School Board Meeting | July 14, 2025

001I 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. And as a reminder, we are here for what is best to promote and engage and encourage achievement for every student in our district. And we will have an invocation led by Miss Marylu Martinez. I pray for children We will move on to item number three, communications from citizens. We appreciate you being here this evening and we always welcome communication from citizens of our district. Individuals who wish to participate during the portion of the meeting designated for public comment shall sign

002up with the presiding officer or designate no later than 1 pm the day of the board meeting and shall indicate the agenda item or topic on which they wish to address the board. Miss Branch, do we have anyone who wishes to speak to the board tonight? No, we do not. Thank you. Item four, Miss Smith Faulner, were there any questions called in regarding the consent agenda? Uh, no, there were not, Mr. Board President. Okay. And we move on to item 5A, the tax attorney report. Uh, yes, Mr. Board President. Uh, Elena Fernandez, representative from Purdue, Brandon, Filder, Collins, and M LLP, will provide an annual update of the collection of delinquent property taxes. Good evening, President, Superintendent, Board of Education, and members of the community. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this

003morning. As our superintendent stated, my name is Elena Fernandez and I'm here alongside my colleague Elizabeth Van Calvo and we are your legal counsel with regards to the delinquent property tax collection and I am about to provide you a little report on this. I want to though first acknowledge and thank this board and administration for your continued commitment to fiscal responsibility and education educational excellence. Uh the work we do in partnership with the district is always guided by the belief that every dollar recovered or allocated effectively contributes to stronger student outcomes and a more sustainable future. With that, let me walk you through our collections report. The first page that you all see um is something that we give to you all every month. Um this is our June activity. It tells you how many

004pleadings that we filed. Um, showing the amount of the taxes, penalties, and interest, the judgments. We've been grateful to not have any tax sales, um, what we have in bankruptcy, and that our phone bank, our call center, and how many calls that they've been making on that dollar amount. We mon we monitor the progress of partial payment agreements um, through various taxpayer contacts about their compliance. Um, and I just want to let you know for the 2023 tax year, which just finished its full cycle through June 30th, 2025, our collection percentage is 84.84%, which represents our first 12 months of collecting on that tax year. The 2023 adjusted delinquent tax levy as of July 1 of 2024 was or is currently um $619,87849. The balance due as of June 30th, 2025 is now $93,97327. The

0052024 delinquent tax turnover, which we just received on July 1 of 2025, is $468,31.18. The 2024 tax um collection year is from July 1 of 2025 through June 30th of 2026. We will update you monthly on the collections over the next uh 12 months. And our future activity will include filings of new suits, amending cases, and again letting you know where our phone calls are in our phone bank. Our goal is not to push things necessarily to litigation, but get them collected in our call center. And so the next um page you see is just um the 2023 uh tax here at a glance which I just showed you which just shows you where we were each month of our collections and as I stated what's still remaining um that we've got remaining is what's

006in red and then each month showing what we were able to collect. The next page is account breakdown chart which kind of gives you an idea of what we have in bankruptcy, what we have in trust, in deferral, in litigation, in partial pay, in uncollectibles, in bad address and action pending. I know when we hear the word uncollectible, the first question we ask is what does that mean? And so what we look at when we think about uncollectible is we look at what the whole role entails. And first and foremost, if you're not familiar with statute of limitations, um when it comes to our business personal property, our manufactured homes, they have to stay on the role for a total of 10 years. And when it comes to real property, that statute of limitation is

00720 years. Well, when you've got a business that might be, and I'm talking specifically business personal property, who might be there on January 1 of this year, but don't make it the full year, don't even make it until next year or two years down the road, that account becomes uncollectible. and we've done our efforts, but the reality is it's not going to be removed from the role until 2010. If we did initiate litigation on an account for several years and we take a judgment on it and the business is no longer there, that now time that date, the tax office won't purge it. They'll go from the judgment date and all of those things. And so most of the time when I look at uncollectible, we try to break up our accounts where we have

008what is real property, what do we have in our manufactured homes that we're going to deem uncollectible, what is our business personal property, what do our mineral accounts look like, and as we do our collection efforts, we try to narrow to really ice down um what is truly collectible in our terms. So we kind of have this this umbrella where we say this is our uncollectible property in terms of we've we've exhausted our efforts and the reality is until we hit that statute of limitations um it's going to remain there and every year we've been working diligently with the tax office as things come up letting them know hey make sure this gets purged this isn't in litigation and so forth. So, our goal again is not to just throw things in litigation to get

009them tied up because that'll toll the time on when we're able to go and get things removed. And just to let you know, mobile home accounts subject to the 10-year purge, we're looking at $62,536 right there. And then when we think about our business personal property that's subject to the 10-year purge, we're looking at about 15,000. There's also an account um it is tied in litigation, but it's um oh god it's a it's a BPP uh account. Can't think of the name right now, but it has $125,000 on it from a judgment we took in 2020 2013 that should be ready to purge, but we've got to make sure that we remove that litigation code. And when we remove it from our end, the county and all the other entities have to do as well.

010So that is what we look at when we say uncollectible. Bad address is just we send out our mailing. We just started our mailing campaign. The first letter that goes out is a notice of tax lean with the second one which we'll give in um September which will be notice of uh foreclosure and we'll start our process with the 2024 year. But while we focus mainly on the current year, the current year is the easiest to collect because it's the first year. But the older the the older the account gets, the harder it is to collect. But we are calling on all ears. And um that last page of the report is kind of what I briefly told you is what we're looking at, what just got turned over to us on July 1st. We're

011still combing through mark and what's in CAD litigation, what is um CAD litigation, what is bankruptcy, and so forth to really narrow down where we want our callers to focus on. And that's all I've got for you. Any questions? So if well there's a lot going on in Tarant County. Um and so one thing in first first and foremost when we say litigation we've initiated the process. Normally once we initiate litigation someone gets served then you get the phone call I want to set up the payment agreement. And so while we don't want to be at the we tell them we'll set up the payment agreement we're not at the mer the court might push us forward but we don't necessarily set the case for that um some of our cases um in include estates

012and all the things or you think you found one and you find out there's five or six errors and they're all over the place. So usually the delay with um getting things to close it's um the number of parties that are included in a suit payment agreements as well as our court docket. So we have about 13 courts that we circulate um cases through um Tarant County. Some of those courts have hearings every month. Some only have them once a quarter. And when they have them once a quarter, you've got to give 75day notice that you are ready beforehand and all the things. So that is essentially what I would say kind of delays the process a little bit. Any questions? All righty. Thank you very much. You're welcome. You all have a wonderful evening

013and enjoy the rest of your meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Now on to item 5B, 2024 2025 HB3 College Career and Military Readiness Summitive Review. Yes, Mr. Board President. At this time, you'll have Dr. Darla Barnes, our CHS academic dean, Stephanie Martinez, our director of CTE, and Manny Salva Salvador. said that wrong. Uh college career readiness uh advisor will present a sumitive review of the house bill 3 goals for 2425 college and career uh military readiness. Just a reminder, these goals are five years. They were adopted in 2020 uh by the school board. We progress monitor them in the district improvement plan quarterly and annually and in the CIP for the high school and reach annually and quarterly and in progress monitoring at the uh with the campuses quarterly and so we they have our

014results uh preliminary results for the year. Good evening board president Toiver, Superintendent Smith Faulner and board members. Tonight we'll be presenting our summitive progress towards our House Bill 3CMR goals. This is a preliminary information as we await our final A throughF accountability rating and our taper report. Additionally, the 2025 school year concludes the five-year plan adopted by the board in 2020. I'll hand it over to Oh, wait. We got one more. I got my first slide. Sorry. First, we'll take a look at our overall CCMR goal. We've had tremendous success moving the needle. Our preliminary results show that we had approximately 99% of our 2025 seniors meet CCMR. So, at this time, I'll turn it over to Mr. Salvar to explain the different ways that kids can receive for CCMR credit. Hello. Good evening. So,

015there are multiple ways for students to meet CCMR. The first is by college readiness. Uh, this includes scoring a three or higher on an AP or four on an IB exam, scoring above the college readiness standards on the SAT, ACT or TSI2 in both English and math or earn college prep course, complete a dual credit course, earn an associates degree, or complete a dual enrollment course and qualify for at least three on-ramp hours of credit. The next way to obtain CCMR is through military readiness, which includes enlisting the United States Armed Forces or Texas National Guard. The last way to obtain CCMR is through career readiness. And this includes obtaining an industrybased certification as well as completing the course required for the pathway, being a student with an IEP and demonstrating workforce readiness, graduating under

016an advanced diploma plan identified as special education, and lastly, earning a level one or a level two certificate. As Mr. Sound of our mention there are multiple ways to obtain CCMR. CCMR progress measure one looks at the percentage of college ready annual graduates. The goal was to increase from 28% to 89%. The preliminary percentage for 25 2025 is 90%. Some of the benefits of such a high percentage of college readiness include that 77% of students had a college application submitted. 86 students participated in the TCC Connect and 64% of our students completed their FAFSA. In progress measure 2, the goal focused on career or military ready graduates with a goal to increase from 38% to 50%. Significant growth was made between 2020 and 2022. However, this is a goal that we did not adjust upon

017the sunsetting of a major IBC. This is the dip you see in 2023. While we had the dip in the year of 23 data due to the sun setting of with the heavily utilized MOSS IBC, we've begun to make headway as we've implemented new IBC's such as Microsoft 365 and student social media marketing certificate. We will continue to re-evaluate our IBC offerings as the new IBC list is currently being updated for this year. For the next five years, we will reset this goal. As we look at progress measure three, just a reminder, the goal you initially adopted is no longer reported in taper. So, a new goal was adopted that measures student eligibility for outcome bonuses. The goal was to increase student eligible for outcome bonuses from 12% to 37%. Outcome bonuses are the additional

018funds a district can obtain based on eligible students passing TSI2 and obtaining an IBC or attending college after graduation. While you are not seeing significant growth in the chart, there are multiple steps being implemented to support outcome bonuses, including the TSI2 testing starting in 8th grade. Outcome bonus awards are delayed for two years, but based on 2025 graduates, we anticipate a $65,000 award in 2027. Now to Stephanie Martinez to discuss the 2526 action steps. Thank you. um with our first official year of our Caspberry Collegiate Academy, which is our early college high school, we've already began to see um an some earlier impact on our CCMR success with our 9th and 10th grade cohorts. So, as we get more entrenched into this program, we're it'll be good to see the impact that it has quicker

