001Is it cold down there? It is. >> cold? It is. We had a a kindergarten I call this meeting of the Granbury Independent School District to order. Let the record show that a quorum of board members is present, that this meeting has been duly called, and that notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551. The board will now adjourn into executive session pursuant to the following sections: personnel to deliberate the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public officer or employee under Texas Government Code Chapter 551.074, staff recommendations, professional employee term contracts real property to deliberate the purchase, exchange, lease of real property if deliberation in open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the board's position in negotiations with
002a third person, Texas Government Code Chapter 551.072 to discuss the Decker Gym Complex located at 301 North Hannaford and 600 West Bridge Street, Granbury, Texas 76049, and consultation with attorney if needed to consult with its attorney when the board seeks advice about pending or contemplated litigation or settlement offer or when the attorney will have an ethical duty of confidentiality under Texas Government Code Chapter 551.071 and the time is now 5:01 p.m. >> Mhm. >> The time is now 6:04 p.m. and the board is reconvening following the executive session and we are going to take a 5-minute recess for everyone to have a a moment to take a little break before we come back into open session. We will reconvene into open session at 6:00 6:00 6:09 6:09 p.m. Look at that clock, it's not right
003still. >> The time is now 6:09 p.m. The board is reconvening in open session after recess and we will begin by having our invocation given by Ms. Nancy Alana. Please bow with me. Most gracious heavenly father, how thankful we are for this beautiful day. We thank you, dear Lord, for the opportunity to gather here this evening to talk about the issues about our school district and about our students and our teachers and staffs. Lord, we thank you so much for each one and we thank you for the opportunity to talk about their futures, to talk about the ways that we can help them learn and grow. Lord, we thank you for each and every blessing that you have given to us at this time of the year, all the flowers of spring, the each blessing
004of the seasons that we see and take advantage of each one. Lord, we thank you for each and every program in our school district, the programs that our students are able to take advantage of. Lord, we just pray that you'll help us make good decisions at this meeting tonight. We ask for your guidance. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you and now we are going to have our pledges presented by Granbury Middle School students. Salute pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one indivisible. [clears throat] Thank you. And next, we have the Granbury Middle School update. If
005you could please join us back up here. Good evening. My name is Julie Roleder and I'm the principal at Granbury Middle School. Thank you for having us tonight. I have my administrative team with me. I have Dr. Shirley and Ms. Eppler and Ms. Biggs joining us tonight for our presentation. We're going to start out by giving you overview JMS at a glance. When you look at enrollment, you see that we're at 917 as of March 10th of this year. That is a grown last year least 75 to 100 kiddos. Economically disadvantaged percentage is at 61%. The special education percentage that we serve is at 22%. We have emergent bilingual and ESL student population of 28%. We have total of 99 staff members. Our overall rating for the 2024-2025 school year was a C. We all
006know that is not where we want to be. And so as a team we've been working to grow our students and focus on being intentional to support every single kiddo on campus in making the academic progress they need to make and to close those gaps. Part of doing that is we're following the excel model from capturing kids hearts. The excel model helps us in increasing the tier one engagement is the first part to excel and we have had our students and our teachers working hard to have engaging activities to get the kids participating and active and working and collaborating together. We also have affirmations going to students and staff throughout the year. Our teachers come together, we work and get engaged and motivated through PLCs and staff meetings. We some of these pictures that I'm
007going through up there, we have our social contracts at GMS that are in every classroom and used with our students and teachers. And then GMS we have the student of the week that we like to acknowledge. We have our MVP player of the week for teachers. We do celebrations each six weeks with proud pirates. Our teachers greet our students at the door. Helps us to kind of gauge the temperature of how things are coming into the room and be able to establish positive relationships with the kids. They share out good things and then in that bottom left picture you can see the kids are working together in one of the engaging math activities to kind of spark that learning in that area. So that is the first component engage in the excel model. So the
008second piece of that is the explore portion of that. And so obviously with GMS we are a campus where we're creating a culture, establishing culture where students are encouraged to explore, lead and collaborate. We feel that all three of those components of building our current student is really about getting them future ready. And so with that we have some pictures to kind of explain some of those components as well. With that GMS is very intentional about what we do in the classroom as well as a campus culture. With exploring in those the two top photos, the GMS All-Star teamwork photos. Those are math classes where we are exploring various ways to instruct math. And so you'll see students working collaboratively together. We also have leaders in each of those groups as well. And so we're
