Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD - Regular School Board Meeting - 11/6/2025

001I call this premeating briefing of the Carolton Farmers Branch ISD Board of Trustees to order at 6:00 p.m. on November 6th, 2025. The purpose of this premeating briefing is to conduct a briefing session with administrative staff regarding the posted agenda items for the regular board meeting scheduled at 7 p.m. on November 6, 2025. For the record, the board members present are Kim Brady, Iliana Garza Rojos, Marjorie Barnes, Carolyn Benvitas, Paul Gilmore, Randy Shackman, and myself, Cassandra Hatfield. Uh, we will move on to item number two, which is our recognitions. Dr. Eldridge or sorry, Miss Rodriguez. >> Good evening, Dr. Eldridge, President Hatfield, and esteemed board members. I am honored to present tonight's student recognitions, which let me pull up something. All right. Okay. I'm honored to present tonight's student recognitions. Over 1.3 million students enter

002the National Merit Scholarship Program each year, taking the PSAT National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test to V for recognition and college scholarships. Please join us in recognizing our commended scholars who represent the top 3% of academic performers on the PSAT/NMSQT who were able to join us tonight. And I apologize if I mispronounce any names. So, let's see. From Creek View High School, we have Abigail G. Gin. So, anybody from Creek View is is here, you can go ahead and make your way up. Sean Kim, Andrew Wyn, and Harrison Sber. We'll take a big group photo. Um, so I'll call up every school from Early College High School. We have Shan Valor and Callum Rainey. Newman Smith High School, Sanjie Varma and Sarah Worley [applause] and Arl Turner High School. Hansshika Ganga Soam Kuana Vivian Lewis Suas

003Pendrew Melody Peruam Neil Row and Anish Vishuamitra. [applause] So congratulations to our commended scholars. Uh board members if you would please make your way to the center of the DAS for a group photo. We've got a second group. Yeah. And now, please join us in celebrating our National Merit Semi Finalists, which are part of an elite group of just 16,000 students or 1% of the top performers in attendance tonight. From Smith High School, we have Tuin. And from RL Turner, Arun Rebus Praata, I apologize, and Sanjay Tayyagi. >> [applause] >> So board members if you can also make your way to the center of the dis. >> Congratulations to these talented students. Let's give them another round of applause. >> [applause] >> That concludes our student recognitions for tonight. >> Wow. The top 3% and

0041%. That's incredible. So congratulations to our students and for their parents who support them along the way. Um it is not easy. You know I often call myself the Uber driver but I think in that instance you are not only the Uber driver, you are the academic driver. So congratulations to these students. The next item on our agenda is audience for guests. Persons who wish to speak during audience for guests must have submitted an electronic form for this purpose prior to the 1pm deadline. Anyone interested? So before we begin, uh we do have one speaker tonight. So I'll remind our audience members of the board's procedures for handling guest audience for guest. Anyone wishing to speak did have to complete the form by 1 p.m. today. Each speaker will be allowed to speak one staring

005audience for guest. Speakers designated as stakeholders will be allowed a maximum of three minutes and speakers designated as non-stakeholders will be allowed a maximum of one minute to address the board as dictated by board policy beed local. Because the board wants to hear from as many as possible and make the meeting run efficiently, we do ask that groups of five or more people that represent a particular viewpoint on a topic appoint one person on behalf of the group. Please remember that the board cannot deliberate on any subject that is not inted on the agenda for this meeting. Board members will listen to comments but will not respond or answer questions. Please keep your comments or criticism civil and courteous. Please also avoid using profanity and refrain from making personal attacks on others during the opportunity

006you have to speak. Lastly, we will ask that you do not discuss students who are not your own child. Yelling, univil, disruptive or discriminatory comments will not be presented permitted. In the event that your comment in the judgment of the presiding officer cons constitutes a complaint or charge against an employee or officer, it may be necessary for me to interrupt and ask you to stop and direct you to proceed with the school district's formal grievance pro procedures. If a speaker is seeking board resolution on a specific complaint, that concern should be addressed through the district's grievance process, which can be found online and included in policies DGBA, FNG, and GF. Grievance forms can be obtained online through the district website in compliance with the Texas Hoping Meetings Act. Once again, I'll note that the board

007will not respond to the public directly and will address agenda items as deemed necessary when they're listed on the agenda. The timer will be shown on the screen in front of you and we'll begin when you arrive at the podium. The presentation is limited to the allotted time. We'll begin with stakeholder comments uh for three minutes. Uh Nicholas Ornelis podium is over here. >> Good evening. My name is Nicholas. address 1117 East Vanderrip Drive, Carolton, Texas 75006. Uh to begin, I'd like to congratulate Miss Hatfield and Mr. Gilmore on your new positions and your appointments. I look forward to your work uh throughout the year and going forward. In reference to tonight's agenda, I wanted to address item 6B, the personnel report. Uh I just wanted to confirm that. >> No, you're good. >> The

008green Let me walk around. >> Um, so I just wanted to confirm that the uh the Chad Hunter that's listed um as the new executive director of advanced academics, is that the same Chad Hunter that was the former principal at RL Turner? Um, that's really what I'm what I'm here for. Just wanted to confirm. Um, the reason I ask is because as it my three minutes indicates, I'm a stakeholder, meaning I pay for his salary as well as Mary Mafy, Adam Greenwich, Joe Lauma. So, I I just like to know where my money goes. Um, as well as um in reference to the conversation that Mr. abortion I had on September 5th, 2024. Um, when he so graciously offered to be a reference for me to give me another job out of this district, um,

009I told him that regardless of where I end up at, my duty to support and advocate for this district and this community doesn't end there. I have friends and family who are employed at this district as well as family enrolled in your APGT program. I was also involved in that program when I was growing up. I know how crucial that program is. So, I just I would like to know who is the leader of that uh program and if it is that former principal, I just wanted that confirmation. Um, I'm also here to um just confirm that y'all have been receiving my correspondence via email um that I've kind of sent over the past year. Um, especially this past week. If you don't know what I'm referencing, um, I've sent a few emails. If you

010haven't gotten them, I think Mr. Moore and Miss Eldridge should have it. If they don't, um, please reach out to me. Uh, my email and phone number are on the speaker participation form. Um, Mr. Morris has my email. We've been in we've been in contact. We've had really good conversations. Um, I think it's really important that you guys review everything that I've communicated to you. My job is to support this district. Even though I'm not currently en uh employed by you, as I've stated, I have a lot of stake in this district. I want this district to succeed. I really do. >> Thank you for your comments. Your time is expired, sir. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. At this time, we'll move on to um administrative reports. Dr. Eldridge, are there any reports by

011the administration? >> Yes, we have several. Our first one is Miss Settle item 6E on the consent agenda agenda. Sorry. Um and it's concerning matters of our 2025 appraisal rule and our approval of our 2024 tax collection collection reports. I swear I can talk tonight. Um so Miss Settle is just going to go over a little timeline um so that it's a better understanding for all of us. So Miss Settle >> uh yes uh each year uh we are fortunate to um house our tax office in house and it that office uh performs several critical functions uh in the progress from the very beginning of preliminary values being released in April. Um then we proceed through the summer where uh in June the board of trustees appoint the tax assessor each year to calculate the

012tax rate. Uh we proceed from there uh when we start receiving certified values and the and the tax office uh does uh more than just calculate uh our our levy and send out statements. uh they do uh perform uh an increased role of transparency and providing reporting uh each month in the financial reporting. Uh but at the very end of this process in November, uh you know, we've proceeded all through the summer. Um we do look uh to uh the board to approve the total appraisal role summary report as well as certify the collections from the prior year levy and all of that is part of our audit function. >> Thank you, Miss Settle. Board members, do you have any questions about this agenda item? Thank you for the timeline. Appreciate it, Dr. Eldridge. >>

013Okay, our next report is from Dr. Stout and it's concerning our approved um list of new library books that are purchased and some current concerns that came up. So, Dr. Stout is going to go over our process and um discuss some of the book titles. So, Dr. Stout, [snorts] >> thank you. Take a second and find presentation. Found it. Okay. Dr. Eldridge, President Hatfield, members of the board, thank you for um allowing me to present some clarification for you. Um as a quick review of the district collection development process, uh they are compliant, our process is compliant with EFB legal and local. Um EFB legal states a district possesses significant discretion to determine the content of school libraries. A district must however exercise its discretion in a manner consistent with the first amendment. EFB Local

014states that the it the district is charged with providing a wide range of library materials for students and faculty that support student achievement and present varying levels of difficulty, diversity and appeal and a variety of points of view. In addition, the um collection development practices are aligned with the Texas State Library and Archives collection development standards that were um developed several years ago. Um that the materials are age appropriate and serve a range of materials. Uh the criteria are also listed below such as supporting the TICSS fostering growth um support personal learning and represent our various audiences. So with that the selection criteria that um CFB adheres to requires that each selection has two positive recommendations from um professional review sources and they meet criteria below. um such as being integral to the instruction program,

015the interests and needs. They're um age appropriate reading levels and content for um students and that they're also they they have merit. And then the last bullet refers mainly to non-fiction which would be information with accuracy and clarity. So um this year we are beginning our new Senate Bill 13 compliance process. Um the process we have already been through at least one round of it where titles are selected by our certified librarians. They are submitted to the library director um the to compile the overall district list and review those titles um and then submits them for public comment. um some of the titles at that point. If during the co public comment period there are any titles that have uh that have any questions or anyone wants further clarification on them, then those titles that

016were identified are reviewed or pulled off of that month's list um and pulled for further consideration. The further consideration process is that all available professional reviews on that particular title are consulted. Two certified professionals read the book in its entirety and then a further recommendation is made after collecting all of that additional information about um the library books. This month several titles were identified such as a collection of horror stories. Um, and this actually gives us an opportunity to implement the process that uh was previously designed with Miss Needabitz in order to comply with Senate Bill 13. So, you'll notice on the consent agenda tonight, there are lines through uh 13 of the titles that we're going to conduct further review. Um, I also wanted to take a moment to point out um the availability

017of the parent portal where parents can create accounts to go into the library management system. They can view their children's um circulation that the the titles that the children are are checking out. Um that communication came as at the beginning of the school year as an email from our vendor. Um a parent parent square message and we're sending another round out uh soon to remind parents that this is also an option. And then there are directions on the website. I'll take a second and highlight the website. I know the print is small there, but you can see um at the bottom of that page are uh several menus regarding our library acquisition and parental guidance based on Senate Bill 13. And then on the sidebar that is where students can or parents anybody can go

018in and click and see the um online collection the online library collection because it is all uh posted on the internet through our vendor. Um and so I'd like to open up if there are questions and thank you for the opportunity to to speak to you this evening. >> Board members questions or comments? Miss Benvitas, >> thank you. Um, the 13 items that are redlined, how do we find out about that or does some of that bring that to our attention? >> They're on the list. >> Okay. >> And then there's a there's a strike through in the list. And so we will take those and do a further review and gather more information, read the books, and then make a determination of whether it will be added to a future list or whether we're

019not going to purchase that book. >> Thank you, Miss Brady. >> Okay. >> And we'll compile all of that documentation and do an executive summary on those titles, too, so we have a reference. Okay, that was going to be my question is if indeed those books do go forward, will they be like starred in the next one as like have been double like double looked at >> or would it just >> We can Yes, we Well, we can do an executive summary with a short uh a short statement um for those particular titles indicating why they have we're going to be doing one for our internal purposes regardless of whether they are added to a future list or not. But we can absolutely include those saying this title had, you know, had gone through an

020additional level of review and was deemed um appropriate and in compliant uh for the following reasons. >> Thank you very much. I like the the documentation just in case it's ever questioned. We have that. Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Any additional questions on this item? >> Right. Thank you, Dr. Stout. >> Thank you. >> Okay. The next item is Miss Hulkcom. item 6. And this is our process for our new textbook adoption. And I really wanted to stress the process that um the curriculum department goes through to choose our new adoption for math. Um there is a whole timeline and committees. It's not just uh Dr. Eldridge doesn't just pick the book that helps her perform math. It it is actually a process. So, Miss Hulk, if you'll go through the process. >> Yes, ma'am.

021Thank you. Good evening. Um, President Hatfield, Dr. Eldridge, and distinguished members of the board. Um, I can say on behalf of Shashawn Campbell and our math department, we are thrilled to be able to present to you that we are officially uh tonight going to start the process uh with your approval of proposing our committee uh to begin our math adoption for new curriculum materials uh to um implement for the 2627 school year. So, the Texas Education Agency um initiates reviews and adoption processes for a variety of subjects. Uh this new material process is called the instructional materials review and adoption cycle. Um it's often referred to as EMRA of one of our, you know, acronyms. And so for the EMRA cycle of 2026, they reviewed K through2 math materials. So, we are able to select

022from that op uh list of materials that are 100% aligned to the standards uh that the Texas Education Agency puts out. And so, this year, we are going to be reviewing materials from the EMRA 26 cycle uh for implementation for the 2627 school year. So, we'll be looking at all materials for mathematics for K through 12. So, it will be for all grade levels. Uh the process will begin with proposing um first of all tonight our district's textbook committee and then of course developing a schedule of events for us to follow through the adoption process this year. So the committee is responsible for conducting a comprehensive evaluation. Uh they will review all available materials that are aligned 100% to the state standards. They will also be responsible for recommending the most effective resources that will

023not only support high-quality curriculum instruction in the classroom but also differentiation for our students and also just ensure that we have that alignment to the state standards and it will meet the needs of the uh students in CFB. So the textbook committee selection process there's been a lot of hard work that's been going into this over the last uh year. Uh Miss Campbell and I have met on multiple occasions as well as with Dr. hoon to be able to review our steps along the way for this year. The goal is for us to have a well-rounded committee that is capable of selecting materials that will support all of our teachers as well of all as well as all of our students and also will be um compatible with our technology resources and will work seamlessly

024within our networking system. So, it began with a stakeholder interest survey that was a Google form that was sent out to all campuses. It is a voluntary request for the for the uh committee members to agree to sign on to be a part of this committee. Um the stakeholders complete um that form in October. Uh it was then reviewed for balance representation. We wanted to have all grade levels represented as well as there's a variety of teaching experience on this um recommended committee. There is campus diversity. We have dual language representation as well as bilingual, our advanced academics with our LEAP and our GT programming. And then we also have cross-dep departmental representation in all of our department areas. So that's from our multilingual department um to advanced academics, special services, our data and technology