019in the game rather than waiting till the junior senior year. Uh, two, now that we've kind of fully actualized our long-term five-year plan, it's time to start constructing new House Bill 3 goals for the next five years, and we're in the process of crafting goals that are more in alignment with our A throughF accountability, and they'll be recommended for approval by the board in the new DIP coming up. And three, that this is good to do this because it allows for more monthly monitoring. um we already do that in our progress monitoring, but it'll be something that we'll put a scorecard up for the board to see. And then for success has uh not been it's been elusive with our um outcome bonuses. So one of the things about that is it's the kids' inability

020to meet the mark on the TSA 2 criterion scores and TLI is making effort to ensure that the curriculum is updated and includes specific lessons and activities in the tested area. And like Dr. Burns explained earlier, we're already starting to move testing down to 8th grade algebra 1 and honors to start pushing that needle and getting them ready for the TSA2 and SAT standards. Um, and then lastly, five, as the workforce evolves, we have to evolve as well. The Texas Education Agency updates approved industrybased certifications IBC list every four years to reflect the shifting industry standards and the workforce priorities. So, in response, we have to continually evaluate and adapt our CTE program offerings to stay in alignment with both state requirements and labor requirements in our area. Um, with the construction of our new

021CTE building, we are uh proactively aligning our pathways to better serve students and the community. Just for example, we're shifting from a traditional culinary arts program to a hospitality management program um that positions our students for a wider range of high wage, high demand careers identified in our regional data. So there are jobs right here that are high wage, high demand that they could be leaving and being and entering the workforce with. Um these changes are not just reactive, they're strategic. Our goal is to ensure that our students graduate with relevant skills, certifications, and opportunities that match the real world needs of our region so that when they leave Castlebury High School, they're prepared for any post-secary endeavor that they want to do. Thank you. Stephanie, would you also add that we also look at

022if they're aligned with uh the industry based certifications accepted in A throughF accountability? Correct. Yes. and and that limits sometimes does limit and with them changing it every four years we have to really stay up on that correct military enlistment but the outcome bonuses are only based on if they've passed TSI 2 or and that they have the uh IBC or enroll. I believe that if they do enroll in the military, I believe that they also we all get outcome bonus for that too. We've already begun the phase out program for that. So, we have our last year practicum students as well. they can enlist um we get a what's called a D9 form and after they've done their listman then that's how the state will track it and that's once they've actually signed the

023paperwork for that in our CCMR data is lagging data when it comes to uh A throughF and I think that's what you're saying like we're actually a year behind right two years behind on bonuses as well. So yes and two years and so what you're seeing today is going to impact the accountability two years from now 27 and then so Mr. Salvar, I didn't trip over your name this time. You also uh I want you to brag on because of all of uh the CCMR um uh strategies we put in place. How much scholarship money did we have this year? The largest I've had in history. So, the previous year we were at 4.1 million. This year we're at 8.67 million. So, we doubled. [Applause] Thank you. Question on the military. Okay. I know that

024this happened with one graduate that we had like I want to say he graduated two years ago. graduates, he's not sure what he wants to do, but then a year later he does join the military. Is that something that they should report to the school or what is the timeline for post-graduation? So, we have up until that August of the next school year to report. So, if they don't if they sign after that deadline, we can no longer report them. Thank you. I did have a request that people online uh be sure you have your mic on because they're not hearing our voices. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Now, we'll move on to item 5C, 2024 Casper High School bond program construction update. Uh yes, Mr. Board President. Cameron Hollowman, bond program manager, will present a

025construction update on the 24 Caspay High School bond program. Thank you, board members, board president, Superintendent Smith Faulner. Okay, let's jump into this. Well, our strategic plan is to be on time in budget and a state-of-the-art facility. Uh along with that, I've brought the lowest mean temperatures in the last decade. So, you're welcome for that. But, uh uh with that also comes rain. So, we've had some challenges, but we'll jump into uh just kind of the timeline here. Um as you can see when you've gone by, uh we are erecting steel. That's about 2% of what we've done since last uh June. But, however, uh it looks great and it looks like it's uh doubled in the past month. So, we're happy about that. We've got the crane in place. Uh we got that done

026before the rain. Um slab on grade. We're about done there. So, that's allowed us to uh start the steel. Uh we were able to switch to permanent power over the holiday uh July 4th holiday. So, just in time for the high school to come back. Um, our underground storm water is complete, but we're not able to quite make the connection until we uh work out some details with the utilities. Uh, and that would be nice to alleviate some of the water that we've had. Uh, band hall renovation is about 60% complete. So, we plan to take over from BTC uh October 1st. So, we'll be coming to you with some uh furniture requests uh in order to get in there by November 1st. ideally for those seniors to be able while they're still competing this

027fall to uh have use of that. And then the parking lot uh on the west side uh we've got the portables removed. Yay. So uh we'll have that earthwork site all prepped up by the end of next week. And then the media center redesign uh and bidding process is underway. So we're looking at roughly a month that started last week. So that's really cool. And we'll have some renderings for you next month. Uh and then progresswise infrastructure uh we have our permanent power and our storm uh water drainage. Again, what I wanted to point out here is that we're on schedule with these things. And you know, it's um not just due to me, that's due to Mr. Jacob here and Lenny. They've been so key. There's so many intricate items that go along with

028design and getting these things in. So, I can't praise them enough for that. But our water line has been a little bit lagging because we're dealing with two governmental entities, engineers and contractors and architects all in one room trying to agree. So that's very difficult. Uh but as you can see on as far as our timeline, not much of these have been adjusted uh since I created this a few months ago. Renovation wise, you'll see some pictures on the band hall uh media center and cafe. As I said, we'll show you some re renderings next month. And then our theater and choir uh is going right along with the media center and that will start um in the spring. So we plan to have that ready for the beginning of the school year next year.

029New construction wise uh pair and beams are complete. Uh so we're happy. Uh foundation and steel is ongoing. We plan to have that completed in September. Uh and then the parking lot on the west side uh will be huge. Upon completing that, we'll be able to move that u the job trailer over there that will also be able to stage trucks. So, I don't know if any of you noticed, but just to jump out ahead of it, we're having to stage trucks on days like this in front of the high school uh because of the traffic, because of the mud, because of the steel. So, being able to utilize that parking lot is also going to help in the coordination process. Uh so this is just an overview but overview but I want to show

030you here that we have paid out roughly 27 to 29% on the renovations and the uh soft cost um or package 2 and soft cost. Um the key there is that we're probably about I think Lenny and I both agree at least 33 to 36% complete. So what that means for us is that we're we're staying about 5 to 10% ahead of schedule relative to what we're paying out. So what that means for the district financially is that we're able to carry, you know, roughly three to$4 million each month and drawing interest on that. So that's a plus. So far BTC hasn't complained much. Uh I do think we're making the payments on time. We've just uh we've been beneficial to have Israel and BTC's guys on site. They're really staying ahead of the game

031and avoiding some of the disaster that we've had with these wings. Uh here we'll jump into some photos now. Here's the band hall uh renovation. So you can see we've got a lot of the infrastructure done as far as the uh the duct work um above ceiling. Again, I want to give some praise to uh Jacob because technology side um it's tough when it comes to construction. I know uh Miss Smith Faulner can attest to this. So, construction guys don't see technology as a trade. Technology is probably the most important thing that we have in the buildings nowadays. Uh and that's progressed over the last two decades. But it's super important. So, a lot of the behind the-scenes things that goes on as far as coordination, uh, getting the contractors out there, uh, he's taking

032on a lot of this for the district um, in order to save some percentages, uh, in getting that work done in house. So, I really appreciate that. But, we're really moving forward here. And again, schedule there is October 1st uh, to hand over to the district. And here's the infamous red steel. This is the funnest part of the project really. Once it gets closed in, you're just going to see a box there for about 6 months until we get it complete. But right now, we're u moving forward with the steel. We've got areas to stage and areas to erect. So, we're doing uh really well there. Uh this I just wanted to give you guys a closeup. This is the uh storm shelter. And kind of relative to this doorway down at the bottom, that's

033a you know 9 foot door. So, we've got uh about 30 feet of wall there. Uh and that is all poured solid concrete. Uh so that'll be our storm shelter which also is going to act as the gym of course. So uh just wanted to give you guys a closeup of the work that goes into that. Not just the all the red steel but the prep that goes behind it. Here is the perimeter fencing. This is along the west side. Lenny again has done a great job of coordinating this. Uh in the background you see the two portables and as of today they are uh down almost all removed. Um so we've had some back and forth getting th getting rid of those. It's actually pretty difficult these days to get rid of portables because

034of the expense of hauling them and the permitting that it uh the counties require in order to put them on the highway. So Lenny's done a great job there. Um so this is where the parking lot will be going in. So, uh, great headway there. Uh, and here I want to show a one minute video. Uh, I'll try to direct it a little bit. Uh, thank you, Angela. So, here's our A, A, B, and C. If you'll, that's the connector. That's the gym, and that's where A and the administration will be. Uh, this is where the storm drain has gone in along this perimeter. um try to get into the mic. And again, this west side I've referenced quite a bit. This will entirety will be a parking lot and it will connect to Melbourne.

035So, um that'll be huge when we're able to access the job site on that uh northwest side. So, uh really cool. We get one of these once a month. I think Aby's already posted this. So, we're uh doing a good job of on the PR side as well. And hopefully uh each month you'll be able to actually see how much headway we've been able to make here. That connector is going to be really really awesome. And again, all of those things are planned to move in uh starting next spring, summer, and ending in the fall of next year. Uh however, we do plan on being uh completely dried in uh sometime January, February. So that's when the inside work and a lot of the tedious stuff will be getting done and we'll keep you updated

036on those inside. Uh and then last but certainly least to our challenges. Um so storm water as you see we we as I've mentioned we've completed it. Um we've got a little bit uh we're trying to work through to connect that. Um, so, uh, what that does mean for us is that we're able to move forward with our service yard, which is that area where the dumpsters are and where some of our, uh, custodians park in the mornings at the competition gym and it's also an access point. So, it's huge, uh, headway there. Uh, but we have faced challenges now for about six months. Uh, and then the city of Fort Worth waterline. Uh the the the big things to mention to you guys is that the plan has been taken to the city council

037uh last month. They're off this month. They take their vacation. So we won't go back until October. What we have to work out there is where our design and our engineers are completing the uh boring under the road in order to alleviate having to uh block off traffic and do um uh overlay on top of the road. There's some things that we're able to u do in order to alleviate both schedule and cost. But I do want to uh reiterate to you guys that in that meeting we have agreed in principle on the design and secondly and more importantly I believe is they have agreed that the reimbursement full reimbursement is still in place. So all good things. Um so we'll keep you posted on everything. Are there any questions? Okay. Thank you very much.

