001Mhm. >> I would like to call this meeting to order. The time is 6:30 p.m. We will begin with roll call. Lynn Lewis, present. Jennifer Roach. Present. Heather Barrett. Karen Thomas. Present. Felice Present. Philip Chapman. Present. J.R. Humphreys. We have five seven board members present. Please rise for our We have a quorum. Please rise for our prayer led by Dr. Patterson and our posting of our colors and pledges of allegiance led by Captain Alyssa Smith and Staff Sergeant Gabriel Hawkins. Please bow your heads. Father God, we come before you tonight first of all thanking you for another day. We thank you for bringing us together to do the business of the district. We thank you for our communities. We thank you for our district. We thank you for the children that you have entrusted us
002with. We pray on tonight that you will be in the midst, join us in this meeting, and help us make decisions that are in the best interest of every single one of our students. All of these things we ask in your son Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Forward, march. Left. Left. All right. Left. Mark time, march. Left. Color guard, halt. Seat. Colors. Present arms. Order arms. Step to the left, march. Left face. Pledges. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. And now for the Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Pledge is complete. Forward, march. Left. Left. Thank you. Okay,
003now open the floor for board remarks. Okay. Now I have Okay, is there anyone else? I just wanted to congratulate our theater department and and Mr. Blanchester for the wonderful job they did with their UIL play. They went a long way. I'm very proud of them. Okay. Anybody else? Or uh Okay, we'll move on to recognitions. >> Good evening, Madam Board President Lewis, members of the school board, and Superintendent Dr. Patterson, and fellow Cougar community. Tonight, as always, I have the distinct pleasure of presenting our Cougar Excellence Awards for outstanding teachers and students tonight. It is an honor to celebrate the dedication, hard work, and excellence that each of these individuals brings to Crosby ISD every day. We will start with our teachers, but before we call names, I want to take a moment just
004to mention our amazing partners at Crosby Chick-fil-A, HEB, and Marco's Pizza for their continued support for our awards. Tonight, each person will receive a certificate and a token, and our students will receive a yard sign to probably display their accomplishments. Students, please pick them up before you leave this evening. So, with our teachers, you are more than just instructors of our content. You are the motivators, the encouragers, the mentors, and the role models to the most precious members of our community, our students. You are a steady presence in their lives, and for that, we thank you. So, I'm going to start with CHS, Mr. Roberto Cruz. >> [applause] >> At CMS, I have Ms. Britney Rue. >> [applause] >> At NES, I have Ms. Ingrid Reyes. >> [applause] >> From DES, I have Ms. Rita
005Bradford. >> [applause] >> CES, Ms. Tracy Oni. >> [applause] >> BES, Ms. Natalia Gonzalez. >> [applause] >> And CKC Ms. Nancy Torres. >> [applause] >> Okay, and then we'll put it all together. They're all set to go. All right, there we go. Much better. Got it. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> And I am overjoyed to call up our next group of honorees, our amazing students. Let me begin by recognizing the families of these students. We thank you for the important role that you play with our students each and every day. We truly appreciate your continued support. And to our students, thank you for consistently displaying respect, kindness, and integrity. These qualities have set you apart and the reason why your name is being called today and you are being honored. We're going to start with CHS
006with Hillary Self. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Mommy. From CMS, Mr. Bryson Jones. >> [applause] >> NEWPORT ELEMENTARY, Vida Cano. >> [applause] >> Drew Elementary, Randy Sanchez. >> [applause] >> Crosby Elementary, Elias Miranda. >> [applause] >> Elias Elias Miranda. Thank you. I apologize, Elias. From Bear Elementary, Asia Miss Miss Kovic. Yes. >> [applause] >> And our little is Cougar being recognized today, CKC Gabriel Pena. >> [applause] [applause] >> Now, normally we do paraprofessionals as well, but we have a very special presentation. We are pleased to announce the recipients of the Crosby ISD Grow Your Own Scholarship. Tonight, this scholarship was created to support our paraprofessionals who are pursuing their goal of becoming a certified teacher and their service in Crosby ISD classrooms. After careful review of all applications, I am pleased to announce the five
007individuals who will be receiving a $1,000 scholarship. Let me say that each recipient will receive a non-renewable $1,000 scholarship to pay directly to their college or university. We extend our congratulations to these individuals, and we also want to take the time to express our sincere appreciation for the Crosby Education Foundation for their continued support of staff growth and development opportunities such as this. Can I please have Ms. Jamie Lacey? >> [applause] >> Ms. Farah Robinson >> [applause] [applause] >> Mr. Michael Mathis Francis Rogers >> [applause] >> and Lynnie Marr >> [applause] [laughter] [applause] >> Our final excellence award for the evening is a celebration of our Crosby FFA community and I do mean community. A group defined by teamwork, leadership, and shared pride in what they build together. Please watch our tribute. Crosby ISD Board
