Crosby ISD Board Meeting 10-20-25

001Oh, Kylene Lewis, present. Jennifer Roach. Heather Barrett. Present. Karen Thomas. Present. Lisa Kalish. Present. Philip Chapman. Present. And J.R. Humphreys. Present. We have six of seven board members present. We have a quorum. Please rise for our bread prayer led by Tracy Lewis and the posting of our colors and pledge of allegiance by First Lieutenant Alyssa Smith and Second Lieutenant Daniella Maldonado. Maldonado. Let's pray. Lord, we come to you tonight with grateful hearts and the opportunity to gather and serve our school community. We thank you for each person here, the board members, educators, staff, students, and families who are part of this shared mission. As we begin this meeting, we ask for your guidance. Grant us wisdom in our discussions, clarity in our decisions, and compassion in our actions. May every conversation reflect our commitment to

002the well-being and success of every student entrusted to our care. Help us to listen with open minds, speak with respect, and lead with integrity. In times of disagreement, give us patience and perspective, and in moments of uncertainty, help us seek what is just and true. Bless our schools with peace, protection, and purpose, and may all that we do here tonight be for the betterment of our students, our staff, and the greater community we serve. Amen. 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. Now for the Texas pledge. Honor the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Thank you. You may be seated. Now

003I'm going to open the floor for some board remarks, if there are any. I just want to say something real quick. The baseball Crosby High School baseball program had an event called the Fall Fan Fest this previous weekend. And I just want to big shout out to our community. I know a lot of times there's a lot of negative things going on through social media, but at the end of the day, our community stands up for our kids. And there are a lot of small businesses that stepped up to contribute items for our silent auctions and donations. And so I encourage each and every one of you support, support, support these small businesses that support all of our kids. Um just thank you and congratulations to Bear Station for celebrating their 39th homecoming celebration this

004weekend. And super proud to see our cheerleaders and football team and all the participants from the district that are part of the parade and it was fun. So next year if you didn't make it, next year starts the parade starts every year at 10:00 on 2100. So, come out and have a good time. I want to congratulate our band uh for winning for uh UIL. Uh wasn't there, but still very proud of them always. Uh and I did not get to make the famous SpongeBob production that Mr. Blanchard put on. I tried, but uh got sick, but I heard phenomenal things throughout the community uh for that production. So, congrats on that. I was going to bring that up also cuz we were able to make it Saturday to the 2:00 show. As always, it

005was great. It was different because this time because they had a lot of middle schoolers involved and that's new for that. Um it was great. So, anybody that wasn't able to make it, they've got Christmas coming up, Christmas play. I don't know the dates, maybe but we'll be watching the websites and everything. Um support that program, too. They They It's It's always fun. The kids are funny, naturally funny. A lot of them can sing really well. It was It was great all around, so. Good job, Blanchard, as always. Anybody else? Okay, we'll move on to recognitions. Cougar Excellent Awards Excellence Awards presented by Executive Director of Communications Katrina White. White, please remain seated until all award awards have been given and photos have been taken. So, good evening, Madam Board President Lewis, members of the

006board, Superintendent Dr. Patterson, and fellow Cougar family. Tonight, I have the distinct pleasure of presenting the Cougar Excellent Awards for our outstanding teachers, paraprofessionals, and teachers. I'm so lucky. It's an honor to celebrate the dedication and hard work and excellence that each of these individuals brings to Crosby ISD every day. We will start with our students, but before we call names, I want to take a moment to mention our amazing partners at Crosby, Chick-fil-A, HEB, and Marco's Pizza for their continued support to our awards every month. Tonight, each person will receive a certificate, a token from Crosby, um a token of appreciation from Crosby, Chick-fil-A, and HEB, and our students will also receive a yard sign um that is proudly displayed their accomplishments donated by our friends at Marco's Pizza. So, good job. Congratulations to

007everyone. We will start with our students. It is my privilege to welcome, as we celebrate our Cougar Excellence Students members for the month of September. Each campus selects their students, so the administrators on the campus selects the student. Um I want to be very clear about that. That you have done something on campus to show not only your academics, but also in your um also in your character, your leadership, and your service. So, I want to thank you. So, first up, Crosby High School, Octavio Robles. From CMS, we have Kamani Franklin. Just keep smiling. Barrett Elementary School, we have William Marquez. >> FROM CROSBY ELEMENTARY, WE HAVE Natalie Cassar. From Drew Elementary, I have Samantha Hernandez Viera. From Newport Elementary, I have Cadence Baker. And from CKC, our little cougar, Cooper McDaniel. And parents, we

008thank you very much for supporting us as well. Now, on to our September paraprofessionals. Tonight, we probably recognize our paraprofessionals as the heart of our schools. They're the quiet heroes that support our students and our teachers every day with patience, compassion, and dedication. We honor you today. Our first paraprofessional is Ms. Samantha Rhodes from CROSBY HIGH SCHOOL. CROSBY MIDDLE SCHOOL, FRANCIS ROGERS. FROM BARRETT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, MS. Jennifer Gates. Crosby Elementary School, Naomi Diane. FROM DREW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, Destiny Northern. From Newport Elementary School, Stacy Potter. And from Crosby Kindergarten Center, Ms. Crystal Cheffer. ALL RIGHT, THANK YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH. AND now our teachers. We celebrate them as the backbone of our district. Teachers do more than teach lessons. They motivate, they encourage, and they believe in every student's potential, and we are so fortunate

009to have these individuals in Crosby ISD. Our first teacher from Crosby High School, Mr. Joshua Carver. FROM CROSBY MIDDLE SCHOOL, Vernell Russell. From Beard Elementary School, Kaylee Faith. Crosby Elementary School, Tammy Werner. From Drew Elementary School, Laura Moreno. Perfect, I love it. Newport Elementary, Victoria Matthews. FROM CROSBY KINDERGARTEN CENTER, MISS Tara Abbott. And so to a special treat tonight, our board members already opened the floor, but we're a spotlight on our theater department. Today we celebrate the incredible talent, hard work, and dedication of our theater department at Crosby High School and Crosby Middle School. From their most recent production of SpongeBob the Musical to every performance, rehearsal, and late-night practice and weekends, right? Throughout the year, their passion for the arts continues to shine bright. We are honored to thank our directors, our students, and

010our crew members for bringing creativity and joy to our stages all year long. I was honored to be able to see you guys opening night. It was a pleasure. I truly enjoyed it. I cannot wait for Christmas story. Dates will be coming out soon. So, thank you all so very much. This is our Cougar Excellence for the month. Over the past 2 months, something truly remarkable has been happening here at our school. Our high school and middle school Cougars have joined forces to bring the vibrant world of SpongeBob Musical to life. Their journey has been filled with dedication, creativity, and unwavering commitment to excellence. From the very first rehearsal, these students have worked tirelessly, learning every song, perfecting every dance step, and memorizing every line. It's been inspiring to watch their passion grow as they

011transition into colorful characters of Bikini Bottom. Their determination and teamwork have been nothing short of exceptional. But, the magic doesn't stop on stage. Behind the curtain, our students have displayed amazing craftsmanship, building detailed sets and creating props that bring the underwater world to life. From the bustling Krusty Krab to the whimsical jellyfish fields, every piece reflects their creativity and pride in this production. This production is more than just a show. This is a celebration of Cougar spirit. It's a powerful example of how our middle and high school students come together as a community, supporting one another and striving for excellence in every detail. We want to take a moment to congratulate every student, teacher, and volunteer involved in making this production possible. Your hard work, passion, and talent have truly made us all proud. To

