001I call this premeating briefing of the Carolton Farmers Branch ISD Board of Trustees to order at 6 o'clock p.m. on August 7th, 2025. The purpose of this premeating briefing is to conduct a briefing session with administrative staff regarding the posted agenda for the regular board meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. on August 7th, 2025. For the record, board members present are Kim Brady, Carolyn Benvdas, Paul Gilmore, and myself, Cassandra Hatfield. Um Garza Rojos and Marjgerie Barnes are stuck in traffic because it's welcome back to school and the people are in school zones for meet the teacher. So, um they will be running in here momentarily. Uh we're going to move on to recognitions. Item number two, we do not have any recognitions for this meeting. And so our next item is audience for guest. Anyone who
002wishes to speak during audience for guests must have submitted an electronic form for this purpose prior to the 1pm posted deadline. Um as of 1 p.m. there were no submissions to address the board for this meeting. So we will move to item number four. Dr. Eldridge, any reports by administration this evening? >> We have one report tonight from Carla Settle. Item 5F. consider and approve all matters related to excess local revenue, including executing an agreement for the purchase of attendance credits and delegate contractual authority to obligate the school district under Texas Education Code to the superintendent. So, Miss Settle, >> uh, yeah, I just wanted to, uh, make sure that the board was aware that every year we do have to enter into a contract with the Texas Education Agency, uh, for what we affectionately
003call recapture or otherwise known as Robin Hood. And so every year we come to a consensus with this uh commissioner Morath's office and as a for a projection and then we do end up uh paying for that later on in the fiscal year but we do not uh choose to net it against state aid because we like to keep the years separate if that makes sense. >> I think so. Isn't it interesting that we have recapture but now we purchase attendance credits >> and it's what they call it. It's what they call it. And so we just like to add more acronyms and more verbiage to make it a little bit more complex. >> Yeah. >> So >> it's all related to the statute and the way it's written. Um but that's what it means.
004>> Well, we're thankful that our legislators are focused on things that matter and maybe not terminology. So board members, with that, do you have any questions about this item? >> All right. Uh thank you very much, Miss Settle. I'm going to take a pause for just a few minutes because I saw our board members walk in to give them a chance to come in um in case there are any other questions about other agenda items. So, we're just going to take a brief pause. Oh. Okay. So, we um the traffic is better now. So, uh we're going to move to number five, which is our briefing session with administrative staff regarding the posted agenda item posted agenda for the meeting at 7 o'clock tonight. Um item number five is any additional questions, board members, on
005the consent agenda. Does anyone have any additional questions on the consent agenda for tonight? Any additional questions? >> I don't think so. >> No. Do you have any? We'll pause. It's okay. No problem. Okay. Um, with no questions on the consent agenda, we've reached the end of this meeting for the premeating briefing and we are adjourned at 6:05 p.m. I call this regular meeting of the Carolton Farmers Branch Independent School District to order at 7:00 p.m. on August 7th, 2025. Board members, district staff members, and members of the audience, you are free to join me in standing as Lewis Jensen, sorry, Jenkins from Christ Community Connections provides a message, followed by the leading of the pledges by Marjgery Barnes leading the US flag and Carolyn Benadus leading the pledge to the Texas flag. >> Let
006us quiet our hearts. Let us reflect upon the goodness of our God. He made us and we did not make ourselves. He gave us a heart to share, a brand to think, leading the way to new ideals, a vision, solutions, the eyes to see his glory in the creation of his world every new day. Father, creator of the heavens and the earth, I bless your holy, holy name. I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity to pray for and with the Carolton Independent School District. To you, Lord, be the glory, the honor, and praise. Grant them, Father, the strength and the wisdom to face any challenge that might come their way and the courage to seize every opportunity to serve your childrens in ways that will glorify you. Remind them that they were once children
007themselves and ignite that childlike wonder in each of them. Father, your word tells us to train up a child in the way they should go to accomplish this task. Father, I pray that you will give the board vision, insight, wisdom, and discernment of whatever they need to be effective in their work. Guide them, Father, as they create an educational framework and structure that is exceptional, a solid structure that will help develop the children's intellectually, physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. Plans that will encourage each and every child to let their light shine. Father, I thank you for these leaders for their hearts of service and I pray that they will work with diligence and integrity viewing their work as service to you. Lord, bless them and their families and the work you have assigned to them
008in your precious son Jesus name I pray. And let the church say amen. Welcome to the 2526 school year. Uh the first board meeting of the year and uh we are so excited for a new year. Um it's time to reflect and really think about what's happened this summer. So while many people were soaking in the sun, the board, administration, and staff were busy focusing on continuous improvement of the district and looking at student achievement and how we can make this year even better than last as we move for the district forward. So tonight we have much business to attend to and many community partners here to show their support for the 2526 school year. But I want you to know that the most important presentation that you will hear tonight is student achievement from
009the 2425 school year because we remain committed to focus on continuous improvement and celebrating the gains that we had this past academic year. So I invite you to be um excited as we put data to action this year and move the district work forward. As a district, we dedicate all of our efforts to our resources for 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
010law. These items typically involve personnel matters, consultation with our attorney, or real estate transactions. As we move through the agenda tonight, it is important to remember that we are in the business of supporting kids. With this in mind, we ask that everyone present themselves as a model, showing respect, responsible, and constructive behavior as we model our expectations of students. For the record, the board members present are Kim Brady, Iliana Garza Rojos, Marjgerie Barnes, Carolyn Benvdas, Paul Gilmore, and myself, Cassandra Hatfield. We constitute a quorum and may conduct business on behalf of the district. Before we move to the next agenda item, I would like to remind everyone that the board does accept audience for guest with comments from citizens and district employees. If you wish to speak to the board during audience for guest, you
011must have completed a form online by 1:00 today for the purpose and submitted it electronically. When the board addresses item agenda number three, audience for guest, you will be invited to the podium to speak to the board. We'll now move to our next agenda item, special presentations and recognitions. Miss Rodriguez. Good evening, President Hatfield, Dr. Dr. Eldridge and esteemed members of the board. President Ha, is this on? Yeah, sorry. President Hatfield and Dr. Eldridge, if you can please make your way uh down in front of the dis as I present the first award. Tonight, we are honored to present the first ever legacy of impact award to two individuals whose dedication profoundly shaped our community for over 45 years. Reverend Willie and Juanita Rainwater. For decades, the Rainwaters were pillars of support, providing hundreds of
012scholarships to students and demonstrating an unwavering commitment to Carolton Farmers Branch ISD. Their passion for education extended beyond financial aid as they sponsored an annual school supply drive and partnered with the CFBISD giving house to provide more than 300 meals to families in need. Additionally, the Rainwaters hosted an annual welcoming back to school celebration for students at Rainwater Elementary. The Rainwaters's impact on our district is undeniable. They founded the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. parade, a tradition that has brought our community together for over 30 years. We are deeply grateful for their vision, leadership, determination, and tireless efforts. The legacy of Reverend and Mrs. Rainwater will forever be woven into the fabric of our district, and their contributions will continue to inspire generations to come. Please join me in thanking the Rainwaters as their
013daughter Tracy Rainwater and family come up to the front to accept the first ever Legacy of Impact Award. [Applause] Through our partnership with Chick-fil-A at Trinity Mills, we honor individuals who demonstrate excellence with the CFB Champion Award. Tonight, we are honored to present the August award to Michael Conn, better known to many in our community as DJ Conn. Michael has a remarkable heart for the people of CFB and never hesitates to lend a helping hand. He has generously volunteered his DJ services to the district on multiple occasions, including on Saturday at the back to school fest, bringing his own professional equipment and team with him free of charge. Michael consistently goes above and beyond to make a difference. In addition to serving as the district's unofficial DJ, Michael mentors and supports several CFBISD students. He
014hosts an annual Young Life Thanksgiving feast and is an active member of the district's faith-based alliance. His actions are a prime example of genuine dedication and selfless service. Thank you, Michael, for your incredible support and for being a true champion for our school district. Please join me in congratulating Michael Conn as this month's CFB champion. You want to make your way to the front? [Applause] Thank you. And for our last recognition, providing a safe and secure learning environment is the district's number one priority. The annual CFB Sentinel Safety Award is presented to one campus that implements innovative measures dedicated to safety education. This year's award recipient is Davis Elementary School. Not yet. For the 2425 Sentinel of Safety initiative, Davis Elementary embarked on multiple projects aimed at fostering a culture of safety among students, staff,
015and parents. While only one project is necessary for the Sentinel of Safety nomination, the campus chose to go above and beyond by implementing several initiatives, including integrating safety goals into their campus improvement plan, applying for an impact now grant, establishing a junior safety patrol, and hosting a parent safetyformational night. These efforts were designed to enhance student confidence, and equip them with the knowledge needed to respond effectively during emergency situations. Congratulations to Davis Elementary for being a shining example of putting safety first. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. And that concludes tonight's recognitions. how wonderful it is to be able to celebrate the legacy of the past that carries us forward while also recognizing safety and then continued support for our schools in so many ways because it's all about kids. So, I just want to thank those that
016we've recognized tonight again for your service and commitment to the district. And with that, um, we will go on to item 2B, our mayor's update. Dr. Eldridge, >> we are so excited tonight to have our city partnerships with us. So, we are going to hear an update from our city leaders. So, at first, Mayor Terry Terry Lynn from Farmers Branch. Um, I did limit them to three minutes. We, you know, it's back to school time, but anyway, thank you, Mayor Lynn, for being here. So, the floor is yours. Superintendent and Board, thank you all very much for having me. I'm uh so excited about being here tonight and the start of a new school year. Uh I'm hoping that this opportunity tonight will be the first of many to present updates on what is happening
017in our respective cities and uh we will be having uh the superintendent and others come to our council meetings to give us updates also periodically. So have to get my prompt. first and foremost uh new new year and you touched on it most important thing is safety safety of our children and I'm here tonight to make sure that people understand that especially in Farmer's Branch. Okay. So when you're driving, whether it's any school district anywhere, the speed limit is 20 miles an hour, no texting, no cell phone use, and of course, no speeding. And this year, uh, Farmer's Branch, we have introduced motorcycles to our police force in an effort to slow traffic down. And I will tell you they will be out in force in school districts uh throughout the city or school zones
018throughout the city. So this is your warning. And I will also tell you motorcycles don't write warnings. They write tickets. So you don't want to see one of these in your rearview mirror. Okay? but they are a school children's best friend because this is insurance to make sure that our kids are safe when they're going to and coming home from school. So, we will start this marketing campaign tomorrow in our city. So, along with that, I wanted to just give you a a few bullet point items of things that are happening at Farmer's Branch. I I am very e excited to announce farmers branches consistently maintained a AAA bond rating from both Fitch and S&P which reflects uh exceptional financial discipline, sound financial management by the city council and staff and a strong credit profile.
019That's very important. Number two, the development of two multisport facilities, both of which are managed by the Dallas Stars, have established a significant economic uh anchor within our community, enhancing long-term economic resilience and positioning Farmers Branch as a regional destination for sports and recreation. You know, we have the uh Dallas Stars Hockey Center in Farmers Branch. And just to the north of that, we just built a Dallas Stars multi multisports center, which offers club volleyball and uh club basketball. Farmers Branch is also proud to host the prestigious Pickle Ball World Championships once again with attendance expected to exceed 50,000 uh individuals this year, solidifying Farmers Branch as a premier destination for major sporting events. Farmers Branch continues to invest in enhancing green spaces and access by advancing neighborhood park development, including the development of the
020city's uh first park on the west side in the Mercer Crossing area, Mercer Park, and significant improvements to other parks, including Squire Park, bringing vibrant, accessible recreational amenities closer to our residents. After all, Farmers Ranch is known as a city in a park. So, that's very important. Um, in partnership with Builders of Hope, the city has completed five highquality workforce housing units with additional homes planned. This initiative reflects our ongoing commitment to community development and attainable housing, which will also help the school district attract teachers to the area. And then lastly, I would like to invite everyone here to take a visit to the recently renovated Mansky Library in Farmers Branch. It sits at Web Chapel and Golfing Green and offers scenic views, uh, a very peaceful surrounding and of course great reading material. So,
021uh, if you ever have the opportunity, please stop in. It is a great amenity that we have in our city and would welcome seeing everybody there. That's all I have. So, thank you very much. [Applause] >> Thank you so much, Mayor Lynn. We appreciate the parks and thank you for um the school safety. Um we will watch out for the motorcycles and also want to just tell everyone that the school zones are managed by the city and text dot and a lot of times we get phone calls so we will forward those to you all. Okay. All right. The next mayor, Mayor Babick from um Carolton, we're so thankful you're here. >> Thank you so much for allowing me to be here. First off, I want to I want to remind us all, you know,
022Carolton's vision as a city and a council is to be the community that families and businesses want to call home. You know, and you can't think about a community where families and businesses all want to uh live without thinking about our strong partnership with our school district. And so we are so fortunate to have a long-standing partnership with Carolton Farmers Branch Schools. Our um you know to the trustees, Madame President, to the honorable trustees, our our wonderful uh superintendent, we're so thankful for your hearts and how you lead the district with uh thinking about the students and everything you do. It's so important to us. To our administrators, uh to the teachers and staff throughout the community, you know, that is really what makes the difference for our schools. I'm in the schools every single
023week. um as a mentor and uh and other activities and I will tell you that uh it is alive and well and so as you start a new year I am my heart is beaming with optimism for you as we think about the uh the students and the experiences that they're going to have the uh whether that be through athletics through uh certainly academics, athletics, extracurricular activities, all the clubs, all the fine arts programs. uh these uh these are certainly public education experiences that you cannot mimic and imitate within our in within other forms non-traditional forms of education. So we're so pleased for all the work you do on that. I will tell you that from the standpoint of um our commitment from a city perspective absolutely we are committed to continuing to keep our
024community safe and keeping our schools safe in conjunction with you all. Right. we will answer the call when called. Um, school zones, SRO's, the partnership that we have with you all is so important and I think it's important for the for the community to understand that strong partnership that exists with not only these three mayors but all the all the areas that you uh support. You know, examples of that in terms of uh the sports field lighting that we did. You know, sometimes it takes the form of athletics and supporting the sports field lighting. Sometimes it is indeed the uh the uh uh school zones and the SRO's. Other times it's just showing up, right, and being there and present um and showing that joint commitment. Why? Because when we think about families, we think
025about certainly non-traditional families, but we first and foremost think about those traditional families that involve kiddos. And my kiddos uh are all educated through CFB. And I will tell you that um I cannot the the experiences that they gained, the education that they received is priceless. And so on behalf from one parent to others, I will tell you thank you so much on that. I will also tell you um that as we think about the community businesses in Carolton, manufacturing, logistics, services, um it's so important that we retain those types of relationships. I was uh at a economic development summit earlier today as well as an infrastructure summit this afternoon and I will tell you education and the the at the core of everything we do is so important. We cannot think about a strong
026community without a strong school district and a strong uh board and trustee and superintendent for all you do. So thank you so much on behalf of Carolton. I want to give a shout out to my deputy mayor prom uh Daisy Paloma here on the front row as well. But thank you so much Um, Daisy, will you stand so everybody can see you because Daisy, Mr. Mayor Babick, is also our educational liaison. So, she will be seen at events as well and most of the city count, city council, all of you show up. So, thank you for being here tonight. So, our last presentation, Mr. Rick Stoer from Irving, and we are so honored to have you tonight as well. Well, good evening everyone. Uh, Madame President, superintendent, trustees, it's truly a privilege for me to
027be with you at this time. You know, this is exciting time for the young people. They're excited about coming back to school. They're excited about seeing their friends that they haven't seen over the summer and they're excited about learning. And I want to extend to you the thanks from the city of Irving for the work that you have done within the schools, the repurposing of Barbara Bush, the uh construction that constantly goes on, the commitment that you have made in our city to have the best facilities that are available. Uh I also want to uh let you know that we take this partnership very seriously. Uh we're excited about our SRO officers. It's interesting as I visit several of the schools when you walk in and the officers are there and a lot of times
028in the morning when the kids come in, they're high-fiving the officers and they're excited and that really develops a whole relationship that makes a big difference in how they react within our community. They they let our officers know what's going on within our community. We also are taking a very strong position on uh school safety this year as far as the crossing zones. You'll see uh I did a just did a couple of ICTN our local news of me with stoplight out in the intersections reminding people that please please put the phone away. That goes for parents as well as children. You know, you al you think about they've got their phone and they're running across the road. They may not see what's going on or darting out between a car. So, I've uh we've
029really put an emphasis on that this year that we want to make sure that our that our young people understand the importance of the safety that's out there. We also have our officers uh that have been actually out today. I'm in right in between two schools and uh the officers were out there in full force this morning just warning people even though we're the school hasn't started to recognize that they need to to slow down. The education that uh you provide is so important. This is probably the most important gift that a child will ever receive. The education that starts in kindergarten and all the way through determines what they want to do in life, determines everything from the religions that they choose, the jobs they choose, the friends they choose, and how they provide
030back to our communities. And it is so important to us. Uh we have uh a tremendous amount of need for people to stay in the community in the metroplex. We want kids to be able to graduate and go on and and and make things happen right here at home so they can be with their parents. Uh I was just this week with HB. They're opening two stores in in Irving. Uh the first one at Thanksgiving. They're hiring 250 people locally. They're uh the other store will open uh mid next year. 750 people. We just are having Wells Fargo move into their new corporate headquarter in uh Irving. They have about 3,500 people. They'll be coming in locally, about a thousand from around the community or from around the country, and they'll also be hiring 1,000
031new people for that facility as well. So, the importance of the education that receive that everyone receives and the ability to move into the job market is very, very important to us. So, on behalf of the Irving City Council and myself, thank you for the opportunity to be here. Thank you for all that you do and God bless you for what you do for our young people. Thank you. [Applause] >> Well, thank you so much for the updates and even more so, we see the connections that we are continuing to build. I have been on the board four years and this is the first time we have had everybody together in the same room and the collaboration that we are having and as we look into a school year, it's so important. So, I want
032to thank you. Um, just as us, you all are very busy and so it means a lot for you to be here and it's very encouraging uh to hear the uplifting words and remind everybody about safety, but also about the workforce that we're creating. And so, I really appreciate you guys being here. Thank you very much. Do you want me to get Can we get a picture with y'all? Because it's like a commemorative moment. Like, this is the first time we've had this. Come on, let's get a picture. Well, I'm now reminded not to speed. I don't know about y'all, but safety first. So, we'll now move to item 2C, which is the president's report. So, um it's a new school year. We started to talk about it, but it represents a fresh start, and
033fresh starts begin with preparation. So this summer, I want you to know that our facilities team has cleaned over 5 million square feet of buildings and maintained over 820 acres of grounds so that we can ensure our facilities are safe and welcoming spaces for our students and staff. Our leadership team, administrative teams, and even our teachers themselves have been teaching and facilitating training sessions on innovative learning strategies. and your board of trustees has participated in training focused on student outcomes and continues to be laser focused on measurable goals to support student achievement. These effort re e efforts reflect our deep commitment to district values which include maintaining a growth mindset, supporting and loving the whole child and delivering excellence in all learning opportunities. As we look ahead, may the first stage jitters quickly turn into
034something different. As a parent, I even still have the first stage jitters. My kids have the first stage jitters. I know teachers have the first stage jitters. Administrators, maybe even board members might even have the first stage jitters. So, let us turn that into confidence, learning, and growth. And we know that this year there has been change, including students transitioning to new schools and ongoing construction thanks to the 2023 bond with support of the community. We recognize that we will experience some growing pains this year. So, we're asking for you to work together with us because these are signs of progress. progress that we are quite literally building the future. We are building the future for educational spaces that are going to empower our learners to be the best scholars and as our mission states
035acquire lifelong knowledge and skills and values that prepare them to compete in the global marketplace and contribute to their communities which are right here as we saw evidenced by our mayors tonight. So on behalf of the board of trustees, I just want to thank everyone for all the work that's been done to get ready for this school year. From our community members that came out to the back to school bash, our teachers, administrators, um, everyone that has poured their heart into making this the best school year yet. So let's continue to work together and recognize that we are in the business of education for one thing and that one thing is kids. So let us not forget that this year that we are working towards a goal of supporting kids as we move them forward.