008of Trustees is Dr. Patterson. It is my pleasure to announce the Super Excellence in Action Award for April 2026. Our very own Crosby FFA members from the show ring to the stage, Crosby FFA members are proving that excellence isn't just a goal, it's a way of life. Under the direction of two amazing teachers and sponsors, our Crosby FFA have truly shown out this year. At the Youth Livestock Show and Rodeo, one of the nation's most prestigious events, Crosby FFA members earned third place in the competitive tour guide competition. These students showcased world-class communication and leadership skills to thousands of visitors, representing our community with pride and professionalism. But that's just the beginning. Throughout the spring show circuit, from Fort Worth to San Antonio to Houston, Crosby FFA members have dominated the competition with consistent top
009placements in steers, swine, and goats. These young exhibitors are setting the standard for excellence in livestock competition. It's a testament to the hard work, dedication, and the quality programs we built here in Crosby. What truly sets Crosby apart is heart. These organizations remain rooted in our community. These students aren't just winning competitions, they're building character, strengthening our community, and inspiring the next generation. As we begin the countdown, Crosby FFA hosted the annual Ag Adventure Day at the Crosby Fair and Rodeo Livestock Show Stadium. Students in FFA have led tours for our smallest Cougars for over 20 years under the direction of our sponsors. While mentored by our amazing FFA sponsors, the students were the stars of the show, teaching about livestock, animal care, farm and ranching tools, plants and vegetables, and so much more. This
010was also a amazing day due to the community involvement of the Crosby Volunteer Fire Department and Harris County Constable's Precinct 3, who came out to help as well. Congratulations to Crosby FFA for being the true exemplars of excellence in Crosby ISD. Your dedication to not only your organization, but to our Crosby community is proof that you are future excellence in action. >> [applause] >> There we go. All right, Mr. Chapman, I'm I'm losing you a little bit. There we go. Congratulations. >> [laughter] [crying] >> Okay. Um thank you to all the teachers, paraprofessionals, students, and families for joining us this evening to celebrate these wonderful accomplishments. If you would like to depart before we proceed with regular business of the district, please feel free to do so at this time. >> Okay. At this time,
011in accordance with BED Local, the board will provide an audience with individuals who have signed up to address this board. Tonight, we have one request to comment in person. Audrey Anderson is our board clerk and will serve as our timekeeper for those requesting to speak. A timer will also be visible on the screen. Public comments are in person only. Anyone wishing to speak in person at the board meeting must register 5 minutes prior to the start of the board meeting with the board clerk and or sign-up sheet. Citizen participation is limited to the hearing of citizens portion of the agenda. The board is not allowed to respond to comments pertaining to items not included on the agenda unless the response is limited to specific factual [snorts] information or reciting existing policy in response to the
012inquiry. Each citizen is limited to 3 minutes to speak. And we have Brett, Mr. Brett Hoskins in regards to the board machine. Like so. >> [snorts] >> How are y'all doing? I hate to bring this to y'all after such an exciting start of the school board meeting, but uh as a concerned parent and a citizen of Crosby, there has been an ongoing issue with bullying on the transportation and in the schools that leads to >> [snorts] >> things that get out of hand very quickly. Um after speaking to multiple parents, they've actually pulled their kids out of the schools due to bullying that gets worse, they say, as you go to junior high and high school and elsewhere. Um I had a very successful meeting with the principal and the school today, and I just
013wanted to make y'all aware that there is an issue. Um other than that, I'm just asking that y'all help cuz I can't do it myself, right? And bullying is something that obviously is not going to be stopped by one parent. But together, we can come together and hold accountability. And that's all I'm asking. That's it. Thank y'all. Thank you. Okay, we're we're going to move on to reports. We'll start with item A, TEA door and intruder audits presented by Mr. Mitchell. Good evening, Dr. Patterson. Madam President and the rest of the school board, I'm here this month to present on our latest TEA door audit. Uh we did have an audit on March 13th. And I'm happy to report there were no findings in phase one, two, or three. So, we still have our streak