012our cougars, thank you for showing us what dedication and teamwork look like. Congratulations on your outstanding achievement. You embody the very best of cougar excellence. All right, thank you SO MUCH FOR I GOT TO WORK THAT TIME. THERE WE GO. OKAY, SUSAN, just touch them more. There we go. Perfect. A round OF APPLAUSE SO I JUST WANT TO SAY THANK Y'ALL VERY MUCH. Thank y'all to everybody who came. And uh it means I don't know it We were all tired when we were coming up here, but when we saw the When I saw the video, I I got choked up because I know my years are numbered here. Like when you're a first graduate, I'm retiring. But um this means so much to us. And especially when we see all the it Jones and I

013had a lot of like this was going to happen. Middle school was coming here, high school was coming here. We had all these rules but we didn't need any of the rules cuz those middle school kids were just excellent. And they were the best behaved. We had no drama. All the kids were just so great. On Saturday night, there were so many tears. Everybody was just upset because it was come to an end. And I told them, I said, "That's when you know something special happened." And um the fact that we do this to you know, I didn't have to thank us cuz we love doing this. But it means so much to us. Like watching Watch this. Watch this. See the little video? Got me all emotional. I'm like I just have the best

014job in the world, you know? And uh with Jones and and Garcia and Ms. King, I just can't thank y'all enough. Thank y'all so much. It really does mean a lot to us. 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 at the district, please feel free to do so at this time. Hey Jones. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. program Sorry. No problem. We're good for consent. You're right. Yeah? I think you're right. Okay, we'll go ahead and get started with the business side. At this time, we do not have any requests to comment to the board, so we'll move on to the next item on our agenda. We're going to

015move to reports. A is board training report. It's long, so bear with me. I'll read it as fast as we can. Under State Board of Education rule, completing required continuing education each year of service is a basic obligation and expectation of any city board member. As board president, I'm required to announce the name of each member who has completed the required training education, continuing education, has exceeded the required continuing education and is deficient in meeting the required continuing education. The requirements for training are measured as of the first anniversary of the date of the trustee's election or appointed or appointment or 2-year anniversary of his or her previous training as applicable. There are eight training areas for board member continuing education. Local district orientation, orientation to the Texas Education Code, post legislative update to the

016Texas Education Code, team building, additional continuing education, evaluation, evaluating student academic performance and setting goals, identifying and reporting abuse, trafficking, and other maltreatment of children, and school safety. To the extent applicable to each board member, I will announce the completion or deficiency as to required training. For members who still have time remaining to complete required training, I will announce those board members who have scheduled timely training and those who have not yet scheduled the training. At the conclusion of this announcement, I will announce any board member's training in excess of the continuing education requirements. Local orient district orientation, the following first-year board members have completed the local district orientation training. We have none. Cuz none of us are first years. Orientation to the Texas Education Code, the following first-year board members have completed the orientation

017to the Texas Education Code training code. None. Post legislative update to the Texas Education Code, the following board members have completed the post legislative update to the Texas Education Code training. Killeen Lewis, Heather Barrett, Jennifer Roach, J.R. Humphreys, Karen Thomas, Lisa Culice, and Philip Chatburn. Team building, the following board members have completed the annual team building training. Killeen Lewis, Heather Barrett, Jennifer Roach, J.R. Humphreys, Karen Thomas, Lisa Collis, and Philip Chapman. Additional continuing education. Note, 10 hours for first-year members, 5 hours for subsequent years. The following board members have completed additional continuing education requirements. Keelan Lewis, 5 hours. Heather Barrett, 5 hours. Jennifer Roach, 5 hours. J.R. Humphreys, 5 hours. Karen Thomas, 5 hours. Lisa Collis, 5 hours. And Philip Chapman, 5 hours. Evaluating student academic performance and setting goals. The following board members have

018completed the biannual training on evaluating student academic performance and setting goals. Keelan Lewis, Heather Barrett, Jennifer Roach, J.R. Humphreys, Karen Thomas, Lisa Collis, and Philip Chapman. Identifying and reporting abuse, trafficking, or other maltreatment of children. The following board members have completed the biannual biannual training biannual, sorry, training on identifying and reporting abuse and trafficking. Keelan Lewis, Heather Barrett, Jennifer Roach, J.R. Humphreys, Karen Thomas, Lisa Collis, and Philip Chapman. School safety. The following board members have completed the biannual biannual training on school safety. Keelan Lewis, Heather Barrett, Jennifer Roach, J.R. Humphreys, Karen Thomas, Lisa Collis, and Philip Chapman. Exceeding required continuing education. Board member Lisa Collis exceeded the requirement required amount of continuing education training by 55.5 additional hours. Board member Heather Barrett exceeded required amount of continuing education training by additional 6 hours. Board member

019Jennifer Roach exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by additional 8 hours. Board member Karen Thomas exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by six additional hours. Board member Philip Chapman exceeded the required amount of continuing education training by an additional 5 hours. That's all for that report. Um moving on to B, TEA door and intruder audit presented by Mr. Mitchell. Good evening, Dr. Patterson and board members. I'm here this month to present our TEA door and intruder audit. So, the state is continuing with this school year with doing our intruder audit. And just a reminder, there's three parts: the intruder detection, the exterior doors, and the exterior door sweeps, and then the interior doors. On September 18th and October 9th, we had a visit at two of our campuses, and I'm happy

020to report there were no findings in phase one, two, or three. Any questions? All right, thank you. Thank you. Thanks. I know you'll see 2024-2025 Crosby ISD bilingual and English as a second language program evaluation report. Good evening, Crosby ISD board members. Uh my name is Perla Olmos, and I'm the bilingual ESL coordinator. And I'm here to present the Crosby ISD bilingual ESL program evaluation. Okay, so the program uh the Crosby ISD bilingual ESL program will institutionalize comprehensive and proactive programming and compliance systems to ensure that all district emergent bilingual students will successfully graduate from high school and be prepared to attend the post-secondary option of their choice. The dual language mission of Crosby ISD dual language program is to provide a rigorous academic program that promotes bilingualism, biliteracy, and cultural diversity to empower our

021students to succeed in a diverse global society in collaboration with all members of our learning community. Our values have not changed. They are to empower students to achieve at a high academic levels in language proficiency, embrace cultural diversity, foster an inclusive environment that celebrates everyone's uniqueness, establish positive relationships with all members of the learning community, and encourage a collaborative culture committed to lifelong learning. The dual language program models, um, the first one is one-way dual language. This program is a bilingual education program for Spanish dominant speakers with a goal to develop linguistic proficiency and literacy skills in English and in Spanish. Two-way dual language. That program has emergent bilingual students and non-emergent bilingual students. The two-way dual language program is an instructional model integrating English dominant speakers and Spanish dominant speakers to achieve bilingual, biliterate,

022and bicultural outcomes through delivering instruction in both languages. Content-based ESL program offered at elementary campuses integrates language instruction with content areas to meet the linguistic and academic needs of emergent bilingual students in self-contained settings. The pull-out ESL program offered at the elementary and secondary campuses provides an English language arts courses taught by a language arts teacher, ESL certified teacher, integrating content area instruction and language skills to meet the linguistic and academic needs of emergent bilingual students. So, uh, these are the number of students uh, 1,611 of emergent bilingual students that participated in the one-way and the two-way dual language program, and 89 students that were non-EBs that were in the two-way dual language program. TELPAS performance for spring 2024. As you can see, um, kindergarten uh, scored 39%, which was better than the state average,

023and then 39, which was higher than the state average. And then 17 at advanced and then first grade they scored better than the state average which was 15% and then 42 intermediate which was better than the state average, 36 and advanced and then seven advanced tied. Second grade, the beginning um they scored better in the proficiency level uh which was 20%. Intermediate they scored 64% and then advanced 16 and advanced tied zero. Third grade um our scores for the beginning proficiency level was 19% which scored a lot better than the state average and also in the intermediate which was 56%. Fourth grade scored the same as the state which was 14% in the beginning proficiency level and then 48% in intermediate. Fifth grade um Cross Valley ISD scored better 35% in intermediate proficiency level and