025team, assessment and accountability and then also campus administration. So we have campus district as well as then a comprehensive um robust group of teachers. In your board book, you're provided a chart. Um this is obviously very tiny. So I'm going to move into the more formal view of this particular timeline. This provides a little bit more detail for you but this is the math adoption timeline that we'll be putting out for our internal uh stakeholders which is our review and also for our external stakeholders. Uh that is our uh basically our timeline of how we will start this process. So it begins tonight with a proposal of our committee um that is um if approved tonight will then put us kind of on the pathway for us to start the next steps. Uh following tonight's

026meeting, we will also in the month of November have our first committee meeting that they will come together and um set kind of the stage for what they're going to be doing for the uh spring semester and reviewing materials. In December, they will begin the textbook exploration. Um and at that time, they'll be reviewing a selection of multiple vendors. um they'll be reviewing it in alignment with a rubric um and looking for all of the things that we need not only internally for our district but then also uh the things that will be necessary for teaching all of the grade level standards. Then in January we will have a vendor sample um where they will come to us and they will do a little presentation so that our textbook committee can then ask questions about

027some of the vendors that they've been able to preview and review uh for highquality curriculum materials. In January also we will have a public viewing and that is um at the ESDC we have all of the materials on site for um anyone to come and view. And so that would be any of our parents, students, teachers, anyone can come um and review those materials. And then in February we will cast final choices for the top two at that time. So, we'll narrow from the large group of materials down to what we feel like are the top two that are the most suitable for um the staff and students in the district. From the final two choices also in February, we will also have another public viewing of just those final two. So, if anyone wants

028to come back and look and dive deeper into those materials, they can. They will also be provided on the website. We have um we did this with our science adoption and our reading adoption where we were able to put links to these codes to be able to review all the materials. So parents and teachers can basically go right to the website, click on the vendor material that we are considering and they can dive into the materials there and not even have to come to the um district for that. So that will also happen with both of our public viewings. And then in February uh we will go from that public viewing, we will then cast out another survey uh to all of our stakeholders and we will review that data and the committee will come

029together and make a final decision. In April, we'll be coming to you for a board recommendation and a board approval of the resources. And in May and June is when we do our final ordering and preparation with our numbers of students, numbers of staff, and then we get kind of our quotes together to see what the materials are going to be um uh aligned with our budget. And then in the summer of 2026, we will then have our instructional materials training for implementation of the uh school year August 26 and 27 school year. Um our materials are purchased out of our Texas instructional materials allotment, which is what we refer to as our tea budget. Um and this year we are taking extra precautions for budgetary um um considerations and we are utilizing additional funds

030that the state provides us. If we go from the EMRA cycle of materials because they've been um really vetted and approved at the state level by the state board of education and so if we go from that vendor list we actually get additional funding that helps us to kind of spread our dollars. So we are very excited about that this year. We didn't have that option the last couple of times. uh we did our high quality materials um adoption with science, but we were able to use our instructional materials a lotment each time that we were able to purchase materials. So this year it's actually extra exciting because we have a little bit more of a variety. Um and we are very excited about that. Um and I also want to give a shout out

031to Shashawn and her team for the hard work that they've done just to get a very detailed plan in place for us to go through this year. Um and she is here tonight if there are any questions that the board has. Um that pretty much is in a nutshell the process that we follow. Um and we are um very excited about the the team. >> Thank you, Miss Hulcom. Board members, any questions? Um I know Miss Campbell is very excited. She told me it has been 19 years since we adopted a new math curriculum. So, uh 19 years in the making. It's going to be a very exciting year in the math department. >> All right. Thanks. Thank you so much. We'll move on to the next item. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you,

032Miss Hulcom. Um, Mr. Moore, you have item 6S and it's about our transact software on our buses. So, if you'll give us a brief overview of what the software is. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Dr. Elders. President Hatfield trustees. Um, Transact is a is a provider that we have worked with for the last four to five years uh in the district. They um predominantly we use them for routing for our general education, special education, um our field trips, and our activity routing. During our budget assessment this past spring, we were in transportation looking at ways how we could be more efficient, not just with um dollars and cents, but also with uh with how we worked with um operational crossover. And so we decided to shift some of the responsibilities from some of the other

033groups we worked with to transact. Um, predominantly that shift dealt with driver management tools, which is uh data collection, vehicle location, driver behavior, things that allow parents to track the app and see where their kids are, when their bus is going to get there. And then another shift was with the dispatch module, which it's more pieces. It helps optimize the driver scheduling, real time fleet tracking. And so we shifted those two components to transact. And essentially in doing that um that surpassed the six-f figureure threshold that transact typically has always fallen below. And so it's not more money. We simply moved things from a couple of other vendors and contracts to the transact contract. And so that's why you're seeing it on the on the agenda tonight and answer any questions you have. >> Thank

034you for the connection to the budget. I appreciate that. Board members, any questions or comments? >> All right. Glad to see new efficiencies. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Blackburn has the next two items, items 6T and 6U. 6T is regarding the furniture um for multiple campus renovations. And if you'll let us know what campuses and then 6U is our construction manager at risk for with Jackson Construction. So, Mr. Blackburn, >> good evening. Dr. Eldridge, President Hatfield, members of the boards. Good to see everyone tonight. Um the first item is for furniture purchases for nine different campuses. This is similar to what we did last year. um to be able to purchase on multiple campuses. It will cover furniture for Blleac, Rosemead, some of the furniture for Smith, Kent, Rainwater, Countryplace, Pulk, Mck Mckame, and

035Mcquarter. So those would be the campuses that that uh authorization will support. Any questions on that item? All right. Then the next item um the uh GMP for Mckame and McQuarter. This is package seven. I am pleased to say this is the second to last renovation that you will see a GMP for. The last one is the outdoor learning center which is slowly working its way through FEMA authorization. We got we've been made it through Capel, city of Capel, but FEMA is yet to go. Um but for Mckame and Mcquarter this will involve um renovations to prek space, STEM collaboration space, a playground, fine arts refresh, roofing and special education spaces at Mckame and at Mcquarter. Uh some new air conditioning units, some special education renovation and also a little bit of roofing at that

036campus and happy to answer any questions you might have. >> Board members, any questions? Miss Barnes, >> for the air conditioning units, is this part of the process that they've been doing where they're kind of all switching to the same branding and all of that so that to make it easier for fixing it? Am I wrong? [laughter] >> Well, historically, you're not wrong, I should say. >> I was like, I might be making this up. [laughter] Historically, we have tried to purchase similar units that are represent the long best long-term value for us in terms of being able to maintain. >> And in a similar fashion for this for these replacements, um we're going to we're specifying a 10-year warranty for parts. So, we have that support to minimize our operational expenses. >> So, uh

037it's it's very similar. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> Additional questions? All right. No additional questions. Thank you, sir. Dr. Eldridge, any additional reports? >> All right, we'll move to item number five. Board members, do you have any additional questions regarding the consent agenda items? Miss Brady, >> um on 6N, Mr. more. Um, did you mean to throw in there security staff, not just staff on letter N, but the armed staff members? >> The specific verbiage of it. >> Well, I'm just making sure. Are we arming staff members or we just security? >> Oh, no, ma'am. It's it's it's standard. It's it's our security officers. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. That's what I wanted to make sure. >> All right. Okay, any additional questions? All right, with that board members, we have reached the end

038of our agenda and uh we now will eat like a teacher in less than 30 minutes so that we can feel that experience. Um it is 6:34 and we are journed. I call this regular meeting of the Carolton Farmers Branch ISD Board of Trustees to order at 7 o'clock p.m. on November 6, 2025. Louder. >> Louder. >> Okay. Um board members, district staff members, and members of the audience, you are free to join me in standing um as Mr. Shackman leads the message, followed by the pledges led by Paul Gilmore and Carolyn Benvitas. >> I would invite you to pray with me. Father, we approach you thanking you for all of the great blessings that you provide every day. And as we launch into the start of this meeting, we ask for your wisdom and

039guidance. Bless our board as we will make decisions that affect the lives of our kids. Uh bless our efforts to serve our community. Be with all of our actions so that they truly will be uh inspirational and educational to our students. Now Lord, bless us in this meeting in Jesus' name. Amen. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all and indivisible. Well, welcome to the November board meeting. Um, it is a season of thankfulness and we're excited to kick off um our celebrations this evening. And as a district, we dedicate all of our efforts and resources to our goal of high expectations for all. The board uses this goal to guide

040and deliberate every decision, action, and action. As elected trustees, the board is responsible for providing oversight, setting the strategic direction of the district, and ensuring accountability, all in the service of student achievement. You will witness the board conducting its work in open session, except for specific items that may be discussed as in close session as permitted under Texas government code section 551, commonly known as the open meetings law. These items typically deal with personnel matters, consultation with our attorney, or real estate transactions. As we move forward through the agenda tonight, it is important to remember that we are in the business of supporting kids. With that in mind, we ask that everyone present a model of respectful, responsible, and constructive behavior as this models what we expect of our children. For the record, board members

041present are Kim Brady, Iliana Garza, Rojos, Marjgerie Barnes, Carolyn Benvitas, Paul Gilmore, Randy Shackman, and myself, Cassandra Hatfield. We constitute a quorum and may conduct business on behalf of the district. Before moving on to the next agenda item, I would like to remind you that the board will accept comments from citizens of the district and district employees. If you wish to speak during the meeting, you needed to have completed a form by 1:00 today for this purpose submitted electronically. When the board addresses agenda item number three, audience for guest, you would be invited to the podium to speak to the board. Our next agenda item is item number two, which is a public meeting to discuss the 2024 2025 state financial accountability rating or the first report. I will turn the meeting over to Miss

042Carla Settle, our chief financial officer. And the time is now 7:04 p.m. Miss Settle. >> Thank you. Good evening. >> Good evening, uh, Dr. Eldridge, President Hatfield, and esteemed board of trustees. State law requires that the district conduct this public hearing regarding the school's first rating as assigned by TEA. Schools first is at the financial integrity rating system of Texas originating with Senate Bill 875, the 76th uh Texas legislature back in 1999 and finally passed in during the 77th in 2001. It expands the public education accountability system in Texas to financial services. This system is a tool that creates financial transparency and celebrates the high quality of local management and decision-making processes that a school district uses as financial stewards of state funding and local taxpayer effort. The 2025 rating is based on the financial

043data for the 2324 fiscal year. And this accountability system is now approaching two decades of existence. And while the system itself has changed over the years and continues to evolve, tonight we will review the 21 indicators that make up this year's rating. Uh ratings are like you would see in any other report card. Uh grouped by A's, B's, C's, and of course we want to avoid all those Fs. The first group of indicators are critical indicators with yes or no responses with any no response to these indicators would result in automatic failure of the first regardless of any other points earned. And of course uh CFBISD has exceeded uh the ceilings and said yes uh passed yes for all of these both last year and this year. Solveny indicators are numbered 6 through 14 with

044one pass fail indicator and points up to 10 points on the remaining solveny indicators. One other additional uh solveny indicator on 15 only has a maximum fivepoint score and it would be worth noting uh that the district's administrative cost ratio receives full uh full points on indicator 13. The last group is financial competence indicators numbers 16 through 21 uh with numbers 18 and 19 having a high score of five points and the remaining are all pass fail indicators and the district received full points for all of these indicators as well. Ultimately CFB ISD is rated an A superior achievement with the full 100 points. And I think it's at this point it would be very appropriate to commend the board Dr. Eldridge and the administration for the legacy of working with diligence to meet and

045exceed the expectations for financial integrity. CFBISD has maintained a superior rating for 23 years. [applause] Uh just in full disclosure, we have require we have fulfilled all of our required disclosures. Um, and one of them includes reimbursements by the board and the superintendent. And it is also to be commended for their commended for their good stewardship as it is one of the lower budgets for these types of reimbursements that I've seen in my career. Uh, just a little bit of looking to our left and right with our neighbors and some comparison uh, districts. Some folks have uh caught up with us by adding a few points here and there, but you see um CFB generally rises above the rest. And with that, I will yield the floor, President Hatfield, to any questions. Yes, I was

046just listening so much. Um at this time, the board will entertain questions and comments from the audience regarding the first report. Are there any members of the audience who would like to speak to the board about the report that was presented tonight? All right, seeing none and hearing none, the time is now 7:08 p.m. And this concludes our public meeting. Thank you, Miss Settle. Our next agenda item is item number three, special presentations and recognitions. Miss Rodriguez. Good evening, Dr. Eldridge, President Hatfield, and esteemed board members. Through our partnership with Chick-fil-A Trinity Mills, we honor those who demonstrate excellence with the CFB Champion Award. This month, we are proud to honor our very own CFBISD Council of PTAs as the November CFB champion. [applause] from organizing community events, hosting uh monthly PTA competitions um that

047engage and challenge our campuses. Our Council of PTA's commitment goes above and beyond expectations. But what truly sets them apart is not just their work, it's their heart. They are deeply rooted in service and strive to create a culture of care, commitment, connection, and community. CFBISD is incredibly grateful to our council of PTAs for their tireless efforts and unwavering support for our district. Thank you for always uplifting our community and helping our schools be the best they can be. Please join me in congratulating and thanking our amazing council of PTAs. And before the picture, if the remaining board members can make their way to the center of the DAS for a group photo that way just a little bit >> and then we'll all kind of squeeze together. >> A that's so sweet. They brought

048their babies. in front of. >> It's okay. Stand on my toes. I'm wearing my heels. >> Yay. Congratulations. [applause] That concludes tonight's recognitions. As a fellow PTA member, I know serving on a PTA and supporting our schools is a labor of love. And these um wonderful people from council PTA recently hosted a community event with the Harlem Wizards where we got to be together and really engage as a community and have family fellowship. So, not only do they pour into the PTAs, but they also pour into the community. So, we're so thankful to them and congratulations as our champion. Our next agenda item is the president's report. Um, and tonight, I'd just like to share a few highlights specifically about the board. Um, over the past several months, the board has been deeply engaged in

049some work studies focusing on strengthening our commitment to student outcomes through clear goals and guard rails. These discussions have centered around how we measure progress towards our goals we've set specifically for our students. Our latest focus has been created on creating guard rails, which are the commitments that guide how we as a board ensure that our decisions and resources align with supporting students and staff in achieving those goals. If you aren't attending our work studies, I would encourage you to either tune in or stop by um because that's where you get to see us more in action with each other. less voting and more really discussing the um student achievement in the district and really thinking about the commitments we want to make to continue to serve the community and the dialogue that happens in