014going of 100%. We have one more campus and they will be out sometime in May to conduct our last one. Questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Ken. Item B is budget workshop by Mr. Smith. All right. Good evening, Board of Trustees, Superintendent Dr. Patterson, cabinet, and guest. Today, we will take a look at budget workshop number two for the 2026-2027 year. So, we will take a look at budget development, review compensation and staffing, and then wrap up looking at the budget calendar. For budget development, we will review the budget assumptions for the fiscal year 2026-2027. We are projecting enrollment of 7,450 students as of snapshot date, which is October of 2026. We are projecting 7,500 students on the last day of school, which is May of 2027. We are looking at 6,700 for average daily
015attendance, a 93% attendance rate, no increase in the homestead exemption this year. It will remain at 140,000. We are anticipating property value growth, and we're also looking at a balanced budget for the general fund and debt service fund. The child nutrition fund, we are still reviewing the numbers. They are only allowed to have six months of operational expenditures in fund balance. So, we are still reviewing that to see if we need to adopt either a balanced or deficit budget for child nutrition. So, the legally adopted budgets will be for the general fund, child nutrition fund, and debt service fund. And these budgets are adopted at the fund and function level. I would like to point out that Crosby ISD does have additional funds. We have state grants, federal grants, and capital projects funds. And these
016are either grant based or project based, so they do not have a legally adopted budget. For presentation purposes, the budget will include major objects. I'd like to point out the top one, payroll cost. That is the largest one. We will target 80% as per the TEA recommendation. The remaining categories are all what we call non-payroll, and those will make up the remaining 20%. Next, we'll take a look at compensation and staffing. Crosby ISD contracts with TASB to conduct pay maintenance. TASB takes a look at our pay structures, compares those to area and surrounding districts, and also market rates for some positions. They will take these recommendations and combine them into the proposed compensation schedules, which we will bring in May for approval. Uh with that, we had asked TASB to take a look at cost
017implications for some raises. Um we asked to look at a 2% and a 3% raise to stay in line with previous years. The 2% raise would amount to 1,392,000. The 3% raise would amount to 1,884,000. The 3% raise is administration's recommendation. >> [snorts] >> I do want to point out that this amount is not for one specific fund. This is district-wide. >> [clears throat] >> So, we also gave campus and department leaders an opportunity to request positions that they would might need for their campus, department, or for growth. So, with that, we are looking to add two elementary bilingual teachers, an elementary structured learning special ed teacher, and two special ed structured learning paraprofessionals. Next, we'll take a look at the budget calendar. So, at the March board meeting, we took a look at budget
018workshop number one. On April 1st, we conducted training for the campuses and departments to review non-payroll. We opened up Skyward for the campus and departments to enter their data into Skyward. We are currently conducting budget workshop number two. At the end of the week, the campus and departments will submit their budget entry into Skyward. At the end of the month, we will receive certified property values, certified estimated property values from Harris Central Appraisal District. At the next board meeting on May 18th, we will take a look at budget workshop number three. We will include the initial preliminary budget, the full TASB pay maintenance update, property values update, and we will also have a action item to approve the compensation schedule. At the June 15th meeting, we will conduct a public hearing and have an action
019item to adopt the budget. On August 30th, hopefully, we will receive the certified appraisal roll from Harris Central Appraisal District. Depending on this date, at either the September or the October meeting, we will have an order approving the property tax roll and adopt the 2026 tax rate. And are there any questions? On the slide with additional staff, it's like two teachers at Barrett and a couple teachers at Drew. Pairs at Drew. Teachers and staff, pairs at Drew. There were no other requests from campus or department leaders. There were. We still are working through the remaining um requests from campus and departments. These were the ones that were that we needed for growth to meet the minimum requirements. So, there were other campuses that requested positions, too. Some of them we were able to fill with
020uh transfers within the district. So, these were the ones we would need to add. Okay. And [clears throat] then, the transportation department, you're only recommending a 3% raise for bus drivers. We're still reviewing the bus driver raise. But, definitely, we recommend a minimum of 3% for the bus drivers. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Move it on. Construction. Thank you very much. All right. So, with the construction update, we will have two presentations. Up first to provide an update on the sixth grade campus and administration renovation, Nicole Barrios with Stantec. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening. Um I would like to report on the status of our Crosby sixth grade campus. Um we are currently about to hit construction. Um we are looking forward to hearing the um recommended um contractor this this
