look at the table below the goal, you will see our 2026

042numbers highlighted in a to meet our end of year goal at every subpop with the exception of our special education students. So, all students are currently projected to meet at 59%, which highly surpasses that 37% goal and even the 2029 goal. Our Hispanic students are also at 59%, our economically disadvantaged at 44, and our special education at 6%. As I go into our GPMs, our data will shift by looking at our percentile. So, we have defined the 60th percentile of achievement as meeting that grade level standard. It is meeting that beyond typical 50th on a national scale. Before I go into our GPMs, I did want to ground us in some growth data points. So, I mentioned that the percentile This is the percentile for growth. So, what this line graph indicates is that the

04350th percentile is the national average. When you look at our growth for math in the district, you will see our school district and each grade level represented by the purple line. So, here there are some areas worth mentioning because that growth has surpassed that 50th. So, you can see, for example, our second and seventh grade student grade levels for math have highly surpassed that 50th percentile, and many of our grade levels are average with that national number. When we shift to RLA, you can see more of a trend here with fourth grade to about ninth grade surpassing that national growth average. When I get into the next couple slides, I will be talking about achievement as opposed to the growth that this table or this chart represents. I'll begin by looking at our GPMs that

044correspond to goal two, which is that meets STAR reading projected proficiency. So, currently for our school year 2026, that is still 37% for our third grade students. Our first GPM, 2.1, is looking at our kindergarten students achieving above the 60th percentile. We are happy to report that we are on track to meet our end of year goal. That 37% in the STAR indicates our current data with the goal for end of year being 30%. When you look at our subpop groups, you'll also see that they are surpassing their standard for growth for the end of year target. So, our middle of year data is is showing positive trends. Our next student group is going to look at first grade RLA. So, first grade RLA is not on track currently based on this middle of year

045data snapshot. So, the goal for first grade RLA is to be at 37% of students above that 60th percentile. Based on our middle of year data, our students came in at 30%. At grade level, so about 7% off. And I do want to indicate that when we looked at this data set, so what we're seeing here is an aggregate. All of our data combined, our K through three student enrollment ranges from about 110 students to 125, I believe, at our max, our third grade group. And to meet our end of year target, we were about six students off, and we had seven students that were within one point of meeting this percentile goal, and about seven more that were two points off. So, about 14 kiddos that were right on the cusp. So, we do

046that is promising for that end of year assessment. And the asterisks for these student groups represent confidentiality when our groups are less than 10. We do not report that data. Looking at our second grade students, if you recall from the growth data at the initial start of this presentation, our second grade students showed immense growth in both RLA and math. For their reading data, their end of year target is 34% and at middle of year, they came in at 41% with our sub pops also surpassing their end of year goal. And that is our reading data. So next I will transition into our math data. With our star math end of year data for third grade meets at 30% at end of year. So when we look at our math data for third grade, we

047are on track to meet again on the table the gold first column for 2026 will represent our end of year goal. So we are over about 10% for meeting that all student goal and surpassing at the sub pops and meeting in math for our sped population. Looking at our kindergarten data for math, we are set to meet this goal. We came in at 36% at middle of year with our end of year goal being 32% and also happy to report that our sub pops are meeting their goals as well. When we look at our first grade math data, first grade math is on track to meet this goal. So 43% compared to 31% by end of year with our sub pops also each meeting their goals set. Our second grade student group is currently in

048progress. You'll see that our end of year goal is 39%. We're currently sitting at 34% and when you look at our sub pops, a little bit of a differential there for our Hispanic sub pop, Eco dis is surpassing their target as are our sped students. So in progress for this goal, it is showing that we are set to make our mark for end of year. Any questions before I dive into a summary of the inputs working well and needing more attention? What what distinguishes in progress between on track? Why in progress? In progress will signify when we're not quite like the percentage isn't quite reflective of where we are. So and another point I'd like to make, thank you for the question Mr. Uriegas, is our sub pop some of our sub pop groups are

049meeting their target. So for example, our economically disadvantaged student group did meet their target. However, we're not quite there in all of our sub pops. If I may add and and please feel free to stop me with questions, to summarize the inputs working well at our elementary campus, very much targeted extended day for our second and third grade students. Effective learning supports are established across classrooms and observed weekly, daily ensuring that trends, what we're seeing in the classrooms tomorrow will be there for RB's walks which are research based instructional strategies. We're there very often as a district team but administrators and curriculum specialists on the campus do a phenomenal job of being in classrooms daily. Looking at the intervention and acceleration supports, our students need have various needs in a grade level and so really

050looking at the data by student um I I can say this about all of our campuses, as soon as we pull up data reports, we know our students very well. Our principals do, our teachers do, our curriculum specialists do. For RLA, dedicated phonics blocks. So currently our students receive a double dosage of phonics. They have their HMH which is their state adoption as well as Saxon phonics to ensure that they're really getting these foundational skills necessary to read fluently. And the work that we've started and I know our sped team will get to speak to this here in a minute but I do want to compliment the work that is occurring between across collaboration between the curriculum and and sped department to ensure that the instruction that our students receive in our sped classrooms along

051with in our general ed classroom is a seamless transition. It's work that I've been in the role four years and I've not seen it to this effect and I just want to give kudos to Mrs. Uriegas and her team for really emphasizing and prioritizing this work. Regarding our inputs needing more attention, data driven student analysis is something that is cyclical and will never end and timely acquisition of this data and turning it over into our classrooms as quickly as possible. Refinement of testing protocols, our littlest learners test in in very different ways. Observing a kindergarten classroom and how they test is much different than a secondary classroom. So making sure that we're meeting our students and not taking our teachers from quality instruction. Our tier two intervention, that MTSS triangle is something that we continue

052to refine on a daily basis and of course targeted intervention shifts that are based on student need. Any other questions? What month do we expect our scores? I know these are projections but what month do you think we'll get our scores? It's a great question. So in regards to our NWEA data, the next data set that we'll have is May 5th to the 22nd is our end of year window but typically our star scores don't come in until about late June, early July. So the next data set that we'll receive is that mid-May point. Yes, sir. I have a question. On the map growth math the national norm percentile, I noticed like abnormal abnormally high percentile on the second grade and on on the seventh grade. So how how how would you explain this abnormalities

053here? Thank you for your question. Mrs. Garcia, would you like to speak to second grade growth? Coming in last year's data indicated that they that that grade level was in need of assistance. So that academically that that grade level did struggle. So we from day one those teachers were looking at their data sets. Um Mrs. Oduba Galba mentioned the testing protocols that we've changed. So traditionally students were testing still paper pencil last year. So we we've made a shift so that we're trying to get them all to test online. So training the teachers, training the students so that data comes in quickly and the teachers can intervene. And also PLCs now they meet every Thursday. They rehearse lessons. They look at um what the lesson's going to look like, what they can do and intervening

054earlier. Also we do have a 90-minute block in math. The lesson Blue Bonnet calls for a 60-minute lesson but we have a 90-minute lesson. And at the very beginning of the year it did take the teacher about maybe 70-80 minutes to finish that lesson. Now they're pretty much have it down. They finish it within 60 minutes and they have 30 minutes of math intervention. So they intervene during during the day in addition to their intervention block. Thank you, Mrs. Garcia. And I do want to just add aside from that from our observation, we we saw our beginning of year data for second grade and elementary really jumped on executing an action plan to support our learners in those classrooms and you know that emphasis on small group instruction and really targeting skills was was very

055very evident. So really excited to see this. I know Mr. Doria, you also asked about seventh grade. Seventh grade, yes. We were we just did RB's walks at junior high last week. Our seventh grade distribution, our our four math teachers do share the sections or three math teachers share the sections of seventh grade math and they do phenomenal work in planning and identifying the skills that are necessary for our students to learn and grow. What's not pictured here and I'm happy to add it. I apologize for leaving it out. Our eighth grade, we have eighth grade math and we also have eighth grade algebra one which that student group is also seeing tremendous growth and it's because of our strong teachers and strong tier one instruction. And strong goal setting of course with our students

056and our teachers alike. Thank you, sir. Any additional questions? I have a question. On the on the first grade GPM 2.2, the one that is not on track, I know you you mentioned some of the inputs that were working well and some that were not. Is there anything additional that you would say of why there was no growth for the first grade um reading? So really when it It's Yes. Yes, this is our data set that we have the I mentioned how close our students are to meeting and really what we when we look at our data we target different student groups for different reasons and different skill sets. So our students that are on the cusp of meeting that 60th percentile growth will need a varied approach as opposed to our students that are

057on the 1 to 10th percentile for example. And and they might they did grow. Students did grow, they just didn't meet that 60th percentile mark. So you may might have had a student that grew tremendously but didn't hit the 60th. So that's what this is measuring, which ones hit the 60th percentile. Got it. Yes, so it is very important that we make that that difference, right? Because meeting the growth target doesn't necessitate the achievement goal. Many of our students need additional supports to be on grade level. So it's not only a year's worth of instruction, it may be a year and a half to two years worth. So it's really examining that by a student lens and ensuring that our goals are growth and achievement. Thank you for your question. >> Thank you. I have

058another question. When you take that um MAP test, what does the what does the the result the results what does it tells you? I'm sorry. I I missed the The the the MAP the result of the MAP test, what does it tell you? What does it tells you? Is does it tell you the the strength or the weakness of the student? That's a wonderful question. It does. So the MAP data gives us an overwhelming amount of data. This is our second year with the platform and it's an amazing tool. What I present here is achievement percentile. What I presented for third grade and what they even give us for second grade and all of our star tested areas is a projection. So it equates the national test because this is a a test that's done