038What? Could you add something while she's turning her mic on? Could you are package one? I know you're bringing people next, but were we in budget when we closed? Yes, we were. I was going to let BTC share the news, but hey, I'm here. So, uh yes. Uh so, we did save about uh 10%. So, we've got about 150 give or take,000 that we're able to put back into uh the bond of course and that's the way it has to be spent. But BTC will come August 18th to share that good news with you guys. So act surprised when you see it. Yeah, that was part of my question. And on the portables, do we auction those off? Do we sell those? It's been a challenge and I'm sure uh Lenny could talk for 30

039minutes on that. So we did post them. Uh we advertised it. There's just not a lot of people want it. So mostly it's a business now. People are buying and selling them. not necessarily the people who we who did reach out to us, some in the district uh some River Oaks uh people, it's so costly uh to have them moved and the responsibility that it was too much for them to take on. So, it used to be a $10,000 flat fee. You get them and move them and it's worth it, right? Because these were uh 2,800 square feet buildings. But um yes, we did in in fact I would think we posted it for an extra two weeks and uh we came down to one buyer. They agreed and uh they weren't able to move

040them because of the links that they were going to have to go to and build platforms and things. Not to get too tedious, but either way, we got our money. So they did pay us for the process and ended up uh demolishing them for us. So yeah, so we did good. And I think we're even able to salvage uh the uh units on the ends of two of the uh HVAC units which happen to be like for light compatible with another area in the district that we've needed to replace the HVAC. So it's really a winwinwin and uh so yeah, he's done a great job on that. And the other thing was, would you remind me real quickly on slide number three, the media center redesign? Tell me about the redesign again. Yes. So, we're

041going to be we are renovating uh the current library into a media center along with the three uh classroom venues. Okay. So, in my mind, I was thinking we're redesigning the redesign, but we're not doing that. Okay. Well, it's staying as a media center purpose. That's why I said redesign this. Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much. Moving on to item 5D, presentation of proposed budget amendments reflecting the 89th regular legislative session. Mr. Uh yes. Uh Mr. board President William Wooten, our chief financial officer, will present the proposed budget amendments reflecting the 89th uh regular legislative session. And then um Katherine Walker will also uh show the impact it has on the approved compensation plan, which you'll be reapproving later tonight. Thank you. Good evening, Mr. President, Board of Education Superintendent. Uh today's presentation covers the

042financial impacts of House Bill 2 and obviously this is our first uh budget adjustment for 2526 year. Today's discussion points we're going to ask you to approve the projected statutory required increases in teacher retention aotment staff support retention safety and security and TS aotment. And secondly, we're going to ask you to approve the 2% compensation increases for all other staff and and obviously step increases for teachers with less than three years of experience. So bottom line is that where does this money come from? Uh this this funding comes from the new funding generated under house two. Um and I'm kind of go over the chart real quick. So these are some of the a lotments. There there are various aotments, but these are the major drivers uh that was uh discussed in House Bill Two.

043Uh the prior year this wasn't a discussion. Uh the 89th session this is where they discuss how much to give each district. And so as you see for teacher retention a lotment participating about 14 1.4 million uh staff support retention 132,000 uh in special education evaluations. It's going to be 136,000 and basic cost. And what that really is is they give additional money uh for the basic programs as well. uh safety and security, we anticipate receiving about $37,000 and TS on behalf is about 200,000. So, uh when we true those numbers up, we anticipate receiving about $2.6 million. Now, here's the deal. Uh the Mo Casey, which is our district financial consultant, uh estimates that the district will receive about $2.5 to $3 million um in new in new money. And so, uh next slide.

044So as as we can you pull up a little bit put that enlarge. So the the u conversation that that we had earlier is that if the estimate right now is 2.5 or 3 million uh we've actually believe that based on the numbers we have now based our ability that we're going to receive about 3.2 uh million. Now are we over budget? Absolutely. Uh but this is how we can make that this is how we're going to make it up. I've talked to u CFO of Houston Mo Casey uh and equity center and so basically what we've all decided is that um we we can make up the difference with vacancies. We can make up the diff difference with interest earned. Uh for example, we earned about $250,000 this year. Uh I only budget 100

045just to be conservative. Uh, and then the indirect cost uh, for my grants. And as I was talking to the CFO of Houston this morning, he said, "Well, William, you guys closed a $4.7 million deficit. Surely you can close $500,000 with, you know, as you go out through the year." This is us being intentional. Um, and so um, that that's the conversation there. So, uh, scroll to the bottom, please, with this. This is the amendment. Uh as we see uh budget amendment reflects budgetary priorities set forth by house bill 2. House bill 2 uh projections mandate is for the following. The teacher retention aotment support staff retention a lotment TRS a lotment compensation uh net statutory requirement. Uh this budget amendment also includes a 2% increase for all the employees um which is uh net

046of the statutory requirement teachers with less than three years. Uh and then This budgetary amendment includes TS on behalf for 2% compensation increase. Um, next slide. Wait, wait. Uh, go back one second. I have a disclaimer. Uh, I have to read this disclaimer. Blow it up again. This is so important. All data reflects our best understanding of current revenue projections based on the guidance of TEA and Mo Casey. Following the release of July 25 certified values, these projections may change. The district will continue to update revenue estimates as new information becomes available. So to to the best of our ability, this is what we know today. This is what every district knows today. And so uh we know better. We're going to come back with new information at this time. Um Katherine, you want to

047talk about the equity adjustments? So, we're continuing to make adjustments as we um try to better understand the impact that House Bill 2 is having on us. So, when we when we were reviewing the changes for our teacher salary increases of that $4,000 and $8,000 bump that they're getting when they have three years or five years or more um experience. And we also looked at um when we raised our 2% midpoint adjustments, we realized that we needed to make some equity adjustments. In addition, for example, when we looked at assistant principles, we noted that their daily pay rate was less than the daily rate of a teacher with those with those increases. And so we increased their daily rate to match. And as we continue to review the impact of House Bill Two, we may

048need to make some similar future adjustments. But these are the positions that we've looked at so far uh that we're going to be making some equity adjustments to. The assistant principles, our campus academic leaders, and our instructional coaches, which includes our our AIM, our mentor coaches, our innovation coaches, and our math and reading coaches as well. Awesome. So, board, thank you for for your uh time um and attention. And the last point is that we're going to make a recommendation to approve budget amendment number one presented. Any any questions, Mr. President, from the the board? That's all we have for this presentation. Yeah. 5e finance monthly update as of June 2025. Yes, Mr. Board President. Um Mr. William Wooten, our chief financial officer, will now also provide a snapshot of the unudited year-end 2425 revenue

049collections and expenditures by fund and function as of the month ending June 30th of 2025. He's very happy about this report. Uh this report offers a point in time view of district finances ensuring transparency and revenue generation and our expenditure alignment with our budget uh projections. All right. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh board of education and superintendent. As the superintendent said, this is probably my favorite report because it's as of June 30th the best information we have. Uh next slide. today's discussion points uh budget snapshot uh financial performance and next steps and action plans. All right, next slide. This is probably one of the quintessential slides. Bottom line here is that we actually uh budgeted 45.9 uh we're projected to spend 44.2 uh which uh bottom line is that net change in fund balance went

050up u $779,000. Um, and I want to remind it that we had a $4.7 million deficit uh prior year. So this year we we we anticipate landing deposit which I'm very excited about that. Next slide. So when we look at the breakdown of uh funding sources um as I said before we've collected 96% of our adopted budget and we did that through uh indirect cost uh uh controlling uh expenses uh really just figured out a way to generate more income for the district and in various ways um and so I'm I'm very excited about that when we look at local u Avalar taxes we collect 104% of what was budgeted. Uh state uh funds we collected 96% of $34.7 million bud budget and then federal uh sources we collected 26% and so remember it was

051like $15,000 uh Christie was always finding money for us and uh we appreciate that. And then obviously indirect costs which help uh increase the actual uh funds that we receive for for the federal sources like so this is really good slide year-over-year comparison expenses uh the current year basically the bottom line is that we spent 43.5 million the prior year actual spends 49.4 Now, these are audited numbers. Uh, so the the net change there from this this current year to the the previous year, we spent $5.9 million less instruction. So, William, I just need to clarify that. So, even though we had a 4.7 deficit, we actually were on track to we had to cut nearly six million to get to a balanced budget. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Yes, ma'am. I'm going show a slide. Uh

052I think it's pretty interesting later. Uh instruction uh especially instruction we spent uh less uh we spent about 3.6 million less instructional support. Uh we spent about $551,000 less in general admin $176,000. And then in district operations, which is significant, we spent about $1.5 million less than we did in the 23 24 year. Uh next slide. And this is a month overmonth uh spend. What I want to focus here is the the spending gap, right? And so it's kind of hard to see, but if you look in July, we spent $1.9 million uh in 2425 and then uh 23 24 we spent about $3.18 million. Um and the reason why we spend less in July and August is because the uh salaries that we acrew in July and August are moved back to to June.