021evening for that project, so we can look forward to teaming with them moving forward. Um we went through a great bidding and negotiation process alongside with LAN. Um we are under budget. We're we're looking to proceed with construction, so we're excited about that and we're still shooting for substantial completion to be May of 2027. Second report will be Crosby Administration building renovation update. So with the admin building, we are currently still under design. We are looking to hit construction documents later this month. We are going to go through the same process as we did the Crosby sixth grade campus bidding negotiation looking for a contractor CSP method. We are running into a few challenges and I'll go through that really quick from a building standpoint. There are structural implications that we have ran into as
022we've gone through the design. We've actually asked Crosby to help us with some investigative demolition and during that process we uncovered some structural lateral walls that are to remain. There implications that would lead to cost increase if we were to remove those walls. So although we did have a plan that was submitted and approved, we had to go back to the drawing board once we found that out and we were able to revise the plan by still keeping majority of the program. I would say that the updated floor plan by keeping the structural walls actually does increase the amount of conference space and community space. So there was a success story there. Any questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And then one last part for the construction update. We will provide some information
023on the Red Barn renovation. So some background. The Red Barn project was approved September 15th, 2025. The project includes the Red Barn and the former CTE space at Crosby Middle School. The total project budget is $4 million, which will be from assigned fund balance. The project delivery is competitive sealed proposals, which was approved at the February 17th meeting. The next steps, there's an action item to approve the architect in this upcoming board agenda. Um the architect will provide a conceptual design and then go through schematic design, design development, uh produce contract documents, and then we'll go out for bidding and negotiation. After that, we will approve a contractor, start the construction phase with a substantial completion of August of 2027. Any questions? Thank [snorts] you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, now we'll do
024a transportation update. Uh Mr. Mitchell. Good evening, board. I'm here with our April update for transportation. So, I last reported in January, and at that time we had four new drivers with CDLs ready to drive, a driver trainees, two drivers on FMLA, and three drivers left since the previous semester. I'm happy to report now in April that we've hired five ready to drive drivers since January. Two of our five drivers did leave for job advancement or a personal issue. We've hired 11 driver trainees since January. Three drivers trainees are now driving routes. Two driver trainees have permits now, and so they just have to go take their road test. Five driver trainees are working on modules, and one driver did not pass their test. And then we had one driver that has retired since January.
025As far as the routing in January, there was four open routes plus seven routes driven by office. Uh there are two open routes now plus six routes that our office staff cover, and one is new spared route. So, you may be asking why are the numbers off from how many we hired versus this? What we decided to do was split up some of our bigger routes that were covered by other drivers to limit that because uh so, we brought those routes back online now and assigned those to some of our new drivers to eliminate the uh the length and the number of students. And our spared routes have increased a lot, so we're increasing our spared routes almost every week, and that's affecting where we put our new drivers at also. As far as our
026ridership numbers, these were the numbers in January to April. And so, we have increased about 200 students in January. I guess everybody was waiting for us to work out all the kinks, and then they signed up for transportation. So, now we're up about 200 students. All right, as far as our elementary bus arrivals, in January, we had about five buses that were coming within 15 minutes, and that was about 364. It's now up to eight buses, but it's less students because of which buses they are. Um and then as far as uh the tardy bell, there are four four in January at 218 students. Now, we're about three buses, but 86 students. And I will tell you that some of those buses are our spared buses because they're just such long routes and so many
027students we have to load on those buses. And so as soon as we get more drivers we'll continue to split those routes apart. As far as secondary our high school is still on point. There are zero buses coming within 15 minutes and zero students coming within that time and after the tardy bell zero students and zero buses. As far as middle school in January there were four at 143 students. Now we're averaging on most days about two buses at 95 students and then for tardy still about two buses but 38 students now. As far as the afternoon as far as buses that are arriving at 30 minutes after dismissal we're still at about that three so we're still trying to work on getting a few of those buses to get there a lot sooner so
