Duncanville ISD Budget Workshop April 28, 2025

001Oh, yes. I thought she said shaking my head. All right. One minute. One minute. No. No, they are that good. Good evening. Good evening. I, Dr. Lasagna Flowers, president of Duncanville ISD Board of Trustees, call this meeting to order. Let the record show that a quorum of the board of trustees is present, that the meeting has been duly called, and that notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code, chapter 551. Our mission at Duncanville ISD is to engage, equip, and empower all scholars to achieve their unique potential. We will now open We will now move to opening ceremonies. Please stand for the P pledge. Oh, okay. Well, Trusty Phillip said we're supposed to pray before we do the pledge. So, let's You can have a

002seat. All right. We'll start over. Okay. God before country. Father, we come and we just thank you for this day. We thank you for your goodness and your mercy. And we thank you for the privilege to be able to serve. Help us to do what's in the best interest of students in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge algiance 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. I honor the Texas flag. I pledge algiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. You may be seated. We do not have any communications from citizens regarding a pending agenda item. We will move to the budget workshop. I will turn the

003move the movie I will turn the meeting over to Dr. Gori. Thank you very much Dr. Flowers and good evening other trust all trustees. Uh thank you so much for assembling for our second budget workshop. Uh thank you uh trustees for also bringing your budget notebooks back tonight. I will invite our CFO uh to the podium and um Miss Mayo will come and she will do a presentation. Trustees the the pre the PowerPoint is in your binders and it the pages are numbered. I do ask that you jot those questions down as we go through the presentation and we will take an opportunity at the end of the presentation to answer any questions. Uh you also may have questions from other documents that are in the binder. I would ask that after the presentation questions

004have been answered. Uh we will then look at any other questions that you have from the binder. Please note that we did give you a replacement page for page eight and that's located at your stations. This time I will turn the program over to our CFO. Thank you. Hi, good evening Dr. Flowers, board of trustees and Dr. ategory. As the 89th legislative session moves forward, we're carefully tracking developments that will shape our funding outlook, including proposed adjustments to the basic aotment and evolving state accountability measures. Our focus this evening is to ensure our budget process reflects effective cost management, strategic priorities, and unwavering commitment to student achievement. Together, we'll build a budget that sustains and advances the missions of Duncanville ISD. So our budget priorities that we have been focusing on throughout the entire budget

005development uh cycle is listed here. Fiscal stewardship and operational excellence. Ensure budget alignment with the district's strategic priorities and a focus on student achievement. Implement a competitive and market aligned salary structure and maintain a healthy fund balance. These are the topics that we'll be focusing on today. Legislative updates as we move through the legislative process, budget assumptions and unknowns, uh, competitive compensation, and then our proposed 2526 budgets. So, the update right now, there are many, and I have about five pages of bills that are going for committee this week, but we're going to focus on three today. Uh, Senate Bill Two, Education Savings Account Vouchers, um, it after much um, fanfare and heated debate in the Texas House. Um, it was voted um, out of the House and back to the Senate. The Senate did

006vote last Thursday to to accept all the amendments from the House and send the legislation uh, to Governor Greg Abbott's desk to be signed into law. So, Senate Bill Two is on the way to the governor with the amendments from House to be signed into law. Um, House Bill 19 is still in the Ways and Means Committee, but it is something that might directly affect us if it is passed. Um, this is legislation that was discussed in the 88th legislature as well. Um, it did not pass then, so we don't know, but it does affect us directly. Um, it creates new INS debt limits. Um, so right now about 80% of school districts across the state do sometimes choose to adopt an INS rate or keep their consistent INS rate. Any additional tax revenue received

007from that rate, they are utilizing that to defease bonds. Um, basically paying them off early. That is a very fiscally sound and economically responsible opportunity. it creates debt capacity for future bond needs and so if this is passed it could limit that opportunity. Um the other is November only bond elections. So we've heard this before. Um many times we we take our uh bonds to May because oftentimes November is very busy and so it gives us more of an opportunity to focus on school district needs if we are able to take it to May and so that could change some of the future outlooks for uh school districts. So we are watching that one very closely and our financial adviserss are also watching those very closely. Um, House Bill Two is one we've been really

008closely following. Um, it the House did amend. So, it came out of the House Education Committee and into the full house. The House did amend um this and it passed House Bill Two back to the Senate. And so now House Bill 2 sits in the Senate uh to be approved and or with amendments. So we don't I don't know the schedule for that yet, but it is going to be coming up. Um right now that bill talks about an increase in basic aotment. So it's increase. So it started out a little bit lower. Now it's up to $395, which would make the basic aotment $6,555. And what that means is the allotment that we get per ADA in our state revenue funding template. So that would be an increase. Uh the way the law reads

009right now is 40% of any yearover-year increase would go to salaries for all staff except administration. This there was an amendment to the current state of the bill uh in the house that said 75% of that 40 would go to teachers, nurses, librarians, and counselors. And that's consistent with the current law. The current law is 30% and then 75% of the 30. So that's consistent to what we did in 2019 with House Bill 3. The current estimates, we've received estimates from three different um sources and they all are around $6.781 million year-over-year for Duncanville ISD. Um keep in mind this is not just an increase to basic aotment. There's also some special population increases that do also attribute to this number. Um, and so this is the total impact that we could see the way

010the bill is now. And just for your frame of reference, 40% of that is 2.7, 60% is 4 million. Um, so 40% would go to staff. Um, if the amendment for 75% of the 40 goes through, it's listed there as the $2.034 million. Um, and then 60% could be used for further raises, could be used for operational expenses to reduce the deficit, but there would be more flexibility in that area. one um I was listening to some legislative updates today and some of the bills that were in the Senate were focused on tenure of teacher and giving some specific allocations to different tenurs in our pay scale. This bill doesn't currently have that, but that could happen when it starts to be reviewed in the Senate. But just to give y'all a heads up, that

011could be coming. I keep pushing my computer button. Uh these are the budget assumptions and these have m remained consistent throughout the whole process. Uh fiscal year is July 1st through June 30th. We're still looking at a tax uh taxable assessed value growth of 3%. Um enrollment 11,232 an average daily attendance 9,987. This budget is based on current legislation and does not include any of the estimates we might see in House Bill 2. Uh these are kind of the unknowns. So um as you know a lot of times for a June 30th district we don't know our tax rate since there's some things that we don't know. So we're forecasting that out. We do have a lot of support from DAD. Um so we are looking at tax rates to be finalized in July. Uh

012we will be submitting documentation to publish our tax rate uh to the Dallas Morning News according to law. uh when we do that we will be basing it on estimates and so when we come back in September to adopt the rate of course then we'll have the actual rate for adoption after certified values are delivered property values are estimated based on decad analysis uh so right now I had a preliminary conversation with DAT as I mentioned before and they felt like 3% was a good number to uh be using now we will get our preliminary values on May 12th so our First preliminary values will come on May 12th and our second preliminary values will come on May 27th. Um we are still continuing to work through staffing for budget impacts. Um any required teacher

013raises approved by the legislature or the board are not currently in this budget. Um any changes to the basic aotment. So as we said it's based on current legislation. And then property insurance increase. So I do have good news. is we met with the uh our property insurance agent and they do believe we're going to see a a decrease which felt wonderful. I was not expecting that uh in our overall property uh uh premiums. Uh we of course will not know that until we bring that to the board in September, but he was going to let us know miday hopefully before our next budget workshop. um how if he still feels like if he felt like that in that date in May, then it's probably going to be so that would save us about $200,000.

