School Board Meeting | August 18, 2025

001Good evening. I call this meeting of the Casper Independent School District Board of Education to order. Let the record show that a quorum of board members is present, that this meeting has been duly called, and that notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551. Just a reminder, we are here for what is best to promote and encourage achievement for every student in our district. Right now, we'll have Miss Katika with the invocation. this remind myself uh to please use your microphone whenever we speak. It's a reminder for myself and for us all. It's just a comment from our uh last two meetings. So, right now we're on item three, communication from citizens. We appreciate you being here this evening. We always welcome communication

002from citizens of our district. Individuals who wish wish to participate during the portion of meeting designated for public comment shall sign up with the presiding officer or designate little no later than 100 p.m. of the day of the board meeting and shall indicate the agenda item or topic on which they wish to address the board. Uh Miss Branch, do we have anybody? Yes, we do. Thank you. We do have Eric Cray here to to speak to you. As you may or may not remember, I was on the TAD ballot last year. And as they say, if at first you don't succeed, try again. So, here I am trying again. Only this time, things are a little different. There are fewer board positions open, and there are new tax entities participating. This year, there will be

003two open positions. Wendy Burgess and Mike Alfred's terms expire at the end of the year. Castleberry will have six votes to allocate. Your process to elect will start at the end of this month or in early September. Second, the conservation districts of Tarant County have elected to participate in this year's process. There are six of them. This is believed to be the first time they have ever participated, so they are still getting their feet under them to understand it all. Why did they choose to participate? After last year's election, I read chapter six of the property tax code and realized conservation districts could participate, but it wasn't automatic like schools and cities. So, in February of this year, I started speaking to them. And after many speaking engagements and emails, they chose to get involved.

004My reason for attempting to get them to participate was simple. I believe the more entities involved, the greater the transparency of the district. And as elected officials, if you can vote, I believe you should exercise that right. Now, their process is a little different. In fact, they just nominated for the final ballot. And I'm happy to say the conservation district selected me to be their nominee on the ballot this fall. So, here I am, first out of the gate. As the saying goes, another year older, another year wiser, and another year property appraisal should have been conducted. However, we all know on the residential side of things, this did not occur. In front of you is a packet I prepared. I've added my commentary to it and would be happy to answer any questions you

005may have about it. The thing I found most interesting about the information I provided is that Castleberry ISD is one of four districts in the county that saw an increase in average home values. The rest saw a decrease. Look, I understand this is your appointment in your process and when the time comes to vote, this board will have to vote for individuals you believe will represent the interest of Castleberry ISD. TAD should not be inserting limits on your ability to raise funds in attempting to control your budget. Your budget is between you and your taxpayers. In fact, it's the other way around. As a tax entity, you control TAD's budget, which by the way, they just approved on August 12th, and you have 30 days to review and take action if you so choose. TAD

006does not set a tax rate. They are funded by the entities. I'm not saying taxpayers don't deserve tax relief. I believe we do. But what I am saying is tax relief is not the responsibility of TAD. They are here to value property. You are here to run a school district and set a tax rate based on that value. Yearly appraisals would ensure the most accurate data. Included with a packet is a copy of my resume. When the time comes to vote, I would ask for your consideration. Thank you all for your time. Now we'll move on to item four, questions regarding the consent agenda. Miss McFaulner, were there any questions called in regarding the consent agenda? I think I was able to take care of questions. I know there was one outstanding item. when we

007get to the consent agenda. Yeah, there's an we're going to move uh just for everybody's clarification, we're going to move item nine D out of the consent agenda and move it into uh possibly action items. We're going to discuss it during action items for sure. Is it So, that's just a heads up. Um now we'll move on to item five, presentation items. Yes, Mr. Board President. At this time, uh, we have Mr. Jodon Bobett from Tarant County Tax Assessor. Good evening. Uh, my name is Joe Bob and I'm the new chief appraiser for Taran Appraisal District. Um, we have revised our Mach uh, property value study. And so what our what the mock property value study is is basically our attempt to replicate what the state controller does when they come in and audit our

008values. And so the main purpose for the property value study is to ensure equal funding across the state and to make sure that the appraisal districts are doing their jobs being at at 100% of market value. So the sales ratio is the main way that they really value or assess us or look at how we how well we're doing our job. And simp that's simply our appraised value or in this case our 2024 appraised value divided by the sale price. So we take actual sales that have taken place in in since July of 2024 and we go through June of 2025. And so they look at those actual sales and they compare that to our appraised value which in this case we're not looking at 2025 appraised values. We're looking at 2024 appraised values. And

009so when we first started this process we we're think well Cassberry was around 82%. And so I had great concerns, superintendent had great concerns uh because at that point below 85 and a half there is no grace from the school and you would immediately lose state funding or at least a portion of it. Um above 85 and a half you're you have a two-year grace period and you wouldn't lose funding. So out of the appraised value and the sales ratio, the pra appraised value we couldn't we didn't have any control over this year because we rolled the values from 2024. Sell prices we don't have any control over because we don't set the market. It's just whatever people actually bought and sold the properties for. So normally we would have at least one lever to

010change to try to affect that ratio, make sure that we're at market value. This year we really had no no control over it. Um at least the staff didn't. uh January estimate. We when we're doing this in January, we we used two different sales ranges. We used the entire calendar year and then we looked at just the sales that the state would actually use. And so the market has changed some, but overall we're right now we're at 91%. And so we we looked at it like three or four different ways and we believe Castleberry will be okay. Now grant that's still that is my estimate and the state has final say over that. those results won't come out until January 31st before we actually know what happens. If it does um end up, you know,

011not good, then we could we could assist in appealing that to the state and try to get the values back up and essentially you just attack the certain sales that that are not basically they're hurting the ratio. The one of the things that did change the number of sales. So when we first looked at this in January, there only 69 sales. It's a pretty small sample size and so a lot can change. So when by the time we got to the end of basically right now we're looking all the way through June and so we have almost twice as many sales and so we have more properties to look at. The ratio looks a little better. I mean 69 is not very many across an entire county or entire school district. And what the in

0122023 the state used 150 sales when they valued uh Castleberry. So 127 is enough, but it's it's getting a little shy. But the ratio did change from 82% to 91. So it's not great. We we would we'd like to be above 95% because then you're you're considered local and valid, but below 95, you're eligible to grace until you get down below 85 and a half. Do you'all have any questions? So just to clarify, that's for two years of grace, right? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Yes, sir. The few areas that where Thank you. We were one of the few areas where the prices rose. The average That sounds correct. The average prices rose. Yes, sir. Is there is there anything you can point to or speak on since we didn't why we're different? The only changes would

013be the amount of sales, the population of sales compared to the normal market and the amount of protests. So, y'all may not have had as many protests as some of the other school districts because since we didn't change the value, both people still protest at the same or higher rate than they have in the past. We still lost 10% roughly on most protests. So if y'all had less protest than than other school districts, then y'all would be less impacted by it. Any other questions? I'm sorry. You said that in January is when you these numbers would be for sure. Yes. So what affects that? I didn't quite understand that. the the state comproller, they don't release their numbers until January 31st of 2026. Okay? And that like right now, they're in our office. They're looking,

014they're talking to us, they're actually in the county doing field inspections. And so they do their own appraisals of all the properties that sold and validate basically the work that we did. And so they're doing once we certify the RO in July, that's when they start that process. And so they that runs through December and then they compile everything and submit the results January 31st. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. There we go. Um, just real quickly on the P the mock PBS um is an attempt to mimic the comp controller method as it says up there. Len, um, is this to help ensure accurate appraisals between the two, between the state and the county? It is. It's a lot of it the staff developed it to try to make sure that we're not off and

015so we don't risk schools in a normal year. This is something they had built prior to my coming to TAD and so it was something one more check before we send out appraisal notices to make sure that everything is hopefully in the right ballpark which should help us. Yes ma'am. Okay. And then I my other question was about the property protest and you said that ours were a little bit lower. So that I don't know that we really have to worry about that affecting our budget process if we're not having a lot of people protesting their appraisals. So you answered that question. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you again for coming and being a part of being our partner in this. Yes, ma'am. No problem. Anytime. That just reminded me. Um, I was curious about whenever

