001It is 7:03 p.m. and I'll call this meeting of the Elvin Independent School District to order. I'd like to announce that there is a quorum of the board present that this commission has been duly called and posted at the time. >> I'm okay. Thank you for having the pleasure to meet you. >> Good evening. I'd like to present Miss Sarah Alman, assistant principal at United Elementary School to introduce our kids to lead us in the pledge. >> Good evening, Dr. Ritter, Mr. Mitchell, and board members. I am Sarah Alammon, assistant principal of Naid Elementary School. Mr. Coronado sends his apologies that he could not be here tonight. Um his daughter just had a baby, so he is visiting with her. Um with me here today are some of our outstanding students and members of our
002student council to lead us in the pledge. And part of their leadership experience um with being a part of student council, they will be introducing themselves to tonight. >> Good evening. My name is Samantha Tobar and I am the historian of Nike Elementary. >> Good evening. My name is Laya Rangel and I'm treasure of Naid Elementary. >> Good evening. I'm Joel Jackson and I'm secretary for Nadic Elementary. >> Good evening. My name is Emma Lopez and I am the vice president of NY Elementary School. Good evening. My name is Hunter Greer and I am the student council president at Naidig Elementary. At NES, we strive to be the best. This year, the student council has been very present in our community events. We have participated in the Dios Mutos parade and recently have been in
003the Elgen Christmas Parade. At NES, we make sure all students feel valued and welcomed. We hope to finish our year strong. We would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday. Thank you very much for your time and safe travels home. 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. Our next item is public comment. There is none. We'll move to item C. We're being asked to approve the minutes of the November 17th, 2025 board workshop and regular meetings. >> Motion by Mrs. Wes. >> Second by Mrs. Wilson. questions. All in favor say motion, please raise your hand. Closers. Motion passes. Fine. Go. Next item, recognition. Rodriguez. >> Good evening, President Mitchell, Superintendent Ritter, members
004of the board. My name is Al Rodriguez. I'm the executive director of communications and community engagement. Before we begin our recognitions tonight, we have the special pleasure of hearing our NHS choir under the direction of Teresa Cromer. Uh they're going to start our board meeting by singing some of the carols they shared with our our district students on our tour of the district last week. So, they've had some really good recent practice. Oops. with the season to be The Christmas join the laure la and la together laather la. And obviously this is just a small ensemble from our Elgen High School choir for you tonight. So proud of their moments to hear People sing songs Christmas is here. Merry Christmas. Okay. Uh this evening we have three uh res recognitions. Can't talk. Uh we'll begin
005tonight. First with uh Coach Anderson. He'll be presenting our first recognition. Good evening, President Mitchell, Dr. Ver, and the school board. That was kind of kind of fired up from the singing right now. We're not going to make Matthew sing, but you're going to come on up here on the stage. Um, it's my pleasure tonight to recognize Matthew Kada, one of our seniors and two-time qualifier, regional qualifier for cross country. He's been our leading cross country runner for the last couple of years. Matthew exemplifies what we're looking for in the student athlete with great character, dedicated work ethic, and high academic performance. Matthew had a PR time in the 5K this season of 1646, which is up there on your screen, which is a 5 minute and 24 second per mile pace in the 3.15
0063.1 mile 5K. I don't ever know what 5K is, but it's 3.1 miles. Um, he's also in the top 5% of his graduating class and is planning on studying business and running college. We are very, very proud of Mr. Matthew Ko. I have the honor of standing in a board Miss Keller tonight. Uh the fall 2025 marching season has been a historic one for EHS drum line. Beginning with the Capital City marching contest, our drum line was awarded top five overall percussion. At the Lost Pines competition, they earned second place overall, just three points shy of first place. Finally, at the Lonear Classic Drumline Competition, regarded as the most prestigious and challenging drum line competition in Texas, our EHS students were awarded the best baseline award. Please help us in graduating of 2025 EHS drum
007line. Oh, super confident. Finally, we come to our one town, one dream award. As you know are aware each month we're recognizing and honoring EISD staff members who go above and beyond uh that embody the spirit of this award. We have two honores tonight. First is Miss Morgan Lubier. Miss Lubier, if you'd like to join me up here. anything the campus needs, she is there. Miss Lubier supports in any way in every way possible whatever they ask. She works tirelessly to create positive experiences for all students at the campus. Miss Lier. Next we have Miss Lauren Metta, EMS assistant principal. Missetta helped with a fill in for Mr. uh Truh Hill while he was out. She runs the school social media and frequently posts videos and reels that gain much reach and interest. Finally, she
008puts together the weekly parent newsletter and positive communication that goes out directly to middle school's parent inboxes and phones. Congratulations, Miss That concludes the recognitions for tonight and all the recipients tonight. Outstanding bill. Next item we'll have superintendent support Dr. >> All right. Thank you so much. Cannot say enough about um how much it means to see our students here. We're so incredibly proud of our kids and um all of our staff, the parents, everything it takes to have them be successful in the programs they're in and the opportunities they have. And uh just a little peek at that every board meeting. It's really very special for us to remember why we do the work we do day in day out and the things that our wonderful school board supports to be able to see
009that in action. Um and so thank y'all and and to all of our administrators who are in the room for making those things happen because we love seeing those kids here. All right. Um holiday happenings. We've had so much going on. our holiday season kicked off with and we didn't have a whole lot of time we got back from Thanksgiving and then we're going to be out this week and so it's been fast and furious something almost every single night. Um the lighted Christmas parade was amazing. We had so many uh students present who were there and participating in the lighted Christmas parade. our EHS choir carolling tour and that you got to hear tonight. And they went around to the campuses and were able to sing to even students on some of the younger
010campuses and the kids were just in awe. They were like, "Oh my gosh." And then they recognized some of the kids were like, "Wait a minute, he plays football. Wait a minute." You know, she does this. And so they recognize kids from their community, uh, from church or just going to events and things, um, at the high school. And to see that they're able to do so many different things is exciting and encouraging and really opens the eyes of the younger students as they're getting ready for that season of choosing choosing their activities for next school year as we move into um, from elementary and intermediate and intermediate into middle school, middle school, and high school. So, it's great to see all of those kids. um our Christmas concert, Elgen Middle School, um elementary Christmas