014So, we're we're hopeful for that. Um and then any further cost containment strategies as we go through the process and and you um as we go through the year, so the budget um can always be amended. So, I think as we're always looking through the budget, reviewing positions, doing all that deep uh detail analysis, as we go through settle up, and we really start to understand the effects of our temporary campus closures and some of those changes, um I think we'll still continue and working closely with HR to make sure that any of those additional things can just be always coming out of the budget, always reviewing cost containment to make sure that we are being fiscally and efficiently responsible. did it again. Okay. Um and so raise considerations. So these would be cons well

015this could be two things. So considerations independent of House Bill 2. And so I'm just going to jump over to the next slide to a second and then I'll go back to it. But just to remind you when we reviewed this at our last budget workshop just to kind of give you an idea of where Duncanville ISD is with our neighboring districts. And so when we're looking at that, um just to kind of think through any raise considerations independent of House Bill 2. So um I know that there was some brief discussion of working on some teacher changes um and then furthering that discussion once we receive the final information from House Bill 2. So right now the teacher salary increase for $2,000 is a budget impact of about 1.751. And keep in mind these

016figures are the general fund only. So we may have more teachers in our district but they're federally funded. And so while they would still obviously receive the raise. We're more focused on the general fund because that's the adopted budget. Um this does include benefits. And so the new teacher sal starting salary with a $2,000 increase to the pay scale would be 60,500. 3,000 would be 61,500 and 4,000 would be 62,500. Um as you'll see up in the white box where the 2, 3, and 4,000 are, there are also percentages in brackets next to those. Um those are estimated percentage increases just to maintain continuity when we look at the percentage increases for other staff. It's to give you a frame of reference for what this would mean for teachers. And so as we move into

017this slide, we were back to having the discussion about where we were and to maintain a competitive market rate is one of our district budget strategy priorities. And um thinking through I think the conversation before was if every district has an opportunity to give a raise, where do we fall in competitive comparison after that? Um is there review and ideas that we would like to consider prior to legislation and maybe some ideas to review after that legislation? And so this is just a reminder of where we are in relation to our peers. And then I did want to point out that we have starting pay for our certified bilingual and sped self-contained teachers is 62,500. So we are trying to be competitive there so that we can attract those highly qualified bilingual and sped self-contained

018teachers to Duncan Bell ISD. and there are not other districts in our area don't offer this additional pay scale. So, um we are proud of that and hopeful to be able to encourage uh increases in those areas as well. These are compensation scenarios for staff other than teachers. And so we wanted to list them individually here so that you could kind of see how they would affect each pay group. Um, in your binder there is a list of who falls into these categories if you would like to see position by position. Um, keep in mind you might see one custodian. That doesn't mean we have one. I just consolidated those since they were the same. Um, and so here you can kind of review what percentage goes with each area. So, one thing we've really

019been talking about kind of in my world is when we're starting to consider raises in the midst of this legislative session. um depending on the language of the law and we don't know that now but we know from history the language of the law then was such that if a raise was adopted before the law was into effect that that raise that was adopted did not meet the requirements of the new law and districts had to give the raise twice and so in thoughtful consideration I just want to make sure that the board has all of the tools necessary to make the decision that while communication can be had of the board's expectations that adoption and implementation might be best preserved till after the law is in place and the budget can be amended. So,

020we are legally required to adopt a budget by June 30th, but we can know and as you approve amendments all throughout the year, that's certainly something that can be done. Um, and then the compensation manual can be adopted at that time as well and we can make the appropriate raise impacts in September. This is the 2526 general fund estimates. So this is really just high level and we're going to get into the details much like we did in the last presentation but I do have more details as I requested. So um as you know right now we are expecting about a um 19 we have $19 million deficit and for next year $18 million. But as we go through the details of this um and this is what we have been talking about is we

021expect to have estimated historical vacancy saves of 6 million. That's what I am expecting this year based on forecast and analysis on monthtomonth. Um we did an SR3 reclass before the end of the SR3 uh financing period of $400,000. Uh we have historically saved about $2 million in non-payroll and it does appear to be that we're going to be in line for that. U many purchasing deadlines have already ended and so I think that's probably going to be a solid number. And then we have position reductions through attrition. Um and you do have a list there of some 2425. And while some of the decisions all of those decisions to reduce those positions were done at the end of the last fiscal year, they were done through attrition. So as the people left the position,

022we captured the savings back. So while the decision was made to reduce them in the prior fiscal year, they were still in the budget. And so when we're talking about numbers to numbers, that's how we get there by pulling those out. And so right now it's expected to have a net impact to fund balance of about $9.4 million. We are still working um with the support and and really being driven by uh Dr. Nicks's department, the federal programs department. We're doing a concentrated review from all funding sources and we are likely going to have some saves from the general fund because we're able to utilize federal funds in a more efficient way. So we're grateful for that work. So we're just whittling around down at that negative 9 million. So 2526 endofear projection. So again

023we started with total net impact of $18 million. Um the current expected adjustments of one time and total ongoing. On the next slide I'll really dig into those details. Before before we go, um I just wanted to talk about those expected saves. Now, please know they're expected. If um everybody takes a position with our great new pay scale and we have no vacancies, which I don't know if that's possible, then certainly the $6 million vacancy could go down. But I think that's something we might all celebrate. Um historical non-payroll saves, you know, the same if if everyone spent all their money. That's just something we look at through the year, but when you see that for five years back, you kind of expect that to occur. And then we do expect working again with Dr.

024Nick's um awesome team, a federal evaluation and reclass that could affect next year's budget, general fund budget by about a million dollars. And so that's going to be great work to get us down to -7. And so I know that it's still not balanced, but it is great work. we are getting in the right direction. Um, also please consider if we do receive state revenue from House Bill 2 and it is $4 million and the board does decide to use some of that state revenue, it will offset that $7 million and we'll be in even a better place. And then as we go through settle up for next year looking at all the positions um and continuing to evaluate salaries we may even become closer to that. So the next slide kind of identifies that

025one area current expected adjustments total one-time total ongoing. So this is to give you an idea of the details that are being reduced and requested. So the top boxes will only affect 2526 only. So that means like the 25,000 for salary study for TASBY that'll only be given in one year. It'll be taken out of the budget for year two because it's only needed once. And now that is something HR might request to do every couple of years, but it's only one time. Um, and then the ongoing 25 and 26 future years, um, you know, when we change the middle school PLC's, those will come out forever unless something is added back. The same with, uh, the instructional support specialists, that goes out forever unless the board approves to add something back. Um, and then

026recruitment budget, and then you'll see all the line items there. So those are items that were requested and reviewed uh with great detail and analysis by the SLT team and then reviewed by uh Dr. Gory and the budget team. Um even with some of the ads there, you'll see it's still um a reduction to the total overall budget of um a little over $2 million. uh the fund balance estimates are listed here. So we are still in a very favorable place. So even if we end 2425 at 9.4 million, we will still have it's a little over five months. I think it's like 5.14 months. We'll still have a little over five months of fund balance. And so even though it's possible we could end 2526 with a deficit, as long as we're continuing to

027do the work to bring that down, we are going to be in a much better position. Um, another bit of positive news is in the legislation there's discussion of for declining ADA districts. There may be some additional funding associated with that would would additionally help support uh Duncanville ISD and then there is some retro uh or not retro that's that way some continuing increases to the basic aotment. Now, it's a little offset by some of the changes to the golden penny, but I think on the all in all, it'll be a positive impact to have that basic a lotment be triggered for growth every two years versus it sitting, you know, I think the first time was like 40 years and now it's been since 2019. So, I think that'll be a positive change for

028school districts. So, that'll f further support the initiatives. A nutrition services fund is listed here. Um you'll see for 2425 and 2526 there was a negatives listed there. Um those were spendown plans as required by TDA. So it's not truly a negative. It it doesn't mean a negative thing. It means an investment into the student nutrition program as required by law. And then this is the debt services fund. We do expect to have a balanced budget as of now. Um, and that's largely because we increased our tax rate with the bond and so we're celebrating that, but we are generating tax revenue to sustain our current debt service. As we pay down that debt service, then we will have some opportunities to keep the rate the same or review that for the future. Our next

029steps is discuss any changes or impacts to local, state, and federal funding. That's a requirement for our first rating. So, we'll do that at the May 12th uh board budget workshop. And May 19th, we'll have our regular board meeting. Um May 28th is an internal uh request. And then June 3rd, I'll be submitting the notice of public meeting to discuss budget and proposed tax rate to the Dallas Morning News as required by law. And then on the 16th, we will discuss the adoption and discuss the proposed tax rate. um upcoming budget workshop agenda and of course by request. This could change but this is just an idea for now. A presentation of the final budget um and so anything that comes out of today will be added and reviewed and presented on May 12th. Um

030just discussed the requirement for the first rating and discussion of final estimates for the legislative agenda. So hopefully by May 12th we are going to know a lot more about where House Bill 2 is going to be and we'll be able to while we won't be adopting that at the time it will give the board an opportunity to make some more solid and sound decisions at that time. And now we are arrived at questions. Trusty Fehee, you mentioned the um what page? Oh, what page? It would have been page eight, I think we were talking about, but that's when you mentioned the ESL, the 625. Is is that for two-year contract for the certified bilingual and sped self-contained? I'm going have to defer to Miss Brown on is it a Okay. I'm sorry. I don't

031I'm not familiar with the contracts. Well, that's what page we were on. I mean, it's not it wasn't listed. She You told us about it. It's the note at the bottom. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good evening, Board. President Flowers, board of trustees, Dr. Gory. No, the 625 is the annual salary for sped and self for sped self-contained and certified bilingual teachers, but it is not a two-year contract. They receive one-year contracts annually like all other teachers. Okay. Thank you. But haven't we had some some of the contracts in the past where they had to sign a two they had to commit to staying final bonus. Okay. That was a sign. Okay. Yes. So, they continue to receive the sign on bonus which is $7,000 and so they get half the first year and then the second