028we're still holding at three and we hopefully we can continue to work on that number. And for secondary it did go up by one and one of those buses is one of our spare buses. It's just it's 15 spare students on one bus and so it's taking us a long time in order to get those kids kids and so we're continuing to work on that issue as well. Okay, any questions? I like progress. Thank you. We keep pushing. We're working. Thank you. All righty, thank you. I I do I I appreciate the progress but I do just want to ask what are we doing to make sure this is not how next year goes because while it is progress that's still a lot of students coming into school late and I I know it's less
029but every kid that goes in late is not only a disruption to their learning but the learning of the entire class. So what are we doing to mitigate that for next year? Well, we continue to add drivers. As we add the drivers, those routes will start to shrink. We can split routes up and then the time won't be as long. So, as long as we can keep bringing these drivers in, I think that's going to help tremendously with that. And so, it's just a matter of just getting the staffing to where we need it to be. >> So, what support is needed from the board? That will be coming soon. Cuz I feel like at the last meeting, y'all mentioned something about daycares and obviously I don't want to do anything to put out local
030businesses, but um someone said that was like the the key thing that was making this not work. I think I said I asked about the daycare route. Matter of fact, I just wrote it again because I was going to ask about being reminded, but the email on how many stops it was because we're still providing daycare stops and then how many students were on the bus because they were loaded and then they had to go back and then come back and pick up more of their route. Um but I didn't know if that was some of the routes that you had split. So, I think I was the one that brought up daycare and I don't think they said that was something. I just said I think this was like no district that is as
031large as ours provides this for daycares. >> Right, but I think the the transportation, I can't think of the name, um the lady, Misty. Yes, I think she said that that was a huge issue causing >> I mean, it does slow them down to have to stop there. Yeah. >> wouldn't say it's a key, but it is a fact. >> fact, right. >> And and then um I would just I would just say I'm concerned about the amount of students and the instructional lost and lost and disrupted. And if there's something we can do, I'd be happy to So, I'll say we've made great progress. We started at 2,000 and now the numbers have uh decreased significantly. I think as we continue to work the system, continue the tier system work, the raise is bringing
032in more drivers. It's budget time, we're looking at even more of a raise. And so continuing to do what we've done, it's been 4 months and it seems to be working. Taking it didn't happen overnight, it didn't start, you know, overnight significantly changing, but we are moving in the right direction and we have plans for next year and more to share very soon. Okay. So, are we probably keeping the time stop start and time the same? So, the departures that are late secondary, is that primarily late middle? Yeah, it's middle. I got I got a phone call from an elementary administrator last week unrelated to to board work and um it was 4:20 and she had she was calling work related, she called and um she had to pause her phone call so she could
033go get kids on the bus at 4:20. Yeah. Last 2 weeks has been rough. We've had a lot of drivers out. Like I've seen it increase these last 2 weeks weeks due to we've had like I think Thursday we had 70% of our bus drivers here. So, that made us go back to the old days because they had to do two and three routes to get them all covered. So, so I will admit these last 2 weeks have been rough. Rough because we've had a lot of absences that we hadn't had this whole semester, but all of a sudden we've had a lot of absences so and we are working on something to address that next semester as well as far as the attendance of drivers to really kind of hammer down on that and
034hopefully that will also support this as well. Thank you, Mr. Mitchell. Anyone else? >> [snorts] >> Okay, thank you. Next on the agenda for tonight's meeting is consent agenda. From the items above, are there any items requested to be pulled from the consent agenda to discuss? If not, do I have a motion approve the consent agenda? I'll do If we make a motion to approve the consent agenda, can we ask a question after that on the consent agenda or does it have to be pulled out? It must be pulled. Move to approve. Second. Have a motion by Trustee Chapman and a second by Trustee Collice to approve the consent agenda. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed by nay. Motion carries 5-0. Moving into regular business, item A, discuss and