050those is uh very organic and so I would just really encourage you to tune in for those because they're a very different flavor of a meeting of a board. Um I am so proud of the thoughtful dialogue and the commitment that my colleagues have made to really work together to really um support Dr. Dr. Eldridge and the administration as we really guide ourselves into continuing to make CFB the best it possibly can be. Um this week Dr. Eldridge and I had the privilege of attending the Aspiring Administrators Academy and it was truly inspiring to see how many of our um staff and teachers are wanting to continue to improve themselves in a way that really helps them to grow and stay in the district. And it's a wonderful retention strategy. So, I want to thank

051our staff that are supporting their growth because we want to keep our staff here in CFB um continuing to support our students. Tonight's meeting, you will hear reports that call on us to continue leaning in and working together. We're going to hear about enrollment trends and budget impacts. And although these conversations are never easy, they are important. and they remind us that even through changes, our shared focus must remain on doing what's best for students and ensuring that every decision supports their success. As we enter the season of gratitude, I want to just give a sincere thanks to our teachers, our staff, our administration. Um on behalf of the board, the work that the people on the ground do every day makes a difference for kids and helps them be successful. So, we just want

052to thank you guys um as we enter this season of thankfulness because uh the impact you have on students really makes a difference. So can thank you for continuing to place your trust in us. And with that uh we will move on to our committee updates. So uh we do have board subcommittees. Our board subcommittees is a subset of the board working collaboratively to support a particular focus and you'll see those focuses on the screen. Each board member sits on at least one of those subcommittees. Um the goal of those committees is to draft documents and prepare work products for the board's review and adoption. And board members, do we have any updates um from any of our committees specific to student achievement that we'd like to share? All right. So, we'll move into our

053other committees, which is our district liaison committees. So, this board is committed to engaging in the work of the district by way of supporting regular and smooth communication from the board to provide support um more so information to the board from the district committees. So you'll see on the screen there are a number of committees that are district committees and the board has at least one liaison on each of those committees. Board members, are there any updates from the district leaison committees? Miss Garza Rojos, thank you. President Hatfield, I have an update for the shack. Uh we had a meeting October 23rd where April hoop April Hooperson discussed the Kabuki syndrome which was really informative and then we they were they invited Dr. Baral with healthy mind psycho psychological services and Katie Mechham a licensed

054marriage and family therapist associate to discuss mental health behavior and effects in students during 2016 and 2023 mental health behavior issues increased by 35%. She had a discussion regarding dysregulation and how it inhibits learning. And she gave she gave the parents strategies for parents and students and kind of had a conversation of what therapy would look like for our students and how we can promote anything healthy for mental health and supporting our kids. You have to name it to tame it, which is a take that I had. So anyways, and um Mr. Shoulac gave a wonderful update on SB12. Thank you for your continued work on working on that consent form with all of our families and our students. >> Thank you for that update. Board members, any additional updates from board leazison committees? Miss

055Brady? >> Thank you, President Hatfield. Um the bond oversight committee met again and we had uh updates about where our construction is on all of our campuses. Um I know it's been inconvenient for some of you, but it's going to look good when it's done. Um we want to thank Miss Carlin for her dedicated work as being uh chairperson of that board. Um, but she is, I guess, handing over the reigns to Mr. Haimey Rivas and I'm gonna say it wrong, No Franco. Um, and they're going to be elected co-chairs um for the further bond committee meetings. Um, we discussed just um what's happening with all of our buildings, the reallocations of the remaining money, and I encourage all of you to look online as our minutes from that meeting, thanks to Miss Rodriguez, um,

056look beautiful and you can reflect on all of that uh, there for more detail. >> Thank you. Any additional updates on board leazison committees? All right, with that, we'll move on to district announcements announcements 3D. Dr. Aldridge. >> Well, I would like to thank the PTA for the great Wizards event. Um, I got to serve as the referee and my husband told me I didn't do enough, but I did really enjoy it. I know I didn't have to run up and down as much, but what a great celebration for our community and just to see all of our kids and, you know, it it was interesting to hear all the Taylor Swift songs all at once. So, um, it was a great event. So, thank you all for being our champion to that. We had

057a work aversary event for our employees that have stayed with us. And so what a over 400 of our employees got to participate in that event which added up to 5,100 years of service in CFB ISD total. Isn't that amazing? And so I just when you when you put the data down, it's it's incredible. So, Metrorest leadership, which um Miss Garza Rojos and myself are part of the Metrorest leadership, we put on education day. Our students got to show off all of the great things they do. And so, I I think our team and and class enjoyed the event to see our students. Um and our students actually cooked the lunch for them. So, I think it was amazing. Our musicals are coming up. So, the week of November 20th, we always talk about football,

058even though our football teams are all, cross your fingers, they're all going to make the playoffs, but we have great musicals coming up at our high schools the week of November 20th. We had principal for a day. So, all of our campuses had a principal for the day. And it the feedback, the lunch, it was just incredible to see that our community got to go into our schools and see how our kids perform. And the feedback was amazing. And um it just was so energizing. Um, HEB, the grocery store chain, nominated our school district for being an outst Well, I we don't know who nominated. The nominations are anonymous, but we I want to thank Miss Hulkcom for filling out 14 pages and hit submit the other night at 10:01 or 10 right before the

059deadline um for us to hopefully make the finals. And then Kim Brady and the rest of the board who was it Marjorie, Miss Barnes, um we were also nominated for outstanding school board. So, we will keep you posted on that. Um, those are just to be nominated and to put all of our uh events and all the things we've done that people don't see on a piece of paper is incredible. And um I think it almost brought tears to Miss Hulcom and I as we were reviewing it. Um, and I want to thank our student services team. Thank you all for the reopening of the giving house. Um, we have received numerous texts and and emails about how can they donate. And so I would I would like you all to I could read the

060email address for donations, but I always think we're going to send some information out so they can donate items to you all because that is such a great thing to serve our families and our kids that we get them exactly what they need to be in our campuses. So, I can't go without saying that we had our retired teacher personnel and staff lunch Thanksgiving lunchon yesterday. And to see all the great people that came back that schools are named after and they come back and we served them Thanksgiving lunch. I mean, I got tears that everybody talked about what they were grateful for and they were grateful for their time and friendships they made in CFB and that's what we have to continue. And today I got to go to Newman Smith Veterans Day program.

061What an honor to see the service of just our staff and um it was very heartfelt. So I want to thank the staff at Newman Smith for that great program. So I know that was a lot but we just have a lot going on. So I just want to thank everybody for all their hard work. I too am very grateful for everything everyone does. So >> thank you Dr. Eldridge. Um a lot of great things happening for students and um it's really great to see all the work happening in the community. So thank you for your leadership Dr. Eldridge. All right, our next agenda item is item 3E, which is the update from the PTA. Stacy Hullman. >> Oop, sorry, didn't turn it on. Um, I'm Stacy Homeman, proud to serve as the president of

062CFBISD Council of PTAs. Uh, currently we have 5,096 members across our district. We are at 83% of our membership from last year and we'd really appreciate everyone's help getting people signed up, reaching for that golden apple, doing everything you can do so that we can exceed our membership from last year and win all sorts of cool awards at launch and get to go on stage and brag to the other districts. Um, the best way to join a single PTA, you can visit join PTA.org or and then you can pick our school district and the PTA that you want to join. You can also join multiple PTAs through our council PTA web store. Um you can join all 32 or one of the feeder patterns for uh one of the high schools and that again is

063at cfbpta.org at our website. And we also have these t-shirts for sale still out on that website. Um, I want to thank everyone who came out to enjoy the Wizards for CFB Champions show. It was a lot of fun for those that attended. Unfortunately, we didn't fill the house and sell out like we would have liked to. However, those that came really had a good time. Uh, thank you for the board members who came. I think you all enjoyed it. And thank you to Dr. Eldridge and Coach Putter for acting as our referees. Um, also I want to thank Dr. Himenez and Newman Smith staff for filling in wherever we needed them. They were very helpful all day. So, we want to thank them for giving their time to us. I want to congratulate Rosemeat

064Elementary. They sold the most tickets and they got a special VIP section at the game. Um, the National PTA Reflections Contest is coming to a close. This year theme was I belong. Um, we hope all our schools participated. The advancing spreadsheets are actually due tomorrow on 11:7, but we granted a couple exceptions. So, we will accept them up to next Friday, November 14th. If you didn't have your judging yet or you were delayed for some reason, we will extend a week. Um, submissions are due on December 1st, and we will not extend submissions because we'll have judging right after submissions. So, there will be no extensions. If you missed that, sorry. Um, our current calendar includes dates and times of all delegate meetings and anything else we have going on uh with the PTA. Um,

065so you can find that again on and cfbta.org. Click on calendar and you'll see everything we have going on for the rest of the year as of now. Um, our next delegate meeting will not be until January 14th at 5:30 p.m. at Nancy Watton Center. And that is because we are holding that right before our reflection ceremony, which will be in the ballrooms at Nancy Waten Center on January 14th, which is a Wednesday. So, we hope to have all of our families there. It's usually a wonderful celebration of the artwork and art that our kids do. Um we have two winners for October challenge. The challenge was October fall festival events friends, family and fun. For our primary award, this school had a funali event with dancing and sharing culture. And for that, congratulations Freeman

066Elementary. [applause] >> [applause] >> For our secondary award, we had a school who were hanging out at Senior Sunrise and giving away donuts to the seniors, as well as a Halloween at the ballpark, playing a pick or treat game with all the kids, and then hanging out with friends and family. So, congratulations, RL Turner. [applause] >> [laughter] >> We got to go student. [applause] High schools are PTSAs. We have to get the students involved. Our next challenge in November is family engagement month. So our challenge is school, family, and community connections. Uh entries are due Friday, November 28th. The Google form will be set up by the end of this week and we'll send that link out. So um if you don't enter, you can't win. Principles that didn't win. Just letting you know. [laughter]

067Um, I want to thank you all for your continued support and advocacy for our children. Uh, together we are PTA. [applause] Thank you, Miss Hullman, for your leadership. Um, PTA is so important to this district and I love if you don't play, you can't win. Um, that's awesome. Okay, so at this time, uh, we want to have a brief pause. Any of you that would like to leave the meeting, you are welcome to leave the meeting. You are also welcome to stay for the entirety of the meeting. Um, but we will take a brief pause for those of you that have dinner to get to and kids to run around like an Uber. Trudy. >> The next item is agenda item number four, audience for guest. Uh, persons wishing to speak during audience for guests

068must have electronically submitted a form online for this purpose prior to the deadline of the closing of the form, which is 1 p.m. today. As of the posted deadline, we have one submission to address the board. So before I begin, I will remind our audience members of the board's procedures for handling audience for guest. The deadline was 1 p.m. today submitted electronically and each speaker will be allowed to speak once during the audience for guest. The speaker designated as a stakeholder will be allowed a maximum of three minutes and speakers designated as non-stakeholders will be allowed a maximum of one minute to address the board as dictated by board policy beed local. Because the board wants to hear from as many as possible while keeping the meeting running efficiently, groups of five or more who

069want to present a particular viewpoint on a topic should appoint one person to speak on behalf of the group. Please remember that the board cannot deliberate on any subject that is not included in the agenda for this meeting. Board members will listen to comments but will not respond or answer questions. Recognizing that students are at the heart of our work, we ask that speakers model respective and constructive behavior that we expect of our students. Please keep your comments civil and courteous and avoid profanity or personal attacks. Refrain from discussing students who are not your own child. Yelling, disruptive behavior or discriminatory remarks will not be permitted in the judgment that your comment um by the in in the event that your comment in the judgment of the providing officer constituates a complaint or a charge

070against an employee or officer, it may be necessary for me to interrupt you to stop and direct you to proceed to the school district's formal grievance procedures. If a speaker is seeking a board resolution on a specific complaint, that concern should be addressed through the district's grievance process, which can be found online through policies DGBA, FNG, and GF. Grievance forms can be obtained through the district's website. In compliance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, please note again that the board will not respond to the public directly and will address agenda items as deemed necessary when they're listed on the agenda. The timer will be shown on the screen in front of you and you will begin when you arrive at the podium to speak. Again, the presentation is limited uh for stakeholder comments to three

071minutes. And our speaker tonight is Daniel Brassic. I apologize if I mispronounced your name. It's >> close enough. >> Good evening, members of the board of trustees. My name is Daniel Brac and I live in Irving, Texas. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm here to talk about the topic of smart snacks and school compliant vending during the school day. There are approximately 100 independent school districts across the Dallas Fort Worth area. And based on my research, Carolton Farmers Branch ISD, it appears to be the only school district that prohibits smart snack compliant vending during the school day for both middle and high school students. I believe that this policy may be based on a few long-standing myths, which I'd like to address briefly tonight. Myth number one, vending is not allowed during

072the school day. While this is true based on the district policy, in reality, both the USDA and te Texas Department of Agriculture regulations clearly allow food and beverages to be sold in vending machines during the school day as long as they meet the smart snacks and school standards. These items must meet strict nutritional limits for sugar, sodium, calories, and fat, ensuring they align with the same principles as the school meal program. Myth number two, vending competes with the school lunch program. While vending is technically categorized as a competitive food, it doesn't have to compete with food service at all. In fact, many districts across Texas have found ways to make vending complimentary, not competitive, by sharing proceeds with the district or food service fund and even programming the machines to be off during meal periods.