032year they get half and they also have a bilingual teacher stipen in addition to that. Thank you. Trustee Phillips, I'm sorry, Trustee McNeely. The these raises right here on this one you gave us. Yes, sir. How does that affect our bottom line? M that's thank you. So for example for the 2000 so if if the board elected to move forward with the 2000 scenario of 1.751 then it would um further increase the deficit by 1.71. So that would be 8.9 8.8 8 8.9 deficit. So that is just on top of these figures. All all of these in the next one will be 2.6 and yes sir. Yes sir. And this is this is without any money coming from the state. Yes sir. If we if we pick one of these then what comes from the

033state will be on top of this. If you pick one of these prior to the signing of the law. Yes. If Yes. When's the signing of the law? It's Well, the it gets signed to like the mid of June, I think, is when I think I want to say the 21st, but I think it might be a little before that. But it really depends on what is the language of the law when it's final. So if the language of the law says for, you know, anything adopted or if it says start July 1st or September 1st, I think the old law said start September 1st of the next year. So raises that were adopted prior to that didn't count, I guess, for lack of better words. Can I follow up on that question? Oh, of

034course. So assuming that we wait until the adoption of the law, then how would you answer Coach McNeely's question? If no raises were considered until the adoption of the law, then that 1.7 could go to the 2.0 million listed as the 75% in this slide. I'm sorry. Will you say that one more time? Yes. Say it slower. Yes. Yes. Okay. It's very complicated. So if nothing is adopted, then the current budget doesn't assume any additional obligations. Once the laws passed, based on current amendments, we would be required to spend estimated $2 million for teachers, nurses, librarians, and counselors. If the decision was made to wait, then the funds from House Bill Two could theoretically be used to pay for that $2,000 increase. Can I add one thing that please, Miss Mayo? Uh, and what I

035what I would say though is in that scenario, we would not be catching up with other districts. Uh, if you look at the slide, the one that uh that coach McNeely is referencing, this slide catches us up with other districts and then we would utili use those other funds to keep up because everyone's going to receive those additional funds. So, if we adopted something like if we did adopt uh 2,000 or let's just say 2,000, we would just know that that would catch us up with where other districts currently are and that additional revenue would would continue would would give us the opportunity to stay caught up for be competitive and marketable to Yes, absolutely. Um because every district will be required to give that same amount. Go go go go go through that again

036and go slower than that. Here's here's the question. I think I misunderstood when you said if we adopt before the budget then we have to do it again. I mean before the law that is possible depending on and that happened before. So I'm assuming that could happen again. How stupid would it be to adopt a a raise before we know what we got? I think the idea would be or could be to say regardless if the legislature gives us anything, we might have an obligation to be marketable and competitive with the areas because if they didn't give us anything, then these if we decided the four or the Yeah. $4,000, that's all on us. That that will make our general fund 4 thou or $4 million less or three whatever. Yes. More. Yes. Yes. Less.

037Um. Yes. Okay. And if I'm sorry. Go ahead, coach. That's your question. Somebody asked. I'm still thinking. Okay. So, if we adopted the the 2,000 and the law passes and we have the additional 4 million, we could amend the budget and add to the 2,000. Is that what you're saying? I mean the Yes. No, the two the first slot. Yes. Except for it's six million, not four. they were getting. So it uh we would be required to spend the additional two. We would have an opportunity to spend up to six. Okay. I would imagine we would want to use some of that to reduce the deficit, but you certainly could do that. And that's an option. That's an option. Yeah. Because you have flexibility with the 60%. Now, if I could add one thing is

038due to the number of teacher vacancies that we have, we do uh contract with Elevate. Um and so and so when we're filling positions, if we're able to attract positions in more areas than just teachers, but in special ed, then we might could offset some contract costs, too, because I the board approved the elevate contract at a million dollars. Brandon, would you go back through the current estimated What's is that a company? Right. It's our uh virtual learning platform that we use to fill vacancies at the high school. Uh and that's a contract that the district's had for the last probably three years. Telling me stuff like that. Don't assume I know it. Agree. Tell it to me. Agree. Yeah. Yes. That's what that is. Coach, let me ask uh let me get her to

039Brandy. Start with the current estimate where you got the 6.7 million and would you talk the board through that again? Yes. And so with the with the items in House Bill 2 when some of our experts like the Equity Center and the Texas Association of School Business Officials and uh actually tea uh gave to Senator West. Uh we had three different scenarios. They took all the information from House Bill Two as it currently stands and said if this passes, you could receive 6.781 million. This it's an estimate. So with all the items that are in it and then that has to be used as the like you're talking about the 60 and the 40% and all that stuff for raises that part of that 6 million or we could use it all. we wanted to.

040That's correct. The we are required to use 40% for salaries other than administration. Um and then the 60% is f is flexible the way the law states now. And the 75% under there, the 75%. So of the 40% that's allocated, this is where it starts to get of the 40% that is slated for salaries. 75% of that 40 according to the amendment must be used for teachers, nurses, librarians, and counselors. And what I would offer to the board is that the sheet where we do the scenario, the 2,000, 3,000, and 4,000 is independent of this money. These are dollars that we believe we need to do even if the state does nothing. Even though it will certainly increase our deficit, we believe that these dollars will increase our opportunities to not only maintain but to

041attract teachers to the district. And that just raises our level of accountability with reducing in other areas of the budget as we move forward. And that's the advantage of us having over five months in our fund balance is that we do have a little wiggle room uh so that we can attract teachers. Well, I as we're wiggling through this and doing the scenario, I want to use the the 4,000. I want to use as much as we can, as much as we can get out of this. From my estimates from later on, I want I want to give at least 4,000 to of the estimated impact from Houseville, too. Yeah. Okay. So, I I think I understand. I think I understand. Yes. Well, see, I'm I'm telling you if I'm talking about the 4,000 and

042then we'll worry about the 6 million when it comes on, we make you give more than that. Well, my question is if we do the 4 million the 4,000 the 400 the 4,000 million that Yes. the 3. So I'm trying to understand as far as the law is concerned. So if we use the 4,000 which is 6 8%. Yes ma'am. And then the law is passed does any percentage of that count towards the 40 that we have to give to teachers? If it reads the way it did in 2019 House Bill three, then it would not you would have to give additional raise on top of that. Okay. To satisfy the requirements of the law. So how much would that be? I I don't I mean it would depend on how much the board determines

043to elect. I'm saying the 4,000. How much would that be that we'd have to add on top? How little raise would that be? another well it'd be another two million to go on top of that and so I don't know I don't know the math six seven I don't know close getting close to almost 10% but then when you look at our comparison districts so that would put us at 625 and then another estimated 262. I mean, we would be more than Well, we might be up there with Arlington or MISD, but they would add on more money. They would just be add on more, too. So, in essence, you you would be taking yourself, if you look at this, you would be looking at 625. So, you would put yourself in between. I guess

044that would be Meloian and Irving. And and we're going to assume that everyone's going to add on about the same amount. So I think that's a fair way to look at it after the lead. Yes. Legislation is and I understand that. I I want to remain competitive on this and what it looks like, but I don't want to set our raises for what we do for our teachers because and say, "Oh, well, well, we could get within 300, but 3,000 of them and we can save this much money." I want to do as much for our teachers as we can do. I don't give a damn about this this stuff. I'm talking about our teachers. So, this slide doesn't mean anything to me unless we're get unless we're paying 40,000 and somebody's paying 60. I

045want to do something for I want the teachers to get as much as we can give them. And if that puts us up way up, fine. That puts us in the middle. Fine. I don't give a damn about that. I just want to give what we can give to the teachers. Do you understand what I mean? Yes. I do. Yes. I mean, I want to be competitive, but I'm not going to I'm not going to look at this chart before I decide what kind of raise I want to give our teachers. That's not what I'm going to do. Uh, Trustee Fee, thank you. Could any of these funds be used like we have in the past and I don't know what we've called them, bonuses or stopins like right before Christmas or or does it

046have to be within a salary or can we dish some out? It all depends on the way it's written. But in the past it had to be a salary that was TRS eligible and it had to be adopted prior to September 1 and listed in the compensation manual. So it was listed as it had to be salaries. Now in the past I think we use ESER that we gave retention stipens and things like that. So that that would have been all esser those years that we had the okay if you had retention or those that you probably paid them over the year and lump sums. Yes. I think we had um a paycheck right before Christmas wasn't it one lump sum. Yeah. Yeah. And that that would have been an esser. But that was Yes,