035consider approval of architectural services [clears throat] by Pfluger Architects for renovation of the Red Barn and former CTE space at Crosby Middle School for 300 and 90 thousand. 90,000. Move to approve architectural services by Pfluger Architects for renovation of the Red Barn and former CTE space at Crosby Middle School for 390,000. Second. Have a motion by Trustee Chapman and a second by Trustee Thomas. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed by nay. Motion carries 5-0. Item B, discuss and consider the approval of Gamma Construction Company to provide construction services for the Crosby 6th Grade Campus project for an estimated amount of 37 million 4,000 and delegate authority to the superintendent to negotiate and execute a contract. I move to award CSP number 2526-0002 for the Crosby 6th Grade
036Campus project to Gamma Construction Company for an estimated amount $37,004,000 and delegate authority this to the superintendent to negotiate and execute a contract. I'll second. Have a motion by Trustee Chapman, second by Trustee Lewis. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed by nay. Abstentions. Motion carries 5-0. Item C, discuss and consider approval for installation of emergency responder radio antenna system, DAS, at CMS. Move to approve installation of emergency responder radio system by Speaker E's for Crosby Middle School at a cost of $55,210 via Buy Board Co-op contract 696-23. I'll second. You beat me. I'm taking that second. I have a motion by Trustee Roach, second by Trustee Lewis. Excitingly. Any discussion? All right, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Abstentions by nay. Oh, and no,
037sorry, no by nay. Abstentions. Motion carries 5-0. Item D, discuss and consider accept- acceptance of the Crosby High School Track and Field project and approve final payment to the FieldTurf to FieldTurf USA in the amount of $68,176. I move to accept the Crosby High School Track and Field project and approve final payment to FieldTurf USA in the amount of $68,176. Second. >> [snorts] >> I have a motion by Trustee Collazo, second by Trustee Thomas. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed by nay. Abstentions. Motion carries 5-0. Discuss and consider approval to install new sinks by Way Engineering for Crosby Middle School boys restrooms at a cost of $76,075 and $0.58 via co-op text text by number 024-60. Move to approve the installation of new sinks by Way Engineering
038for Crosby Middle School boys restroom at a cost of $76,075.58 via co-op text by number 024-60. I'll second. Have a motion by Trustee Chapman, second by Trustee Roach. Okay, then. Okay. Dallas ISD offered to pay. Um any discussion? Um I have a question. Um is this every boys restroom in the whole building? Yes. In the middle school? Yes. Cuz I know we don't use all of them, do we? Or some of Or some not locked? >> Do we use all of them? We're putting them in all the ones that we do use. You are. Okay. Just the ones we use. Okay. And not girls. That we never talked about that. That's only the boys. No, those were fine. Okay. All right. Thank you. Is there anyone here from Way Engineering tonight? No, sir. Okay. Mr.
039uh I guess the question goes to Mr. Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell, were there any anticipated tile repairs on the walls or knees or will the No, they said they were going to use the same office that they already have and that's going to determine how many spouts they're going to use use each trough. So, that they wouldn't have to tap and and redo the walls. My last question is do you know if this includes the cost of the accessibility uh review and inspection as well? Are they handling that or is that something that No, they don't have to pay. So, accessibility and what was the other part? Accessibility, a plan review and an inspection. Can we wait on the other two? It's okay. Okay. Anybody else? Okay. I have a motion by Trustee Chapman and second
040by Roach. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Um opposed by nay. Motion carries 5-0. Discuss and consider approval of facility assessment with TASB for $126,000 and we have a presentation for this. Good evening, Board of Trustees, Superintendent Dr. Patterson. To provide some more information on the TASB facility assessment, we have Grady Slayden from TASB Facility Services. Good evening, Board President, board members, Dr. Patterson. Thank you for giving me a few minutes tonight to visit with you about the assessment. Very quickly, our assessment will be looking at all the spaces in the district from the roofs to the foundations and look at not only the school site with the access and parking, playgrounds, and such, but also the components of the buildings' envelope, roof, HVAC systems, certainly a life safety and security, >>
041[clears throat] >> and uh support spaces uh as well. Uh we'll also look at educational adequacy, how well these spaces are serving the districts in the the district and the campuses. Um the process we'll go through and conduct surveys uh of administration, uh come out and do data collection, measure all the spaces, take inventory of the everything from the ceiling tiles to how much carpet there is in the district. Then we'll go through a data processing uh process and publication. We um compare all the facilities to new so that we have a fairly uh standard approach to our assessments. Um our pricing is provided through RSMeans, which is a nationwide pricing index. It is normalized to the county. Uh so uh the price won't be according to Bear County or Dallas County, but uh to