024as well as 54% in advanced proficiency level. Sixth grade Cross Valley ISD scored better than the state which was lower than than the state at the beginning level and then 46% at the intermediate and scored the same in the advanced proficiency level. Seventh grade is uh at the beginning level it was 9% the same as the state and then we scored at 40% at the intermediate level, 47% at advanced. At eighth grade we scored 37% and 52 which was a lot better than the state. Ninth grade, when we're looking at ninth grade we scored better at the beginning which was 10% then 54% which was higher than the uh state. 10th grade we scored the same in the intermediate proficiency level and scored higher at 47% at the advanced proficiency level. 11th grade, we scored

025the same as the state in the intermediate proficiency level, and scored higher at advanced proficiency level and advanced high. 12th grade, we scored at the advanced proficiency level 41% higher than the state. Cross-battery reclassification count, at the elementary level, 17 students reclassified, and then at the secondary level, 37 students reclassified, which is a total of 54 students across the district. Professional development, this is a compliance piece that the LPAC trainers, LPAC coordinators received, which is the LPAC administrative training, beginning, middle, and end of the LPAC training, special exit criteria to help us administrator training, eSTAR LPAC documentation, and the pre-LAS and LAS training and testing accommodations training. Instructional, this is professional development that our teachers were able to attend, which was guided reading 101, sheltered instruction, content-based language instruction region four, delivered by region four,

026instructional strategies for EB student success, the title three symposium, several of our teachers were able to attend that title three symposium in San Antonio, ESOL supplemental preparation was delivered by region four, summer school curriculum training, summer K-12 training, camouflaged platform training. Bilingual exceptions and ESOL waivers, when we compare last year to this year, last year at the elementary level, we submitted four waivers at the elementary level and 20 at the secondary, which is a total of 24. This year, even though we went a little bit higher at the elementary level, we're still we still reduce the number of ESOL waivers that are going to be submitted as a total of 18. At the secondary level, we're going to submit 12, which drastically dropped from last year. Which again is going to give us a total

027of 18. 24 25 for teachers earning an ESL certification by the end of the year. Any questions? Ms. Olmos, thank you. Is that 24 or 25 spring? So, last year 24 25, and then the 25 26 is for this year coming up that's going to be submitted for the ESL waivers. I think she's speaking on the slide 7 through 10, the scores that TELPAS. The TELPAS scores? Is that spring 2024 or is it spring 2025? It's last year. Spring Spring 25. >> Yes, ma'am. And then Ms. Olmos, for your dual one-way, how what is the 50/50? How do you make up the 50/50 in your in the dual program? >> and science is in English, and then the rest of the language arts social studies is in Spanish 50/50. So, depending on the grade level,

028um it's 2 days English, 2 days Spanish, and then we move on over. >> 50/50. Mhm. Yes, ma'am. 50/50. So, your math teachers are also bilingual? The math teachers are ESL if they're content-based, if they are self-contained, and then they're bilingual. Yes, ma'am. Just for my own curiosity. Yes, ma'am. Any questions? No? Okay, thank you. Have a great evening. Moving on to the construction update. Good evening, Board of Trustees, Superintendent Dr. Patterson, um and guests. For the construction update, we will have two presentations. First off, we will have Nicole Barrios from Stantec presenting on the sixth grade campus and then we will have JP Brown from LAN presenting on the high school parking lot. Thank you for the intro. Good evening Board of Trustees. I'm so excited to present to you where we're at as

029of today for the Crosby sixth grade campus. I am the project manager for this project for Stantec and we have been working on this since gosh early summer. So happy to be here to be able to show you the progress up to this point. So real quick I want to touch on the timeline. We have had several meetings design meetings with the the administration and the stakeholders involved even our user group meetings have taken place up to this point. We're currently past the design phase and right in the middle of the development and construction documents. So construction documents are slated to be completed by January and where we will go in for bidding and negotiation early January and looking for board approvals for the selections being made in February. Construction is slated to commence in

030February of 2026 and through substantial completion for May 2027. The work completed to date we have done a lot of work with the site context just so you know we are sandwiched right between the Crosby High School and Crosby Middle School, and stadium. We have that long narrow lot right between, and the design concept really allowed us to tie in the two campuses to the new sixth grade campus, and move along with the theme of moving forward. So, you will see a lot of those themes kind of highlighted throughout the the um concept of the project. So, we have designed the site to enter from a parent drop-off standpoint, enter on the south side of the site off of Red Summit to allow us to get a lot of the traffic off of the main

031FM 2100 for the parent drop-off on the Red Summit entry, and then the the bus drop-off on the north off of Middle School Road. We have two separate drop-offs for the bus, one dedicated to sped where we'll have a stand-alone entrance for those students. We do have a secure vestibule on the south side where the students will be dropped off where the drop-off location is and and near the administration, and then we have a secure vestibule as well on the north sped drop-off location. On the west side, we have the student drop-off where we also have a vestibule and we've worked closely with operations where we'll have um the uh check-in modules to be able to get past security. So, all entry points are secure. This is a view of the main drop-off location. So,

032again, we're the going back to the theme of moving forward where we have a direct link visual link between both the south campus, the high school campus, and the middle school campus. So, what we wanted to do is really drive that visual between those two campuses and kind of create a light airy open feel upon entry to the building. In the middle of the building as well as our media library, so we have a anchor component to the entire program and um are able to highlight that with vertical circulation surrounded. So, we'll have the stairwell, we'll have access to the elevator, and um this anchor is really about separating the spaces from the education quiet side and the more noisy side, which is band hall, dining, and um more loud functions like that. So, again,

033another view of the main entry. And this is a view from the um view looking from Middle School Road towards the project. So, we do have um some landscape features as well designed um as a student courtyard area on the north side of the building, and that's directly accessed from the media center and the fine arts department. This area will also be secured with a secure fence surrounded by it. The overall floor plan is um again separated. Plant East is really dedicated to learning spaces, uh classrooms, more quiet space quiet function spaces. The um highlighted yellow area is the media center that I was just mentioning is more of the anchor of the school. Um the purple spaces are special programs theater, arts, band hall, dance, and then the green space is the dining area,

034and the orange space is the um gym. We have 24 classrooms total. We have six science classrooms. Um each pod is each classroom pod is has its own dedicated science classroom. So, that's the intent of having them broken out from the northeast and south side. So, I'm just going to dive in really quick in the floor plan. We have area A, again, classroom location classroom pods that I've just mentioned um with the three science dedicated classrooms. We have support spaces for the building, and we also have um vertical circulation on the this side of the building as well. So, you'll be able to access these classrooms from both the elevator and feature stair on the west side and then the um intermediate stair on the east side near the restroom bank. This is the typical

035learning corridor. We've highlighted some of the corridors with accent red. We tried to keep that limited to about 10% for maintenance standpoint, but also kind of carrying some um color into the space. We'll have um direct access visual access into the classrooms, the science classrooms, um as well as kind of creating a nook into the um the doorway just to kind of create a little setback so it doesn't feel like a long narrow corridor. A little more playful with the ceiling and the flooring. Um area B is the central um special um fine arts, sped, media library, and administration space suite um highlighted in red on the south side. Again, that main entry is highlighted in red as well. The vestibule does create a secure vestibule um leading into the uh main corridor area, as

036well as allowing administration to securely check in um those who are entering the building. Our media center is highlighted with um again about 10% of that red to um allow some light or some color into the space, but it also really highlights the um overall intent of having that natural daylight come into the space and um also you warming it up with the wood underside of of the structure itself. Another view. And a view of the dance where we've um really allowed that natural light to spill in this space as well, but also create privacy from the hallway. So, um there's no distractions from the hallway looking in into the space or or outside of the space. Area C is the dining. So, that of course is our dining area with the stage and then