047ma'am. Thank you. Yeah. Which is gone. That was trying to get us through the pandemic. Yes. Trusty Colton. I got another Can everybody turn their mics off, please? Question regarding this live. Oh, listen. No, go ahead. I'm sorry. So, I I have a question. So, um, you know, our school grades were released last week, and I want to know how we're prioritizing academic achievement in this budget. That that's a great question. So, I I can speak to from a finance perspective, we may need to call in some of our academics experts to do that. Um, I think that's why one of the primary reasons that we are looking at doing a raise before the law so that we can be marketable and competitive and that's one way that from my perspective that we're trying to

048prioritize our students is getting quality staff in the classroom um and being a competitive district so people are coming to work here and filling our vacancies and um I think that's an invest investment when we think about um increasing ADA percentage has been one of our primary goals and having strong teachers in the classroom is going to be fundamental in that work going forward. Um but that's from a my finance perspective. Okay. So is anyone able to answer from a programmatic uh perspective? Right. I would invite Dr. Nicks and Dr. Goodman. Uh two things that uh they can speak to. one being our middle school PLC change of structure uh and that uh as well as our ISS structures and things that we've done there and anything else that they'd like to share as we've

049gone through this budget process. Good evening, Madame President, board and Dr. Gory. I will start by just talking about some of the things that Dr. Gory just mentioned um really around staffing. And so you ask about prioritizing as we've looked at campus shifts for next year. One of our campuses that we've spoken about is Bill Harts and we've talked about the additional staff that will be there to support that as far as it relates to interventionist. Those are things that typically it was traditionally staffed the same. Some of those things will change and that has been prioritized in the budget going forward. Um, when we look at the change in the middle school PLC, we've talked about uh that PLC going away, but we have structures in place so that we can prioritize having some

050time every uh 3 to six weeks so that they can be pulled and have a PLC definitely together. Also, the addition of the way that we're using our instructional coaches for next year. So, that those are some things that are changed that are also included in this budget that will shift. Can that be documented somewhere? Yes, ma'am. For sure. Okay. Well, I do have another question regarding the budget for 26, but I I don't know if Dr. Nicks wanted to address uh the board. Thank you, President Flowers, members of the board, Dr. Gurie. Everything that Dr. Goodman says um I concur with I would also like to as you said how are we prioritizing the budget? You know most of the time when a school district goes into a budget challenge or a process they

051may not prioritize the things that have the greatest impact on students first. So for an example, what we find is that school districts may not prioritize slashing personnel or support for campuses. But what Dr. Gurie, what Miss Mayo, what we've done as a district is we have not just looked at well, how do we just cut all the support to campuses? We've taken a good hard look at the instructional materials that are provided to the campus, the support that is provided to the campus and prioritizing that as a budgetary need. And so then by going line by line, precept by precept, really program by program, Dr. Gur is always all right, what what do the campuses need? What support is vital for them? Um, and then what do we need to rethink? So, in addition

052to things like restructuring our ISS process, in addition to things like our instructional materials and how we are making sure that we're not cutting back on things that would hurt the schools or harm instruction, that's always at the forefront of the conversations that we're having while still looking at where can we cut that doesn't have the greatest impact on losing losing support for campuses. So, that's another perspective that I just wanted to add as we start to prioritize this budget. Miss Mayo, I tell you what, her she has an instructional mind when it comes to money, which is a little different than what I've been used to working with um um you know um CFOs, but she's just very instructionally focused. Dr. Gree, of course, is instructionally focused. So the conversations start with what are

053we going to cut? Where can we save money? But that doesn't hurt the campus that doesn't have the greatest impact on instruction because if you're not careful, you'll start cutting everything and not think about the impact on the campus. And that has not been our process moving forward. Okay. Yeah. I was just wondering where that is documented you know where Yeah because uh we owe you know the um community an answer for our performance and I know that you know there are a number of things that we have considered and that we're doing and so it it would be good if we can say you know we will be implementing you know x y and and you know the dollars associated with that like we can't cut we're here to educate students and so we've

054got a budget but it can't drive that we we've got to be able to educate the students and ensure that they get a good education. And so, uh, any budget that's built around just dollars, that's that's not what we're about. So, if you know, I know that you all have, you know, considered it. It just hasn't been shared, you know, in a manner that um can be communicated well. So, yeah, I I have additional questions regarding the budget uh for Mrs. mail and we will provide the board with a detailed list of of those academic focuses that drive the budget. That would be great even to the deficit. I mean because we could have cut the budget and just start cutting cutting cutting but that was not what we saw as the best way to

055do it. Thank you. Thank you for question. So on slide 11 on the um proposed budget for 26 the total local revenue I'm assuming that that is property taxes. What is what is that? Uh it is the majority of that number is local property taxes. It also includes items like ticket sales or uh you know rental use. That are some small things. Um it also includes our um investment income from our pools, our investment pools. Okay? Because uh I know that we're anticipating a 3% increase in property taxes. However, if you look at the trend from five to six, we see what uh uh 2.8 eight million dollar decrease and so I guess what is the reason for that? Uh we will be experiencing some M tax compression as triggered by the law. So that

056is where the decrease comes in there. Uh but uh just to kind of let you know the way the current state funding model is set up is that as it does take into consideration the change of local tax revenue. So fundamentally if all things stay the same. So if ADA stays the same um and your tax rate or tax rate stays fundamentally the same with the pennies then your total revenue is going to be very similar from year to year. So even though we might see a reduction in local revenue you can see that the state revenue has increased. Um, and so any kind of reductions in overall total revenue there are likely attributed to a a reduction of ADA. Okay. And then in the expense part of it, I think um 8 billion and

057reductions have been identified. Uh where is that in the proposed budget or six million whatever the so the the identify the so we've identified two we're going to see about $2 million in saves overall. So when you look at the way that's going to affect this budget. So if I could draw your attention up to 6100 payroll. So the reductions that were in the 2425 budget for payroll are reflected in that reduction of payroll. So we started the year with less payroll. Then the saves are on top of that because for example we're still working through we have estimates of the middle school PLC. We have estimates of the instructional support support specialists, but those were changes that we were making with people and so we are going through that process and so they are

058the totals are reflected there but they are not all reflected in like that 6100. Now the increases that you see here for example um recruitment budget or secondstep seal platform those aren't added into the 6263 budgets yet because they have not been viewed by the board. So if we go through tonight and you all say this is our blessing then I will go enter those into the system and the next time you see this it'll be represented there. But this gives the board the opportunity to review these ads and changes. Okay. So, as a result of the feedback you get tonight, you will be reducing the um ex uh proposed expenses. Yes, ma'am. Will not be Absolutely. Yes. Okay. Um so on slide uh 12 So on the historical vacancy say $6 million that's every

059year it's been historically yes I've looked over the last um I think I looked at five year no I looked at four years back because five years back was getting wonky with the pandemic so I only looked at four years back um and then I had to remove anything that was put into ESSER and so I only were able to consider the actual payroll. Now, if we begin to fill these vacancies, then that estimate could change. Um, it isn't really all made up of just unfilled positions. Really, the mass majority of that is made up of the time it takes when someone leaves versus hiring them. And so there is always it doesn't matter going to be some kind of saves as the eb and flow goes through the year. Okay. Now it's you know

060it could adjust as we is your hiring practice just changed. It's just and that's why I put it there as expected because it's something that needs to be forecasted every single month every single year and then communicated to the board as you go. Okay. So, what percentage of the salaries is that? Let me do some math here. I think it's about um well, I shouldn't. I think it's about 4%. Which has been pretty consistent with uh budgets that I've seen in the past. Okay. And then the histo Yeah, it's a it's a little over 4%. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Historical non-payroll saves. What is that? That's also kind of the eb and flow. It isn't necessarily everybody just leaving money on the table. Um what happens because we have 17 campuses and then a

061bunch of central departments and they all have budgets. And so as they're going through the year, they have planned expenses. um they're moving through the year and sometimes they might estimate a program to be, you know, they're gonna spend this much on it, it ends up being a little less or they the timing runs out or they shift gears. It's kind of a natural eb and flow, too. Um sometimes you just simply order something and it doesn't arrive by June 30th and then you have to pay for it in the next year. It's not really a savings. You still have to pay for it. It just reflects on paper to be a savings for one fiscal year. I used to describe this as if you were afraid to overspend too. So there's always going to

062be some dollars that are left and at some point we capture all those dollars. And we also initiate purchasing deadlines or you know so then limits purchasing. So if you didn't plan ahead or you know things like that. Okay, that's all I have on on those pages. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Trustee Colton. Um, we have time. This is what this night is for. If you find some more. Uh, do we have any other questions or comments so far? Trusty Bear Cruz. Thank you so much for your um informative session with us. Uh I see on page 12 it says positions reductions through attrition. Um can you explain it what attrition means? And then it says assistant principal's aid central office 365,000. So is that if we eliminate is that what that number means?