053Uh because in the accounting standard is that you are only charged we can only expense funds in the year which we receive the services and so we receive the services. Obviously, when we look at 3.18, I'm not sure what happened there, but it should be a lot lower because we're not paying teachers in July. We're not paying teachers in August. And so, that number should be always about 1.5 to 1.9 depending on what the compensation looks like. Uh, and as you move forward to to uh September, we kind of connect a little bit. Uh, the blue line stays pretty steady all the way through. The red line is is is uh cyclical. Uh but when you look at February, you see the the greatest gap. You know, we're we're tracking about 3.5. Typically our payroll

054is about 3.2. 3.5 is really uh is when we pay the additional accounts payable. We we also pay people and we pay vendors. And so uh that came out to about 3.52. So that blue line is steady. Uh and then uh the red line jumps up to 4.74. Uh not sure what happened there, but you can see that gap significantly. Then when you look at May, you you can tell that the um that we the blue line stayed on track. The 23 20 24 25 stay on track and then uh the actual uh 23 24 line dips down in May. And we know that um we moved about uh we're at a deficit $4.7 million. And so this is all general fund. So what happens when you have a dip there? We absolutely move money

055off a general fund to another fund. And so in August when when the auditor happens and he comes back, he comes back and in June and moves all that money back that should have been expended in the year which the services were received and in the right fund. U so the focus of this graph is uh to focus on the spending gap and so our spending gap this year was pretty good. Um, next slide for another interesting slide. It's a yearover-year change in fund balance. we increased the fund balance 3.2 million. Uh, and then 22 23 we dipped down to 3.67 and um, in 23 24 we we we dipped down even further 4.78. So when you saw that line go down like that that that was a result of the dip. Um and so

056we believe that in 24 uh 25 and 25 and six 25 26 our uh change in fund balance the floor for us is 500,000. We want to stay uh increases five this fund balance at least at $500,000 each year or more. You know right now we're tracking to increase it 779,000. So, we went from a 4.78 deficit to a swing of 5 $779,000, which I think is is incredible. Um, next slide. So, what's the next steps for us uh as it relates to the 2425 year. It's not over. It's not over until you receive the uh the audit from the uh the external auditor. Uh in July 2025, uh tomorrow, our external auditors continue the field work. So, they've been in the field work for the last month or so requesting information, requesting data. Uh,

057and we're going to continue to uh recover child nutrition indirect cost funds uh working with u on that as we uh speak and uh we're going to continue year end general ledger accounts payable and payroll close out. So, we're still closing out the the the actual previous year. And so, at some point, we're going to close out the previous year. We're working in the current year and we're going to be planning for the future year. So October 2025, which is really a a big thing there is uh we're going to have an on-site visit from the audit auditor. Uh and then November 2025 is when the auditor comes and gives us the final report has to uh it's going to be an unmodified report that you pass the audit. That's my that's my hope. Uh

058next slide, Mr. President. Penny, any questions? Uh that's all I have. No problem. Thank you. You're reading correctly. Yeah. Action. I I will look it up and I can get the information to you. There's a lot of stuff in there, but I I want to be exact I'm talking. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. I mean I mean we we will um I mean we are having cuts in order to do this but in general uh we can say that our classrooms are going to be ready. We can follow up in a Friday update. Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, thank you ma'am. Mr. President Thank you. Item six, 2025 2026 grading guidelines. Uh yes, Mr. Board President. At uh this time, Dr. June Richland, our executive director of educational leadership, has submitted the draft of the

059CISD grading guidelines uh for the 2526 school year and will be explaining some of our next steps. Good evening, board president, uh Miss Smithner, and school board members. Thank you so much for the opportunity this evening to speak with you about our uh grading guidelines. When reviewing the 2526 draft grading guidelines, you will notice there are very few changes. I would like to point out changes on page 10. Miss Branch, if you wouldn't mind to scroll to page 10. Here you'll notice we have modified our language to add clarity regarding accommodations for special populations. This is the only major change in our grading guidelines at this time. If you uh move through the grading guidelines document, you'll notice a couple of other very small changes where we have adjusted the dates to 2025 2026. While

060there are very few proposed changes now to the 2526 grading guidelines, there will be some recommended changes at the next board meeting. Miss Smith Faulner has tasked me with overseeing the revision of our kindergarten through 2 grade standardsbased report cards to make them more userfriendly for our families for our parents to and so for our families and for our parents to understand. These report cards will align to the new literacy resolution and structured literacy block adopted at the May 5th, 2025 schoolboard meeting. Our committee will revise the K through 2 standardsbased report cards to reflect a structured literacy block which was developed in alignment to Scar Bro's reading rope with guidance from the Texas from the TXRL leadership team using a mirror. Student performance will be measured in the areas of funological awareness, decoding, word

061reading, vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, and overall reading mastery. Not only will parents receive a revised standardsbased report card with these updated standards, they will receive a monthly parentfriendly report from Amira describing their child's performance on their monthly assessments and exactly what they can do to help their child. Angela's got a copy of the report here. Also, I provided you with a hard copy of the report. Miss Branch, if you will go back to that first page for just a moment, you'll notice a graphic here that provides the parent with the child's reading mastery score. And then on the second page, you'll notice the students subcores. Miss Smith Faulner and Miss Putney are working with Amira, TXRL, and TEA to add word recognition, comprehension, and fluency to the parent report to ensure a tight connection between the

062teacher reports and the parent reports. In addition, AMRA and the standardsbased uh report card were used as a as will be used as the measure for teacher incentive aotment further increasing the focus on implementing a strong structured literacy block. Miss Smith Faulner has already begun this process. So to add uh to Dr. Richland. Uh, Miss Becky Putney and myself met over the break with TXRL who is working directly with TEA and Amira uh on our behalf uh to kind of set new standards for how to measure uh student uh progress and growth uh and performance uh so that uh we can uh track our student goals. uh we are working on creating a teacher report that computes the student performance and growth measure together which usually we just look at our growth. So a mirror

063um would not only then in the future be aligned with the structured literacy block that we've worked on for the last year with TXRL but it would also be utilized for establishing the overall TIA teacher designation thresholds. So, we're be we're using uh one kind of one-stop shopping with our uh testing and then that then we're going to include K through2 in TIA as an addition for the teachers so that they can be designated teachers. And now with the new designations, they could earn up to $36,000 more dollars uh in the new designation structure. And so we want to be sure we're tying student performance uh to our structured literacy block and our and for it to track our teacher uh performance and uh our we're basically on the forefront of developing the reports uh

064as we work with TXRL uh we're work we're not only doing this for us but uh we're kind of doing a a pilot approach to what this could look like for others uh going forward And so we're we're very excited that we have the three three partners who uh really like the direction that we're going and tying it into uh TIA. So we'll be reporting back a little more. And that's what Dr. Richund is tasked with now switching over our standardsbased report card. So parents, we go beyond grades. Now it's not an ABC, but instead what particular ways are we measuring students reading performance? and as a parent, how can I help as a parent? It gives me helpful tips and they would be as Dr. Richland said monthly. So, what that looks like is

065what Dr. Richland's working with her committee. Thank you, Miss Smithner. Of course, the standardsbased report card will continue to provide updates on progress in writing, in mathematics, social studies, science, social skills as well. Um, we will come back to you in one month or I'm sorry, not one month, at the next board meeting. That's right, at the next board meeting to provide you with the uh proposed changes to the standardsbased report card for adoption for for approval. Yes, that's correct. Which will be aligned with the structured literacy also in three. But we're going to continue to use star scores. Yes. For three for third grade as a measurement or House Bill three recommendations. Yes. Correct. I think this goes even beyond letting our our parents know if there's on grade level or not. And then

066and it's bringing the parents in and so the parents aren't engaged. And so it's I love all the pieces about this. And then it's you're going beyond just are they on grade level because what you know what does that It's so much more than just a number. So, thank you so much. It is. Yes. Yes. We want to add to that because the exciting thing is that our on October 27th, we have a built-in day for student le conferences. So, this is where their goal setting will take place uh with uh we'll be working with our teachers at the beginning of the year. uh our campuses have already engaged at the ALT retreat so that they are creating a student-led conference document in which our students will do the talking uh with their parents at

067the studentled conferences based on how we will train our teachers and and train our students on how to read the reports. So it's the basis for the studentled conferences. And just one more question. You said that this is a pilot program for other people for success. Well, that we are kind of setting the standard with TXL with TXL and Amira and TEA because you know we are part of some pilots uh based on the teacher uh retention uh a lotment TIA and we are um we had an idea to tie growth with performance uh which goes a little beyond what TIA does now. We had some conversations and they really liked um our approach and so they're looking at how they can help us calculate that information and tie it to the TIA. Well, we

068our TIA uh will be based on uh the Amira for uh third, fourth and fifth grade also. Okay. And but the standardsbased right now uh K through two. Yes. And then we will look at the success of it. But our parents in third grade will all will still be getting the monthly Yes. uh reports in addition to their regular report card. Thank you very much. Yes. You're welcome. Thank you. Item 6B, 2025 2026 capital improvement projects. Mr. Lasher. Yes. At this time, Mr. uh Lenny Lasher, assistant superintendent of student services, facilities, and operations, has provided information regarding the capital improvement projects scheduled to be completed and funds expended through the 2526 school year. The information uh includes cost projections for HVAC replacement and roofing improvements uh throughout the district for the next 10 years. This

069has been a long uh lengthy process on top of uh roofs and relooking at inventory for HVAC. And so the funding source uh for this would be the capital improvements uh budget where we're setting aside you set aside in the budget process $150,000 for HVAC and $50,000 for roofing and Mr. Lasher has the overall plan he'd like to share. Good evening, school board president, Mr. Tulliver, Superintendent uh Miss Smith Faulner, board of education. Um my theme tonight is replacement plans. um starting with the 10-year HVAC uh replacement plan. So, the document that you have in board book um is a detailed uh inventory of all of our HVAC units in the district. So, roughly we have about 455 rooftop units. We have four chillers and we have quite a few mini splits which is the

070units in uh our electrical rooms IDF MDF closets as well. So what we've done is this has been a team effort um with our auxiliary services staff with our new HVAC technician uh that we recently hired and we have physically gone to every unit in the district and got our eyes on every unit. Um, with that being said, we have graded every unit from a one through five. Um, in terms of what we've put into that unit from our work orders as far as, uh, expenses, um, along with labor hours and things of that nature. So, with that being said, um, we have put a plan together for the next 10 years based on those budgets. Um, however, just like anything else, there could be some things that move around based on if it's working

071well now and we have a breakdown or we foresee some things going on as well. But what we're doing to maintain our equipment is we're doing quarterly preventative uh maintenance um on our HVAC, which would include filter changes, uh washing out the coils, checking the belts, making sure the motor um and those parts um are in working order to try to extend the the life of that unit as long as we possibly can. Um some of the challenges that we face is um the refrigerant type uh that we have in some of our older units. However, we do have a supply of those as well. The other thing that we're seeing is just like everything else, the inflation cost, the tariffs, um they're making the the units heavier. So now what that means is if

072that unit is going in the same spot, um it may require a structural engineer with a stamp design. So there's a lot of factors that are going into um where and how we're making these uh adjust adjustments accordingly. Um so with that being said is we want to be financial uh responsible in terms of tracking um those systems um how much we're putting into those units. Is it cost effective to keep that units um on a unitby-unit basis? So, with that being said, we've kind of laid everything out for the next 10 years, similar to what we've done with our replacement plan that I'll be talking about later, but then that gives us a roadmap or at least a pathway to go down um in terms of what we have in the budget and how

073we're going to affect those as well. Any questions on that? Right. That's how I could fit it all on one page. Yeah. Yep. So, yes. So, what we found out with that is um the intake of flow of the air coming in versus where those units are, we will not have to replace them. We're going to be adding a few ducks to it and actually um making some adjustments to that so that way we can we can keep that. Now, keep in mind obviously on those very very hot days as much traffic as go that goes through the doors, we do lose some of that as well. But that is something that we've taken into account and and have a plan for as well. Right. Right. Right. The other thing I will say on this