059nationally and associates it with state goals so we can see how our students fare in the state. But when we get a student down to the student profile and down to the classroom profile, it shows the students broken up in quintiles. One being the lowest and five being the highest. By skill, by content. And connected to those focus areas are the TEKS and the standards and what we focus on in instruction. So what's beautiful is a teacher is is able to quickly look at the data for the classroom and see her students his or her students grouped by um by that quintile by band. So if for example they're covering a author's purpose question the following day, they can quickly see how to group their students to ensure that the lesson is the most effective

060for the day. Any additional questions? Questions. Thank you very much for your time. >> Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Next we have superintendent guardrails and guardrail progress measures. Superintendent Superintendent guardrail two GPM 2.2 program evaluation spit. I would like to recommend to introduce our region 20 rep. She did conduct our special education evaluation and this was one of our superintendent guardrails and so we are on track because it said by May of 2026 we would be at 100% completion of an evaluation audit and that's precisely what we have. So I'll turn it over to Miss Bianca. Good evening. There we go. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Bianca Cole. I'm one of the coordinators at Education Service Center Region 20. We lead the special education work for the region. And

061I led the team that came in and did the special education program review. This review was completed at the proactive request of your district. Your district had identified that there were several areas within special education programming that warranted review. One of those was student progress, one was the way that IEPs were being developed and overall special education reporting. So at that pro that proactive request for support we formed a team and came in and did a comprehensive investigation of what is happening in the district. And when I say investigation, I truly mean we were digging down to the roots and trying to identify trends. The Education Service Center is not regulatory in any way. So our purpose was not coming to find individual compliance issues. Our focus was truly to identify trends, things that were

062happening district-wide so that we can offer suggestions on how the district might improve student outcomes in the immediate and in the longevity for students with disabilities. Our program review included several entities. The first thing we did was we requested a sampling of special education IEP folders. IEP folder is that individual education program that is designed annually for every student who receives special education services. We received six folders from each campus. Those were selected by the district and provided to our team. We reviewed each of those for all major compliance trends that TEA would look for if they came out to do a compliance check. After we completed our folder review, we scheduled observations at all four campuses for the students that we had been given folders for. So we looked for what does the IEP

063that individual education program say is happening for students in the classroom? What is that specially designed instruction? What's different about how they're receiving support in the classroom? And we went out and we did observations. Was there evidence in those observations that what we said we were going to do is actually happening for students within the classroom? We did observations on all four campuses. We were able to observe most but not all of the students identified due to absences and one student folder that was pulled is on homebound and we don't observe homebound instruction. The last thing that we did that we call empathy interviews. That is where we pull staff from across the district and we ask them open-ended questions so that we can get an understanding of their experience within each of these trend

064areas. We pulled campus administrators, district administrators, special education teachers, general education teachers, paraprofessionals and parents. And we asked them all similar questions related to the special education services that have been provided for the students on their campuses. We also reviewed policy and procedures for the district. We did a community sentiment survey so people that weren't able to participate in empathy interviews had the opportunity to provide feedback through that survey. And we did a data and documentation review of all required postings and all required components of special education procedural tasks. And we found a lot of things but I want to start with the positive things that we found. I cannot say this enough. These three highlights that we chose to bring to the forefront were universally observed throughout the district. The first is a deep-rooted

065sentiment that the special education leadership leadership in the district is on the right track. We heard over and over and over again how your special education director and her team are working hard to do what's right for kids and do what's right for campus professionals. That people who had asked questions for years and never received an answer are getting answers now and that there are systems changes being put into place that are bettering the environment for students with disabilities. We heard over and over again the commitment of your staff members in doing what's right for kids, continuous growth and continuous learning. It is not everywhere that we hear that and we see that. Not one educator that we interviewed expressed a reluctance to grow or do better for students. Every single one expressed interest in

066professional development. Help me help kids better. And I really want to shout out your paraprofessionals because of every group that we spoke to, the dedication and just the deep-rooted [clears throat] sense of I want to do my job well. Please train me better so I can help kids more was extremely present within that group. The last is and I love this one. There is a culture of inclusion here. We couldn't observe several students because they were being included in campus activities and electives and were off campus. We couldn't find them because they were enjoying time with their general education peers. They were having meaningful access to all parts of school. And we're talking about students that have every educational placement. Your students that have the most significant impacts of their disabilities were not in their

067life skills classroom because they were with the band presenting and marching for a football game. That is the spirit of inclusion. When we talk about inclusion, it's not just about the supports that we provide in the classroom. It's about the entire wrap-around school day and how other students view their peers. So, those are just a few of the program highlights, the positive things that we found. That is not all inclusive and that is not all of the highlights. But, these are the big three to get us launched off. We identified, along with those positive trends, a few areas that would be key to improved student outcomes. The first is what I like to say is the bread and butter of special education, PLAFs and IEP goals. I joke all the time that I'm the crazy

068PLAF lady because truly I believe that if you have a solid PLAF statement, present levels of academic achievement and functional performance for students, that drives fantastic student planning and preparation. One of the areas that we have identified that can be enhanced is the building of that PLAF statement. Better identification within that individual education program of what is the impact of a student's disabilities, what are their current strengths in each subject area, and what are their specific needs. We spoke just a minute ago about the deep dive into data that is happening. And so, the connection of getting that data put into those PLAF statements to better identify student individual goals is this first target here. I'm very pleased to say that the district has already started moving on this ahead of our um observations and

069has already deployed standards-based individual education program training to a majority of the staff. We continue to collaborate and provide um ongoing assistance, coaching, and implementation support for staff here. Um I will also pause and say that the way that this screen is set up is our needs are identified on the left and then on the right are the recommendations for each of the areas. And the district is already working with or has scheduled training in each of these recommendation areas. Our second trend is consistency, collaboration, and communication. This trend brought itself up throughout our empathy interviews primarily. Really looking at how we plan for the success of students who receive special education services starting with master scheduling. We met this afternoon with our campus principals and teams to talk about how we could better integrate

070purposeful planning for students who receive special education services into that master schedule. How are we looking at the least restrictive environment for students, making sure they get what they need in their classrooms, but also making sure that it all flows within the master schedule and ARD committees are empowered to make decisions that are more appropriate for students because of the availability of a continuum of service. This is also really looking at making sure that all of our special education staff are involved in the progress talks for students with disabilities. That's looking at PLCs and lesson internalization meetings for Blue Bonnet instruction in all curriculum areas, making sure that our special education providers are pre-planning those services with our general education teams. We're also really looking at making sure that there is alignment between what is

071happening in that student IEP and what's happening in the classroom. So, really looking at the supports and services that are identified in that IEP document and ensuring that they are clearly and articulately deployed within the classroom. Trend three consists of implementing the IEP, those service plans, with specially designed instruction. Specially designed instruction is special education services. We can adapt learning for students with disabilities in three ways. We can adapt the content, we can adapt the methodology, and we can adapt the how we deliver the instruction. Those are the only three ways. Content is the very last thing we ever change. So, when we're looking at inclusive environments, how are we identifying the correct supports to mitigate the impact of a student's disabilities so they can access and make progress in their least restrictive environment, which

072for most students is going to be the general education setting. So, really looking here, our action items are how do we better train teachers on the curation of that IEP document and how do we better train them on what that implementation in the classroom looks like? Our fourth trend is timeline tracking. Making sure that there are efficient ways for special education staff to identify when due dates arise for students who receive special education services. There are a lot of students in the district and many of them receive services for various reasons. Special education compliance tracking is really closely tied to ARD timelines, evaluation timelines, and ensuring that as student needs change, ARD committees are convened to work to meet those needs. In addition to that, one of the required members of an ARD committee is

073a parent. And one way that a parent stays connected is through progress reporting. So, the next recommendation here was to make sure that progress reports are robust and show clear indication of whether or not a student is making progress towards their IEP goals or not. And if not, what are we going to do about it? The last piece was ensuring that there is transparency with the district grading policy and ensuring that there is common understanding that all students who receive special education services are first and foremost general education students and are held to that grading policy. And making sure that parents fully understand what that means for their students and that specially designed instruction is what happens in the pre-planning. It's not grade adjustments on the back end. It's not how do we fix this

074after the instruction has already happened. It is that pre-planning on the front end. With that, it is also transis- transition planning. Um we had a very nice segue into this earlier in the meeting, but talking about what students' post-secondary outcomes are going to be on or before a student's 14th birthday, transition planning for graduation should begin. Making sure that students have a clear plan, clear goals, and clear activities that align with whatever their future holds for them and making sure that we are preparing them to be independent advocates that can speak for themselves and what they need to mitigate the impact of their disability without special education practitioners helping them do that. Okay, Sandra, are these yours? I'll pause for questions for me before Sandra pops into what's working well and what might need more

075attention. Any questions? So, in other words, there's a lot of work to be done. And that's a I'll break the ice. I'll go there. >> So, I think um I want before we start, um I think y'all need to understand that it's not just about the director. I want to acknowledge my staff. I I was going to tell Miss Person, I think I should have been able to bring my staff up. So, Linda, will you please stand up? Octavio, Valeria, Miss Unica, um they're the backbone. It's not about me. Um it's them. And I want them to have the full entire credit because um I wouldn't be able to do this without them and I'm not really I'm not lying. Um it's all about them and all the work they have done for us and

