Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD - Regular School Board Meeting - 9/4/2025

001I call this premeating briefing of the Carolton Farmers Branch ISD Board of Trustees to order at 6:00 p.m. on September 4th, 2025. The purpose of this premeating briefing is to conduct a briefing session with administration regarding the posted agenda items for our regular board meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight, September 4th, 2025. For the record, board members present are Kim Brady, Iliana Garza Rojos, Marjorie Barnes, Carolyn Benvitas, Paul Gilmore, Randy Shackman, and myself, Cassandra Hatfield. Our next item is audience for guest. Anyone who wished to speak during audience for guest this evening must have submitted a form for this purpose by 1:00. the posted deadline. We do not have any forms that were submitted for this meeting. Therefore, we're going to move on to the next agenda item, administrative reports. Dr. Eldridge, are there any

002reports by administration? >> Um, yes. The first report will be item 5e by Carla Settle, and it is about the approval of professional consulting agreement between CFB and what we call TASBO, which is our Texas Association of School Business. So, Miss Settle, would you please explain what that um agreement um entails? >> Yes. Uh the professional consulting agreement is an agreement between the district and the and TASBO to clearly delineate the role of what an instructor does. Uh myself and some members of my staff, we volunteer our time to instruct uh Tasbo certification classes and in turn TASBO uh offers options for remuneration and in uh what CFB takes advantage to do is extra seats so that like our paraprofessionals and other staff members can pursue their certification without financially affecting our budget. Uh so

003due to House Bill 3372, the legislature uh wanted to have a clear delineation of what school business time essentially was defined as. Uh so if perhaps we had an instructor that would want to do that with actual financial benefit, they would have to take personal time, but that's not how we conduct it here at CFB. >> Thank you, Miss Settle. Board members, do you have any questions? >> All right. I appreciate the clarification. Thank you very much. Thank you. >> The next report is item 5G. It's the um memorandum of understanding that we have with um TWWU and their work study program. So it's Miss Hulkcom and Leanne Stone. If you'll um Miss Stone, if you'll explain that. I think it's a historical partnership that we've had in CFB for quite a while. So if

004you'll just give the board an update. >> Good evening. Um, okay. I do have a handout as well. Um, you mind helping? So this is a historic partnership that we have had with Texas women's university and it is the memorand memorandum of understanding is with regards to them sending college work study students um that come out to our campuses and they provide instruction uh to help the students to get um applied to college and then also filling out any other forms that they have um questions on and helping them to make sure that they have all And it's not just specifically for Texas Women's University, but that's the university that we partner with that will um that sends the students. And so if a student is filling out an application like Apply Texas for multiple

005colleges, but they just have some questions about what they're um filling out or they're not sure uh what certain things mean. um these students and um instructors that come out uh assist with that process with a uh CCMR staff member present as well, just so that we can all um the larger the number of uh assistance that we have with those um students, the the more kids that we can help. >> Thank you very much. Board members, do you have any questions about this memorandum of understanding? >> All right. Thank you and thank you for the handout. You always do a nice job giving us clear information. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. Thank you. >> The last report we have tonight is item 5K and it's um about the approval of library media, print, digital

006supplies, and repairs and it's Miss Needitz. And I will have to say Miss Nevitz keeps a very um tight procedures on all of our books. So, I really appreciate you and wanted to make sure that you understood how much we appreciate you with all of the um you know, the media on books and how you run that. So, I appreciate you. >> Um the explanation of what you're seeing on the board agenda tonight is that is a renewal of our RFP. It's for a renewal for our approving our library vendors and using them to be able to purchase. It's already out there. It's just an approval to extend it for another year. Um I understand the part of the question was what it will it look like next month because that will kick in with

007SB13. The Senate Bill 13 which is all about libraries uh library books and collections and acquisitions and what you will see next month on the consent agenda will be approving acquisitions for the library. the actual book list that we will be approving. Um, you will get that uh either tomorrow or Monday. So, you get plenty of time to look at that list. Uh, the list is already public because it has to be public for 30 days before we can even purchase um, pre your approval. And it is out there on the library media services page. I have looked at that list and just tried to make it a little easier for you to look at it and not just one big long list. I've divided it among age levels. So, I think it'll be easier

008with the list we send you because it's a lot. It's a lot of books. Um, that will be next month on the consent agenda, but you have plenty of time to look at that. And if you have any questions or you you want some further information on a particular item, you can let me know. Um, you will also tomorrow receive a a sort of summary on the requirements of SB13 and what CFB has been doing to be in line with that so that we meet all of SB13 requirements. >> Thank you, Miss Ditz. Board members, any questions or comments? Miss Benius, >> thank you for the information. Is this one of the um list where the parents can um collaborate with the district about what they may not do or do not want? >> There

009is online u with the 30-day posting. There is also a form where parents can send in and give comments or um concerns about any type of book that or any book that they might have. Uh, at that point, we would then look at it and begin to, you know, pull together what we might need to talk to that parent about. I will reach out to everyone who has a concern about it. Um, and be sure that either they're okay with it going forward or we have to pull it from the list and look further. It it'll just depend on what comes in. >> Is that uh something that's already been posted to the public and how are we letting them know if we have not? >> So, it is out there. Um, people who are

010really interested I think have already probably found it. Um, but we are going to send a parent square out so they know and hopefully uh maybe even do something that tells our community it's out there. So, they've just come up and been posted just this week. So, we're trying to get to that kind of advertising it or letting them know it's out there. >> Okay, that would be wonderful. Thank you. Thank you, >> Marie or sorry, Miss BS. >> Just to clarify, there is a step within SB13 where parents can request that their child not check out a certain book without sending that book back for the entire district. Correct. >> You are correct. And that went into effect this week. Uh there was a an email that went out to tell parents they can

011we have accounts created in our system our library system and they have to log in they it's a called in a guardian account >> they can see what the children have checked out now they can see what the history of the children's check their children's checkout is and they can put on there if they want a particular book they don't want their child to check that book out that is available now it does require action on the parents part to to log in and create that. Okay. >> It went out from our vendor um using our information. We're going to send another notification through parentsware because I do believe people could miss it, especially coming off of uh Labor Day weekend. So, we're going to send another one out so that we be sure everybody

012understands what they can do or need to do. And for that step, there's obviously just for public clarification, that step is just between them and their child and they can request that that child not be allowed to check out a book without going through the whole process of it being pulled and looked at from the district and approved or not approved. >> Yes. What what will happen if a parent has put a block on then when a that particular item is tried to be checked out by that person that child it will come up and tell them on the screen you we can't check this out to you it just tells them that this is not available to them so >> thank you so much that's a lot of hard work >> any other questions

013or comments bits it is clear that you have been busy very busy um and so we just want to On behalf of the board, I just want to thank you for your efforts to keep us in compliance. This is really important to the community and so um your work does not go unnoticed. Um I recognize that this is extra work that is on on top of what you already do preparing for Senate Bill 13. So thank you very much and I appreciate the diligence to communicate through parent square and make sure that we have a communication plan. So um clear is kind and so I really appreciate the way that you are helping the community know and working through this process. Thank you very and for helping us with our list, making it organized. That's

014very, very helpful. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Dr. Elders, do you have any other reports? >> All right, with no other uh reports, we'll move on to item number four. Um board members, do you have any questions regarding the consent agenda items this evening? All right, seeing no questions, um we have reached the end of our agenda and at this time uh before we adjourn audience members, we are going to ask that you exit the boardroom so the board can take part of a special training session. Anyone seated at the dis please remain in your seat for the training. Everyone else, we would ask you to please exit. Um and the end of our agenda has been reached at 6:11 p.m. Thank you. [Music] I just put on I call this regular