063So those were a pos and so I use the word attrition to further clarify what we did so that we don't say we just got rid of people because that isn't what the board decided to do. So it it's really just for communication purposes. Thank you. Yes. But what happens um in when building this budget and looking at and reviewing at positions, there were some changes made to positions that determined that some positions were going to be sunset. Uh but maybe there was a person in that position. Well, the board or the district was not going to remove a position that had a person in it. So when the person moved on then that position was taken back. So that's through attrition and so it really kind of puts the focus on support of our

064staff while still maintaining the ability to reduce and be fiscally responsible. Um the what happened is the board through support of the superintendent and the business office or and the whole SLT team determined that assist there were some assistant principles and some aids that were going to be reduced and so they were because of the timing of the decision some of the positions still had people in them. they were put into the budget. And so this is just reflecting that how much it affected 2425's budget when we're just looking how do we get from this number to this number. Um and then the central office are the positions that related to central office and that's the total there. And I do believe you have some documentation in your binders that identifies which specific positions this

065is referring to. Thank you. Trustee McNeely, we're we're under the gun because we're doing it in July. What's a what's the what if we went from September to September? Does it make it easier for us to make these kind of decisions because we're making them when we don't know what we're getting from the state? So, well, that's a great question. So we have obviously so we have two um we have two opportunities as a school district for fiscal year. So we can be September 1 through August 31st or we can be July 1 through June 30th which is what we are. So there's give and takes for both of those. So if you're June 30th then you're building your budget based on a tax rate that you don't really know your taxable values yet. That

066used to be a whole big problem back before the state funding formula changed that kind of kept us the same. So because of that we can build a budget while total like local and state revenue could offset fundamentally the total is going to be similar but it is a weakness because we are having to adopt a budget based on a tax rate and an estimated taxable value that we're unsure of. That's because we don't know that till July 25th. Um, the benefit of having a July budget is that campuses when they come and departments when they come into July 1, they can start planning for that next school year. Um, when you're a campus or department and you're in a September one, you in school and you still have to have money ready to start

067school and that takes a lot of forethought and planning. It's just very difficult. So, that's a weakness of that kind of budget. Um, I've been in both types of districts. Um, even though your budget isn't adopted until August 31st, you're still building it well before July. So, you're still doing all your budget workshops and all your budget planning without the same knowledge. You just might have an opportunity to dive in at the last minute and make a change. that that's really but the benefit is I think our campuses and departments being able to better plan as they go into their school year. So we we could um adopt a budget on the 29th of June. Oh I don't know what day that is. Is that a weekend? I mean yes. You have to have a

068budget adopted by June 30th. You can call a special meeting. Yeah, of course. It has to be adopted by June 30th according to law. Um I don't if if you're regarding to how that might affect the legislative changes. Um it would depend on the language of the law before it said it could it had to be adopted after. Well, I just I go back to if we adopt or we're really not adopting we we could save 4,000 or 3,000 or 2,000, but we're not adopting them until we adopt the budget. That's correct. Well, the compensation manual. Yeah, but I mean it it's not official until we adopt the budget. Are you asking us to It's official when the compensation manual is adopted. The budget gives the money to support the decision in the compensation manual,

069but the compensation manual drives the salaries for TRS purposes. Trusty Colton. So, u Mrs. Mayo, would you please um explain again uh slide 14? Yes. So the so this lists all the items that are projected for add and reduction. So for example, campus closure estimates at the top 800,000. That's the estimated amount of payroll and non-payroll that we have estimated uh just based on statewide data if a campus is closed for one year. And so that is an estimate reduction the item and that's just for one year because our campus two of them are closing only for one year. Um that could change once we get into the data. Uh this TASBY salary study is a request uh to do a TASBY salary study uh but the funds needed to do that are not in

070the current operational budget and so it's being requested on top but only for one year. So in the next budget year that would come out. Um and then that's how they are at the top. And then the 25 and 26 future years, those are budget reductions or ads that will affect the budget ongoing unless there is a reduction or changed in a future year. Okay. So these are the only new additions to the budget as of today. Yes. Okay. So does this also um identify all the proposed cuts that you all were looking at? Yes. Not the expected saves from salary vacancy saves or any of the expected items. Those really have to be realized as you go through the year cuz I I thought that more cuts had been identified other than the four

071that are listed. I thought we had a a greater list. I thought it was like two million at Yeah, it's one it's about it's a little over 2 million. Uh but when we start it's it's over that but when we put the ads back in it offsets it down. So the 2.098 reduction includes all the ads. I think before today you had only seen the reductions. these ads were are this is the first time for you to see these ads. So were these uh reductions identified? What what process did we use to identify these reductions? So I'll start at the top for the campus closure estimates. Um I did analysis um and basically looked at some statewide data on what happens when a campus closes. So you save non-payroll, you save utilities, um you save

072some positions. Um in our example, because we are not re reducing people, um our people, so teachers go with the kids. We know that. But in some instances, office staff probably would not be duplicated because our campuses are reopening. We didn't make a permanent change. So only vacant positions would be held out of the budget. So I didn't assume the full expected savings. Um in addition to that, I only um kept a didn't reduce the utilities down as much because anytime you have a campus that's closed, you still have to have utilities. You can't turn it all the way off. But because we will have workers in the building, I still expected that there's going to be some draws on utilities that are probably not there if it's completely closed. So, I took the average

073analysis from statewide data of closed campuses and then pulled it back to make it more conservative. Um, it was my analysis and assumption. I couldn't find another district that had done something like this. And so, I reviewed it with Dr. ategory and we decided this was a conservative number. It could likely be more savings than we see, but I wanted to be conservative because I wanted to make sure you had your planning tools. Uh the middle school PLC's, uh HR worked with TASBY to review the PLC's and they reviewed all the data and all the positions at the middle school and that analysis was done by TASBY through the TASBY study. Um instructional support specialists um that was also work done through TASBY. Um when I reviewed them, some of them are federally funded. So

074I reviewed position by position and identified only the positions and benefits that affect the general fund. Um that's reflected there. The utility saves was also done because we're adding HVAC systems all throughout the district through the bond. I use statewide estimates um to identify per square footage what a possible savings could be for the HVAC systems. we have already added. We are continuing to add them so that number could also increase as those get added. Um and then the unused allowances phone travel um that was just done by reviewing line by line position budgets and doing year-over-year analysis and determining that we weren't using some of those year out of year. So, we took them out. And so for clarity, the middle school PLC savings, that $1 million, that is because instead of our middle

075school teachers having two prep periods or two opportunities to have PLC, now they'll have one, which means that they can teach more classes. Is that correct? I think that's correct. Yes, that's correct. Lean on my experts. Okay, thank you. Trusty Phillips. Um, Miss Mayo, would you give us some explanation behind the lead with impact assets and experiences? What is that? Um, so I will lean on Miss Wallace for that. um that goes directly related to the items needed for our strategic communication plan. Good evening Dr. Flowers, board of trustees and Dr. Gore. So the work that we have been engaging in with uh Hollessworth for the past two years, that is our leadership definition um which is lead with impact. And so what we want to do now is really make sure that it's pervasive

076across our campuses so that we can cascade the message down to all the way from our upper leadership to our campus leadership, teachers, and eventually to our students. And with lead with impact, um the ultimate goal there is that we are aligning our talent systems with all of our processes for identifying, hiring, and selecting uh teachers and leaders for our district. And so it's really just the assets, the communication tools, the visuals that you'll see at campuses and the district in the district offices. um uh campus conference rooms when they're working with their different uh teachers and leaders during PLC's so that they can refer back and say this is our leadership definition. This is what we are about here in Duncanville ISD and so that it becomes um people speak about it with automaticity.