016you're mimicking comproller method, are you typically a little more conservative or risk adverse and you know putting in some type of barrier what that might look like? What the numbers come out to be? It's just raw. It's our appraised value for whatever was certified compared to the actual sale price. And so when we're when we're using this method, we don't really have any leverage to pull to make it conservative or less conservative. It's basically a really complicated way to come up with an average or median, but we just break it up to value ranges. Yes, ma'am. Does Mr. Baba, thank you so much for what you've done for us and thank you for being here. Yes, sir. No problem. Anytime. Item 5B, A throughF accountability ratings. Mr. Hutchkins. Yes. Uh, Mr. Board President, at this

017time, Scott Hutchkins, our lead secondary coordinator and math and accountability, will present the 2025 official A throughF campus and district accountability ratings. Good evening, board president Toiver, Superintendent Smith Faulner, board members. It's trying. I'm excited to share with you the 2025 uh campus and district A throughF ratings. Also, due to the impending litigation being resolved, I'm going to have just a little bit additional information related to those 2024 ratings for each campus in the district. I will share information related to the three accountability domains. As a reminder, domain one is for elementary, middle school relies solely on star performance. An average of 60 for approaches, meets, and masters earns an A. So you'll hear lots of conversations around us shooting for 60% meets because that's ensuring the district is an A. High schools are also

018measured on CCMR percentage, graduation rates, and graduation rates for domain one. Domain two takes a better result of growth percentage in math and reading and or campus relative performance which adjusts those domain one scores based on economically disadvantaged rates. Then finally domain three is looking at uh individual subopuls and their performance in meets growth um and CCMR. In addition to those campus ratings, we're also going to look at a distinction designations. To earn a distinction, a campus must perform in the top 25% of its comparison group. Comparison groups are set by the state by selecting 40 schools with similar percentages of economically disadvantaged, emergent, bilingual, and special populations. Back in 2023 are only we only had two distinctions districtwide. Now, we're going to take a look at our campus ratings. A KO experienced exceptional growth

019in 2024. That boosted their overall accountability rating to an 85. While they did maintain that domain one score, um they had a little bit of challenge maintaining that exceptional growth and this led to an overall rating of 79.4, missing a B by only a single tenth. Um this was still quite an impressive feat especially when compared to similar campuses as we've been able to see um results from our area. Um so congratulations Avada on that 79. Um and I do want to point out that they did receive three designations that I have not been able to share with you. They received one for academic growth, one for post-secary readiness and finally one for closing the gaps. Next to Castleberry Elementary. Castleberry Elementary made notable gains in both domain 2 and domain three, largely due to

020the individual subpopul growth. Their overall score of a B reflects a fivepoint increase over these three accountability ratings. Congratulations to CE for achieving an overall score of 80 for the 2025 school year. Along with their ratings, they also earned two distinctions in science and a distinction in closing the gaps. Joy James Academy maintained its performance from the prior year with a campus rating of 78. This was an accomplishment with our first year principal, Dr. Phelps. Of particular note, third grade RLA scores stood out at 57% meets and 34% masters, well above state performance, and this is really laying a solid foundation for some continued growth into the future. Jumping over to Irma Marsh. Irma Marsh saw our largest gains in star performance and you can see that domain one rise across the board um and

021which immediately impacted their domain 2 score up to an 83. While they did fall short in domain three particularly particularly in uh Telpas proficiency, they still earned an overall B for the 2025 school year. Congratulations to Miss Beers and her staff for this high level of success. Irma Marsh also earned distinctions in academic growth and closing the gaps. Castleberry High School demonstrated strong gains in domains one and two anchored in college career and military readiness. While they narrowly missed a few points in domain three, they still were able to earn an overall score of an 83. That high level of uh post-secondary readiness was acknowledged on the distinction they earned in post-secondary readiness for 2025. Reach High School under the leadership of Mr. Lemus continued to expand opportunities for students while maintaining exceptional performance. In

0222025, Reach served nearly twice as many students as they did in 2024. And for the second consecutive year, they were able to reach an overall score of a 96. Quite an outstanding feat over at Reach High School, especially considering servicing such a large number of students um than we ever have in the past. So, congratulations to Reach High School on that. outstanding performance. So when you put it all together, um we have that weighted average by campus. So each campus depending on their population is going to directly impact the overall Castle Castleberry ISD score. Um and so when you look at and put it all together, we had that overall consistent increase in both domains one and two. Um and we ended up with an 81 for the 2025 school year. Um certainly a big

023accomplishment and really reflects the dedication of all the staff and the people in the room and the people in the classrooms each and every day. Um to put all this information into context, I compared ratings across the 820 corridor. Um this is where the majority of our nearly 600 out of district transfers are coming from. So if you look at our um the wonderful graphics that Mr. Bowser has been able to produce, um many of our out of district transfers are coming from these schools. But you'll notice as you look at all these schools that lie within the 820 circle, not a single one of them received a B for the 24 or 25 school year. Um, so I think that just once again alludes to the the high level success, the amazing work that's

024going on each and every day in our classrooms and these kids making it happen. [Applause] Now to take it just a step further and this is a little small but I'll try to explain. Um research shows that students from economically disadvantaged households often face challenges not experienced by more affluent peers. TEA has acknowledged this by designing an accountability system to try to minimize the connection between um poverty and performance. And so they they the whole reason there is a relative performance score is to try to minimize that trend. And so when I took all 20 schools from Tarant County, so this is a culmination of all 20 schools from Tarant County and we examined using TE 8.5D from 8th grade math. We were looking at a trend line. So across the x-axis you've got the

025economically disadvantaged rates. On the vertical axis, the y- axis, that's campus scores. And you'll see in the upper right corner Castleberry ISD well above that trend line. And so where Castleberry ISD should perform if we perform in line with the other schools in Tarant County is we should be about a 76. But that's not the case because of all the great things happening in the district u performing well above that trend line. Um, and you'll notice that more than half of the schools that are we performed higher than more than half of those schools in Tarant County even though we have a much higher economically disadvantaged rate. Um, when you take that a step further and you go to the next slide and you see all of region 11, um, similar trend as economically disadvantaged

026rates go up, while the trend's not quite as strong, there's still a correlation that says overall district scores and performance does go down. Um, and based on the trend, the data here, this says that Castleberry should be performing at about a 72. If you look at all of region 11, nine points higher. So just once again far exceeding where we should be dedicated to just the hard work that's happening on each and every day in the classrooms and these wonderful people behind me. Um and so just once again shows the commitment but we have some challenges. We have some amazing kids. We have some amazing staff members and putting that all together. I think you're seeing a high level success that um is something to be proud of. So thank y'all for allowing me to

027share this information with y'all and I'll certainly feel any questions you may have. Let me be the first to say congratulations. Good job. Good job to all of you. I just report on it. It's all the amazing people back there doing all the Yeah. [Applause] Thank you. Hard to follow, but uh 5C the 2025 telepass results. Uh yes. Uh Mr. board president. At this time, we have Laura Guzman, our secondary uh EB uh coordinator in uh VNA Lemus, our uh elementary EB coordinator, and they're going to present some Telpos results for the 2425 school year, Miss Emit Partner. We are thrilled to be here today to share topas data from 2024 2025. We have included uh the following slides for you as a reference. We explained them uh in the back uh back in June

028when we present about a short uh information about tas in the context of Texas public school A through F accountability system. Domain three like as Scott me I mentioned measure closing the gap which includes four components. Today we are focused and topas which drive English language proficiency score and strongly impact our accountability rating. We are without further ado let's take a look at how our student have performed and celebrate their achievement together. This slides highlights how kasapari ISD compares with the state and surrounding districts. Notice that our district demonstrates a strong concentration of high achieving students. The district have combined 52 of students performing at the advanced or advanced high which exceeds the state average of 50%. At the beginning level, the the district excels at reducing the number of students at the lowest performance