015meeting of the Carolton Farmers Branch ISD Board of Trustees to order at 7:00 p.m. on September 4th, 2025. Board members, district staff members, and members of the audience, you are free to join me in standing as park pastor Mark Rurals from Redeemer Covenant Church provides a message followed by leading of the pledges by Carolyn Benvitas leading the pledge to the US flag and Paul Gilmore leading the pledge to the Texas state flag. >> Good evening everyone. If you join me in a word of prayer. Mighty God, we thank you for tonight being able to come to this meeting. Thank you for the great privilege of educating and forming the students of Carolton Farmers Branch ISD. We ask that your spirit would guide us tonight as decisions are made. Uh give us courage and conviction to

016follow gut feeling with where you're leading. Wisdom to listen when need be. Encouragement to keep people going when the times get difficult. and conviction to go through the hard times to see the fruit at the end of the tunnel. Thank you for so many that serve faithfully both up front and behind the scenes for the students of this school district. Would ask that their work would come to fruition and that these students would live out the calling and become the students and the people you formed them to be. We pray your blessing over the students watching over them and turning them into the people that they've always been meant to be. Amen. Well, good evening. The school year is well underway and there is lots of excitement happening throughout the district now that the students

017are back in the building and our teachers are working daily with them. And so it's so exciting to see the excitement of the school year. As we a district, we dedicate our efforts and resources to a goal of high expectations for all. The board uses this goal to guide every deliberation, decision, and action. As elected trustees, the board is responsible for providing oversight, setting the strategic direction of the district, and ensuring accountability, all in service of student achievement. You will witness the board conducting its work in open session, except for specific items that may be discussed in close session as permitted under the Texas Government Code, section 551, commonly known as the open meetings law. These items typically involve personnel matters, consultation with our attorney, or real estate transactions. As we move through the agenda

018tonight, it's important to remember that we are in the business of supporting kids. With that in mind, we ask that everyone present model respectful, responsible, and constructive behavior that models what we expect of our students. For the record, board members present are Kim Brady, Iliana Garza, Rojos, Marjorie Barnes, Carolyn Benabitas, Paul Gilmore, Randy Shackman, and myself, Cassandra Hatfield. We constitute a quorum and may conduct business on behalf of the district. Before moving to the next agenda item, I would like to remind everyone that the board will accept comments from citizens of the district and from district employees. Persons who wish to speak during audience for guest must have completed a form online for this purpose and submitted it by 1 p.m. today, which was the deadline. When the board addresses item number three, audience for

019guest, you will be invited to the podium to speak to the board. Our next agenda item is item number two, special presentations and recognitions. Miss Rodriguez. Good evening, President Hatfield, Dr. Eldridge, and esteemed members of the board. Thank you for coming down um from the DAS. Through our partnership with Chick-fil-A Trinity Mills, we have the opportunity to honor those who demonstrate excellence with the CFB Champion Award. This month we are proud to present the CFB Champion Award to Connecting the Community. If you want to stand for a little bit. Oh, connecting the Community is a local nonprofit committed to fostering meaningful relationships between caring mentors and children in our schools. With more than 150 mentors now serving across 15 CFBISD schools, connecting the community plays a crucial role within our district. The organization pairs students

020with dedicated mentors who help them thrive through both academically and emotionally. These lasting connections have a significant impact on our students' lives by nurturing their self-esteem, confidence, and overall well-being. We are incredibly grateful for their partnership and their commitment to pouring into the next generation. Thank you, connecting the community for all that you do for our students. Please join me in recognizing this amazing organization as our CFB champion. [Applause] and that concludes tonight's recognitions. A little plug for Connecting the Community since they do support mentoring kids. Um, all it takes is 20 minutes a week. Um, I know a couple of board members know this, uh, because we mentor in schools every week. And so, um, I encourage you to get involved. Um, when we think about student achievement and our goals towards literacy, when

021you mentor a child and you spend 20 minutes with them, perhaps reading, maybe playing a game, just having a conversation, it really makes a difference in a kid's lives. So, I'd encourage you to look up connecting the community because applications are open right now. It's not really an application. It's like, hey, you want a mentor? Great. Let's make sure you're cleared on a background check, make sure you're good to go. Um, and you get to choose the time and school, so it can be convenient to your house. It's really great program. So, I really encourage you to get engaged. Everybody can take 20 minutes a week for kids. >> All right. Um, next up is our president's report. And as we're taking times for kids, uh, September is attendance awareness month. And attendance awareness month

022is one of our, uh, focuses for continuous improvement in this district. And we want to uh improve our attendance year-over-year, which we have been doing. So, you've seen that highlighted in some of our data that we are seeing attendance in this district increase year-over-year. And that is showing up in our student achievement data. You're going to see that tonight in a presentation on attendance. You're also going to see that tonight in our student achievement presentation. And so, it really makes a difference that kids are at school every day. And um I did a quick literature search. I'm working on my doctorate right now, so I get a little bored sometimes. Just need to search a little more literature up. Um, just kidding on the getting bored part, but uh, students who miss more than nine

023days in kindergarten and first grade are twice as likely to struggle by the end of third grade. And consistent attendance in middle school is one of the strongest predictors of 9th grade success. So, as we think about uh, this school year, I want our community to know and our parents to know that attendance really matters. And in addition to this, it's not just for our students, it's also for our teachers. So to our teachers that show up every day to serve our kids and really make a difference. Your high quality instruction that you prepare for and deliver every day really makes a difference and it's showing in our academic achievement results that you're going to hear more about this year. And so I just encourage everybody to thank a teacher for the hard work they

024do with our children and to get your kids to school. Not only get them to school, but get them there on time and keep them there all day. So that concludes the president's report for tonight. Our next step item is the committee updates from board members. And as we move through the agenda to make sure we're focusing on student achievement, I will ask board members to consider their comments and make sure that we are um gearing these towards student achievement. So, uh tonight for board subcommittees, does anyone have a report? As you can see on the screen, uh those are the members of the subcommittees and the work of these committees is to prepare products for the board's review and adoption through serving on the committees. Board members, do you have any updates from subcommittees?

025All right, seeing none, I'll move on to the next set of committees, which is our district liaison committees. The district rea committees are committees that board members serve on for the purpose of making sure that we are listening to the committees that the district has in place to support district operations. And so, as a liaison, we're exeicio members. We're listening, engaging, and we bring information back to the board. Board members, do you have any updates on district leaison committees? >> All right, seeing none, we'll move forward um with district announcements. Dr. Aldridge. >> Okay, good evening everyone. Um I would like to thank my um two trustee colleagues today um Carolyn Benvites and Ilana Garza Rojos. We participated in the Metrorest leadership um um outdoor learning ropes course today and so we're all kind of

026sore. We climbed telephone poles and helped each other over walls and and um learned lots of things. So, it was a great bonding time also with our city leaders. So, it was a good time. Um I want to thank our student services department for all the hard work that they have done helping our students enroll um providing customer service um to our campuses and getting our school year off correctly. Um we know that there's lots of work to do. Also, it's football season, so you all need to look on our web page and and go to a game. You you hear the drum line, you hear you see the cheerleaders, you you see the players working hard and the coaches yelling, but it's a great experience. Um, and it's not expensive. So, it's a good