036Now I'll move on to our committee updates. So um the board subcommittees is where we're going to begin. And the purpose of the board subcommittees is for a subset of the board to work collaboratively to support a procular focus by preparing or drafting documents or work products for the board's review and adoption. The three standing subcommittees and the board members serving on those subcommittees are shown on the screen. Board members, do we have any updates from board subcommittees since our last meeting? Miss Barnes? Thank you. Um, our governance subcommittee met on July the 28th. Um, this subcommittee consists of Cassandra Hatfield, Kim Brady, and myself. Um, we spent some time just talking about our goals and our outcomes, what we are proposing as our outcomes for the 202526 school year. Um, we spent some time
037talking about our processes and our documents um, and just how we were going to keep information. Um, and then we uh went over the TASBY 125 updates. This is a review. We reviewed the policy updates um and submitted those for approval by the board at this meeting. Um and we will are planning on meeting um following this August meeting uh to review several requests that are still pending. Um that will be it. >> Thank you very much. Any other updates, Miss Brady? um from the operations and finance committee which consists of me uh Paul Gilmore and Randy Shackman. We met with Carla Settle and her team and Mr. Marsh on Monday and discuss compensation, the budget and the TASBY uh salary study. So we have lots of information to share which we will share later
038tonight in the meeting. >> Thank you. And then our last update from the leadership subcommittee. We have not met. we are meeting this week. So we are on our way to um having everyone meet uh monthly as going forward as needed based on the work products that are uh going to be finished. So next up we have our district liaison committees and board members also serve on district liaison committees. The role of the board liaison is to facilitate regular and smooth communication to and from the board and to provide board support and information and support committee operations. The board members serving in this capacity are again listed on the screen for you to see. Board members, do we have any updates from district committee since our last board meeting? Mr. Gilmore operator here. On July
03929th, the uh bond oversight committee met. Uh I was in attendance as well as President Hatfield from the board. We discussed the review, intent, and purpose of the committee. uh talked about the attendance um and going forward the attendance looking to utilize other days for meetings as there's uh over time become conflicts on just meeting on Tuesdays. We may need impromptu uh meetings going forward based on uh project updates, financial discussions uh with the 131 million um bond money that is uh that was not used for the other schools. Um, we heard opinions from the admin and gave feedback or they gave feedback. The bond doors site committee previewed construction items uh coming before the board in upcoming meetings. uh the next steps and they've actually already started as I've heard they have uh surveys
040going out to the public um and so those are hoping to be in quickly and they will then bring their annual reports and recommendations uh by chair Katherine Carlin in September. >> Right. Great. Thank you very much. Um I'm not sure are there any other committee updates this month? All right. with the new school year starting since these are district committees. Um most of those happen during the school year. So you'll have many more updates next month. All right. Our next item is item 2E district announcements. Dr. Eldridge. So on Saturday we had the best back to school fest ever. And I want to recognize Katrina Spotsville. She may be outside in the lobby, but her and her team just communications like wow. It was amazing. We had over 5,000 people there. to see our
041students get backpacks, haircuts, um school supplies, our community came together. Daisy, thank you for being there from the city. I mean, it was amazing to see. So, what a successful event. We recognized um our DJ that gave his fulltime um Mr. Con. Um region 10, we had two um two teachers that made it to the regional level to celebrate their great success as teacher of the year. It was Mr. Cartree from Creek View High School and Summer who was um is a a bilingual first grade third grade teacher from um Farmers Branch Elementary. It was such a great day to have lunch with them and they brought their families. So, what a great honor to celebrate our teachers. Um and I hope I'm not stealing your thunder, Stacy, but we have a national PTA school
042that we just found out about yesterday. So, um, we have three, but Amy Miller from Country Place, they won the national recognition for community engagement, and I know you'll announce the rest of them. Um, that's the one I just received. Um, we also, um, we have a superstar um, flag football player in our district, Venita Crouch. She is the PE teacher at Lavita, and she is headed to China to to be the quarterback for the women's national flag football team. And so everybody needs to watch that because she's gonna shout out um our school district because she works for us and she's gonna have pictures of some of our students. And what an honor to have a great world athlete that represents CFB. So go team USA. And the last thing, we have a hotline
043for enrollment and for help on our first day of school, which is Tuesday, August 12th. Some of you um need to be reminded that on August 12th, which is a Tuesday, not Monday, is our first day of school. We want to have a smooth transition. So, we've made a hotline. And I know I thought we were going to we did we have a slide? Okay. Well, it's 972-968-6500. We will be blasting that all over social media because it will start at 7:00 a.m. We want everyone, we will answer the phone and help you. like we it is important to us to make sure everybody gets to where they need to be and what they need. It's always usually what bus did I need to get on that just passed my house or what time did
044school really start. So, we're blasting all that information out. Um you just watch our social media. If you don't know it, get on our website and look for all of our updates. So, we are so excited for the new school year. >> Thank you, Dr. Eldridge. Next up, we have our update from the PTA, which is item 2F. Miss Homeman, Dr. Eldridge, President Hatfield, and esteemed board. Um, as always, I want to start with the PTA motto to make every child's potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children. Um, I'm Stacy H. moment and I am proud to serve as the president of the CFBISD Council of PTAs for the second and final year. Um, put that in there now before you get me in trouble. Um, the
045new PTA year has begun and at last count, which at noon today, we already have 60 663 members of PTA across our council, which is a fantastic start. I think we got some on Saturday with all the schools promoting and as the back- toschool events have been occurring. Uh the best way to join a PTA is by visiting join pta.org which is now live. You can join any individual PTA this way or multiple PTAs. But another even better way to support multiple PTAs is through the council PTA web store. We have our um champion memberships where you can be a CFB champion and join all 32 PTAs at once. Or for all five of our high schools, we have feeder pattern uh champions of the mascot of all five of our high schools, which you
046can also join to um join multiple PTAs. I want to send out a big thanks to our first CFB champion, Alice Bryan, who's our council treasurer, who is a member of all 32 PTAs. as soon as she set up the store, she tested it by joining. So, that was great. Um, last month we participated in the launch PTA conference where we had a great turnout with 24 attendees from our district including two principles and an administrator, Katrina. She did. Um we as a council were received onstage awards in recognition for the golden apple as well as outstanding council platinum award award for the second year in a row which is a really great honor for us. Uh we had other awards too but I can't remember all the proper names. Um, let's see. We also
047had two of our PTAs, Country Pis Elementary and Roseme Elementary who were recognized for the um for being voice for every child platinum, which means they have at least one member uh for every student at their school. One PTA member for every student at their school. And uh this is the third year for Country Place and the second year for Roseme. So, let's get some more schools up there this year. We are happy as a council to help you in any way we can to get you this honor. It's really great honor to be on stage at launch. Um Dr. Eldridge mentioned the national um school of excellence award. I was holding that until next month because some of the schools there are four schools that won and some of them are announcing it to
048their staff tomorrow. So I'm going to be quiet on the other three schools. Um, uh, we also have our great new council t-shirt, which I'm modeling has all our school names and all the cities where our schools reside. This is currently on sale also on our web store. Um, so we encourage you to go on and get a t-shirt. It's really not for profofit. We're pretty much selling it at cost, but we'd love everyone to represent our school district this year. Um this year we will continue the monthly awards for different PTA challenges. Our first challenge is the back to best back to school event. There'll be one award for primary and one for secondary and it will be awarded at the September board meeting. So let's get our entries in there. More details will
049be sent directly to your PTA presidents and delegates. Um sorry I lost my place. We'll have a full list of challenges. Instead of doing it on the fly each month, we're going to have the full list of challenges at our first delegate meeting at September 10th. So, you can prepare for the whole year and know what you're working towards each month so that you can get up here and get an award um for being great. And let's see, our first district PTA training extravaganza event will be on September 20th at the Nancy Watton Center. It'll have a small vendor fair and some training and networking. Um we it is open to all of our local PTAs as well as any uh all of our boards and officers as well as anyone that thinks they might
050want to be an officer someday. Come and meet us and train with us and join us. Um the in our uh the national PTA reflections contest kicks off as soon as school opens. This year's theme is I belong. Uh we hope all our schools will participate. Submission dates and deadlines will be shared by the first delegate meeting on September 10th. But we have a great reflections turnout. We always send a lot of entries to state and have gotten national entries sent from state. So I hope everyone participates this year and we have a great ceremony in January uh for that. In our biggest news, we're bringing the Harlem Wizards back this year. The Wizards will be taking on the CFB champions on Saturday, October 25th. So, we're doing basketball during football season this time. And
051tip off will be at 6:30 p.m. at Newman Smith High School. Start thinking about what teachers you will want to represent your school on the CFB Champions team. Ticket sales will open September 1st. We have lots of contests coming up. Keep your eyes open for the different contests for the different schools. and um we look forward to that. Uh our current calendar including dates and times of all delegate meetings is posted on our website at cfbpta.org. That's also where you can buy the t-shirt and the champion memberships. And I want to thank everyone for your continued support, especially the board and the administration and um for their continued support and advocacy for our children. Together we are PTA. Thank you, Miss Hman. I can feel your excitement for the new year, even if you reminded
052us that your position will be open next year and you're just getting everybody primed to be able to support uh continue supporting PTA. So, um I'm looking forward to seeing you as the referee, Dr. Eldridge, on October 25th. It's going to be great. Next, we have item 2G with an update from the Education Foundation, Miss Wald. Good evening, President Hatfield, Dr. Eldridge, and esteemed board members. On behalf of the directors of the Educational Foundation, I'm so excited to be here this evening with news and with updates. The Educational Foundation never really stops. Um, since our last report, we've been busy uh with planning meetings, with getting our upcoming year in order and more. Just last night, we hosted our annual campaign mixer to a packed house um who were so excited to hear from grant
053recipients and from principles from the district. The energy was electric. The room was warm and our educators thrilled and impressed the crowd. We um are just simply nothing without the support of others and we are eternally grateful that our individual alumni and our business community have supported us passionately since 1997. It it's really because of them. It's completely because of them that we're able to provide support to the district in so many ways. Earlier this summer, we created a grant especially for CFB departments, our unsung heroes who work tirelessly behind the scenes to create thriving and secure environments for our students. We have uh we'd like to recognize tonight our technology services and the service help desk for all their work going above and beyond the call of duty this past summer. We are honored
054to present them and actually the cash the it's check is in the bank uh with a check in the amount of $1,000 to thank them for their hard work. We are very grateful. Tonight, we're presenting our team in student services who oversee the operations of the CFB giving house with $20,000 to purchase essential clo. It's big to purchase uh essential clothing and hygiene items for CFB students in need. We want our students to start the school year with their best foot forward. We're so grateful to our numerous donors who support the CFB giving house, including our faith-based communities. So, we're eternally grateful. Lastly, tonight, we are elated to present our Great Start grants to the district. You've heard about this earlier. This is nothing new. Um, but the sponsorships from the teacher of the year
055event in April are headed right back to the school campuses and all centers. Every CFB campus and learning center has received again check in the account $1,000 in Great Start grants. That's $34,000 for campuses and centers. I'm going to ask the AD Foundation directors to come forward for a photo. And while they're assembling, I want to quickly share, I'm going to tease it. We have another exciting opportunity we'll be unveiling in September. And this will benefit our auxiliary staff. We really are looking forward always to intentional ways to support CFB. We want to thank you out here in the front. Everyone out here in the front. We want to thank you for your continued support and for giving us the opportunity to support the district that we love. If I could get the uh board
056members to stand at the dis as well. We'd like to get a great big picture. And with that, I conclude my report. Are there any questions? We thank you. What a great way to start the year. giving away money to our schools. It's so exciting. Thank you very much for the update. We look forward to the continued partnership this year. Um it's going to be a great year. At this time, um we'll have a brief pause to allow anyone who would like to step out of the meeting to do so. You are always welcome to stay as we continue the meeting, but if I just want to give you the opportunity if you'd like to. Our next item is agenda item number three, audience for guests. Persons who wish to speak during audience for guests
057must have submitted a form electronically uh prior to the deadline for this item. I do have two speakers. Miss Candy, do I have any more? Okay. So, before we begin, I will remind our audience members of the board's procedures for handling audience for guests. Anyone interested to speak in person during audience for guests must have electronically submitted the form and listed the topic of which they wish to discuss by 1 pm deadline of form submission. Each speaker will be allowed to speak once during audience for guests. 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 while also
058keeping the meeting running efficiently, groups of more than five people who want to present a particular viewpoint on a topic should appoint one person to speak on behalf of their 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 the comments but will not respond or answer questions. Recognizing that students are at the heart of our work, we ask that speakers model the respectful and constructive behavior we expect of our students. Please keep your comments civil and courteous and avoid profanity and personal attacks. Refrain from discussing students who are not your own child. Yelling, disruptive behavior, or discriminatory remarks will not be permitted. In the event that your comment in the judgment of the presiding officer constitutes a complaint
059or 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 school district's formal grievance procedures. If a speaker is speaking is seeking board resolution of a specific complaint, that concern should be addressed through the district's grievance process, which can be found online and include policies DGBA, FNG, and GF. Grievance boards can be obtained online through the district's website. in compliance with the Texas Open Meetings Act. Please note that the board will not respond to the public directly and will address any agenda items as deemed necessary when they are listed in the agenda. A 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
060speaker's presentation will be a limit limited to the allotted time with our stakeholder comments. The speaker's presentation is 3 minutes. At this time, I'll call forward uh sorry if I mispronounce it. Dam mice. and taxpayers are not under school participation at 64% students and 9.2% residents. It is incomprehensible that district is now violating it by allowing another student of the students who swims and alumni but they despite following our district's policies. I was told by the director that I previously lanes that are Ma'am, your time is expired. Thank you very much for your feedback. Administration will follow up. >> Uhhuh. [Applause] Our next speaker is Rayan Mice. Can we pause again? We need >> Sir, I I just want I want to make sure we can hear you and we're having an audio issue and
061so I want to make sure we can hear your voice. Thank you for being patient. You're very brave to come up as a student and chat with us and share your um your opinion. And so I really appreciate you being patient and I know it's nerve-wracking to to see all of us behind this dis. So thank you very much. There we go. Okay, go ahead whenever you're ready. >> Dr. Eldridge, President Hatfield, board members. I am Railen. I represent my swim team and district students. I am a seventh grader at Perry Middle School, same school my coach went to. Yes, I am a swimmer, too. And I hope I'll be like my coach Sean one day. I've been swimming with Select Swim since 2023. I love swimming because it relaxes me, because it makes me
062smarter, because it makes me fit. I want to be a part of a high school swim team. And one day I will represent my stay in country. But now I cannot participate at the auditorium. Instead, another school district will replace my team select swim. The auditorium is the is the closest pool to my home and I've been swimming there since day one. I believe that the board of trustees in in the executive leadership will hear us and let's swim and return to our home pool. Thank you very much for being brave enough to come and share that with us. I really appreciate it. That takes a lot of courage to get up in front of um not only the community but the board. So, thank you very much. You will there will be a follow-up.