011concert. I know that we had the high school Christmas concert as well. I have a picture of that one it looks like up there. Uh the elementary Christmas concert for choir was um amazing. We I couldn't believe this new stage which is beautiful and we partner with the city for the use of that and we had our fifth graders there and we were almost I think filling it up. So, um, that was really exciting and fun. We had a great turnout from the community. Um, and then the Christmas Carol Theater production at the high school in our new auditorium was absolutely beautiful, which also our band Christmas concert was held as well in the new auditorium. So, it's exciting to get into that new building and actually see it being used by our kids. And
012I know this, what a point of pride for our district. And so I encourage everyone to find some future event going on that you can go and see our kiddos performing in that new auditorium space. It is absolutely amazing. Um so beautiful work on on everyone's part. Our okay superintendent campus visits. I am going around visiting with campuses, visiting with the teachers, getting into classrooms and seeing the things that are happening, getting feedback from our staff as well. And these pictures were when I was at Elgen Intermediate School. Um, and just really an opportunity to to hear from staff and to hear things that they're proud of. I asked them, I want to know what they're sharing. I'm also following up with a feedback, little survey questionnaire to all of them afterwards. And we'll be
013asking them to share things that they're proud of that we can then highlight in our communications, things moving forward in the district because we need to be telling our story. And I see lots of things when I'm out on campuses that we're very proud of. And so we want to tell that story and share the good news of things that are happening in Elgen ISD. So appreciate all of you for the help that you have done in making these happen as well. Capture his heart's calibration visit. We had our Misty Hill core strategist here. She's up in that right hand picture sitting with a group of students and I was there. Rick Reyes was there and this was also this one happened to be at Elgate Intermediate School and the the students I'll say anywhere
014you go in the district and I think maybe as the board members are on campuses if they're able to go to classrooms um and then we're going to be also planning on some classroom visits for our board members in the spring. Um one thing that you're going to see is when you visit classrooms in Elgen, you're going to be asked to sign social contracts. We have ambassadors in our classrooms who walk up and say, "I want to show you our social contract." They're very proud of them. And these are the contracts that they develop together as class with with their classmates about the things that um they're very that that they hold dear to in their classroom. What are the behaviors that we want to see in our classrooms? And so it's all done all
015done on a positive thing like being respectful, being safe, responsible, um, equal. You can read some of those things up there. And I always ask them, what's the thing? What is something your class does really, really well? And they always can answer and tell me. But something that they said and also said when we had TEA here for a campus visit at BTW, they also said the same thing. So when we get visitors in, they are noting and commenting and saying classroom management as a whole across our district is better than they see anywhere else. That is a huge compliment compliment to our principles and our staff who move this forward, but then also to our students as well. So thank you guys for all of your work with these calibration visits and it's something
016that Mr. Reyes uh really supports across the district as well and it's making a difference. We're seeing lots of great things from implementation and consistent all of Elgen Education Foundation grant awards last Friday as well was so much fun. We got to go and deliver the good news from Elgen Education Foundation about teacher grants to our teachers and um Mr. Mitchell was there with us and some of the Elgen Found Education Foundation board members uh the cheerleaders some of the cheerleaders were there. It was just a really fun, exciting, energetic time of highlighting these teachers and innovative learning experiences that they are bringing forward for our kids. So, it was a really great day and the the students really got into it as well. All right. Um, we want to highlight Elgen ISD welcomes Mr.
017David Deck as our executive director of technology. I'm gonna ask David to stand up. Welcome. We're so happy to have you. Yep. And um David Dra is coming to us with over 20 years of experience as director of technology and he most recently served in Bay City ISD where he has worked since 2020. His wife, we are fortunate to have Natalie De Brock teaching fourth grade English language arts at Harvest Ridge Elementary. and we had um amazing just such good information that was given to us prior to hiring both of you and we're happy to have you and your family in Elgen and thank you for being here and you're already making a big difference. Of course, we had he's taking Brian Page's place in the district and we celebrated Brian's retirement and so now
018David is solo on his own his first board meeting in this official capacity. So, we're so happy to have you. So, thank you. >> Thank you. And then looking ahead, don't forget we have winter sports going on. Basketball season is underway and lots of fun. So soccer, we also have soccer going on and cold outside, but we're about to have some really nice weather. It'll be great time to go out and see soccer. Christmas break from the 19th through the 4th of January. Professional learning, the teachers come back the fifth and sixth and then we have students back on the 7th as the first day. And here's one of those opportunities that you get to go see in the auditorium, the Susicle Musical, the musical preview starring our elementary students across the district on the
01922nd. So mark your calendars. And we also have uh the Elgen Wildcat Invitational Powerlifting Meet, which I'm sure we'll also be highlighting some of our great facilities in the district as well. And that is um a really great event where we have people come from all over the state to a powerlifting meet and get to highlight our kiddos who are in this in that event as well. So all right, thank you so much. And here's our enrollment 6232 as of now. And our first day we were at 5828 um ended the year last year 5965. So we're still seeing those kids coming in. We're anticipating more coming after the break. Uh but we're ready for them. So >> good. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Mr. President. Support several of us had visits to the
020campus. The ones that I remember, Mr. B, Mr. Bar, Mr. Mant, but Mr. M report on on his visit. Uh I was able to go or been invited to BTW. Uh it was very very fun. It was we had breakfast and uh it was the kids. It was the student council. They were top-notch kids. I mean I I guess to be on student council you have to be pretty good. But but it was they they were the top notchotch kids. And it was great to go down there and get to see uh and visit with some great kids. Uh they were asking questions. Uh it was funny. They did ask me and I'm not I don't remember how it was put, but what's the worst part of being on the school board, I guess, but