077They are clear about what we expect here in our district. So, where did the 50,000 come from? Like, is this is this close to what we did this year? Um, how do we come up with $50,000? So, it is reflective of some of the funds that we just kind of um pulled together out of our existing budget this year um and with adding an additional about 20 $25,000 to that. So, one of the things that we were able to do this year out of our existing budget, we purchased signage for the campuses, um, so that in their boardrooms, excuse me, my voice is a little raspy, so that they had one of each of the signs. So, the lead with impact, the categories, the place, we call it a placemat, which has our competencies. Um,

078they receive three signs per campus. But really, in order for us to make this um very well-known and clearly communicated through our throughout our district, we're really needing to ramp up the signage. We're needing to have different tools and resources available. Um, one of the things that we want to do is bring together a group of teachers and leaders this summer, um, which would cost us money to do so that they can help us to, um, craft or create experiences or a toolkit for campus leaders to have at their fingertips. So that when we focus on um drive growth, which is um one of our areas, when we focus on drive growth, they can have a toolkit to use with their staff so that they can actually do experiences with them about what does it

079really mean to drive growth in Duncanville ISD. So, but in order to make some of those experiences happen, we would need extra duty funds. And so um while it says assets and experiences, that would be one of the experiences that we would be pulling together a group of teachers and leaders to craft so that we can um carry that forward into the campuses. Are you okay with me speaking, Trusty Phillips? Thank you. Okay, I understand. I mean, the signage and the toolkits. What about online toolkits? We're trying to work through attrition to save some money. $50,000 to put signs up to remind people. It just seems like it's just to me it just makes no sense. Um, online toolkits, is that an option? Absolutely. And we definitely intend to do um have a place to

080curate all of our assets on our website and we will definitely make that happen. And if the decision is that we don't have the funds to actually put the physical signage up, then we will definitely adjust. Um when I say experiences, I think that is um critical for in order for us to cascade the message and make it pervasive in the district. Um and but that would require us to have additional funds to pay um our teachers and leaders that we are going to invite to help us create those so that they're not done in isolation because this is not a um a project that we want it just to be something that we feel these will be great things to help people understand. We really want to lean in on the boots on the

081ground, the teachers, the leaders, and put their minds at work to help us create some of those experiences that then principles, it'll alleviate some of um the things that they may need because then they will be able to just grab and go, use those with their staff to communicate out. Sounds like balloons to me, but you know, I'm over it. I I was thinking the same. Okay, trusty fee. Are we talking balloons and glitter and and the pretty stuff? Absolutely not. Um, we more so talking about a lesson plan. Um, lesson. Okay. Because I wasn't sure about the craft. Okay. I I wasn't sure really what we were speaking of. So when I use the I did use the word craft so that we could come together and craft and and what I meant by

082that is create. So, as a um group of teachers and leaders, we want to invite them to the table so that we can um all year for the past couple of years, we've been teaching our principles and assistant principles about the different competencies and the categories associated with lead with impact, which is our leadership definition. And so when we bring the teachers and leaders together this summer, we will be inviting them to help us create lesson plans that the principles could then take back to their campus. So if we designate um September as drive growth month, they will have a toolkit of already designed experiences that they can lead with their teachers and leaders so then they can understand what it means to drive growth in Duncanville ISD. Um and the significance there is that

083it it does alleviate um the need for principles across the district to have to come up with those ideas themselves. And because our hiring practices, our um professional development is all rooted in our leadership definition, that's where we're trying to be very systematic in our approach to the work. Thank you, Trusty Fehey. So, when you mention lesson plans, I mean, is this like part of Blue Bonnet or is it one of the curriculums? I mean, how how does it No, is it something extra? It is something um it's not it when I say lesson plan, I'm speaking of uh of a tool or a resource that a principal can use. So every principal they host u monthly staff meetings right and so whenever they stand in front of their staff in order to introduce drive

084growth um then they would have a plan of action that they can say you know this is how I'm going to introduce what it means to drive growth in Duncanville ISD. So, um it's not a a lesson plan that um in the same sense as a teacher lesson plan in their classroom, but in a similar fashion and it's um a Holdsworth idea. Okay. Yes, it is the body of work. It is us taking our learning from Holzsworth for the past couple of years to the next level. Thank you, Miss Wallace. You're welcome. Thank you. So, Dr. category. We would just like to challenge you to um adjust that $50,000 lead with impact and and um like solidify if if there's a workshop or some type of experiences, how many teachers are we talking about, how

085many days? Um, but as we go through all of the time for cost containment of $50,000 for assets and experiences is we don't feel like that's good stewardship. Thank you. And let me thank the board too for your feedback. It's so it's helpful as we go through the budget to continue to be impactful with those things that the board supports because that is important that the board supports it. Thank you, Trusty Colton. I would like to see us devote attention towards literacy. Like can we give books to kindergarteners, you know? Absolutely. Yeah. I want to see if you can bring something like that that we can include in the I'm just one person, but I'm I'm just asking. Thank you very much. Actually, Dr. Goria and I started this conversation a couple of weeks ago.

086uh Trusty Coloulson and and we are working on um addressing that literacy gap to have that conversation uh with the board and I can definitely see a better use of $50,000. Right. In fact, very soon there will be a formal presentation of our district literacy plan uh presented to the board uh which will um we're really excited about. So it'll be before we adopt a budget. So that presentation will come after the adoption of the budget but again we can directly show you how that budget is impact how that program is impacted in the budget that you will adopt. And one thing I do want to add too is that uh a part of this work and this came uh as we work through some of the things when Dr. Bigby was here doing our

087cost containment is that I'm working on a we're working on a financial manual that will specify when we do things like buy food. Uh we'll specify decorations and what that looks like. Uh and you know I think that you know we are we are the city of champions but we too understand and agree that in some of our decoration settings we we have to scale back uh based on where we are fiscally. Even as I've worked closely with uh Miss Dr. nicks around things like our camp panther which is usually uh on steroids. Uh but again looking at how we can scale that back uh to show uh respect to our phys fiscal situation. So I had a question on 14. It's really not about page 14, but it's really more for Dr. Gurie. Um,

088have we considered options to um I'm thinking about reimbursements and travel and those things and uh past district we had like district vans for SLT or teachers or particular administrators so that instead of paying individual mileage and gas for 12 people that are all traveling to Austin that it's contained in a couple of vans or buses or something like that and it was very cost-effective. Absolutely. And I'm looking over Miss Zamore because we are in the process of doing this very thing. Uh we are actually working through a couple of options around what's called white fleet where you have those district vehicles so that you can be more efficient uh when you're traveling say to Austin or to different places. So we are certainly in the process of doing that. Uh not a part of

089this budget because the group that we were working with actually ended up being a budget increase. But we do know that there are ways to to work around that. So we are working to identify different vendors in that respect. Trusty Coloulton. So I have a question regarding the grants. Could we get a grant update? Not now, but right. I will put we're writing that question down. We'll add that to the note. Thank you. Thank you. And while we're doing notes, um the Champions Choice event was incredible. And I'm just wondering, is that the best um number that we could come in with 239 814 and how much of that are are we doing? $239,000. I'm just wondering what what's involved in that. So, I will go back and look at that again. And um you

090know, I do know that uh Dr. Nick's division as well as Miss Wallace's division has worked on that and it's actually down, believe it or not. But what you saw happen this year was that it uh because it was not a budgeted amount, a dollar amount, we all had to scramble to pull together the resources to do that. But let me uh assure you that we will review that again. Uh and again, it was um a st a steroid type event. So we but we will review that to make sure that it is something that our community is super excited about because I do believe and we know that choice is going to be critical as we move forward. So we do want we will look at that to make sure that we cannot adjust

091that some and still have an amazing event. Thank you. And we're not talking about um compromising quality. No, no, not at all. And I I don't perceive it that way at all. Okay. Okay. Are there any additional questions for Miss Mayo regarding the PowerPoint? My questions aren't regarding the PowerPoint. Thank you, Miss Mayo. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions on anywhere else in the binder before I start? I'll I'll save for last. Okay. Going once. Going twice. So my question, oh these pages aren't numbered, but it's the teacher salary schedule 202425 school year. It's immediately after teacher pay scale. We desperately needed a pagenation for this. Yes. So I just have a question um about could we consider adding a column for doctorate. We are an educational institution and we are promoting teachers to

092continue their education and we don't offer an additional stipen for a doctorate degree and we are one of the few districts that don't do that. And so I'm just wondering if that's been discussed. has not been discussed but we absolutely can look into that. Okay. Thank you. Trusty Fehey, I'm sorry, Trusty Coloulton. I know I I I have a question regarding the s uh teacher salary schedule and looking you know there's what 10 thou 11,200 difference in a teacher with zero years and with 30 years. So this schedule is set by the How is the schedule set? Um good evening. The schedule is said uh to give teachers of course with more years of experience a higher rate of pay and so most teacher salary scales you know increase by step and as Miss Mayo