037to the backside of the stage will have easy access to the band band hall with um their space and support spaces as well. View of the dining hall. Area D is the gym. So, we'll have a um standard gym size with the um the restrooms adjacent to it. Um we also have some storage um in that area as well as our mechanical building support spaces, mechanical yard just to the west of of the gym. View of the gym. And throughout our meetings we've um developed the material palette and have presented that to um the administration and stakeholders involved for them to um have touch and feel the the the materials that we will be um specking for the project. And then lastly, I wanted to um go over something that was really exciting for our

038project team um and it's also developed into something a little more of a teachable moment for the students. So, we've used um well, throughout the process we've utilized uh 3D modeling, um even had what visual walkthroughs for the um the end users to be able to really see and feel the space rather than just seeing 2D plans that are a little more difficult for some folks to be able to read. So, with the advancement of our technologies that we utilize, we of course um take advantage of that opportunity. So, one of the um things that we've done is developed the campus 3D model and I hope all of you have been able to see that. But, we were also invited to teach a 1-hour workshop to the high school students on how to do a

0393D model. And so, we are targeting that for mid-November and we're really excited, but I I wanted to take a moment to read exactly what the workshop is going to entail cuz I think it's it's exciting. So, 3D modeling and architecture highlights how digital visual visualization reshapes both the design process and client engagement. Architects use 3D models to test spatial concepts, refine details, and explore multiple design iterations before construction ever begins. These models translate complex ideas into visual visuals that clients can easily understand reducing miscommunication and helping them make informed decisions with confidence. Ultimately, the technology bridges imagination and reality making the architectural vision accessible to everyone involved. The Stantec team will provide a presentation to high school students about how 3D modeling brings architecture to life. They'll see how architects test ideas and explore

040designs and solve problems using digital models before anything is built. The visuals make it easier for clients to understand the plans and give feedback. Students will also learn how 3D renderings are used to share ideas with the community and gain support for projects like school bonds. By the end, they'll understand how 3D modeling connects creativity, communication, and real-world decision-making in architecture. Any questions? That's the end of our presentation. Have you all done any advance mimicking the board design over the windows? I'm sorry? The board design over the windows like we did in the high school. >> Yes, we are we are implementing the same concept for that. So, we'll be able to have the sliding uh fixtures over the windows um to to be able to block off visual into the classroom. And it's also

041dual purpose for a writing surface on the interior of the classroom. Thank you. Looks beautiful. Thank you. It's really good. All right, thank you very much. Well, good evening members of the Board of Trustees. I do not have any 3D models. I do not have any renderings. But what I do have is a project that is on schedule, under budget, and going according to plan. So, I'm going to count that as a win and we're going to move right up right along here. So, as you might remember, this is a project that involves multiple stages of development. On your screen, reading from left to right, you see one, two, and three. That represents the additional parking areas that we're developing for this campus. You will see then at the bottom a construction schedule in the

042bottom right corner. And we're building this project in the direction of three, two, and one. So, as you go by the site today, you will see that we are working on the detention pond. That is underway. Crews began that about a week ago. And in area three, we have stripped the topsoil and are beginning to do some of the initial grading. So, everything is on track with this project and if you were to head out to the site today, you would see uh some piping staged and stored on site. These are large diameter pipes. They're as tall as I am in diameter. Um, they will store all of the rainwater that accumulates on the site below grade so that we handle our detention under surface. On the left side of your slide, you're seeing a

043junction box where all of these pipes or a number of these pipes will tie into. Uh, this project is again going very well, paid for with those bond savings, on schedule, under budget. Thank you. Next up is child nutrition update. Excuse me. Good evening, Dr. Patterson and Board of Trustees. Tonight we come with a nutrition service update, and our director, Ms. Teresa Edmonds, will be presenting. Good evening, Dr. Patterson, President Lewis, board members. Thank you for the opportunity to share an update from our department. Tonight I'm going to focus on three key areas: how our program operates as a self-funded service, the impact of negative meal balance and bad debt, and policy options for managing unpaid meals moving forward. Nutrition Service Department is self-funded, which means no local tax dollars or district general funds are

044used for operation. All operational costs, including food, labor, supplies, utilities, are all covered from meal sales and federal reimbursements. We serve thousands of meals each day, helping students stay focused, healthy, and ready to learn. And our mission is the same as always, to provide nutritious, high-quality meals that support student success, while maintaining fiscal responsibility and compliance with regulations. So, some historical numbers that we can go through. From August 1st through October 1st of this year, our department has served 73,653 breakfast and over 149,000 lunches. Last year, we served 1.3 million meal equivalents. These numbers reflect the essential role school meals play for our students and our families. Meal pricing. Breakfast is served at a $1.50 district-wide, regardless of grade level. And lunch is $3.25 for elementary and $3.50 for secondary. We currently operate the universal

045feed free breakfast at Drew Elementary. And for the 2025-2026 school year, TDA has continued the waiver, making all reduced-price meals, both breakfast and lunch, free. Which means only students with paid status would be accruing a balance for charged meals. In the 20 In December of 2022, the board approved policy CO local-A, increasing the number of meals a student can charge from two to 10. This change was made to ensure no child goes hungry due to an exhausted meal account or new enrollment into the district. While compassionate, it has resulted in higher unpaid balances and more debt. You can see that prior to the policy of two meals, so 2017 through 2021, the total for all four years of charges were only $6,056.62. When the last two years, they averaged 28,000 per year. This year, August

0461st through October 1st, we have totaled over $18,000 in meals. Negative balances and bad debt. So, negative balances, otherwise known as outstanding balances, are unpaid meal charges owed to the nutrition service accounts. Okay? They can be qualified or classified as two things. One is a delinquent debt, which means that I'm sorry. Um delinquent debt, which is unpaid but has the likelihood or potential to be collectible. That debt can be carried over for one school year in an attempt to give parents more time to collect. Bad debt, however, is considered uncollectible or not likely. These are graduated students, withdrawn students, and bad debt must be repaid by the general fund June 30th of every year. Each school year starts with a new grace period, allowing up to 10 additional meal charges, restarting that cycle. So, let's

047take a look at our debt. In prior years, the negative balances were classified as bad debt and always paid by June 30th. Starting with the 23-24 school year, the district decided to classify debt as both bad and delinquent, which means that in that year, they paid a little over $5,000 but carried over 21,807.10 with a due date of June 30th, 2025. Now, in the 24-25 year, it has a negative balance of 29,705.85. And then for this year, August 1st through October 1st, we've already accrued 18,752.16. So, what actions do we take to decrease negative balances? Well, we send weekly email to students or to parents through Skyward. If they don't have an email address in Skyward, we send old-fashioned letters. We do verbal reminders at the point of sale to secondary students only. We send

048monthly reports to principals, and fortunately their paras, which thank you to them, make campus phone calls to families letting them know about the negative balances as well. We also have automated low balance alerts through SchoolCafe. And any funds added to students' account clear off negative balances first before allowing new ala carte purchases to be allowed. So, what happens after the 10 meals? So, a grace period is the 10 meals. In the '23-'24 uh school year, TDA limited the use of what is called alternative meals to prevent stigma. I think everybody remembers the social media outrage of pulling trays. So, meals those trays could not be pulled, and meals could not be downgraded visibly. We should not stigma. This protects dignity and reduces waste, but allows debt to continue growing. So, our current practice is to

049provide the student with a full meal at no cost. Okay? So, some of the pros for it is it prevents overt identification, it reduces food waste, and ensures all students receive a full meal. Unfortunately, the cons are it continues the cycles of unpaid balances, it reduces the repayment incentive, and it shifts financial burden to the general fund. So, courtesy meals in the '23-'24 school year, the department provided at no charge to student or district $142,367.55 in courtesy meals. In the 2024-2025 school year, you can see it escalated to $199,674.15. And this year, August 1st through October, the same date range we've used for the others, we have accumulated $31,766.75 in courtesy meals. As of February 2025, TDA now allows districts to serve alternative meals again after charge limits have been reached. Oops. Uh the district