021it wasn't asked just like that. But I told them I said the bad part is is I can't fix everything. I want to fix everything and I can't fix everything. And I said, uh, kind of elaborated on that. And sure enough, later on, we were walking around and Miss Dez had to take care of some other business. So, it was me and the kids and one of the counselors, Miss Ruiz, and uh, they said something about tether balls, but we don't have a tether ball. Said, "Y'all haven't got a tether ball?" "No, we don't have tether ball." None of them do. I said, "I'm gonna get y'all some tether balls." So, sure enough, I left there. I was planning to go straight to Walmart to get some tether balls and I called Miss and she
022goes, "Oh, we have tether balls, but we've had so many kids get hit in the face." She was like, "Yeah, well that's the reason there's not a tether ball." I'm like, "There is an example of how I can't fix everything. I wanted to fix it, but I couldn't." But she did say, she said, "I tell you what, we'll talk to the coach. We're gonna have certain days to where we'll put the tether balls out there to where we can actually kind of monitor them and watch them." So maybe I got them kids a tether ball pulls coming at least. Maybe. Uh but they were they were awesome kids. Uh they were shocked and could not believe their school was in a movie. And so I did have to pull up a little bit of Varsity
023Blues. know if all the kids at BTW are want watch blues. I'm sorry about that. But uh anyway, maybe they can get the TV version or something. I don't know. Anyhow, it was very very good. >> Thank you. Well, I was invited to night at elementary school and uh so it was an enlightening experience as well. Uh I jokingly said miss the re my security details. All right. So, we had a good time there reading to the prek classes. I told them, "Make sure you get a book I can read." So, they pretty much was click clack ho ho ho. I said, "I can handle that." >> So, we had a great time and was able to judge some of the science projects, which I I dreaded that because that's difficult because you won't get
024everybody uh you know, high school. I said, "Well, at least I won't be here when they announce what do what I have to do head on out." But it was it was a great time and so I appreciate them having you be there and I know you look forward to your business to your campuses and I'm also scheduled this week uh at the middle school. He's talking big. So we'll see how we're excited about that. And to also just for information purposes for the board, there was a request uh by Mr. Bar because he couldn't to see if we could change the January meeting date because he won't be here. Uh Dr. talking a little bit about it, but we just want to share them with the board and give some information related to that.
025I mean, we know that's an important meeting because that's the evaluation time. I don't know. I don't know whether but just kind of want you guys to be aware see how that >> for now because it's kind of tired. >> Yeah. Well, so the other day in January the January calendar. So when we set the dates, you know, in June, so we're it's a student holiday still on the 5th if we come back from the holidays. The 12th is is our board meeting date, but for now the 19th, the district is also closed MLK day. And then the 26th uh is the Superintendent TASA conference, annual conference that my cabinet and I all attend. And um I'm presenting on Saturday. I have equity board Sunday. I'm presenting on Monday and Tuesday. And it's in San
026Antonio this year. Might be easier if I were going back and forth and over in Austin, but it's in San Antonio. Be I will be out of town. So those were the conflicts. January was just a really tight month with lots of things happening. 12th was the only meeting that we had only meeting that we had to keep it on a Monday. >> Well, I guess the 12th is it. I mean, we don't have any other choice. >> And we also have our workshop is our demographer who's coming to present and that's been scheduled for two months. We would need to see if they're available the new demographer report as well. >> You bet. Yeah, of course. I mean since I know people scared to go but really >> I mean it just seems like
027you know for one person we're changing the whole everybody else's schedule >> for one person >> I'm just putting out that was it I'll check dates and have that to you all this week. >> Thank you. Next item uh is the consent agenda. being asked to approve the tax report refunds and adjustments for November 2025. Approve financial statement and budget amendment list for November 2025. Approve investment report for November 2025. Approve the 2026 27 instructional calendar. Approve the annual review of investment policy. Approve annual review of purchasing cooperatives. Approve local credential on Spanish one and two. Approve the 2026 non business dies for public information act and then finally approve staffing recommendation that is be considered. >> I'll make a motion. >> Second motion by Mrs. Reese, second by Mr. Ms to approve the consent
028agenda. Are there any questions? All in favor say motion, please raise your hand. Any opposes? Motion passes. 50. >> Next information item number one, intruder detection are defining. >> Good evening, President Mitchell, Dr. Ritter, and members of the board. My name is Bridget Cornelius, and I am the assistant superintendent of student services. The top priority of Elgen ISD and the state of Texas is keeping students and staff safe every day. The Texas Education Agency recently conducted an intruder detection audit at one or more of our campuses. The audits test whether a campus is accessible to an unauthorized individual. This audit seeks to help districts identify how campuses can improve student safety, such as ensuring exterior doors are locked and providing opportunities to create a safer learning environment for our students and staff. Elgen High School
029received findings this year. As a result of these findings, the district must submit a correction act action plan. This plan will be reviewed in our next safety and security committee meeting. Specific details of the audit were previously shared with the board through the weekly board updates on December 5th and December 12th. We do acknowledge that parents and community members are interested in the details of the audit results. However, it is in the best interest of the students and staff that we do not share the specific information with the broader public as it could compromise important campus security information. Any questions? We'll be thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next, we'll talk about priority four. Just keep right on over. >> Thank you. All right. So, this evening, I will begin our update on priority four
030of the district's scorecard. Tonight, Mr. Reyes and I will provide an update on priority 4.3.1 and 4.3.2 which focuses on maintaining safe, secure, and educationally innovative facilities. Mr. Rainey Lan will present updates on priority 4.2 later in the agenda. At this time, I will turn the presentation over to Mr. Reyes. >> Good evening, President Mitchell, Superintendent Dr. Ritter, members of the board, my name is Rick Reyes. I'm the executive director of school leadership and campus support. I'm here tonight to update you on our progress on priority 4.3.1, which focuses on developing and sustaining a preventative maintenance plan for our facilities. As you know, I am somewhat new to the M department, but I am enjoying the challenges and the learning opportunities it has brought me. Alejandro Gera, our director of maintenance and operations, and I