029level. As we view the slide, these slides, please note that our goal is to keep beginning percentage low while showing positive growth in advance and advance high levels. I am pleased to share that four out of five school are exceeding the state overall. The speaking domain has been a major focus for uh Casabberry ISD driving a strong intermediate and advanced levels across the district. Joe James and and Avo shine with the highest advanced high performance among elementaryaries while Marsh lead with the lowest beginning rate showing early language mastery. C chs remains a priority. While many students are in the beginning and intermediate level for grading, Casabbury ISD is showing a study growth. Irma Mars overperformed the state and reducing beginning rates. A ko leads elementaryaries in advance high and Joe James demonstrate balance growth. This

030year grading will remain top priority. Now our elementary bilingual coordinator, Miss Lemos, we will talk about the success in elementary schools. As we look at our 2025 Telpus reports, we continue to see momentum and progress. I'm pleased to share that every grade level in elementary had more than 30% of students advance at least one proficiency level. Our first graders show the highest growth. And while we see a dip moving into second grade, this is likely tied to the transition from holistic ratings to online testing. Overall, early grades, especially first, are showing strong gains and our upper grades point to areas where we can focus additional support. It is also important to note that Telpas uses grade level clusters and the shift into a new cluster in fourth grade may have had played a role in

031slowing growth for those students. We have also included a breakdown of Telpas progress data for each campus. At AV KO, 53% of students advance at least one proficiency level, the highest gains in the district for this grade. CE had strong growth in first grade and third grade with first grade leading the district. And Joy James saw similar success with third grade achieving the highest district gains for that grade. Here we have a breakdown of students according to program participation. Students coded as bilingual are currently part of our dual language program in elementaryaries while students coded as ESL have denied the dual language program. We can see that students coded as bilingual are reaching advanced and advanced high at higher levels in Telpas composite across almost all grade levels. The data suggests that bilingual students in

032the dual language program are proving to be successful on Telpas and are even outperforming ESL students on Telpas advanced levels similar to their performance on other assessments. Now Miss Guzman will share more data in secondary. Moving to secondary at Irma Marsh Middle School took result led by seventh grade. Sixth grade progress highlights the need of to stream early language development. The alternative learning center did not have enough data for domain three. Casabberry High School. The open result show growth across grade levels. We want to share the trajectorial of student based on years in US school. In the first two years in USA school, US schools, Kasabbury ISD students make rapid progress, dropping beginning rate from 44% to 20% and raising intermediate to 45%. But sustaining this momentum required targets strategies to move long-term learning from

033advanced to advanced high. This is a scorecard for our campuses. Note that since Telpa's targets are adjusted for elementary, middle, and high school to reflect different stages of language development, the goals vary by level. Campuses can earn up to four points by meeting the interimm and long-term goals, which count towards their accountability rating. With that being said, Castleberry ISD exceeded the 2025 interim targets and long-term goals at every elementary campus. A major celebration for our district. At the secondary level, our high school been the interimm goal and came within one point of the long-term target. While Irma Marsh Dona meaning the interimm earned an accountability distinction in closing the gaps to sustain this momentum, we remain committed to pursuing the long-term goal confident that we can achieve it. I would also like to highlight several

034of our strategic actions that have contributed to our progress. To start, student Telpas data was thoroughly analyzed with teachers at the start of the academic year. We have also implemented Telpas goal setting initiatives across all campuses as well as embedded Telpas classroom connections throughout our curriculum that are aligned to tier one instruction. Your support is essential. Together, we'll ensure every emerging bilingual student gains the language skills to exceed us targets year after year and succeed in school and beyond. Together, we got this. Thank you. [Applause] It's uh from from kindergarten. Uh yes. No, I'm sorry. For uh first grade to to 12. First to 12. Okay. I think this page is so important. Um and something that I think that we should keep an eye on and it and I and I'm glad that our

035kids those kids can be at Castlebury so that we can help them. I think that that's very encouraging. So, right. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you so much. Thank you. Sorry. Sorry. Now we'll move on to item 5D, district improvement plan goals and performance objectives. Dr. Richland. Uh yes. Uh Mr. board president Dr. Richland, our executive director of educational leadership, will present the 2526 district improvement plan goals and performance objectives. But before she begins, I'm going to frontload with uh some of the work that we have done. Uh I have added a few slides uh today after speaking uh with Dr. Richland. So on our first slide, well, let me back up a little bit. we have been celebrating um our eighth refability, but we actually started getting our our data uh as early as the

036first part of June. So, we've already dug into the data and have been working uh really hard. So, I want to back up and talk about our timeline in creating a new uh district improvement plan. So, we began back in March and April of 2025. We look at our endofear benchmark data. And as we're looking at that, we're beginning to create our additional day school year uh program and our ACE student participation list. We're looking at our students who are not quite approaching yet. Uh we're looking at students who could go from approaches to meets and we're looking at our kiddos that we can meet uh move from meets to approaches because we're our summer program is about acceleration. how can we accelerate all of our students to meet their fullest potential? So, we're looking

037at benchmark data before our star data ever comes out and we begin inviting students at that time and then we uh finalize our programming of how many teachers what are we going to uh be providing over the summer and in April and May we take those star tests and if there's not a star test we have other uh endofear uh assessments that we're doing because sometimes we're doing beginning, middle and end of year depending on the grade level and so we began analyzing our own benchmarks and assessments that aren't just the STAR test because in uh in June we re we look uh get the STAR test results released to the district in a very raw uh uh I guess file format and so as soon as we uh received that two days later we

038did we didn't have all of the uh other district information but we had what Castleberry had in our data and so we I showed our school board. Scott turned it around in two days because I wanted to be sure that the school board could see what we saw in just how Calibbury was performing. And it's very important at this time that our high school actually starts reviewing the high school retester results because those kiddos have an opportunity in the end of June to take the test and once they take the test in June, they become on this year's accountability. So, we've already had some students. We had uh some great success uh this summer uh at our boot camps because we then have to create what are those boot camps look like? So, our retesters

039uh receive support and then they uh retest at the end of June and they're already on this year's accountability. This year's accountability starts in June. So if you go to the next slide, in June, our administrators and district uh leadership reviews that student data and uh we began to determine what hotspots did we see in the data. Some we can predict, maybe some we uh were not predicting and those hotspots drives the administrative leadership retreat agenda. We start creating an agenda for continuous improvement. At that time, the superintendent finalizes the district priorities based on student data and the hotspots. And then the superintendent's office creates the administrative retreat agenda, the Canvas course, and assigns workshop modules and session uh facilitators and what is the focus for next year. What are those priorities? Dr. Richland's going

040to show you those priorities that we uh came up with. And then in July, everybody on the org chart practically that's uh part of the ALT uh attends a two-day administrative leadership retreat. And at that point, they're completing modules, they're attending sessions, and we're doing another deep dive into the data because we have received a little bit more information. We do a comprehensive needs assessment conducted at both the district level on where did we meet our goals and we also do a campus level comprehensive uh needs assessment. At this time the district leadership facilitate session on student data. We have now test question information. We analyze the test questions that we missed to see what what misconceptions our kiddos had. We look at curriculum needs and adjustments for the upcoming school year. and we begin

041to make those adjustments. Then in July, what you're seeing today is uh the output for some of the work we actually did at the retreat. The performance objectives for the district and the campuses are drafted in July. The campuses this year, we did something new. They had to present their performance objectives to the district prior to the new teachers uh coming back. And you're going to see that we have a five-year plan uh with spe uh specific milestones to be achieved each year. Our campuses utilize the new performance objectives to drive the PLC. So we create our objectives. Each PLC now has a goal that each time we do progress monitoring, they're working towards that goal. The campuses utilize the from the sessions and create returning teacher professional learning in their data dig day. So

042on day one we have convocation. Guess what? They go back to their campus and they look at the data and they uh review the goals that have been set for their campus improvement plans. Then district progress monitoring is scheduled at the end of each nine weeks. So they go into a real deep dive into where are they as far as the progress on their data. Then we do brief uh overviews of district and campus data shared with the school board based on progress towards meeting performance. we do a big data dig day, but then you're going to see a very summarized uh uh data sets towards those goals on the campuses. So, we're in this process beginning about March and April. So, what I've asked Dr. Richland to do today, we're slowing down this process

043a little bit to ensure that everybody understands where we are and what strategies that we're looking at. So, what I've asked Dr. Richland to do is talk about the priorities we came up with and the performance objectives and how it aligns with A throughF. Okay. So, take it away, Dr. Richland. Yes. Yes. Uhhuh. Remember how to do this? Um, and I know we did a comparison. It was like 23, 24, 25, and then but I know there's still the lawsuit for 24. Is that just released? So, it's so they're all official. So, they're all official now. There's no more. Yeah, tied up in litigate. Okay, thank you. The only thing I think that you're going to see is the uh uh extended responses. Uh some people are having their extended responses rescored and so they're

044seeing significant gains when they rescore, but I think we've decided to move forward. No, ma'am. No, we're not. Okay. We know where we are and we've looked at our data. So, we're we have already moved on uh from that. So, Well, I I can't I think my question is do we feel comfortable? it's a fair assessment of what our kids did because I know last year's zeros were like something big that we kind of the only place that we would have any uh type of questions would be in third grade because we had the most amount of zeros in third grade and that's where the overall scores were lower and when we looked it was mostly in extended responses and not the reading. Okay. Yes, we we can see them. Okay, Dr. Richland, great question.