009really taking this explore portion of the excel model and taking it into the classroom as well. Additionally, you'll see some of the little ropes course that we have in the bottom left where there all three areas where students are exploring their own fears and conquering those fears as well as leading and collaborating working as a group to accomplish a singular goal. And then moving over to the just right of that, we have students that are are in a baking contest, they're baking some cookies. And so with that they're going through again that excel model with exploring different ways to do something, the measuring components, collaborating, working together and they're also taking some leads lead roles in that. And then finally the last picture on the far right, we have a science class where they're doing
010all three of those components again. They're looking at a different activity, a different lab where they're exploring. Again, we have leaders in each of those groups and that collaboration and again goes back to the intentionality with not just the activities that are happening in the classroom, but the culture that we're creating and building at GMS. Now for the communicate portion. So at GMS we prioritize clear, consistent and purposeful communication with all staff members and faculty. Um making sure that our entire school community is aligned. Weekly family s'more newsletters highlight each month's Capturing Kids Hearts focus word, and providing stakeholders with clear definitions and overview of what students will be learning and putting into practice. Uh the weekly SMOREs helped to strengthen understanding and reinforce shared language between home and school. Families are encouraged to participate
011in surveys to provide feedback and support continuous academic improvement. For communication when in regards to staff, it is structured and it is actionable. Weekly staff SMOREs include direct links to Capturing Kids Hearts character lessons with clear expectations for classroom implementation. Administrators model effective communication using the EXCEL model in staff meetings and PLCs to ensure alignment of those expectations. Having assistant principals assigned to each grade level this year has made a tremendous impact on our campus. As APs, we continuously communicate and actively model Capturing Kids Hearts ideals with staff, students, and faculty members. Excuse me, families. To make sure we strengthen that campus culture and that sense of community. Through this intentional approach, we promote transparency, strengthen relationships, and foster a shared commitment to both student success and a positive campus culture at GMS. Okay, so
012we're going to talk about the empowerment piece. And when you look back at that beginning slide of our demographics, it's very obvious that empowerment of our kids is one of the most important pieces to this whole model. Our kids need to be empowered to be leaders. They need to be empowered to take ownership of their own learning, and that's where we're closing those gaps. That's what we're doing is setting that mindset. Our students run announcements, so that top left, that's a couple of kiddos doing the whole tour of our winter wonderland, which Mr. Leiter does a fabulous job of making Christmas a big deal and the kids absolutely adore it and they had such a great time. There's also the pick six in the middle, which empowered our teachers to empower our kids. So they
013had challenges in which they had to have students greeting at the door, have students running good things, have students running the launch because the shift happens when the kids take control. And so also as secondary is, we have so many extracurriculars where kids are especially in middle school getting to experience all those different things to figure out really where they fit. And I'm so proud of our GMS kids because from theater to choir to athletics, we're just empowering a lot of kids at GMS through our staff, through the activities we offer, and then our process champions through CKH do a great job of not only empowering our staff and empowering the admin team. They're very open with us. They come to us and say, "Hey, we would like to try these things." And they have
014such great incredible ideas on you know, empowering kids and following the CKH plan. It's just it's really amazing what's happening. The last piece to the EXCEL model is launch. And basically with the launch, it's tying all the loose ends up. It's teaching the students and staff that the importance of reflection. And so when we're looking at the skills and we're trying to tie all those loose ends up, we definitely want to do a ending and a launch to help close that up. At the top, you see the students were super excited at Christmas to launch everyone off for Christmas break in their costumes. And then we have our kindness wall and we have one of the slides there is sharing that things that make you go Thursday launch in the classroom. And then you can
015see just one of the examples of the EXCEL model being used in a classroom during instruction. And of course, courage is our word of the month and so that is always one of the launches we've got it. They're all over the place every class period. So in reference to closing the gap and being intentional to support every student's making growth, we have followed the EXCEL model as a team. We are working specifically to meet those students' needs and make sure that we get them where they go where they need to be through establishing positive relationships first and then providing them what they need academically. And so it's been a big learning curve and definitely we are having a lot of fun with that part. The other piece of intentionality is our advisory time, our Saturday
016school time that we offer and our tutoring opportunities that we offer for our kids. So we're going to see a nice gap closed this year in our data. That is benchmark data showing us and we're super excited to see the results. In the end, you see great things are happening at GMS and all over the place with academics but also with the elective portion of the programs that we offer for all our kids. Thank you for letting us share tonight. Any questions or comments from board members for any questions or comments? I just want to say thank you for all the great things y'all are doing. What I see is a a campus where students are taking ownership of their learning and being involved in that process because of the intentionality of the leadership there.