073Myth number three, vending is unhealthy and can only offer junk food. While that may have been true in the past, modern vending can be entirely smart snacks and school compliant, offering options free of artificial preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, and synthetic colors. These snacks and beverages, these are snacks and beverages that reinforce the district's wellness goals and provide students with a nutritious option between meals. By allowing Smart Snacks approved vending during the school day, the district would remain in full compliance with federal and state regulations while giving students more access to healthy choices in addition to generating additional wellness related revenue. I respectfully encourage the board to consider a review of the current wellness policy language that prohibits smart snack compliant vending during the school day to explore how compliant vending could support student wellness,

074effectively fit within your existing nutrition framework and benefit the district financially. Thank you for your time and for your continued commitment to the health, success, and well-being of Carolton Farmers Branch ISD students. Thanks again. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Brac. We'll have someone from administration follow up with you. Thank you. Our next agenda item is item number five, non-action items for discussion. We'll begin with item 5A, Hydro Point update. Dr. Eldridge, would you please introduce the item? >> So, Hydro Point was a um water conservation project we participated in. And so, I asked Mr. Moore if he would follow up with an update since it's been a minute since we've discussed this. So, Mr. for more. >> Thank you, Dr. Eldridge, President Hatfield Trustees. It's been a minute. If I could do math quickly

075in my head, I would do 11 months worth of minutes because it was last December that we were here talking about Hydra Point. Um it was a one-of-a-kind opportunity then um that we brought to you uh here in the North Texas area. Uh and tonight, we'll take a look at what's come from that opportunity. Um we were chosen to partner with Hydrop Point again in December of 24. It was an opportunity that came about in large part through the work of our uh facilities department, Mason Driver. Mason, where are you, sir? Would you wave? Mason Drivers, our energy manager. Stand up. They can't see you. And I know you don't put on a coat all the time. So, there you go. There's Mason. Um Mason is in facilities. Bobby Shaw as well. So, they were

076really kind of the the drivers, no pun intended, uh the drivers of this to get uh to get this in place. We were the only school district selected for this program. Um, and that had a lot to do with the fact that we're located right in the middle of the Elmport Trinity watershed and with the population surging and just Proposition 4 passing yesterday, all of the investments that are going on with water throughout the state. Um, we piloted this program with Hydrop Point at Stark Elementary in 2024. Uh, since then we've expanded um we've expanded the program to, I believe, 20 in total. And here tonight to talk more about this is Jeff Welch. He was visiting with us last December and so he's going to kind of give us an update and talk to

077us about where we are right now. So, Mr. Welch, the floor is yours. >> All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Um, is I just want to do a real quick recap on what we did just so I think there's maybe one or two new board members here, so I want to make sure they kind of understand what we did. So, um, Hydrop Point, I work for Hydrop Point. I've been with the company about 20 years. Um, and we work with different school districts, parks and reccks departments. We have smart irrigation technology to help conserve water. Um, we work with a lot of bigname organizations including um, grant programs to be able to find money. And in this case, we were actually able to I think it was about a million dollars that

078we were able to get through Microsoft. Microsoft has a very large server um office being installed out there. They use a lot of water. So, they're trying to offset it by getting money over to different organizations to be able to be more efficient with their water usage to kind of offset what they need to do in these big server warehouses. So, we came in and um evaluated all the schools, came up with a list. You'll see as we kind of go through a few slides here, and please feel free to ask whatever questions you have as we kind of go through it. I think it's about five or six slides, but um we were able to identify 20 of the schools to be able to determine which ones would be the best beneficial, you know,

079to save as much water as possible. Um we installed smart controllers. We installed flow sensors so we can actually detect leaks. Um you'll see kind of our cases. We monitor all the controllers. We work directly with um the facility team making sure that they're up to date, know what's going on. all their um workers out in the field, the plumbing department, they all know what's happening so that they can get alerted of any issues that are going on out there. So, any questions about the program? I just want to make sure everyone was up to speed kind of what what we did because it's been about a year now. So, um sorry. >> There we go. It's been a long day, guys. I moved last week and uh >> and I'm going to drive home

080to Austin tonight. So this could be an interesting long drive tonight. So all right. So again, the portfolio kind of overview. This is our our internal team does a quarterly review and then we sit down with Mason and his team and do an update. Unfortunately, Q3 just ended. We weren't able to get all the data. So this data that we're going to go over today is all the way up until the end of Q2, which would be the end of June. Um, but there will be more updates. you guys will get privy information, slide decks on it and stuff like that. Feel free if you got any questions, please address those to Mason and then, you know, if we need to get on some kind of call or discuss something in further detail, we can.

081So, 20 total schools. Um, we installed over 40 controllers on these properties. 23 uh controllers have flow sensors that's actually detecting real time and reacting to a problem. And then we have 10 total meter monitoring devices. So there were some of the schools that we were not able to hook a flow sensor and wire it back to the controller. So we actually used one of our different devices to monitor and manage that. And it's an incredible device. The only issue is it doesn't react if there's a problem. So we alert Mason internally. Our team alerts Mason and their team. They're able to go out there and address an issue. So that's the the total number. Um, I believe we still have 10 to 12 more schools that would be a potential outside of this program

082to get the whole campus encompassed, but um, you know, we've I'm working with their team. We're evaluating that, trying to figure out pricing and stuff like that. So, currently, um, we've saved 8.2 million gallons of water, um, through the end of June, um, which equates to about $66,000 in savings. So, we're we get access to your water bills. They're given to us. We evaluate them. We put these quarterly reports together. So, those are real numbers. Um they're probably rounded a little bit. We didn't go all the way to dollars and cents on that, but that is just through um you know, the the cooler part of the season and then as we went into the summer, we're going to see even more, especially off Q3. So, our goal was about 20 million gallons saved this

083year and we are on track to actually possibly exceed that to about 21 almost 22 million gallons of water we'll save at the end of this year. So, a little bit more of a breakdown. You can kind of see a month by month. Again, this went through June. Um, but you know, kind of a different way of looking at it um how our team looks at it. So, there's your exact gallons saved. Now, part of this program was there's monitoring involved. So, our internal team monitors is a 10-year monitoring uh contract. I use the word contract loosely. Microsoft paid for the whole thing. Um, but we're constantly looking at it. We we create uh escalation cases internally. That's where we reach out. We're trying to figure out what's going on. I get pretty involved in

084that um just because I'm local. I was involved in all the installs that went on out here, so I know the sites pretty well. But we had 25 open cases through the end of June. That's everything from we had a major break, we had a major stuck valve, we had um broken heads out there. These are all the things that happened. We had 25 cases and and we resolved all those cases at 100% rate. So, um a little bit more detail on that. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought we had a different slide in there. Um, so some cases can take a little bit longer to resolve. We're trying to address, their team is trying to address what's going on out in the field, but we're constantly following up. So we want to make sure that

085that issue is resolved. We're irrigating the correct way. We're not wasting water and we're, you know, monitoring what's happening with that. So um, again, a broken head is one thing. an electrical issue, a broken mainline, that can be weeks of repair that needs to be done, but we've turned the water off on that site. So, there are certain circumstances where if it's a major repair that needs to be done, stress can happen to the landscape because we want to turn the water off. We don't want to be wasting any kind of water, but they've been great about getting stuff. Everyone's trained up on their teams. Um, it's been a little bit of a learning curve for them. They've used to doing irrigation a certain way, but, you know, we've been holding their hand on a

086regular basis. I'm meeting with them almost monthly uh when I come up here from Austin and sometimes we're walking sites, sometimes we're in the office just going over stuff, sometimes it's more training that we're doing with everyone. So that's kind of the high level of what's going on. Um any questions on that? Yes, >> I do have a question about the program. Oh, sorry about that. >> Um so as a millennial, I get a lot of my news on social media, not going to lie. And one of the things is cooling down AI centers. So that's like the current discussion. Yep. >> Is hydrop point a part of cooling down an AI center? >> No. >> Okay. >> So we uh they have their own technology. Our technology is great. They could probably use our

087technology because we have indoor watering devices. But theirs is so precise. Um you know down to a eighth of a gallon of water and they have to know that kind of technologies. ours goes down to like a gallon and a half accuracy. So, um but on that note, um what's happened is you guys were the first school that we did with Microsoft and it's the only school we've done in the state of Texas. We now currently have three other projects throughout the United States, not just with Microsoft, but with Amazon, PepsiCo. They saw what we did for you guys and they see this as a big benefit. So kudos to you guys for accepting our you know I guess million dollars [laughter] free of charge. Um but you know you you let us you know

088use you guys as an example of what we can do to save water and now that's going to cascade ac across the United States. We're also looking at some other opportunities here in Texas down in the Houston market. So, you know, again, you guys are the pioneers on this with us and we appreciate that and it's going to evolve into bigger and better things because the server warehouses aren't going to go away. I mean, it's they got to do it. Um, you know, it's unfortunate that they use the amount of water. Hopefully, there's some other technology later down the road in the future that allows them to use less water, but right now we got to figure out ways of offsetting it. Fortunately, we have a tool to do that. >> Okay. Any additional >>

089I'm sorry, additional question. >> I had another question. Yeah. >> Okay. So, I guess just to help me understand the water, we're counting the gallons that are being pulled out of our district per se, the school Stark in this example, we're pulling the the gallons out. We're counting the gallons and it's going to this Microsoft center. Is that correct? Or is it like what I guess help me understand because I'm not I'm not connecting the dots here. >> So, Microsoft's going to use X amount of water for their AI servers. Okay. So what they wanted to do if they're using let's just for math purposes they're using a million gallons a year. How can we Microsoft help out an organization to save a million dollar a million gallons of water? So that's where they came

090in said hey we're going to give you the money to give you the technology you're going to save and offset some of what we're using. Does that make sense? >> Yes. >> Okay. So that's kind of how that works. They call them water credits is what they are. They're really not getting a credit. They're not getting any value out of it except for the fact that they're doing good for the environment to do some kind of offsetting. And they're putting their money where their mouth is. You know, they're paying for it because they want to offset it to make this work so we're not, you know, drawing down these watersheds to such levels that it starts affecting us as the public. Um, you know, the scary thing about this, and you know, it's it's kind

091of my more or less my thought, but it's pretty important that those servers work. It's really important that we have water in our house. And where does that line get drawn? So, we're doing our part to help. Microsoft's doing their part. Amazon's going to be doing their part, you know, as we work on different projects. PepsiCo, Annheiser, Bush, you know, there's a lot of different organizations that we're working with that are trying to offset some of this water usage. Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. >> Additional questions, Miss Benvitas. >> How do you determine what campus receives the saving the water savings? >> No. Great, great question. So, we did a whole uh we call it um it was an analysis of not only the water being used at the school, but how big

092the landscape areas are. We measure all that with, you know, software and we figure out, okay, these are going to these schools are going to have the most savings. Obviously, the bigger the school, more water is being used. You know, we that that's a no-brainer at that point. But as you start to get into the middle schools and some of the elementary schools, we evaluated all that and we determined which ones were the top ones that would fit in with the highest savings of gallons and fit inside of the budget which we were trying to work in um on the whole thing. So, >> um when you talk about the broken heads, is that lawnmowers and kids or why is there so many broken heads? you know, gremlins, uh, all kinds of crazy things out

093there. I I've been in this industry a long time and I still there's I don't know how that head got broken, but it got broken. So, it could be kids, it could be wear and tear, it could be a mower. Um, you know, sometimes things just start leaking. Um, sometimes the mechanics on a valve will get stuck open. Uh, debris will get inside there. There's a lot of different factors that come into play. Um, but we want to catch all that. And you know, just so you guys understand, and I kind of explained this a year ago, but when there's a problem, it monitors it for three minutes. And after that three minutes, it reacts. So it's not going to have something stuck just running for hours and hours and hours. So, um, that's where

094we see the big water savings. And then we get notified right away. So they can get out there the next morning, they get an email saying, "Oh, okay. We got a work order. We got to get out there and address that issue." >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> All right. I just want to make sure I heard you right. >> Yeah. >> Um, you said y'all have identified 20 more that we need >> to do and you're putting numbers together so that you can go get us another million dollars, right? >> That was that was a good try. I give you credit on that one >> cuz we're a school district. >> Yes. >> So, okay. Just make sure we're clear on that. >> So, no. Uh, the the the Microsoft money is done. Um,

095and so, you know, we do have 10 more schools that would be great potentials, you know, so the whole campus was on this. Um, yeah, that's going to be out of your guys' budget. You know, we'd have to figure out. We're going to put the numbers together. We're going to do some very fair pricing. It'll match what we've done with Microsoft. Um, you know, there's great things, you know, as we save money, there's money that can be reapplied for another school. um you know is we I work a lot with HOAs and HOAs will come in um big HOAs and we'll replace all the controllers then we take that savings from those controllers all that water savings they keep it in a fund and then they apply that to let's add flow sensors or let's

096upgrade our systems you know so it's that same kind of business model you know take the savings reinvest take the savings reinvest and eventually it really doesn't cost anything at the end of the day takes a little longer to get done that way Um, but you know, do you want to capture all the savings, water savings now and pay the bill up front? Sure. Or otherwise, we can just phase in as we go. So, thank you very much for your presentation and being able to share the savings and I'm sure that your team is enjoying the benefits of the technology helping with the job and efficiency. So, I think that's really great. Thank you very much. >> Awesome. Thank you guys. Really appreciate it. You guys have a good evening. >> You too. Good luck

097on your drive home. >> Yes. Might be a long one. >> All right. Our next agenda item is item 5B, which is our attendance and enrollment update. Dr. Eldrich, could you introduce the item? >> Yes. So, thank you to Mr. Sulak and and her his team because he is monitoring attendance and enrollment daily. We get emails sometimes before 7, you know, sometimes in the middle of the night with a different thought. But um we are so thankful to monitor attendance because as we speak about our financials, how do we how do we generate revenue? it's from attendance and I think the importance of attendance and so um just tracking it and also our student enrollment you know where are our students you know what can we offer so thank you for all the hard work

098you're done and we look forward to your presentation >> thank you for that [snorts] and Dr. Dr. Eldrich, President Hatfield, members of the board. [clears throat] Tonight, I have the opportunity to provide a student services update for all all areas within our department. Um, first off, we'd like to start with our motto within student services, which is caring for every student every step of the way. Um, that is truly what we believe. We are a customer service uh group. We focus on how can we support our families and our campuses um at all times. And so, we truly strive for that. And one thing as a district what we've done this year is under one umbrella we have our traditional student services we have our health services now underneath the student ser student services umbrella

099and we have our student information and pe submission um under that as well which all supports the overall goal of customer service. So what goes down in student services? All attendance, enrollment, parent engagement, parent support, health services, all things related to that as well as um health services, student information like I mentioned are within student services. We are uh very fortunate to have the five amazing directors that we have. Um each one of them oversee an area or a department and the areas are aligned to the feeders and they also have a focus area that they become the experts in and are able to share that knowledge with all the other directors and the campuses and training administrators and informing um all campus staff as well. So now let's take a dive into our enrollment

100and attendance for this school year. Our current enrollment as of November the 3 is 22,933 students. If you look at the graph on the right, you can see that that is a decline over enrollment the last few years. And you will also notice that we see an increase at the beginning of the year, but after that initial increase, we generally stabilize throughout the year and we finish within a 100 or so students of that number at the end of the year. Um, as a student services department, we are constantly tracking levers. Students when they leave, where they go, we look for trends in that, which I'll go into here in a little bit. We also are tracking down our 98s, our students where we do not know where they went and where they're at. Uh