027family event. And I also want to brag about our our campuses, our teachers, our staff. Um, we are a B school district. So, we went from a C to a B. and it is just the incredible work of what our teachers have done and and can prove that all kids can learn. So, I'm super proud and I know there's a presentation tonight, but um when we all work together and the board is focused on student achievement, it it really does pay off. So, that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Eldridge. And congratulations to the district on all the hard work of our teachers and our support staff supporting because um after all, we are here for student achievement. And so um I'm looking forward to hearing the presentation tonight. Our next edge

028item and agenda item is item 2E which is update from PTA. Miss Nunes. >> Uh Dr. Eldridge, President Hatfield, Estee Board. I'm Deanna Nunes. I'm the proud to be serving as the vice president of membership on the CFB council of PTAs for the second year. The new PTA school year has begun and in the last count we had 3,716 members already joined. The best way to join a PTA is to go to join PTA.org or become one of our CFB champions where you join all 32 of our PTAs or one of our high school feeder programs. And right now we have 14 CFB champions. We're pretty proud of that. Our district PTA extravaganza event will be on September 20th at the Nancy Wattton will include a small vendor fair, training, and network. This will be

029open to all local PTA boards. The National PTA reflections contest is off and running. This year's theme is I belong. We hope all of our schools participate. Submission dates and deadlines will be shared at our first delegate meeting on September 10th. In our biggest news, we're bringing back the Harlem Wizards. The Wizards will be taking place at our CFB champions on Saturday, October 25th with a tip off at 6:30 at Newman Smith High School. Start thinking about which teacher will represent your school and on our CFB champion team. Ticket sales are now available. You can find it on our PTA website. Our current calendar includes dates and times of all our delegate meetings and it's posted on our website at cfbpta.org. You can also buy one of our great new t-shirts that supports all our

030PTAs as well as become a champion member there. Tonight we are going to recognize um several schools because they took the honor of becoming the prestigious destination of the National PTA School of Excellence. These schools are Newman Smith High School, Ted Pulk Middle School, Countryplace Elementary, and Freeman Elementary. They have the National PTA School of Excellence. They will have this honor for the next two years. I don't know which one yet. And then we're going to take a picture outside. All right. And we brought back our U monthly awards this year. Our first challenge was the back to school event. The winners of our back to school event are Rosemeat Elementary and Perry Middle School. This one's you guys. And this one's you guys. Um, as you were talking about, today is attendance awareness day.

031Um, our next September challenge is read today, hear today. Attendance and literacy go hand in hand. We'll have a full list of all our challenges for the year at our September meeting next week. Thank you for your continued support and advocacy for our children. Together, we are PTA. [Applause] Thank you, Miss Nunees. And congratulations to our award winners and our PTAs of excellence. That's a quite a feat. They have to go through an application process and it just shows the connection we have with our PTAs. I'm so proud of that work. Um, additionally, Mr. Gilmore, I'm not sure if you're aware, but at the Harlem Wizards game, the newest board member also has some kind of a special thing they have to do. So, just kind of pre-warning you that that's coming down the pipeline.

032>> Yes, you for sure. Okay, moving on to our next agenda item, item number three, audience for guest. Persons who wish to speak during audience for guest must have electronically submitted an online form for this purpose prior to the deadline and closing of the form. Um, at the time of posting, we have one person that submitted a form. So, I'll move forward with the um, information here. So, before I begin, I'll remind our audience members of the board's procedures for handling audience for guest. Anyone interested to speak in person during audience for guest, as I stated, must have submitted a form by 1:00 today. Each speaker will be allowed to speak one staring audience for guest and speakers designated as a stakeholder will be allowed a maximum of three minutes and designated as non-stakeholders will

033be allowed a maximum of one minute to address the board following board policy beed local. We want to hear from as many of you as possible. So we will ask um to keep the meeting running efficiently. Groups of five or more people that want to present on a particular viewpoint should appoint one person to speak on behalf of the board or behalf of the group. Please remember that the board cannot deliberate on any subject that is not included on the agenda for this meeting. Board members will listen to comments but will not respond or answer questions. Recognizing that students are the heart of our work, we ask that speakers model the respectful and constructive behavior we expect from our students. Please keep your comments civil and courteous and avoid profanity or personal attacks. Refrain from

034discussing students who are not your own child. Yelling and disruptive behavior or discriminatory remarks are not permitted. In the event that your comment in the judgment of the presiding officer, myself, constitutes a complaint or a charge against an employee or officer, it may be necessary for me to interrupt you and ask you to stop and direct you to proceed with the board's formal grievance procedures. If a speaker is seeking board resolution on a specific complaint, that concern should 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 attained online through the district website. In compliance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, please note that the board will not respond to public directly and will address any agenda items as

035deemed necessary when they are listed on the agenda. The timer will be shown on the screen in front of you. And so we'll begin with stakeholder comments. The speaker's presentation will be limited to three minutes. And our one speaker for tonight is Michelle Hail. All right. Michelle. Okay. So, seeing that our um commenter is not here tonight, we'll move on to item agenda number 4A, which is our accountability ratings update, the next agenda item is uh non-action items for discussion. And I'll turn it over to Dr. Eldridge to introduce the item. >> Well, this is an exciting presentation and I'd like to thank Dr. Julian and Miss Hulcom for preparing all the um data analysis of um our district. um accountability rating and all the uh great things that have happened. So, I know you're

036in for a surprise at the very end of this presentation that we took some video clips. So, take it away. >> All right. Good evening, um Dr. Eldridge, President Hatfield, members of the board. This evening, it's my honor to get to share a brief update of our current progress towards our House Bill 3 board goals. House Bill 3 goals were a result of the Texas higher education strategic plan which declared that by the year 2030 at least 60% of Texans aged 25 through 34 would have a postsecary credential or degree. House Bill 3 charged all Texas school districts to monitor three areas. Third grade early mathematics, third grade early literacy, as well as college career and military readiness. In third grade math, our annual target started at 45% in 2019, advancing to 50% in 2025.

037Third grade reading started at 42% in 2019, advancing to 50% in 2025. And our CCMR started at 69% in 2019, advancing to 79% in 2025. So keep those three numbers in mind tonight, 50%, 50%, and 79%. Those are our targets for this last year, the 2025 school year. This timeline outlines the process and board actions that brought us to our current board goals. Monitoring presentations are shared across the top of the slide and our board approved revisions to our goals are represented on I'm sorry, the u monitoring are on the top and then the um revisions are on the bottom. I would like to briefly address the revisions just for clarification. In May of 2020, initial board goals were set using the star scores as a baseline measure. Shortly after, CO 19 disrupted student learning

038and state testing was cancelled. After we returned to school, we utilized our 2021 STAR scores as a baseline to revise our goals in 2022. In 2324, as you may remember from our presentation last month, STAR 2.0 0 was introduced and the new test in conjunction with changes to accountability calculations warranted a second revision of our goals which was approved last September in 2024. This slide represents the current House Bill 3 approved board goals and progress measures for third grade math and third grade reading language arts. The math target is the percent of third grade students that score meets grade level or above on STAR mathematics will increase from 49% to 65% by June 2030. And the RLA or literacy target is the percent of third grade students that score meets grade level or above on