074um 10-year HVAC plan, not only does it help us uh plan in the future, but also it's an inventory. So, if we were to uh suffer a catastrophic loss in terms of insurance or anything of that, we do have everything listed. And uh going back to the tornado of 2000, that helped us tremendously um when we had inventory of everything that that it just makes the transition for the insurance company a lot easier as well. You're welcome. Correct. Yep. Okay. So, Mr. Lasher, I just want to ask this. I know that you all went out on top of the roofs and actually reinventoried it. Uh, and you did that before we made the plan. What did you find when you actually went yourself and inventoried? We found um, so what we do is we put

075the year and the date that those filters are being changed. So that way we can track them. What we have found in the past that some units haven't the the units haven't either been maintained through the preventative maintenance and or filters haven't been changed for over two years or so. So going back to your point is just think of your home air conditioner like if you don't maintain it, it's g it's going to work harder. It's going to put more stress on that and your lifespan of that is going to be considerably lower as well. So that we we found that uh very common and that's that's now where we've uh actually um have developed a quarterly checklist. Um we've involved other people um and cross trainined them as well uh so we can be

076more efficient with that as well. That's not okay. Now, let's move on to 6E, the replacement plan. Yes. Um, do you want me to talk about the roofing plan? Yes. Um, yes. Go ahead and talk about the roofing. So that's that's so um obviously as Miss Smith Faulner said our two points of emphasis for our capital improvement plans is our HVAC in our roof uh roofs throughout the district. So what we did is um we engaged our roofing consultant which is LBK and they're out at Fort Worth here. So, back in May um and early June, what they did is they went to all of our campuses at night and there's an infrared system that they can actually go through the different layers of roof. So, uh most your flat roofs you can only put

077three three layers on and then you have to tear it off and replace. So, that's industry and the weight of it causes more overall weight on the structure. So then uh an engineer won't won't sign off on that as well. So with that being said, we were able to get visually getting your eyes on it as well because you may look at a portion of the roof and one part may look good, one part may not, but this is actually the technology that is uh standard based now. So it gives us an idea of what the truly the shape of all of our roofs are. So then what we do at every campus is we develop sections within that that campus uh depending where the the joint line is um the expansion joints and things

078of that nature. And then we were able to develop um a criteria with all of those sections of what was able to be um considered restoring which would be very simple of going in and making a patchwork on that specific quadrant or part of those quadrants. Or we could go back and do a retrofit which would just be tear off that one section of the quadrant or a total replacement. So with that being said, again we had an idea of what the shape of those roofs are. So in terms of philosophy is if you can maintain that roof as long as you possibly can without totally rebuilding it, you can stretch your dollars far farther. So with that being said is now we've then developed um for all of our campuses um and not including

079you know new construction or anything of that nature because that's taken care of through the bond of what areas of what campuses we need to focus on so that way we can then make sure that we're protecting our assets um with that as well. So, it's it's really detailed and I think where it comes down to is putting that puzzle together of how much money is there in certain areas and being able to make that all fit within the budgets that we have in a timely manner as well with that. Okay. Any questions on that? Good. 6. Sorry. Replacement plan. Yes. And um on this one it was quite a task also and Mr. Lasher can explain the committee. Yes. Uh but he uh has provided information regarding the replacement plan scheduled to be completed

080and funds expended through the 2526 uh school year in our again the $800,000 has been set aside in our uh replacement plan. And we kind of uh we've been behind on both of these uh projects. So it has been completely revamped and uh m Mr. Lasher can explain that process. Yes. So this is the original replacement plan that you've probably seen going all the way back to Mr. Jones um in that time. And what I will say with that is um having this has has truly helped the district in terms of maintaining um the various equipment uh the the vehicles, the fleets, the buses and things of that nature. and being able to set aside instead of all of a sudden it's broke and we need to fix it. So, with that being said, the

081areas that we focus on with the replacement plan is auxiliary services, um, athletics, uh, safety and security, technology, and fine arts. So with that being said, we brought all the department uh directors in and they presented their pre their replacement plan from the years past to the years going forward. So we've looked at five years past tracking the history of expenses and leading at five years into the future as well. So that way it gave us data on um the long term over the 10 years of how much money was spent in each department in each year and what that was targeted. So after they um uh presented their uh replacement plans, then we went back uh we were still over budget. I met with all of them individually and I'm like, okay, here's the

082next round of cuts. um what what can you what can you live with and without you know for the next year, next couple years and things of that nature. So um we have we have cut it um we were at one point about $1.7 million over. We've cut probably about 1.5 of that. So we're a little bit over, but we're still working on those plans. Everyone has a voice. Um and then also too is if there's some things that we could do in terms of multiple departments, how how we could utilize that as well within those purchases as well. So um with that being said, um we have looked at each one closely um and obviously if that need is there and there's a history that something has gotten pushed off over the period of

083years, then we we've looked at that and put that on the plan as well. Um, one thing that we did do is we've taken the large capital improvement stuff that we've had on there, like replacement of just the turf or things like that and put it back on the capital improvements to help make that list manageable because what the replacement plan truly is is you put something on, you get rid of something. It's not adding to it because obviously we can't sustain it uh long term with that being because that list just grows and grows and grows. if there's things that we feel like that they can uh address in their budget, then we'll we'll ask them to do that as well. And they've done a great job as far as being receptive and open

084and coming with great ideas and suggestions with that. Yes. Yes. Yes. So, for example, if we order a bus, we get rid of a bus. We don't just keep adding to that. So, um everything's unique. For example, uh uniforms, they they get passed down from the varsity to the JV down to the freshman. We don't cross over from the high school to the middle school just because of the age appropriate of that as well. But yes, we we do that because a we don't have the space for it, b we don't have the money to sustain One more other question. You mentioned safety and security as part of this and I think and I think we all understand we don't ever want to compromise safety and security just because maybe can't it didn't make the

085cut what they wanted on their budget didn't make the cut. Is there anything that the police department I guess really really wanted that they're not going to get? No, we've always been proactive with that and we've been able to get a lot of things through grants um in the future for for example like the ballistic uh shields and things of that. So, um I will say uh Chief Provenio is always uh on the forefront looking ahead to make sure that we don't have those gotchas and that we don't come into a situation where you know we have to take from another program because we didn't plan accordingly. their own plan outside of being this no because I really think everything's covered within their budget them themselves so that obviously their their normal operating budget as

086well and then also with this the safety plan or the replacement plan that we have as well I think is will will and has been sufficed and and I want to clarify it's a lot of its technology like cameras and the placement, the lifespan of it and to keep the uh technology going and it coincides with the network and so together uh because we have to store so much of the camera footage on the central network. So I know Jacob and Sam have worked together on you know what year we need to replace and have more storage or new storage. And so I think they're tightly aligned now. And I feel uh that we will be able to cover uh the camera and the technology. A lot of the other the other items that are

087very important that you might have concerns about are in their regular budget. Okay. You're welcome. 60 discussion on policy updates for the from the 89th regular legislative session. Mr. Jackson. Yes. Uh Mr. Board President, at this time uh Wes Jackson, our director of school policy and student support. He has a is wearing a new hat this year and uh he certainly chose the perfect year for that with all the legisl legislation that came about in the last session. He will present our policy uh some of our policy updates and some of the choices. There's some decisions on several key thing items that we need the feedback so we know how to move forward with TASBY and developing the local policy. they already have some options made, but we need the input of exactly where we

088need to go. And then we also brought um DD and u Miss Kobe here uh so that if if you're not and if you have questions about why we have some of the recommendations, they can certainly uh answer those if Wes cannot answer that. Thank you. Uh President Toiver, Miss Smith Faulner, board members, we lost one. Do we need to pause or We'll take a minute. Okay. Okay. recess. Mr. Jackson, go ahead. Yes, sir. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. As Miss Smith Faulner said, there are quite a few changes from the 89th legislative session. Tonight, we're going to be talking about three. There's there's basically three things that that TASBY sent us out a survey last week and said, "We want to know what direction you want to move

089with these policies because we really feel like these policies need to be in place before the beginning of the school year." So, we're going to talk a little bit about library adoption. We're going to talk a bit about cell phones and we're going to talk about homeschool students participation in athletics. That's why we have the experts on library and athletics here so that so that they can field any questions that you have. So, um, the Senate Bill 13, um, is is all about library stuff. I'm going to stay in front of the mic because you said that already. Uh, but it it does several things. It it expands parental rights, uh, but it also increases some responsibilities within the district, but parents can restrict now access to what their kids are seeing. So, we've got

090several things in place that you'll hear about as we kind of continue to to walk through this presentation about how parents can do that. Um, lots of new little nuances as far as like we can't have indecent and profane things in books, things like that. So, the school board has new responsibilities. They have to now approve all books that will be purchased for school library collections. Um, so book challenges have to come before the board. Now, students cannot access books that are under review during a book challenge anymore. And the big thing that I'm going to talk with you guys tonight about is do we want to appoint a local school library advisory council? So we'll talk a little bit about what that means and what that would mean for us if we were to

091or to not make that decision. So our software that we use in the library is Destiny. Destiny is already capable of doing what we need it to do to provide those parental controls. Um, so parents can now log in and see everything that's going on with their kids. They can search for specific titles that they may have a concern about and they can block their student from being able to check those titles out. Um, so it's a very seamless process with Dustin. Um, so so we have that stuff in place. Um, potential downsides of the library council. Um so basically what the library council would be would be the board would appoint community members and parents to be members of this library council who would have to look at every book before the board was

092able to look at it and approve it um and move forward with it. So you know we've already added that layer of board approve board approval which can slow down that process and this could slow down that process even further. Um, so those people would need extensive training to to know what they're looking at. What what what do all these words indecent and profane mean? What what do I have to know as a community member that's looking at these books? Um, we have some administrative burden there. Those meetings have to be posted in advance. They have to be open to the public. Um, the committee is only required to meet twice a year, which would be very limiting if we were to only bring those people in twice a year. However, if we were to

093bring this group of people in multiple times a year, then we're putting even more burden on these community members that have agreed to help us with this position. So, um it does potential burden on them, time, public scrutiny potentially, um and just just recordkeeping and adding all those layers to the process. um and potentially decisions might not line with the vision of our library program and with the vision of the board because we've now brought in some separate entities that haven't been a part of building that vision over the last several years. So the big thing I think was would be the concern was slowing things down and again that those issues potentially with with the vision. Um Miss Kobe, do you want to add anything to that? I think the biggest They need to