101it's important for us to track down those students, one for funding as well for accountability as well, which I'll I'll look into those numbers here in a little bit as well. Uh looking forward, we also have an enrollment task force because at the end of the day, we want to be looking at how can we make our enrollment process efficient, effective, easy for our families and our campuses for the following school year. It's crazy to think, but yes, we also have a little bit of a foot in the next school year because around the corner, we we will be talking about that process and we want our families to have a seamless process that they feel supported and works well for them for the next school year as well. Looking at our attendance, um, as

102Dr. Eldridge mentioned, it's very important. You'll hear me say that there are two main reasons why I think attendance is important for a district, and it always goes back to number one, um, our our student account or student academics. Um, students, they need to be in school to learn. So number one, student attendance impacts our ability to learn in the classroom. So we always want to support our students in getting in the classroom as well as the funding aspect of it as well and the funding we get for students being in class. This year our current attendance rate is 95.53% that is trending higher than where we were last year. Uh our in our goal for attendance for our percentage of attendance for this year is 94.5% which would be a 4/10en of a point

103increase over last year of a 94.1. Um, one of the the ways that we are uh working to assist with our attendance is our truency tribunal where we have contracted out Judge Payton and his team to meet with students who have uh exceeded the threshold of absences and are needing to have that intervention with the judge who they get summoned to the ESDC and actually have a court opportunity with Judge Payton. We have seen 422 students so far this school year. Um, some of those students are what we call the status checks or returning students. That's about 130 of those students have returned for a status update to see how we're doing. And then the other remaining ones are new students that have been summoned to the to the truency tribunal. As also mentioned, a

104Senate bill completion rate is at right now at 78.9% as of uh November 3rd. today sitting at 79.1 and we're constantly looking at how can we support our families with that completion rate um because we want our families to have the opportunity to receive those health services and counseling services under Senate Bill 12. Now looking into the levers and transfers. So lever are tracking the students when they leave our district. Um at the beginning of the school year the TEA defines this time period where we u report this number as the school start window. That's defined from the first day of school through the last Friday in September. There are 19 different codes that are associated with students when they leave our district. As mentioned, code 98 are students that we do not know where

105they went. We those are the students we actively are trying to find out where they went because that those are the ones that could potentially impact our funding as well as our accountability. You can see in 2024 we had 211 students from 7th through 12th grade that were labeled or identified as a 98. Um 153 of those were at the high school level. This year we we lowered that number to 67 students and 56 of them are high school students. And that's through the work of our campuses, our records department, our PES uh staff members at the campus level uh calling our families and finding out where they are so that we could get the best code for them. uh for the school for the school start. Uh looking at transfers as well, you'll see

106that we have three different categories. One of them is not necessarily a transfer and that's the last one, but we have in district transfers. Those are students who are zoned for one CFB school who actually attend another CFB school. We have out of district transfers, students that are zoned for another district who attend our school or vice versa. And then we have program of study placement which is not a transfer but it's the process from 8th to 9th grade in our school district where students select their program select what campus they'll be at. It's not nec it's not a transfer but it is a placement to the nth grade campus. And so if you look at the figure on the right you can see how how many students left our school district this year and

107how many we gained. And we were trending at about 1,200 students less than what we had at this point last year. So diving into those levers a little bit more, where did they go? So to another Texas school district, public school district, there was 2,800 students that went to another Texas school district. To charter schools, 755 students who that either graduated, left to go out of state, left to go out of the country, or went to a private school accounted for 3,100 students. Now we know 1,600 students graduated in the district. So you can see that about 1500 are the remaining amount and that totaled almost were a little over 6,700 students and we also put a chart in there that shows you the top 15 school districts where our students went to that left

108CFB. On the other side of that, these are our new students to CFBISD. We had 1,200 students transfer in from other school districts with that graph on the right showing you the top 15 school districts and how many students came from each school. Uh you we also have the new students that have come from charter schools, private schools, and other new students such as prek and kindergarten students. It's their first time enrolling in our school district. They are new students to us as well. And so that number totaled 5,500. Looking at our other areas within the department, uh as far as discipline and code of conduct infractions, we have had over 5,700 infractions districtwide. While that isn't a slight increase over last year's number, as you can see, a large percentage, almost a third of

109those have come from the HB1481, the cell phone law that was passed this year. And that is a L23 is a local code within our system that that is coded on the discipline infraction for those electronic devices. So as far as uh being proactive and how can we get ahead of it, how can we support our students um that we are hosting or the student services directors are having monthly meetings with our secondary campuses to look at trends and to look at proactive approaches uh for discipline. And then for the elementaryaries, we're having quarterly meetings with each elementary school as well. Under the family engagement area, we are having the rainbow days part uh partnership with with a number of the elementary schools that we have. We have the Consilio, which is a parenting program

110as well, supporting our families with student nutrition, kindness training, parenting, um different parenting tips as well. And as mentioned before, the grand reopening of the giving house. There's a picture of the Elks, the Irving Elks group donated. Dr. Eldridge mentioned ways to donate. Um the finance team, we're working on a way to to collect money through Revra. Uh we've had a number of different uh other businesses and such reach out to want to donate backpacks and clothing items as well. So, we're very thankful for the community partnering with that for the for the giving house to support our families. Uh, another exciting thing that we're working on is with Metrorest, who's a wonderful partner, is the CFB serves, which is an opportunity in the spring that on January 31st and April 28th, our school district

111employees have the opportunity to give back on a Saturday and go serve at Metrorest. So, we are very excited for that opportunity coming next semester. So, what's happened within student services the last couple months? uh educational foundations. We were very thankful to be awarded the above and beyond recognition award. We also have the opportunity to do the final steps. We were awarded a possibility of $159,000 for the cell phone grant through the state of Texas which would assist with implementation of HB1481 as well as some of the unintended consequences or or needs that arise because of it such as fine arts and not being able to use their phones for tuners and such. I actually had a meeting with Dr. forward today where he listed some of the things that would be great to have

112since they can't use their cell phones. The attendance and co coding and policy of the month trainings. Uh Mr. Puit's doing a wonderful job with the attendance coding and it's important that we are coding our absent students correctly and it's a you know that that goes into the um percent of attendance and all the things we need to make sure our coding is correct that our staff is trained. Mr. Puit as well as student information team is doing a great job with that. And we're also informing our our principles and staff of important policies within student services that impact attendance, enrollment, and discipline. For the health services department, there was a a recent audit from the state where they looked at some of our recordkeeping, some of our temperatures within our vaccine refrigerators and such.

113And uh we we did a wonderful job with that audit. The stop the bleed had about 60 to 70 people that showed up to that. I want to say a week ago. Shack as Miss Garza Rojos mentioned was a wonderful we had a wonderful meeting last week and that that parent I I remember the some of the things that she was saying as well as mentioned the Senate Bill 12 raffle and some of the internal documents that we're working on with the grievance checklist the parent observation form a custody resource document for the for the campuses the student handbook and the parent portal. What's happening now? Once again it's ongoing. The training um for all things student services is ongoing. We're constantly looking at ways that we can improve with that. We are bringing back

114the student of the nine weeks which we are very excited about. We've partnered with the communications team. This are these are some of the graphics some of the yard signs. Campuses will have the opportunity to select two students per nine weeks to celebrate as a student of the nine weeks. There will be social media post yard signs to give out. It's a great way to highlight a lot of the great students and things going on with the campuses. The health services team as mentioned and our PES department and student information department have moved under the one building for the one-stop shop for our families at the ESDC. And these are some of the documents we're currently reviewing as well. Um the parent portal, the Ford exchange procedures, exit surveys when a student withdraws from our

115district to gather some data as to why are you leaving so that we can try to make the experiences better. Um if there is a if there is a need for that. uh PE submissions, we're looking at those as well as the home visit protocol. And then what's to come and these are our enrollment plans. Um we were a part of the North Texas um enrollment coalition which is a lot of the neighboring school districts have gotten together from the student services department. Um most of the neighboring school districts and we're working with them very closely. We're not the only school district around that has experienced the decline. In fact, we toured a a camp or a district last week and their number is at around 3 to 4,000 students short of what their projection

116was. And so, this is not a local thing. This is not a DFW. It's a it's statewide, if not bigger than that, for the enrollment decline. And so, we are working with all the neighboring districts around us to look at how can we improve the enrollment efforts, how can we encourage families to come back to to schools. Um and so when we're also looking at the enrollment process and how to make that efficient, easy for our families and and useful for our campuses. Uh we've we've met with other districts that use the same program that we use through frontline teams and laserfish so that we can maximize the systems that we have already so that they once again become easier for our families to use and effective for us. We're updating the transfer guidelines, the

117transfer revocation process, student retentions, as well as the discipline matrix for our campuses. A lot of things going on and at the end of the day, we are so thankful that we have the opportunity to support our families. Want to thank the district. On behalf of uh student services team, we are we feel very lucky that we get the opportunity every day to support each camp each campus and each family in the district. And with that, I'd love to answer any questions you may have. >> Mr. Sulik, thank you for all the details. Um, it's so great to hear. Board members, do you have any questions or comments? Miss Barnes, [snorts] first of all, I have a comment. I just want to I'm very excited to see that y'all are already looking ahead for reinrollment

118next year and um I think it's going to be great. I think that's going to be so helpful. Um my first question was just for general public as they're listening to the presentation. Can you give a short explanation of what SB12 is? Yes, SB12. Uh there were a lot of laws passed this year that really gave rights to parents for education. And the the consent form that parents have been asked to to sign in our district allows parents the opportunity for their student to see the nurse for basic medical needs as well as see the counselor for for different areas as well, which I can't really speak to the counseling side too well, but in order to receive services from the health services department or the counseling department, families must fill out that consent form

119as required by Senate Bill 12. >> And you said current the current number is around 79%. >> Just over 79%. >> Okay. So we basically 20% of our our families are still missing that consent. >> Yes, ma'am. And we've we've been working we have a committee that meets regularly at the district. We did the uh campaign where we actually gave out a pizza party to four of the elementary schools. U we're also looking at possibly if it's if we're able to hopefully do a paper version as well that can be uploaded in our system as well because not all of our families may have the access or or may need that technology support as well. So we looking at a paperbased copy for those families too. >> Excellent. Um my second question was is there

120any further breakdown of the levers like how many of uh these students are elementary or middle or high school? Where are we seeing the I guess largest group of kids leaving? >> I don't have that data in front of me or prepared tonight. I can get that data to you. But I will tell you that uh of the 1200 student difference this year, it is pretty consistent across all the grade levels. All right. Um but I could definitely provide that to Mr. M or Dr. Eldridge with the breakdown by grade level, the difference from year-over-year. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> Additional questions, Miss Brady. >> Thank you, Mr. Shulock, for your wonderful presentation and your hard work at the student services building. Miss Benign, the the giving house looks amazing. Like absolutely. I'm

121so excited for our kids and our families to be able to access that. Mike, I just wanted to um ask you again about the home visits and I'm sure you've covered this before, but can you remind us all what the home visits are that you listed up on the screen? >> So home so students who um have not returned or have it's like we miss you. You haven't been here in a while. We just want to check and we want to see how we can support you. Um so the camp we've partnered with the campuses. In fact, tomorrow it's on our calendars that we're going to go out and support the families and we're going to go check on families and see um how we can support them to return to campus. >> Miss Benitas,

122>> thank you. That was a lot of information. Good job. Um I was wondering about the SB12 permission slip. Will that be something that'll go with enrollment next year or is it a every year thing? >> I I it is an every year thing and the initial plan is to put that within the enrollment process. So, and honestly, if this was passed sooner in the year, this would have been in the enrollment process. However, since this was passed late, since it was included late, um most of our families had already completed online registration. So, that's the reason for the roll out the way it was. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. I just wanted to compliment you and your team, especially my visit yesterday at the tribunal court. The truency tribunal court is where

123where I went to go see what you guys were doing. and you really are doing some incredible work there. You know, at to a certain extent some of our families do need a lot of grace and they deserve a second chance and that's what student services does for for all of us for for us as a parent, for me as a parent, for our families, for our kids and I want to express like a deep sense of gratitude for that because that is it could change your life. If one person does that for you, that could change it and I'm thankful that CFB has that right now. So, thank you for that. The second portion of it is attendance. Will there be a campaign of some sort that we're going to roll out to have

124a discussion about attendance and the importance of attendance in our schools to just promote it to have a discussion about why you need to be in school? >> I don't have anything to prepare to present tonight, but that is definitely something that we're always looking at is how can we inform our kids, talk to our students, talk to our families about the importance of attendance. I know at the campus level that's something we talked about all the time, we speak about all the time, but we can definitely look into doing things like that as well district level. Thank you so much. >> And and to touch on your truency tribunal comment, um when you think about parents going to be summoned to court at truency tribunal, it's not it it is truly about how can

125we support the family and how can we support the student to get them to school. It's not a punitive type thing. It's honestly from a lens of how can we support them? >> And thank you for that, Mr. Sherack. If there would be more people like you in this world, it would be a different world. So, thank you again. >> Watch out. [laughter] Um any other questions or comments? Okay. Well, first of all, the amount of work that the student services team is doing, um you guys heard a lot from the campuses and you heard the needs and like the actions that you guys are doing are you we're seeing the actions and we're seeing the difference you're making. So, thank you to your team very much. Um I wanted to go back to the

126um lever slides specifically. Um, I started kind of looking at the districts that were represented and some interesting things popped out to me in that when levers are going transferring to another district. Um, are those people that are living in CFB and are attending somewhere else or they like left the district? >> Most of the or could be a mixture but honestly most of these have left address wise left moved out of the district. Thank you. That's very helpful. the and I'll go in depth a little more. The report we get, you can see every school district. You can actually see the campus they've gone to. It we get a pretty in-depth report where we can look at which school the kids have gone to. >> Okay, that's very helpful because what's really interesting is

127I was looking at the districts that border us and Lewisville, Dallas, and Capel. if you combine the students that are leaving to go to another district, that is only 29% of the the ones that are transferring to a Texas ISTD school, but if you flip to the next one, the ones that are transferring to us, it's 71% of the transfers. So there are, when you really think of it that way, only a small portion are leaving to go to our neighboring districts versus the ones that are coming or a larger portion of the kids that are coming. The other thing that was very interesting to me was the number of rural district kids that are leaving. So kids are leaving our district and going to a rural area. That is not a symptom of them