050must have a detailed and publicized plan on what happens after charge limits are exceeded. The nutrition department cannot cover charges for these meals, and alternative meals must be provided discreetly and respectfully. This gives us two policy paths to consider going forward. Option one is reduces charge limits and provides alternative meals after the limit is reached. The pros are it reduces negative balances as fewer meals are charged. It reduces general fund burden as alternative meals are value priced. And it increases dialogue to encourage families to apply for free or reduced meals if they need it. The cons are the student would not receive a full meal. And it must be implemented carefully to avoid stigma. This approach restores accountability while maintaining care and compliance. Some all examples of alternative meals, for breakfast, it would be toast

051and milk. And for or it could also be cereal and milk. Okay. For lunch, it could be cereal and milk again. It could be a hummus cup with veggies, or it could be sun butter and apple. Please note that the reason sun butter is selected is we are a peanut-free district historically. These items also were selected because all alternative meal items must be available daily to all students to purchase separately regardless. So, option two is to continue with the current policy. This option continues serving full full meals to students regardless of account status. It prioritizes equity and access, but comes with fiscal trade-offs. It would also require the district to cover the cost of a full-price meal. Our department is always as committed to student well-being and fiscal responsibility. Both options reflect our values in

052different ways. One emphasizes accountability, the other unconditional access. We welcome the board's guidance on which path best aligns with the district's goals. Thank you for your time and I'm willing to answer any questions you may have. So, what year did we change from 2 to 10? Do we have that? Uh it was 2022. So, but I Am I understanding this right that basically that was all like barely even in effect? Because Correct. Because then TDA made it to where you had to give them unlimited basically, right? Am I understanding that right? No, you don't have to give them unlimited, but you were not able to pull the tray and give them an alternative meal. You just had to give them a full meal to prevent stigma. But, I mean so if they do that every

053day though, Mhm. then it's unlimited. That is correct, unless the board now sets up a policy on what to do after that number of meal charges. Yes, sir. Okay. So, TDA has totally walked that back. Where it's up to us again. Yes. Cuz I mean, the reason I'm asking this is we didn't really get to see a true I don't know that we ever got to see a true number of of how much extra it cost us to go to 10 versus two because the very the first year we really implemented it it went to unlimited. It didn't go from two to 10, it went from two to unlimited based on something we didn't approve. We had to do. So, all this extra money I don't feel like it's coming from necessarily the two to

05410, it's coming from the two to unlimited. So, the the bad debt or negative balances does come from the 10 directly. The larger amount that you're seeing there is the courtesy meals that staff students, parents, district has not had to fund. Our department has covered those expenses. So, it's two separate. Yeah. I'm probably not understanding exactly, but I mean it's we don't have an action item on this tonight anyway. >> not. So, this is really just information I wanted you guys to see. We've not talked about it since the policy changed. So, I thought it was a good time to be presented with the information and for you to think about. Okay, so let me ask is is this how it's working is because TDA changed that? The above and beyond 10 were they funding

055for us? So, was someone else reimbursing that but not the two not not the zero through 10? No, it was a direct hit to the nutrition services department. So, basically you having two hits. You have a child nutrition for the first 10 and then the district general fund is the second. So, there's two hits on the district, child nutrition and general fund. >> So, which one's this one? Which one is it? January. Let me go forward. This is what we do. >> This one, the 10 policy meal, this is what the district is hit with. Correct. So, prior to you can see for your two meals for 4 years, your total was only $6,056.62. Right. In 2022 the second semester, it went into effect in January. So, January through May, it accumulated in the 10

056meals, in just 5 months, it went up 77 $100. >> Okay. Okay? And then after that, annually, it's averaging about 28,000 a year. That is a direct hit to the general fund. This was our vote. That is correct, yes. Now, what happens after the 10 meals is where TDA had had guidance to not pull those trays. And that's where we can't pull it. There's no guidance in the board policy of what to do after the 10. So, because of TDA's rules, we kept feeding beyond it. Nobody but the nutrition department received that hit, that financial impact. And that is what Let me go over this. That is what these amounts are. Okay. If we to were to have billed for those extra meals beyond the 10, this is what it looked like. But instead, the

057nutrition department took that hit. So, as a sum in 2024-2025, it's roughly $200,000 that nutrition takes and $30,000 that the general fund takes, so a total of 230. Correct, yes, sir. And I was wrong, so we did for 1 year have one number. Um I have a question. I know that you said with alternative meals, one of the motivators was that there would be dialogue about perhaps, you know, at home about getting the applications. What is the process for that? For these for the families to learn about the application and and to get it completed and returned? Sure. So, we do rollouts every year as well as ongoing education on applications. It's available 24/7 on the SchoolCafe app or via the website for the district going to the nutrition department, hitting the button that says

058school applications, and filling it out. Um, we do in our letters and emails that we send out letting them know about negative balances and amounts owed, do have a direct link in those emails uh to encourage them to do that. If they contact our department, we've actually had days where we walked them through that. And this year we had the opportunity to attend all of the um all of the open house sessions to encourage student encourage parents at those as well. We have QR code posters at every single entrance to every building. I've attended church, YMCA, like if I can get the word out, we want as many kids as possible. As of this morning, our eco dis numbers are 60%. So, if we had an alternative meal, which I know sometimes, you know, is

059a is a good reminder for parents. What What would you do with the child that just continually had to take the alternative meal? What did we do in the past? In the In the past, it didn't actually need a limit because it was the old-fashioned cheese sandwich or a piece of toast and milk. And mom or dad would call up, "Why did my baby just get a cheese sandwich?" And they would pay the bill and everyone would be back on track. I think the larger problem with this is there is no Nobody sees it. It's just kind of churning underneath and everybody's like baby's still eating. Mom and daddy are happy. So. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. And next is item S, transportation update. Good evening, Dr. Patterson and

060Board of Trustees. I'm here again this month with a new update on transportation. After last month's meeting, we heard two options that you kind of related more to than the other two options that I brought. And so, we went back and dug a little deeper into those two options. And so, I wanted to show you that on tonight. Again, I wanted to remind us of our why. And our why was really too many students arriving to school late and missing instruction. And so, we talked about that at the last meeting. Since then, some days is better, some days it's worse. It just depends on the day. So, it's still continuing to be an issue for our students in lost instruction. So, we provided two options this month based on the feedback from last month. And

061that was the option one of three tiered start times, and then a pay raise for bus drivers. Okay, so let's look at option one. And so, we talked about the pros of a three tiered start time. It helps with the double runs for our buses. It helps with the traffic on 2100 that our buses are stuck in. And then, it would also help with how much time our buses are stuck on 2100 because in a tiered start time start time, once they drop off at the elementary, they're already in the neighborhood to pick up middle school, and then they can head to middle school. So, it's not them being stuck on the traffic in 2100. And then, it also makes it easier to cover our routes when drivers are absent. Of course, there are some

062cons. Uh with the middle schools starting so late, their dismissal will be 4:20, and that will affect our rush hour traffic in town. Of course, the late CMS release could pose a challenge for families who depend on the older siblings to watch the younger ones. As far as high school, it didn't change as much, but it will change pick up times for some of our high school students to be 5 to 10 minutes earlier. And then, of course, our campuses will have to adjust their schedule times. So, what we did was we broke down different categories and kind of thought about questions and answers of how it would affect certain areas. And so, as far as student impact, uh we thought about how is this going to affect our extracurricular activities and our sports events.