039star reading will increase from 46 to 64% by June 2030. While the final target for math is 65 and the RLA target is 64, note that both targets for 2025 are 50%. On the road to 2030, we are continuously tracking our progress towards these goals. So, be on the lookout for how we're progress monitoring this in our board the the board goals in both our campus and our district improvement plans. Our first set of charts look at our progress towards our House Bill 3 early literacy target. The chart on the left reflects 2324 data and the chart on the right reflects 2425 data. The gray columns reflect interim progress measures on third grade MAP reading assessment which is administered in the fall, the winter, and the spring each year. The red column represents the percentage

040of scores at meets or above on star. In 2025, 57% of star scores were at the meets grade level or above for all third grade rla tests. Not only did this reflect an increase of 5% from 2024, but it also far exceeded the 2025 target of 50%. One final note, and I know you guys thought I was done talking about accountability subsets and all students, but you're going to hear it all year with every update. So, the red column reflects accountability subset because that's our star test. The map tests are looking at all students. The chart reflects this chart reflects our progress towards our House Bill 3 mathematics targets. While we met the 24 target last year, our 202425 score was 49%. Moving into 2526, third grade math is an area of focus as we

041continue to focus on meeting the needs of our emergent bilingual students as well as supporting our teachers with highquality curriculum and professional development. Next, we move on to our House Bill 3 CCMR goals. The goal of every CCMR department across the state of Texas is to ensure that all Texas high school students have both the access and the skills to be college and career ready upon high school graduation. There are 13 possible ways that a student could be considered college or career or military ready or commonly referred to as CCMR met. I will not review all of the possible pathways to CCMR this evening. However, I would like to point out that there are multiple ways for a student to be considered CCMR met. Some are based on achieving a qualifying score on a college

042readiness exam such as AP or SAT, while others reflect completion of college level coursework or certification courses such as dual credit or on-ramps. for college career and military readiness. The CCMR calculation looks at the percentage of students graduating CCMR ready and then divides that by the total number of graduates. So that's the percentage that we're looking at tonight. Our House Bill 3 CCMR goal is the percentage of graduates that meet their criteria for CCMR will increase from 75% to 90% by August of 2030. While the state has set a goal of 60% by 2030, CFB's goals far exceeds the state at 90% by 2030. And this target also aligns with the state accountability measures which scale a CCMR percentage of 88% to an A later letter letter grade in our A throughF accountability system. Our

043TW note that our 2025 target, the one in bold is 79%. So, let's take a look at our progress in CCMR targets. The chart on the left reflects our 2024 progress measures, which are reflected in our 2025 accountability scores, while the chart on the right reflects our 2025 preliminary progress measures, which will be represented next year in our 2026 accountability. The gray column reflects quarterly progress measures and the light blue column reflects the percentage of CCMR graduates. Our final 2024 CCMR percentage was 87% which far exceeded our target of 75%. Congratulations to the class of 2024 and thank you to our amazing teachers, counselors, and campus administrators for your continued focus on ensuring every student is college, career, and military ready. Next, we turn our attention to our preliminary percentages for the class of 2025.

044Our most accurate estimates suggest that our 2025 CCMR percentage is projected to be 95%. Applause. No. Uh, that's a big accomplishment. Um, again, in 2025, this progress measure far exceeds our target of 79%. This projection also exceeds our accountability target for an A letter grade in CCMR which is 88. [Applause] CCMR is a lagging indicator and this allows TEA and districts time to verify results and it's a lengthy process so I won't go into all the steps but it it takes some time to verify everything. We're extremely proud of this performance and I would like to thank the board for their unwavering commitment and investment in the future of our students. Thank you for investing in our facilities which offer realworld hands-on learning experience. Thank you for providing opportunities for our students to take college

045level entrance exams. Thank you for investing in our teachers as they pursue advanced level trainings and certification requirements which allow them to offer our students the myriad of professional certifications that we do. Speaking of resources that support our CCMR, last year CFB implemented the use of school links as a resource for tracking CCMR data points. School Links was implemented at all of our secondary schools to support real-time CCMR data for district and campus leaders and to assist in meeting our House Bill 3 board goals. Here's an example of a dashboard that shows postsecary goal breakdown within school links. In school links, multiple users are able to access data at any given time, which provides us opportunities to intervene early when needed. Student data is accessible and transparent, so we don't have to wait for the

046reporting season to take action. The tool not only identifies our plans for CFB graduates, but also helps align student interests to course sequences, which helps us with our CTE programming decisions. While our work is not done, we have much to celebrate tonight in our terms of our progress towards our House Bill 3 board goals. And um that concludes my presentation. If you guys have any questions, I'd be happy to um answer >> board members questions or comments. >> I think we're speechless. Um I will say the school links, isn't it student facing also? >> Yes. So, just to let you know, I actually had a parent call me today and say that she has a freshman and they've been in a program. So, I'm going to assume it was school links and that she can

047already see like the track to graduation and how she thought it was so cool and it was very clear to her. And so, I just wanted to give that shout out that that's really great that even a parent took the time to call and say the system is helping. Um, and so I really appreciate a the fact that you showed the products that are helping to produce these results because um, as a board sometimes we can sit behind the DAS and make decisions and then but to actually see it coming to life um, makes a big difference. And so I want to thank you for the effort uh, to put into here the the the decisions that are being made that are helping with this. But most of all, just on behalf of the board,

048extremely proud of the work and the amount of focus that is happening for students. And it doesn't happen without a lot of dedication and tracking and just I don't even know what to say. I just want to thank you guys for everything you're doing for kids. And for those of you in the audience that are um supporting, there's principles here and administrators. Just thank you for everything you're doing. Um we have a lot of faith in the trajectory that we're headed. So, thank you. >> So, that was the House Bill goals and now you're going to see all the accountability results. So, take it away. >> Yes, ma'am. Good evening, President Hatfield, Dr. Eldridge, and members of the board. Um, I am so thrilled to be here this evening to be able to present the

049CFBISD 2025 accountability results. So, I'm going to start off with a little bit of teaching about the accountability and a very um kind of short version of if you will. Our overall letter grades that are generated for the district and for the campuses are broken down into three domain areas. The first domain area is our student achievement domain. Student achievement is pretty much coming from almost 100% of STAR. At the elementary level, it is all of our STAR results. at the SEC uh middle school level it is also coming from STAR but at the high school it does factor CCMR as well as STAR. The other section in domain two is broken down in two different areas. One of those is academic growth and the other one is relative performance. Relative performance is a category

050where they compare each of our schools against a a group of comparative schools that are what they call their comparison groups. And within those comparison groups, they then rate them as to how they performed compared to the other schools in that group. They can earn distinctions if they perform really well and they're in the top quarter of that comparison group. So when the accountability scores are figured, the first part you can see across the top, 70% of that letter grade is coming from the better of those two domains. It is either domain one student achievement or it is coming from domain two which would either be school progress or excuse me school progress or it would be from relative performance. The other 30% of our scores come all from the third domain which is closing

051the gaps. And closing the gaps is important because it also measures our academic performance for meets performance or higher. So, as Chris just re revealed, all of our meets performance for our board goals, those are very much factored into our domain three as well as CCMR, our Telpass results and our graduation rates. So, there's quite a few things that go into the calculations, but that is overall how they come to a letter grade for our campuses. So, to celebrate our A to F accountability for the 20 2025 school year, I want to start with the congratulations to all of our faculty, staff, administrators, and students. We did earn our B rating for the 2025 school year, which was an increase from 2024. And both of these ratings were both released on the exact same day