128not liking CFB most likely. That's a symptom of their family and their home. So I just really think it's important when we look at these I even I mean I broke it down all the ways like region 10, region 11, like where are these people going? Um and it was really fascinating to me to really think about the fact that it's not because people are just going to our neighbors. It's because people are genuinely leaving the area. And that is one of the things that the public needs to understand is it's not just a Carolton Farmers Branch school problem. It's that people are making a choice to move out of the central area. Um, and I just wanted to highlight that in the data because I really appreciate you guys breaking it down like this

129because we could look at it in a different angle. Um, and so thank you for the attention to detail. >> Thank you. >> All right. Oh, another question. Sorry, I forgot [clears throat] to ask this before. our application thinking ahead for enrollment. Uh I've asked this for a couple of years, but can we make sure that the applications are mobile friendly? Just accessibility. I know that I'm asking for a lot, but I'm just it's a suggestion and a thought process to make it >> so I'm asking for that as well. >> Okay. >> Um and the honest truth is a lot of the school we met with Plano LA two weeks ago and Plano we've all asked frontline for make it mobile friendly and um we are hopeful but it's just not there yet. If

130I can make wave a wand, that would be the wand. >> It's okay. We're gonna all hope. >> We have confidence that one day you will wave that wand. >> Yes, we do. [laughter] Yes, we do. But thank you for that clarification as well. >> All right. Thank you so much and thank you to your team for all the work that you guys do for kids. >> Thank you. >> All right. Our next agenda item is the financial update item 5C. Dr. Aldridge, will you introduce this item? So, as we focus on attendance and we probably need a campaign sooner rather than later. Um, you heard me, Mr. Puit. Um, um, but you know, I think and making our families understand the importance of being um, present, as Mr. Soolog said, for not only academic

131performance, but also there's very few ways that a school district can generate revenue. And so you're going to see that tonight that um you know when you lose when you have a decline in students or attendance is the only way you can make up for that. However, we also have to look at different formulas that the state has um deemed appropriate that we don't seem fair. Um but I also want to say before um Miss Settle's presentation how much our team, every campus, every department has taken a hard look at our finances. They're being educated and what do we need to do so that we are good stewards of our money, but we provide for our students. That is the number that is the reason we're all here is for our students. And so, um,

132you know, maybe the news isn't all that great, but we are going to take everything we have so that our teachers and our students have everything they need for education. So, with that, I'll give it to you. >> Always hit the button. Good evening again, uh, Dr. Eldridge, President Hatfield, and Estee. Uh, I'm here to provide a financial update. um after the first marking period. Uh it's the role of every district CFO to present timely and accurate information so that you as board members and our community can make informed decisions about the district's financial future. And there is no doubt of the total commitment to fulfill our roles at the highest level. Tonight's presentation will cover three areas. our current enrollment in situation, the funding implications, and our collaborative planning approach for the 2627 budget

133cycle. As Dr. Eldridge mentioned and has been reiterated several times by the board of trustees, this district has a laser focus on students and their outcomes. And to that end, we will begin with our students. So, let's talk a little bit about enrollment. Uh I want to keep in mind my presentation reflects uh Mr. Sulak's October 27th slides. So uh a little bit happened between October 7th and November 3rd. Um but this is our current trend line. Um when on October 27th the district enrollment stood at 22,950 students. When we compare this to our historical data, we do see a significant trend that requires our attention. And this isn't unique to our our to only our district. Many Texas districts are experiencing similar demographic shifts, but the magnitude and the pace of our decline does

134have material financial implications. Neighbors like Lewisville and Plano that you've we've mentioned today are seeing proportionate declines of 3% and 5% respectively. So, we are not alone in this experience. The chart you see here shows our decadel long enrollment trend and and some special uh student populations that have weighted um funding in our funding formula. This breakdown helps us understand to see where the most significant changes are and informs our staffing and facility planning decisions. So this is a very um common uh picture if you are a district administrator at CFBISTD. We get them quite often. Um, but enrollment and uh, ADA is monitored and analyzed by many different areas of the district. Uh, but as students might enroll throughout the year, our best practices in budgeting use the last Friday in October or snapshot

135as we call it to kick off planning for the next fiscal year. Since the 1920 school year, CFB ISD has experienced a 10.39% decrease in enrollment. This table reflects the actual numbers from the first graph I showed you. Where some special populations might fluctuate, the decline of total enrollment is the single most contributing factor to our revenue deficit. For those less familiar with Texas school finance and the state funding formula, let me provide a brief overview as it's a central context for the understanding of our situation. Texas schools have three primary components that affect how we calculate the funding for the district's entitlement. The middle um picture there that is determined by the state legislature, not the board. There's local property taxes there on the left generated from our local tax base and there is

136state funding where the allocation from the state based off enrollment and various student need factors all contribute to the entitlement. The third component is something we call recapture, also known as Robin Hood, where the districts with high property values like CFBISD return excess local revenue to the state for redistribution that is outside the entitlement determined by the state. Determined by the state. This formula is complex, but here's what matters for our planning. When enrollment declines sharply in a property wealthy district, recapture calculations can leverage against our tier one entitlement, recre creating additional financial pressure. Historically, CFBISD's recapture payments were limited to our tier 2 entitlement. The sharp drop in student enrollment this year is ushering the district into this arena of tier one recapture. And you'll see here in the dark gray bars, those are

137all tier 2 recapture. These are generated from the additional pennies adopted by our Vader from 201718 in 2526 because we had already established our tax rate and we had already uh generated the to tax effort from our our property values. um that has an inverse relationship with recapture when your enrollment shrinks as sharply as it did. So, a little math for the math adopters out there. Um our current revenue projections have estimates here based off our district summary of finance template. It shows how our local tax effort, enrollment, and recapture interact to impact our available funds. So, as property values increase while enrollment decreases, we see recapture obligations grow from $9.8 million in our original projection on the left to $14.8 8 million more there on the right which reduces our available revenue. We also

138are experiencing the effect of our um enrollment decline just in the basic uh revenue formula of $5.6 million. So our loss in students this year has a total effect of $20 million. Oops. Sorry. There you go. $20 million uh hit to the bottom line. If you look back, CFBISD has always proactively responded to the data we track. For instance, after the bond in 2023, a campus ca capacity study informed the decision to consolidate schools and revise attendance zones for the first time in 20 years to optimize our investment per campus. Other cost control and avoidance strategies were implemented to mitigate the impact of a revenue deficit in FY25. And while this year has been complicated with legislative changes combined with unforeseen enrollment decline, the district did benefit greatly from the reductions made in the prior

139year as a stabilizing force during unforeseen change. But now we forge ahead with solid datainformed values-based decisions to prepare next year's budget. And I want to be very clear about our approach. While we face financial challenges, our focus remains squarely on students. Every decision we're making is filtered through the lens of student impact. The net effect of this delta in enrollment does impact our fund balance and projected deficit. What we had expected to be a 6 million decrease to fund balance is now projected to be $26 million. And it is at this time I want to remind the board that we had employed one-time sources to begin to optimize expenditures to give us time to strategically deploy strategies that move our expenditure budget close to a balanced state. But the unforeseeable decline in enrollment does

140add additional complexity in meeting that goal in our original timeline. Our response requires collaboration across every department. Finance does not operate in a vacuum. We're working closely with seven key areas in the district. You heard all about student services and on on their attendance and retention strategies. We work with human resources on staffing ratios and position optimization. We work with leadership and learning on maintaining instructional quality. We work with facilities and technology on long range planning and efficient facility use. special services to ensure continued support for all student needs, communication for transparent community engagement, and all operations of the district are looking for revenue enhancement and optimized contract uh opportunities. Each of our departments bring expertise and perspective that informs our financial planning and this collaborative model ensures that we make holistic decisions rather than

141purely financial ones. This is a huge lift from the entire leadership team. Every leader and their team is building the budget in a priority-based budget framework. And that work has already begun over the last month. I'd like to walk you through the budget timeline so that you are fully aware of where we are. Uh we're currently in November which means we're beginning that intensive phase of budget planning um where we conduct our snapshot analysis and we start to work with all the administrative departments first making those decisions away from the classroom first. We make staffing ratio decisions and we will provide quarterly revenue projections to the board. Late in January through early March, we move into campus level budgeting where we develop preliminary payroll snapshots and finalize position recommendations. In April, we receive our property

142values, our preliminary property values, which allow us to finalize our revenue budget. And this is a very critical month because we can't build an accurate expenditure budget until we know where our revenue constraints are. In May through June, we develop our compensation proposals and draft those preliminary budgets and incorporate the latest revenue projections so that in July when we receive certified property values on the 25th and TEA publishes our maximum compressed tax rate, we will hold then our public hearing before adopting the final tax rate and budget in August. This timeline is structured to provide you with regular updates and multiple opportunities for input before final decisions are required. You'll notice throughout this timeline that we built in specific board update points through the process occurring in November, January, March, April, and beyond. At each

143stage, we'll present options. Our job is to show you the data, outline the implications of the various scenarios, and provide the financial analysis you need to make the best decision for the district. To summarize, yes, we are facing an overall 10% enrollment decline from the last five years, which does have significant funding implications, particularly when we live in a recapture district. But we're responding through strategic collaborative planning that keeps students first. This plan reflects responsible leadership, the legacy we've set before. Continuing tightening our operations so that our classrooms remain strong tomorrow. Every decision made is about protecting opportunity for our students and stabilizing our CFB community. The budget timeline ahead provides multiple touch points for board input and community engagement. and we are committed to transparent communication about our financial reality and the options available

144to address it. And I do want to emphasize we are in a planning phase. Tonight is about information. We're not asking for decisions. And as we move through this timeline, we will bring those options for your consideration. Our objective remains unchanged, timely and accurate data so users can make informed decisions and keep students first. and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about tonight's presentation or our planning process. >> Thank you, Miss Settle. I know uh delivering the message is not always the easiest. Um but I thank you for being transparent and for coming and sharing the information um in a timely way because it does allow for time to process. It allows for us to all work together as we have done and will continue to do. So board members, with that,

145do you have any questions or comments? >> [laughter] >> Mr. Shackman. >> Uh thank you for uh the news. Even though it is a bit discouraging, I want to be sure that all of us that are here and all of our constituents watching on TV and learning understand this board and the local control that we have has nothing to do with how much money the state says we will pay back in Robin Hood. And we do not get to control the property values in our community. So all of that plus declining enrollments is what is de we're dealing with here. Is that am I understanding that correctly? >> Yes sir. Um there is a lot of things outside this board's control. Uh the central appraisal districts uh set your property values. the state compresses your

146tax rate and yes, we don't really determine the recapture because the state decides what the entitlement is for our students. And so when our we generate extra excess local revenue, the state decides what they're going to take back, >> right? >> And this year, you know, with the increase, it's just as much as what we are in our deficit. >> Yeah. And if we look at that and evaluate the amount of students that have we've lost over time from whatever source, it is a direct implication as to why our budget deficits are there. It's easy to say, well, the board should have done this more or that Dr. Eldridge should have the superintendent should have done it more. The reality is this is the circumstance that we're facing and as a as a trustee, it

147frustrates me that we don't have more local control to be able to deal with our finances. >> Yes, sir. And I mean, I am very proud of the work we did last year in redu in the reductions of our budget. Uh if you go and look at our our trend um you can see that from 2425 to 2526 on the payroll side it's almost flat and that's a direct result of the administrative cuts that were made and the optimization of our positions. Um so you know we do work hard to stay within our means. Um but there are circumstances outside our control for this year. I have lots more I could say, but I'll turn turn [laughter] my colleagues. >> Miss Brady, >> I just want to be clear that people understand what's happening. So,

148as you pay your taxes and you pay your school tax bill, if you will, each one of our students gets their $6,180. Beyond that, your tax dollars go back to the state. That is what's happening here. So, y'all are the ones paying us. those of us who live in Carolton are paying the state even though your kids go here. So it's really the illusion of local control. So just so that everybody understands that that's what's happening. So all the extra we get exactly for I mean as many kids that are here we get our 6180 and then some some kids get a little bit more because of that special needs whatnot. But then it's your dollars that are going we're paying the state. So now we're going to be $20 million extra in debt because

149the state got our money. So this is the time to call your legislators and start advocating for a school finance bill to be reevaluated. We looked at we are one of six states in this whole country that do it this way because it's so archaic. So, I encourage you all, those of you online watching, please contact your senators, your representatives, or your mayors or whoever, because it's got to get changed. We're giving money back to the state, which now, as you all know, will sit in a surplus. Then they'll brag about how much surplus they have of the billions of dollars of surplus that they're taking from our kids. So, just keep that in mind as you vote again next year. >> Other questions? Miss Garza Rous. >> So just to just to go back

150a little bit on your slide where it says revenue recapture. I think you had budgeted 10.9 for recapture for this year. So kind of coming off of Miss Brad Parades conversation about recapture, we have a budget budgeted 10.9. Is that correct? >> It it was budgeted for 9.8 and it'll increase to a total of 24.7 >> million. So, we're sending back $25.7 million to the state to go into a surplus budget. Now, we got a very very tiny increase in in the the money 61. It was 6160 and now it's 61 >> 6215. So, we have 6215 per child if they come to school 100% of the time. Is that correct? >> Yes, Sam. >> Okay. Which is why attend attendance is so important because not only is it learning loss, but it's also revenue.

151And so to echo as well what Miss Brady is saying, I do encourage all of us, you know, there's a member of our CFBISD council out there that's on the legislative advocacy chair. And this is hard. This is some hard truths. This is hard for us to hear it and to see it on paper and to say we were okay last year and now it's this year. And here went legislative season. Two years went by and we're at it again and again and again and again. And we as local government are the ones that are suffering the most. Our kids are the ones that are going to end up with this. So again, to echo Miss Brady, that is a great conversation to have to call your elected officials and say, "What is up, man?"