031meet formerly twice a week, but speak on a daily basis about all things maintenance. I'd like to publicly thank him for his patience with me. Um, here when discussing preventative maintenance with Mr. Getup, I've learned that before you can prevent maintenance issues, you first need to be in a position to predict maintenance issues. This is known as forecasted maintenance. Forecasting maintenance is the practice of analyzing historical data and trends to make an educated prediction of upcoming maintenance issues and expenses. These issues can range anywhere from lawn care, small engine oil changes, all the way to HVAC replacements. In assessing this department, it's my opinion that we've done a really good job in keeping up with preventive maintenance in this district. But as you know, we are in fast growth. We now have a diverse array
032of buildings in our district from the very old buildings to brand new buildings each providing its own unique challenges and we are only growing. Our past procedures in preventive maintenance are outdated and this is something that Mr. Yet has been working on even before I came on the maintenance and operation department with the purchase of revot track. Revot track was designed by school leaders for school districts. It revolutionizes the way we track and assess our maintenance systems. If I can offer an example of our current procedures, let's say a pencil sharpener breaks in a classroom. Now, I know that's an outdated example. Please just bear with me. The if a pencil a pencil sharpener breaks, a a teacher would then log under our system, complete and submit a work order and then it goes into
033our system with all the other work orders in the district. Every morning, Mr. Geta or the designate goes into that system and manually assigns that work order to a maintenance employee and then assigns it a priority. Now multiply this example by five or 10 is the average that we get a day. Then multiply that number by how many buildings we have in this district. Not just campuses, buildings. You see what I'm getting at? We are quickly outgrowing our procedures. Revotract automates this entire process assigning priority a maintenance employee and even communicating a timeline back to the staff member who submits this work order. But the reason I'm speaking about Revo track tonight is that it also tracks and analyzes historical data and maintenance trends and aids in our forecasted maintenance. We have started piloting Revotra
034with the maintenance building itself and the administration building and plan to go districtwide shortly after the holiday break. Ultimately using the data regra will automatically submit planned work orders into our system across grounds custodial and general maintenance to ensure consistent upkeep timely completion of task and long-term preservation of district assets in ISD. Mr. Gette has been working with the developers of Revotra from the ground up and is here to assist you with any questions you might have about Revotra or about its preventive maintenance. as a company or just with us. >> Any other questions? >> Well, thank you. I'll turn it over back to Bridget Cord. >> Thank you, sir. While you're transitioning, I do want to say I have gotten some amazing feedback about the work that you both are doing in the department
035and it has helped to streamline the needs. The campus principal certainly appreciates since Mr. Ray has also supervised the campus principles. This is why we shifted the department under him because he is able to immediately see and hear about things happening on campuses and is very responsive. So, it's working very well and I appreciate it. Thank you both very much. >> All right. Now, I'll transition to priority 4.3.2, which focuses on ensuring compliance with all state safety and security requirements. So this priority reflects our responsibility not only to meet statutory mandates but also to consistently demonstrate strong systems documentation and follow through that protect student, staff and visitors. Over the course of this year, the district has completed several district-wide compliance efforts. These include strengthening door check protocols aligned with intruder detection audit expectations, completing
036all required aspects of the emergency operations plans, drills, and documenting compliance in the Sentinel system. We also, as I mentioned, updated our emergency operations plan to align with Texas school safety center guidance and House Bill 3 requirements, conducted staff training on locked door procedures, behavior threat assessment documentation, and emergency response, and submitted all mandatory mandatory reports to the Texas Education Agency. At the campus level level, audits are being conducted across all required sites and all corrective actions for identified findings have been completed within TEA mandated timelines. Where hardware issues were identified such as latches, closers or hinges, these items were repaired or replaced. This helps with Mr. Reyes been in the capacity. Principles are quickly able to talk to Mr. Reyes about potential issues. we quickly quickly get those adjusted and fixed so that we
037don't uh impede on safety. Our emergency operations plan serves as the district's guiding document for actions before, during, and after an incident. It clearly outlines roles and responsibilities for faculty, staff, students, and first responders with the overarching goal of minimizing loss and ensuring coordinated efforts. The EOP addresses emergency management practices, roles and responsibilities, relationships, and coordination with agencies, and general considerations for facilities and campuses. This year, the EOP was updated using the Texas School Safety Center scoring rubric. New annexes were added to align with House Bill 3 and Senate Bill 11. Contact trees and facility maps were updated, and the required EOP audit was completed. and submitted. These updates are reviewed annually by the Safety and Security Committee, providing governance, oversight, and accountability. And I'm happy to report that our most recent EOP was just
038approved. Armed Security Officer. So, as you know, House Bill 3 requires school districts to ensure at least one armed officer is present on each campus during regular school hours. The district currently meets this requirement through a contract with Texas Public Safety Investigations, TXPSI, which provides level three commissioned armed security officers across all campuses. In the spring, either March or April, the district will engage in a planned review of security services to ensure continued alignment with statutory requirements, district needs, and best practices for campus safety. Behavior threat assessment teams convene when a student's behavior statements or online activity indicate a possible risk to self or others. These teams meet within 24 to 48 hours of referral. These referrals and these teams get together to discuss student issues and what things need to be put in place
039to prevent an emergency. Team members include administrators, counselors, district security, mental health staff, and teachers. So again, the purpose of these teams is to evaluate the risk, develop safety and support plans, and ensure parent communication. District staff members are on call to join meetings at any time. Sentinel Portal. I think you've heard me talk about the Sentinel portal before. It is a new TEA centralized system for collecting and managing all school safety and security data. It was created in response to House Bill 3 and Senate Bill 30. Through Sentinel, districts are required to report behavior threat assessments, intruder detection audits, district vulnerability assessments, and emergency management. So, because all schools are required to report using this, this is really helpful when we think about behavior threat assessments. So, in the event that we get a