052this year due to the litigation that TEA has been going through around school accountability. So on in August, on August the 21st, we had a celebration with our principles and we showered them with literal confetti. Uh we thought, you know what, we kind of spoke it into existence last year and we were ready for those confetti cannons to go off and they did. And we have a video to share with you at the end to show this excitement. Uh the staff surrounded the room of course they were very uh sneaky with where they hid those cannons and we did kind of pop them right over the top and they were very surprised. We also gave out recognitions, certificates and awards and it was a wonderful day of celebration for our campuses that we are very

053very proud of. So, some 2025 highlights to um recognize. Um 75% of our uh CFB schools have earned an A or a B rating, which is a 19% increase from our 23 24 accountability year. In addition, all of our high schools received an A or a B letter grade, which is the first time in three years. And as Chris just mentioned, our district projection um for the CCMR rating, we are projected to have an A rating for the first time in three years. It is exceeding TEA's goal, which was 60% as Chris mentioned by 2030. And this data will be reflected in our 2026 accountability. So next August when we get the official results, those will be calculated in our next year accountability. So we are beyond proud of our campuses. So great job to

054all. As it relates to student achievement and student outcomes, STAR is a big part of the accountability measures. And something to note is that STAR is measured off of different performance levels and they have it leveled from approaches, meets or masters, which I will explain briefly in just a moment. But some things to to um highlight for this past school year is that we saw significant gains in several areas. One of those was all subjects, which is a group of all of our C uh grade levels and subjects put together. We saw gains in reading. We saw gains in math as well as science, all in the meets grade level performance or higher. In addition, we saw gains at our M's level performance. The district also exceeded the state and regional percentages in all grade

055levels for elementary reading. 8th grade math saw more than 5% gains in approaches and meets performance levels, which also exceeded the state and region. And we were continuing to see growth in our emergent bilingual student performance and closing the gap with emergent bilingual. So the star performance levels when you hear us talk a lot about meets or masters, it's kind of important to know what those are referring to. And when star has the three different levels of performance, the approaches grade level is the minimum approaches uh minimum passing level, which means that students are ready for the next grade level, but possibly with short-term interventions. Students that hit our meets grade level are showing the readiness for the next grade level without interventions. And the M's level performance is the highest level of performance that

056really shows that our kids are mastering all content and are ready for the next grade levels as well as the college career military readiness. On the right hand side, there is a screenshot that shows you our raw score conversion for a test. And why that's significant is if you see the color coding and how it matches the performance levels, that is an example of a test from this past 25 school year. And each of those lines are a test question. And starting at the top, in order to get out of the red zone there, which is did not meet grade level, you have to get a certain number of questions right to get a scaled score to get into approaches. So if you see kind of on the chart there approaches grade level for each

057content area could be slightly different but it's around the middle part of the uh 50% mark to possibly 70. But when you see the blue and the green for our meats and masters it is significant to be at meets and masters level performance because you are mastering high levels of the questions on the test which then equals higher performance on our accountability as well as our student achievement. And so when you hear us talk about we've had gains in meets and gains in masters, it is very significant because we are raising this this the bar on our student performance and our accountability. So some other items to note with our accountability is some comparison district scores. Um as you can see our accountability rating came in at an 82. um surrounding districts around us um

058are are comparable in some areas. But what I would draw your attention to is the percentage of economically disadvantaged on the right hand side because when you look at that you can see a drastic difference in how those demographic groups are impacting student performance around the area. So we are extremely proud of the work that is going on in CFB as we are seeing a rise in our economically disadvantaged students and our um atrisisk student populations. Our student achievement is continuing to rise and go in the direction that we are aiming for. 2025 highlights that I would like to shout out. Sheffield Elementary School soared from a D to a B in one year. Mckame Elementary, I think Matt's in the house over here, went from a D to a B as well to a

059high 86. Field Middle School increased its rating from a C to a high B of an 88. Rangeview High School increased from a C to a high B of an 87. Smith High School increased from a C to an 85. And I know Chad's happy back there. Turner High School increased from a C to a B as well. Congratulations. And those are just a few of many increases across the district. 11 of our campuses were rated an A for the 2025 school year in accountability. 16 of our campuses were rated a B for 2025 and 20 of our campuses had an increased growth score from the prior year or maintained their A rating. So congratulations to all. The last thing I wanted to share is about distinction designations. This is a really really great honor.

060Um in a nutshell there are two areas of distinctions. There are elementary distinctions which there are six and there are secondary distinctions which there are seven. They are very similar but there is one extra one at the um high school level due to social studies. So I wanted to break down and I thought this year I wanted to dive into all the designations that were earned from TEA. This is where in that domain two when we have the relative performance and we're compared to a comparison group. We have to outperform that comparison group or the campuses do and be in the top quarter of that group. So it's very very significant. So when we look at the first distinction designation area for reading language arts, our district earned 18 campuses earn distinctions in the reading

061language arts grade. For academic achievement designation in mathematics, we had 18 campuses earn distinctions in mathematics. In science, we had 11 c campuses with distinction designations. Social studies is a smaller group because it is tested in eighth grade and then also in history. But of those, we had five distinction designations. We also have three others that are not content specific, but the first one is the top 25% of comparative academic growth, meaning that their campuses grew at higher rates than the others. And we had 11 campuses with academic growth. We also had in the top 25% of comparative closing the gaps which again is also student achievement related. We had 14 campuses with distinction designations. And this one makes me oh so happy. Not that the others do not. Uh but this is postsecary readiness

062which is absolutely awesome. 21 distinction designations in our district. So total 98 distinction designations CFBISD. I have a new something to track now. So I'm gonna add this to the Excel sheet. I am so very excited about this. And so we thought, you know what, our campuses really need to have um some celebration with this. And so let me see if I can do this. I'm going to pull this video up. So at the end of our meeting with our principles, we then of course lined the room and surprised them. And this is exactly how it went. Hold on. Sarah accidentally had hers the other way, so it's worth watching again. Sarah, we love you. [Laughter] [Music] So, we could not be more thrilled uh with the performance this year. Um and we are on

063for great things in 2026. Uh we will continue to bring continued progress measure updates throughout the school year. We're excited about our board goals, the refined goals, and our CIPs and DIPs which are coming next month. Um and we just thank you for your continued support. We can't do this work without you. Um, and we just thank you very much. So, if you have any questions, I am happy to answer them. >> Thank you, Miss Hulcom. Mr. Shackman, >> I I realize it is early, but the legislative session and the special sessions have changed the STAR test. Do we anticipate that how the changes will affect us moving forward with accountability? >> It's a great question. It will help. I mean, it will change in the 2728 school year. Um, we will not have the

064star measure, but there will be what they're calling a standalone test. So, we don't know what that will look like, but there will also be a growth measure that will be calculated from a beginning of a year and middle of test much like what we do with the MAP test. And then there will also be a spring standalone test, which we understand might be a little bit shorter, might not be quite what we've been dealing with STAR, could be a little bit different. There are a lot of varying opinions out there of what that is going to look like. And so with that, the 2028 accountability will then be adjusted and it will change in accordance with how those tests are going to be done. There's a lot still coming out of the legislation. Um,

065but we are anxiously awaiting and we are hopeful that it will streamline testing and the number of tests that our students are having to take. Um, and we do believe, you know, in round our whole our whole child is what matters, not just what we do on one test on one day. And so while we are very proud of the academic results from the standardized testing that we're doing, when we look at those CCMR scores and how our kids are ready to go out into the workforce and to be ready for college, career or military, that to me is really the icing on the cake because we know that outside of what the test is going to be or look like, we know we are sending our kids ready for what's coming next. And so