017So thank y'all very much. Yes, sir. Okay, next up we have our achievement spotlight. And first up is GMS robotics state championship team, the robotic eels. I'm a little short, sorry. I'm super excited to be here tonight. I am Misty Engmire and I am the so lucky that I got to be a part of the ride this year with the kiddos. At the beginning of the year, I told them like, "I really don't know much about robotics. I can help you find pieces, but the rest of it you're going to have to figure out on your own." And that's exactly what they did. Sorry. >> [clears throat] >> I started off the year, we have three teams. And then when we did our I guess our regional area competition here at the administration building, the
018robotic eels were the one team that made it through for GMS. And so then we went to B Cave and y'all, let me tell you, these kids work together so well. They were problem solving, doing the driving, and man, who knew robotics could be so intense. But it came down to literally we beat out an AMS team by one point to become the state winners and I could not be any more proud of my kiddos. So it is It is my great privilege to introduce Mateo, Alum, Mason, and Finn, the robotic eels. You want to line up right there, Mason? All right, y'all ready? Look this way, ready? One, two, three. And if we have any family, friends, parents, teachers in the audience, please stand and be recognized. Okay, next achievement spotlight is the top
019300 scholar and Regeneron Science GHS student, Shanice Gibson. Good afternoon. My name is Priscilla Ramirez Lumbreras. I'm the high school science teacher. Nice to meet some of y'all. I see some new faces in the school board and the the science fair lady that shows up about once or twice a year. This year we've been very lucky. We're one of three districts in the entire state of Texas that has a Thermo Fisher Junior Innovator and an RTS science scholar. So Miss Shanice Gibson. Shanice is one of 300 students chosen from a total of 2400 students from the entire United States and 16 different countries. Chosen based on their research that they have done over their entire high school career. As a part of the award, she gets a $2,000 scholarship. As well as our program also
020gets $2,000 on her behalf, which is great because we've been working with like a 3D printer that's about 10 years and it finally died this year. So that's perfect. And without much more, here's Miss Shanice to tell you a little bit about her research. Good evening. My name is Shanice Gibson and I'm just going to kind of give you a run through of my project. So, basically for the last year and a half, I've been researching how eczema has been affecting different skin types because it's a skin condition that I have. And I basically had the idea after competing at state one year, and I kind of wanted to switch up my idea. And I started by doing background research and basically focusing on how skin types were affected with like moisture retention and things
021like that. And I wanted to find affordable remedies for them, so I started by researching natural remedies. At first, I started with researching coconut oil, aloe vera, and things like that that could be used instead of pharmaceutical things because they're expensive and not everyone has the funds for that. And I also chose to do this because I want to formulate my own skin care brand one day for people who have eczema. And so, I figured that would be a great place to start. And kind of moving into this year, keeping it cost-effective, we focus more on the moisture retention or transepidermal water loss across ethnic skin types, and we created a chamber that measures the moisture retention and things like that. And because you can't test on humans, we use gelatin and created a kind
022of that's uh mimic the different types of lipids because if you have um if you have African-American skin, it's thicker. You have it's a thicker density than other ethnic skin types. And so, we basically simulated that to play around with it. And we use a chamber to test the moisture retention and things like that. And this was used using This was created using um classroom laboratory materials because as I said, it's cost-effective and $12,000 is really expensive for um that's the products that we do not have, and so that's what we are we're working with this year. You ready? >> [laughter] >> That's absolutely amazing, and congratulations. If you have any family, friends, parents, teachers in the audience, please stand and be recognized as well. Okay, our next achievement spotlight is GISD swimming state finalists.