093discussed the legislature is proposing possibly that uh teachers with higher levels of experience have an even greater increase and so this kind of models that already. Okay. So the state will have to address that. And I guess my observation relates to you take somebody with zero years of experience, they're making 585, but then you look at teachers that have 30 and they're only making, you know, 11,200. That's 30 years. But you're saying that I guess the state is going to have to address that and we have no control over this. Go. You go. I was going to say um our teacher step schedule kind of models other teachers step schedules where you in increment some districts uh give $300 you know just for every step and they just work their way up until you get

094to the last year whether it be 30 years 35 years or things of that nature. And so actually on our step schedule it kind of increases as you get higher but um the teacher salary schedule is whatever the board adopts and approves. So it could vary by step. As Miss Mayo said, the legislature is proposing that they could, for example, and I I don't want to jump too much in her lane, but they could propose, for example, that teachers 10 years or more, you know, get a certain increment. It could be 20 years or more. And so just depending on what the legislature proposes, then teachers at the higher end of the salary schedule may get a different step increase than those at the lower end depending on what they, you know, pass. And the

095one thing I was going to add is that this is a part of that salary study that we'll be doing to make sure that our teacher pay is aligned uh to what uh industry says it should be at those certain levels. And that's an age-old issue in education is that it just those jumps and increments just have never been large in the teaching field. Yeah. I noticed that a lot of our teachers are not um they don't have long tenure, right? Yeah. So, you know, maybe if the scale provided, you know, a greater salary at the higher end, we might be able to attract some of the other teachers from other districts. if you know their schedules look like this. So, I'm glad that you all will be looking at this. Thank you. Thank you.

096Thank you. This doesn't have a page number, but it's the I'm still in the compensation manual and it's the pay grade AP2 assignment. My question is there's a social worker listed here. How many social workers do we have? Good evening. We had two social workers for the 2425 school year, but uh moving into next year that would be one. Okay. And so are what what differentiates our social worker from our school counselors? So our social workers currently had the license in social work and so um they were licensed social workers in addition to doing school they could you know provide counseling services as well and so I know some of the support counselors and some of the student services and campus support team will be taking on the role and some of the duties to

097support in the absence of that one social worker. So, if we didn't have a social worker, then that position would be a traditional counselor. A lot of those things would be supported from the counselor. Yes, ma'am. Okay. I I'm not asking if we cut the social worker. I'm just wondering if are all of our counselors rece Let me stick to my notes. Are our counselors receiving SCES training? And if so, how often? Are there certifications given because of that? Are our counselors equipped to provide SCES? And you're referring and I'm going to speak, but you're referring to the social emotional learning counselors. Yes. So, I mean our counselor No, no, no. Our gen our regular counselors, not the not the support counselors. So, I do know the support counselors and they have monthly counseling PLC's

098where they do provide some of those social emotional strategies. I'm going to ask Mr. Graham to come up since uh he can provide more detail about their training. Thank you. Yes. Good evening to Dr. Flowers, to all other trustees and to Dr. Gory. Um our counseling department does have our monthly PLC's with all counselors and they do social emotional learning um professional development with them. We're also working on ensuring that our teachers receive that same um seal um professional development as we want to move it down to that level to ensure that our students are receiving um that type of of help from our teachers. And who's providing the professional development to the counselors and who's providing it to the teachers and when? Currently, our director of counseling provides the um training to all of

099our counselors and that happens monthly. They have monthly PLC's with all of the counselors and we're also having on campus the the high school also has PLC's directly from the um lead counseling specialist with the counselors on that particular campus. Now if they have um seal week monthly I don't know that but we do get that monthly from the um director of counseling. Okay. So monthly all of the counselors are getting SCES training. Yes. So they um should technically be able to provide that same emotional that social emotional support to all of our students in in in a way they should. But but let's remember that our that our social workers have received specialized training through their college and they will have a more in-depth knowledge of that type of training and and professional development

100that they have received. But we're talking about one we have one for the entire district. Yes. So in that case, we do have our social emotional learning um specialists now that will have to get trained more from that one um social worker to ensure that they're providing some extra help in those areas where we're trying to be more efficient since we won't have that extra social worker anymore. So all of our counselors, if we're going to give our students what they need, um we shouldn't have need an additional category of counselors like social workers when our counselors can get the same training so that they can provide that. If we only have one or two, then that's then our kids are still not getting what they need. So there are a few other things that

101our social workers do besides just that. Now, you do have the pantry that will take um a little bit more help that we'll need in order to ensure that is being run properly as well. So, efficiency of course is what we want to do in the department and we're going to do whatever it takes to ensure that students get what they need. Now that means that if that if that means um getting more um software programs that's going to help us deliver directly to the students better if that ensures that we we get our our um restorative aids and our counselors trained better so they can provide more support. Um but of course our goal is to be efficient. So whatever we have to do to ensure that people are getting what they need we're

102going to do. So that's what we want to know like what what type of training are we providing and support so that our counselors can give our kids what they need and does it have to be a social worker that works with the pantry? It does not have to be a social worker and and in fact since we only have the one now we will use some of our restorative aids and some of our um counselors to help that one social worker now. Okay, Trusty Coloulton. So, didn't we have more social workers before? We had two this year. I don't know. Previously before this year. M Brown, are you aware of any more than that? I'm not I'm not aware of. So, what what are the duties of the social worker? So, we'll start off

103with the food pantry. And of course, that's ensuring that you said, "Oh, yeah. No, that's that." Okay. Yeah. because you you talked about the food pantry, but I'm just wondering, you know, in these days and times, I can see a need for more social workers. So, I'm just wondering kind of what all the social worker does. We know, you know, the pantry. So, the next thing is providing services. So when we have students that come in that need McKenna Vento services or just to know exactly what we have in the district, that social worker is the first person that contacts that student to let them know exactly what we have. Then there are several different programs throughout the district. Um you have the Christmas um what is it called? The Christmas angel tree. Um several

104other programs like that that our social workers work with also. So it's meeting with students throughout the year. they have a case load. Normally they have between um 80 to 100 students that both of them actually meet with um to ensure that those connected services that they provided are actually working and if not they continue to meet with that parent to ensure that they can get them what they need. Okay. And so are we sufficiently staffed to take care of that? Currently we are sufficiently staffed to take care of the needs of the the district. one social worker. I wouldn't say we're sufficiently stabbed with one social worker, but I'm saying we're I would say that we're efficiently sufficiently stabbed if all of the counselors see this as part of their responsibility. My um the

105disadvantage I see with having two social workers is then the students that have real needs, their counselors are not aware of them and they are all of the counselors jobs. So if all of our counselors have the same training um because there's not a social worker degree required to work with the pantry, it's just an adult that knows what the students need and can communicate with the parent. And if the counselors are doing this all four years, then I just think that we're strengthening our counseling team to make sure that they have those skills. And and I do agree with that. And when you when you think about the social worker and being that first point of contact once they start meeting with that child, they should have that relationship with that counselor to let

106them know that this child is receiving these particular services. and as I trade them off to you, I expect for you to continue to ensure that they're getting the services that they need to be successful. If I could add one thing, Dr. Flowers, and first off, I fully agree and but when I think about uh some of the services and it was a tough decision even as we went from two to one because let me agree that in a district with 12,000 kids, uh you wonder, well, what is one or two helping? Uh nevertheless, this if you look at this as our most severe situations, this is when you really see the social worker get involved and that's that case load of about a hundred kids uh that Mr. Graham referenced. So that they are

107working with those most uh difficult situations. What I will say though is that we know that our counseling department is going to have to pick up some of the slack just because you're now down to one person and and we know that 100 kids number is not going to change. But again, as we go through budget cuts, these are some of the hard decisions that we face uh because we have to cut something or or we'll make no progress. So, but again, let me agree with you uh that we will continue to expand upon our counseling supports even as we continue to look at the positions like our restorative our restorative people uh people in that space will continue to look at how we can uh fine-tune the work. Thank you. Trusty Phillips. Thank you,

108Madam President. Mr. Graham, you said you mentioned programs that you might need to get the counselors up to speed to where the where the social workers are. Could you explain what type of programs you would need to get them to prepare them for that role? So right now actually um I'll go back to priority two in the strategic plan which deals with and our goal is to ensure that um what gets monitored gets done. We've been using programs before where we couldn't get good data on if they were actually using the programs or not. So, we did add a budget item to add this this program called Second Step to our for for for sixth through eighth grade to our programming. And with that, now we can get good data on when counselors go into