066we will keep you posted on that. We are anxiously watching webinars and all the things coming out and we will um stay you know tuned to that and let you know. >> Yes sir. >> Board members additional comments or questions? >> Well congratulations to all Miss Hulk. I really appreciate the last point that you made because we all know that STAR is not the end all beall. It doesn't represent the whole child. And so I think it's really important that you really highlighted again the CCMR because that's our ultimate goal is to send them out into the world. Um those other points are just benchmarks, but it is feel very good to see that we're hitting those benchmarks so well. So, thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> All right. Our next agenda item

067is item 4B, the bond oversight committee report. This item is going to be tabled and will present be presented next month at our October 2nd, 2025 regular board meeting. We will continue on to the next agenda item. It is 4C, which is our attendance and enrollment update. Dr. Eldridge, could you please introduce the item? >> Um yes. So, I really want to call this a student service update because we're going to talk about enrollment and attendance and also just some counseling services that we're providing to our students. Um, knowing that this was a unique school year with all the moving pieces that we had. So, Miss Battle, take it away. >> Thank you so much. >> Good evening to our wonderful superintendent, Dr. Eldridge, to President Hapel, and the entire board. Thank you so much

068for the opportunity in the absence of Mr. Dr. Shoulock to provide an update with respect to enrollment and attendance for the 2526 school year. Um it's only appropriate to start by highlighting some of the work and the efforts that happened to ensure that our students were ready to start the school year strong. Um our communications team along with other departments put on a remarkable event, our back- to-school bash where they were able to support over 2,000 students. Our health service department has vaccinated close to 600 has provided close to 600 vaccinations. The back to school hotline was a new addition this year. We had about 6 to8 staff members manning that line. We took over 400 calls on day one. Um and so we were able to provide that time sensitive timesensitive vital information so

069that our families could be in seats on that first day of class. Uh, Fastpass was back and I hear that the communications team will be out and about next week giving out some very special prizes to students. After hours enrollment, that was a new addition this year as well. We recognize that many of our families are working and so we wanted to make sure that we were accessible and student services and our doors were open late so we could accommodate and proi uh provide that need for our families. And of course, our enrollment campaigns and ongoing campus support were vital in ensuring that on day one, we had 21,116 students in seats in CFB. And so, we consider that to be a very strong start to our school year. But if you notice by that

070trend line, we are still focused on increasing enrollment. And so, as of today, we have 22,891 students in seats in CFB. Um, historically, that number increases through the month of September. And so we anticipate that that trend will increase. But since the start of school until today, we have added um I'm sorry, the font is small. 1,775 students to CFB. And we consider that to be a huge celebration. Um my fearless leader, Mr. Shelock, always says that we are the customer service arm of the district. And so that requires us to continue to be reflective. We are accountable to the board and to our community at large. And so we continue to monitor those enrollment trends. We want to know how our students are doing, how they're performing, but we also want to make sure

071that we are inviting every student into CFB. Um, I know the community is very interested in where our enrollment is, and I can tell you, I think it's important to note that of our campuses that were impacted by consolidation, 86% of those students are back in CFB. And so, we're excited about that as well. We also look for opportunities at our pre-K to kinder transition. A small number of those families are choosing to go elsewhere after that kinder year. And so we really want to reach out to that group of folks and say, "Hey, what can we do different and better to ensure that you metriculate through CFB and you're able to take advantage of the great programs and opportunities that we have here." The same applies to that fifth to sixth grade transition. Uh

072we've identified some students who are choosing to go somewhere else for middle school and we want to be able to partner with those families and say again, what do we need to do different and better so that you're able to capitalize and take advantage of the opportunities that we have within CFB. um a celebration from that 8th to 9th grade year. Students return to CFB and they come back because they realize all the amazing programs and services. We have CCMR, we have CTE, we have amazing athletics and fine arts and just all around great high schools. And so those students are coming back to us for high school. But our focus continues to be on not just attracting but retaining those students um because we have determined that that is ultimately the key to our

073academic success. um what do we do next? And so feedback is important especially within our department. And so we have crafted uh an afteraction we've had an afteraction meeting. The first one was held yesterday just to look at our processes and our systems and determine what was effective and again through that lens of customer service. What can we do different and better? And so this task force uh is essentially or it starts with a group of administrators who have expressed interest and we want to look at our systems. We want to see how we can improve. And so that will evolve. We have established dates and timelines that will help track our progress so we can make suggestions and proposals to ensure our enduser which is our student, our family um are competent and that

074our systems can be navigated with relative ease. Um and so while that task force will start with administrators, we will invite communications, we will invite technology, uh we will invite multiple departments because we know enrollment is more than just uh filling out a document. It's a it's a comprehensive process and so with that, our partnership with families to have them at this at the table as stakeholders will be imperative in evaluating our enrollment systems and processes as we move forward. Uh we want input and so for our students who have chosen elsewhere, we want to know why, what was the pull, what was the push because that's valuable information in our ongoing evaluation. And then also equally important are the stay interviews for those families that chose to stay in CFB. We want to know

075why. what do you love about CFB? So, comprehensively, collectively, we will use that information to help improve upon our systems with respect to enrollment. Another opportunity that we recognize is in the preK world. Um, last Friday, we sent communication to our internal staff to say, "Hey, are you interested in prek in CFB? Um, would you be interested this year? Would you be interested next year?" And so, that will give us vital information about missed opportunities inhouse within our district. Um we have a unique opportunity on the west side. We have a lot of families who expressed interest in prek. Um those families are often tuition based but we have a large number of families that we service on the west side that are non-tuitionbased and it creates opportunity but also some of challenges because we

076can't really predict how many kids are going to show up day one. Um and so this year we did something a little different. We invited those families even after that initial response. Hey please follow up. We'll reach out to you. And so on August 19th, we we sent additional communication to those families. We called them if we weren't able to invite them in for August 12th and said, "Hey, would you still like to be part of CFB? We have space for you. We'd love to accommodate you." And I'm pleased to say that about 20 to 30 of those families said, "Absolutely, we'd love to be part." And so we were able to have them join CFB. Um, so the interest form went out, but another great opportunity, House Bill Two, the recent legislation has allowed

077us to offer free prek to classroom teachers. And so because of that recent legislation, we've been able to welcome 15 teachers with school age ch prek age children all free of charge. And so that's been a huge celebration for us as well. Um I would like to transition to attendance. I'm excited. This as I believe President Hatfield mentioned this is attendance awareness month. So thank you for teeing me up quite nicely, President Hatfield. Uh Mr. Puit is takes the lead for attendance in student services and he is excited about this month as well. Um as mentioned we have continued to improve in our attendance over the last three years and we've set a goal this year of 94.5%. As mentioned before attendance is vital in ensuring that students have the opportunity to access the quality

078instruction that is happening in classrooms. So our goal for this year is 94.5%. I can tell you our department is committed to surpassing that goal. Uh I believe we will get there. Uh I think it's important to also understand that for every point half point increase, the district is able to bring in additional close to half a million dollars that can go to supporting our students and our staff and doing this vital work within the district. Um, keeping our kids in school is important and so we're always looking for opportunities and to support our students in getting to class every single day. We continue to continue with chronic absenteeism, but if you notice by that trend line year over year over year, it is decreasing. And that's an important statistic to take note of. Um,