076our students and they push me to the very end and they keep hounding and hounding and slowly but surely um we're all getting there. Of course, there's ups and downs, but I want to thank y'all so much for everything that y'all have done. Y'all are the true new to this program. Thank you. So, some of the things that are working well with for special ed are um the participation on our program evaluation. We had a lot of staff really uh put out, you know, talk to us and they I think they were really honest with what was going on, which made me feel good cuz we knew I kind of had already heard over the summer that these things were happening. Um we started our special ed cluster meetings with our special ed teachers, our

077staff with NIET, and even included some paraprofessionals in there because we're hearing that they want to be part of the they want their voices heard. They want to know what's going on. So, we included them. We started doing Region 20 uh walk-throughs and professional development for our LID. So, our LID classes are what was used to be called to our life skills classes. Um we had a concern at the beginning of the year that things weren't really happening. So, we had Kyla from Region 20 come in and do some walk-throughs at our elementary campuses all the way to the high school, and we continue we're still going to continue we were planning today on what else needs to be done for them. We're providing some more training and opportunities for them throughout the summer till

078um July all the way to July. Um of course you heard um Bianca say the needs are our class statements, but today her and I sat down for 3 and 1/2 hours, and we kind of worked everything out cuz I was like, "Where do we start? Like, I can't figure this out." And so, she kind of we went through that whole thing she went with you, and she said, "We're doing this. We're doing this." She gave me dates, so she kind of went through every single page. There's five pages, and we worked it out where I think I can feel a little bit comfortable of saying we're going to get there. Um collaboration is currently There's a lot of ins and outs because there had been nothing in place for our special ed teachers to

079work with general ed teachers. So, we were like they said we were just going back and forth about yes and no, and sometimes still we see that among ourselves that um they used to do this, and they used This is the way it's supposed to be. That's not the way it's supposed to be. It should have been done this way. So, there's still a lot of um of the information that's not getting out there, and that's why um we try to have monthly staff meetings. I had about three of them, and then we started having the cluster meetings. I need to bring them back because that's our special ed teachers' opportunity to tell me what's going right and what we need to work on. Um our classroom observations showed that um and I don't think

080Bianca even touched on this. So, we have what's called to kind of accommodation that students have. Some can have one. Some can have 20. We found that some of them have 23 to 24 of individual accommodations. Well, only 21.7% of the students that they were visiting they observations were observed. And I think there was 273 accommodations that they should have observed, and not of that it was 21.7%. So, that tells us we need work on that also. Um we've increased That's the first thing I was over there Crystal can tell you Crystal and Mr. D, "I need training. Y'all better give me some days." And we go back and forth. Okay, well, we can share this. And I said, "Well, I need this and this. I better have it." And this was in August because

081I knew we needed to start somewhere. So, I had to fight for my days. And this today uh Bianca and I were I was sitting in the I need these days. I need to do this. Y'all need to work with me. So, I'm already planning for August. I'm like, "I want to get my dates in first because our teachers, our paras, even our own staff hadn't traveled. They hadn't gone to any type of training. They hadn't been given the opportunity to attend any PD, and we're not going to learn things here only that we have to go out and learn things especially when you see what Bianca just shared with you. We're really behind it. I think our staff was really excited uh about being able to go to I think y'all went to y'all

082went to Tish and y'all went Y'all are going going to a diagnostic ARD diagnostician diagnosticians conference. So, they're getting to see what's out there, and they bring it back, and they're really excited. We even made some changes with ECI or another entity that it things were going their way, but not our way. So, they're really helping me put our foot down and say, "No, this is what we're going to do." Um we talked about at the beginning of the year the 73 reads that they started off with that they were behind when we came. I think Linda, you worked on that in August, September? So, um there was 73 reads that they not including anything that was due this year that they were already behind. And Bianca didn't tell you, but there was some students

083that was 6 years that hadn't been evaluated. So, yes, that's how That's how my staff were like they felt that way also. Um we've had our regular meetings with campus administration and special education support. We bring them in and work together. And then we started We all went to a conference with special ed staff regular ed staff administrators to an MTSS RTI conference. We're starting the work for that. So, that's really neat because we established an MTSS RTI committee. Um one of the our needs is implementing target training for all general We need to let our general ed teachers know that we need information from them to make sure we She talked about the class statements and our goals. We have to have the data, and our special ed teachers um aren't getting the data

084that they need to help our students get to where they need. That's why you'll see that our special students may be struggling because there's no coordination. There's no communication, collaboration. What we are seeing is, "Oh yeah, that's good. Oh yeah, that's fine. We're okay with that." But they're not talking 80% of the time the students are are, you know, working on um what? I can't even think. Listening or reading. They're not being specific about what our students' strengths are or weaknesses are. And so, we're hoping that all of this we we get to this soon because we don't have a choice. TEA's coming next year. We're up for cyclical review 2026-2027. So, this is just the beginning. So, we're trying to prepare ourselves for that. And this time we got to choose the folders. I

085don't know if with TEA No, we don't get to choose the folders. They pick folders. So, this time we were able to send there send her the folders, but we looked at them, and and they thought that let's send them the ones that we know need work on so we could prepare ourselves. So, that's where we're at. Any questions? Do you have the vision? >> thank you to Ms. Olmeda and I guess and the team, and it does take a total team effort. Even Mr. Donamantes, Dr. Yes. You know, uh the last statement it it it's important that we want our general ed teachers to provide support and information to the special education teachers, but really we're also trying to grow all of our teachers to work with all of our students. Our students can

086they're general ed students first, and so our general ed students education teachers need to know how to support their needs. And so, the training is really going to be for all teachers cuz that's when we're truly going to see the growth of our special education students. And so, I'm grateful for the work that we are doing um to work with our special students who receive special education services, and I'm grateful to Region 20 also for coming in and doing the evaluation for us. And thank you for collecting such valuable information and data that we can now have actionable steps. Thank you. So, um what we did at our spe first special ed cluster, I don't think it's on here. It talks about our special education, but we brought all the teachers in, and um Jessica

087with NIET worked with them, and one of the things we didn't have that we needed. And we looked at our board uh goals. So, we looked at their mission and their vision, and then we came up with ours. And I'm not I think this is in your packet. So, our special ed uh mission is CSISD is committed to provide all students with individualized instruction to foster independence and confidence in a supportive and inclusive environment. Our vision is instill necessary skills that leads to future success. So, from here we're continuing to our belief statements, and we did share this with our staff. We shared it with um our parents. We did a survey to let them know this was our vision and they We had about five responses, and they were all in agreement. So, we

088are working really hard, and this is the first year I think that we've done a lot of work with Crystal and Mr. D and our staff. So, they are working really hard to help us um help our teachers get to where we need to. So, thank you. Thank you all for coming for being here, for supporting us. Any questions of any of us? So, in that 21 .7% what we did was we took a look at all of the student folders that we had been sent from the district. And in our empathy interviews, it had been shared that there was a feeling that all students were being provided the same accommodations. Those are things Those are the tools and strategies that are listed for implementation within the classroom. Extra time, preferential seating, vocabulary support. And

089we were curious if that was the truth. So, we looked and laid out every single accommodation that was listed in those 24 folders, and then we looked at how many times each of those accommodations occurred. We did not find a clear pattern that it's the same supports being delivered over and over again. But when we laid that information out, what we did find was that each one of us had collected the data on how many accommodations we saw implemented in the classroom. And of all of those accommodations that had been outlined, only 21% of those had been implemented. I truly think that oversaturation of supports is the culprit in some cases. We observed student folders that had zero accommodations, but then we also observed student folders that had 23 to 26 accommodations. And when a

090single student has 23 or more individual supports that are supposed to be deployed daily, that's almost impossible for the teacher to deploy, and that's very impossible for the student to understand what that support is and advocate for the need for those supports. So in our conversations and our planning, part of the work that we're going to do is how do I identify what are those crucial supports based on the impact of a student's disability, and identify three to five key things that we can then train them to deploy independently. So when they graduate high school and they're out in the world, they can mitigate the impact of their disability on their own. Are there any follow-up questions for that? Of course, it was our pleasure. We enjoyed it. Your staff is amazing, and we're really

091excited to get to continue the work. All right. I'm recalling our discussions on with Blue Bonnet. I'm going to put it correctly. What does Blue Bonnet recommend when working with including special education kids? Because I'm I I can I can certainly testify that these our kids, these special ed kids, are taking real deal star. There's no more, you know, what it used to be called, I can't remember the star. Yeah. There you go. Right, the modified version? >> What what does Blue Bonnet It's certainly a recommendation, it's not a requirement, but what does Blue Bonnet because that's that's our that's our baby now. It's it's it's here. We're living it. What does Blue Bonnet I know I've heard it. I just kind of want to hear it again. Yeah, I think Blue Bonnet falls in

092line with all curriculum expectations that our students are first and foremost general education students first. And what works for the general population can work for the majority of students if the right supports are put in place. Not all students can access curriculum without modifications. Not all students can access instruction in a general education classroom, and it would be unrealistic for us to expect that. But what we can do is we can deploy Blue Bonnet at a modified level that is aligned with the prerequisite skills so that students are engaging with research-based systematic explicit curriculum that builds to the concepts that are expected of their same-aged peers. We don't need to start over, select a different curriculum when we can just walk it back to prerequisite skill levels and deploy earlier grade level curriculum content when