040student who transfers into our district who had a behavior threat assessment conducted, we're able to see that information and most importantly to determine what systems need to be in place so that student is supported and so that our campuses are safe. Facilities and security infrastructure upgrades and project completion. We have done a lot this year to ensure that our campuses are safe and secure. One of the things that you may have noticed across the district are our the fencing. Thank you Rainey and your team for working on that to ensure that perimeter fencing is up to date. As you know, we've also installed cameras and access control points, our security vestibules and raptor visit visitor management upgrades. Again, those repaired exterior gates and approved perimeter monitoring helps not only keep our campus safe, but really
041to let the public know that this is the school. This is who belongs here, and we guide them to places that they need to go to enter the buildings if they want to come in. Evidence of increased compliance and quantifi quantifiable gains. I will say that each time we have had a finding um from the intruder detection audits there have been no repeated door related findings. So each time an issue is identified has been corrected and is not recurred. We do have 100 completion of required drills and reporting that we report in uh raptor. Again corrective actions completed for IDA findings are done within the mandated timelines. Our ELP audit scorings are higher and updates are done regularly and faster. And we've increased district documentation and sentinel ensuring not only audit readiness but ensuring safety
042of our campuses. So those highlights and impact we have safer learning environments. We feel safer. There's stronger prevention and readiness systems that we put in place. Our hope is that there is greater stakeholder confidence. Uh we have had reduced audit findings due to proactive measures because several of our campuses this year have already gone through the intruder detection audits. And again, we're aligned with Texas safety mandates and accountability requirements. That is all that I have. Do you have any questions for me >> on our fencing? Have we got all of our gate latches and got all of that secured? rainy. >> I knew it was coming. >> Uh, all of our pedestrian gates are installed. We've got two traffic gates at Booker T, Washington, uh, that are remaining. Uh, their goal is to get those
043installed during the holiday break. >> Are they lockable though? Are all of the locks put on our gates? >> Uh, they do have locks on them. Yes. >> Thank you. questions, comments, >> good job. Thank you. And just every year it's amazing to see such progress. And again, I'm going to say thank you to the campus administration because it's your work and your diligence, consistency, and attention. Um, we have very safe campuses and we're very appreciative of all of your efforts and to your team as well. >> Thank you. >> Continue on priority four, Mr. Randy. We talk about transparent systematic long planning and update of construction projects. >> Uh, good evening, President Mitchell board members, Dr. Ritter. Um as uh as the two folks here before me said uh 4 point uh 4.2 and
044other priority fours uh the discussion of the night my presentation will be a little bit more succinct as it's uh just on long range facility planning. If you all remember uh we saw just a brief update on this over the past couple of months. This really relates to uh project planning for new facilities. Um as we brought on Homestead uh facility uh for project consideration over the past couple of months, we uh put before you um an amendment to our long-range facility plan. Over the past several years, TEA has made some um changes to long-range facility plan requirements. So before we passed the 2021 bond, uh we had to evaluate across the district our long-range facility plan. So we did that in 2021. We're required to maintain an updated long range facility plan no more
045than every five years. So as we uh look out to 2026, we'll need to re-evaluate that for each of our facilities. Um so looking towards this u we've got uh four um strategic strategic actions there. Uh long range facility plan informed decisions related to expansion and improvement. Um that's an ongoing discussion that we have often um as as we look at uh demographic numbers and reports that come out. Uh the one that we're just uh looking at and you'll you'll be seeing in January, those are uh numbers that we look at and forecast for our students and we believe we're making progress there as we have to evaluate when those new facilities need to come online. Uh we try to stay ahead of those numbers and stay ahead of that curve. Um in 4.2.2 to
046reviewing that progress uh with executive cabinet monthly on those long range facility projects. Uh that's at least monthly uh I mean monthly uh with cabinet and Dr. for more often to evaluate uh what these long range facility plans are. Uh those needs do change from time to time as uh as programs change. For instance, uh uh the relocation of DAP uh to this campus from the high school as uh some programs maybe shrink or gain in population. Uh sometimes we reevaluate those. For example, um Elgen Intermediate moving elementary uh populations to the broader elementary campuses. So now we've got uh uh new purposing for that campus. Uh so those uh priorities can shift from time to time. So we continue having meetings uh with administration to discuss those. But again, I think we'll continue to
047make progress in that area. Uh as we move on to 4.2.3, uh this covers quarterly or regular meetings for our bond committee and community. Um I've noted some progress here as opposed to significant progress. Um we missed our last quarterly meeting. Uh this happened to conflict with uh a city meeting for uh permitting on another construction project. Uh we do have that meeting rescheduled in January now. Uh but our last quarterly meeting uh we missed scheduling that one in the last quarter of 2025. Um we just as you all know with uh Thanksgiving and Christmas other things uh got in the way and and we should have got that rescheduled but uh nevertheless we've got that one scheduled in 2025. But uh that's an important part of this uh this uh ordeal is making sure
048our bond oversight committee is aware of the projects that that we have in front of us. Uh making sure there's full transparency there. Um and then of course uh just as we're here tonight 4.2.4 with uh monthly board reports to review progress in uh construction projects. We always want to put these projects uh in front of the board and we we fully realize that uh community um review of these uh board meetings uh whether it's live or uh streaming later on is a good opportunity. Uh we've received feedback uh you know over the year uh this uh fall semester even um from community members who reviewed these uh videos later on. So, uh, it's a good opportunity, these monthly reports are to, uh, just, uh, put this report, uh, of our progress on these, uh,
049projects out to the community and certainly to the board as well. So, uh, we believe there's progress here. Ultimately, the outcomes from these projects, um, throughout, uh, 2027 will be reflected and those are what we'd like to show here tonight. Any questions about 4.2 before I I jump right into our projects? Um staying with the 2021 bond. Um this is as we've mentioned before one of the last major projects uh for the 21 bond as we look to wind down major funding uh from 2021. That transportation facility is really moving quickly. Uh there's not a large uh building footprint on that site. A lot of paving and flat work. Uh so you can see there in that largest photo uh exterior sheathing is going up. The roof is on that building. So we're uh virtually