023All right. Good evening. Uh my name is Charles Ervin, and I'm the head swim coach for the GHS men's and women's swim team. Um and I just want to thank you guys for taking a few minutes to recognize these young men and women's hard work. Uh this is just a small portion of our team. Uh we have 27 kids on our team, and these are the nine who qualified to go to the state meet this season. Um to qualify to go to state in Texas for swimming, you have to be first or second place at the regional swim meet or be the next eight fastest not automatic qualifiers in the entire state of Texas. Um so, we took seven events to the state meet this season. On the girls' side, we had the girls' 400
024free relay, which got second place. Um which these four young ladies are all a part of. You have Ellie Nelson, Cameron Sitzler, Bailey McDermott, Autumn Stewart. Um and then Ellie also finished second in her 500 freestyle from one of the best races I've ever seen, where she came back from third place and just won in dominating fashion, second place in one of would have passed him in first place if she would have had five more yards. Um and then she won the region in the 100 breaststroke, which is an amazing accomplishment. And then on the boys' side, we had two relays qualify to go to the state meet, the boys' 200 medley relay and the boys' 200 freestyle relay. Um they were just right outside of that second place threshold, but they qualified as the
025one of the next eight fastest relays in the whole state, which is an incredible accomplishment because swimming is really fast in Texas. And then Cameron Ward um qualified in the 200 IM and then was the region champion in the 100 breaststroke. So, some really great accomplishments for our kids this year. And then on that, Cameron and Ellie both broke GHS high school records in the 100 breaststroke, which are no small feats. The girls' was 20 years old, and Cameron's was something that we didn't think would be broken for a long time, so we're really proud of that. And then Cameron became the first GHS swimmer since the 2020 season to make it back into finals at the state swim meet in the top 16 in both these events. Oh, and sorry. I'm losing it. The
026boys we have Cameron Ward, his brother Mason Ward, Owen Brannon, and then uh Sean Ken and Jet McFarland couldn't be here tonight, so. Parents, you can come on up. You can come closer if you want. Do you want more marks? Great job. Congratulations. And any uh parents, family, friends, teachers in the audience, please stand and be recognized as well. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> Oh, and our next achievement spotlight is our Shot in the Kirk Senior of the Month, Cameron Ward. Yeah. Hello. My name is Denise, and this is our general manager, Misty. And uh we were are here to give a little money to the student of the month uh and say um a few words about Cameron. And you do a lot. Uh K- He's president of the Junior Optimist Club, president of
027the UIL Social Studies team. Um also your your fellow classmates have nominated you for um homecoming king. Uh this You're on the swim team. A lot of good things. And we're super proud to give you a little spending money and a certificate for all your hard work. Thank you. Uh-huh. And once again, family, friends, parents in the audience, please stand and be recognized. >> [laughter] [laughter] >> Okay, next up we have community donations presented by Miss Barbara Townson. All right. I have the great pleasure to talk about the donations that our wonderful community has given to Granbury ISD. Donation from Constellation Energy, Sam Harden, to the Emma Robert Emma Robertson campus activity fund for campus needs, $500. Donation from an anonymous donor to the Acton Elementary campus activity fund for the SLC autism motor lab,
028$5,000. Donation from the Bruner PTO to the Bruner campus activity fund to fund K-35 field trips in 2026 including the fourth-grade trip to Austin. $1,000. Donation from the Oakwoods PTO to the Oakwoods campus activity fund to fund the fifth-grade field trip to the Fort Worth Science Museum, $1,443. Donation from the Oakwoods PTO to the Oakwoods campus activity fund to fund the first-grade field trip, $255. Donation from the 104 Cattle Blake and Amber Campbell to the Granbury FFA student activity fund to sponsor the livestock judging team, $500. Donation from Donald and Angela Cox to the Granbury FFA student activity fund to sponsor the floral cultural CDE team, $500. Donation from Ryan and Laura Newbanger. Please forgive me if I am mutilating your name. To the Granbury FFA student activity fund to sponsor the poultry CDE team,