079that clock is significant. 10 o'clock. Every everybody who's listening and watching, we need every student, my mom, because I'm sure she's watching, we need every student in their seat by 10:00 a.m. Um, it's crucial. And as President Hatfield said, we need you there all day, but at 10 a.m. we need you in your seat because that impacts us profoundly. So, what are we doing to support our students? We know that sometimes kids need a little extra something. Um, and so this is just some of the ways that we support our kids. I've highlighted the last three. Our attendance audits are going to be vital. Um, and it's not in the vein of I gotcha. It's just that we want to make sure that we are auditing, um, we're recording, we're coding correctly because that is

080directly related to funding. Treny Tribunal is back for the 2526 school year. Uh, I'm happy to report that last year over,00 appearances were made at that tribunal. 68% of those students who appeared were able to resolve their attendance concerns. That is a huge win. And again, as President Hatfield has mentioned, this is attendance awareness month. So, if you've been on social media, you've seen some of the wonderful tools that Mr. Puit and the communications team have put forth. Hopefully, our students are going home and sharing with their families the importance of attendance. Um, and so we thank you for your commitment to CFB. We thank you out there for making sure that your students are in class every day on time, but absolutely no later than 10:00 because we know that attendance matters. So again,

081thank you so much for the opportunity to present in the absence of Mr. Shoulac, and I'd be glad to answer any questions that you have at this time. >> Thank you, Miss Battle. Board members, any questions or comments? >> Okay, you do. Yes. Thank you so much for your presentation and I'm going to swoon over your department right now because I'm very very excited to hear of all these services that we're going to do to support our families and our children. And thank you for committing all of this time to you to all your department because I know a lot of personnel are so excited. They're so excited. Change is hard, right? This is it's a difficult transition, but I know they're embracing you with open arms. So, thank you for all of the hard

082work. Thank you for Thank you for all of this. I'm very very excited to what's coming. >> Thank you so much. And I will tell you, it is it is the great leadership of Mr. Shoulac. Um he's done a great job channeling and sharing the vision and ensuring that we're committed to seeing that to fruition. So, thank you so much. >> I feel like there's a lot of people in that department also getting a doctorate because of the amount of data that y'all are tracking. Um, I feel like there's some dissertations. Maybe not. Maybe, maybe not. Um, but also, um, thank you very much for the attendance awareness excitement. My son got out of bed this morning so excited to put his jersey on and go to school. And, um, you might see the board

083in jerseys on social media. We want to support you guys. And so, we might have attempted to put jerseys on earlier from our actual football teams. So, when you see that picture, laugh and just think about how much fun we were having trying on high school football jerseys. Um, and then, uh, in I think our work study is neon today. Um, so board members, we will be wearing neon. Um, and to support attendance awareness. So, if you have any neon gear you'd like to donate to the board, we are taking donations, preferably not high school small jerseys. So, thank you very much for the presentation. It's very exciting the work that you're doing. Um, I think Miss Garza has summarized it well. >> Thank you so much. >> Continuing on, Dr. Eldridge. Yes. So now,

084Mrs. Nerys will um tell us about all the counseling services. I wanted to make sure we included this because, you know, with the consolidation and resoning, we have lots of students that weren't in their school last year and so I know Mrs. Neros and her team have done a wonderful job um getting systems in place for our students. So, >> okay. Good evening, Dr. Eldridge, President Hatfield, esteemed members of the board. Thank you for this opportunity to share with you tonight. And I must say, I I'm looking forward to seeing you all in your neon. I cannot wait. As Tracy just shared, enrollment and attendance numbers tell us how many students we are serving, but equally as important is how well we are serving those students. So, we know that behind every number there is

085a child with very unique needs. And our counseling department ensures that every student on every campus every day has the supports to thrive academically. socially and emotionally. So, as we begin this new school year, our counseling department's focus has been on stability, routines, and ensuring a strong start for all students. As you all know, consistency helps children and adults feel safe and ready to learn. And so, that foundation has been a priority on every campus. and our campus principles are doing an amazing job in working in partnership with our school counselors to ensure this strong start. To support this, our counselors have equipped teachers with practical tools such as circle time prompts, classroom strategies that build community and normalize those conversations around big emotions. In addition, counselors are continuing to provide small groups, lunch bunch

086groups, and individual counseling as needed. So, students really have multiple ways to connect and feel supported. For students who have experienced a transition, whether from resoning, a program change, or just being brand new to CFBISD, we've taken some intentional steps over the past year and continuing into the start of this year. We have counselors leading guidance lessons focused on resilience, coping skills, and building connections. We've also provided each campus counselor with list of students impacted by transitions for all of the reasons I just mentioned, ensuring that counselors have those students on their radar and are personally checking in with them and offering additional support when needed. And we know that those those uh intentional check-ins go beyond the classroom. They are also very aware of what's happening out on the playground during recess, in the

087cafeteria, those those really high need moments that are sometimes a really big deal for our kiddos. But kids are so strong and so resilient. They often do a lot better than us as adults. And so truly the focus has been that strong start, the stability, the routines, and just welcoming all of our new kiddos to their new campuses. Okay. Our counseling department is fully staffed this year, which is a huge celebration, allowing us to provide strong layered support across the district. We have bilingual counselors serving in every feeder pattern, crisis counselors who respond directly to urgent student needs, licensed chemical dependency counselors supporting prevention and intervention, and communities and schools site coordinators connecting families with essential resources. We also continue to offer the counseling connection center, also known as the CCC, which provides free confidential

088counseling for students and families outside of the school day on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. When I came over, there were families in sessions tonight. Um, looking ahead, the counseling department, we are exploring expanded access through bilingual work workshops for our families, weekend options, and a pilot initiative focused on educator wellness in partnership with the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute and the Metro Crest Hospital Authority. So together, these layers of support and the support that we receive with various community partners ensure that every student on every campus every day has access to the resources that they need to feel safe, supported, and ready to learn. I do want to give a shout out to one of my teammates who see her in the back, Miss Summer Flores. She is our counseling coordinator that joined the counseling

089leadership team and Shauna Popppler is our support specialist who as I just mentioned is also the CCC director and is over with our families right now. So that I thank you again for the opportunity to share even briefly about counseling services in our district. I'm happy to answer any questions and I look forward to getting the opportunity to chat with you again in the future to share how some of these initiatives are going. So thank you. Any questions for me? >> Thank you Mrs. Narrow's board members, any comments or questions? Miss Miss Barnes, >> I just wanted to say how exciting all of this is. I had one brief question. Um, educator wellness is that that program is that uh for educators to have their own kind of counseling? >> That's the plan and it

090is it is a pilot. So we are in the planning stages right now with Metro Crest Hospital Authority and the Meadows Institute. Um so yes, the the end goal I believe is going to be to have that provided in our district for all of our staff. And so that's something that you you know we have to look for those opportunities. As you know, we don't always have those. It's it's a tough situation in public education. And so it is our job to seek those resources out to create those partnerships to really foster those relationships so that we are able to provide these opportunities not just for our kids. We need to take care of the adults in every position that work to support our kids because you know we have to pour into the people

091so that they can pour into the kids. So yes, I don't want to speak too much on it because we are in the planning phases but I hope that I am able to present to you all a fantastic opportunity for all of our CFBISD staff. Well, that's just so fantastic. Thank you so much for everything that all of y'all are doing. I'm really excited to see where this goes. >> Miss Garza Roas, >> I can't get that. Okay, there we go. Mrs. Neros, thank you so much for this presentation. Thank you for bringing all of these changes. Thank you for considering our our students as whole children and that they need mental health resources in order to be able to succeed. I just want to express my gratitude again to you, to your department. Thank