063At this time, we will move to item number 4A, construction or bond update. These are non-action items for discussion, and we'll begin with 4A. I'll now turn it over to Dr. Eldridge who is going to introduce the item. So, when we talk about construction and bond updates, we are talking about investment in our school building for our students. So, in order for us to provide student success, we want to make our spaces more effective through learning and we're a space that everyone can thrive. So, Mr. Blackburn, if you'll present our current construction update focused on our new student learning spaces and other things that you have to share. >> Good evening, Dr. Eldridge, President Hatfield, members of the board. It's good to see everyone tonight. Have a few things to update you with. As you
064know, we're proceeding with renovations, replacement campuses, as well as safety and security uh initiatives from the 2023 bond this summer. To give you a flavor of what we've been up to, if you look down that uh second column, the 2025 column in the middle two uh squares, that is what's been going on this summer. So, we've been working and building at 19 different campuses for the 2023 bond this summer. So, we've been pretty busy. This is uh taken at Blac Middle School um a few days ago. They're already significantly past this point uh in the first classroom phase of the renovations. That is one of our major renovations. Um and we are really excited about what that's going to look like when it gets done. They're making excellent progress. We were able to replace uh
06536 air conditioning units at Countryplace Elementary and I walked that campus yesterday checking on the last few units getting up and running and they're all up and running now. So, we're glad for that. Turner High School, um if you were paying attention on the correct day, you got to see a a helicopter help us set some air conditioning units. So, we replaced a lot of air conditioning units there as well this summer as they're kicking off their major renovation. We are um making some good progress. A lot of the demolition work has been done. So, they are proceeding on schedule and we're excited about what that's going to look like when it gets done as well. Child Development Academy, we replaced the roof. We also replaced the air conditioning units there as well. And we
066replaced the fire alarm this summer. So, they are up and running. Uh and we're up and were so in time for staff returns. when staff returned a few days ago. That's just a few of the campuses. Like I mentioned, uh we've been quite busy as well updating our fiber network across the district. They're making excellent progress. You can see if you notice the light blue uh on the map. They are coming around the district and they are working their way back to close the loop with the light blue which indicates that all the fiber has been spliced and tested. But they've got 90% or excuse me 96% of the fiber already placed. So they're getting close to the finish line there. They're making they're doing very well. So we've been very happy with the progress
067there. And some more detail there. But uh as you can see, they've made a 40% increase in the amount of fiber placed just in the last month. So done very well. Uh, one other detail that I'll share, um, in terms of overall construction for the bond program, um, just in the month of June, we put about $21 million worth of construction in place within those 30 days. And we expect we'll probably do about the same in the month of July, which is tracking for what we projected we were going to be spending uh, on the overall bond program. And with that, I'd be happy to entertain any questions. >> Thank you, Mr. Blackburn. Board members, do you have any questions? Okay. Well, I'll ask a question. Um, my question is actually about security. So, looking
068at that chart, we have multiple campuses that are going to have work being happening during the school year with students there. And I know there's a security plan in place, but can we just for the benefit of the public also share a little bit more about the security plan at these campuses that are going to have construction during the school year? Um the first thing I would share is that all of the uh construction workers that are on site are required to be badged and background checked and if they do not have a badge that's displayed they are immediately removed from the site. So that's the first step. The second step is to uh define the secure perimeter of the building. So if we are working in an area the partition wall between the construction
069area and the classroom area is that secure perimeter. So that perimeter is kept locked and if an uh if we have a one defined construction entrance and that entrance is monitored at all times. >> Can we also address any additional security uh specialist or um that's happening? Actually Rachel's right beside you. So I don't know if you want Rachel to share. Dr. Eldridge. >> Hi there. Yes, we will be deploying extra security staff to um our high schools and middle schools that are under construction currently. So we will have support staff there as well. Um we also have rover positions that will assist especially during the first week so they can be visible and present in those mobile locations. >> Thank you >> Rachel. I think one of the concerns from parents that we heard
070today was the um the travel from the main campus at Turner to Central and so if you can just reassure how many you know that your officers will be yeah they will be present enough to make sure people get into classes. So, at Turner, the big campus, you'll have one uh police officer. With Carolton Police Department, you'll have two security specialists there. At the annex, you will have one farmer's branch officer and one security specialist there. And you'll have a roving position as well that will be movable and visible. And if they're not deployed to an elementary campus for the day, they'll be present. >> Thank you, board members. Any additional questions about this item? All right. Thank you both very much. Our uh next update is our star update um which is our student
071achievement update. So Dr. Eldridge, will you introduce this item, please? >> Mr. Julian's going to present our wonderful results of our student accountability and our student outcomes, which is what we focus on. Um while we see great gains in some subjects, we also look at accountability as what we need to continue to improve. So I look forward to your presentation, Mr. Julian. Good evening, Dr. Eldridge, President Hatfield, members of the board. My name is Chris Gilliam. I'm executive director of assessment and accountability, and I'm honored to get to share with you today our release star and EOCC results, but I'd be remiss not to say the scores we're going to look at tonight really reflect a ton of dedicated hard work and effort on the part of our students and our teachers and our leaders.
072I also would like to publicly recognize the assessment and accountability team. Nicole, Eric, if you guys will stand up. Um, they spend countless hours. Yeah, let's give them a little round of applause. Just ensuring that we have access to reliable and valid data and helping all of our district use that data to make informed decisions. This evening's presentation is going to consist of three components. We'll have an introduction to kind of create some clarity and context around state testing results and look at how they fit into our greater district context and goals. Next, we'll dig into some STAR scores and then I'll wrap up with a few conclusions and next steps. So, for over the last two years, our district has been on a journey to ensure alignment of our programs and our initiatives. As
073the visual ill illustrates, when programs and initiatives are aligned and moving in the same direction, the overall impact on our learning system is maximized. Our district's vision and mission as well as campus and district improvement plans along with curriculum vision or CV 2030 guide our direction while House Bill 3 board goals provide measurable targets. The combination of these four elements guide our decisions, moving our district from random to coherent acts of improvement. During the presentation today, be on the lookout for the CFBISD logo. I'm not going to explicitly talk about when it's a connection to CV 2030 or House Bill 3, but when you see that logo on the screen, that's your indication that that's a connection to a goal that we're measuring. For the last two years, our district and campus leaders have continued
074to focus around three core areas: culture, instruction, and systems. And like a three-legged stool, these three integral components support and depend on each other in CFB. And they help us focus on the levers that impact student outcomes. These areas guide our professional development and are reflected in our campus improvement plans, which you guys will have an opportunity to review in the upcoming months. All right. So, a little bit about the tests that students are taking. This last spring in April and May, students took the three through eight star in the high school. You're good. We're good. All right. Okay. Um, so since 2023, the test has changed a lot. It's referred to as STAR redesign or STAR 2.0. It incorporates a variety of question types. are actually 13 question types in total. And some of
075those are drag and drop questions where students are asked to drag an answer into a blank graphic organizer, text entry questions where students enter the exact number of their calculation, and graphing questions where students plot points on a graph to illustrate their answer. And also don't forget star redesign or um star 2.0 know incor incorporates short constructed answer questions in RLA science and social studies and extended written responses or essays in all reading language arts levels. All these written responses are graded by an automated scoring engine. While I will not review every question type, I hope it's evident from the examples that I provided that STAR is much more than a multiplechoice test. STAR 2.0 I know is rigorous and to be successful students have to regularly and consistently experience online questions at a similar
076cognitive level. Thank you to our curriculum department and teachers who regularly provide these opportunities to get students not just ready for star but more importantly ready for life. Also, thank you to our board for providing our students with the necessary tools such as Edaphoria question banks, HMH, NWA, MAP, progress learning, ice station, and more. One final thank you to I see Robin there to our dedicated technology team. We had no issues with connectivity or infrastructure with online testing again this year. So, thank you very much. On the charts today, you're going to see eight columns per grade level. Four columns representing the percentage of scores at approaches and above noted by the AGL plus. You'll also see four columns representing the meats grade level and above represented by the meats plus. The light gray column
077to the far left reflects the state percentage of all students at those levels. The darker gray column to its right reflects the district re or the region region 10's percentage. The next column represents all students that took the test in CFB and the last column represents our accountability subset data. Also be on the lookout in lookout in the presentation for the star symbol. The star above an area means that this area exceeded the 2024 performance. So I want to take just a moment to clarify the accountability subset and all students data. All students are in that take the star tested grade levels are required to take a state assessment. And the first way the state provides all their data to us is through the all students data. But while all tests and we are committed
078to teach every student in our building and in our seats, not every score is counted into our A throughF accountability ratings. So for example, A throughF accountability calculations do not include the scores of students in their first year of US schools or who enrolled after the October snapshot date. The data we will look at today will include a visual representation of both. On the right side of this slide, I've provided an example of how many scores are included in all testers as well as how many are included in our accountability subset. So looking at that third grade math row, you can see there was 1,834 total tests or scores. In third grade math and accountability, there were 1,637. So when you look at the accountability subset, there are 197 scores that are not included in
079the accountability subset. One final point, the EOCC scores that we'll look at tonight only reflect firsttime testers. A little bit about our demographics. If you're following along on your computers, this is a slide that I added. Um, this is up to-date information. For grades three through eight star tests, the state requires all students who are enrolled in a campus on a testing day to be tested. So even if a kid shows up on a Monday, they're going to be asked to take the STAR test on a Tuesday. In contrast, high school high school EOCC's require that students are taught a majority of the TEACS through two semesters before being eligible to test. Moving now to our demographic data. The most current district counts indicate approximately 65% of our district is considered economically disadvantaged. And next,
080I want to zoom in just a little bit on our emergent bilingual student population that we serve. Most up-to-date district counts suggest that the student population is approximately 45% emergent bilingual. And last year, CFB welcomed 1,696 newcomers into the district. I want you guys to hold on to that number, 45% because it's going to come back up in the presentation in just a minute. And just keep in mind that from sixth grade on, there is no Spanish test. All right, so we'll start with third through fifth grade reading language arts. Note that CF exceeded the state and the region in approaches and meets grade level across all three grade levels and also all three grade levels saw increases in reading language arts English performance from 2024. Our House Bill 3 target for 2025 was set
081at 50% for English and Spanish combined. And it is worth noting that third grade RLA in English far exceeded this target at 61% for all students. Also, fourth and fifth grade showed similar exceptional performance and approaches and above and meets and above outperforming the region in the state. In 2025, all CFB elementary campuses fully implemented the full HM reading, phonics, and grammar curriculum. The year before that, half of our campuses piloted the curriculum and their growth the year before bolstered our confidence in the shift to district-wide utilization last year. This is a great example of when hard work and dedication of our district leaders as well as our learning staff, our campus admin, and our teachers all align with district goals and initiatives to work in concert to produce record setting gains for our students.
082similar to RLA English, RLA Spanish in um third through fifth RLA Spanish, they outperform both the state in the region in both third and fourth grade approaches and above and meets and above. It is worth noting here that CFB transitions students from Spanish to English star based on each individual students progress in English. as students are transitioned to English testing as soon as possible to they're transitioned as soon as we can to really ease that transition in sixth grade when there is no Spanish test available. I want to thank the board and the district leadership for our continued commitment to bilingual programs. This commitment is an outward reflection that we see bilingualism as a strength in CFB. The following campuses deserve a special shout out for the overall growth. I've been at this a while.
083I'm telling you, I haven't seen this amount of growth. But these four campuses grew double-digit gains from last year, 2024, in every grade, both English and Spanish in approaches and meets. Congratulations to Blandon Elementary, Farmers Branch Elementary, Mclofflin Strickland Elementary, and Sheffield Elementary. I'll give him a little round of applause. That's pretty pretty amazing accomplishment. Our elementary RLA scores were recognized by Dallas Commit. They uh note CFB's growth in this chart is the third. It's the orange row. Commit stated third grade reading is up significantly and CFB was among the leaders in Dallas County. CFBISD's fourth grade RLA scores were also recognized by commit. In this one, CFB is also in the third row. in their post commit said, "Strong literacy skills early on set the stage for success in the classroom and beyond. Thank
084you, Carolton Farmers Branch and other surrounding districts for helping our students build strong foundations in fourth grade reading." As we turn to our RLA STAR test for sixth grade and above, I shared earlier this evening that our students demographics are approximately 45% emergent bilingual. So as you review our secondary scores, keep the impact of an Englishonly reading test in mind. Sixth through 8th grade RLA was consistent from previous year's performance approaches grade level and above in seventh grade and meets grade level and above in eighth grade both saw improvement from 2024 as indicated by the stars. And congratulations to Field Middle School and Perry Middle School who saw gains across all three grade levels in reading language arts percent of students at both approaches and above and meets and above and Perry who posted the
085highest single gain for a single grade level increasing the percentage of meets grade level or above by 8% on their eighth grade star RLA. in 2025 English one and English two EOCC performance you will notice the most significant difference you notice the significant difference between our all students that's that third column and our accountability subset that red column as mentioned earlier there is a significant number of scores who will not be included in there's a significant number of students who are new to the country or in the country less than a year and while their scores are counted in the all students performance data their scores are not part of that accountability subset data. Congratulations to Ranch View High School who led the district among our traditional high schools in all four categories, approaches and
086above, meets and above in both English one and two. And also Early H College High School led the overall district performance across all four categories and had a whopping 94% of students at approaches and above on English 2. Now we turn our attention to third through fifth grade math. In third grade math, accountability subset scores were above the state and the region. Fourth grade math was an area of focus in 2425 with high usage of adaptive curriculum programs and refinement of tier 1 practice. This hard work is evident in the gains in the meats grade level percentage which rose from 2024 and fourth grade. Also, fifth grade meets on the far right showed the largest performance gap increasing over the state and region. While we are seeing positive trends in third through fifth math, our
087work is not done. We will continue to refine our tier one practices, strengthen our RTI systems through refining district RTI protocols. Usage of highquality resources such as the use of branching minds as well as adaptive intervention programs remain core to continued growth in elementary math. In addition to in addition, the leadership and learning department will be adopting new math curriculum this spring for implementation in the 26 27 school year. Congratulations to the following campuses. Good elementary posted gains across third grade in a a percent approaches and above and meets and above. Also, congratulations to Blandon and Riverchase whose third grade saw overall gains of great greater than 20% in meets and above. Congrats to Sheffield and Farmers Branch fourth grade who saw gains of over 20% in approaches and above and to Farmers Branch and
088Mclofflin Strickland who saw gains of 14% in fifth grade approaches and above. As we look to our sixth grade through algebra 1, I just want to acknowledge this is a lot on a slide. I know it's a lot of numbers. They're getting kind of small. Um, but we have to present it this way because CF has a long-standing commitment to encourage and prepare as many students as possible for advanced math courses. So, in the data, you're probably going to notice the substantial gap between the state and the district in grade seven meets, but keep in mind that in sixth grade, almost all students take the sixth grade star. However, in seventh grade, students on the traditional track take the seventh grade star, while advanced math students take the eighth grade star. Put plainly, CFB's commitment
089to encouraging students into advanced level math courses, while good for kids will consistently lead to a gap between the state and the region in seventh grade. While we consistently but we consistently outperform the state and the region in eighth grade. So, if you turn your attention to the eighth grade column, um you'll see that eighth grade approaches an above and meets an above percentages far exceeded the state in the region. As noted by the stars, sixth grade approaches, seventh grade meets, eighth grade approaches, and meets percentages all exceeded our 2024 schools. Congratulations to Barbara Bush Middle School who saw gains in math across sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. And to Bush and Phil field who led the district in gains in seventh grade star, improving by 16 points in approaches and above from 2024. This
090chart represents fifth eighth science and biology EOC. As noted by the stars, eighth grade approaches and meets percentages as well as biology meets percentages rose from 2024. It is worth noting the state is adopting and transitioning new science tees in 2025. In a proactive approach to ensure students and teachers are ready for these changes, CFB began the process of adapting our curriculum last year. We are optimistic that this investment will be reflected positively in our 2026 star results. Congratulations to the following campuses who saw double-digit gains in percent approaches and meets in science. Stark 11% approaches. Mckame 16% approaches Blair 19% approaches and 16% in meetats. That was Blair 16% meats and field 14% approaches. and Perry 10% approaches. In eighth grade social studies and US history, scores did see a slight dip from 2024.