045Thank you, Miss Smith Faulner. So, here are our district priorities for this year. We will be focusing on third grade reading and math, eighth grade social studies, seventh grade math, English one, and English 2, retesters, and early literacy. Goal one remains the same and it's focused on all three domains for A throughF accountability. So before I dig into the performance objectives, uh give me a few moments to take you through how our performance objectives are connected to accountability. So in the navy boxes at the top, you see all three domains. Domain one, student achievement, domain two, school progress, and domain three, closing the gaps. In pink is what we need in every area to earn an A. In student achievement, we need 60% meets when looking at all tests. In domain two, school progress, we

046need 85% growth in reading and math or we need to meet the relative performance target on all tests. This target, the relative performance target is a modified or adjusted target based on campus and district performance in in school districts that have a similar economically disadvantaged rate as we do. So notice the target is different. 55% meets at the elementary level would meet that target and 50% meets at the middle and high school would meet that target. In domain three, closing the gaps to meet to uh gain an A or earn an A. Our target is to score three out of four in our sub populations in reading and math meets and growth as well as TELP pass CCMR and graduation rate. When you look at the blue boxes, these are our goal one performance objectives.

047Notice this box here. You'll see that there are five elementary performance objectives, nine middle school performance objectives, and six high school performance objectives. I bet you're thinking, "That's a lot of performance objectives." But let me break that down for you. So, when you look at these nine middle school performance objectives, three of these are reading. There is a sixth grade reading performance objective, seventh grade, and eighth grade. So there's one performance objective for each content area and each grade level that is much more manageable for a teacher and it's also very clear to the teacher what the target is for their grade level and content area. The gray boxes are goal two performance objectives. These are our HV3 performance objectives. We have three of those. One in early literacy focused on improving third grade reading.

048one in early numeracy focused on improving third grade math and one in CCMR at the high school level. When you look across this visual, notice how our performance objectives are aligned in each area to meet our goal for domain one, domain 2, and domain 3. At the bottom, there are three additional performance objectives that are focused on hotspot areas for us, which I will address a little bit later in the presentation. So, as you heard from Miss Smith Faulner when she did that uh great review of our timeline in Castlebury ISD, we don't wait around. We act quickly on our data. And so, I want to point out that Miss Fifth Faulner worked very early in the summer to develop our ALT retreat Canvas course. Notice that on day one of our retreat, remember that

049this includes all the all of the people in this room and additional district c district and campus leadership. On day one in module two, Mr. Hutchkins provided an overview of A throughF accountability, how it is calculated and provided each of the campuses with their data as well as provided us with our district data. In module three, we used the data that was provided to us by Mr. Hutchings to begin to develop our performance objectives. Notice here that each of our campuses and district leadership teams had this workspace to begin to develop those performance objectives aligned to our data. If we go back to the presentation here, I'd like to show you those performance objectives. These district level performance objectives were uh developed based on uh camp. We looked at our campus performance objectives. In fact,

050we didn't just look at them. Our campuses came to educational leadership as Miss McFaulner stated and shared their performance objectives with us for feedback and for approval. Then district performance objectives were developed. So that of course if campuses are meeting their performance objectives, districts are as well. These are aligned. So when you look on the right hand side, these are the district performance objectives with the goal of meeting them by June of 2026. But notice that we have written fiveyear goals so that in By 2030, we will be an A in every area. The green box indicates what we need to earn an A. If you come back over, notice that we have established milestones. These are achievable, realistic milestone goals that we can focus on each year leading up to 2030 where our goal

051is to earn an A in each area. I want to point out as Miss uh Branch scrolls down, you can see that we have our elementary performance objectives followed by our middle school performance objectives followed by our high school performance objectives. The only thing that you don't see here is third grade reading and math and CCMR. And that's because I will touch on that in a moment in goal two. So, if we go back to the presentation, uh let's talk a little bit about the hotspot areas. These are three additional performance objectives that we have added to address our hotspots. Um, we want to reduce the number of zeros for extended constructive responses. As you heard Miss Faulner just say, um, a focus area for us is to reduce these across the board, but specifically

052we found that this had a direct impact on our data in third grade specifically. And so, um, we will address that. One thing I do want to point out about this, each extended constructive response is worth 20 points. So that means if a student has a zero on their extended constructed response, the highest they can possibly earn is an 80. And so we we know that this is a priority and it will be addressed uh this school year. In addition, we want to reduce the overall number of retesters in each content area by 30%. And we want to increase um the percentage of special education students who reach the approaches level by 3% in each subject and grade level area. This performance objective will not only have a positive impact on our A throughF accountability,

053but it will also impact RDA. These are additional goal one performance objectives to address domain one and I'm sorry, domain two and domain three. This is our go a growth goal. We know that to to have an A, we need 85% growth. That is our long-term goal, but for this year, our goal is 2% growth. In closing the gaps, all three of these will will seem familiar to the to you because I addressed them in one of the slides at the beginning of the presentation. We are going to maintain the interim academic target of three out of four or higher or increase by one performance level in closing the gaps for our sub populations. Uh for our emergent bilingual, we will meet the long-term interim target of 50% for middle school and high school and

05455% for elementary. and we will increase our graduation rate from 96 to 96.5. Now I want to move on to our HB3 proposed goals. So if we look at these goals, they were developed in the same way that our performance objectives were developed for goal one. These proposed performance objectives are for third grade reading, third grade math, and college career and military readiness. Notice this is what we plan to meet by June of 2026. I want to just point out, you notice I've added the word reset here. You might recall that our HB3 goals expired at the end of last year. That was our fifth year. So, this is a reset year. And so, we are recommending these goals and we have established a five-year goal. Again, our goal is that we will be an

055A by 2030 in each of these areas. Um 55% that you see here for reading and math is aligned to that relative performance target that I discussed earlier in the presentation. And again, these are the milestone goals that are reasonable and attainable that we will mon that we will work toward each year leading up to an A in 2003. So now let's move on to goal three, which is focused on effective communication with our families. Here uh in the next two slides are focused on increasing and strengthening family engagement. Specifically, one exciting thing that I would like to point out is that this year on October 27th is a studentled conference day. This has been added to our district calendar and this is a major initiative for us this year. During these studentled conferences, our

056students will have the opportunity to provide for their parents um an update on progress toward their goals um their progress on their graduation plan, their pathway completion, their attendance, and more. You keep going, Mitch. There we go. Goal four is focused on efficient and effective operations here. Uh when we look at facilities, our goal is to oversee the construction of a state-of-the-art high school while also maintaining our other facilities. In the area of Next slide, Miss Angela. In the area of finance, our goal is to increase our fund balance by $200 to $500,000, earn a B school first rating, and continue with zerobased budgeting. In the area of safety, we will provide a safe and orderly learning environment by uh providing our staff with training, conducting threat assessments and entering those in and also uh

057addressing the needs of our lowest performing 5% of students through NTSS. In the area of next slide, talent acquisition, we are going to increase teacher retention by focusing on strategies such as mentorship, career advancement, and competitive compensation. Um, if you recall three years ago, our uh turnover rate was 30%. We have reduced that to 22% and now our goal is to reduce it further to 20% by June of 2026. In addition, you all know that special education positions are very difficult to fill. And so, a strategy that we are trying this year is to support at least 10 of our current teachers in earning their special education certification. in technology. Um we in technology we're going to enhance our cyber security to reduce critical vulnerabilities and then also partner with TLI to develop a dashboard