093students are say operating at a second grade level when they would be placed in an eighth grade classroom. And then I I believe I saw language in here, the importance of the special ed teacher collaborating with the general ed teacher so that they're speaking the same language so that when that uh learning disabled [snorts] kid has to sit and take star, I'm preaching here, but yeah, it's important. Absolutely. >> collaboration is important. All the way through. And Sandra and I spoke at length today about opportunities for better collaboration for special education teachers and general education teachers through master schedule planning, making sure that there is opportunities built into their schedule so that they can collaborate. And we went as far to say, how do we better educate our special education teachers on the curriculum so

094when they come to the table, the conversations are more meaningful? We're going to have staff engage in training this summer that is specific to modifications for Blue Bonnet instruction. And every single person supporting students needs a clear understanding of what that curriculum implementation looks like. So we're even engaging our paraprofessionals in training that is intentionally designed for paraprofessionals to understand the scope of Blue Bonnet, how to support Blue Bonnet, but more importantly, when they're supporting kids, how can they do that without accidentally modifying the intent of Blue Bonnet? So with that, that's specially designed instruction training, looping it through so general ed teachers have a better understanding of special education supports, special education practitioners, including paraprofessionals, have an understanding of the curriculum, and we put guardrails on if you're going to support a student in

095an inclusion class, here's how you do it without accidentally doing it for them or changing the curriculum. Is there a district in Region 20 that's that's getting this right? For choice of better words to use, yeah, that are on target, that that, you know, Miss Zudiega you know, not go visit, but certainly pick up the phone and talk to somebody. You know, you don't have to say who it is if there's one, but What I would say is that nobody's perfect. >> Right. I agree with that. >> of highlights throughout the region, and the special education directors in Region 20 have a uniquely tight bond and collaboration. We meet monthly at the service center, and we take the opportunity to talk about highlights of what's important for special education, but we also very intentionally build

096in opportunities for our our directors to network and communicate and work with each other. >> Um there are many districts that are engaging with Blue Bonnet specifically, and that is a pain point for I think everybody in a different way as we learn how to better navigate special education and fidelity of curriculum implementation becoming best friends. It takes a while to build a relationship, and I think that's exactly what everybody's working to do. What other questions do you all have for us? We've been setting up dates. I just need to clear them with Miss Pearson, and we're ready to roll. We're ready to go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Bianca. Thank you all for being here. Oh, sir? Did someone have a question? That was answered, actually. Oh, okay. Yeah, I got it. And

097number two, we're going to the state of the career and technology CTE program presentation goal one, GPM 1.1. Good evening. Thank you for having us. My name is Ms. Monsa, and I'm here representing CTE for our high school. I would like to start, of course, the same as everyone is just grounding us and making sure that we understand our mission and our vision. We are here to prepare all of our students to make sure that they're successful after high school. We're empowering them with not only education, but skills, hopefully some type of an industry certification so that when they leave Crisco Springs High School, they are prepared for not only to be a great student, but a great citizen and give back to their community. So with our whole department, every single teacher, our campus

098administration, our counselors, we're working very hard to make sure that we reach 100% of our students every single day. Um as far as highlighting our programs of study, um Crisco Springs High School does have 10 programs of study that we're currently offering this school year. Um within our 10 programs of study, we offer 42 courses to 487 students. And um our high school population is about 535 students. So out of the 535, 487 of them are enrolled in a CTE class between freshman year and their senior year at while they're at high school this year. Um but out of that 487, we actually have them enrolled in 725 class sections. So we have a lot of students who take multiple courses within a program of study. They might be taking an education class, but they're

099also taking a culinary class. Or they might be playing catch-up and they're taking two health classes at the same time um to catch up within their program of study. A goal that was put in place um for this school year by TEA is that all graduating seniors would be considered a CTE completer. So this is the first year um last year we had concentrators, this year they're completers. And what that means is within their program of study, whichever program they fall into, they have taken at least three courses in that um sequence of sequence of course offerings and they have earned four credits. Along with those four credits, they have also passed their certification exam. So, in order for us to receive CCMR um accountability points for them, they have taken the three classes, they've

100earned the four credits, and they've passed their certification exam. And that is new for class of '26 this school year. Um real quickly, going to go through our programs of study. Um in our animal science, we um currently have a one-teacher department teaching our agriculture, animal science. I'm going to go this way. Um in this program of study this this year they opened up a um animal grooming clinic. We actually opened it last year, but thank you so much for allowing us the opportunity to expand behind the superintendent's office and we opened up a grooming clinic. Um so, we have a portable building, half of the building is for our um grooming center, the other half of our um other half of the half of the building is for our law enforcement utility room that

101they work out of there as well. So, they do groom animals to the district. We do about They do about two to three animals a week and they do have a schedule that they put out. Um within that same program of um career cluster, we also have ag technology and mechanics. Um they meet in the welding shop first and second period and they are working on any um welding trade, ranching trade that you would see in the agriculture industry. Right now, um they are teamed up with our actual welding department and they are using metal that was previously donated and sitting in our um material slab to make barbecue pits for every single campus. So, they will be They're creating them and then they will be distributing them to every campus, so they would all

102have their own barbecue pit. This one's I don't mean to cut you off. Go. Can you tell us who's teaching each Yes. So, in our agriculture pathway, we have one teacher teaching two programs and this is Ms. Nicole Taylor. So, she is also our FFA um advisor. The next program of study is our business management and this is Ms. Bernice Urenda. Um she does the entire business pathway in addition to our career prep. So, our career prep program is all of our students who are working within the industry throughout um Crystal Springs. And we currently have 42 seniors that are out working in the public. So, at a minimum, they're putting in a minimum of 10 hours a week throughout the school year. They're also be um being certified in the Microsoft Office, um Microsoft

103Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Excel. Um the next program of study is our carpentry. This is taught by Ronnie Yandell. Um he currently has a full schedule as well, um a complete program of study. His students test um either the end of their junior year or the within their senior year for their NCCER core certification that they can take with them after graduation. Um the carpentry program, along with our animal science program, created a garden a garden right behind the um practice gym. So, they did create the boxes, they did all the planting, and they're also maintaining the garden beds throughout the school year. Culinary arts is taught by two teacher. It's a two-teacher department, Mrs. Lupita Jimenez and Darian Alvarado. Ms. Alvarado is helping with our intro to culinary, but also teaching one section of

104culinary arts. Mrs. Jimenez is teaching our culinary arts, a section of culinary, a section of advanced, and a section of practica practicum in culinary arts. Um amazing program. I'm sure you've seen him, heard about him. Um great students, great teachers, um big hearts. Our students um have two certifications in this pathway. They earn their food safety and science certification and then in their senior year they do a meat selection, so they have to learn about cuts types of meats, cuts of meats, um weights, a whole bunch of stuff, um meat safety. So, those are the two exams that they receive. Brand new to our CTE world is what should have always belonged is JROTC. Um as of October of 2025, JROTC has now become a CTE program of study and we are excited to have

105them. They've always belonged with us. Um this program consists of two campuses. We have students at the high school campus and then we also have um leaders in ROTC at the junior high campus. Um so, potential cadets when they come up to the high school, um this is a one-teacher department at the moment, but looking to expand that to two. Um she does need help and they too have moved their facility behind the superintendent's office. Um so, they have one there and then of course expanding in the high school as well. Um and thank you so much for recognizing Mrs. um Monteschio today. She's amazing and we're excited to have her um recognized. Um next is our law enforcement um program of study. This is taught by one teacher, a one-teacher department. Mrs. Carla Ortiz.

106She is employed of course full-time as our um peace officer teacher, but she also assists the police department here within the district and the county as well. So, she does You will see her at a lot of events representing not only the school, but the county um and our students. So, this is the first year and a big thank you to the board, to Ms. Pearson, to Mr. Gonthue, and of course Chief Ramirez for allowing our seniors the opportunity to adopt to job shadow. So, right now we have six seniors and we have two at every campus that are partnered up with our um PD officers on campus and they're shadowing. They're watching them. They're helping check doors at the I've seen them at the high school campus check doors, um check parking tags on

107the vehicles. They are getting a lot of work and then of course um practicing in full uniform in the in their utility room and then plans to go to competitions as well. So, program is looking um looking very well. Yes, please. Thank you so much, principals. I know those conversations went back and forth with them to say like, "Hey, can we um put students on your campus?" We also have one senior um who was like, "I don't know if I see myself being a" She's in our pathway of law public service, um but she wants to be a district attorney one day. So, she is actually her 2 hours that she puts in a day is at the courthouse and she's partnered up with our county attorney. So, we talked to the kids, we surveyed

108them, um kind of see see where they felt most comfortable and then she can rotate them or do whatever she would like throughout the district. Um our welding department is taught by a Southwest Texas um instructor right now, Ricardo Gardiel. He teaches three sections, um a sophomore section, a junior section, and a senior section of welders. Um this is one of the programs that is a technical section as Dr. Gonzales had mentioned earlier, um not only expanding, but allowing our students to go to that year two um at Uvalde. This year we have eight seniors that should be graduating with their level one welding certification and out of the eight, two are expanding right as of right now two have committed um to year two at um Southwest in Uvalde. Um our nursing science pathway

109is taught Well, this program of study is taught by three teachers. We have the Southwest Texas instructor, Diana Martinez, who covers our PCT program. Um we have Ms. Cassandra Pendergrass who takes care of our level one and our level two um courses. And then we also have Ms. Rosa Trevino who helps us with our um anatomy and physiology courses. So, it's three teachers covering one program of study. The anatomy and physiology is not only CTE, but it's also a science credit um because they do need their four sciences, so she has a large group of students who may not all be nursing students. In this pathway this year, I'm so happy to say we have 22 seniors who will be graduating um from the Southwest Texas College with their PCT certification and out of the