152Like, we are the people. I will give it to somebody else. Miss Barnes, >> I think I've made this analogy about three times in the last 48 hours, but um this feels very much like we as a school district have been put out in the middle of a lake. There's been a bunch of holes drilled into this boat and we've been given a spoon and we've been told to paddle our way to the other side. and other side being graduation. And every year, you know, our state comes back and drills another hole in it and another hole, maybe five holes. And I think that um I think that we as individuals, we as a community need to really think about what the implications are going to be as we just slowly sink. And I agree

153with the others. This is a really good time to call your legislators and tell them how important it is that we fund our public schools. I had one other comment. Um, recapture long time ago that money was meant to be sent to school districts that maybe didn't have funds. Correct. That was the ultimate goal. The original premise of the excess local revenue program is to take um the excess local tax effort and redistribute it to lower property wealth districts. So those rural districts that can't generate the same kind of funding because their property values might not increase at all. >> Um and that was the original premise. Um and you can see in our history, you know, it's fluctuated both based off um property value increases and whether or not we declined that year in

154student enrollment. >> Thank you so much. But that basically that is not what is happening with most of that money at these days. >> I'm not an expert on what the state does with their money. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Okay. I uh any other questions? I have a few questions um specific to the budget. >> So if you can go back to the slide that had like the that one. Um I understand the recapture piece, >> but the M revenue that 5.6 6 million. That's the amount that's directly impacted by the students that we don't have. Correct. >> Correct. >> So if we just looked at the 5.6 like okay we not that we we did not anticipate we would lose 1,200 students and we had good data that said that was not going

155to happen but our reality is very different. So you would expect that it would just be an additional $5.6 million hit on the budget but yet it is actually an additional because of the recapture because of that tier one. >> Agreed. >> Okay. So, um, we based our budget on those kids being in their seats and we have staff that are we can't the staff are staying. And so, I guess my counter question would be if we have 1,200 students less than we anticipated, how are we ensuring that the people that were going to be supporting those 1,200 students are making the biggest impact on student achievement? because we were given a gift from that perspective that we have staff that can support kids. >> I think student achievement questions should probably be deferred to

156Miss Hulkcom, but I'm highly confident in her abilities after the latest report card [laughter] >> 100%. And so I but I I think my point in that is that I also have confidence that while because we staffed to support those 1,200 kids that are not here, that does not mean that that money is going wasted. That money is going to go support the kids that need it the most in this district this year. And we will use that money for good because we have highquality staff in this district that can support those kids. And that is my expectation because I almost see it as a gift. While I do not want to be in this situation, we can use that money to help these kids because those are highquality staff in these spaces that may

157have less students in them. So, I thank you because I know I know because of the student achievement results we got last year, we will make this this situation the best this year for the kids that are sitting in our seats. And that's what I expect. Um, and my second my that was more of a comment. I guess it wasn't a question. um is that compensation uh coming out in May. So, I understand we're in a very um we've got to work through all the steps. >> Um when the legislature passed the pay increase that they funded, >> the teacher retention a lotment. >> Yes, thank you. The teacher retention aotment, did they um pass that increase for this year and then increase it again for next year so somebody would get a raise next

158year? >> No, ma'am. It was a one-time bianiumre increase. So the same money we have this year is will continue to next year but we will not get additional teacher retention aotment to issue another raise. >> Okay. So it was basically like a >> two-year drop in the bucket not a one-year drop in the bucket. So any raise that we give next year has to come off of it doesn't come out of the teacher retention aotment because that's our baseline has been covered and then we have to cover any additional support we provide. That is correct. >> Okay, that's helpful information. So, is there any consideration knowing that um what could be the impact to our recruitment if we need to recruit by having our compensation package in May? >> Well, by bringing compensation earlier,

159it does help us be more competitive. And that is the typical calendar that the district um follows. We've adopted compensation later in the year last year because we were doing the the salary study and we were waiting for the uh legislature to finish their work. >> Okay. So, it could be earlier this year because there's not a legislature piece. >> Correct. It's not a legislative year. >> Okay, great. Um, that's all my questions and I recognize that um, tonight was not easy to bring, but I thank you for bringing it to us and for the intentionality to continue bringing the information to us and to our community. Um, I hope that you see that the hard work is going to happen in this district because we recognize we have to balance the budget, but the

160most important thing we do is support students. And so some tough decisions are going to be made to streamline the support for students but not change the quality of services they receive. So thank you very much. Um with that we will see would anybody like to take a recess? Yes. All right. It is 8:38 and we are going to take a brief 10-minute recess. Okay, the time is now 8:47 p.m. and I call this meeting of the Carolton Farmers Branch ISD Board of Trustees back to order. We will proceed to our next agenda item which is item number six, the consent agenda. The consent agenda is a mechanism that the board uses to approve a number of routine items together with a single vote. In compliance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, the public notice

161for this meeting includes a list of consent agenda items, and the board has been provided ample information about these items in advance prior to any action taken on the consent agenda. Board members may request withdrawal of individual items for clarification or discussion. Um, I myself will review or will remove items 6W and 6X. 6 W and 6X. Board members, are there any other items to be removed from the consent agenda at this time? All right. If there are no other items to be removed, uh do I have a motion regarding the consent agenda as amended? Miss Brady, >> I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda minus items 6W and 6X. >> I have a motion from Miss Brady. I have a second from Mr. Gilmore. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all

162those in favor raise your hand. All those opposed by a vote of seven in favor and zero opposed. The motion carries. The next agenda item is item number seven, items for discussion and or action. Uh we have two items removed from the consent agenda. So we will proceed to item 6A. The title of the item is well both of the items um is 6W. consider and approve the minutes of the regular board meeting held on October 2nd, 2025 and consider and approve the approval of minutes for the board work study meeting held on October 9th. Um, and I was not present at those meetings. So, that's why I asked to pull the minutes. Um, I believe we can Miss Brady, do you have a motion? >> I make the motion that we approve items 6

163W and 6X as as written. >> All right. I have a motion for Miss Brady. Do I have a second? I have a miss second from Mr. Shackman. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, raise your hand. All those opposed by vote of six in favor, zero opposed, and one abstension by myself. The motion carries. The next item is item 7B. Consider and approve the purchase of buses and white fleet. Dr. Eldridge, could you introduce this item, please? >> Yes. So, one of the things we discussed last year was the importance of having a replacement cycle for our school buses. And um you know, that is one of the most important um when we talk about students to me transportation is very important. And so, um Mr. Moore will introduce this item of the

164purchase of our buses and our white fleet which includes our work maintenance trucks and any other things deemed under that and he will also give you the years of some of our work maintenance vehicles that um and how many miles are on them. So um Mr. Moore would you please um continue with your presentation? >> Yes ma'am. Uh thank you Dr. Eldridge President Hatfield trustees. Uh this is as was mentioned consider approval of purchase of buses and white fleet. Just kind of wanted to give you a status. We collectively call buses yellow fleet and our service vehicles essentially white fleet. But so the yellow fleet we currently have 136 active buses. And when I say active, those are are route buses, activity buses, field trip buses. Almost 40% of those are at least 12 years

165old. And 10 of those that are 12 years or older between 15 and 20 years old. And so the average lifespan of a school bus, they're designed to last between 12 and 15 years. So that's an overview of our buses. Our white fleet, we've got 143 that are actively in our white fleet, and that is uh facility services, that is distribution with the warehouse, student nutrition, safety, and security. Um more than half of those are at least 12 years old, closer to 56, 57%. Three of those were actually manufactured before the turn of the century and that's the first time in a board meeting that I've been able to reference the turn of the century in any presentation. So I was kind of happy about that. Um 35 of them are 20 years or older,

16668 or 15 years or older. And again the average service vehicle lifespan is 12 years. Just a note on the 35 that are 20 years or older collectively those 35 vehicles have 2.4 million miles of service on them. Now, I do want to back up. These vehicles are safe. The buses are safe. Those are safe. But I'm going to get to why they're safe here in just a second. Um, what we're proposing tonight, those are the vehicles that we would add from this proposal. One, uh, F350 Super Cab. That is our service truck. We have operated in the past with two service trucks for our operating out of our shop. Um, and they assist with things that take place out in the field. You know, there's collectively close to 300 vehicles that could be out

167at any point in time. That's running out of fuel, uh, flat tires, um, battery issues, electrical issues, keys being locked in the vehicle. Those service trucks filled that. Last May, one of our two service trucks uh, was uh, struck while it was crossing an intersection. No fault vehicle or a no fault accident on our end. It was struck. It was t-boned. Unfortunately, that was the newer of our two service trucks and it was totaled out. So, we've been running with one service truck now since last May. Um the 14 passenger school buses, we're proposing to purchase two of those. Um what you may correlate that to if you've seen our blue eight passenger school buses, there's about 10 or 12 of those throughout the district. We use those for McKenna Vento runs. We'll use those

168for um to take students over to uh Irving for the deaf education partnership. Um we use those uh occasionally for field trips. The two 14 passenger school buses, they are on a chassis that is not the gross vehicle weight does not require a CDL. So we can actually put people in those that do not require a CDL license to drive them and you can get six more students in them. They also come with stop arms. Our blue buses do not have stop arms on them. Um the 54 passenger school bus, we're proposing three purchases of those. Those are typically our special ed buses. Um those are under 33 feet in length and we want to stick with what we've got in the proposal because special ed's doortodoor pickup and drop off and so a lot

169of times when you get into neighborhoods or apartment complexes, it can be hard to maneuver things much larger than that 54 passenger for us to get to doortodoor. And then three of the 77 passenger school buses. um as we as we have uh the the add to the the five that we purchased um last year. The Transit 350 cargo van, there are seven of those that we're proposing to purchase. Those are for specifically for facilities and maintenance. Um and those are just heavy duty cargo vans, tie downs, shelves, things that are outfitted for service for the for the facilities department. In purchasing those, we would roll 10 yellow fleet, 10 buses out, and eight of the white fleet. We would auction those upon the approval in this purchase. Just a couple of other notes. Um,

170in general, over the last seven years, we have added 50 buses in total. 77 uh 2577 passenger buses and 25 54 passenger buses. And you can see the increments that we had in the year uh when we purchased them. Um during that same time, we've auctioned 27 over the past four years rather. Since 2018, we have only brought into our fleet one true work truck. One truck that has been outfitted with racks, ladders, boxes, we've only brought one in since 2018 uh for the facilities department. Um and then that was when I'd mentioned that the vehicles are safe. They are safe, but we spent close to a million dollars last year on maintenance alone. Our operations budget in transportation is four million. We spent almost a quarter of it on just maintenance for these vehicles.

171Um, and that is an overview of of where we are and what we've got. And with that, I will take any questions you might have. >> Mr. Moore, I learned a lot about white fleet and yellow fleet tonight that I did not know. So, thank you for the white and yellow education. >> And it's really orange. I've never understood that either. Or I'm color blind. >> That's kind of like I grew up in Rock Wall. We were the yellow jackets and we were orange. All right. >> Um, board members, do you have any questions or comments? Mr. Shackman, >> uh, it does not dramatically change the overall precision, but were we, uh, insurance compensated when that vehicle was totaled? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. >> Other questions or comments? [clears throat] >> All right. Mr.

172Moore, I think your uh presentation pretty well contained it, but I also like to see that um we've placed that replacement cycle, which was a request of the board. Um in those numbers, you start to see a consistent pattern where we're replacing vehicles. So, thank you for following through because that was a um request of the board a few years ago that we get on a regular cycle. So, I appreciate administration working to make sure we're not living in the last century. I got to say it, too. Well, and and you know, the white fleet's one thing, but a lot of what we purchased from our bus fleet is what we inherited when we when Dallas County Schools folded and and so we're still recovering from the stock that we got from them when that

173took place in 1718. So, we're still building up from that as well. >> Absolutely. Thank you for that clarification. All right, board. So, this item uh consider and approve buses and white fleet um is um marked for action. Does the board wish to take action? Miss Brady, >> I make the motion that we approve item 7B to the purchase of buses and white fleet. >> Um, I have a motion for Miss Brady. I have a second for Mr. Gilmore. Um, is there any discussion? All those in favor, raise your hand. Opposed. Five vote to seven in favor, zero opposed. The motion carries. The next item is item 7C. Consider and approve reallocation of the 2023 bond funds. Dr. Eldrich, could you introduce this item? >> Yes. So the B bond oversight committee met and I

174think the plans have gone through the bond oversight committee as far as what we want to reallocate the bond funds that due to consolidation. So um Mr. Moore and Mr. Blackborn, would you please talk about where the reallocation funds will be going? >> Yes, ma'am. So tonight's the second time that we've shared this with you as a board. Um October was information only. Um tonight we um we're coming back with a with a second run through. There's not a whole lot that has changed with the overall information. However, as Dr. Elder just said, we did have a second meeting with the bond oversight committee talking through some of these things. And one of the big areas that we that we will touch on in in a few slides is uh when we left the last

175meeting, there was a a considerable amount of unallocated funding. And so that's what we ran through with the bond oversight committee to talk through those. And so we'll bring that uh we'll bring that to you here in the next few slides. Cory's going to assist in this as he did in the last go round. So we'll we'll go ahead and kind of get started and refresh and remind everyone that of what we're talking through. And so um just as we began last month, it's it's reallocated funds. And so that in and of itself says that something has changed. So what has changed? Of course, dating back to 2023, we had a $716 million bond election that was approved by voters. Um, and initially, uh, since that election, we've consolidated four campuses. You can see those

176there. Part of that bond election, there was $131 million, $131.5 million that was allocated toward those four schools. And so, um, those four campuses had that funding. That money is still there, and that money can still help students and honor the intent of the bond, and it can do so in ways that the community supports. And we'll touch on that here in just a second as well. um a timeline just to kind of let everyone know what we've talked through and and how uh open and transparent we've been with this process. Again, dating back to March, this is when it began. We consolidated four campuses um and and those funds were associated with those four schools. Um we started looking in April what we could do to reallocate those funds and and and honor the

177intent of the bond. Um we sold the bonds, the district did in June. The $131 million was part of that. July, we had our initial bond oversight committee presentation where we really started processing and talking through uh trying to keep the elementary funds with the elementary campuses, the middle school funds with the middle school campuses. August of 25, we had a community survey. I'll rehash some of that here in the next few slides to just ensure that that um we're involved in this every day. you all as trustees are involved in this, but we wanted to ensure that when you're talking about that sizable amount of money that we get the feedback from from taxpayers um so we can ensure that you know the voters are in favor of this as well that approved the

178bond. Um October I'd mentioned we had our non-action uh information piece for you guys to look at. We had that second bond oversight committee presentation uh just a couple weeks ago and then here we are tonight for our second presentation and an action item for a vote. So, I'd mentioned that the funding can still help. Um how can it still help? Um we are currently in preK uh this would allow us to to reach more of our prek students. um we're currently serving less than 35% of our our prek um students and this funding could help put us in a position to reach more families. Um second bullet there, tuition prek is a demonstrated need. Um and we don't have the seats currently to accommodate that. And then um third bullet, keeping students closer to