063Well, the only one is middle school, and because we start later, it actually closes the gap of how much time between the end of school and the sporting event, and so there's not a lot of kids just hanging around and waiting. And so, it's a lot closer to that time. And this is also the time that most districts also get out, and so it lines up with their schedules as well. Uh we also thought about how would these changes impact our out of district programs like dual credit? It won't. It will remain the same. Same for our high school students. And then we thought about how would the new start times affect our students using before and after school care? So that would affect some of our campuses. It would change some of our shuttle

064times because now our middle school teachers can drop off their kids, but now our elementary and high schools teachers will still need someone to watch those kids if their school day has started until the shuttle bus arrives. Then we looked at the transportation and logistics. And so with the three-tier start time, we would need 10 more drivers to make it work. And when I say 10 more drivers, that is eliminating our office staff from driving routes. Right now, everybody in the office, including the mechanics, drive a route. So if we were able to add 10 more drivers, they would be able to continue in their jobs that they're assigned and not have to worry about driving. How would the tier times start structure impact employee schedules? I already talked about that. It would change for

065certain grade levels. Uh how would a three-tier start time structure impact traffic flow? We believe the morning traffic would be a lot better, but then in the afternoon in the rush hour because of middle school, it could add to the afternoon traffic. And then we looked at the faculty and staff. How would these times time times affect teachers? Well, the high school start starting in times only shift 5 minutes, and so it's not a really big deal for them. As far as elementary, it's affected about 15 minutes. It's not as good as high school, but a little bit more. But then the middle school is the big one. It shifts them up hour and 20 minutes. So, that is a concern that we have, but we are planning to adjust to it. What What changes

066to staff schedules be needed? Changes will be made to campus staff, the custodians, and the cafeteria workers will also have to change schedules. How will the schedule impact staff at multiple campus? Seven staff members are shared between CMS and CHS, and we plan to revise their schedules to make it work. And then the family and the community. How will parents' daily routines and work schedules be affected? Parents of elementary and high school students will only need just a few minor tweaks, but the middle school is the big one. That would take some major changes for families. And will the three-tier time structure create child care challenges? It will for child care, and we've already thought about the YMCA and 21st Century of being able to adjust their times to meet the needs. How will the

067district communicate this to our families? We plan on providing it in every means necessary. And then the academic impact, which is the most important. How will the new schedule impact class planning and lunch periods? Again, the high school and elementary adjust be slightly shifted and that we still have the same instructional minutes every day. And then the middle school is the big jump where we would have to change the times of periods to meet the new hours. Will the new times impact standardized testing? Absolutely not. We will continue on our same same schedule as we have in place now. And how will the new schedule affect after-school tutorials and activities? It would only affect the middle school, and they do have the opportunity to possibly do tutoring in the morning versus after school because of

068the late in time. And then the financial import impact. We don't believe the cost will be that much. It will be minimal. And then the increased fuel fuel expenses will be offset by the reduction of driver overtime and the elimination of our double runs. And then option two, the pay raise for bus drivers. So we think that the pros are addressing our driver shortages to improve the retention and to reduce the absenteeism. And of course the con always is it's going to affect our budget. So after the last meeting, we went back and dug a little deeper into our pay rates. So originally, we were right in the middle with our starting pay. And so I heard some feedback at the last meeting and so we dug a little deeper into the days they work

069in the hours. So if you notice, now Crosby, even though we paid more hourly as a starting pay, we were at the bottom when we look at the weekly gross. The first number of $474 were for our four-day weeks. And then on the 59250, it was on our five-day weeks. And so our annual pay was about $20,000, which kept us at the bottom of our area districts. So then we looked at what could we afford with the money we have and how can we become competitive? And so we looked at a hourly start pay of 2125. So if you notice, that puts us right back in the middle again. And so on a four-day week, our drivers would take home $510. On our five-day weeks, $637.50. Which would then give them an average annual salary

070of $21,802. So again, raising it up to 2125 would move us up to number four. And if you notice on a five-day week compared to the other districts, we would move up to number three on the list. If we compare five days to five days. All right, so how is this going to affect us financially and operationally? So, if we were to start this pay raise in January, we would be looking at about a $50,000 increase. And we would be able to fund that because of our vacant driver positions, we've saved money because of all of our vacant driver positions. Can the future budgets support 100,000 for an entire year? Yes, we can currently budget for 47 drivers. And so, if we eliminate five drivers' positions, then that saves us $100,000. And so, we really

071don't need 47 drivers to make it work for our current enrollment, all we need is 42 max to make it all work and have some extra flexibility. And so, the budget could handle the $100,000 extra. And then, we asked the question earlier, how many drivers are needed for the three-tier? Again, 10 if we eliminate the office staff, but if we have to continue using office staff, we still can make the tier work for now. And then, how many buses are ready for use today? So, currently, as a matter of fact, it's changed since I did the presentation, we're up now to 39 buses ready to roll, and we still have two that's working on AC repairs. Repairs in progress. So, we're recommending to possibly implement the options one and option two. And the tier start

072time could be a start date of January 2026 or fall 2026, next school year. And we will conduct a parent survey to see which date they would prefer. And the goal of this all is to quickly increase the efficiency and to reduce loss of instruction time. And then option two, the pay increase, is to propose a raise to take effect in January of 2026. And again, the goal is to improve our bus driver recruitment and retention and again, reducing the loss of instruction time. Okay, any questions? I got a couple. What is the purpose or work is there an ability to move the middle school to elementary start time and have elementary go to middle school start time? Would that help with the kids not having someone at home to watch them? So, we looked

073at two reasons why we didn't look at that. One was because of the shared teachers, teachers and having them together because it was more issues with the schedule and trying to make it work. Then we talked about all of the comments we've gotten from parents about our babies getting home later. And so, we want to move them in the middle to get them home a lot earlier instead of having them on the late end of the day. Because that would make them get home even later in the day. What was the first reason? It's because of the shared teachers. It would cause a little more conflict with the times times and making their schedules work. The teachers for middle school and high school. >> Right. Cuz they share some teachers together. And so, it's a

074lot harder to make their schedules work because they share those teachers. That makes sense. All right. Second, yes. How many bus drivers are we short as of today? As of today, according to our current staffing, we're short 13 vacant positions. So, um moving to a three-tier, how how confident are you are filling in those positions if we don't have it now? Even with an increase that's like a dollar and 40 cents. So, I'm confident because if we don't get the drivers, we still just continue with our office staff. And because they're not on the same schedule, it allows our drivers to be on time because they don't have to double back to pick up the other students because when you put high school and middle school, it's just too many kids for most of our

075buses. And so when they have to go back to pick up, they're stuck stuck in a lot of traffic on 2100, which causes them. But if they're single routes, then they're going to be able to drop off and then they're able to start their next run instead of going back and getting the rest of the first run and then taking them to school. So I'm pretty confident that this will help us efficiently. I'm I'm thinking the three-tiered the three-tiered is option, but I'm just not feeling the middle school starting so late. I just think that's trouble for middle school, especially for the staff. And the kids. I think that's trouble. Well, they would have to leave class extra early to make it to the game. And also that that that part and after school practices

076for them. That's going to push them into the 6:00 7:00 hour. So are we saying we prefer elementary to be the later? I think we could keep it the same cuz elementary is already the later. I mean, I understand that they're getting home at 5:30, but that's because we have a bus issue with shortages. And my thought process is because we're short bus drivers. I don't think it has the tier time I don't even think it would matter what time we start school. It's because we don't have enough people driving buses. That's just my thought. But I mean, if we give them a raise and do the three-tier, I still do not think that that's going to solve the problem with getting the kids to school on time. And also the longevity of the staff

077over at the middle school. Having them there that late and we know the principal stay almost two and three hours after school anyway. So that's bringing them home at like 7:00 or 8:00 at night. I'm like I don't think that's good. We're not going to be able to keep staff. Like, how are we going to keep teachers? I'm just I mean, I don't know. Thinking about it. But, I do drive that route every day. And I know for a fact it does not matter what time we start school or what time we get out, traffic is going to be like that. And it's going to be like that because TXDOT to me won't fix the lights. If we coordinate the lights like they're supposed to be in a way to where the traffic flows, we

078won't have we'll have traffic, but it won't be stuck. So, I I I know that they've done studies, but it's not working. And I don't know who needs to speak up to them, but it's the lights. It's the timing. So, I mean, I think we need to start like at square A and figure out how we can give more money to the bus drivers and hire the people and be competitive, but I don't know how that would work. I mean, I think the more money is better, but I don't think it's going to keep people or it's going to help the system. It's going to help either way. That's just my thought. Have y'all looked Other districts have middle school starting later? Yeah, mostly all districts the middle school is the last. Okay. It's the

079last in the tier. But, I will say some of the districts we looked at it's last, but it's like it's 4:00 and ours is 4:20. So, I don't want to say it's exactly the times as ours. But, in most districts that have three tiers, middle is later, but it's not as late. And we set the times based on when we really how much time we felt we needed in between. And the instructional minutes we need per day is really what set those times. >> The instructional minutes we need per day is really what set those times. But, also those districts that I saw that's in our surrounding areas, they have more than one middle school where they have the tier system and those middle schools are starting at a different time. We only have one.