11022, um 21 have already been certified in um one, two, three certifications. They will be testing really soon for their clinical medical assistant and then after that they'll be sitting for their PCT exam. So, there's another 22 seniors graduating from a level one certificate. The next program of study is our education and training. This is also a two-teacher department, kind of one and a half. Um Mrs. Coach Haley teaches um level one, level three, and level four and Darian Alvarado teaches level two to our sophomores. Um this is the program of study that we're excited to see the most growth in. The numbers tend to are growing here and that's kind of what we want. We want to, you know, grow our own programs, grow our own teachers, allow them those experiences to go over

111to our elementary campuses, get that teacher aid recognition, and then graduate with that teacher aid certification. Um I've been happy to help and assist Mrs. um Coach Haley going over to the elementary campuses with our students and seeing some of our previous students who have graduated from this program substituting. They're employed as teacher aides and a couple of them are even employed at CSIS teachers. So, it's nice to see that this program is working and growing. This is also a program that is currently partnered with Sul Ross State University. Um they have a teacher academy and we this this was this fall semester was our first year um offering a the first education course for their teacher academy. So, if all works out, our seeing our students um currently freshmen um they could graduate with

11231 hours towards their education degree if they continue at at Sul Ross. So, the teacher education is already in place. The teacher academy is already in place and we currently have students in this pathway. Was was there at one time uh Ms. Pearson please remind me that did we discuss about providing like a scholarship or no tuition? Was that ever discussed with this board? Like uh if if a student went through this program, came back to teach in our district for did No? Remind me. >> Informally informally we have talked about something like that and uh the Lasso grant the Lasso grant cycle four has a part of like the grow your own uh process and um there's actual funding also for like some mentorship and in fact we have a meeting tomorrow. I was

113just [laughter] going to say we have a meeting tomorrow. >> Bunsen and Mr. Gunther and I and Dr. De La Garza and Mr. Del Montez [clears throat] have a meeting with Sul Ross to discuss specifically grow your own. But yes, then that would have to come to the board because that has budget implications. So, the board would have to do that. Okay. Well, we can get teachers out of it for sure. Okay. Well, we can get teachers out of it for >> is they they offer them like a a a a large signing on bonus, you know. >> Yeah. Okay. >> $7,000 or something like that because you really want them to kind of commit to you. You go through the program and then they commit to teach to you for you. And that's kind

114of what I've seen at Region 20 um as I've seen from other school districts where they um have this teaching and training program. They have students continue through the Alamo Colleges and then into some of the universities and then end up coming back and teaching within their district. So, again with the teaching academy being right there in Eagle Pass um that being the goal. They're getting 31 to 42 hours here. Um going and finishing their degree there and then within their senior year of student teaching coming right right back over here and student teaching and working within our district being the end goal. Um these are our CTSOs. So, our career technical student organizations. Everything that you see on the left is currently active and our students are participating in. Everything on the right are

115our goals for for next year and our teachers have been have attended um professional development or have development planned. So, TAFE is bringing back our We have a TAFE um organization in the district. We just have to re um re pay dues and then turn it um turn it back on. Um BPA for our business students and then FCCLA for our culinary arts departments. Um year to glance just everything we've kind of done. I'm sure there's stuff missing on the list. Um we have a new MOU agreement with Sul Ross and not only teaching but health science. We've opened the dog clinic. We talked about the facilities next door. We built the garden beds. We have the barbecue pits. Certification exams are up and going. They started in October and people were testing last week.

116So, they're still going all the way through May. Um We've hosted career fairs, eighth grade expos. We've had parent meetings. Um this work starts young. Um we had an ag fair that elementary put on a few weeks ago and our high school students were able to represent their agriculture department there at the career fair. Um so, again one of the biggest goals is spreading this work down to the elementary level so that when they get to junior high, they're not guessing anymore. They kind of already know where they want to go. Um because what we're seeing is we have more kids interested in programs than we have seats. So, what do we do? You know, so right now I we we're looking at about 40 freshmen who want to get into welding but we only

117have 16 seats. So, because of the the ratio of the class. So, definitely um conversations to be had about what can we do. And then looking forward to next school year, we are opening a new program of study. So, we are going to offer information technology. We are opening up two programs. We are opening cyber secure cyber cyber security and computer science. Both high school level courses um with dual credit potentials with growth. We have also expanded to the junior high to offer CTE courses at the junior high. Seventh graders will be getting college and career exploration and eighth graders will be choosing an elective will have an elective choice of business foundations of business, principles of law, and principles of education and training. So, if that's something that they're interested in in the eighth

118grade level, they kind of get a head start on that level one course giving them more job opportunities within their junior and senior year, more um practicums, and then of course more work-based learning. Um Expanding our dual credit technical um opportunities for our students. Again, just all those partnerships with Southwest Texas College. Dr. Gonzalez presented earlier. Um amazing things to come, right? Exciting facilities, business programs, cosmetology, power line CDL. If we break down where our kiddos plan to attend, especially our Southwest kiddos, they May 1st we host decision day and I invite you all to come out and see um where these kids are planning on going and you're going to see that a big chunk of our kiddos go to Southwest to get started to earn their associates, to earn their um work their

119work in trade um degrees, certificates. So, just seeing what they want and what we can offer them, I'm super excited for our students. Um and then the academies are down there as well. Again, just growing and expanding those programs into our master schedule. Thank y'all so much. I know that's a lot and I tried to be fast. Yes. Where are the others? Yes. Where are the others? No. No. No. I was >> Oh. Oh. Oh my gosh. Guys, 400 signatures is nothing. I got you. Um definitely an easy plan. Um an easy I think it's going to be a really easy sell within our district and our community. Um the facility, the opportunities only for our students and our dual credit enrollment but a lot of our kiddos you'll see that they take that gap

120year or their parents took a gap year. And now I have a mother and a daughter both in cosmetology at the same time right now in Uvalde. They're commuting together. They're taking the same classes. So, could you imagine all those opportunities here for our kiddos um and our parents? So, easy breezy, not worried. >> I've already signed mine. I got you. Yes, me too. Registered voters, I'm going to get you. Um but I think it's just another thing to clarify. Yes, 487 students. And then the other kiddos, they're more than likely they're taking um dual credit classes. They're in band. They're in athletics. They're They're in an elective. Um by the time they're a senior, they're going to get us. I'm going to get all of them. It's very rare um when we go through

121transcripts that you have a senior um a senior who falls into the non-CTE. It's so rare that you're going to see a non-CTE student. They've had one course and the goal is for everyone to have at least one course for those employability skills. Those soft skills that they really don't may not get. Every single level one course is going to teach you how to interact with people, how to look people in the eye, um how to type on a computer, how to answer a phone, how to make copies. Um so, just teaching them all those basic skills you're going to get in all of our principles classes. So, I do love that the employability TEKS are all taught at the level one course. Doesn't matter which program of study you're in. So, definitely making sure

122we hit all that. Anything else? Y'all are awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. I want to thank Ms. Bunsen for her leadership. I mean she has really taken on a big responsibility and uh we're just very proud of all of the work and board. I want to thank the school board because I hear the language of this is our board goal goal one and the actionable steps that are moving. In one short year, school board, where CCMR is board goal one and we have team that put it into actionable steps and is adding a course of study at the high school and extending adding a course of study at the junior high and extending two more. Talk about budget 26-27 very much aligned to the board goals. And so, I want to thank the

123board and Ms. Bunsen for your leadership and Mr. Gunther, thank you. I'm glad you said that. I want to um what was the what was the goal or something that needed to be accomplished here back when we first all got together with in our governance. Was there something that was missing? I thought there was some I thought we talked about there was something that was missing or something a target we weren't hitting. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. So, was there something that we discussed in that governance that that we weren't doing that we needed to that we were we had to tweak some numbers. Remind me, please. Right. Right. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I I just know why I'm recalling that. There was something where where you guys needed to get to and we weren't

124there. Did we need to do something different or I can just Yeah. That's the discussion I remember. Okay. Yes. Yeah. Okay. That's what I recall. Okay. And the other point I want to make and I know Miss Ponce um really was very significant in doing this but our we have freshmen that are starting with the dual credit and they're getting the support at the campus and we have a teacher here who's teaching the course and so I just think it's so important to tell our story and so part of one of the goals that we also want to do is potentially pour some more support into that at the high school. So, again, just talking about you know, our budget aligning with our goals. So, thank you. That that question was for Dr. Sinto. I

125know he'll be watching this later. What hey without without governance we wouldn't be having these kind of conversations. It's pretty powerful. Dr. Sinto, for the record. Thank you. Okay, we'll go on to item eight, superintendent briefing, student recognition, staff recognition, and bond update. Okay, thank you. All right, so highlights for the district. We recognized our amazing educational diagnosticians Linda and Octavio the the first week of March. We also had our first four six weeks attendance champs with Carrizo Springs Elementary and with all the flus going around we really are being very proactive with just extra cleaning and trying to make sure that our students are healthy and our teachers are healthy and they get to school. We are at about 92.5% right now in the district on attendance overall. We did go ahead and also