042Harris County. >> [clears throat] >> We'll be able to to calculate a facility condition index, basically the cost of repairing a building as compared to the cost of replacing it. Same size, same materials. In the past, typically if those uh indexes were 50% or higher, that's when districts would start looking at replacing. But with the increases in construction costs over the last few years, now we're seeing percentages that districts are using up to 70 and 75% before they consider a new facility. Uh so rough math, if if conditions for repairs are 10 million, the the the cost of replacing is 20 million, then that's the 50% FCI. Fairly simple, nothing regulatory, just a decision-making tool for districts. And then we'll figure functional capacity we work off of the idea that there are programs that the
043district deems important to be in campuses. Uh an example is if uh the district says that every grade level at elementary should have an available computer lab, then there should be space for that uh included so that there's not a home room class necessarily assigned to that space, but it is available for for coming to those as the district sees fit. So, we'll keep that in mind as well. So, very [clears throat] quickly we deliver our report through a dashboard. Uh it is login protected for certain parts of it, but we also have the ability for the district to post a public link on your webpage so that the community can come in and look at our assessment and the results and the findings that we've had. Uh the um area that is protected by
044password includes uh some detailed pricing, but also the safety and security items that we're making recommendations so that that information's not out in public. This is a district uh summary page. Uh you can see the SEI. I'm sorry the print is so small, but it's a lot better on the computer screen. Uh and then we get into the different domains that we look at from foundation to exterior structure giving it simple grades, good, fair, and poor, uh and then moving on into identified projects. We give an initial priority um but hopefully in the near future there'll be some long-range planning going through uh the district with this process and with all of this information so that y'all can identify the different projects that should be addressed first. And then we uh have some graphical representation
045of your enrollment, your capacity, and then also the the FCI for specific buildings. This is the educational adequacy uh section. Again, uh we look at classrooms, um the security, PE and athletic facilities, um fine arts, things of that nature, and give it a score uh based on what we've seen and on best practices. Uh some of the more hands-on useful uh parts of our report, this is an HVAC inventory. Your district will receive uh that grades the the individual units according to the age uh and and gives your district the ability to better plan for replacements. Um AC is one of those things if it goes out, there's no question we're going to replace it and get it functioning again. So, that's uh an important tool. So, there. I think I did it. Any questions?
046I don't know if this is a question for you or for Dr. Patterson or Mr. Menefee, but how does this um facility assessment differ from the previous one we had done? So, TASB uh provides a more comprehensive facility assessment and they also don't perform the work um to bring the facilities up to speed. So, essentially it'd be a more comprehensive um assessment and unbiased as to the um priorities for these projects. In In this term, um in in generalities, I I nothing specific here. Um just reading through the the contract here. How long do you really think it's going to take to get the full assessment? Part of it is going to be when we can schedule to get in according to uh the schedule of previous previously scheduled work. Right now, we're looking at
047the late summer uh to early fall to begin. Typically, uh we allow ourselves 4 months to complete all the field work and then the publication and data processing work from there. So, I would expect looking at the end of the year, most likely. Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Move to approve facility assessment with Taggart for $126,000. Second. Have a motion by Trustee Chapman and a second by Trustee Calise. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed by nay. Abstentions? Motion carries 5-0. Discuss and consider approval of the revised compensation schedules for fiscal year 2025-2026. Move to approve the revised compensation schedules for fiscal year 2025-2026. Second. Have a motion by Trustee Calise and a second by Trustee Lewis. Any discussion? All those
048in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed by nay. Abstentions? Motion carries 5-0. Discuss and consider options for compliance with SB 546 seat belts bus seat belts and we have a presentation for this. Mr. Mitchell. All right. So, last month I I presented to you about Senate Bill 546 about the bus seats bus seat belts. And so, I wanted to do a quick recap and give our recommendation. So, again, the background of this legislature says that by 2029, all school buses must have three-point seat belts. As of right now in our fleet, we only have three that have the three-point seat belts. So, we would need to retrofit or replace 36 buses to come into compliance by 2029. This was our cost cost for our retrofit if we were to send them to a vendor.