109the classrooms or when teachers are actually using the program, how are the students using it, is it making a difference, how often are they using it, all of the um data that we need to ensure that we're actually running an SEAL program. So, as we're talking about getting it down to the student level, this is what we're referring to. When when um our director of counselor now meets with our counseling team and with our social workers, they're going to go through that particular platform to ensure that our counselors go into the room and use the use that also help our teachers use it to ensure that we're getting data on the usage of that particular platform. Okay. Thank you. So, second step only cost us $800. Well, it's it's it's addition to what we're already

110paying for it. And um that's a great question that I'll have that answer. Yes, ma'am. So, who's monitoring this program? So, right now, you'll have the director of counseling along with the counselors on the campus that will be using it. And of course, I will be monitoring it along with the director of counseling. Okay. Thank you. What are you what are you exactly monitoring? We're we're monitoring usage rates. We're monitoring effectiveness of the program. So, if we're looking at um one of the areas might be relationship building and what we like to say about it's it's not effective when it's in isolation. It should be embedded into the curriculum. should be embedded into um what we're doing daily. Now, these programs can take a TE and they can actually create a lesson around that particular

111TE and embed relationship skills into that particular lesson to see and and create an exit ticket or some other um type of of of of curriculum item where we can measure if teachers are using it. Now again when it goes to effectiveness of it that's going to be a little bit harder to exactly to u measure but ultimately using it first we have to get something where we know that teachers are actually using it and that's the first step. So, we have a plan to monitor who's monitoring it and we have an expected outcome because we've we've approved so many more programs and things and if they're not used with fidelity or if there's not buy in and you weren't here. I'm just I'm just saying I'm I don't want this not I that uh

112we don't want to see another purchase of a program with uh it addressing a philosophical need. So I I would like to see next time or whenever you bring it back like some logistics. What does this look like um for somebody to use it in the classroom? And and and I 100% agree with you because again I believe in what gets monitored gets done. Mhm. And what gets monitored publicly gets done faster. So therefore, we will have some data on whether the program is working or not. That's that's that's what we need. Uh Trustee Barruz, did you have a question? Trusty Fehey, thank you. Do we have both support counselors and academic counselors or it's all in one? So we have elementary and secondary. I want to know. We have basically three layers of counseling

113in the district. Okay. So, you have your comprehensive counselor at the school um that does your day-to-day counseling for that particular child with grading and and um day-to-day behavioral issues or anything of that nature. Next, we have our support counselors, which are our seal counselors and our restorative aid counselors. And when we start talking about response to intervention, they are basically our level two counselors. When we have students that are having um academic issues and behavioral issues that that that u comprehensive counselor may not be able to solve or they may not have the time to actually deal with and we need some extra support for that particular child. Our third level is our wraparound counseling services where we use um Hamilton counseling that you approved a a few months ago that provides that that

114um those interventions um on those intensive students that we're referring to. Our support um from our social workers also come into play to ensure that if that child needs those intensive supports, they can help our wraparound counselors and they of course help all three levels of counseling to ensure that the parents are involved and they're getting the services that they need. I thought of something else. So that means eighth graders who are planning their future at the high school who helps them select the the course of study. So that's the comprehensive that's the comprehensive council. That's the comprehensive. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Um so I have my next question is about uh ESL and LO. I don't know if anybody here can respond to that. I'm wondering um where did I write my question what's

115the date what's the update on this department because I see we have we have a coordinator we have what's the update on that department load and ESL I can I can get you an update. I'm just right now I don't Are you t talking in terms of the staffing of that department or in terms of the impact of that department? The staffing I'm looking on Oh, it's not it's not pageionated, but we have a specialist ESL load. We also have a coordinator for ESL load. Okay. So, um so Dr. Nick, she's looking at the compensation manual. I think what she's as the question is you just wonder what staff could comprise of the that department now. Yes. Today. Okay. I can get you an update on that. I don't I just don't have that in

116front of me now. Okay. So, I can take a look at that. I just want to make sure I get you what you need. I'll take a look at the ESL and LO department and give you the most updated org chart for that department or where we are. Yes. because I'm wondering if we could do a if we could clean up our compensation manual to reflect the jobs that we really have. That's that's that's really what I'm asking. If we could clean it up, I don't really need reports, but if we could clean it up to reflect absolutely the jobs we really have cuz I'm looking at some and I know like some don't exist, but we have them here. Got it. I understand. Thank you. Thank you. And Dr. Flowers, thank you for that.

117That I think that would answer your question. Uh but I also think we can provide you a list of those employees that do fill those uh administrative positions. And if we could get like a a def like if we have seal counselors, our if I could get a list if we could get a list of everybody on the admin pay scale because what we have now is not everyone and yet we absolutely can do Yes, we provided the directors and above. Um, but we absolutely can do that. Okay. With with the thought in mind of cleaning up the what we don't have right now. Absolutely. And for collegiate um we have a we have principal, dean, counselor. Yes ma'am. That is correct. We have we have a principal of collegiate. We have an assistant principal

118of dean um Miss Lee and then we have a counselor. Yes, ma'am. So the is AP/dean those are not two different people. No ma'am, we just have one assistant administrator which we call she we an academic dean if you will for collegiate and what she does is spend a lot of her time at uh Mountain View College because part of ourou is that someone needs to be there with those children and so the principal is able to be at collegiate academy at the location Duncanville High School while that allows Miss Lee to be over at Mountain View uh to fulfill our MOU the college to be there with those students. Okay. I saw dean listed, but sometimes I hear AP of collegiic and I didn't know if we those were two different positions. No, ma'am.

119That's the same position. Okay. Well, if you're going to clean that up, I don't have to ask. That that helps. Okay, that'll that'll that'll address if you do that. Thank you, Trusty Beehe. Uh Dr. Flowers and and Dr. Gory probably can answer this. The job descriptions, some were done like last spring 2024. Some are have just recently been done who who who do the job descriptions. So, uh a big huge thank you to Pam Brown and her team uh who have worked with our staff to update our job description. In fact, that's one of my goals is that we will go through and update all of our job descriptions. Uh and we started with SLT. Thank you for that because I've often wondered just what the positions were responsible to do. Thank you. And so

120some of the uh organizational charts will be adjusted as well. Absolutely. Right. And and if you look at the compensation manual, that is last year's manual because the new one has not been approved yet. And our goal as we go into the new ones was to remove those positions that quite frankly no longer exist. And my last question is, can you tell me a little bit about the police communication supervisor that's uh proposed? I can't. Chief Gar, I'm going to invite the interim chief to come and give some information on that. Dr. Flowers, trustee members, Dr. Gory. Uh so the police communications supervisor position is one that will directly supervise uh the dispatchers in communications as well as be our NCIC and TCIC which stands for National Crime Information Center and Texas Crime Information Center

121uh point of contact. So there are a lot of regulations uh around certifications for dispatchers, for police officers and everyone that uh has access to criminal justice information. And so we need one person that's in charge of m making sure that all of our certifications stay current. Um right now I've got our safety coordinator serving as an interim dispatcher. Uh this this position filling it and filling the dispatch positions will free her up to be able to do her job. And those are two separate and distinct jobs. I guess I'm confused by the police communications. So the communications part is throwing me off. Okay. Uh so in my experience, communications has to do with radio dispatch, uh 911 call taking, those kinds of communications as opposed to say public information or the job that Miss

122Wallace does. Okay. That's what I was that's what I was wonder. So this person is supervising dispatchers, correct? Yes, ma'am. And would be doing the job of dispatching as well. I need uh my goal is is to make sure that we have a dispatcher on the radio whenever we have officers uh in the field or working an event. Um we can't afford to have officers out there without a lifeline to call in. Uh so I we in the process of f creating this position and filling the the vacancies we will work on adjusting our scheduling so that we can have that either either overlapping with a schedule or adjusting overtime to make sure that we have that dispatcher in position whenever officers are again working in the field or working an event. So would this

123police communication supervisor also serve as dispatcher? Correct. Yes ma'am. Okay. So then this is not two different. We don't have a dispatcher and police communication person. Correct. We would have we would have uh So we have a a security dispatcher right now. Um my goal is to get her uh the police certification so that everyone that is a dispatcher can be a police dispatcher whether they dispatch sit on the the radio for the security side or the other day the next day they sit on the police side. so that we have that level of competency. Um the supervisor would also sit on the terminal or sit as a dispatcher serve that function but would have supervisory oversight of the of the dispatch center as well. Okay, that was my last question. Any additional questions? Thank

124you so much again to all the trustees. Uh I do look forward as we work up to our next work session, of course, continuing our one-on-one meetings around the budget and certainly I will be reaching out uh to ensure that what we bring meets the needs of the board uh as we meets the needs of our children. Thank you. Being that there is no further items to discuss, do I have a motion to adjoin adjourn the meeting? It's been moved and second. Good night.