094be posted. Like a board meeting. So how our libraries are already compliant with some of these new laws, right? We already have that, as I said, in Destiny where parents can see what's being checked out. Um, email notifications will be turned on. So, each time I check out a book now, my mom will get a notification saying which book I've checked out. So, if she's not proactive in looking at what I'm checking out, she's at least going to see it via that email as I'm checking it out real time in the library and have have a chance to intervene or to say something about that. Um, we've got some some board policy. We already follow the selection criteria that are outlined in board policy. Um, we have library services book book selection criteria and our

095our policy already basically says things have to be age appropriate and not harmful material. So, we're kind of covering that obscene and profane hopefully by saying age appropriate and not harmful material. Uh, so this goes in effect right after September 1. Um, one of the reasons we need to consider this one early is because it can potentially slow down processes that we may already have in place and book orders that we're already considering bringing to the board early on to to go ahead and push through so that our our kids and our teachers can have the things that they need early in the school year. So, um, we must have a library acquisitions policy, which sounds like we're in very good shape on that already. Um, but beginning September 1, the board must approve all

096new library materials. there has to be a 30-day public comment period, which is another place where it's already a slowed down process. So, you can see as we continue to add these layers that it could potentially complicate that process of getting those books into the hands of kids in a timely manner. Um, we have to make that decision about an advisory council whether we're going to move forward with that or not. Um, and the board is going to vote on library materials in open meetings. They're going to have that that final approval o over that with the exception of replacing old books that we have already had approved and things like that and and duplicates of books that we've already approved in the past. So this also includes donated books. If Scholastic donates the books

097after the book fair, those also have to be board approved before we can add those to the library. So our our recommendation after talking with Miss Colby and considering the pros and cons of this would be to answer the survey question from TASBY that we do not plan on establishing a school library advisory council. But again, we wanted to be proactive with bringing this information to you guys. We don't want to be bringing a policy to you for the very first time saying we need to move on this policy very quickly before the beginning of the school year. you guys haven't had some chance to to think about that and think about those pros and cons and and I think Mr. board president. It'd be good. We have three of these. Maybe while it's fresh

098your mind to discuss it as Oh, as we go as as Wes goes um if there's any questions on each one because I don't want you to forget what we covered here. And I wanted to add to Wes that um what the what made me go with not recommending one is the fact that our parents if our parents have the choice to block books and we can do it and our parents are going to receive an email when the child uh checks a book out and we have that ability in our software program. So I think that takes care of uh why we don't recommend the advisory because now it's in the parents uh decision on uh what their child is reading. So the program you said destiny. Yes ma'am. Are we going to be

099the board are can we log into that ourselves to look at books or you have access on um each of the library websites that you can go into the Destiny catalog for each campus. So you already can go in as a guest and you can see all the materials that we have in the system. So you can see what books. So parents will be able to see that as well and they can go through and they can Destiny itself with this access now they will be able to go in and specifically say I don't want this book this book this book and it will it will be that specific. So when that child brings that book up we were testing it today the sounds that we're going to make. When you bring it up and

100they come to check it out and it's like that's one my parent says no it's go it will make a sound. So if somebody's not standing there monitoring it 100%, they will hear that sound and they'll go, "Okay, what's wrong with that checkout?" It'll do it if the book's overdue. So the kids aren't going to know, "Well, my parent it if they the it says to the librarian, hey, take a look. There's something wrong." And so the child can't proceed with a checkout until they resolve that issue. And also, have we had any book challenges? We have not. We have not had any challenges. And I think the one of the reasons to vote that we don't need a school library um council is because in the new Senate Bill 13, this now goes the

101um challenges will go to the board and it you will be the the final say on what those challenges are. And we've not we've not had any in this district. And I think having that um turned on in destiny where the parent can say then I think that it it gives the parent the choice to say this is good for my child this is not good for my child and it gives that individualized selection to the parent. So I have another question. So the books that we have in the libraries now have they been I guess I would would a word be audited like um we have gone through some of them like in in the some of the software we have you can see well this book is labeled adult and so we'll look

102at it a lot of times what labeled adult in our libraries are craft books and so if it says adult we go and say okay why does it say adult why and then go through it and so we've been conducting that and Each year as we go through it, we do we have sections of the library that are set aside to be gone through what we say weeded or deselected. If that material is old, never been checked out, maybe the age appropriateness may have moved um in with updates to book reviews and that. And so then we'll go through and we will deselect them or we'll move them to another campus if it was not appropriate anymore for elementary. Now we can move it to middle school or high school. And so that gives us

103that option and and that's one of the things we met about today is how you know to continue this process so that in a few years from now because everything will be by approved by the board it will say when it was approved by the board in our system and so we can say this book has been approved by the board. This book has been approved. So, we will know when that was approved and um and be able to track that as well. Thank you. So, does Destiny collect data on what books are being refused by parents or what parents are refusing? Um if a librarian were to go in, they would be able to see um because the when you go in and a parent logs into it now, it was turned on last

104year. We had it open if so if any parent would have contacted us and say, "Hey, I want to limit what my we could have said, hey, we we have the system already in place, you can do it." But nobody's come to us. So, we've not actually worked through the process because nobody came and said, "I've I've seen it demoed the demonstrations of it and they can just what they do is they pull up and log into the system and they just go through and they can just see all the books that are listed and they just put X's by them and then the librarian will would be able to see that part of it so that if there were any questions, she could be able to go in and say, "Hey, that's not this

105your this was blocked by their parents. I was just using how could we as a board use that data if we're having to approve books and I'm just thinking through through this right now but just wonder what kind of data collection that is and privacy um and how we can use that now that once we turn it on and parents start getting it and seeing it then we'll be able to determine what actual they hold on to. Um as far as I don't know how we could get a committee by September 1st anyway. So I think that would be limiting doing that. And I I would like to remind us we're elected officials. We're elected to do these things and trusted and to approve or disapprove that on recommendations. So I would be willing to

106agree that your recommendation did not do a council. But my question is what about other parents? Do would parents want be part of a council if in Senate Bill 13 if you have 50% or 50 parents petition then we must put it into place. Okay. And so that we have to have 50 parents or a minimum of 10% whichever is fewer 10% of the students number of students. So so how are we getting that information sorry to parents? Is that what you're gonna ask? That's why we needed to discuss it now because we have to put all these procedures in place and in the student code code of conduct before school starts well teachers come back on July 30th and we usually begin going over all the new guidelines. So that's the importance of of

107this and then requesting a special meeting because then uh Mr. Jackson has to take this information and there's lots of places now we have to you know place that and not only that we have to put procedures in place for exactly that the communication um this uh we talked with Abby about how do we put this out on our social media and a timeline so our parents aren't overwhelmed with all of the things we're about to ask that we're going to have to communicate. And the one thing with this um if at any point a a group of parents put it together and they've read it and they say okay um then they could come forward with that petition. They don't h we don't have to do that. And we can always change the board

108policy if if something happens and we're not comfortable then you guys can always go back and amend your policy. And we can also handle things in a not quite formal way. If parents want to give us um if they have advice for librarians or what they want in the library, we can always meet together in a more informal manner and be able to take their input and say, "Okay, um bring us your recommendations." We do have a feedback form on our um website already. If parents have feedback that they want to give, like if they want to recommend books that we have in our library, they can go ahead and do that and we can monitor. We monitor that website. So I'm gonna go back to Tracy. So you're thinking that we shouldn't be on

109the advisory council. So the decision is either we have an advisory council which is a separate group other than the board that would approve books and then the board would approve them or we can skip the advisory council and then the board makes the approval. So the the the it's already in place for the board to have to approve it. So you guys do have that oversight already. And again, we um we must ensure that our parents are notified. And I think that how many parents become interested if they if we're notified could trigger a change, you know, that we could do later. And so I I like the fact that our parents are going to be involved and have their input. Thanks, ma'am. Right. So the next topic um is Senate Bill 401 and

110this has to do with homeschool students being able to participate in UIL activities. So this legislation basically says that districts are required to allow homeschool students to participate in UIL activities unless we adopt a policy opting out of that requirement. So um and so the other piece of that that we have to consider is what all the districts around us are doing because if if districts around us opt out and we do not students from the districts they can go to the nearest district that allows homeschool participation in UIL events. So um that that's something to consider and something that I'll talk about kind of as we go through here. Um, so again, so to get a little bit more into the details, they must be within our attendance zone unless their district has opted

111out. Then they can go to the next closest district. They do have to do some things to make sure they're not just hopping from school to school. They have to submit a previous athletic participation form. It has to be approved by the district executive committee for varsity competition. I assume that's similar to what kids do when they move around and things like that, Deie. Um, and then here here's where it gets a little bit more vague right now is students must submit scores of a standardized test of grade level proficiency and parents have to submit grades for the students every nine weeks for us to consider for eligibility. Um, so some things to consider, we would not receive funding for these students. Some areas where we would incur extra cost would be insurance for injuries,

112equipment use and wear and tear, and then meals. Um, as you guys know, we feed kids when we travel and things like that. Um, some other concerns would be academic proficiency. What exactly is a grade level standardized test and how is that defined? Um, and you know that again, we've got parents sending us grades to determine no pass, no play. Um, we do not have STAR exams. these kids that are homeschooled are not held accountable to that standard. And so, um, they don't have to do that. They don't have to they don't have to achieve at the same rigorous standards that our students have to achieve at. Um, it could keep our own students from being able to participate in activities if we have um a high level of homeschool participation. Um, we don't have

113so the kids when they're here for athletics would participate in the athletic period as well. So, we have very little teeth in being able to hold them to our code of conduct, um, to make a DAP placement, to do anything disciplinary when they are homeschooled, right? We could do something for that one period, but if they're homeschooled, you can't really put them in ISS because it's, you know, a matter of what whether that's going to happen at home or not, right? U, so other things to consider, certain programs like band, those start in seventh grade. We start our kids in seventh grade on track to be successful in band when they get in high school. This would result potentially in more kids coming in kind of in the middle of a program and not having

114those kind of preliminary skills that we would want them to have to be successful and to achieve to the standards that that we want our kids to achieve here in Castberry in those programs. Um already talked about the last one and and I will share with you guys that both Miss Pierce and Miss Smith Faulner have been reaching out to other districts. um the majority of the local districts that they've heard back from are planning to opt out of allowing homeschool participation, which is something to consider if we know all those people around us are planning to opt out. It does impact our decision somewhat. Um I think some districts have even gone ahead and adopted it into board policy already. Um and the same with with Miss Pierce. He's reached out to other coaches

115in other districts um that I think one district is all we've heard back from that is planning on kind of opting into allowing the homeschool students to participate. So our our recommendation moving forward with policy with that would be to opt out at this point until we know more about what this is going to look like. What are those nine weeks grades going to look like from parents? What is that standardized test going to look like? What are is UIL going to put some more things in place moving forward in the future where this is a more fair and equitable process? That is unclear at this point. I I think that's as anything with this new legislation, we don't have all the details. Oh no, we cannot never mind. You cannot hold them for anything

116more accountable than what our current students are held accountable for. So if band charges a fee, yes, you could charge them. If athletics does not, then you could not charge that student because that's what we do. No. So what is the thinking behind this? Why are why is this um why was this bill passed? charter schools. It's it's all tied to parent choice and they want um those students to have the same opportunities as public schools. And I'm and I you know always hate I always hate to say I play the devil's advocate because he's got enough of those already. But um homeschool kids parents do pay taxes and so I'm sure that maybe that's their argument that they should be able to participate is that but they might not pay our school. That's right.