050dried in. Um on the left there you can see interior framing and plumbing rough in is being completed. Um right now uh grading and paving are being scheduled. Most of the bus parking lot is completed. Uh what they're working on now is the smaller parking lot. what will be the uh driver's parking lot for their personal vehicles in the front visitor parking lot be some asphalt paving. Um they'll continue working inside to get the electrical and plumbing uh plumbing rough in completed. Uh they have uh got the electrical equipment uh coming. The electrical room is already uh got its drywall installed. So ultimately on on the site proper um not counting off-site work. our our contractor is telling us really by spring break, they'll have most of this project wrapped up. Um, and I'll note
051the two bottom bullets there. Um, I've had those on there for a few months, but I'll keep those on there because I want to point out those are a couple of off-site challenges that we have somewhat limited control over. The expansion of FM100 and uh coordinating our wastewater connection with Triata to the west. Those are two things that um will be required at least as we sit here today will be required for us to open and fully use this facility. Uh so though we may have a building and a parking lot by you know roughly spring break uh if we don't have a permanent driveway permit from Texot uh because of uh FM100 expansion is not complete and we don't have a wastewater connection with Triata uh we will not be able to use the
052facility. So, we're diligently working with all parties to accelerate both of those things, but some of those things are are out of our control. So, um I just want to make everybody fully aware that on our side, construction is going very well, but uh coordination is is always a is always a challenge. >> Yes, ma'am. um on on their site. Um of course it's a large subdivision. We're tying our our wastewater into their underground uh wastewater uh system. Uh that's that's been a a coordination effort that we've been working through for some time. Um they've for whatever reason and it's not our connection or our our business even, but uh they've had some challenges with Travis County. Um, so, uh, they've had a stop work notice for a little while, uh, that has slowed down
053their infrastructure development. Uh, so they've had very limited construction going on their site for several weeks. Um, I don't know the exact details of that. I I haven't prried and asked, but they were forthcoming with us to to tell us that they've had a stop work notice. They are working uh to get that resolved. Um but until that is is resolved um that we're going to be somewhat uh limited on on getting our our wastewater connection um to that point and and we're not you know ready to connect tomorrow. Um but by uh by spring uh we'll need to be there. Um and right now it's uh it's just a little bit of a hold up um when they can't put in those wastewater lines for us to uh connect to. Yes, ma'am. Um some
054of the smaller projects under the 21 bond uh Nigan High School flooring uh during Thanksgiving break our contractors made a really good push at night elementary uh getting a couple of the hallways completed. So that's one of the images you see there. They do have two short uh shorter hallways uh remaining to be completed. They think they can easily u take care of that during the remainder of the uh winter break. um as well as just a small portion of the uh vestibule at the high school. Uh fiber optic upgrade. This is I I want to shout from the rooftops. This is this is uh all but finished. Our our technology team I was just talking to uh David De Brock before the meeting. They're they're planning to make the they'll call it the cut
055over. This will switch to this permanent connection during the winter holidays. So this fiber is has been completed, tied in tested. It's we're ready to make the switch. So, um, both Trinity Ranch and Borker T. Washington have always ran on just a wireless antenna connection. So, they they've never had redundancy. They've never had the speed of all the other campuses. Um, of course, Trinity Ranch obviously hasn't been open that long, but for Booker T Washington, it it's never had a hardline fiber connection. So, this is monumental for that that school. uh making it across two railroad crossings and all the way across town. This is this is huge. So, uh really excited about that and uh hopefully they've just got lightning speed when we get back in January. Um HVAC projects um Elgen and Elementary
056sites are fully completed. We've got some commissioning and closeout scope remaining at uh BTW and Elgen Intermediate. Uh but uh teams are still fully on board in addressing uh those things. uh upcoming projects, uh replacements of playgrounds, um BTW, Nad Elementary, and Elen Elementary. So, our our three older elementary campuses uh we're going to work to replace all the playground equipment there, new fall surfacing, new equipment. Uh we'll we'll work to get that solicitation um in the papers and advertised in January. Um hopefully a quick turnaround and get that back before the board in in February is our target. And then that will be a summer project. uh bleacher repairs at the old middle school stadium. That would be uh what we call the home site, the larger site. Uh roof repair replacement at technology
057building. Uh we'll start planning that in the spring and and um based on request from technology, we'll make that a summer project just in case there's any issues with it. Um 90 hands sink replacements. Um with any luck, we can get this project done during uh the winter break. So, we think those sinks are coming in and we can um get a good start on this during the winter break and hopefully they can get them all knocked out. Those sinks are failing and those restrooms over there at a high rate. So, we want to get those resolved and then um we're working on getting the contracts in place for um P& Mechanical uh for Elgen Elementary and admin. Um this work is really slated for next summer, but uh we'll we'll continue to work with
058them. And there may be some opportunities where we can get them in the buildings um in the spring semester uh maybe spring break for some long weekends just to do some preliminary work to get a little bit ahead. Uh moving to the 2024 bond. Um large project here. Uh you all heard from DLR during our board workshop. Exciting project. Um really exciting uh for middle school number two or Legacy Oak Middle School. That that uh top left picture to give you some perspective. That's really over the building pad. There's a lot of work going on and you're looking back uh to the east uh that's in the foreground the building pad but in the back that's the uh track in the athletic field in the very back and then that bottom left um in the
059foreground that gray is the slab there in the green that's the vapor barrier they're getting ready to pour the uh remaining areas of that slab on grade they'll pour that in sections and then the overall site view uh you can see that winding road uh that queuing space that they talked about in the earlier presentation. And then actually the the road on the left um since this picture was taken, that road on the left has been poured. It's the concrete's in place there now. So, um again, it's, you know, I can't uh it's hard to keep up with those guys. I take pictures and I'll go out there a few days later and the site looks really different. So, uh they're just they're really busy out there. So, a lot of the the bullet points