126recognize uh Cadet Chavez this evening. It was a wonderful beautiful accomplishment with that 100% fully paid scholarship to UTSA. We also did recognize child nutrition week and we had special treats for our students. Look at those beautiful smiles. We had special Olympics in Eagle Pass on March 4th. Our students got to celebrate. Our teachers did too and participate. We have another one in April 29th coming up for our special education students at Catulla and we are looking forward to planning our very own for next year. And then we had an author visit during our Read Across America week. Judy Murray and Elena Martinez visited our elementary. And we had our very own Chief Ramitas present to our student ambassadors for March and he highlighted many of his life story and what he's done. It was

127a great great presentation and along with that they also got to start to brainstorm superintendent for the day and we're excited to have the board back when we do those presentations like we did last year. We also celebrated March has been a busy month. We celebrated our maintenance transportation team and so we sponsored a lunch for them. Thank you, Mr. Reese for your leadership and for having that special presentation for them. Also, we had our ag career fair as Miss Ponce mentioned and it was a great success. Congratulations to our wind ensemble performance. We celebrated them earlier our band as sweepstakes. We also had these four students who were inducted in the Phi Theta Kappa Kappa at Southwest Texas College. What an awesome celebration and recognition. And there's our sweepstakes for our band and then

128our one act play advanced to by district one act play and they actually are going to now advance again to area. So, they did well the last two days and are by district champs. So, congratulations to them. The tradition continues. And then we have our four students for basketball varsity that had the 27-4A selections. We have our first team all district second team all district and honorable mention students. Well done and congratulations to our Lady Cats. We definitely had a beautiful celebration with the city of Carrizo last week. Thank you, city of Carrizo for having that wonderful celebration for them. And then we also had our first Wildcat Rise Summit. It was a huge success. We had Dr. Rick Ramirez. This was at the end of February and we had a great turnout. Wonderful sessions.

129Our police department continues to have their coffee with the cops and they had their last one at Carrizo Springs Elementary at the the last week of February. And I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Nick Martinez and to Mr. Josh Contreras from Butler Cohen for the project update. Am I live? Awesome. Good evening, Ms. Franco, board president, uh Superintendent Pearson, board of trustees, thank you so much for having us tonight. Really excited to go through these slides and update you on what's going on. The first handout I had I handed out was I'm going to start off with that. Uh called up Ms. Pearson, of course, under awesome leadership and brainstorming with her, "Hey, why don't we get, you know, the board involved but also the community involved?" So, we developed a with her

130leadership the board project walks once a month. So, me and Josh are going to get together once a month. It's I think it's colored turquoise where you can bring a special guest with you and we'll be able to walk the site, probably get in a four wheeler and ride around and make sure that you're up to date on what's going on so you can answer questions in the public and make sure that you know, we're getting the project going along and take pictures and all that good stuff. So, so that's one of the first things that we want to provide to you. Next, we will be also providing bi-weekly updates via email with pictures and all that good stuff. So, that's going to be coming on as on board as well, too. And next slide,

131please. Go ahead and start this off. So, right here as you can see some of the photos there. Basically, we're removing the 15 existing utility poles. Might not seem like a lot of poles but man, that's a lot of work in coordination with AT&T with coordination with AEP with coordination with Ayoka who works for the city of Carrizo Springs. City manager has been very helpful in helping us move the project along along with Jerry and his team and Ms. Pearson, thank you so much. She signed a document for us on Saturday and got to help us get things moving. So, thank you so much. Safety performance zero incidents on the that haven't occurred on the site and we're keeping track of that as we move it forward. Next slide, please. As you can see here

132the ROTC did come back with 4% asbestos in the black filming. We could not known that during testing. Right now, it the contingency is from GMP1. So, if you can remember we had GMP1, GMP2, GMP3. And when those bids came in, we actually got these guys right here did a lot of negotiating with us with the companies. We were able to get some money's back from savings. Say they Uh projected probably about 80 about $100,000 on something in GMP 1. Well, it came back at 80,000. So, we were able to save 20 grand there. So, some of those things happened in each GMP as they negotiate contracts. With the money's left over in that contingency of GMP 1, we were able to uh pull the funds there of uh $80,000 to get the air uh

133testing and all that good stuff. And as you can see out there today, well, not right now, but out there this morning this afternoon, uh Josh and his team, they started on 23rd and uh they take about 4 days for abatement and 7 days to complete, but as you know, uh these guys are going to put like 10 days, but it's going to take them like five, you know? So, they're awesome. And so, it's moving really well out there. Keeping everything safe during the abatement. So, air quality testing is going on 24/7 to make sure it's not uh in the air and all that good stuff. Next slide, please. So, this is a big uh project summary highlight that I really want to talk about. I mean, today I I was at an event uh

134with uh some of the with Northside ISD, Bernie ISD, and uh Navarro ISD. And the last one, I think was uh Medina Valley ISD. And they provided input on their fast-growing districts and what's going on with their design. And I was so proud to announce that Carrizo Springs, through the awesome superintendent and her brainstorming skills, allowed us to reach out to Texas State Safety Center. And I think that's a milestone that we're going to be able to carry because they're going to be able to provide a plaque that says this school was design was helped designed with the Texas State uh Safety Center, which no district, and those are some of the major districts in our area, has that in any of their design. So, I want to say kudos to Carrizo Springs and ISD

135and and uh Chief and uh Jerry and Ms. Pearson for their leadership in being able to grab that plaque uh because it's going to be something that's super proud that we're proud of and we're going to post all over the place cuz there's no other districts that has really signed on to that program yet. So, 100% documents completed. Thank you. Our target was 14 months. We kind of crushed that. Uh the GMP packages would not have been available without y'all's support. So, thank you. 1 through 3 went pretty smooth and it definitely was ahead of schedule and keeping us within the schedule. So, thank you. The procurement um uh Octavio and his team and Josh uh really uh started to look at what do we need to go ahead and grab. So, steel, we locked

136in that price with GMP 1. I'm sorry, GMP 3. As you can tell with what's going on in the world and the economic economic standings and the market, locking in that price back in December was very, very crucial for us to do. So, thank you, Josh, to you and your team for leading that charge with us. Uh the major utility uh uh coordination, like I said, it really couldn't have been done with those without those departments. So, thank you so much. And then right now, we're really looking at what is cement cost, what's the labor cost, the materials, all those things as we're wrapping up some of these contracts and making sure that folks are keeping what they stated uh back in December and moving us forward. Uh one other item that was on here

137is that wasn't put on here, but should be mentioned was during the negotiations of GMP 3, Butler Cohen really stepped up. Uh their help with the with getting us under budget and right at budget. They were um gave up their uh 20% of the owner's contingency aspect. So, say we had um about $100,000 left over in the project. Of that, they were going to gain total that $20,000 and we were going to keep the 80,000. Well, when it comes to $2 million and and $100 million and you're looking at things like of that nature, um that cost uh uh for the contingency saved about us $2 million. So, Josh, hats off to your team and helping us get where we needed to be for the budget. So, thank you. Next slide. So, here is a

138follow-up to the vendor participation. Um I think one of the biggest things here is just noting that we really uh had two contractors fairs here. 524 companies viewed the GMP 3. We only had 129 bids. Unfortunately, no vendors from Carrizo Springs bid that piece. So, here the next step, that's our big step where we get the big contractors in GMP 3. The additional subcontractors will be vetted here at uh Carrizo Springs through two events uh for the uh trades fair. So, we're going to have one in June and July. Hopefully, we're starting to go vertical then. Uh so, these are your landscapers, these are your painters in town, these are your electrical electrical uh uh plumbers, uh your tile and flooring gentlemen. Those contractors that we did hire, now they're going to be starting looking

139for those individuals. So, Josh came up with a great idea in the sense of let's let's do the trades fair. I was the one that said let's do it twice, so I'll say you take little credit there. So, thank you to the team. So, we're going to really uh have that and really get into the city where we're going to uh with Ms. Pearson's um permission, talk with the city manager and maybe do an event over there, the Chamber of Commerce or something of that nature, but really tie in all of our uh individuals that that work really hard here in our subcontractor work here at a Carrizo Springs. Next slide, please. So, the next 90 days kind of give you that calendar ahead just to just to give you a heads-up on what's going

140on. Uh the project school board walks. Uh there are some sections, you know, you got A through G. So, when you look at the site on a plan, there's there's A, B, C, D all the way through. So, if we're stopped like this ROTC building right now, and we can't do nothing there so much. So, what do we do? We go move We go move to section E. What can we get accomplished there? Oh, well, we can do over here in C. So, the ball just keeps on rolling if we run any hiccups. But, it's a blank slate out there. You see a lot of dirt moving. So, hopefully, God willing, with prayers, no more hiccups and we'll be able to rock and roll. Uh down at the bottom, uh just to keep us honest

141with what we uh we're going to try to do. So, TCO stands for temporary uh certificate of occupancy. So, that's June 1st. We're going to try to get some furniture hopefully sooner uh moved in on that date. Ribbon cutting uh the 1st of August, of course, if we finish earlier, we're going to knock that out. I think the first day of school is August 23rd. Yeah, somewhere around there. And so, uh we're going to get those little ones uh into that door of opportunity at their new elementary and intermediate. Next slide, please. Now, this is just a copy of what was passed out with the turquoise and the green. And um all we ask in yellow is that you wear uh closed-toed shoes and we're going to be doing it at 11:00 a.m. and 2:00