117Because I think because they come so if all the camp districts around us are not participating we can influx. Yes ma'am. And now we can ask and if you think about how small we are that could have a really big impact on us if some of those bigger those Fort Worth ISD students you know were to come knocking on our door. I think I would be more inclined to saying sure let them come if it was just our community but it's so broad that it's almost almost unmanageable. Well, and it's one of those things as we get they they develop more rules and things like that and we get more guidelines that maybe it does become more limited, but um right now that's that's the danger and it it seems like I just don't think

118it would be fair like he said to our students and then all the no if there's an injury or there's something that happens like that and we don't have no kind of we can't even contact anybody or pay for for it, then we'd probably be under a lawsuit. And one of the other big concerns is is that's a great point, the supervision of students. When kids are only here for one period a day, you start to see more issues with those parents arriving to drop them off and pick them up on time and and those types of things. So, as we go through this, are you meeting the consensus tonight or will we be voting on this at the next meeting? So, you'll you'll vote at the special board meeting that I'm going to propose,

119but it sounds like we're getting the direction of what to bring you based on your feedback. So, thank you. Yes. Sorry, I know you said that. And the last one, u the one with the least slides, but probably the most controversial one. Um, school districts and charters must adopt a policy prohibiting the use of cell phones while on school property during the school day. Uh, this includes smartwatches, earbuds, and other devices capable of communication. So, basically, we have two options here. One is we can tell kids you may not bring phones to school period. Or we can tell them that you may take your phone out after school and use it for those things you need to do after school to reach out to your parents to come pick you up and to do those

120types of things. But this does away with phones being out during lunch, during passing period, during all of those times. So the the most restrictive option is saying do not bring it to school period. you will not be allowed in with it. The option that we're recommending is the less restrictive option that we would like to start with, which is you can bring it to school, but it has to be put away all day. We cannot see it. There will be consequences if we see it. Um, it is a state law. So, we're I mean, it's this is the one that that really we need to have the policy in place before the beginning of the school year, right? Because we're going to have parents and kids challenge us on this right away. Um so

121so this is the one that's really driving us us considering having a special meeting is is is this because we need to plan for this not only in the cell phone policy but the student code of conduct needs to be written in such a way that we have we have steps in there of of what's going to happen after repeated cell phone violations and and those types of things. [Music] That's the current practice right now basically, isn't it? That you don't want them to have it out during the day. So, it it depends um kind of by grade level. At elementary, that's very much the case. We don't see the cell phones very much during the school day. Um, as you get into middle school, maybe the students are allowed to use them at lunch.

122Um, especially on a reward basis. You guys have done good with with dress code this week. Maybe you're you can take your phones out during the lunch period. At high school, we see them more um in the cafeteria. We do see them in passing periods and and as you would imagine, we have a little bit bigger problem with with having to remind the students to put them away during class at the high school as well. So, that's where we'll see the biggest adjustment. Um I think our middle school students are probably accustomed to checking them in such a way that we don't notice, you know. So, um, you know what we would say is something like that has to be put away in your bag all day. If we see it, then we will address

123it with you. If we don't see it, it won't be addressed And turned off. Yes. So, what um what kind of storage would you provide for the students? So, I So, if we were to look at remember we talked about the pouches a couple of years ago, those were at that time $15,000 for a campus. I reached out just out of curiosity. They're now $30,000 for a campus. So, it would cost $60,000 to provide that at the middle school and the high school. They're saying storage can be defined as we're saying you already have a backpack, you already have a laptop bag, your phone should be in there. And how about because parents are going to ask emergencies. If there's an emergency, that is the last time kids should have their phone out is during

124an emergency. They should be listening and compliant and being quiet. um extra phones, making phone calls during an emergency interferes with emergency services being able to be reached and all of those types of things. We're going to be very proactive about our communication around if there is an emergency, here's how you will hear from us as a school district. Um but the phone is supposed to be off. Um and it's I mean the the the the short unfriendly answer is I'm sorry. It's the law that the phone has to be put away and off. you cannot reach your kids during the school day. That's an issue to take up with your legislature. So, yeah. One more question on if the phone is confiscated, are is there I know a long time ago there used to

125be some kind of charge like, okay, you're going to have to get pay 15 bucks to get it. I've been visiting with our principles and assistant principles over the last couple of weeks about this. Um, so we moved away from the fee here. I think it was three years ago when I first got here. It's a lot to keep up with money and have to follow all the rules and regulations that have to do with taking in and and and moving money and it's honestly just not worth the fight. U there will be some points in in our consequences where the parent has to come pick it up from the school. We're not just going to give it back to the kid at the end of the day, but um so far that discussion has

126kind of stayed away of going back to the charging and those types of things. In in addition, we we want them to be able to bring them to school, turn them off because we know there are times at the end of the day that they might need a ride and they can text their parent. However, if we cannot uh if our students cannot follow the guidelines, then we'll come back with a new recommendation that they're not they cannot bring them to school to change policy. So, we want to do the least restrictive that the law says. And then if that's not working, if our APS, our principles are constantly dealing with students fight, you know, arguing and not wanting to go by the guidelines or, you know, even if we have some parents upset, then

127uh constantly, then we will come back and do the recommendation for the more restrictive uh uh option that we have. But we'd like to start with the least restrictive, which is phones put away, phones off all day long. At what point our kids use their phones during the work? Did we just talk about that? Did we never do that? We have every child has a laptop and the laptop is uh the tool that they use for canvas and everything. So we have not used uh phones in a very long time. Yeah, maybe it actually extends beyond and says they can't have any personal devices. Um, so it's not even just phones. It's you can't bring your own laptop, you can't bring your own iPad, you're going to use the schoolisssued equipment. And not that it

128matters, but not that it matters because it's the law. We have to abide by this. But are we happy that our kids are going to be less distracted or do we think that they're smarter than we are and they're going to figure out? I think it's going to come with its own set of challenges. Good answer. Um, we want our policy in place so it will go into effect first day. Um, I think it actually falls closer to September 1. It's got this one has a little bit weird different timeline, but we want the policy in place because we want to uphold the the rule before school starts because we don't want that confusion with parents or students and and our practice not matching policy. You know, this is such a lifestyle change now for

129us. I mean, and I won't tell you the how I've got in trouble when my child had their first phone, but um so will we have a grace period? No, we'll have a warning that's put your phone away and then you will begin to follow the consequences of having not put your phone away. And we have seen um other districts who have already adopted their local policy and they're pretty strict. Yeah. And we'll probably be using some of their uh guidelines. Yeah. Richardson ISD is one of the first districts that use the yonder pouches, but they don't use them at every campus, but they have a no phone policy at their other campuses. So, we're looking at that policy as kind of a guide as far as somebody that's been doing this for a few

130years and kind of knows what works and knows where they're not biting off too big of a fight as far as the consequence goes and those kind of things. So, just a curiosity question, will we be collect I hate to say collecting data because it's so so scary, but that this is actually going to be beneficial in student achievement. Are we going to how are we going to measure that this is working? I think you all you have is before and after the the time before House Bill 1481 and the time after House Bill 1481 and just teacher reports and saying how much I mean if you ask Richardson ISD and you ask the company that sells the pouches, they will tell you that uh that it is effective and that it does improve scores.

131But um the other piece is the last slide and this is just kind of for your information. We've already been working with Abby as Miss Smith Faulner said to develop some communication. Um in fact, we would like to start sending out communication this week. Um again, that's part of the reason we wanted to put this in front of you before we started communicating with parents, communicating with TASBY about the direction we were going. But you can see that Ailistd has put something out. I think the other one is Cushing ISD. I think one of the things I really liked about the letter from Cushing is they say this is the law. We're we're going with the least restrictive version of the law. That's kind of the best we can do for you guys. Um but

132it very clearly lays out that the other option would be to just say you can't bring it at all. So, I think that's good messaging on our part and I I think we need to start putting this out as early as as next week and then as we add those policies and we have those specifics about consequences, we can put that out as well. Other ways to contact our child during the day. So, if a parent did want to contact their child, those guidelines are still in place in the Yes. And God I I mean a lot of kids email their parents from their school computer. Do are you talking about by phone by their cell phone? Yeah. They just needed to Yeah. Don't they call the office and get a message or email the

133teacher? So yeah. And we still have uh office aids that can run information to them. Yeah. Yes. And there's obviously concessions for students that have a medical need such as they're monitoring their blood sugar via their phone. Um those kind of things th those exceptions are in place. Thank y'all. Item seven. At this time, the board will retire to close session under Texas Government Code section 551.071. 071 through 551.076 and 551.08 through 551.083 to discuss the items listed on the agenda. The time is 8:01 our recess. It is 8:50 p.m. As we continue tonight's meeting, we welcome all those who have joined us as we keep asking how we can 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

134be innovative thinkers in the global community. At this time, we will begin with the pledge of allegiance. Please stand. to God. Do we need It's here. We're on item 8C, professional employee on the organizational chart. Yes. Uh Miss Katherine Walker has an introduction uh of Jennifer Garcia, our recent hire. Good evening, school board president Toiver, Superintendent Smith Faulner, and school board members. It is my pleasure tonight to introduce our new secondary English language arts coordinator, Dr. Jennifer Garcia. [Applause] Dr. Garcia joins Castleberry ISD from the Education Service Center region 11 where she served as the secondary Texas reading initiative literacy instructional coach for the past three years. Dr. Garcia holds a master of education in curriculum and instruction with a focus on triple literacy from the University of Texas at Arlington and a doctor of