058that was that will support us with analyzing our third grade data. Now you might ask how in the world are we going to accomplish all of these performance objectives? Well, we've got strategies. So in September we will bring to you strategies to uh meet our goals for goal one, three and four and you will be presented with progress measures to meet our HB3 house bill goals in goal two. Thank you. Any questions for me? That's a lot of information. It is a lot of information. That's why we get to to have some more time to go over this um actually. So, and a lot of great information and some encouraging information. I'm going to pick a little bit on Mr. Wooten because he's a Navy guy and he has lots of um awards. He can

059handle it. Um u what do we have to do to get an A in school first by 2027? If our goal is to get an B in 2026, can we be on target to be have an A? I think that when we get our school first rating uh in a couple of months that he will be able to give you an indepth of uh where it was uh missed previously and then what his uh very specific uh strategies will be for that. So right now we have our goals but we'll be preventing uh providing the strategies a little later. So it'd be a little presumptive to put a 2027 goal in this plan right now. Okay. Um, and then you said you were going to talk about the hotspot areas. Did I miss that? Yes.

060You want to back up, Angela? The, uh, hotspot areas. Uh, our hotspot areas are the zeros that we're seeing on our extended constructive responses. And then also, you can keep going, Angela. You're almost there. And then also, we want to reduce back the other way. We also want to reduce our uh, percentage of uh, retesters by 30% in each content area. And um we want to target special education student performance and increase that by 3% in every content area and grade level. Great. Thank you. And to me is an are our fourth graders a hot spot area the ones that maybe didn't test as well as third graders as last year. Where do they need where do they fall? So if you see the um extended responses that's the hot spot for third grade. But

061what about that's their reading hot spot and last year's third graders or fourth graders count them? Yes, they had a significant zeros in their essay which was 20 points. And so when we analyzed why did it drop? It was because of the extended responses. There were so many zeros in third grade only. Yeah. But what I'm asking is what are we doing to um uh avoid that strategies now fourth graders. So that gets to strategies and so next board meeting we will give you the strategies. Oh, okay. Okay, great. Um, and I love the family engagement piece. Um, you know, especially being a PTO mom for so many years. Um, I think that that is very, of course, it's engaging and it helps us all be responsible. Yes, ma'am. That's all I have for now.

062Thank you. I have a I have a question real quick. Um two why on per on the 55% versus the 60% is there a reason we go with one not the other like achievement versus relative performance is there is there a reason why we didn't do 60 rather than 55 our goal there is I can touch on it but missner feel free if you want to add so if you'll go back Angela to the description slide at the very beginning so we here we go so when you look at how how we have performed confirmed. Um, we have been meeting our this is where we have been meeting our goals. Okay. In relative performance and so it makes sense that this would be our target. Gotcha. And then I saw your tell pass goals and

063I know those are changing. Those thresholds are changing. So I'm sure we'll adapt once that's like finally finally Yes, ma'am. And then retesters. I know uh do did we have a reduction in the number of retesters this year than we did last year? Because I know last year we kind of had like we showed our numbers of retesters. No, same same about the same. We had about the same in English but biology uh went down about the I think we went up in algebra and history went up. Okay. Thanks. And and I think that's something else that's a great goal the retesters to decrease that by 30%. I think that that is uh I think it's important of course we'll move on to item 5e 2024 Casper High School bond program construction update. Mr. Hollowman.

064Yes, Mr. Board President. At this time, Cameron Hollerman, our bond program manager, will present a construction update on the 2024 high school bond program. Okay. Good evening, board members. Board President, Superintendent Smith Faulner. Uh it's uh my pleasure to come to you one more month. We're still rolling. It's been a little hotter this month than the previous two, but uh it's been dry, so we're taking advantage of the of the dry weather. Uh still on strategic goal, on time, uh within budget. I'll show you some details on that and following all safety precautions in order to provide a great learning environment. Uh here's a list of some of the where we've been and where we're going. I think the uh keys here are right here that um we're uh designed up to the uh media

065center and blackbox. So uh we've got some bids coming in and we'll have uh more a clearer picture on where we're going financially. And then u you know the underground is done and decking. You'll see some pictures of uh here's a a timeline of it. Uh broken down by infrastructure renovations and new construction. Uh big picture I think infrastructure is complete with the exception of the water line which you've heard numerous times. Um but we are anticipating a September start date on that. Uh from a financial perspective, we're about uh 30% through construction. So we're about at the one-third mark, eight months out of 24 months in total. So we're right on schedule. Yet we've uh only spent about 25% of our money and u still have a lot of soft cost money yet to

066uh to spend on those items that Mr. Lasher and I are taking care of outside of the archipel. Now, I'll show you a few photos uh of the inside and a little drone footage of the outside. This is our band hall. Uh it's hard to put in perspective the size in a in a photo, but uh it's a nice beautiful area uh that if you'll see the yard lines on the bottom corners, uh this emulates a football field uh in the tile. So, that's a hard surface. Uh it's beautiful to walk through and hopefully uh our goal by the end of September, 1st of October is to be moved in and switch over to the uh media center. Beautiful stuff here. This is the uh technology office portion of the band hall. So, uh moving

067right along. Uh we're about a month away from moving into here. So, um Mr. Bowser and his guys have done all the necessary steps to uh put those guys in place on time. I'll show you a quick uh about a minute of uh footage. I'll pause a couple of times, but looks like me on Monday morning. Okay, here we go. Uh starting to come together and look a lot like a a complete campus now using all aspects of the uh the campus. U the ground uh it's a lot overall. While it's loading, I'll show you this is area A. This is our connector. So, the big thing is that we've got all of our roof decking uh up with the exception of a little bit in area A. So, that's really good news. Uh we've

068got most of our pores in place. for actually pouring the second floor in areas A and B. So, uh we're moving right up. Uh I still think by January, February, we'll be enclosed um in all areas. Um area A and B are anticipated to open up next summer. So, we'll have access to those. And then along the west side, just in case this doesn't load, along the west side right now, um what that shows is that we are complete with the site work. Uh we've got the underground put in for the student parking. We really need that. I counted I think uh on Friday there were 60 uh vehicles from uh our contractors that are parking along that football field in the in the sand. And so um we're lucky to for it to have

069been dry. There we go. Repeat myself a little bit. a little bit to get inside the uh storm shelter. I want to really point that out. That's okay. Yeah. Yeah. There we go. Okay. So, uh but uh big thing that I want to point out is that we will be transitioning end of September to the 1st of October. You can just pause it when there you go. There you go. Okay. So, you'll see we've got our uh rough end. So, that's our uh what will be the locker room, dressing room area of the gym. So, this is area B. This is the storm shelter. This is about uh price-wise, this is about 40% of the all the new construction um because the links we take for the storm shelter, but uh this is uh on

070the south side of the uh gymnasium building. So, you can see the straps hanging down for uh all of our duck work. Uh so, we'll soon be putting in uh walls to go along with the decking. And once we're dried in, push play and you'll see the uh gym area. It's about 6 to 7,000 square feet of gym space. And that is our storm shelter right there with the thick walls. So, back to the big picture. Uh that parking lot, we're doing some stabilization and we should have that poured in the next couple of weeks. So, we'll move the trailer over to that area. We're going to alleviate some of the traffic off of uh White Settlement Road and then we're going to create more traffic when we put in the the water line. But

071uh so that's our media for for the month forward. Some of our challenges real quick. Uh storm water has been complete. We did have a conflict right where it connects. That's why you see at the corner of Churchill and White Settlement uh the piles of dirt. Uh we had um uh cross paths with AT&T. They are going to come out at the end of the month. They're going to pick up their line. We're going to connect the storm water. And so that will be completed. Uh but no more hiccups in in completing that. At the end of the month, uh city of Fort Worth, uh the IP IPRC, better known as the waterline project, uh the review has been complete. In June, they took that to the board, the city council. Um so we did