142p.m. on those days that are listed there in turquoise. So, we hope to see you and a special guest. And bring out their cameras and let's take some good photos. Also to note in the calendar up above, you know, uh Ms. Pearson is all about community engagement. She got tasked us, "Okay, well, what's the list?" So, we do have a standard list, but there was one creative one that she brought to the table with the sense of signing a beam. Have a signing the beam um event for the community. So, when we start getting those, maybe do that and also with our learning beyond the classroom, maybe get some of our welders actually weld some of those beams up would be a really cool thing that we can uh pursue moving forward. So, that's part

143of our learning uh learning beyond the classroom vibe there. Next slide, please. As our quick update right there, just wrapping it up. Any other questions that we can answer now or you can write them and bring them to the uh the walk uh next week if you can make it, but here to open open the floor. President had a question I guess he wanted to ask. Going back to the Vaziri Group on the follow-up for the vendor. Yes, sir. On the GMP 1 through 3, that the demoli- that's from the get-go from the beginning as far as demolition and dirt work and all that? Yes, sir. So, no vendors, zero vendors from Carrizo Springs put in a bid for that kind of work. No, that that It says here zero vendors. Yeah, on the building

144side. On on the demolition uh tear down or We we did receive Sorry. I I didn't want to yell across the room. >> No, that's fine. But, uh we did receive proposals for that portion and we did hire a local electrician who did all the rework with that administrative building. The zero was part of the uh the GMP 3, the building side, the actual structure. The vertical structure. Sorry for the confusion there, Mr. Ortiz. Okay, cuz that's what I wanted to clarify. Yeah, we can get you that list of 1 and 2 also. I'll provide that to Ms. Pearson. Okay. Thank you for the question. That's all I got. >> Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much. Any other questions from anyone? My question. I noticed there were uh two or three that uh lack

145uh bidders. That's one or two uh bidders. So, what would you do about that? Are you rebidding it or wait for other bidders? Can you hear the question? >> Yeah, yeah. So, was there a specific portion that Uh Yes, on on your report, there were I saw like two or three that uh has on only one or two bidders. And you need three bidders to to proceed, right? So, it's it's Yeah. So, it it You're asking there are certain sections that only had one Yeah, or two. Correct. So, in that scenario, our team's looking for other bids, but it does not we don't have to get three bids to procure it, but we are in the interest of making sure that price is competitive. If that makes sense. So, are you going to wait for

146other bidders or are you going to re-bid re-bid it? >> depends it it depends on the division you're specifically talking about and we can it if if you want to pass that along I can answer that. If it's a high priority like I I know we got multiple on steel, but something like steel we would have to act it just depends on if it's a high priority or a low priority type Okay. scope. Okay, it would change the timeline, right? If it would delay it would delay. Correct. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you guys. >> Thank you. All righty. Let's see uh uh Item nine, reports financial for me reports informational items starting with a financial brief briefing. Good evening. Uh for the February 2026 financials uh we are at the 50% mark

147of our fiscal year. So, I'm going to go on through our percentages and and our collections and so forth. For the general fund we've collected about 90.47% of our projected uh collections. Expenditures, not including the chapter 49 payment cuz we don't pay that until August, we're at about 52% of our budget. So, we're very close to our 50% mark. In food service uh we've collected about 51% of our revenue. Expenses are below where we are for the year, which is 48.72%. And for interest and sinking we're at about 96.65%. Monday? I'm sorry. Did I Do I continue? Yes, I'm sorry. >> Uh for interest and sinking we're at 96.65% collected of our projected budget. And expenses cuz we've only made uh our first half of our bond payments are 28.14% of budget. If you look

148at our um fund balance totals right underneath on the summary page you have your for the general fund you have the audited figure for August 31, 2025 of 19,941,450. Revenues collected so far for the February 2026 of 57 million 542,823. Expenses 17 million 865,605 leaving our net revenue over expenditures of 39,677 um 218. So, of course if we net out the projected chapter 41 payment that would leave us at a positive 10,477,13 at this moment. And so then our projected fund balance as of February 28th is at if you're rolling over the um audited number at 30,412,163. For food service I want to take a moment also to recognize like other staff have done that I think Karen and her team and her cafeteria workers have done such a great job. Uh I always feel

149so blessed that I you know, she focuses so much on her program that I can focus on other important matters for the district. So, thank you Karen and your team. Uh the year-to-date revenues collected are 1.1 million. Expenses are a million 49, so at this moment they're positive 56,926. So, good job. Uh for debt service our fund balance is 3,236,487. Our year-to-date revenue collected is 9.9 million. Our expenses are 2.3 million, so we're positive 7,595,729, which of course we still have the August payment to make on our bond payments. And then on the next page basically on these next three pages they are the same information, but more in detail. So, in revenue you can see the local, state, and federal uh collections which again makes up the 57.5 million that that I discussed for

150the general fund. And then as far as expenditures are concerned you can see them there uh by function, which I see as departments, instruction, and so on and so forth. And then at the bottom you can see the revenue over expense for the year through February of the 39,677. And then the same thing like child nutrition that I just mentioned here you can see their local uh revenues, the state, and the federal. And then you know where they're at on their expenses and then uh positive the 56,000 at this point. On the next page is the um uh the I&S. Same thing uh local revenues, which is the interest, right? So, that's uh the local the 9.9 million is the interest and the tax collections together cuz that's local revenue. And then state program revenue

151we did receive uh from TEA that 31,510. And then our debt expenses. And then on the next page you'll see our construction. For this fiscal year for 25-26 here you have the local revenues of 1.8 million. This piece is the interest, so for the month we've collected 249 thousand in interest and our year-to-date for this year only 1,849,729. And then you can see our expenses so far uh for this fiscal year 9.3 million. Okay. And then on the next page is a recap for construction. So, here you see uh the fund balance rolling forward at the end of the fiscal year at 95.8 million. And then the revenue and expenses that I just mentioned uh we're over revenues over expenses where we've over we've spent more than our collections for the year 7,481, but our

152total fund balance is 88,369,690. Okay, on the next page. So, we do not have any board budget amendments to present to you this month. This is basically just a recap. And then on the next page you'll see our general fund budget expenses that we've that has been brought to the board and approved. Uh we have one that was approved, but not used. So, we have a balance of the 200,000 for emergency maintenance projects. We have a balance of a actually 122,758 since we have not used that 20. But I'm still leaving it there because I haven't brought it back to the board to reverse it. So, technically it's still there. And that's all I have on the uh financials. Any questions? Thank you, Ms. Diaz. >> Thank you, Ms. Approval of uh item 10, approval

153of consent agenda items. Questions? Uh President Franco um on the minutes for the budget workshop uh on the um on the item y'all voted on at the the votes need to be changed to 4-0 instead of 5-0. That makes a difference for the minutes. And then on the adjournment also. Oh, okay. There was there was three board members absent. Okay. Okay. Noting that for the correction. Any other questions? You have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the consent item agendas presented. Second. As amended. A motion made by Jeff Ortiz seconded by Wilbur Cruz to approve the consent agenda items as amended. All in favor? I. I. Opposed? None. Motion carries. Thank you. Item 11, discussion and possible action. Consider approval of board resolution to allow administration to enter an interlocal participation agreement with

154the Texas Education Employers Benefit Cooperative TEEBC to explore and possibly engage in employee benefits and services offered through TEEBC. Thank you, Board President Franco. So, um currently Cotulla ISD is utilizing Hub International for our health insurance uh primary network and also any of the stuff that is additional that's considered the cafeteria plan. And our contract expires August of 2026. Uh because our costs continues to go up each year, uh we are exploring all options. We did create a health benefit committee last year and we have continued to engage with that health benefit committee this year. We met with them on February 26th and we met with them again on March 5th. We have another meeting scheduled potentially for April 8th. And so, what this uh resolution does, it allows us to enter into the cooperative

155with TEEBC and through this allowing us uh to if the board should should approve the resolution, allows us to be able to have the procurement if the district committee should decide to go in a different direction than we've already been been able to um enter into this cooperative for the procurement. And so, again, this is what this is what we're recommending that the board approve the board resolution and interlocal participation to join the Texas Education Employee Benefit Cooperative to explore and possibly engage in employee benefits and service offered through TEB C. And we do have Victor here and we also have Cindy McClure who have been uh also meeting with us and providing information for us on some benefits that we may be able to provide our employees that would um be of cost savings

156for them and provide really good health care through a direct primary care. And so, if you have any questions, Cindy and Victor here and they can answer. So, uh this cooperative is like uh like uh by board, Mrs. Pearson. So, so, the advantage is that we will do away with the procurement uh competitive procurement process, right? That is correct. The cooperative has already gone out to bid for services and so, what happens is we obtain your information, we go out to bid with all the carriers and then we come back with all the options and then your committee will then choose the benefits that would be offered to your employees. So, is there uh like a membership fee or Nope, it's free cost. The way we get compensated is through the commissions on the voluntary

157benefits that employees sign up for. So, all the services are free. There's free. Correct. There's no cost to the district to be part of members and there's no cost to the employees to be members. So, how how how do you choose >> and they come. They show up. I've been very, very proud. We have uh well over 20 uh members on the committee. Yeah, but I understand the the committee is uh looking for other um providers aside from from the cooperative. So, the cooperatives already do all of the bidding. That's the benefit of the cooperatives is they already went out they they do their bids. So, they do A-rated companies that come into So, you would only bring in health um networks that have already been vetted. The the concern with Cotulla ISD since we