060on the right, they'll look very similar to last month until they get done with that building slab and start going vertical. Some of these things look a little bit repetitive because they'll do them in sections. They'll get utilities underground, get those in. They'll pour uh that section and then and then move to the next one. Uh they'll continue uh pouring grain beams and footers, for example, get the vapor barrier and the rebar going. Um they're pouring peers for their uh u for their lights along that uh that winding road. There'll be a lot of lights there to make it very well lit as folks make that entry. But overall, it's an exciting site. Really changes the landscape out there. Uh any questions about that? Okay. Um, athletic improvements. Uh, switching over to the high school
061coming back in town. Um, I'll run you through the photos and the bullet points. Um, artificial turf and fencing materials. All this material is on site on that top right. That's the baseball field, underground drainage. Uh, you know, that's one of the benefits of having turf. Um, we get a lot of rain and then that evening or early the next day, we can we can play ball. uh we don't have to worry about um getting rained out near like we do with natural fields. So uh they're putting in the drainage there and then in that bottom right photo uh they're putting down the base material getting ready to pour the post tension slab. Uh so they're getting that prepped and they've already got uh in the in the back there they're drilling peers for the
062light poles around the tins courts. Uh and those are actually in now. The peers are uh so on the right bullet points there. Uh drainage and base work uh underway on the baseball field. Curbs are installed on the baseball field for the outfit fencing. Uh softballs just a little bit behind that. Uh they're prepping the subgrade or drying that out. Uh this week we're hoping to get the tennis court slab poured. Um this new press boxes are scheduled this week for both baseball and softball. um site drainage around outside of baseball. Um you know that that water drains off the field and it's got to go somewhere. So they've got sight drainage um ongoing that'll be routed around the outside. Then again, all that materials on sites um now the to the schedule uh the
063bottom two bullet points there. Um how do we get where we're at? Soil injection. uh this soil out here, for those of you that have been involved with construction out here, this soil is is not great. So, soil injection took longer than expected. Our uh soil injection process took two and three uh rounds in some areas. So, that took a little bit longer on the schedule. So, what we're showing now is uh schedule completion now showing late January for tennis courts. and our uh contractor tells us they can get baseball and softball completed roughly mid January. So, uh we've talked to coach Anderson, we've talked to uh folks involved. Uh we know that's going to impact some of our early activities on those fields. Uh but we're still doing everything we can to work with
064our contractors to mobilize um as many um additional forces as they can and resources to to pull this date in um every chance they get with second shift, weekends, those types of things. So, um, still it's going to be a great project. It's just going to take a little bit longer than what we thought. Uh, TT press box just behind there. Uh, you can see there on that exterior demo shot, those guys have really made uh an impact quickly. So, the demolition did not take long. Um, both both inside and out. That that that building it it it looked different quickly. Uh, yeah. from just a few days to the next. When we went up there, it was it was eye opening. Um you can really see the difference there. It certainly already looks a
065little bit different today, but um and then in the bottom, they've got some a lot of scaffolding going up underneath and and shoring, but they're they're fully mobilized with a job trailer on site, temporary utilities, um all their construction fencing and safety um safety fencing in place. uh working on uh concrete demolition in some certain areas. That elevator that they've uh used for a lot of that demo came in handy. That's going to be coming down soon. Um they're going to start laying out their peers next. That'll be holding up what'll be a much larger press box. So, they'll start drilling peers here very soon and then coordinating for underground utilities. um all along that concession area, what would actually be that circulation path where we're used to walking um for uh you know concessions
066and restrooms and that sort of thing. But overall, we're looking at a fall 2026 completion date. So, they've got a lot of work between now and then, but they're making really good progress as as you can see there in the photos. Um Homestead last last week, last month rather, uh we awarded the first GMP. So, that's allowed our general contractor to get started on long lead items. Uh, we do expect uh demolition to start as we come back in January. Uh, they've already been selecting some of their trade contractors, getting them under contract, uh, getting insurance documents, those types of things. So, uh, we expect to have a quick start. We come back in January. We also expect to, uh, bring back GMP2, guaranteed maximum price number two, uh, to be brought back in January.
067That will be for the balance of the work. um all of the finish out trades. Uh we have continued to coordinate with um Blue Bond Electric. We'll have to do a service upgrade uh to the electrical service on that building. Wasn't quite large enough for all the equipment um in the facility. Uh we did finalize permit review. Sent those last comments back to city of Elgen actually today. So, we're expecting to have a building permit by the time they come back in January. Uh but ultimately uh the uh representative photos that you see here uh will be similar to what uh we end up with in a culinary lab. Just a busy uh lab for students and we're excited about this project. Uh excited to get in here next August and the DAP portals. Ah
068let's this will be a blue ribbon finish line right here. We're we're going to move into these uh during the winter break. Uh we got we got flooring replaced. Uh we got uh reveation. We we sprayed hydro mulch again. We replaced trees again. So ultimately we're we're looking to get our certificate of occupancy. Um technolog is all wrapped up with technology and cameras. Um furniture is scheduled to move in. Uh we we've talked to our administration, our staff, Dr. Rodman. Everybody's ready. So we're ready to put this project to bed. Um, questions. >> Good job. >> Thanks, sir. >> Thank you. >> Right. Next item. Action item. To approve the annual financial report for 2024. >> One second. Good evening, President Mitchell, Dr. Ritter, members of the board. I'm Clark Mley, Elgen ISD's chief financial
069officer. Tonight, we're pleased to present to you the annual financial report for the 2425 school year. This is a report of our annual financial audit. And tonight's report will be provided by our auditors, Patio Brown and Hill. Their representative for this evening is Cameron Erin, um, who has worked with the district through the audit process. And with that, I will turn it over to Cameron for the presentation. Thank you. >> Thank you, Clark. I'd like to thank y'all. Thank the board for choosing Patilla Brown and Hill as your auditors again this year. Uh thank you to the finance team for answering our millions of questions and asking for even more documents to look at. Uh but for this year, there was a some changes in uh the financial statements that are being presented. It's the