049And I spoke last month about the 11 being our older buses, and so it's costing a lot more to to retrofit those because they have to take the whole floors out and redo the seats and everything. So, that's why that number is so high for only 11 buses. But, the grand total would be about 1.6 million dollars if we sent that out to a vendor to retrofit. And that's as of right now, as we know prices are going up on everything. So, over 3 years, it could go higher. And so, our recommendation to the board is that the Board of Trustees determine that we do not have the funds in the budget to replace the entire bus fleet to become compliant with Senate Bill 546. Although the district maintains excess fund balance, that money is
050being saved for portable buildings and other facility needs when needed. Questions? Based on the board's determination that the district's budget does not permit the district to purchase buses equipped with the seat belts as required by the transportation code, I move to authorize the superintendent to file an appropriate report to TEA. Second. I have a motion by Trustee Chapman, a second by Trustee Thomas. Any discussion? I think my only discussion is that in addition to following the appropriate report, I think we need to continue to advocate that this is essentially another unfunded mandate because if you buckle up every child on a bus, you need additional adults on the bus to unbuckle those children in the event of an emergency. Or if you talk about very young kids at every single stop because there are many
051three, four, and five-year-olds who cannot unbuckle themselves. So, even if they give us the $1.6 million to fit the buses, we need additional compensation to staff seat-belted buses. All right. I need to piggyback off that. I fully support everything that you just said, Trustee Brooke. Um I I It's important to me that everyone hears that um my motion there um to support the assessment of the issue with um not keeping our kids safe. All right. Uh that's very important that it comes out of my mouth and that people hear that. Um it is a fact that furthermore from what Trustee Brooke just said, that uh it shows you how powerful lobbying is, in my opinion. Uh we can follow a dollar bill very quickly. Um and they can pass the buck very quickly. Um I
052believe that this would be a a huge waste of money because [snorts] uh furthermore the the the the kids that get on the bus just flat on flat out are not going to buckle up. Okay? We don't have the supervision to ensure that um our kids are safe on the bus. I trust that right now. And it has nothing against um not wanting our kids to be buckled up. All right. Uh all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed by nay. Abstentions? Motion carries 5-0. The board will now move into closed session. It is 7:27 p.m. We are going to move into closed session according to Texas Government Code 551.071 pursuant to Section 551.071 1 2 3 A B 4 Section 551.072 1 Section 551.073 Section 551.074 1 2 A 3 Section Section
053551.0821, Section 551.084, Section 551.087. >> Mhm. >> Okay, we'll reconvene from closed session. The time is 9:00 p.m. We're now back in open session. Item A, discuss and consider hiring and contract of executive director of curriculum and instruction. >> [laughter] >> I'll move to approve the contract of Brandy Goss for the position of executive director curriculum and instruction. I'll second. I have a motion by trustee and a second by Trustee Lewis. Any discussion? I don't really have discussion. I just want to justify the reason for my vote. Um uh First I want to say I appreciate the curriculum team. This really isn't a reflection on any individual, but my responsibility as a trustee is to ensure we have systems to support students for success. Um this recommendation presents an opportunity for us to evaluate whether
054our current systems have been meeting that expectation and given our current C rating and the um recent assessment scores at the secondary schools, I believe this is a critical moment to reconsider leadership and bring a fresh perspective to accelerate academic improvement. I also believe that our staff need to feel seen and heard and in our last survey there were um multiple concerns with curriculum and instruction and again, I just think this was an opportunity that we could bring in new leadership. Anybody else? Okay. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed by nay. Nay. Motion carries 4-1. Consider approval of professional contract recommendations as presented. I'll make a motion for the professional contract recommendations as presented. I'll second it. >> [snorts] >> I have a motion by Trustee Chapman and a second by
055Trustee Lewis. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed by nay. Abstention abstentions? Motion carries 5-0. I have a motion to adjourn the meeting. I'll move to adjourn. I'll second it. Uh all All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Um meeting is adjourned at 9:40 6:06. 9:45. 9:45.