158left TRS, which is a teacher retirement system, is that our without going into much detail, but our committee surely can talk about I think our teachers are really understanding it now. Health insurance is really pricey and when you have your ratio to um your ratio to debt Is it ratio to debt? Can you Can you explain that just a little bit, Victor? Yes, ma'am. Loss ratio. >> Loss ratio, yes. Yes, uh so with with the medical, uh the loss ratio continues to increase uh year over year, month over month. And whenever you look at designing a medical plan, you have to understand that it consists of two things, fixed costs and variable costs. The variable costs are what goes into the majority of the expenses. So, that's going to be your actual claims. Um there's

159nothing being done other than offering a health plan that continues to pay claims. The goal in in order to lower premiums is to improve access to care, the quality of care, the population health, the cost of care. All of those things rolled into one, you then uh once you solidify that, you partner it with uh the fixed expenses, you roll that into one and that's the premium. That being said, the only way to truly drive down the premium and the cost of care is to start to look methodically at how can we What first? What are the chronic ailments that everybody suffers from? And then it's how do we fix the chronic ailments that everybody suffers from? Or how do we at least prevent them from getting worse and and improve their lifestyle and their

160their access to health care? I have a question. So, um what does your group feel that you have to benefit or what do you have to offer uh Cotulla versus you know, the plan the current what we have right now? What? It is the um built-in of direct primary care. Uh so, we've taken a look at at your claims. Uh and looking at them, we we've noticed that the chronic diseases are really driving. So, it's the the hypertension, the diabetes. Um if those costs continue to rise and they're not going down, then it begins it it does beg the question, are we treating these efficiently? Why are the members not getting healthier? Do they just not have access to care when they need it and therefore are only visiting the doctor when things get absolutely

161worse for them? Um if that's the case, then by providing primary care and bringing care in sooner rather than later and removing the barriers to access to care for these members, we know we can get the cost down in combination with uh aggressive uh network arrangements that pay um a more competitive dollar amount. So, for example, imaging, right? You can you can pay eight network agreement for imaging that uh an MRI is, let's say, $1,000, but by paying that cash through the health plan, it then turns into $500. Right? And so, that is a savings for the health plan of $500. Well, that is $500 less that the health plan has spent. Therefore, when we're looking at loss ratios as a whole, we've decreased the loss ratio because now we're decreasing the dollar amount that's

162leaving the um bank account for the plan. And uh that's what makes the difference. It's actually looking at the chronic diseases, supplying the fix, which is primary care, and pairing that with a better network that is optimized uh for lower plan spend. When you do all of those things together, then you can really bring the trend down of of the increasing premiums that you are experiencing. Tricky. This is tricky. Ms. Pearson. The other thing is that Ms. Pearson had concerns about and this was addressed in the committee is that employees have high deductibles and high co-pays and by implementing a plan like this, they're able to get care sooner rather than later and they're not they're being able to they're able to get treated before they get worse and that's pretty much what justifies that.

163That's right. So, with a primary care, you're removing the cost of care. So, the primary care is a capitated fee. It's a fixed fee that you pay to the primary care physicians. And they're seeing you for not only your chronic ailments, but for potential urgent care, for triaging and none of those are turning into claims because none of those are >> triaging and none of those are turning into claims. Because none of those are turning into claims, well your loss ratio isn't increasing. And so you're you're fixing more than one problem. You're fixing access to care. You're fixing the cost. And and you're And then you're improving the health of the population. Ms. Pearson from Ms. Frankel. My my question was and thank you guys for for sitting through this and and wait waiting for

164your turn to present. The first words you said were were or our interlocal agreement here effective a cost effective coverage. So if we agree to this, the committee will hear this information and and kind of see dollar figures and and that that's okay. And the then we would come back to say yay or nay, correct? Move on or what? Yeah, it still needs to come back to you because the board has to do their approval of what their contribution is and typically we do that I think in July. All right. So that's why we're just being proactive with working right now to get all those figures. Hub International is doing the same thing but last year our loss ratio was 148%. It's supposed to be between 80 and 85%. So last year our employees saw

165a 25% jump in their premium. This year right now currently our raw loss ratio is at 102%. We don't see it going down. It might go down a little bit maybe to maybe to 90 5% 99%. Still it's supposed to be between 80 and 85. Like this is not a Rose Pearson or Creasy Springs ISD. This is health insurance and how it works when you're at our risk then your premiums are higher. So what we're trying to do is save our employees and do precisely what Victor was saying which is where they get access to primary care. I can't tell you the stories I hear from our employees over and over of I got the insurance Ms. Pearson but I go to the doctor my co-pays are 65 $70. They've shared these stories in our

166committees and and then I go and they tell me I need to go do this. I can't afford it. I can't do it. I don't have I don't have the money to go pay for the next exam. So precisely what Victor says their care is halted and stopped. And so we're just trying to do the very best we can with exploring options for our employees so that they have access to health care. And and our timeline would be June July to Uh that So we're meeting with the committee right now regularly and then we will review all of it and review the costs and all of that and then we will make a recommendation. >> Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir. Any other questions? Thank you. Does this require a motion? Yes, it does. Do I

167have a motion? recommendation for the committee to choose from and the committee will present that to the board, right? Yes. This is just to allow them to But the but the resolution says that we would we're going to allow our superintendent Pearson to negotiate and so at least we would like to to hear the presentation before we give her the authority to negotiate with them. Is that right? So this action is just to get the procurement. So it's just a resolution. That's all. Just to make the procurement. Yes. And then and then for the health insurance whichever one we go for the the board has not previously picked one we go to. The board gets approval on the budget amount for the $600. So we would make the best interest of the district and then

168we would come to the board for the board's action on how much the contribution is. I mean we still have to decide if the recommended Yeah, we're not there yet Mr. Doria. We're still meeting. We have another committee meeting. Yes, yes. So if that's the case then we have to amend the resolution. So this one is just for a resolution. It's just to consider the board resolution to allow administration to enter into a an interlocal participation agreement with the Texas Education Benefit to explore and possibly engage in employee benefits and service offered through TEBC. So the resolution is just for us to become part of the cooperative. Oh not the the resolution that that was in here? Yes. If you want to if you want the if we decide to go this way and y'all

169want to sign the agreement that's perfectly fine. We can bring that back. Okay. That's not typical. We haven't done that in the past but we can do that. to make that recommendation. So until we until we get we we get some dollar amounts to show them. Yeah. They need to hear this presentation. So they've already been presenting. The committees are we've already presented to the committee multiple times. The only thing is that we until we get closer to the contract expiring and going out for bids again we won't know how much it'll cost us. So like right now if with Hub International they're saying that we'll probably see a 15% increase. And so they're going to they're going to present those numbers to us and then FFGA through this interlocal would present numbers to us

170also. And then we would make a determination. So we should see it in a month or two? Probably. Okay. Yeah. That's why yeah I want to see numbers from both sides from the one that currently we have now and whatever that we do move forward I'd like to see two numbers cuz Yeah, absolutely. I mean we can compare apples to apples. Cuz insurance are insurance. You know how all that works. They go up every year. But I'm I'm you know I'm I'm for it, you know, to shop around and get the best deal. That that benefits our employees cuz I know how hard it is. All right. Correct. Go. I'm not sure what So if I'm correct Ms. Pearson this resolution would give us the authority to become members of the cooperative so that we

171can proceed with the bidding piece. But we would not be deciding that that's what we're going to do. It's just hey help us proceed with the membership so we can go out and get the bids. Then we can get all the numbers. >> They can give us their comparison versus the other one. That's what we're allowing, right? Correct. Got it. Right. >> President, I make a motion to approve the uh item A 11. This uh consider approval of board resolution to allow administration to enter into local participation agreement with the Texas Education Employees Benefit for the TEEBC to explore and possibly engage in employee benefits and services offered through TEEBC. I'll second. Motion made Motion made by Jeff Ortiz, seconded by Michael Rodriguez to uh to approve the board resolution to allow administration to enter

172an interlocal participation agreement with the Texas Education Employees Benefit Cooperative TEEBC to explore and possibly engage in employee benefits and services offered through TEEBC. All in favor. I. I. Opposed. 6-1. Motion carried. Thank you guys for Thank you. Okay, executive session item 12. Discussion authorized by the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Section 551.001. Uh A 551.074, personnel matters, discussion of resignations, retirements, leaves of absence, reassignments, new employment, new personnel position, duties, responsibilities of employees. A, consider approval of professional contract recommendations, and B, discussion of board self-evaluation. Time is 9:05. We are now in executive session. >> Mhm. >> Time is 11:13. We're back from executive session. Possible action in open session for executive session items. A, discussion action of professional contract recommendations. President Franco, I'll make the motion as discussed in executive session

173uh to approve discussion and action of professional contract recommendations. Motion made by Michael Uriega, seconded by Noe Zarate to uh approve the discussion action of professional contract recommendations as discussed in executive session. Uh all in favor? Aye. >> Aye. Opposed? None. Motion carries. Item B, discussion action on of board self-evaluation. President Franco, in regards to item B, discussion I I make the motion to approve discussion action of board self-evaluation as discussed in executive session. Motion made by Michael Uriega, seconded by Noe Zarate to approve the discussion action of the board self-evaluation as discussed in executive session. All in favor? Aye. >> Aye. Opposed? None. Motion carries. Adjourn. Everybody. Wilber Wilber Cruz A motion made by Wilber Cruz to adjourn. Seconded by Noe Zarate. All in favor? Aye. Adjourned. Time is I don't know what the

174time is. What's the time? 11:18. Thank you. 11:18. Sorry.