072make some adjustments. We saved about a half a million dollars on that project. Um, thanks to BTC and working together with us. So, we really appreciate that. We are anticipating a September start date. The uh the red question mark is my uh subtle and respectful jab at the city of Fort Worth. So, that's what the date that they gave us. Uh, but most importantly, the reimbursement plan has been approved. We will follow up with that because we're anticipating getting that money back in order to utilize it in some other areas to improve the project. And if we have any questions, I'll feel them at this time. All right. Thank you very much. I don't have any questions, but it's also a shout out to Mr. Molinar and his staff. It's a lot to have to

073go through with a bunch of teenagers and so we just want you to know that we appreciate that what you're going through and you all make it look so easy. So, thank you. Well, it's not and it does take a team. That's and we do have three more phases in here. Honesty is the best policy. I want to also uh I haven't mentioned Mr. Martinez. He's we we rely on his people uh on a daily basis. We got a call at 7 o'clock this morning that they needed a trailer and it's little things like that. I just want to take one second to point out the help that their their staff has given us as well. So, thank you very much. Move on to item number six C. Close session. At this time, the board

074will retire to close session under Texas Government Code sections 551.071 through 551.076. 076 and 551.08 through 551.083 to discuss the items listed on the agenda. The time is 7:06 I call this meeting back to order after our recess. It is 8:01 p.m. As we continue tonight's meeting, we welcome all who have joined us as we keep asking how can we best promote and encourage achievement for every student in our district. The mission of Casper Independent School District is inspiring and empowering all students to be innovative thinkers in the global community. At this time, we will begin with a pledge of allegiance led by Miss Ariela Martinez. indivisible with liberty and justice for all the flag to the Texas one state and indivisible. Item 7 C, athletic recognition, Caspberry I booster club. Is that you guys?

075Yeah. So, yes, Mr. Board President, at uh this time we have DD Pierce, our director of athletics, will recognize the members of the athletic uh booster club. Good evening. I'd like to thank the CISD Board of Education, President Toiver, and Miss Smith Faulner for the opportunity to recognize the outstanding group of individuals that have served many years in the Cabbury Athletic Booster Club. Tonight, we have the privilege of shining a well-deserved spotlight on a group of people whose work often happens quietly behind the scenes, but whose impact is felt every single day in the lives of our students, our athletes, and our community. The Cabbury Athletic Booster Club has spent years faithfully serving, not just with words, but with action. Many of you know them best from the familiar sight and smell of the concession

076stand where they've spent countless evenings making sure that no one in our community goes hungry. Whether it's a Friday night under the lights or a cold Saturday morning at the field. They are there smiling, serving, and working hard for the benefit of our kids. But their work goes far beyond hot dogs and popcorn. Year after year, they invest over $22,000 directly into our athletes, purchasing travel bags, meals, coats for soccer, baseball, softball, hosting the athletic banquet, and countless other needs that help our students play, perform, and compete at their very best. And their generosity doesn't stop at athletics. When our band traveled to the state competition, the booster club stepped in, providing meals so that those students, too, could focus on performing at the highest level. They've also made an investment that reaches far into

077the future, offering four $1,000 scholarships every year to our student athletes. These scholarships are not just financial gifts. They're a powerful statement of belief in our students potential and a reminder that hard work, dedication, and teamwork open doors far beyond the playing field. The Cabbury Athletic Booster Club doesn't just support our teams, they lift them up. They don't just serve food, they serve our mission. They don't just raise money, they raise opportunities, pride, and community spirit. On behalf of our athletes, coaches, staff, and families, thank you. Thank you for the long hours, the tireless fundraising, the endless planning, and most of all, the unwavering belief in our kids. You are all champions, and tonight we are proud to honor you. Please join me in giving a heart, heartfelt round of applause for the Cabbury Athletic

078Booster Club, our partners, our cheerleaders, and our hometown heroes. Thank you. [Applause] And to honor you, you don't have to stay the rest of the board meeting. You can exit because I know you already volunteered so much time. So, uh, uh, congratulations. Thank you so much for your work. We appreciate it. You want their picture? Oh, yeah. Would y'all like a Come back. We're going to take a picture first. How's that? Come back. We'll get a quick picture. Thank you. No, I'm glad she said that. I totally forgot. item 8A, proposed 2025 tax rate resolution. Yes, Mr. Board President, at this time we have our chief financial officer, uh, William Wooten, and he will present the proposed 2526 tax rate to the board for consideration and adoption That later in the meeting. So, tonight's uh

079discussion points, we're going to talk about the 25 26 proposed tax rate. We're going to talk about the average impact to the homeowners and the legal language, which is the tax rate adoption language. Um, next. So board this this is the proposed tax rate needed to finance the 2526 adopted budget. As you can see the M uh tax rate is 7469 that pays for daily operations and the interest in sinking pays for voter approved bond. Uh so we believe that the the tax rate of $12469 is sufficient to uh pay for all our obligations. By the way, this is there's no change uh from the prior year adopted tax rate. We're we're keeping the same t tax rate. Next one. So this this slide pretty much compares the proposed tax rate comparison. Basically what I

080want you to know here is that when we look at the actual versus proposed 2425 and 2526 total tax rate hasn't changed. St1 $12469. uh the uh M tax rate is the same and the tier one maximum compressed tax rate that's determined by Texas Education Agent that's determined by the state. So we don't have a lot of control over that. Uh and then the tier 2 enrichment tax rate is determined by the board. Those the eight golden pennies plus five copper pennies uh that we levy um against the tax rate. So the INS tax rate again is determined by the board. That hasn't changed. That's still uh 50 cents per $100 valuation. Next slide. Good news. The average annual tax bill per homeowner will go down. Uh not sure if you can see that, but

081it's basically because of Senate Bill uh 4 and Senate Bill 23. Uh I looked the bill up before I came here again. The average tax bill decreases $263 per year. Now, I know the chief appraiser talked about market value. He also talked about appraise value, but my discussion tonight is taxable assessed values. And that's how I determine how much money that the district will collect. And so the standard exemption is it went from 100,000 to 140,000 uh proposing a 40% increase on the standard exemption. Uh folks that are uh 65 and u I suppose younger uh additional exemptions is 60,000. So if you're 65 years or older, you get the 140,000 plus the 60,000 which uh your tax assessed values will go down about 200,000. So the point of the slide is that homeowners will

082see lower tax bills in the 20 25 uh uh tax year even though the actual uh tax rate didn't change. Next slide, please. This is important. Average impact to homeowners. The property tax rate for citizens 65 years or older is not affected over the frozen amount. So when you're 65, your property values tax assessed values are frozen. Uh if the appropriate homestead exemptions are filed and approved with the tenant appraisal district, then the tax liability per per year has no impact on citizens 65 years of older. So, under Senate Bill 4 and Senate Bill 23, uh you'll receive an additional 140,000 and I'm sorry, you'll receive the standard exemption of 140,000 and the additional 60,000 homestead exemption, which will lower your taxable values and your annual bill significantly. So, this is important here. This is

083the no new uh the no new funding rate. I call it the effective tax rate. Um so first let's understand the term no new funding tax rate or effective rate. This rate does not include funding to generate the amount to cover the new Senate bill 4 and Senate Bill 3 homestead exemption. So it's just not enough money we adopted at the no new revenue rate. If so again I'll say if a district reduces the tax rate to the no new or effective tax rate the formula funding would produce substantially less funding for the district and I don't know out of,200 districts I don't think any district adopts at the NNR rate because it just wouldn't be enough money to produce uh funding to uh actually fund the cost of education at that point. Next slide.