091However, did remain competitive with the region in the state. Congratulations to Blleac and Field who posted gains in scores across percent approaches above and meets and above on their eighth grade social studies star. So, not done yet. One more view. This final view is a cohort data view. The district on this chart is over on the left and then you have the state and the region. And what this is looking at is third grader in 2023 then moved and became a fourth grader in 2024. That's the second column. And then those students were fifth graders in 2025. So, if you'll notice on the left in the district column, 77% of students were approaches and above in third grade in 2023. In fourth grade in 2024, 77% of students were approaches and above. And then in
092fifth grade, we see a jump to 79%. And if you'll note, that's not the usual cohort jump that you see at the state or the region level, right? We usually see a dip, as you can see, oh, from that fourth grade level to the fifth. A few key takeaways from tonight. Overall performance in 2025 was up for CFBISD. Our elementary RLA saw the most significant gains and exceeded our House Bill 3 target for both 2025 and 2026. While bilingualism is a strength, continued growth in our emergent bilingual population is evident in our results on STAR tests that are only administered in English. I hope that it was also clear tonight looking at these charts that our accountability subset scores that was the fourth column was consistently higher than our all students, the third column. This
093is encouraging because it makes clear when a student enrolls in CFB and when they are with us for a year or more, they are better off and they grow more than they would otherwise. Finally, our district saw considerable growth as you've seen tonight from 2020 in 2025. As a result, we are optimistic about the overall impact of how this growth will calculate into our A throughF accountability. Speaking of A throughF accountability, each year A throughF accountability scores are usually released in late summer after the close of the year. However, as we're all aware, the last couple of years those results have not been released. Earlier this year in March, we started to receive updates regarding the outcomes of the litigation. And in April, our 2023 preliminary outcome ratings were released. The 2023 results are already
094public. We anticipate that both the 2023 24 and the 2425 preliminary ratings will be provided to districts on the 13th, August 13th, and to the public on August the 15th. The results can be accessed at texaschools.gov. Now, following each release of our preliminary ratings, there is a 90day period when districts can appeal those ratings before they are made final. While we currently do not anticipate a need to submit an appeal, it's worth noting that the ratings are not considered final until the appeal window closes. We look forward to the opportunity to share our district performance data at a much more granular level and our data to action book and meeting. The book will include multiple ways of looking at our data and we look forward to the opportunity to dialogue. We are also looking forward
095to continue alignment with our campus improvement plans, our district improvement plans as well as our district goals. Again, I always want to make a point to thank our campus leaders and our teachers who are working each and every day to ensure that CFB students are prepared for the future and also star. Thank you for utilizing data, getting to know each student by name and need, pulling small groups, and all the things that they do every day to make CFB great. Our community is better because of the hard work that you are doing in CFB. We should always remain thankful and inspired by the work of our teachers and our leaders. And one final note, thank you to our parents for entrusting us with your most valuable resource. Are there any questions? >> Thank you, Mr.
096Julian. board members questions or comments. Miss Brady, >> I just want to say wow, that's really awesome. Um, thank you so much for your hard work. Our teachers, our staff, our parents, our administrators. For a long time, we sat stagnant in these numbers. I mean, for a long time. So, to see them improving like this is incredible. So, um, what a gift. What a gift to give to our kids and to our district. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's incredible. Great news. Thank you, Miss Garza Rojos. >> I completely echo what Miss Brady said. Thank you guys. And you know, there's always an opportunity for growth. There's always an opportunity for our kids to to learn and to be to do better, but the numbers that that means a lot. And the data
097that's coming out, it's significant for our district. My question for you was um you mentioned the math curriculum would be implemented in 2627. Is that correct? >> Yes, ma'am. Okay. And it's because can you kind of explain to the public for their benefit why it is that we implement what happens and why does it take one year to be implemented? >> I'm going to take that. I'm going to let Miss Hulk help me out with that one. >> Good evening. So yes um the proclamations are usually in a cycle and that is helps us to budget financially when we come around to a big adoption. So when the teaks change at the state level usually the vendors will change then instructional materials and so there is a fullear process that we follow um that we
098go through many steps with our stakeholders to review many sources of different types of vendors. Um we pull teachers together as well as um parents and students. they have an opportunity to view those items and we go through a full year-long process of that. By the time we get to the end of the spring, we are actually able to recommend usually our top two and then from there we finalize a final vote. At that time, we will then um secure that for the summer. We then have the material shipped to then start training and implementing for the 2627 school year. So, it is quite um a process throughout the year to do the selection. Um but we do that in cycles in alignment with the state board of education. >> Is that is that what
099happened on the science curriculum? >> Yes ma'am. And so the science tees are also in kind of a transition phase last year. We did the adoption and implemented the materials last year but we still have new tees being implemented for the following year. So that one we um we did reading of course if you remember a few years back. Uh then we had science and now we have math. And so then after that we will have social studies and others coming around. >> Thank you. >> Yes ma'am. >> Additional comments or questions. >> I'm excited and I think I'm even more excited about the shifts in the presentation because I feel like the board was heard. um being able to present that accountability subset in comparison to the full data does show that when you're
100in CFB for an entire year the gains that can be made and it does not discount we always will take care of every child but it does matter when the students are in our classroom in our schools and it is I am thankful that the state has set up that system so that we can show that if we are have these students with us then we can make even better gains. So, I'm super excited about the data. I do have one question. Um, I have seen some, um, circulation about the open-ended response questions. I know you said they were automated. Um, I personally looked at my own child's third grade. I was a little shocked at how they were graded and quite honestly just flabbergasted at the rating a child was given for a response
101that I thought was like for a third grader, I was like, "Wow, that's a paragraph." and they received almost no points. And I've seen that some other districts are resubmitting for rescores. And so I was just wondering um what the district what our district has looked at and if you guys have any concerns um because I do think that can be something the board can also talk to our legislators about if there is a concern. >> Yeah. Um it it's it's a concern um and it's something where we're really looking and see what's the overall impact. Um and so we're currently in that process of reviewing and seeing if it is something um worth that. We we did see a tremendous amount of growth. We did spend um a lot of time and energy preparing
102students um for that um extended constructed response. So we're really just in the process of looking at those. Um I don't we don't currently have a plan um to appeal that. Um but we're also not done looking. Also, when you see great gains like this, you know, it's it's just exciting to right to be in the moment and really value our students. Dr. Eldidge, do you have additional comments? >> I was >> It's Dr. Julian and that was his first presentation. Thank you, Dr. Julian. I also would like you to speak to um the grant that we wrote and the more support that we are going to get from the state fully funded. So, if you could talk a little bit about the lasso grant and Nicole Greenleaf's uh role in helping in that. >>
103Yeah. So, we submitted a grant um last year and we have partnered with um Relay GSSE and they're doing school improvement school leadership grant. Um we've chosen to focus with those grant funds on the observation and feedback cycle. And the thinking behind that is at the core, right? What we want to do is we want to grow our teachers. We want our teachers to be the best that they can every day and really the only thing that impacts that is instruction. It's the moves that a teacher makes. So, um, Miss Greenleaf is leading that work and partnering with Relay. Um, we did training over the summer, but we're just very blessed to have the opportunity to really go in and help some of those campuses that are targeted that need a little additional support, right?
104And um we'll be working with those campuses throughout the next two years to just fully implement that observation and feedback cycle. Um all of that's funded by our lasso grant. >> That's wonderful news. And I apologize for not saying Dr. Julian as someone who's working on their doctorate. I get it like all the work. >> That's all I do. >> Thank you very much. Um we'll move on to the next agenda items and congratulations to all of our teachers and administrators who um clearly dedicated so much effort to supporting our students. So our item 4C is our enrollment update. Dr. Eldridge. >> Okay. Mr. Sulock has left the campus and taken over um enrollment and his team is here and it's not only enrollment, it's registration and hotline and behavior code of conduct and all
105the things and we know how important enrollment is with all the new things that have been implemented. It's now, you know, a competition. Um but it's also providing the best education we can and the best customer service for our families to enroll. So, we look forward to your presentation. >> Thank you, Dr. Eldidge, President Hatfield, members of the board. Yes, it is my honor to present this tonight as well as be a part of the student services team. As I've told many people, I do feel like this is a customer service arm of the district. We take pride in that and then we will we will live up to that as well. Uh before we jump into the enrollment update, I also want to introduce our amazing team in student services. They are joined with
106us today. They uh were actually at McGuart this afternoon at an enrollment event and a back to school event. So, they wanted to join us as well. We have Miss Tracy Battle, Mr. Matt Puit, Miss Liz Bingan. They deserve a round of applause if you don't mind as a team that we've come up with a model for the department that's going to be caring for every student every step of the way. And that's what we are. Um, we're going to make sure that that is a priority. We achieve that goal. Enrollment update. This this number is as of August the 5th. In your presentation that you received, it was as of July 30th, but as of the 5th, we have 21,793 students who are registered for school to begin on August the 12th. We have
107processed over 3,200 transfer applications for the weight list that we uh we all know about. We have 18 preK students that are currently on the wait list and 87 new transfer requests. One thing to note about the transfer request, these this is a revolving door. We have students that are continuing to apply from out of district. students who are continuing to be added to the queue. So, just as fast as these uh transfers are coming in or these requests are coming in, they're going out and if you watch, I have a feeling some of them have might have been processing them in the crowd just a couple minutes ago. Um, but this is a number that that is constantly changing. It is a very fluid number, but we are committed to helping our families because
108we know that this is a stressful time right before the school year, wanting to know which campus they're going to be at and making sure that the families are taken care of. Um when you're comparing a year-over-year on August 5th um last year for 2024 we were at 21,499 students registered at the exact same time. So we are happy that we are surpassing that number as far as prek goes to dive into that a little bit more. How do we decide which students get placed in prek and what is the order for that? Well the state tells us that we must place students who qualify for free prek first. We must have space for them in our campuses. There are eight criteria that families can qualify for free prek. Those are listed on our website.
109You can see those there. However, there was one added with the 89th legislative session. That is our teachers qualify for free prek. So that is the eighth criteria that has been added. And so once students once we identify how many students have qualified for free prek, they are placed on a campus. We determine the remaining capacity in those classes. and then were able to then place the tuitionbased prek students. And so one thing we committed to was communication to our families. On July 21st, we provided an update to all families on the wait list. I will tell you that was about 560 families on July 21st. On July 31st, they received another update. That was about 200 families. And as you've seen, the weight list is down to less than 100 families. Um, and actually
110as of today, I know it's much fewer than that as well. And so we are committed to continuing to to communicate with our families as well throughout this process. I've promised them that they will receive another update from me by tomorrow. Looking in that number of 3,200 transfers, how did what is the breakdown of that? 2,336 of them are transfers from one CFB school to another school. 955 of those transfers from out of district to a CFB school. and 271 of those transfers were from one prek to another or or asking to attend a prek prek school at a at a certain school. We do not have numbers for if if you were to uh wonder about if we how many students would be transferring out of district. We won't have those numbers until school
111begins and once we have lever codes and once we are understanding where our our enrollment sits after the first of this first days of school. The number we are very happy with is is the registration point where we are at right now. And so here are some of the strategies we have implemented for this year. We hosted our last um registration after hours event yesterday at student services. We have been averaging 20 families after hours on Wednesdays to register at our district office at on at student services. We did welcome back phone calls at the campus level as well as the district level encouraging our families that had not registered yet to register and support them in that process. Our directors of student services offered tiered support for campuses with low registration percentages and offered
112them support. That is for example how we are assisting Mcorder this afternoon. Um they're their their registration numbers are over 90% now and a lot of it um congratulations to Miss Deus and the work that she's doing and we've been supporting that work as well. Back to school fest as mentioned earlier huge success for the district great success for our enrollment department as well. our spring registration events, our social media and parent square messages, and our second edition of the Fastpass was another wonderful um initiative that we had. There's still time to register. We're looking forward to our families joining us on August the 12th for the first day of school. And for the families that are wondering, how can I still register? It can be found online at enrollcfb.com. They can come in person
113to their campus or they can come to the district office on Pearl Street. We are happy to help them Monday through Friday and uh we are looking forward to supporting them. They can also call that 6500 number that Dr. Eldridge referenced earlier in the board meeting and they can email enrolld.edu. Once again, customer service is our main focus and we want to ensure that our families have what they need especially to you know for any enrollment questions they may have before school starts. So what do families need to register? Well, all families need to enroll online at enrollc cffb.com. And then the required paperwork or required uploads are if you are a returning CFB student, you need one proof of address. It could be a lease, mortgage, or utility bill. And if you are new
114to CFB, you need all of those on the list that's provided there. And once again, all of this information is also located on our district website for our families to to know where they're at. It's at as well. The first day of school, we are all very excited about that. All of the district staff will be on campus to support the campuses uh to ensure a smooth day. But we also have a first day procedure for campuses to follow for enrollment to ensure an effective and efficient first day and provide great customer service for our families. The plan was shared with our principles. We went over it with them as well as the office staff at the high school level and we will be ensuring that that plan is in place because we want to
115make sure our kids are in seats, our families are taken care of and and the first day goes smooth. We know that the first day can be a little anxious for some. Um, I can tell you I have a second grader who's nervous about attending school and we know that the families are as well. So, we want to make sure that we are supporting our families with with the enrollment process on day one. As Dr. Eldridge mentioned earlier, we are very proud to be able to have a CFB hotline for all things first day questions for every family in the entire district. We will have dedicated staff manning the lines all day that will be answering questions. Our many of our operations departments provided the FAQs, the transportation department, the health services department as well
116as student nutrition and enrollment. We have all provided FAQs so that not just the hotline but the campuses have a lot of the important questions that we know the families will be asking on day one. Where is my bus? What is my route? Where's pickup? Where's drop off? All of those things. We will be ready to support our families and so that they will feel better um with everything related to their students on the first day. And so that will be communicated. The hotline will be communicated with families. Our communications department is going to be blasting that everywhere as Dr. Eldridge was referencing. It's going to be on the website, social media, as well as parent square and things such as that. And so, we're looking forward to starting that at 7 a.m. because we
117know that the elementary classes, the elementary schools start early in the morning. And we know the questions may start very early as well. So, we are going to be there ready to go to answer those calls. With that said, that is our enrollment update and I welcome any questions you may have. >> Mr. very nice first presentation. >> Appreciate it. >> As I would anticipate. >> Thank you. >> Just wait. There's a couple more coming tonight. >> I I know. I know. Board members, any questions or comments? Miss Barnes? >> I just want to say this is great. As a parent with three students in the district, I mean, I'm so excited about everything, all the hard work that y'all have done so far and reassured by it. And I hope that families listening are
118also reassured. And I just I really love the idea of customer service and I think that is just such a wonderful thing to have and I can tell that you've been doing it all the hard work and that you're going to be turning around and thinking about early enrollment before you know it. So I would just really appreciate all of y'all and all the hard work that's gone into this. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, >> Miss Benvitas. >> Thank you. Yeah, I just want to say that is awesome. Really, really good work. I know I've heard a lot of great things about the enrollment process and I just want to say thanks. >> I appreciate that and we will constantly strive to even make it better. >> Thank you very much. Um you
119guys, your efforts do not go unnoticed because um when we have kids in seats at school, they're learning, they're growing, and they're supported. And we want our families to feel the same. So, I'm looking forward to a great year and I want to thank your team for really stepping up to the plate for customer service. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Sulle. Do you have your kids enrolled already? You've been working so hard. I just want to make sure you take care of your boys. We have to remind him of that. >> I will tell you, my wife is watching and she knows that she is the one that made sure that we did took care of enrollment. >> Great job giving her credit. All right. Next, we have our budget update. Um, item
1204D and Dr. Aldridge will introduce this item as well. >> Well, I will say that when we look at our budget, we always think about our students and what resources do we need for our student outcomes. So, as Miss Settle gives the update for our budget today, um we are constantly reviewing and prioritizing what is best for our student achievement and outcomes and what do we need to do that for that. So, take it away, Miss Settle. >> Well, good evening, President Hatfield, Dr. Eldridge, and the esteemed board. Uh, I'd like to review the budget draft for the 2526 fiscal year that will be presented for adoption along with the supporting tax rate later this month. Uh, but before I jump into the presentation, I would like to take the opportunity to recognize the incredible
121effort by our budget director, Carla Stasnney. >> She has hours and hours. It is no easy feat to prepare, maintain, and refine a budget for a district of this size. her superior customer service to our budget managers and secretaries keeps us on track and I marvel at her patience that as she constantly explains the why uh we do what we do and that's the reason why we've been able to redefine our approach on the entire budget in an in an impactful way and it's because of her expertise and leadership in this area. So thank you Carla. Plus, our moms were really great at naming us. My name sister over there. Um, but let's jump into the work. Ever mindful of our why behind the service to this district, I'd like to review first about our
122students as our number one objective that influences the dollars that flow in and out of this taxing entity. We'll review how special populations and the state funding formula interact to support the mission of CFBISD. Then we'll dive into the major areas of the general fund and the impacts on the general fund outside of our control and review the plans for a fiscally responsible budget adoption for this year and future years. So let's talk first things first. Let's talk about our students. Uh this graph represents our enrollment and special populations that generate uh additional dollars for our schools in um this the state funding formula. And we reviewed the slow decline of our students over the last 10 years several times over um this past fiscal year. And that in total enrollment number, the district's special
123populations generate weighted funding like our over 65% of students who are economically disadvantaged or just under 60% of atrisisk students. Maybe even you might notice that we have over 45% of English language learners or limited English proficiency learning learners. Each of these colored lines on this graph represents funding and required spending. So CFB ISD historically exceeds our required spending on all of these special populations to ensure these students success. But these dollars come with strengths. And the state funding formula is not uh without its complexities. And and you know I like my uh glass metaphor. Um, but it does bear repeating that the majority of our revenue flowing through the district does pass through the state's funding formula. Local tax effort has taken a greater share of the responsibility of filling the glass over the