080So, I mean, I don't know if that's a fair comparison to the districts that's around us cuz they have multiple middle schools, we don't. Like, they have a lot of middle schools, the ones that I looked at. So, But, if we implement a program now and we build more of something some like we change it again in how many years? Do we if we go the other way? So, I think if we if we do something, we need to leave it for what we're thinking. For yes, for what we're thinking of I'm giving you guys a option. But, I still think the longevity of staff and middle school students starting late like that they're at home by themselves. I don't know. In the morning. In the morning, yes. And parents having to leave their kids

081and maybe have them that late catching the bus. And our staff staying at school, that's a long that's a long time. I don't know. Cuz they're not teachers and principals do not leave school at 4:20. Mr. Mitchell, do you have any late arrival info after September 5th? I didn't collect it yet, but I can definitely collect that and give you updated numbers. What's the question? Any late arrival info after September 5th? I can definitely >> Mr. I got a couple questions for you. >> Mhm. What period is middle school athletics? Seventh? Yeah, last last period. Girls is 1st and 5th and boys is 4th and 5th. 4:30? >> Yes, it's a It dates me that I said seventh period probably, right? Got it. All right. So, being that um currently the suggestion here is middle

082school at 4:20, seventh period in athletics, they would not be late to any uh extracurricular activities or sporting events because they would just be coming out of athletics, correct? Mhm. All right. If I look at this from a parent perspective, which I think is really, really important to our community, I agree um with Ms. Thomas down there that if I'm a parent, it would be more beneficial to me if I had an elementary kid who would get out of school at 4:20, so flip-flop the elementary middle school. Because by the time they got home, hopefully um an adult would be home for after-school care. All right. And somewhere down in these slides it talks about um YMCA care. Have we evaluated if we could do that in the mornings for our elementary so that the

083parents could drop off the elementary kids prior to 8:00 so they can get to work? And that was one of our thoughts. We haven't reached out to them, but we did say we're going to reach out to see if they could do beforehand after school. >> But currently, when we look at the the time difference with the current elementary and what it would go to, it's only a matter of 15 minutes. 15? Is it 15? 15. Right. Not much change in middle and high in high and elementary, middle is significant. I think just first impression, obviously I haven't dove into it like y'all have, okay? So, respectfully. Okay. Take it the right way. All right. Um I I would say middle school starts at 7:45 and elementary later. Again, I like the after-school care for

084elementary kids getting home, but also middle school get them going. It allows them for extracurricular activities. Then I had a question about um have y'all run dummy routes yet to confirm that have not >> Nope. Nope, it was on the plan to do it as soon as we decided we're going to do it. I had already talked to her last week about that being the next step is let's drive it and make sure sure it does work. Yeah, I'd be curious just to see, you know, the dummy route during the a real school day, right? To see does it allow you to get back uh to perform, you know, what the the thought process and opinion is. >> And we thought about that, too, and the hard part about that is is we won't get

085a clear judgment because if school is not in, it is not the same traffic. No, I'm asking for it to be done while school is going. That would be hard to do. >> do that when we're done? >> Get in a car and go. You know, Oh, oh, in the car? In the car? Okay. Right. Get in a car and go. >> Okay. Okay. That's a good idea. Yeah. It's not the same in a car. So, the time frame? I I got you. Um This is a stretch. I bet you know how much time it takes unloading kids, right? Overall. So, if we mock drive this thing, we can estimate big picture, right? And just get a close idea. Does it truly help or not? Um Along those lines, how about mileage? Have we calculated

086like percentage-wise how many more miles? I think they have. >> be reimbursed? I know we get some reimbursement. >> And we would actually get more reimbursement for miles on the three-tier. Yep. And then also to concur with my last comment is absolutely something for the car bus drivers as far as a pay increase. I think that it's going to take it no matter what. But I'd be curious if if y'all would be able to come back with the information on those questions for that three-tier system. And I can go back to your question about the middle school being second. That was one of the choices on our last survey in the fall, and it was the number two choice. This was the first choice was high school, then elementary, then middle. And then the second

087choice was high school, middle, then elementary. And I can't remember the actual percentage. >> go back and percentages to see if they were close. But remember we kind of dove into this last year for this school year and that's that's how we settled on that was what the parents and how they answered. But we can look and see if it was close. Thank you. Okay. But one one last comment. We do want I do want to make it clear that the issue with our elementary kids getting home so late is because Why? I mean they're getting home at 5:30-ish. So It's because of high school and middle school being together our >> And you don't think it's because we have a a bus a bus driver shortage? That's part of it but we could eliminate

088that problem if we didn't have to worry about taking high school and middle at the same time at the same time. That's the problem especially when we got bus drivers out. So when a bus driver is out now we're doing four routes for high school and middle school. And so that just puts us even further behind and that's what's been happening the last few days is anytime that we have a bus driver out now it's going to affect us at least an hour. Or if the bus driver has to turn around and bring them to the high school middle school kids back your elementary kids are waiting in the gym as the bus comes back. That I think it's multi-faceted. We need drivers. We got to do something about it. We have to do something

089with the time and obviously the congestion that we fight. And then obviously pay is part of it. So I think we're we're fighting a battle from three different sides. I do want to say that I think it's extremely important that we get the people that work the office back in the office. I think that that is fair and I think that's fair to them and the kids and the parents that they're actually able to sit in there and do what they're supposed to be doing and not driving buses. So I think we need to do whatever it takes to get the kids to school on time, get home in a timely manner, take care of them and let them do their job because in a bus you can't do your job when you should be

090in your office. And I think that we're growing district and we need to be forward-thinking and I think three tiers I mean I think so, too, but if we're still missing 13 drivers, then what How are we going to get those people How do How do we going to put those people that's back in the office that need to be in the office if we still don't have enough drivers now? >> We need drivers. We've got to focus on getting >> Right. So that's what I'm I mean I understand we need the three tier and I understand we want to take those people who need to be in their in their office That's I mean that is important. But in order for that to happen, we have to figure out how to keep the bus

091drivers. Yeah. And we're trying to do it all. I mean that's what We're We're trying Well, but no, see like we're trying to address all of those issues because everything you said is a is a challenge, right? And so we're thinking that's why we're thinking both options will address all of those challenges. If we do swap middle school and elementary, is a 40-minute window enough to make a difference with the traffic flow? Or is it is it kind of tight with with it being middle school and high school because again we're in the center with middle school and high school versus like you said with the elementaries, you're already in the areas where they're going to start those middle school routes if they were the third tier. So then they're starting on the farthest point

092and coming in versus being in the center and going out. And the rush hour traffic will be gone by the time they come in for middle school, so it shouldn't be bad on 21. It should be like a straight shot almost. But the rush hour traffic is there for 21. Oh, yeah. The afternoon is going to be a problem. Oh, the afternoon is going to be a problem, but the morning would be better getting the kids to school on time. Remember instructional minutes is the goal. It's trying to get that fixed. So yeah. >> There won't be less buses leaving cuz it won't be middle school and high school. Or elementary right after. Anybody else? Thank you. Okay, next on the agenda for tonight's meeting is consent agenda. Is there anything that anybody would like