084So tonight this is really the tax rate legal language. This is what's required by law. Uh we're going to ask the board president to read this motion. I move that the property tax rate be increased by the adoption of a tax rate of $1.2469 per $100 valuation consistent of an M rate of 7469 per 100 valuation and a debt rate of 0.5000 500 Z uh per $100 valuation which is effectively a 13% increase in the tax rate. So the bottom line is that the 13% is wording required by Texas law statutory written in statutory law. The law compares the voter approved tax rate to the no new revenue rate. Even though the district's voter approved tax rate stayed the same. We didn't change our tax rate. This looks inflated because of Senate Bill 4 and

085Senate Bill 23 which raised the homestead exemption. When you raise the homestead exemption, it drives down the no new revenue calculation. Uh we verified it with our tax attorney. Our tax attorney confirmed the 13.5% is simply required legal language. No impact on Homer's tax bill. So what matters for this discussion is this. The tax rate stayed the same.$124 I'm sorry, dollar2469. Um the homestead exemptions increased. We increase the homestead exemption. The taxable assess values goes down. Subsequently, the tax bill goes down. And I'll stop there. Does anybody got any questions? Mr. President, pending any questions? That that's all I have for this presentation. Mr. Wooten, I think you're 8B. Also, the finance monthly update. Right. This is probably one of my favorite one here. So, let's talk about this is pretty fairly standard report. Uh

086July 2025 budget update. Uh next slide, please. So, today's discussion going to give you the budget snapshot. We're going to talk about the financial performance and then next step action plan. So this is the budget snapshot. Um so all I want to tell you here is that this is July uh 2025. Last month uh reporting we've collected 6% of our budget 48.6 million budget. We spent about 3% uh a net change in fund balance is 1.7 million as of July. Uh that's that's how we next slide. So this just tells us that ball mines that we collected 6% about 48.6 million budget. Um the other uh categories tells you what sources that we collected from. Right now we're heavy on state funding. Uh this month we won't get a state payment uh but we'll get

087a state payment for September, October, uh November, December and January. And then u as you know that the tax collections come in in December and January as well. Um, this is a year-to-year comparison of what we spent in the current year as of July and the prior year as of July. You can see that uh we we spent less about $481,000 less and uh and from the other year. Could you go to the spreadsheet for a second if possible? I want to just I was asked a question about something last time. If you go um what a yeartoyear comparison basically that's yeah so basically what I want to share here is that if you go to appropriations by functions I wanted to share the categories because that was a really good question last time uh

088it was asked go down to expenses uh scroll a little bit please I'll be very So if you if you look at 11, it's categorized as instruction. So these are all the functions that that uh that I've considered as instruction. 11 libraries, 12, 13 is curriculum, 95 is uh payment for juvenile justice alternative programs, which uh very little money goes there. So the next one instructional support. So when you look at that PowerPoint and you compare it to this want to go down to district operations. So this is what's considered district operations uh student transportation obviously uh food services is another fund maintenance uh data processing security and monitoring services and technology. So those in those those are all included and also uh uh I've included other intergovernment uh charges that's very few that's that's

089pretty much tag uh we pay the tarant appraisal district um so that's it so we go back to the powerpoint I just kind of wanted to highlight that thank you so talk about next steps we're going to continue to monitor projections uh each month U going to talk about the cash flow. Somebody asked about uh um school first. I think cash flow is probably the number one thing I think about every night. Uh and then September 25, I mean next month obviously we're going to talk about school first discussion and then monthly financial reporting. In October, uh we're going to finalize the audit and get the deen we'll get the debrief from the auditor. In November, the plan is present the financial audit to the board. Um, any questions? Uh, Mr. President, that's that's all

090we have. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes, ma'am. I I'll Yes, ma'am. Is it not linked? I I think it should be there. Okay. Statement revenue and expenditures. Yeah. On to Item number nine, the consent agenda. At this time, we will consent, we will consider the consent agenda as modified without uh 9D, which we will discuss later on. So, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as modified? Mr. President, I move that the consent agenda as modified be approved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Please indicate your vote. Motion carries 70. Now on to action items. Let's just start out with 90 since that's really where we're at. Uh policy update 125 board presentation. Um Miss Gman, you had some questions about BDB. could use a little bit more discussion from us on

091how we handle um board uh committees. Um right now it just kind of really talks about Well, let me get there. Just so you know, Mr. President, I'm using my phone to look at policy. I'm not using it for any other reason. And that's BDF BDB. So, and I think that you can go to your I have it on my desktop where you can go to the policy. I think if everybody can go to the link for the policy for BDB BDB Thank you. BDB local so that we can all read it together. Angela, by chance, can you pull that up? Thank you. I know Angela's bringing B D B local. Okay. Um, so it's under special committees is where we operate on our board uh committees and I just thought it was a little

092bit vague on how because we had a couple of people decide to get off committees and there's nothing there's no process on how we are to handle that. So, um, I thought maybe we needed to talk about that. Do we need to add Do we need to broaden this local policy to be more specific to the process of committance itself? And then the other that was number one and the other thing was um the about the committees having to be dissolved upon completion of the assigned task or vote. What exa exactly does that mean? For instance, we had an advocacy committee and that's an ongoing topic. So, we would have to decide. So, is it just for that designated um uh plan for instance, we had our state advocacy and we decided we would go

093and do that and that was a plan. So, does that mean that that's that the committee is finished then or is it an ongoing committee? So, um I can provide some background so that y'all can make a good uh decision. The reason that the policy was updated because it derives from BDF to align with it. Uh it uh I'm looking at the local one which I'm guessing there was uh maybe perhaps some changes. So BDF was issued in 611 of 2025. And so a lot of times when something changes then they uh TASBY provides all of the policies that oh we one has been changed so now in order to agree then they uh begin to change another policy. So I think that we would have to do some research uh to see uh what

094changed BDF uh because it talks about the same thing dissolving the committee after a ta a task. And so I saw that too because these were some changes and I was like okay so where all does this go back to that the original that the changes actually came from? Why? Why were they changed? Because it must mean that there is another policy that was changed. So the LO So this is the suggested language from TASBY to match it so that we're in alignment with legal. Yes. And so this is new territory for us. So, I think it's I thought it was something that maybe that we should pull from the consent agenda to discuss if we want to have further discussion about this and it could even be something we talk about in a board

095workshop with um Lonear Governance. Sorry. I think it's worth us investigating further because I I do think it's just kind of vague. Doesn't give us enough context to say we do this, don't do this. And you're right, committees are new to us. And the other thing is you probably need a reg a regulation. So the regulation says what are the procedures? So I don't know that local policy would need to change. Instead we usually have the addition of procedures which is called regulation and we can actually uh actually look and see if TASBY has provided some regulations or exhibits for it. What I would like to ask them is where did the original changes come from legal? Where did that come from? So that we'll know why this language was provided and uh what does

096it match with? What part matches? Is there anything that it matches? And then what uh I'm looking at Wes. He was shaking his head. What regulations are out there or exhibits are out there for us? Right. Right. What what I would like to propose is you can uh pull BDB and if we could approve the other uh items. Yes. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Is there a motion to amend? Their motion because they made the motion. What motion was it? Yeah. It was pulled from the consent. No, exactly. I don't think anybody this we pulled it out of the consent agenda to discuss it. So, well, we need to amend uh 9D and to pull specifically exclude Thank you. uh BDB. So, need somebody to make that motion. Is there a second? I think I think

097we're No, I think this is what's this is what's throwing Tracy, which I now I understand what where you're at because the motion says I move to approve the consent agenda as presented, which it's all in there. So I think that's what going back to Mary Lou is what she's saying because it's policy update explanatory notes 125 local policy but that's what the motion is unless the motion is written incorrectly excluding Mr. President, I amend my motion to exclude BDB from the consent agenda as presented. Second. Is there a second? I think I just second it. All in favor, please indicate your vote. Motion carry 70. Sorry. A little sideways. We got back on track. Item 10A, consider approval to adopt the 2025 tax resolution rate. There is a specific motion for that. Is there

098a motion? Oh, do I need to read that? I think I said Mr. Whitten said you had to read it. All right. Whatever he says, I'll do. I move that the property tax rate be increased by the adoption of a tax rate of 1.2469 out of 100 consisting of an M rate of point or 0.7469 out of 100 and a debt rate of 0.5000 out of 100, which is effectively a 13.5% increase. This is due to Senate Bill 4 and 23 that increased homestead exemptions. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Please indicate your vote. Motion carries 70. Item 10B, consider approval of the 2025 2026 budget amendment number two. Is there a motion? I move to approve the 2025 2026 budget amendment number two as presented. Second. Is there any discussion? Sure.