124last decade. But I want you to look at the people at the top right of this slide. And we're going to compare basic tier one funding without any of the additional pennies and and extras between our state neighbors and CFBISD. The state average at $9,100 per student and our peers at $8,700 demonstrate that when we're comparing at the very basic funding model, our student population does generate more revenue with strings. Those additional dollars have very stringent spending requirements and are restricted for the programs with those student needs. And in at the very end, the only way that we can increase revenue or the size of our glass in Texas is to educate more students who attend more often or add pennies to the tax rate, which the district has already levied or some sort of
125legislative change. And sometimes, as we've seen in the 89th legislative session, it doesn't always come with unattached dollars. So, this is our per student spending, which does outpace our revenue at the at the blue line. We are spending about $12,000 per student versus our generating our $9,300 in revenue. And it and we have noticed that noted in previous meetings that it's time to start closing the gap and match student revenue with student expenses. Like our peers in the state, we've placed priorities on positions that have led to maximizing student outcomes with tailored instruction and individualized instructional settings. It was noted in 2021 that we would need to strategically reduce expenditures at this point in time unless a significant change to the funding formula and we didn't re realize a significant change in the funding formula
126of unrestricted dollars. So now it's time to help that blue little line meet the blue star. A little bit more about the general fund. So as we project revenue, we are very transparent in the assumptions we make because it is a moving target. uh we are starting school next week and we are projecting how many kids we will count in October for October snapshot and we've used the demographers's data for that projection and then we have trended out what percentage of that enrollment would be refined um average daily attendance and so that's where we're landing our July certified values came in uh it was also affected by the homestead uh exemption increase, but we did increase overall 3.68%. And that netted a maximum compa uh a maximum compressed tax rate with our additional pennies of
1277481 for our maintenance and operations tax rate. And we will levy a 20 cent debt service rate to support our our um responsibilities on the bond side. And overall that is a three and a half cent uh tax rate savings to the taxpayers of CFBISD. And I mentioned the color of pennies and I wanted to just briefly talk about how we calculate a tax rate. Um when I talked about basic tier one funding that would be the green dollar bill right there. U but every district has the ability to levy five additional pennies as a board. you are authorized to levy it without voter approval. And then previously in 2017, the district did uh petition the voters for the additional 8.83 pennies. And that is how we calculate our maintenance and operations tax rate. Um
128but we are in copper penny land. So that means we are in recapture land. And as legislative changes um are affected and we are um we will see the fluctuations in recapture. Um recapture is that what we referred to earlier as Robin Hood and it is the redistribution of uh local tax effort to districts with lower property values uh and in the simplest form. But you can see that um when the homestead exemption increased between 23 and 24, it does have an effect. It's all an interplay in between property values and the state share of that glass. So, I want to review a few things that were um part of the 2425 projection and they were some significant impacts to revenue and we did review these at the board work study last month, but I
129wanted to remind the community and the board that these were impacts outside our control. in local revenue. The refunds that are over eight $4 million are for property taxes uh from prior years uh that were adjusted due to the increase in the homestead exemption when it was $40,000 and it was increased to $100,000. So, we will see that again because you've heard that we've had another homestead increase. We've also not realized the uh investment um earnings that we had projected because of the market conditions which you've heard in June from our financial adviser. You saw the trend of how interest rates and stock markets have re reacted to the last fall. So what was projected this time last year did not materialize for investment earnings. And because property values and recapture and local tax effort
130and state share all interplay, um our state share of the funding formula fell short because we saw recapture increase also by $2 million. And the most notable that you've seen in the news is related to the SHAR's revenue. We were projected to receive $3 million in reimbursements for Medicaid eligible services provided in this district from the prior year. But due to the 2011 and 2017 audit penalties, there will not be revenue recognized in this area. And we also noted that has also decreased and that is also a reflection of when we spend less, we get reimbursed less. So, how do we mitigate um these unforeseen factors? Well, we certainly took every effort to control expenditures like implementing the hiring freeze in January and our early spending cut offs in April, but we will adapt even
131further conservative assumptions going forward so that we avoid the situation again. Um, we also saw that tax collections for the current year levy were a little higher than budgeted and it did help offset some of the tax refunds but not all. And then in the future we are reducing our investment earnings budget from $10 million to 6.5 million so that we can um be a little safer in our uh projections. And we have also budgeted in the next year um an increase in those anticipated tax refunds since we saw the homestead increase uh again this year. But fortunately in 2020, this board set aside reserves specifically for situations like this when for either enrollment fluctuations or funding formula changes that affect the ability for the district to realize their projected revenues. And according to the
132uh most recent annual comprehensive financial report, the district has $27 million in reserve for this purpose in a state revenue stabilization fund. Uh the original um fund was established in 2020 with the original $26 million and then through prudent um action we added another million dollars in 2021 uh for a total of the 27. In order to release these reserves, a resolution will be put before the board for consideration at the August 21st board meeting. Uh but all the conditions do exist to meet the requirements to release these funds. And as we project the end of the fiscal year, the district has gone to great lengths to reduce the original budgeted deficit despite the revenue shortfall. We leveraged all available strategies through my first year in the district. we were able to reduce the deficit
133to $14 million instead of the original $19 million. And you see, we did use um a little bit of the stabilization fund to mitigate the the revenues. But I do want to recognize the good work of my partners on the cabinet and u not spending if they didn't have to uh strategically realigning uh salaries and contracted services. And then we did identify uh the capital expenditures that were eligible to reclass to the interest earnings of the construction fund. Um so the district was able to mitigate the increase in the recapture uh in that way. I'm going to move on to the 2526 unless there I wanted to pause for any questions. >> I think that's a good good idea. >> Okay. Board members, any questions or comments so far? Miss Garza Rojos? >> Miss Settle,
134can you just clarify for the to the public um the property taxes that we receive as a district and what recapture actually means? So, we don't keep 100% of our property taxes in CFBISD. Is that correct? >> Correct. Um, so when I use the glass metaphor, I it's like when I give my children the the cup in the back seat without a lid, it spills. When you generate too many tax dollars um outside the funding formula, the excess revenue is returned back to the state so they can spread it to the other districts that do not generate um increased property values like we do. Uh so that that's essentially what the um recapture is. And you may or may not tap into this, but during the legislative season, all public schools hold their breath, right?
135Just waiting to see if there's a possibility of an increase to basic aotment. And so, if you're going to talk about it, then I'll let you talk about it. But if not, what was the increase from the past legislative session to this legis legislative session? We may think that the news is going to tell us millions of dollars, but for our district and for purposes here, how much was it? >> Right, we have just about four $4 million of additional unattached revenue without strings. Um, but of the I guess it's about $9 million of additional revenue, the majority of that is committed to teacher salaries uh related to the HB2 requirements. Um so our increase in the basic aotment was $55. Um and that is the unattached dollar. Uh we also received um the support
136staff retention aotment which is about $800,000 and then but that is to go to specific support um staff raises. Uh and then the other um category of ex of revenue that we saw in the new in the new HB2 was the allocation for basic costs, but I will tell you it's $106 per student that's been enrolled. And so it's whoever is here in October times $106. And it is supposed to also um fund like the employer contributions related to all the raises that came with those those dollars that have strings. >> Thank you for clarifying that. >> You bet. >> Miss Barnes, >> I also want to make a clarifying point. Um you had a slide in here for student spending where it talks about peer uh peer averages, state averages, and then CFB averages.
137Um, and I just wanted to clarify, um, Oh, great. You've got the stars on yours. >> I did. I added the stars. >> You added the stars. So, um, you the state average was 9,191 per student. Um, and it's a little hard to see on your graph, but from what I could tell, it looked like um spending on state average was somewhere around um what was it? >> It was just over 10,000. >> Yeah. Okay. And then for peer average, peer meaning groups that are in our area, >> they are five direct neighbors. Yes. So, five direct neighbors and on average they are receiving $8,692 and are spending just under it looks like 11. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. And then CFB is at 9,330 and uh spending around $12,026. So, the difference between our
138peers and us is actually only a little over $400, just under $500 per student that we are spending more while we also have a lot one of the reasons we're getting more money is because we have more students who are maybe qualifying for more. Correct. >> That's correct. Okay. >> Um, and so I I wouldn't say our spending is inappropriate, but in the long run long run financial like runway, we have time and opportunity to course correct in a in a sustainable way, >> right? And just to make prudent decisions. But I just wanted to clarify that it's not that we're just spending willy-nilly. We're kind of we're pretty on trend. It's just we want to bring it as close together as we can. >> Yes. and it is a situation that districts all over
139the state are in. However, you know, this district has a a history of being very conservative and fiscally responsible. So, we just want to close the gap just a little. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. I'm so glad you went back to that slide because I also wanted to not talk about her point, but talk about a different point. Um, I think it's important to also look from 2021 to 2025 or 2024 that COVID happened in 2020 and so we adjusted along with our peers to meet student needs and that requires spending more on kids to get them to where they need to be which was seen in our student achievement data tonight. So as we close this gap, it will be critically important and I know you have it in mind and
140everybody has it in mind that we cannot compromise student achievement, but we do have to close the gap because we cannot continue. We want to be better than our peers and we don't want to be the the ones that are outpacing everybody else on expenditures. We want to be setting the tone for this is what high quality student achievement looks like and while living within our means, which is what we all expect in our households. And so I just want to make sure that the public sees that that upward trajectory also shows esser dollars that were put into schools to really support student achievement and those dollars are gone. And so we now have to close that gap and bring things in while also ensuring we're meeting every need of every child in our district.
141And I thank you for what you're going to continue to show us and what everybody's doing to really close that gap while not compromising student achievement because that's why we're here. Thank you. >> Miss Benitas, >> I wanted to uh talk about the revenue shortfall mitigation. Will that in any way help the deficit? >> Well, the revenue shortfall is a is a major uh factor of the deficit. So when we make the assumptions that we do this time, right, we are making assumptions on what we think are is going to happen with the best data that we have in July. So there's a lot of things that that impacted revenue over the last year that were outside of our control. Um so by accessing the revenue stabilization fund for its intent is to u mitigate
142when unforeseen things happen um it absolutely will help the deficit. However, it's not a sustainable permanent solution which is what I'd love to share next about how we're going to plan for the future. >> Thank you. Miss Settle, can you also clarify with these being unexpected? Um, you mentioned a few of the adjustments, but can you just review like how how are we where are some examples of how you're going to adjust the budget to account for what did happen? >> Right. So when we look at 2526 and we see that we had an increase in tax refunds due to a 60,000 increase in the homestead exemption, we are going to proportionally um adjust a tax refund contra to prepare for the increase in from a 100,000 homestead exemption to 140. So we have a
143better gauge. We are also going to um we're also working with our tax assessor collector. are fortunate to have our own tax office that we will have a little bit better data this go around about how the the central appraisal districts will um do those adjustments. We have a little bit better systems in place uh now that we've gone through it once. Um same thing on the market conditions for investment earnings. Um I am that nerd that listens to the investment call every Friday. Um so I am excited about you know all the things and the the levers that work in the market but at the end of the day we need to make sure that we're underp projecting our investment earnings so that if the market does better than projected we see the benefit
144rather than have to mitigate a shortfall. So we were be decreasing investment earnings from 10 million to six and a half. >> Thank you. I think it's important um for us to recognize the public to recognize is the number that you see a lot goes into that number and when we when things like this happen adjustments are made but simultaneously expenses are also out of our control when we look at some of the inflationary things that are happening. So, I really appreciate the attention to detail and you bringing this bringing this forward to show like levers are being pushed and turned because we recognize that we're in a critical juncture. And so, let's go into the next year. >> Okay. So, um like we mentioned um in previous meetings, uh you can't really turn the
145Titanic on a dime. And because the um uh funding is on a bianium structure, we will be leveraging a two-year plan to get to a balanced budget. But on day one, uh Dr. Smoskus and in HR and I uh were hired within a month of each other. And both of our first objectives from Dr. Eldridge was to get a clean position control roster so that we could operate with good clean data and make strategic and data informed decisions. And so from um my start date in September to March uh along with um all the work from Miss Dassy and team we were able to produce a clean position roster with an accurate budget. Uh, and so we have we identified 30 a little over 3,700 budgeted positions in the general fund with and I'm going
146to just clarify that this is not like the total payroll budget but just like the the base budget without all the benefits and employer contributions but of $230 million. So we started there in March and then when we started to you know do quite the undertaking of consolidations and working with Dr. smallus and and right sizing the district um through the consolidation of the four campuses we were able to uh put in the general fund as of July 35 3582 positions which was a a savings of 155 positions and almost 11.6 million. So we realized our $9 million reduction goal in excess of almost $3 million. Um so or or two point 2 point um six but um so and I and I wanted to recognize that and and point out that yes campuses made
147some sacrifices but 26% of these positions are department and so three $3 million of that is department reductions. So everybody worked together and collaborated to to make this impact. So when we look at our two-year plan, um we are going to leverage um all the strategies that we can for 2526 while we are carefully defining targets and goals um to get to a a balanced state. It isn't about touting that we spend 85% of our operating budget on payroll. It's defining it as a percentage of revenue. So when we get revenue uh projected, we want to make sure that we are developing our payroll targets in as a as a relation to revenue and that and so that's what our 2627 goal is. But in order to do that, we're going to need a little
148bit of a runway in 2627. um we are going to leverage our expired TIFF funds um to offset some of the maybe contracts that might be suns setting or other identified um expenditures expenditures that are eligible for that. Um, we've also have to consider the proposed compensation um that will is before the board later on tonight. And so we have that in our in our new budget. But we also if it's needed, we'll uh tap into the remainder of the state revenue stabilization reserves. And I say that if we needed because there are still pieces of the funding formula and data that hasn't been identified and um and really codified by TEA. Um so there is still some um potential for refinement in the funding um template that we use. So um so as we
149wait for that guidance um we will continue to project and refine and report where revenue is on a regular basis to the board after every six weeks so that we can um stay in tune and in lock step of um projection versus actual. Um but we will be uh conducting some strategic payroll reductions as we study our operating expenditures and matching them to our student enrollment. Um, let's see. And I just want to talk a little bit about um that work as we go forward. Some of our position control uh tasks will look like um what we kicked off last week with our secondary master schedule analysis, making sure we're optimizing those instructional investments. Um fortunately our our contract with um Mo Casey, this is our phase two uh of the project that it also
150comes with training for principles and tools that they can um carry this work forward in a sustainable way. Uh and then uh Carla and I will be uh working through the zerobased budgeting model for the 2627 fiscal year. And that work begins as soon as October snapshot is final. And we will be uh defining all of our um budget line items with a per student um cost center in mind as well as um matching them with the CV 2030 goals uh to determine whether or not they'll be funded. And so all of this means we need to have a clear idea of where our runway is. And in this in this approach to our budget by you know targeted expenditures as a percentage of um enrollment uh it is possible to get to a balanced
151budget state by 2728. Um but I I want to be very clear that we're very mindful of student outcomes and also our history with a superior rating uh in the first system. Uh and so one of those major ratios for us is unassigned fund balance and making sure that we have at least three months of fund balance there. And so by slow methodical decisions driven by good data, we can accomplish a balanced budget and retain all the points for our first rating. next steps after um August 21st, we will be presenting um our tax rate and certified tax role that supports that and uh presenting the final budget draft. Uh newspaper ad goes out next week. So, we'll be looking for I know everybody reads those public notices like I do. Um but but we've
152been working on that this week so that we are are ready to kick off a new fiscal year and um refine the budget uh to our desired goals. >> Thank you, Miss Settle. I have to say on the the putting it in the paper, I recognize that that is valuable in some areas and maybe it's valuable here to some people, but I think that's an example of an unfunded mandate and we could spend those dollars on children. >> There would be CFOs that would agree with you, but there is a new um uh guidance out of the legis legislature that we have to have it posted online as well. >> Okay. Well, maybe we're headed in that direction. >> We're getting there. Uh board members comments or questions about the second part or any part
153of the presentation? Mr. Gilmore, >> there we go. All right. So, I just wanted to say thank you because I'm the FNG, the fun new guy. And um you have answered I cleaned it up. You've answered every question that I have asked cuz I came in at a learning curve and I think we need to get some more pennies is what I know. So, I didn't know they came in different colors, but they do and I like pennies a lot more now. And so, but I went to Austin and learned lots more stuff and came back with questions making sure that we're maximizing every dollar that they'll give us back that we sent to them. um and you've answered it and so you're coming up on a year here and I just want to say
154I appreciate you and your staff and thank you and we are lucky to have you. >> Thank you very much. >> Any additional questions or comments? I really just want to thank you for the runway because it's nice to see the runway and know that we are working focused on a goal for one mission um to supporting our students but also living within our means. And so I really appreciate the work that you and your team have done. And I want to thank also our administrators and team because it takes all of us working together. Um it doesn't just happen in the budget office and you know maybe give them a coffee every once in a while and don't just call them the no people because um ultimately when they say yes we are saying
155yes for students and making decisions that are going to impact student achievement. So, thank you very much for your presentation and um we will be adopting a tax rate and budget on August 21st um and looking forward to continuing our runway in the right direction. At this time, it is 9:17 and I think we'll take a quick brief uh 10-minute recess. So, we will return at 9:27. The time is now 9:26 p.m. and I call this meeting of the Carolton Farmers Branch ISTD Board of Trustees back to order. We are going to proceed on to agenda item number five which are cons which is our 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
156Meetings Act, the public notice for 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 consent agenda, board members may request withdrawal of individual items for clarification or discussion. Uh board members, are there any items to be removed from the consent agenda at this time? All right, seeing none and hearing none, board members, do I have a motion regarding the consent agenda? Miss Brady, >> I make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> I have a motion from Miss Brady. Do I have a second? >> I have a second for Miss Garza Rojas. Is there any discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. All opposed? Wait, sorry. All in favor, raise your hand. Um,
157all opposed by a vote of five in favor and zero opposed and one abstension, the motion carries. The next agenda item is item number six. Um items for discussion andor action. We do not have any items removed from the consent agenda. So we'll skip item 6A and proceed to item 6B. And item 6B is um consider and approve the CFBISD 2526 student code of conduct. Dr. Eldrich, if you could introduce the item, please. >> Okay. Our 2526 student code of conduct is a required board approval. So this year um Leon's up again, Mr. Sulac will present the model. We are in in history we in CFB the code of conduct that we use for our student discipline has been written by our internal um staff. In this year we are going to adopt or recommend