179home. We focused in this proposal on two specific geographic areas. Um and we are moving students in both of those areas away from their home campuses and this would be a way to keep them closer to home to get them back. Middle schools um Bush and Pulk are both in need of attention. Um we wanted to bring them up to the same standards as is what is currently underway at BLAC, what's been done at Field and at Perry. Um and kind of complete that overall middle school portfolio, if you will. And then just districtwide rising construction costs. I mean that's inflation is is can be felt by everyone professionally and personally. Construction is hit harder than most and so that's going to be ongoing throughout this and then we can deliver more uh more security

180improvements. I'd mentioned at the last uh in that October meeting all of the revisions and all of the new legal legalities that came from that 89th session. U this can help us to to tap into more of those feedback. Um we again look at this every day but we wanted to ensure that what we were thinking and our thought processes were our thought processes were in line with others. The bond oversight committee of course many of those individuals um helped with the the overall planning of the bond. So that's an excellent group to take this to and ensure that we're going the right direction. And then that uh the Bassley survey is the community survey that ran in March. Um Corey's going to talk through the bond oversight piece and what we visited with with

181them about. >> As we shared previously, the original planning uh for these funds included four campuses, elementary and middle schools. It had a pre-K emphasis. It included both new construction and renovation and had one storm shelter. The proposals that we presented and discussed with the bond oversight committee included three to six campuses, elementary and middle schools. Again, we kept the pre-K emphasis. We have incorporated both new construction and renovation and we increased the number of storm shelters that we were considering providing. So the community survey that was Bass again that's a that's a company that's based in Austin. Um they do all sorts of analysis. Uh we have used them in the past for our bond elections. In fact we use them for our 23 bond. Um, and you can see there that um, what

182what they did for us, it was a mix of phone calls and texts. I think 57% of it was done by phone call, 43% of it was done by text. There were 400 different respondents, and that 400 number is what allowed us to determine uh, through their metrics that that would give us a plus or minus error of 4.9%. Um, and that survey ran August 5th through 8th. But uh just kind of the the the objectives of what we wanted to do. Really just wanted to get a general awareness uh gauge the support for middle school uh the improvements at the middle school level and gauge the u the support and the interest in um our prek program expansion and support and utilizing some of the funds in both of those specific areas. So the

183key findings mentioned last month that it was really broken down into two parts. the initial thoughts of the respondents and the informed positions of the respondents. The initial reports or thoughts is exactly what it sounds like. You have no information aside from what you immediately think of. No additional context. Uh and then the informed position is a follow-up question that gives you a little bit more of information to to to think through and then a follow-up question to go with that. Um you can see there that just initially out of the gate 67% of those who were pled uh supported using a portion of the funds for prek expansion and 64% uh were supportive of improvements to the both of the middle schools. And then taking it a step further, once they had received an

184informed position or they received a little bit of information, their informed support, it increased from 67 to 76 on the uh prek expansions and from 64% to 73% supporting on both of the middle school improvement areas. And there were really three specific areas that that uh the people were asked. The the survey individuals were asked for with regard to um what they wanted with regard to the survey was do you want a prek addition at campuses? Do you want a prek center or do you want a combination of both? And you can see right there that 79% were supportive of having the uh the campuses which is in line with what our bond oversight committee wanted as well. But even really no matter how you slice it, the support was there for um for the

185prek expansion within that. And then on the previous slide from the middle school um improvements again just to kind of touch on what we were wanting to do with the reallocation, bring more facilities up to current standards. Um prek emphasis for both the free and uh the tuitionbased getting students back closer to home. um in those in those two main really in that one geographic area up near Thompson. Um and then construction costs I'd mentioned that's not decreasing at all and then more security improvements. And so that was our October recommendation. You can see the top two was $49 million would be designated to the middle school renovations at both Bush and Pulk and $38 million would go toward the preK additions at Thompson and Los Kolinus. When we left the October meeting, there was

186$44.5 million that was unallocated. That's the portion that we took to the uh bond oversight committee. And that is our November recommendation. The top two did not change. It's the same funding, but that $44.5 million after looking through and talking with the bond oversight committee, $8 million uh would would be generated to the Grimes Salazar additional funding to allow for a true replacement instead of major renovation. um $12.5 million of additional funding to both Carolton and Farmers Branch. That was construction um escalation that was in inflation rather. Uh and we had earmarked those two amounts to be covered from bond interest. Uh but if we take it from that bond interest and put it in this true allocation that that goes back and keeps the elementary with elementary and two of the projects that were

187designated with the bond for for total rebuilds and it allows a little more flexibility with the bond interest funds should something else come up. Um and then 11.5 million for elementary fencing upgrades. believe there are 13 different elementary campuses u that need uh fencing upgrades and that would allow us to put fences in and the standards that we've put that we've begun in our farmers branch and our campuses and so with that we were happy to answer any questions that you might have >> board members questions Garza Rojo >> so help me can you go back one slide please >> yes ma'am >> I just kind of want to go through this one more time. So, you said $8 million to allow replacement as originally planned, the whole building instead of a major renovation. Is

188that what you're saying? So, >> yes, ma'am. This would allow for a brand new building. >> Okay. And then when it comes to you said 12.5, 12.5 Carolton and Farmers Ranch, you said construction, escalation, and inflation. Is that just added on top of what we already have or is that just something you're allocating for because prices have gone up or >> prices have gone up since bond planning? >> When we uh when the bond planning was originally done, um prices per square foot for new construction were considerably less. And even though we did uh have some set aside for escalation in the original planning, it wasn't enough to cover the amount of escalation that we've seen as we shared with the bond oversight committee um information from our design team that they have seen in

189several other districts. We're seeing new construction costs between $5 and $600 a square foot. So those are the that's the kind of costs that we're trying to address to make sure we deliver the kind of school that we want to deliver for our students and our families. And what was it? Oh, sorry. What was it originally? So, I know you're saying right now it's five to 600. >> I would look back and see. I think the original would have worked out to about $380 a square foot. >> So, essentially doubled. >> It's getting It's getting close. >> Getting close to doubling. Okay. Thank you. >> Additional questions. Miss Benvitas, >> what is the timeline for the build on the properties that Miss Garza Rojos just spoke of? >> We expect to bring to the board

190the GMP the guaranteed maximum price for Carolton Elementary School in February and then follow that in a few months with Farmers Branch uh elementary. So, both of them will be under construction this summer >> of next year, 2026. >> Summer of 26. Yes, ma'am. And you think those escalations are going to be the same in six months? The the figures you shared just a minute ago? >> Well, it's it's a much when the time frame gets a lot shorter, your risk is smaller. So, we all we've allowed for a little bit of bid escalation with these numbers. We'll be we'll be able to to cover any projected um escalation between now and then. It's just a much shorter time frame. So there's much the the amount of increase should be much less. >> So when

191it comes down to it, is there another uh recalculation or we just go with that? I mean, if everything tanks, >> no ma'am, we don't anticipate another recalculation. >> Thank you. Thank you, >> M. Mr. Gilmore. gold first. [clears throat] >> Okay. The 11.5 million. I know we're not talking about golden golden fencing, but that seems cray cray. Um, so there's 13 schools and it's replacing the out ofdate out of code fencing. How many linear feet are we talking? I mean, just so people know the scope of it. And if I remember correctly, y'all are wanting to get this. So, we start pretty much immediately to start. >> We're trying we're trying to lay the groundwork to be able to proceed as quickly as we can. The amount allows for 2500 ft of fence per

192campus, which should be more than enough, and that's on average. Our campuses vary widely. Some of them won't need near that much. Other c and some are a single enclosure. Some have three different areas that we have to enclose. So, every campus is different, but this allows us, this is a generous allowance per campus to make sure we can cover all of our elementarymentaries. >> And then they were concerned that it didn't look like a prison. So, that's been taken into consideration with fence all the way around. And >> yes, it's a similar fence to what you see in a lot of different areas. It's uh the fence is if it's every fence that's in our Irving campuses and our Farmers Branch campuses. That's the style that we're looking at. It's a black iron fence.

193It's got an eress bar on the inside. Stark has one uh in all of our Irving campuses. >> If I'm not mistaken, that's also to be in compliance with non-scalable fencing, which is required by law now. >> Yes, that's that's what >> Yeah. >> is a big part of the new standard is making sure we're uh making the improvements in that way. just I know you have a question. Any others? Okay, I have a couple. Where did my notes go? My brain. Okay, on the 12.5 million for Carolton and Farmers Branch, um just to make sure the the size of the building and the structural design that was proposed that you guys think is the best educational space is not changing. So, we're not decreasing the we're not increasing the budget and decreasing the number

194of students it's going to serve. No, >> that is to maintain the capacity that we wanted this building to be initially. Okay, thank you. And then for Grime Salazar, those are currently two separate campuses, right? So, this is a new building that also consolidates it into one facility. >> Yes, as originally planned. >> As originally planned. Okay, thank you. Um, and then Miss Garza Roas, she had a question. >> No, you forgot. Sorry, she forgot. >> Oh, I remember. >> Okay. Uh to clarify on Miss Benvdas's question, I I think I know what we're what she and I were trying to get to. It's um I guess the reassurance that there maybe reassurance is not the right word to make sure that the funding the additional funding even though we're not at the end of

195completion. I don't remember what you called it. G something >> guaranteed maximum GMP. Yes. So we're not yet at GMP. Is that correct? And so >> correct >> would this allocate enough to get there like to we're making sure we're okay. So it would be enough to get there and periodic estimates throughout the design process to try and make sure we're staying aligned with the amount that we have available and we we've done that and we're confident based on that process that this will be enough. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. >> Um I do have one other question on the contingency budget. So the bond itself had a contingency line built into it. Yes. >> So my question is why are we tapping into these funds versus the contingency funds? the contingency funds wouldn't be

196enough to cover both of those campuses uh together. And this is in line with the original planning and it allows us the flexibility to um use the the interest funds in the in the best way possible to serve our district. as well as um we're in the middle of three really significant renovations to schools that have been added on to over long periods of time that have significant issues that we continue to find as we're going through the renovation. And I want to make sure those contingency funds are available to address anything that comes along that hasn't been foreseen for those major renovations. We're making good progress. So far, I think we're going to be good, but I prefer to be conservative when we've got those types of renovation projects going. >> That's very helpful.

197Thank you. Board members, additional questions or comments, Miss Brady, >> I was on I just make a comment that people understand we can't use this money to offset the money that Miss Settle just talked about. We This has to go towards construction. So, we cannot like, you know, rob Peter to pay Paul. That is not how this works. So, this has to go for construction. It's not like we can pay somebody else with it. I just want to make that clear because people seem to get very cons very confused about that. >> Very nice job, Miss Brady. This is the INS funds, not the M funds. And what Miss Settle was talking about was the maintenance and operations fund. This is all a different pot of money that cannot be cross-contaminated. Great job, Miss Brady.

198Um board members, any other question? Yeah, Miss um Barnes, I'm I get sometimes I want to call you out by your first name and I'm trying to [laughter] get it right. I just want to make one more additional comment. So, Carolton Elementary School and Farmers Branch Elementary School saw more students coming into their schools with the consolidation. Correct. Okay. All right. So, that's another reason. >> So, reducing capacity of those buildings is also not an option. like the the budget that you guys need is because we need to maintain the size that they've proposed. >> Well, and in essence, it is helping the students it was originally meant for. >> Good point. All right. Any additional comments or questions? Okay. So, with that, this is item uh 7 C. Board members, do I have a

199motion? this >> Miss Brady. >> I make the motion that we approve item 7C as written. I have a motion for Miss Brady. Do I have a second? I have a second for Miss Garza Rojus. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? Opposed? By a vote of seven in favor, zero opposed. The motion carries. Um Dr. Mr. Eldridge, I would like to request that since the focus of this was on the additional amount, the 12.5, could you please put in the board memo the original amount plus the 12.5 so that we have that in the board memo so that when we come back for the GMP, we're able to do a comparison if we had that question. Thank you very much. All right. Our next agenda item is item 7D um which is consider

200and approve architectural services for early childhood additions under RFP 20235 043. Dr. Aldrich. So when you add on to a campus and you want to make sure that um the additions are correct, you always have to use an architect because you have to make sure that it meets all guidelines and it's for what we want. So this is for the approval of architectural services for our for our early childhood editions. So Mr. Blackburn, if you will go through that. This is uh to support the second bullet up there uh that we just discussed. Um this is as Dr. Eldrich mentioned architectural services for those two projects, two additions at two campuses. >> Thank you board members. Any questions or comments? Okay. Um this item is marked for possible action. Does the board wish to take

201action? Miss Brady >> like to make a motion that we approve item 7D architectural services for early childhood ed additions. >> I have a motion for Miss Brady. I have a second for Mr. Gilmore. Is there any discussion? All right. Seeing none, um all those in favor raise your hand. Those opposed by a vote of seven and favor zero opposed. The motion carries. The next item 7E is architectural services for the middle school renovations. So if you will look at the top of the slide for Bush Middle School and PULK, this is also for the architectural services for those addition middle school campuses renovations. So Mr. Blackburn, I probably took your slide, but anyway, [laughter] >> by the same token, uh this is to support uh the renovations that we discussed at Bush Middle School

202and Pulk Middle School, the architectural services only. >> All right, board members, any questions? I have a motion, Miss Brady. >> Um, I'd like to make a motion that we approve item 7E, the architectural services for middle school renovations. >> All right. I have a motion from Miss Brady and I have a second from Miss Garza Rojas. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? Opposed? Seven in favor, zero opposed. The motion carries. Congratulations. You guys have some additional work to do. Um, and we're going to keep focusing on kids and making the best spaces possible for our students. Our next item is item number eight, uh, closed meeting as authorized under Texas Government Code, including but not limited to sections 551.071, consultation with attorney, 551.074, personnel matters, 551.076, security devices 551.082, school, children, district

203employees disciplinary matter or complaint. And the item 8A is uh discuss intruder detection audit findings report. And we will now move into close session. The time is 9:21. You are welcome to remain in the boardroom um as we move into recess. You'll tell me when though, right? He's going to wave. >> There he is. >> No, it's okay. >> Thumbs up. Okay, here we go. Um, we are back in open session. The time is now 9:37 p.m. Uh, we will move to comments from board members on posted agenda item item number 10. Is there any questions about the agenda tonight? All right, seeing none, we have reached the end of our agenda and we are adjourned at 9:37 p.m.