093to pull from the consent agenda to be discussed? I move to approve consent agenda. I'll second. Have a motion by Trustee Humphreys, a second by Trustee Lewis to approve the consent agenda. Um all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed by nay. Abstentions. Motion carries. Okay. Moving on to regular business. Discuss and consider acceptance acceptance of the marquee project and approve final payment to Performance Services Incorporated in the amount of $129,876. So moved. Second. I have a motion by Trustee Humphreys, a second by Trustee Thomas. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed by nay. Abstentions. Motion carries 6-0. Item B. Discuss and consider acceptance of the painting and playground equipment project and approve final payment to Performance Services Incorporated in the amount of $31,000. So moved. Second. I

094have a motion by trustee Humphreys, a second by trustee Collis. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed by nay? Abstentions? Motion carries 6-0. Item C, consider approval for resolution adopting adopting an order approving the Crosby Independent School District property tax roll for fiscal year 2025-2026. So moved. Second. Okay, have a motion by trustee Humphreys, a second by trustee Chapman. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed by nay? Abstentions? Motion carries 6-0. Item D, consider adopting the 2025-2026 tax levy order and resolution establishing a maintenance operations M&O tax rate of .7441 and an interest and sinking or I&S tax rate of . 4800 for a total tax rate of 1.2241. Good evening Board of Trustees, Superintendent Dr. Patterson, cabinet and guest. Uh being brought to you

095today is consideration of the adoption of the 2025-2026 tax rate. So, some background. Um we had a public hearing on June 30th to discuss the uh 2025-2026 budget and the proposed tax rate. We posted a notice in the Baytown Sun on June 22nd, 2025. Here is a copy of the notice. I'd like to highlight some items on that notice. In the top right, we had the proposed tax rate as of June 30th. And that proposed tax rate was 7552 for maintenance and operations and 48 cents for debt service. These rates are higher than the rates being proposed to this evening for for approval. So, with that being said, we do not need to post an additional notice. And some additional information on the notice, you will see in the middle section, again the proposed rate

096of 1.2352 is higher than the rate being presented for approval this evening. And then in the section comparison of proposed levy with last year's levy, the average resident residence in Crosby ISD last year was 162,000 and this year the average residence is 171,000 448. That's an increase of 8,807. Some owners may see an increase, some homeowners may see a decrease. This is just the average value throughout the district. And the proposed rate this evening is decreasing from 1.2352 to 1.2241. So, if a homeowner saw no change in their proposed their taxable values, they would see a decrease in their Crosby ISD taxes. And I just want to remind everybody that property values are determined by the Harris Central Appraisal District and not by Crosby ISD. Some additional information. Uh the maximum compressed tax rate was

097received from TEA on August 28th, 2025. And the certified property values were received from the Harris Central Appraisal District on September 3rd. And the district is required to adopt the tax rate uh 60 days after we receive the certified property values. So, the proposed rate this evening for the 2025-20 2025-2026 tax year is a proposed rate of 1.2241. That's made up of two components, maintenance and operations tax rate of 0.7441. That maintenance and operations tax rate is made up of two components. The first is the tier one tax rate, which is the maximum compressed tax rate set by TEA, and that is 0.6058. The second is the tier two tax rate, also known as the enrichment tax rate. And for Crosby ISD, that is 0.1383. And then we also have interest and sinking tax rate

09848 cents. The proposed tax rate is a reduction of 0.0111 going from a dollar point 2352 to a dollar point 2241 in the prior year. That is a 90 a 0.90% decrease in tax rate. One of the rates that we are required to calculate throughout this process is the no new revenue tax rate. It's essentially the tax rate that would produce the same revenue as the prior year. This is calculated through the truth in taxation forms. For us, that is provided by Goose Creek Consolidated ISD. The no new revenue tax rate for 25 26 was calculated at 1.09761. The proposed tax rate of 1.2241 is higher than the no new revenue tax rate and therefore there is specific wording that is required in the motion to adopt the tax rate. The next slide is a

099tax rate comparison from 2018 to 2019 through the 2025 2026 proposed tax rate. And as you can see, we steadily decrease and the reduction in the last 6 years is 42.59 cents from 2026 proposed rate. So, I will open up the floor for questions. I ask this every year, so I'm just going to ask it again. Clarification to make sure it's still the case. Most of our funding is from the state, not from these local taxes, correct? Correct. The general fund um is estimated about 33% uh local uh which is mainly made up of property taxes um and 66% state. Overall as a whole, if we throw in all of our special revenue funds uh we're at about 39% local funds and 58% state funds. And the follow-up to that would be you know, roughly

10060% coming from the state. The state expects this tax rate we're adopting, the state expects us to adopt this rate basically under threat I don't know if I would say under threat of not releasing state funds. Correct. So, if we were to adopt the new new revenue rate um which is 1.09, let me get that right here. then we would lose it would be right above the maximum compressed tax rate. So, we would not lose any state funding per se, but we would lose our enrichment tax rate. So, going forward we would not be able to adopt .08 three of the enrichment tax rate. We would still get to keep 5 cents, but we would permanently lose that enrichment tax rate. Okay. And I did want to mention one thing, the tax rate you see

101here for the maintenance and operations, .7441, that is the voter approved tax rate. So, those are the two components, the tier one and tier two. And for clarity, just because I've seen a lot of I've seen citizens say this, friends of mine say this. There's the claim that with all the new growth and all the new houses they assume we have this windfall of taxes. I've seen that word used a lot, like they should be enjoying the windfall from all the new houses. However, when only 33% of our revenue comes from there it's all about enrollment or not even enrollment, but ADA. We're funded on ADA. 60% say that money's coming from the state. We're getting a set amount based on ADA. So, new houses being built here doesn't mean we all of a sudden

102have just a whole lot more money. It's really just We have more money because we have more students, not anything about new revenue from the houses, especially considering we're only paying 33% of the tax burden in the first place from our local community. Correct. So, if we received the all the new houses that came in, we would receive property tax revenue from that, but did not have any additional students, then maybe we would have additional revenue, but we have additional students that we have to fund additional expenditure. >> we wouldn't get that money. True. We would just be a We would be paying a larger share of our budget then. Which they would just balance >> Correct. Yeah, it would it would just balance out, probably. Yeah, local will go up a little bit. Okay.

103Just wanted to make sure we're on the same page. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. I did want to mention the no new revenue tax rate. I did some research on that, especially our local areas, and there are the six districts we mentioned in the previous transportation slide. Four out of the six had to adopt a rate over the no new revenue tax rate. So, according to our tax assessor-collector, that is based on large increase in new improvements this past year, and also it has to do with the calculation of prior year levy based on the upcoming $140,000 exemption. So, I did want to mention that, too. Thank you. I move to adopt the 2025-2026 tax levy order resolution establishing the maintenance and operations tax rate of 0.7441 and an interest and sinking tax rate of

1040.40. Excuse me. 0.4800 for a total tax rate of 1.2241. Second. Wait. Wait, wait, wait. Am I reading it wrong? You got it. Yeah, you read it right. No. I've got to read the other part because it has to say the increase. I move that the prop I apologize. Withdraw my former motion. I move that this property tax rate be increased by the adoption of a tax rate of 1.22410, which is effectively a 11.52% increase in the tax rate. Second. Great. We have a motion by Trustee Humphrey and a second by Trustee Chapman. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed by nay. Abstentions? Motion carries 6-0. The board will now move into closed session. Time is 8:16 p.m. Um closed session according to Texas government code 551.001 pursuant to section

105551.071, section 551.072 A, section 551.073, section 551.074 A, section 551.076 A, section 551.082, section 551.0821, section 551.084, section 551.087. Here we go. I love this.