158adoption after Mr. like goes through the um code of conduct that the model is written by TASBY which is also what governs our policies and so he's had extensive training on this. He's been doing many many things and so it's a really consistent model to be consistent across our campuses for how we want what our student expectations are for learning and he has been meeting with the principles as well. So he's going to present this model so you all will be able to see um how it will be consistent across the campuses and what it entails which everybody is waiting for because cell phones are in there as well. So um take it away. >> Yes. Once again, Dr. Eldrich, President Hatfield, members of the board is my honor to present tonight the proposed student
159code of conduct for this school year. I do want to make mention that I believe you have the annotated copy in your board book today. So you are able to look at that copy as we discuss some of the changes. As Dr. Dr. Eldidge mentioned we are um proposing to change to the TASBY model student code of conduct. As Dr. Eldidge mentioned, this is a great way to align with TASBY. They have wonderful resources and lawyers that vet the student code of conduct and ensure that is in alignment with federal and state laws and policies and procedures and regulations so that we are ensuring that we are um minimize our liability and support our enforcability. So, what is a student code of conduct? Why do we have one? What is it used for? It promotes
160a safe and orderly environment. And it's also a way that our students, our staff, and our parents know what the expectations are, what the accountability is, what the schools are required to do, what the um what what each family is is also required to have in in certain situations as well. So, this is a great document that supports um chapter 37 of the Texas Education Code and one that supports each one of our families, each one of our campuses. And so, that is why is it adopted each and every school year. It also aligns with the re recent legislative updates and that is another reason why we use the TASBY model. It is aligned with the 89th legislative updates and so a lot of the bills that were recently passed are included in the new
161model. We're going to cover some of the changes from last year's mo model, student code of conduct for TASBY and this year's and we're going to touch on a few of the key bills that have contributed to that. First up is House Bill Six. And in House Bill Six, there is a requirement that a school district must notify the families of any law that pertains to changes that result in changes of the student code of conduct. Our communications team has put out a blurb this week to inform families. Stay tuned. This is coming. The TA is going to provide the districts with the language and then we would then send that out to the families before the first day of school as well. It requires that campuses select one campus behavior coordinator. prior years, you
162could select more than one campus behavior coordinator. Now, campuses must select one, and that is somebody that will personally verify that chapter 37 of the Texas Education Code is verified and is applied as it is written on a campus, and that would be the campus principal. We had a discussion with the principles about this on on Tuesday as well. It also redefined uh the removal of a student for a teacher, the formal removal, the return to class, and the appeals. It granted um it removed and clarified that this could be a single event and it also included the teachers in the conferences for this removal. One of the biggest changes in House Bill 6 is there is no longer a time limit on inschool suspension. This is all grade levels including elementary. This means that
163um after 10 days of inschool suspension consecutively, there would then be a need for a formal review um to determine if the student should be continued the placement in ISS or not. And so that is one of the big changes with House Bill Six. Some of the other changes and once again looking at the elementary side of of of this as well. Historically or in the past, kindergarten, first, second grade students could not be suspended from school out of school suspension. Now based on House Bill 6, kindergarten, first grade, second grade students can be suspended from school if certain pro certain criteria is met within House Bill 6 and chapter 37. Also with that, homeless or McKenna Vento students could also be suspended which in prior years they did not have that uh ability to
164to do so. Now a family should they have a need they could do a written request to the campus principal under certain gu certain reasons such as uh supervision. They cannot miss work to supervise their student and they cannot leave their student unsupervised at home due to their age. They can have a written um a written proposal or written note to the principal requesting an alternative placement of inschool suspension, but it is the principal's sole decision on that should should that be granted. There was also language in the placement regulations for special education students whose schools recommend to be uh removed from the school setting to an alternative placement and the guidelines were changed for that as well or clarified in that area as well rather for the discipline alternative education program or as we
165call DAP. We love acronyms. So DAP it added harassment to the um school employer volunteer for DAP. It also added other qualifiers under the Texas Education Code listed at 123 or 37.123 and that was disruption activities um have been added as well. Another big change in House Bill 6 is that nicotine vapes, ecigarettes are required mandatory DAP or a minimum of 10 days in school suspension. Now going back thinking about inschool suspension last year the the maximum days we could give for inschool suspension was three days. Now, we've said it's unlimited. It's it's there is no time limit, but we do have a review. And now with these infractions, it is a mandatory DAP placement or 10 days in school suspension. So, when we're thinking about students missed instruction, that is a requirement um that
166we will we will then do. I will tell you for that for the first offense, our procedures will not be to go immediately to DAP. Um when you're thinking about the elementary students as well, secondary, we will not be sending to DAP for first offenses. There were changes in regards to expulsion which is JJ or the juvenile justice alternative education program. These added kidnapping, retaliation, assault of a school employee or volunteer, aggravated robbery or felonies, all felonies and the conduct can occur now on or off campus for these these violations. M >> other changes that House Bill 6 provided as well is it defined that deferred prosecution if a jury found that a student engaged in delinquent conduct or if or if a superintendent or their design felt that there was reasonable belief that a
167student engaged in these that could also result in mandatory JJ. Um there is also the added area of a virtual expulsion program as an option to districts and the emergency expulsion change to add a single um incident could lead to emergency expulsion. As we mentioned the house bill law HB1 1481 which is signed on June 20th by the governor that requires and there was a change of of in language but that requires that students shall not use an electronic device and the language changed in the law from uh telecommunication devices to personal communication devices. And it said that students shall not use, not may not, but shall not use. And it also eliminated the language where we that schools could charge $15 for an administrative fee to families for retrieving the device if it if
168they have been confiscated on a campus. Other changes to the code of conduct include behavior modified motivated by anti-semitism. That is Senate Bill 326. It's also been added to the glossery in the back of the student code of conduct. short bear firearms while they have been removed from the penal code. It is still a prohibited item and on our uh student code of conduct and that is Senate Bill 1596. Our agreement for grievance forms and locations are included in the student code of conduct and that is Senate Bill 12 with the other grievance updates as well from that bill. And then other considerations for virtual education as an alternatives to expulsion have been included and that just states that we have to consider different um placements for students before we choose JJ. Once again, other
169changes that are not related to bills that have been passed this year, but our changes to the student code of conduct, artificial intelligence. We know that that is a growing thing. Um, I'm learning how to use it more and more. I think everybody is, but it it we need protections for that in the student code of conduct. And a lot of that revolves around academic dishonesty and any other fractions that could be occurring based on the student code of conduct. There is an added area of graduation speaker disqualification, meaning in that if somebody who is slated to be a speaker at graduation, but they engage in a violation as defined in the student code of conduct in that specific area, that could may disqualify them from speaking at graduation. And it also clarified and rearranged
170areas uh for clarity for felonies, hearings, required findings, link to placement, placement review, and newly enrolled students. And then um the last one is possession of a firearm as defined by federal law within 300 feet of a school may now be an expellable um infraction against a student code of conduct. So with that said, it is the recommendation of the administration to approve the student code of conduct as presented and I would love to answer any questions that you may have. >> Thank you, Mr. Sleek. Board members, do you have any questions? Miss Garza Roas, >> don't you just love legislative season with all these changes that are coming out? It's so amazing. Um, thank you for your presentation. Thank you for being so thorough. And just for a little bit of uh discussion regarding
171the personal communication devices. I know that there's a little bit of an uproar just in general regarding cell phones and I think for clarity to the community I think we should have a little bit of a discussion just in general like what is expected are the parents going to receive um directions on what to do instructions on what to do if a phone is confiscated etc like is there a FAQ on our website is there just something to kind of help them understand because this is going to be a transition period for our entire community. Oh, >> I 100% agree with that and yes and and and here in a little bit I'm going to be presenting on HB1481 and our proposed policy, but I would like to answer some of that right now as
172well. Um yes, we will have um what the student what the student will do, what the parents are expected to do as well. When would the devices be expected to be returned? When can parents collect those devices? is what will the consequences be for a first infraction through as many as infractions as a certain student may may have. Um and so all of those have will be defined. I'm going to be sharing many of those in the next presentation as well. Um and and I will tell you we did try to align with near nearby districts. We we sought input from many of our principles, all of our principles in fact and we partnered with the entire all of the district departments to create our plan so that we were thinking about our students and
173our families and as well as aligning with nearby districts with our plan. >> Thank you. Thank you for involving everyone. >> Board members, any additional comments? Miss Barnes? >> As someone who's attempted to look at the student code of conduct in the past, I really appreciate uh just the reorganization of it, the aspects of that, not having, you know, being able to just very clearly find things and the clarity of language. Um, and also, you just touched on this, but I just wanted to clarify you. So, y'all went to the principles and you talked to, you know, the people at the ground floor running all of this. You are a former principal. So, I'm very excited that this was looked through with those eyes as well um to just make sure that it's covering all
174the bases of what y'all what everyone in schools are dealing with on a day-to-day basis. So, thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. And I'll tell you on July 14th when we first met with principles, we were able to come go through a legislative update where we went in depth about every single one of these bills and talked through it with the principles on the impact that will have on this school year. >> Thank you, Mr. Sulac. And just to echo Miss Barnes, this idea of administration and service of campus just speaks to your customer service uh mindset. And I really appreciate that. That's been something that I think has been top of mind for multiple board members is that ultimately it's at the ground level where the impact is because that hits students the most and
175so I really want to appreciate and applaud the efforts to really focus on taking that from administration focused towards supporting the campuses. Thank you. >> All right, Miss Benvitas >> uh base on the firearms 300 ft from campus. >> Yes, ma'am. This was added by TASBY this year and um this was something that if this is if if an offense occurs within 300 ft of the campus. It's not just on campus and that is as defined as the nearest point on the school property. So it doesn't have to be from the entrance of the building. It doesn't have to be from the nearest structure. It's just the property of the building. Um it's 300 feet from there and that's what what would constitute that infraction. >> Thank you. All right, board members, are there additional
176questions or comments? All right. Um, seeing no additional questions or comments, this item is marked for possible action. Does the board wish to take action? Miss Brady, >> I'd like to make a motion that item 6B, approve, and consider the student code of conduct uh be approved as presented. >> I have a motion for Miss Brady. Do I have a second? I have a second from Miss Barnes. Is there any discussion? All right, seeing no discussion, all those in favor raise your hand. All those opposed by a vote of six in favor, zero opposed, the motion carries. Our next agenda item to consider is Thank you, Mr. Sulac. Sorry, I'm just like moving right on. It's getting late. Um, our next agenda item is 6C, consider and approve non-enrolled students participation in UIL activities. Dr.
177Elders, I'll turn it over to you again. >> Mr. more will present um the consideration or non-consideration of approving um or non-approving our non-enrolled students to participate in UIL. UIL is what governs our athletics and our fine arts and some of our academics. So, you know, while we want to give all students in our community an opportunity, we also have to look at what are the parameters and how do we proceed to make everything equitable, which is sometimes hard with how we're governed. So, Mr. Moore, would you please explain what UIL has has um asked us to um approve or consider? >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Dr. Eldidge. President Hatfield, trustees, um this is the information that we reviewed initially at our July 14th work session. Um the information that we looked at then all
178holds true today. There have been no changes. So I will uh jump right in and kind of touch on some of the high points of this. It specifically deals with Senate Bill 401, which is um as Mr. Shoulock just ran through a lot of those legislative changes. This was among them. Um, Senate Bill 401 is a change to the education code and it directly impacts the eligibility of students um who are non-resident students in order for them to be able to participate in the school district's UIL activities. Um, and it's a mandate that has gone 180 degrees from one end of the spectrum to the other with regard to what has changed. Uh, and this this uh two-split column here can kind of explain that. The piece on the left that is everything that was
179in place prior to the 2425 school year. I think initially um there was allowance for non resident homeschool participation in the u in in ISDS within the 87th or the 86th session. For the last four to six years uh school districts had the option to opt in and allow participation from non-resident students with this most recent legislative session. um that optin piece was removed and the um the with this Senate Bill 401, districts were automatically opted in by legislators with regard to that Senate bill. And so no longer do districts have the option to opt in, we were opted in by the legislative session. And in order to continue the practice of what we have currently written out in policy, uh we have to make a public vote um before September 1st in order to
180make clear that um we will not provide participation for non-resident homeschool students. So what is some of the impact for CFB? Those seven bullets there that you see, um I'll hit on a couple of those. That was compiled by our athletics director, Renee Putter. Uh she talked to 20 to 25 different athletic directors in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. All of those um athletic directors listed among their largest concerns, the top two that we have there as well, eligibility and behavior. Uh we have a very rigid grade tracking system within uh the school district and everything with UIL activities, whether it's fine arts or athletics, um is all no pass, no play. six week grading periods, three-week progress reports, everything that goes into tracking that and measuring that. Um, if a non-enrolled student uh is
181not in our district with us every day, those grading checks, the grading periods, that's not something that we can enforce, track, or align with the students who are with us every day. Um, that second bullet, the behavior, um, Mr. Shelock just ran through the student code of conduct changes. um that's you know Senate bills, House bills every two years, legislative sessions, that is a an extremely compreh comprehensive booklet that our resident students are held to. Um and so if a student is a non-resident student um and then there's extracurricular codes of conduct for the different programs, football, marching band, fine arts, uh there's different standards that they're held to as well. So, if a student is a non-resident student, uh there's not an equitable application for those students who are not enrolled uh in the
182district. Uh and then a couple more I'd like to point out. The the two in the middle, the UIL, the outside workouts and the outside leagues, those were pieces that the UIL put in this year with regard to u this House bill being introduced or this this Senate bill being introduced. Those are things that we would have to enforce on behalf of the UIL. Um non-enrolled students may not work with outside trainers. non-enrolled students may not participate in homeschool leagues. We would have to track and monitor that uh with our staff and our resources to ensure that non-enrolled students are actually abiding by that. And so that's just another measure that we would need to take in order to ensure compliance with regard to the house uh to this Senate bill. That map there, that's
183another aspect of the research coach Putter did. Those that represents 23 school districts throughout the metroplex. Those in the red, uh, that's 22 of the school districts. Those all indicate at the time we gathered this information and as recently as early this week, their intent to opt out of Senate Bill 410. There is one district in that map and that is the only district in the metroplex that we've gathered information on that plans to opt into Senate Bill 410. And that really resonates that that uh that graphic resonates not just here in DFW, but throughout the the entire state. I think that uh the most recent count that coach Putter got from UIL colleagues, I think there were fewer than 100 of the more than 10,000 districts who planned to opt in. And so what
184are our next steps? Um formal vote, as I'd mentioned earlier, and as we talked about at our July meeting, um each school district in the state has to take a formal vote and record that and submit that back by September 1st uh that they are opting out. And if uh that is not done, if districts do not opt out by that date, um all non-enrolled students will be eligible to participate in the UL activities. Um and so the recommendation uh for from administration for you as a board this evening is to opt out of allowing participation for non-enrolled students and that is in line with our current policy. Um current policy FD local and FM local both make clear that non-enrolled students are not eligible to participate in UIL activities. And so with that, I
185will answer any questions you may have. >> Uh Mr. Moore, I do have one question. Um I I think you also back to the the that um wasn't there something about if you opt in, you're required to serve. Could you I think you know where I'm going. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. >> Um there is a an aspect of this as well that if if you opt in, so for example, um Keller ISD is in the green. if they opt in each district contiguous to Keller um that is red. Birdville is red. So if Birdville opts out, Keller opts in. All of the Birdville non-resident students who cannot participate because Birdville opted out, they are eligible to participate in Keller ISD. And that is for every district that is surrounding you. So we have four,
186five contiguous districts. if we opted in, each of the districts that touches our boundaries, their students could be eligible to participate within our um UIL activities as well. >> So, if we were to opt in and those were able to participate, do we get funding for those students that come? >> No funding. >> And that's really that that's a really big consideration with I guess the um certainly with athletics, football equipment, uh marching band with the equipment. Um there's there's no funding associated with it. >> Thank you. Board members, do you have any additional questions or comments? >> No. All right. So, seeing no additional questions or comments, um this item is marked for possible action. Does the board wish to take action? Miss Brady, >> I'd like to make a motion that CFB opt
187out of SB 401 at this time. >> Okay. Okay. I have a motion to opt out of allowing of SB 401 allowing participation by non-enrolled students. Do I have a second? I have a second by Mr. Gilmore. Is there any um discussion? Seeing no discussion, I'll take a vote. Um please raise your hand. If you Sorry. All those in favor, raise your hand. It's getting late. All right. All those opposed. By a vote of six in favor, zero opposed. The motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Moore. >> Yes, ma'am. >> All right. Next we have item, sorry I'm off on my numbers. Six uh D. Consider and approve TASBY local policy early updates from the 89th legislative session which includes EFB local instructions for instructional resources or library materials and review of FNC local personal communication
188devices and electronic devices revisions. Dr. Eldridge. >> Hello Dr. Stout. So, she will introduce our um local policy for review, which is instructional library materials. I will say that um a couple years ago, we started um really streamlining our review process for our um our library materials that were available on campus because it impacts student learning and and trust among students and teachers. And so now the legislature has given us some more guidelines. And so, Dr. out if you will go over the current guidelines and where we are as a district. >> Thank you. It would be my honor. Um so policy EFB I will go through and explain the differences in this um with this version of the policy to the older one. Um many of these changes are in a reflection to Senate
189Bill 13 which uh Miss Cindy Nebitz has been working diligently with her librarians to um ensure compliance. Um the collection development policy is the first uh heading bold heading under the new policy. Um the different sections there uh the responsibility is now um we have to have a compliant acquisition process. uh prior it had been that the books themselves needed to be compliant with certain standards but now there's an entire level a new layer added to it with acquisition which I will get into um later um if there is nothing like under collection development goals there's nothing written there that means there is no change in that section of the policy um speaking of compliant AC acquisition the recommendation and procurement of materials now requires um approval by the board. The board must approve, vote
190to approve that list of materials that the campus librarians wish to purchase. Um, the lists will be posted on the website at least 30 days prior to the board meeting and will be available for uh stakeholders in the district to view all of those lists and submit um information related to them or to ask questions. And then after the list has been posted for at least 30 days, then the list will will come to you for a vote. Uh the next topic that has a change to it is under parental involvement. The parental involvement component now allows parents to submit a list of titles that they do not want their child to read or to access. We're in the process of setting up a a procedure for them to do that so that um Mrs.