070fiscal year changed from August 31st with uh 2024 is now June 30 of 2025. So that's 10 months that we're auditing. Uh that came uh with some uh some changes this year. Normally TEA requires uh audits to be approved by the board and submitted to TEA uh for June 30 clients submitted in November. Uh but for this year, TEA extended those deadlines for all school districts across the state for two reasons. They're implementing uh audit 2.0 this year. It was not up and running. Uh also the federal government uh puts out uh what they call uniform guidance when we have to test federal programs. And normally uh that guidance that they give auditors is approved during the summer. But for this year, it's uh historically late that they didn't approve that. So they said, "Well,
071here's a draft, but you can't sign any audit reports." So tea took that into account as well. So every all deadlines got shifted to February this year. So we're still on time, but uh next year I should be here in November. Um but just to jump in, you should have your uh the financial statements in front of you in case you wanted to follow through with that as well as a communication letter uh that we're required to uh just things we're supposed to communicate. We either do it verbally or written form. We just feel that it's easier in written form but boilerplate stuff. Um so we are required to maintain our independence and as part of uh our objective is to obtain reasonable insurance assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free
072of material misstatement whether due to fraud or error and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinions. And on page two uh independent auditors report uh the second paragraph says in our opinion the accompanying financial statements present fair fairly in all material respects the financial position of the governmental activities each major fund and aggregate remaining fund information for the district as of June 30 2025. So that's a clean opinion. Uh we didn't qualify it in any way. Um so that's best opinion but highest level of assurance that we can provide that users of the financial statements can rely on them. Uh so great job to finance and the district on that. Um the other things that we are required to do uh as part of our audit process we go through audit areas that
073would affect financial statements cash um most items we actually confirm directly with tea or what the federal government puts out. We confirm bank balances, cash balances. Um, but we're also required to look at internal controls and procedures that the district has and uh develop tests of controls uh that way it brings out risk us for us as auditors and uh to see if we can rely on those controls that are in place. And we are also required if we find any uh def material weaknesses or internal control deficiencies, we're required to report those. There's a separate letter in the back, but there are no uh issues that we found this year. Uh so congratulations on that as well. Uh part of those is it's we're testing payroll processes, cash dispersements, procurement, uh grant guidelines, stuff
074like that. So if we found anything uh I would be telling you today, but you would probably already know by by now if there was such thing. Um so the uh touching on the uniform guidance on page 79 and 80 of the report, there's a schedule of expenditures of federal awards. And so this year the district spent 8.7 million in federal awards. And on the next page, uh well that's for the 10 months. Um on page 82 there's actually a breakdown of the summary of our audit auditor's results and it shows a over the financial statements we're given an unmodified opinion there's no material weaknesses no uh significant deficiencies and then over federal awards we are it's essentially a separate grant audit um that we tested IDAB cluster and child nutrition cluster and so if
075we found any uh uh discrepancies or errors going on with those specific programs. Uh we those would be reported as well, but we did not find any material weaknesses or internal control deficiencies over those programs as well. Uh so congratulations again. Uh one other thing I'd like to touch on is uh just kind of your general fund. We know y'all making budget amendments throughout the year. uh those are monitored pretty heavily and I just wanted to touch on uh the financial statements for the general fund. Uh the income statement is on page 18 and it shows uh so ending fund balance at the bottom of page 18 for the general fund uh went up uh $5.5 million. Part of that um reason is for state foundation revenue, that kind of thing. They give the district
076upfront and they base that off of 12 months. So that money was received and earned for the year, but you only had 10 months of expenditures for this year instead of a 12. So fund balance did go up. Uh but part of that was just for the the change in the fiscal year end. uh but still a really healthy fund balance 30. Normally we compare there's unassigned fund balance on the the page just before it uh because it breaks down. So on page 15 it breaks down uh what parts of fund balance uh prepaid inventory items are not that are non-spendable. Some of it's restricted or assigned uh for next year's budget. Some of that uh fund balance is expected to be spent down. Uh so we're breaking those out there, but the unassigned fund
077balance at year end is 36 million and normally what we do and TEA will do, they'll compare that unassigned number to the total expenditures for the year in the general fund, which is 58 million this year. And just kind of see if you weren't bringing any revenue going forward, how long is that equity going to last you? And so generally uh the rule of thumb is two to three months uh but char is sitting at you know about a half a year of of equity remaining. So that's a very uh healthy fund balance uh to have. So uh congratulations on that as well. But just a caveat there is 10 months of expenditures instead of uh 12 this year. So, uh, that's all, um, I've got today, but if y'all had any questions for me,
078uh, I can help ask or or Clark can help as well. Um, you can feel feel free to reach out to us out to us at any time. Um, there's a board U cert the what do you call it? The two letters to submit. Yeah. Uh so if y'all approve that, uh one copy is for you all to keep for your records. The other would go home uh with me and we'll scan in all the documents to upload to TEA whenever TEA is ready to receive those documents. >> Any questions? >> Thank you, sir. >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you so much. Do we want to sign the now or or you could scan them and send them to me tomorrow? Watch it now. Either way. Either way. I just know we got >> Okay.
079We need a motion to approve that audit. >> I make a motion to approve the audit that was submitted. Motion by Mr. Ms, second by Mrs. Reese. Any questions? All in favor said motion, please raise your hand. Motion passes five. Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. It is 8:23 p.m. The board will recess into close session and excuse reconvene as allowed under section 55.071 through 551.084 of the Texas demon code to discuss Uh superintendent's appraise evaluation Texas government code 551.074 and to discuss personnel matters Texas government code 55.074. Should any final action final decision or final vote be required in the opinion of the school board with regard to any matters considered at such closed executive session or meeting? Then the final action final decision of vote shall be either open meeting covered
080by the notice upon reconvening of the public meeting or at a subsequent public meeting school board upon most thereof as school board. It is 9:07 p.m. The board will reconvene into open meeting at this time. During the closed session, only the items that appeared on the agenda were discussed. No final action, no final decision. A vote was taken during the closed meeting this time. Is there a motion to adjourn? >> Second. >> Motion by Mrs. Reese, second by Mr. Moss. Question. All in favor said yes. Yes. It is 9:08 p.m. and we are adjourned.