099So my question is just Um, what impact will that have on function 11? That that's a great question. Uh, Mr. Wooten wasn't sure what was going to be approved in the replacement plan. And so once it was approved in the replacement plan, he had to move the money. He he didn't take money from uh instruction, it was kind of like a holding place of where he had it sitting until the approval of the replacement plan happened and then he needs to move it to the correct function. So we can hold it because he can because you guys can move it now that you approved the replacement plan. He has moved it in several functions based on the items that were in the replacement plan. That makes sense. Yes, I had the same question. Right. But

100and also I think it's notable to mention that this amendment balances all functions within fund 199 with no impact to the fund balance. I think that that last those last two words are very important. So thank you. See any further discussion? Please indicate your vote. Motion carries 70. Now we're on to item 11 A. Oh, no. Sorry. Information items. Yeah. Anything you want to hit on? Anything anybody wants to jump on or this? That's a lot of information. There were no questions. Mr. War President. Okay. the information items or discussion items. Oh, I thought we were only on 11. We're on information items only. Yeah, on 11. Yes. And there were no questions turned in. Number 11 to be prepared for? No, I don't think so. Those are just the regular onepage information items. Now

101we're on to item 12, discussion items. 12A, Board of Education key dates. Let me log in. Try again. I don't have any questions, but I want to make a comment of a thank you and appreciation for all of the months that were provided. Um, on this one, good for planning ahead. We've got uh a lot of sporting events, ace parent information night, or all the sports do they all start at usually starts the last five games for for football last five games of the year the district games board meeting CD holiday Monday the September is a holiday Monday meeting on the 8th of September homecoming parade do you want to discuss that Now, 25th 6 p.m. I'm assuming it's pretty much the same deal lineup. Yeah, we we really don't have the information uh from

102the campus yet of all the details of the homecoming parade. But I can send that to you uh once we have all of the information. You have a float that you can decorate. Yes. Tessa Tasby convention on the 12th. Mr. Board President, we didn't have anyone that signed up for the convention and so because of that, I did not sign up. Okay. That's our first game. Yeah. Right. Let's move on. Golly, we're already looking at Christmas dinner 12c. Okay. Schoolboard pictures. Monday, September 8th at 5:00 pm. We can talk about it. I just made a remark. Yeah, next board meeting is pictures who their representatives are. So, if we could consider that and once again have that at each campus. Sometimes you just need to be able to see who your representatives are. But I

103know that's not on the agenda, but just something to think about. Can we get Angela? Can we get them on the fifth? 5:00. I'm assuming black or or navy. School color, red or blue. There's Columbia, there's navy. I suggest black with red or blue shirts or accessories. I think it looks very professional, you know. That's usually I think because there's so many different reds also that when we did the red, everybody's red was all different, but I think red and blue, the school colors with a basic black. Adam 12B. I'm sorry. Yes. Five o'clock. You can start with individuals. I can I'm sorry. Yeah. like just 12. discussion of creating a school board self-evaluation tool. 12 E I don't know that we've set a date though. Oh, okay. Um, I know in October that they're

104having a um, Lonear Governor is having a statewide meeting. Not I don't know if it's statewide, but some kind of training for all school boards possibly in October, but I'm not real sure about those facts, but something that we can look at is the two day. So, Is it the right I thought we were going to do the two-day training. That's right. That's right. I'm sorry. I think this is that's for continuing. Yeah. Do you have available dates? Um she is a No. Um she seemed to think it would be a Friday and a Saturday maybe. So I just need to know is that a a a possibility so that we can start getting some dates from um Miss Clark. What's the time for both? Like we don't even know if she wants eight hours

105or two hours. She wants eight hours. Two eight hour days. Whoa. Whoa. What was that? 28 hour days. 16. Two eight hour days. Okay. And they need to be pretty close together. Um, and I think someone has to travel. There's two people that do it and uh, so someone does have to travel. So, we'd have to pay for travel for them if they do it two different times. But, didn't talk. I did not talk any funding. I just said, "Let me know the dates." Uh, and she said it's usually a Friday and a Saturday, but the, you know, I'm I'm here, so it's kind of up to your um time frame of what you can do at work. The only dates I'm not available are October 10th and 31st because I have work things. that

106I have to attend that day all day. Yeah. And it doesn't have to be October either. So is Saturday and Sunday out of the question like Saturday at noon, Sunday at noon after services. Oh. Oh. So, we know they could do Friday, Saturday. Yes. It's just not preferred. We commit to going uh within a week of finding some days and we'll submit them to Angela and see if anything clicks and connects. If anything comes together, you mean like everybody has one Friday they off Friday and Saturday they could commit. Yeah. So, do we have to do it before the end of the year? I mean, is that our plan? I didn't do it. Uh, you did it last year, I think, in October with Dennis. You can begin creating one as part of this and

107you could use the TASBY model again for this year and then uh be in the process of creating one. I mean, Tasby will do that for us because we also don't want to rush it, right? We don't want to just rush it like check a box, do something for the sake of doing it. We want to make sure that it's quality and we invest the time and the energy to putting it together. And I think that the first thing that we do in the two-day training is look at board operating procedures again, which will drive uh some of it. So I I'm not sure during that two-day time if you're creating your evaluation tool. That might be an an additional training, some groundwork before we get to that. I think that's that's fair. Make sense?

108And she'll probably have more dates open in the spring as well. They may be booked. I know Fort Worth ISD is using Lone Star government doing their training right now as well. Spring is better for me. Fall is hard for me. So fall is out com for you. I mean it's not out but to coordinate schedules it's going to be a challenge. I mean, we have conferences and there's weekends and so I mean, yeah, I think the end of February would be perfect timing because we start our cycle of our goals and evaluation and um so I do think that starting it in February might be very good timing, I think. And the other thing is you guys just started this fiveyear thing. So you might be adapting some. So that way you kind of

109like work out the things you're going to like adapt by the time we get to the spring. Then we're able to then really say this is the solid plan right now. It's your best guess at the plan and it will change because you know accountability is going to change. So we have this but we know that it's also changing and CCMR is changing. So we're doing the best we can knowing what's changing. with our board evaluation and then trying to do something uh in the spring. Is that what I'm hear? I think the end of governance and now something with TASBY in October to be in compliance. Okay. Is that correct? Is that what everybody's on? That way we can look at our calendars and uh make some arrangements. We have time to plan. February

110actually being better for me too. reach out. We want to ask if Sunday is something that they do so that we know whether we're considering Friday, Saturday, Sunday or just Friday, Saturdays. Yeah, Angela, if you will ask her, but I I think that that wasn't one of the uh suggestions that she gave me, but maybe they'll do it. We'll do a some this evaluation in October and then yeah the TASBY one and then do the Lone Star governments in February. Is that what I'm hearing? Okay. So, do you want me to go ahead and get Tasby to set up the online uh one that you usually do? So, Angela, so we just need to get Tasby to send us uh the one so everyone can complete 12F board committee discussions and updates. I believe. Do

111you want me to talk about that tonight? I didn't see a link but and and I got to thinking about that that that would cover that lonear governance would also cover some of those things because you attach let's say you're literacy is our focus we've already so we're already doing that as a board that literacy is our focus but how is literacy and um community engagement also how does community engagement affect the literacy um focus that we So, I think that we'll discuss that with Lonear Governance and then that would cover what we were proposing as far as um what we can do with the community. And then we might need to bring what we're doing in case you're not sure like Mous and the reading volunteers and things like that like what how are

112we bringing the community in to see how we can all tie it together. something that we thought as a committee, you know, how can we bring elected officials together to support one another and so that we all know what each other is doing? How can how can the community support the school? So, just some brainstorming, but I think that we'll be able to talk about that governments as well. Just real quickly, like River Oaks is doing working trying to improve their parks and so in the summer they would could possibly have novels in the parks and um through pictures. So just things like that. So very simple things at first. I'm sorry, Tracy. I remembered what happened to the museum idea, the Smithsonian. Did we not win that? We didn't win. No. Okay, never mind.

113Well, we evidently did not win that. Um it's been we haven't we've had no communication back from them so we don't know who won that but we're hoping that it has spurred some interest for some heritage things in the city. So yeah, but we sure tried. We sure tried to say we were rural 2025 for regular board meeting. I move we adjourn. Hearing no objection, we stand adjourned at 8:55 p.m. Thank you.