191Nita Bits's team can um make notes in the children's accounts to make sure that they are not accessing those materials. And then um there are some changes for the protection from inappropriate material. Um now we are following Tesla guidelines which is Texas State Library and Archives guidance on inappropriate material. Um prior they had issued standards and issued collection development criteria. Um they're going to shortly they will issue some additional verbiage related to the inappropriate material and inappropriate material now includes links. So if you're reading a book and at the end it has websites saying for more information try these websites that is also included um in material and not just the main content of the book. Um the challenge process used to be called reconsideration process. So when I speak of challenge now those are
192all new topics where the words reconsideration has been changed to challenge. um under the guiding principles access is now restricted during this process. The old policy had that if um uh material had been nominated or had been um indicated for reconsideration that students would still be able to access that title dur throughout the process. Now that title will be removed so that no one else can access it while it was being evaluated. There are no changes to the informal challenge process. The formal challenge process has a few has several slight alterations to it. Um, one is that the addition of a district resident. Prior it would be a parent or a board member. I'm sorry, board member. Um, a parent, um, a teacher, a member of a staff member is what I meant to say.
193Um, now it also includes residents. The TEA will be releasing a form that will be posted online. Currently the local district created form that is compliant with the forms very similar to the forms our um neighboring districts in the metroplex are using is what is being used when tea releases their form will post it. Um, there are new requirements for meetings with used to just have to keep minutes. Now it needs to be you need to post it similar like you would with a a public meeting. You have to post notification several days in advance. You need to keep record audio andor video recordings of the meeting. Um, you know, just additional details there. Um it also removes any deadlines. If um um after the decision is made by the um challenge committee then there
194used to have been a certain amount of days when that could be uh challenged. Um and then also deadlines are removed from the team that is examining this material. It used to have to have them done by a certain number of days and now that is that has been removed as well. Um and there is a layer now that the uh person submitting the challenge if they are not ple uh if they disagree with the outcome it would go to if there is an appeal to the board and y'all would get to decide that. Um the last change under the challenge process is that if a material has been decided to be removed at in a campus library, it also must be removed from the classroom libraries on that campus. Um the criteria already apply
195to classroom libraries. Miss Hulk and I have been working to and they the current all of our current collection development criteria throughout the district are compliant with all legislation. Um House Bill 900. it is compliant, but we're still putting together processes and whatnot to to keep the principles and teachers informed. Um, it is the administrative recommendation that we approve the that you approve the proposed EFB local policy as presented and I would be honored to take your questions at this time. >> Thank you, Dr. Stout. Board members, do you have any questions or comments about this one? Miss Brady? >> Um, Dr. Just out out of curiosity, how often do we have parents challen or residents challenging a book in our libraries? >> We had none. This past school year, we had residents I would
196just said challenge in general. >> Challenges in general, we've had uh five over the last 20 years. >> Five in the last 20 years >> according to Mrs. Neitz. I haven't been here for 20 years. >> So roughly one every four years. >> Uh yeah, about that. We had um a challenge the year before last. We did not have any this prior school year. So, it is not um much of an issue in the district here. And some of that is because we have a a good collection of element criteria. Um the librarians are well trained and they are uh thoughtful and conscientious when selecting materials for their students. It sounds like we have outstanding librarians who >> absolutely do >> done a great job. >> Yes. >> Thank you, >> Miss Barnes. >> I
197just have a few questions. >> Sure. >> Um, first of all, the current system that librarians use, there was uh the part where you said that parents can submit a list of books that they do not want their children checking out. Do our CFB librarians have a current in their current system, do they have an easy way of being able to track those lists? >> We are developing a pol a a process for that. Uh the lists will be maintained at the district level. The parent will complete a form and submit it. um it will be maintained at the district level where um a member of Miss Nita's team will go in and enter the those lists in the student record and so that when the child comes to check out a book it would
198pop up okay >> with those lists. We're still we're still working with the vendor on that process and um trying to make it >> uh a as least amount of a burden on the librarian as as possible because they have such a large role as it is. >> Exactly. Um so this is just a clarifying point. Um so when a parent submits a list this does not remove those books from the library for everyone. It is only for their student. >> That is correct. >> Okay. Um third thing uh when library material and I think you might have touched on this already. I just want clarification. when a library material is removed for reconsideration. Um I was wondering if there was a time limit, but I think you just said that at the end that
199there actually is not a timeline. >> There used to be um a certain number of days in which the recon challenges um still using the old language in which the challenge had to be completed by the committee. Um, I suspect just my personal opinion is that some districts were having that group look and having so many challenges pile up that there was not um a practical way for those for them to meet that deadline and so now the deadline h has been removed. >> Okay. All right. And then um another clarification for me, the QR code, the website on the books, right? >> Um what you're saying is not that if a book has like for more information about such and such animal, go to this website, >> that it's completely removed, but that it
200goes through an approval process as well. >> Correct. If if the QR code, let's say we're reading about sharks, and the QR code takes you to a website about sharks, that's fine because that content would be evaluated as being age appropriate and being um compliant with the collection development standards. >> Um now, if the book as the book is being evaluated, then the QR code or links or additional resources contained in that title also need to be evaluated. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Stout. Did we get additional funding for this mandate? >> No, ma'am. >> Oh, okay. So, just to make sure we're clear, we are setting higher expectations for library materials, which is great for parents, but we did not get any funding to be able to put all these processes
201and procedures in place except for the $55 basic aotment per child. Okay. >> Yes, ma'am. Just making sure the public is clear >> on that. >> I'll take it a step further. >> Oh, >> the uh purchase process for titles. Let's say your favorite author releases a hot new title. We used to be able to work with one of our local vendors and the librarians could go pick it up after school, the day before it was released to the public, as long as they promised not to give it out to anybody until after midnight. Now, that's going to be at least a six-w weekek turnaround time. At minimum, a six week turnaround time >> because we have to approve it >> because it has to be submitted for a list. The list needs to be
202posted for at least 30 days and then you have to approve it. Yes, ma'am. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you very much for that information. Board members, do you have any additional questions or comments about this item, Miss Garza Rojos? >> I just want to say thank you for your hard work and I know we all love legislative season. I'm going to keep repeating that because this is this matters, right? All the decisions that happen at the state level trickle down all the way down to the local and sometimes what looks like a perfect and ideal situation at the state level is not what it looks like here when it gets to the local level. So, thank you for your hard work and thank you for trying to implement it as as soon as you
203can. Uh this will be interesting. My son is a very avid reader and he loves loves loves to read. So, he gets all his brand new books from the school library. So, I would love to see what this is going to look like in the future. >> We're all going to work through it together. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Dr. Star. Any other questions or comments? Okay. I believe this item is um paired with the personal communication devices or electronic devices. So, we'll keep going with the second presentation for this item. >> So, Mr. Soolock is back again. He's been a little busy. So this is um FNC local which is our telecommunication. Now it's personal communication. So you have worked so hard with all the administrators and with questions that I know
204came from some of you all with what do we do if and how do we do this and how is this going to happen. So we are so excited for this presentation. >> Thank you. And I will tell you I know some students are probably watching this presentation as well as some parents. Um, once again, I'm I'm here to present on HB1 1481. I do want to remind everyone that yes, this is a state law. The reason why this is going to infect is a state law. It was signed by Governor Abbott on June 20th, 2025. There was a ceremonial signing last week as well. Um, it does require board adoption of a policy. TA did provide model policy for that. It requires that we implement a plan and have consequences for students that are
205in violation of this. It defined it as onschool property during the school day and just last week TA provided an imple implementation guide which stated that um that is first bell to last bell first bell to dismissal bell. However, there's optional provisions as well for student transportation to and from school as well as extracurricular activities where campus can enforce it there as well. It did, as I mentioned earlier, remove the $15 administrative fee from the language of the law and it is uh there is also a 90-day notice of of the disposal of unclaimed devices that have been confiscated. So once again, the why behind the bill, the state felt that and and they, you know, they wanted to make sure that students were focused on instruction, eliminate distractions to instruction and and at the
206end of the day looking to increase student achievement by eliminating distractions, which is a personal communication device for our students. So what devices are included in this House Bill 1481? That would include any cell phones, smartwatches, fitness trackers, Bluetooth headphones, tablets, laptops, pagers, or other electronic devices. Anything that has the capabilities for telecommunication, you know, the ability to communicate. And so, yes, laptops are on there. That will require, it is a change for our BYOD, bring your own device. Students will no longer be allowed to participate in bring your own device due to HB1481. There are also exceptions provided for students based on um a student's IEP or 504 plan. It does require that does require access to a personal communication device must have you know the another exception is if you have a physician's
207order on file for a medical need requiring a personal communication device. If a school administrator grants permission for students to use it for safety or legal reasons and if it is a schoolisssued device specifically used for instruction and learning that would be an exception to this as well. So in creating the plan as I mentioned it was a it was a collaborative effort but first we used the current FNC policy as a guide. We we referenced that saw what we had current in current policy. We had a clear goal from the beginning and that is to provide communication and uh the plan to all students parents and staff. And then we want to make sure there is consistent implementation across all of our campuses in the district. And so in that process, we met with
208a lot of it was between the technology department, the student services department, and the leadership and learning department. We collaborated. We met with the principles twice. Once on July 14th to kind of talk through the the law and the and the procedures that we're going to be proposing, and then we met with them once again last week um to kind of go over the final plan. Principles also had a heavy hand in the uh proposed infractions that we will be using in the pro in the procedures. And so we used feedback um to create this plan and we had a lot of people around the table to do so. So the procedures and how we're can communicate. The district has already begun doing this. If you have not noticed, our communications team has done a
209wonderful job with the FAQs and providing the information through social media as well as parent square. On the campus level, they have been doing the same. I can tell you a couple high schools that are going to be putting this in their parent square for this Sunday. Um, we also have encouraged our campuses and asked for them to include this on their back to school events as well as their um, first advisory lessons if they have class meetings when they come back in the fall. Our goal is to be proactive. We don't want to get a gotcha for the kids. We want to educate them and make sure that we are proactive in supporting our students so that we want them to follow this and not have to worry about confiscation of devices. So, as
210far as the campus procedures, this is what a lot of people want to know about. What is that going to look like on a campus? And so we have chosen for the um students to stow their devices powered off in their backpack. The campuses are allowed to decide where that backpack is in a classroom. Some may choose for the front of the room. Maybe the elementaryaries do that. Um maybe the secondaries might choose to do that as well. And then or they might want to have it by their seat. The campuses can choose that. We are asking and we are making sure that all students have their device powered off and in their backpack at all times during the school day. Once again, that's first bell to last spell, including hallways, passing periods, lunchtime, all
211times during the day. And so when a when a device is confiscated, the campus procedure is to communicate with the parents, make sure that they're aware of this and follow the process and the procedures that we already have uh placed with the campuses as well. The other uh thing that need I would like to note is that there is a multiffactor authentication especially at the high school level. Our ECHS students have to work with Dallas College, Dallas College. Dr. Dr. Stout met with them earlier this week and they're uh going to be switching their means of of doing the multiffactor authentication because our kids need to access this college these college classes and we are currently in the advanced academics team is is working with nearby districts uh to work on this for our college
212board classes as well. There's not a final plan for that yet but once again this is not a CFB just a CFB thing. It's not just a region 10 thing. It is a statewide thing that we're having to work through and I know that college board recognizes that because this was statewide for Texas. Oh, and I do want to note um you were asking earlier, Miss Garza Rohos, um about the FAQs. They they are listed on this slide as well and uh we can add we've been adding to those as well and those would I'm I'm assuming would probably be continuing to go out as well. We want to make sure our families are informed of that. So, one thing we've been hearing from families about is what about when I need to when something
213happens at school, when there's something that changes and I need to know and we need to be able to communicate after school care, drop off, pickup, all those kinds of things. How is the communication going to happen? And so, in fact, I was talking with the family at 4:30 from Turner this afternoon on this exact same thing. And I can think of a couple examples. Baseball game gets rained out at 3:30, storm comes through, cancels the game. and how are we going to communicate that with families and ensure that kids are picked up and not left at school because the parents are assuming the game's still on. And so this could happen with clubs, tutorials, and many different things that could change after school plans for families. And so I feel this is an important
214one for us to have a procedure for and so that the campuses are on the same page, the parents and the students are informed and this is that goes back to that great communication and and building that trust between us and the families as well. And so in the event that there is a change at late in the day, something that occurs, campuses would get on the PA and and make an announcement saying, "Pardon the interruption. The baseball game for this afternoon has been cancelled. Uh students, just let you know your parents are being notified right now. If you need to use a school phone, you are welcome to do so. And we and I'll go through some of those other things as well because it's important that we give that opportunity for our fa
215for our students to contact their families and make arrangements. Uh we will also be posting on parent square and student square when appropriate as well. Now note only middle school and high school students have access to student square. Um and that is a a platform that they can receive messages from the district. Social media announcements when appropriate. And then also parents will continue to have the ability to have notes and messages passed to students if they call the office stating that you know I need to get this message to my son or my daughter or my kiddo that you know there's going to be a change. So and so's picking you up or I'll be a little bit late. meet me at this place. We are going to be able to deliver those messages and
216continue to do so. And then we're also, like I mentioned earlier, we're going to let the students are allowed to use school district phones to communicate these things with families. And for our high school students, they do have the ability to email out to their families and communicate things um as they change during the day as well. This is an important one. This is one that that we feel very passionately about. Um, I understand the parents and and why they that why they want to know this as well. And so we want to to ensure them that we're committed to providing that communication and partnering with them because at the end of the day, the number one thing is is safety and making sure our kiddos get home and making sure that we're communicating with
217our families. Along with that, here are the consequences that students um should they be in violation of the procedures and the policy, here are the infractions that we are going to be uh placing uh for this school year. Once again, the principles had a heavy hand in deciding these consequences when we met with them about a week and a half ago. Um, we we scripted everything that they said and and we were able to capture a lot of that and and then they were had a final look at this last week to provide last feedback and and they really didn't have any because we I believe we captured exactly the heart of what the principles were their goals were as well to one couple things to note on this slide. Um, every single infraction will
218have an office referral. It will be a code of conduct violation and a parent must retrieve the device from the campus. That will be after school or at a m mutually agreed upon time. And so that's for every infraction. And then as you go through first, second, third, fourth, and subsequent infractions. There is an escalating consequence that would occur with that as well. And as I mentioned, this is a revision to FNC local. And I would I'll cover some of the um changes from the existing to the proposed policy update. You also are have pro I've provided you with a blue line copy from TASBY as well that the changes in policy. A lot of it center around alignment to house bill 1481. It updates the terminology from the existing telecommunication devices to the updated
219personal communication devices. It changed the language from district staff members may confiscate to shall confiscate. It added the statement that students shall not use the personal communication device on school property during the school day. It clarified what exceptions are allowed to House Bill 1481. It outlined uh what the implementation expectations are on the district and campuses and the compliance timelines. And it also stated that it it specified that the the consequences are going to be in accordance with the board approved student code of conduct. And then lastly, it removed references to the $15 administrative fee. And it also removed the blanket exception we had in the existing policy for allowable uses for instructional purposes, which is no longer allowed under the new House Bill 1481. So with that said, it is the recommendation of the
220administration to approve the personal electronic use policy as presented and I would welcome any questions for this as well. >> Thank you, Mr. Select. Board members, do you have any questions or comments? Miss Barnes? As a parent with three children at three different schools, I appreciate the attention given to um the notification of parents of any changes during school hours. That was something that I was uh particularly a little concerned about. Um, just for clarification, electronic devices that they can't bring to school, that also includes an iPod, a it is not just a cell phone, it's elect personal electronic devices. >> That is correct. Yes. >> Okay. And also, all parents should be buying their students plugin earphones. Correct. They cannot bring their Bluetooth earphones. >> That is accurate. And that is a discussion we've
221been having as well. For some of our our Chromebook based lessons, they may need, but I will tell you that a lot of our campuses have some of these devices already on campuses, but it's not a bad thing to have to to bring the school to as a school supply. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> Additional questions or comments? Um, just to echo the headphone thing. That's a thing in the school supply list. like your child tells you, "I want earbuds." So, that might be great for communications to really extra blast out um that kids are going to need wired headphones. Um because it's it's a challenge as a middle school parent. It's not cool to have wired headphones. So, we might need like, you know, a fun back to school. School is cool
222with wired headphones. I feel like our student ambassadors could really get on board with some fun PSA announcements on that one. >> I think that's a wonderful idea. And to your point, um, one thing we kept saying is we're kind of going back to way the way it used to be with communicating to families and communicating time-sensitive information and and we're going to get there and I know it's going to be a learning curve and I know it's going to be a little adjustment for the students, for the families, but we're here to support uh the campuses and all those uh students and families members through this transition. >> I appreciate that. um connection to the transition. It is also humorous. There have been some kind of so statewide you see social media campaigns and
223there's been some funny ones about like kids are going to go through withdrawals and parents need counseling tips on how to support your child through the withdrawal on social media. Um and I think it could actually be true. I don't have a child on social media so it doesn't apply to me but many people do. And this is going to be different for our students and it's going to also, you know, our teachers need to feel supported because it's going to be different for them too. Um, feeling like, you know, the phones are in the classroom. So, I really appreciate the attention to detail and I know fully trust that at the campus level with principles being on board with this that teachers are going to feel supported. Um, so any additional comments, Dr. Eldridge?