092you for all the work that you're doing. >> Thank you. Thank you. I mean, a shout out needs to go to every single school counselor. You know, sometimes they are behind the scene, but they are so pivotal at the campus level for the kids, for the adults, for the staff, for everyone. So, we're just, you know, happy to be part of the team. >> Any other comments or questions? >> Miss Brady, >> it's like a little party. This has been so fun. I love here and like everything's going so great and we're moving along and the kids are doing great, the counselors are doing great, the attendance is doing great, the scores are doing great. >> Y'all are amazing. Thank you very much for all that. Dr. Eldidge, thank you for your leadership. >> It's

093made a world of difference. I mean, we're in a different place than we were. So, this is awesome. >> We are and we're going to great places and I have to thank you all again. I mean, we couldn't do this without the support of the board. So, thank you. >> Teamwork makes the dream work. Let's do it. >> 100%. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you very much. Well, Kim, you summed it up well. Just like so exciting. Um, I also want to say thank you in particular for the update on the consolidation and intentional effort. I actually had asked for that in the spring and so I appreciate I I did not follow up with you and you guys made that happen. Got it. So, um, the list is working and so I really appreciate that

094intentionality. And then additionally um every presentation tonight included looking back and looking forward with some strategic action steps and that is very meaningful and even the connection to um how dollars are being spent on kids. So it's not just the people, it's also the programs and the support systems that we put in place. Um and that is the work that this district is doing as we are targeting the best quality for every kid in this district. And so I hope that the community begins to see the intentionality behind every presentation that is given to this board. Um that has been a a directive that the board wants looking back and looking forward. Um and we want to celebrate. It's fun to celebrate. Um so thank you again Dr. Eldridge for your leadership. All right. Um

095we have an opportunity board members if you need a quick break but we got a consent agenda. We're moving pretty fast. Most efficient meeting ever. All right. We're going to keep rolling. So we are going to go to the consent agenda which is item number five. Um it is our mechanism for the board to approve a number of routine items together with a single vote in compliance with the Texas Open Meetings Act. The public notice for this meeting includes a list of all 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, the board members may request withdrawal of individual items for clarification and or discussion. Board members, are there any items to be removed from the consent agenda at

096this time? Miss Brady, >> I'd like to remove item 5Q as I was not in attendance. >> 5Q. Got it. All right. Board members, any other items to remove from the consent agenda? All right. So, um, if there are no other items to be removed, do I have a motion regarding the consent agenda as amended? >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Oh, yep. >> I was not at 5Q. >> So, five. So, just 5Q still though. Okay. So, we're only pulling five Q again. Um, so if there are no other items, do I have a motion regarding the consent agenda as amended? Mr. Shackman, >> Miss Hatfield, I would propose that we approve the consent agenda as presented with the exception of item Q. >> All right, I have a motion. Do I have a second?

097I have a second from Miss Garza Rojos. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? Opposed? Seven in favor, zero opposed. The motion carries. Our next agenda item is item number six, items for discussion and or action. Uh we have one item that was removed from the consent. It was item 5Q. And the title of that item is consider and approve the minutes from the August 14th, 2025 work study meeting. Um do I have a motion regarding this agenda item? >> Excuse me. >> Oh yes. >> Sorry. and my agenda at 5Qu is the public meeting and board meeting. So, >> okay, let me make sure I got this right. So, the >> So, let me back it up. I should have said that out loud. So, the board of trustees budget public meeting and

098board meeting. >> Okay. So um right now the item that has been pulled is 5Q and so we will need to consider 5Q as present consider 5Q because it was the item pulled and then if we need to pull a different item I may take a recess to make sure I get it right. Um, okay. So, we are considering item 5Q at this time and then we will take a pause, a recess to make sure we correct this, whatever is needed. So, item 5Q. Do I have a motion? >> Yeah. >> Go ahead. >> Sorry. >> I move to approve item 5Q. >> Okay. I have a motion from Miss Garza Rojos. I have a second from um Mr. Gilmore. Is there any question or sorry is there any discussion? >> No. Okay. So, um

099all those in favor raise your hand. Those opposed. Okay. By vote of five in favor, zero opposed and two abstensions. The motion carries. Um the time is 8:09 p.m. And at this time, I'm going to take a short recess. The time is now 8:12 p.m. and I call this meeting back to order. We are moving forward in our agenda with item 6B which is um the consider and approve renewal of property casualty commercial and liability insurance. Dr. Eldridge, could you please introduce this item? As you know, we need insurance for anything that happens um especially with weather um anything to do with our property casualty and commercial and liability insurance. So, Carlos Settle will be introducing this item. >> Yes. I have a quick interjection. I don't often get to come uh to the podium

100with a lot of good news, but um I first want to celebrate uh Mr. Bobby Shaw and the and the great work he does representing the district in in all the ways uh that are related to our facilities. um a lot of his proactive actions over the last several years uh was reflected in what the carriers brought back as our proposed renewal. Um it's just a it's just part of the actuaries, you know, uh calculation on how responsive you are when we have extreme weather events. Uh and so when I sat down with our partners at uh uh Roach, Howard, Smith, and Barton, we had a record uh decrease in our premium of 15%. And so our uh projected budgeted uh premium will be 500,000 less than what we had originally budgeted. So that's the

101good news. >> The good news just keeps pouring in. All right, board members, do you have any comments or questions about this agenda item? Thank you, Miss Settle. Um, and thanks to Bobby Shaw and the facilities team for all the work they do. I know anytime there's a weather event, I always hear they were on it. They were before it. They were already wrapping things. They were doing many things to prepare. And then even right after where they're tarping things, anything that needs to be done, we have top-notch facilities. So amazing. and and so the the administration would recommend uh approving uh the renewal uh as presented. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> All right. This item is marked for possible action. Does the board wish to take action? Miss Barnes? I move that

102we approve 6B renewal of property casualty commercial and liability insurance. >> I have a motion from Miss Barnes. I have a second. I have a second from Miss Garza Rojas. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? Opposed? By a vote of seven in favor, zero opposed. The motion carries. Our next agenda item is item number seven, closed meeting as authorized by the Texas Government Code, including but not limited to section 551.071, Consultation with Attorney 551.072, Real Property. 551.074, Personnel Matters. 551.076, Security Devices. 551.082 school children district employees disciplinary matter or complaint 551.0821 personally identifiable student information 551.084 investigation items 7A and 7B will go together in close session. 7A is discuss superintendent evaluation tool and 7B is discuss superintendent's formative evaluation. The board will now move into close session. Audience members, you are welcome

103to remain in the boardroom until we return. Um or you're welcome to um exit as you please. We will return. The time is 8:16 p.m. All right, the time is now 9:10 p.m. and we will move on to agenda item number nine, comments for board members regarding posted agenda items. Board members, are there any comments you wish to make at this item from posted agenda items? any any agenda items from tonight. Miss Burns, >> I just want to reiterate what I think we've all said here and that is just this has been a day of really celebrating a lot of victories and a lot of moving forward and it's not without um you know some difficulties and trying to figure out what what where we're going and but I I'm very excited about this trajectory

104and just all the hard work that um all the people working in our district are uh are achieving and and where our students are going. So, thank you. >> Any other comments, Dr. Elders? Thank you for your leadership. Very excited to see the trajectory we're headed. Um so, with that, I will close the meeting at 9:11 p.m.