135education in organizational leadership from National University. Her doctoral research explored how professional development and mentorship impact early career teachers self-efficacy. She holds multiple kindergarten through 12th grade teaching certifications, including reading specialist and master reading teacher certifications, and is currently pursuing her principal certification, which she anticipates completing in 2025. Dr. Garcia began her career in education 13 years ago as a classroom teacher in Dallas Independent School District. She continued as a classroom teacher in Arlington ISD where she taught for three years before serving an additional three years as curriculum and instructional specialist. In that role, she supported more than 170 secondary ELAR teachers through curriculum development, assessment design, professional development, and PLC facilitation. She then expanded her impact at the service center where she provided coaching and professional learning on best practices in literacy instruction to

136districts across the region. Since 2022, she has partnered with the Texas Education Agency to co-develop and deliver a top rated summer literacy conference and she recently presented her work to the US Department of Education. Dr. Garcia brings a wealth of knowledge and a passion for serving all educational stakeholders. She looks forward to contributing meaningfully to the district and the community. Now, outside of work, Dr. Garcia enjoys reading, hiking, and writing. She is the proud mother of two amazing daughters, Maven and Meline, who are both beginning their college journeys this fall. Dr. Garcia believes that educators have both the incredible opportunity and great responsibility to shape the future through their work with students, teachers, and the broader community. She is honored to begin this new chapter and is excited to serve Castleberry ISD and its board

137of education. And now I'm going to let her say a few words. Good evening, president, superintendent, and the board. I just want to thank you for bringing me on board. I look forward to the work ahead of us. Um, I have had the opportunity to work with the middle school eardr teachers for the last two years as that instructional coach from the region center. So, I'm very familiar with the system and the teachers and everybody's wonderful and I'm just really looking forward to jumping into the work. So, thank you. Welcome, Dr. Garcia. All right, Dr. Garcia, did you bring any family or friends with you this evening? I did. Um, can you please stand up? My father, Robert Garcia, who you're probably familiar with. um here and then my sister Cynthia Garcia and both of

138these two have been integral in in and helping me uh navigate education in general and just being you know my support system. So I'm appreciative of them. Congratulations for today. Thank you. Great. Item nine, consent agenda. At this time, we will consider the con consent agenda as presented. Is there is there a motion? Mr. President, I move for approval of the consent agenda. Is there a second? Is there any discussion? Please indicate your vote. Motion carries 40. Now on to item 10A. Consider approval of the amended 2025 2026 compensation plan. Is there a motion? Mr. President, I move for approval of the amended 2025 2026 compensation plan. Is there a second? Second. Is there any further discussion? Yes. for everyone that is not on the uh teacher. Yeah. Any further discussion? Please indicate your vote.

139Motion carries 40. Item 10B, consider approval of budget amendment. This is budget amendment one. Is there a motion? Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Please indicate your vote. Motion carries 40. Now on to information items. Superintendent approved professional new hires. Do you want to get into that? Is your approve review? didn't have Mr. Board President, I did not have any questions on information items. Okay. Go to uh item 12, discussion items of the board. Um yes, ma'am. Sure. Which one? question. Okay. Which item is that? Okay. on there. Sure. And if uh if you do submit the question, I can probably put it in the board update if it's appropriate. Okay. On to item 12, discussion items. 12A, board key dates. And I did get a note from uh Miss Carol about

140u the meet the teacher. She will be at the Irma Marsh with her niece and that's August the 9th. Yes sir. I also want to go back to July because convocation is Wednesday, July 30th. And so that'll be at Irma Marsh in uh the morning. And so I wanted to be sure that um you were aware of that at 8:30. We do we'll do the breakfast in the morning, then convocation will start at 8:30. In addition, the pep rally will u be on August 4th in the afternoon. So, I know those are two big events that we usually have all our board members attend. We are going to later make a recommendation to change that date because since our calendar was changed with the additional day school years then we were going I'm going to

141recommend that we move the schoolboard meeting to the 18th. July 18. I'm sorry. The new teacher lunchons, would it be the one on the Tuesday that you recommend? Actually, if you want to come to either new teacher breakfast or lunchon, we have the Charlie Garren lunchon on the 29th. I think that you all uh like to attend uh that one on Tuesday. And then we also if your schedule is better to attend the breakfast, just let me know. Uh on the 28th and 29th, we have the breakfast and the lunchon. Okay. Okay. Thank you. But u Mr. Garren Charlie Garren's lunchon is on the 29th and I know that's when a lot of you like to attend that one. The Education Foundation will be doing uh breakfast I believe on the 28th. One of the

142days. Yeah, the 28th. They're doing lunch, not breakfast. Okay. Lunch. Okay. our that will be my recommendation to change it to the 18th because having on the first day of school is going to be very difficult with new teachers. Um so um the recommendation for y'all to look at your calendars and move it to the 18th and then might as well move to July 24th on Thursday. uh either early that morning or that night. Uh scheduling a special session so that we can um uh go ahead and make them uh take our recommendations uh to you that we presented tonight and go ahead and adopt those so that we will be prepared for the information to go out to our students, our parents, and our like our grading guidelines. There's a lot of work that

143we have to do in Skyward. it either way. It can be seven in the morning if you would like or it can be that night. It's it's whatever your schedules will work. I can work around whatever. Whatever. Either way, 7:15 in the morning. Yes. Does that work? Okay, we'll have copies. So, 7:15 July 24th. Angela, if you'll go ahead and mark that and then uh we'll go ahead and send the information out to move to August 18th for the August date since our they passed the additional day school year calendar. Okay. the items uh that morning we have board policy replacement plan in case there's a compensation plan update and the grading guidelines. Uh so those are all there'll be quick action items. Is anything else on there competition? Yeah. Yeah. August 8th line. I'll

144be there. I'll have Angela send out a formal form so we can put your name on the dates. Uh do a Google uh sheet and then we can put the events and uh who can come. Okay, Angela. Did that take care of take care of 12? And we're on to 12 C discussion of creating a schoolboard self-evaluation tool which uh Miss Gman has done extensive research on and um if you will remind us exactly what we talked about. Well, you have a you have a person in mind which I'm all for. Sure. Yeah. meet with um the board and tailor make a board evaluation and um and get my notes real quick real quick. So the evaluation framework is an evaluation framework typically assesses the board's performance. So it's about us making sure we are

145doing our job and um you know lots of times we talk about our job is not to do the superintendent's job. So what is our job and this will help us um I think with this framework evaluate our own performance and which is student achievement number one number two governance evaluating board processes policies and decision making should I continue no there was a person there was a person you had in mind yes and so and so I contacted her I her and asked her just some processes and she could come talk to us. What was her name? Carrie. Carrie. Carrie. She called. Yeah. And so she emailed me back and saying that that she's been in contact with the superintendent and that you're going to be meeting and discussing that. And so I kind of

146left it at that until I got to talk to you. Yes. And so we have gone through some of the effective school framework uh training at the administrative level. That's what our improvement plans are based on. Uh so when you see the campus improvement plans, the effective school uh framework is it's based on that. So it will feed in uh since it's based on effective school framework, it will feed into Lonear governance uh really well. Um what I was going to suggest to her was that we get our A throughF accountability ratings in August. We're going to get 24 also, which is great. That's two sets of years. And what I was going to request was a team of eight training on our uh existing goals and where we landed and and where our focus

147is and then let her come in and kind of help us after you guys all kind of know our improvement plan goals, our House Bill three goals, our strategic plan goals, and what we've done over the retreat because I I think you're going to like um how we narrowed down uh some of our goals during the retreat. Uh our principles just finished a two-day training and uh activities on that and um so I would like to bring it all together and then bring um bring uh someone in from region 11 and kind of tie it all together. Carrie Carter, I think her name. Carrie. I know Carrie, but I'm not wrong. Is it Carter? Okay. Angela said Carter. Yeah, because Angela's been working with us. And so that way it's kind of like here's the

148results, here's where we are, here's our performance, objective, goals, and uh just kind of uh just tying it all together because it all comes together. And what I personally like as a board member about governance was um and what I liked about lonear governance is we're it's an ongoing progress monitoring of ourselves on how we are governing and so that's what I like and I talked to her before and she said it is there is a cost obviously to it but there are there's possibly a grant that we can apply for that will cover the cost. And so she was going to look into that as well. I don't know if she's communicated that with you or not, but because you you haven't met yet. When are you when are y'all meeting? I was hoping

149to meet before school started. What's the date? And they're very familiar. What's great is region 11 is very familiar because the you see the observation feedback all of the uh levers that we're putting in place comes all from from uh effective school framework that and Dr. Richland has been working with so I mean and are you okay with meeting with her to basically doing what is maybe our job to do? Oh, no. No. Absolutely. Because what I'm going to do is show her and talk about where we are. I mean, she's already familiar with us and I think that um we'll kind of put together a plan of how of what we could do to roll this out. And if you go to Lonear Governance, if you go to the link that I provided before,

150it there's a lot of information there that I think that you would really benefit from reading. And you know, the framework is about effective governance. I think that we've all agreed to that we want to be effective. So I think that as Mr. Hutchkins, do you know the date of when AF accountability will be released? Will it be before the August 18th board meeting? Yeah. So I think that it depends on uh the exact date that will be re released and then we will share the official score. We've already given you our preliminary scores uh through uh Mr. Hutchings presentation in May. And so what we'll do is now we'll be able to present um the final scores and uh then our performance objectives that we made on the preliminary scores. And so I think

151we can uh present all of that and it would fall in nicely uh with our process at that time because keep in mind it's about evaluating our effectiveness not necessarily what we're monitoring we're monitoring ourselves. So, but I but yes, I think it will work together greatly. But I agree, we have three board members not here that are um would need that input. But and my whole August is up in air right now. So, I'll probably be gone most of August, but let me know dates and I see what I can do. Thank you. And this would it would um fill any all legal requirements of what our um requirements are. You think we need to touch on the budget dashboard or progress monitor? Next meeting is Monday, August 11th. 18th. I'm sorry. I didn't

152I need to write that down. Yeah. Next meeting is Monday, August 18th. No, our next meeting is July 24th. Oh, yeah. That's right. You're right. But it's a special one. So, at that time regular, it's getting late and I really don't have to have coffee. I'll have coffee way before then. So, don't no pressure. I move we adjourn. Hearing no objection, we stand adjourned at 9:15 p.m. Good work. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Oh, were you going to tell us what this is? That is from our retreat and it goes with the book that you