224Um I think we need to re reiterate the importance of our parents um signing up for parent square and having um their current contact information so that we can communicate to them. Um that is very key and I know that Mr. who like emphasize that to the principles, but I just want to say it again like make sure your information's correct. And also, I think it would be a good time for all students to memorize their contact phone number because it's already in your your phone. You may not know your parents' phone number. So, that may be another good lesson to um reiterate at our campuses. >> I didn't even think of that. That's so true, Karen. I hope you caught that. that kids need to know their parents' phone number now. >> Well, and
225we actually discussed that when creating the plan and and I will tell you that um our teachers do have access to the parents' numbers, but it's always nice. I mean, our kidd some of our kiddos when I was teaching, they didn't know their address and so those kind of things are important for the kiddos to know. >> Thank you very much. Okay, for um with that, we have two uh policies before us, EFB local and FNC local. Um, and so I will entertain a motion because this item is marked for possible action. Miss Brady, >> I'd like to make the motion to approve the two policies before us. Um the TASBY early policy updates of the 89th legislative session under EFB local the instructions and resources for library materials review and then the FNC local
226the personal communication device electronic devices to be approved as presented. >> I have a motion for Miss Brady. Do I have a second? I have a second from Miss Garza Roas. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? All those opposed. By a motion of six in favor, zero opposed. The motion carries. And now for what many people have been waiting all night for. Um we will move to 6E are uh consider and approve all matters related to the 2025 2026 compensation plan. And um Dr. Eldidge, I'll let you introduce the item. Um well, I this has taken a lot of time and energy to review um our pay scales and our equity adjustments and um how we value our employees and I think our comp plan really matters for everyone. And so I think
227um just presenting the updates and also want to give a shout out to Sher Scratch with the amount of time that you have taken to understand our teacher incentive aotment that is available and how much our teachers can earn and how much our teachers have earned from it. I mean, I just can't thank you enough for all the the just the constant webinars and everything you're doing to learn that that is kind of the wave of where we're going to help our teachers earn high dollar salaries for their performance. So, I know that's part of it. So, take it away. Need to push the button on. Sorry. Good evening, President Hatfield, Dr. Eldridge board members and obviously I'm going to share with y'all the compensation study and a recommendation from administration. So in March of
2282024 we launched a comprehensive salary study uh with TASBY the Texas Association of School Boards. TASBY utilizes compensation analysts, payroll experts and have access to market data to provide a very thorough uh comprehensive study for us. They help us review compensation by collecting market data, building pay models, and suggesting improvements. And obviously, the goal is to ensure our pay structures are fair and competitive across all employee groups. And so, the reason why it's important for us to review salaries and pay structures yearly is the reasons as you can see on this slide. We want to remain competitive to be able to recruit our um employees, have a competitive salary, and that we are paying employees for their value related to their job responsibilities. Obviously, it's critical that we retain our employees by maintaining market competitiveness
229and so we're not losing staff to other companies or businesses who do pay more. And then finally the big another big reason is to remain competitive but also to control our costs with our pay structures to make sure that we maintain equity and pricing to stay within our budget. This visual is really critical. Um this is uh what they reference the midpoint of market and rather than applying a flat p percentage raises, tasby recommends adjusting based based on proximity to midpoint and midpoint reflects what other employers are paying for similar roles. Salary adjustments toward the midpoint help engage employees that are being paid competitively and this allows district to target underpaid staff, avoid overpaying above market salaries and make fiscal responsible decisions aligned with the budget. And when we are pricing employees, we look at
230that uh and look at their total years of experience as well as their job related experience within that particular pay structure. when we are pricing for salaries. TASBY used these 15 districts to determine many of the market midpoints. Uh these districts you have commonly seen in other presentations and comparison data throughout the year with our district. In addition, these districts are districts that we common commonly lose our employees to. So we're we're always competing against these districts with uh attracting to get them to our district. So, and besides other local districts, we use uh salary data from educational service centers, national compensation tools to also evaluate competitiveness. And then moving into our teacher demographics. So, this chart shows the experience levels of our current teachers. It helps to understand who we are retaining and where
231we may face turnover for risk. And just an example here, we have 10.3 total years average with seven of those years being in the district. And you can see where the chunk of the pie lies from our first years all the way up into those 20 years u is a big chunk of our pie for our current. And remember this data was pulled in March of 2024. on this particular chart. This is a very very important chart for you to know that this shows last year all of the new hired teachers into our district. And you can see this is the highlights of the importance of a competitive pay to attract our experienced uh candidates as well as seeing that we had a lot of zeryear teachers entering to into our district this past year.
232So this graph is probably the most important graph that I'm showing this evening. This compares our teacher salaries to market benchmarks. It helps determine if we are paying above, below or at the market average. And on this particular chart, the orange line is Carolton Farmers Branch and the blue blue line is the market comparison. Those 15 districts that we have been compared to. TASBY does this based on years of experience as well as help to determine retention competitive salaries. And again, I want to remind you that this data was based on data that we gave TASBY in March and since then, many of our peer districts used in this study have already approved raises. So, this gap um is much wider currently. So, I want to highlight all of the great incentives that this district
233does offer teachers. So, I'm going to come away from the study for a little bit and I want to really highlight some of the um retention and um incentives that we do have for teachers to earn more money. And our district this past year and this this slide is teachers only. This past year, we celebrated uh retention bonuses of $34,500. And you can see on this particular slide the number of teachers um that earned an additional um everything from $500 all the way up to $4,500. So yes, we did have te two teachers last year that celebrated 40 years in the district. And so that's an incentive that a lot of districts do not have. And so I just wanted to highlight that we do all employees. This chart here just shows our teachers. And
234something else, as uh Dr. Eldridge mentioned, is that this district is one of the largest districts in the North Texas region that does an incredible job in their teacher incentive aotment. And I do want to shout out I have Miss Scrretch here this evening. Um and she's been our key leader on this. And you can see beginning in uh 2022 when the district began the teacher incentive aotment with seven staff members earning designations and approximately $53,000 or 53 yeah $53,000 where we're at now with 400 and uh 411 teachers that are designated and bringing into the district $4 million. That is huge. And so CFB is also committed to expanding the TIA eligible courses so that we can have a 100% of our teachers eligible for TIA. For next year, we have expanded our program
235to include special education and CTE teachers that have that have not been previously eligible. Um, and once a teacher earns a TIA designation, that designation stays on their teaching certificate for a period of five years. Teachers will also earn the payout amount for five years as long as they remain in Carolton Farmers Branch. And I'm going to take this data and I'm going to break this down even further to so you can see what our teachers are able to earn. So, um, we broke it out by the designation of recognized exemplary mastery. And as you can see here, we had 109 teachers that earned 531,000 all the way down to 65 teachers at that 1.2 million. And breaking it even further, I have to shout out that we had 13 teachers this year that made
236over a $100,000. That's huge. That's that's huge. And so on this particular slide, you can see that we had 22 teachers make over 20,000 38 teachers between that 15 and 20,000. And uh you know, when you look at the majority of our teachers, they're making um over an additional bonus of 3,300 um $94 and that is TRS eligible. So, um, continuing to improve on this, continue to enhance this. Um, and so we're really excited to continue this this work and even more. The state is committed to expanding TIA. So, this is what's exciting to provide more funds available for teachers. In 2627 school year, there will be an additional category for TIA. The acknowledged level will be added at the lowest level and will include up the top 50% of teachers across the state. The
237recognized level will continue to represent the top 33 of the teachers. The exemplary level will represent the 20 and the master level will still continue with the top 5%. So, we're looking forward um to continue working. Uh we partnered with commit and they're going to help us um continue with this work and so I just wanted to shout out of the hard work that we are doing with the teacher incentive aotment and how much more money our teachers can make um through this program. So back to the TASBY study. So based on TASBY study and the recommendation that I'm bringing forward um they um they TASBY recommends adopting new pay structures to fix our equity issues to make us more competitive to align pay with market midpoints. Um, House Bill 2 provides state funding for
238teachers bonuses, as you heard from uh, Miss Settle in her um, budget update where teachers with three to four years will receive $2,500 and those with five plus years will receive $5,000. Um, this is in addition to any local raises or TIA funds. TASBY also recommends raises for staff like instructional aid, secretary, custodians, etc. Increases are based on a percentage of their pay grade at midpoint. Uh some positions will receive additional adjustments to address the market gaps, internal pay equity, placement discrepancies. Um as an example, um we had in operations as an example, we had 103 employees that needed to be adjusted. So TASBY looks at every single employee to make sure that they are equitable within that pay grade. And so with the proposed percent increase, we want to make sure that they are
239not below an entrylevel employee um coming into that particular um area. If that makes hopefully that makes sense. Going forward, we will use a hiring schedule for teachers, midpointbased pay schedules for all others and this will help us to ensure fairness and consistency across the district. We will review the full compensation plan every single year to make sure that we stay competitive and that we are fair. A new salary schedule will apply to new hires under House Bill 2 to ensure compliance and competitiveness. So, it is the administration recommendation to include a $1,250 increase for new teachers in years one and two. Obviously, uh the um adhering to the House Bill 2 retention bonuses for our teachers, a 2% midpoint raise for all non-eing staff, $25 a month increase in increase in the district's health
240insurance contribution, and additional pay equity adjustments were needed. When looking at the breakdown of exactly what that would cost to the district, this slide tell uh shows that to you. With the House Bill 2 funding that the the state is providing, it would be an approximately 3 million that the district would have to um uh budget for. And so, as an example here, uh overall averages, and I just selected just a small handful of specifics, our teachers on average would earn about a 6.2% 2% increase. Bus drivers definitely a need in our district. That was an average of 8.5% increase. Security specialists of average of a 5.1 u% increase. School nutrition about a 2.1% increase. Um our facilities and maintenance an average of 4.3% increase. Instructional aids. I looked specifically at our special education aids
241and average of a 2.4% increase. And so that was just an example of some of the very specific jobs overall. um within this study. And so again, going back to the recommendation, it is our recommendation um for the information that I have presented tonight. Any questions? >> Thank you, ma'am. Uh board members, any questions or comments? Miss Brady? >> Dr. Smallus, I just want to make clear that the TIA U money that the teachers earn is not from our budget, is not from our money from the state, is a totally separate entity. That is correct. >> I just want to make sure that everybody understands that that is state money. That is not something that we're pulling out of our own budget. >> That is state money. Correct. >> Thank you. >> Any additional questions
242or comments? >> Okay. Um thank you very much for your presentation. >> Um this item, the 2025 2026 compensation plan is um marked for action board. Do you wish to take action, Miss Barnes? Just go for it. >> I make a motion that we approve 6E all matters related to to the 20252026 compensation plan including proposed compensation adjustments. >> I have a motion for Miss Barnes. Do I have a second? I have a second from Miss Garza Rojos. Is there any discussion? Mr. Mr. Gilmore, >> I'll be abstaining from this vote as I have family employed. >> All right. Thank you. Um with that, I will um all those in favor raise your hand. All those opposed by a vote of five in favor and zero opposed. The motion carries with one abstension. Okay. Next
243up, very close to the end, folks. Thanks for sticking with us. I'm sure you all want to walk out the door now that the compensation plan has been approved. Um, our next agenda item is item 6F, uh, voting of delegate and alternate delegate to the Tassatasby General Conference. Um, and I, uh, had administration send out information on this. I believe it was yesterday. So, I just want to apologize to my board colleagues. This item was marked for, um, president to share information and I did not get that to you on Friday. And so I did put together the one pager that came to you yesterday that shares um information about the history of why TASBY what TASBY delegates are. But for the benefit of the public um every year the Texas Association of School Boards
244and the Texas Association of School Administrators has their um annual uh general meeting essentially. And at that general meeting, we can have representation from our school district to be able to um vote for uh matters that go before the delegate assembly. And the delegate assembly includes um votes on the overall direction of the organization, who will serve on the TASBY board of directors, approving the advocacy agenda, and that also helps guide the legislative priorities of the organization on behalf of Texas Public Schools. Um, and so it's important for the board to know that we have a history in CFB of voting a delegate and an alternate. And um, we then after we have a delegate and an alternate, they attend a meeting in September and vote and um, work on behalf of the entire state.
245And it's a very large committee. You can have representation from every district. But then in our um as we move through the process, there's also something called the TASBY Legislative Advisory Council and that really develops the advisory the advocacy agenda. And as a history, we for the past two legislative sessions. In 2022, I was elected to the lack and in 2024, Miss Garza Rohouse was elected to the lack. And that happens at the regional level. And so it is uh we go to a grassroots meeting and when we go to that meeting we can nominate someone there and the region votes to elect those people but when we have our board representative seven of us go that works really well to get somebody at that regional level to represent us at the state. And so
246I just wanted to make sure you had the history of information that the person that served as the TASBY voting delegate historically has gone on to serve on the lack at the state level. And so there is a a large commitment potentially if the person were to serve in multiple capacities. And um so I hope this one pager was helpful to you. And with that um we'll just open the floor for discussion on interest or questions about this just because um I know we have new board members um and one that hasn't sat through that whole process. So um just open the floor for discussion and questions and then interest >> I have an interest. >> You have an interest. Okay. >> Board members any questions, comments or other interest? >> So Iliana, you're serving
247a two-year term. >> So she serves on the lack for two years. So that ends because the the lack members re rego in the spring of 26 >> and the TASBY delegate is annual. >> Okay. >> So the delegate that we're voting on tonight is annual. >> So it's not really necessary that that be the same person. Is it helpful for that to be? >> It's really up to the board's purview. You can see from the the past history that it's it's pretty much alternated. Okay. Um, I think at one point like I was interested in growing my legislative expertise and so I jumped in and it's kind of just been whoever's been interested and who can commit to it because there's the potential for extra time. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Is there any
248other interest? >> Okay. With no additional interest, I'll entertain a motion. Okay. So if I don't have a motion on this item, we will move forward to the next item. Mr. Gilmore. Okay. >> So I make a motion that we move forward with Carolyn. Is that correct? To the TASBY General Conference. >> So your motion is to designate Carolyn Benvitas as the voting delegate. >> Yes, that's what I >> for the TAS TASBY General Conference. Okay, great. Um, so we'll start with that motion. Board members, do I have a second? I have a second for Miss Garza Roas. Is there any discussion? All right, with no discussion, all those in favor, raise your hand. All those opposed. So, by a vote of six in favor, zero opposed, the motion carries. What that motion did not
249contain was an alternate delegate. And so, um, in the event that Miss Benvitas is unable to serve in that capacity, she has a conflict, we can vote for an alternate to go instead. And so, um, if somebody else is willing to be alternate, we can put that in. Um, or if nobody wants to serve in that capacity, then we can move forward with just having a delegate. Is anybody willing to serve as an alternate? Miss Barnes. Okay. So, Miss Barnes is willing to serve as an alternate, and I'll entertain a motion. Miss Brady, >> I make a motion that Marjorie Barnes be considered as a Tazby delegate alternate. >> All right. I have a motion for Miss Barnes to be the Tazby alternate delegate. Is there a second? I have a second from Miss Garza
250Roas. Is there any discussion? With no discussion, I'll take a vote. Six in favor, zero opposed. The motion carries. All right. Um, we have reached the almost end of our agenda number seven, which is comments for the posted agenda items. Board members, do you have any comments that you wish to make about the posted agenda this evening? All right, seeing no comments, we can now officially go start the school year with a new compensation plan and wonderful presentations by our staff to really celebrate our next steps. And I will adjourn this meeting at 10:43 p.m. [Music]