029$500. Donation from Josh and Tristan Taylor to the Granbury FFA student activity fund to fund the remaining CDE teams of $3,000. Donation from Transand Construction, Mandy Lloyd to the GHS F1 School student activity account sponsorship, $2,000. Donation from the Granbury Pirate Boys Golf Booster Club to the Boys Golf team campus activity account to supplement travel of 1,500. Donation from the GHS Cheer Booster Club to the GHS Cheer campus activity account to fund an iPad for the program, $478.95. Donation from the Granbury Optimist Club to the GHS Junior Optimist Club student activity fund to purchase Uncrustables for the athletic freezer, $400. Donation from Joseph Walma to the GHS barbecue student activity account to in support of the team, 150. Donation from the Hood County Democrat Club to the GHS debate team student activity account in support
030of the program, $500. Donation from Midway USA Foundation to the MCJROTC rifle team student activity account for the rifle team needs, $3,253. Donation from Rock Forward the F W to the MCJROTC student activity account for the MCJROTC use, $2,500. Donation from the Granbury Optimist Club to the Children's Charities to fund GISD unpaid lunch accounts, $347.10. Donation from the Granbury Optimist Club to GISD special education campus activity to fund United Unified Special Olympics transportation, $800. This was a total of $33,627.05. You'll notice a lot of these were PTOs, so when you are helping out the different PTOs in this school district, you are helping out the students. And thank you so much. And please thank any of these people who donated if you see them around town this month. Thank you, Ms. Townsend. And next up,
031we have public comments. Uh we had one community member sign up to speak, Ms. Beverly Cheney, but I do not believe she is here tonight. So, we will move on to consider action items discussed in closed session. We have approved staff recommendations and professional employee term contracts. Do I have a motion? So moved. I have a motion by Mr. Bolton. Do I have a second? I'll second. And a second by Ms. Nancy Alana. Any further discussion? All in favor, please raise your hand. Let the record show that is seven in favor, zero against. The motion passes. Now on to the superintendent's report. Yes, thank you, and good morning, President. Uh I'll start off with I'm hoping that everyone had a wonderful spring break. I know we all did. Uh but I also want to acknowledge
032the new photographs on the walls. So, thanks to Ryan Cox and his team. Um it's really impressive to see the focus on students on the walls that will help us as we continue to make decisions that impact students. So, thank you to your team for getting those pictures up for us. Also, uh we are going to start a new process tonight for public comments. Uh but there is no public comment, so I still want to talk about it. And Ryan also here has a new page where we will put every um public comment on the page, and we'll also have a district response to that or a board response. So, that will give our community a place that um will house those comments with um and give us time to respond. So, we'll have those
033by the Friday of each Monday board meeting. We won't have one this time. We thought we would, but we will the next time for all of our public comment meetings. Also, as a follow-up to our last public comment meeting, we had some questions come up about seniors and foreign exchange students. So, I just want to make this slight adjustment and make sure the board is aware that we are going to allow foreign exchange students classified as seniors. They will not be eligible for a diploma for Granbury ISD. Instead, they'll be awarded a certificate of attendance during the campus and graduation ceremony. These students will be dressed in a graduation gown only and will not wear a cap or tassel as those items signify the fulfillment of graduation requirements and were reserved for diploma recipients. Exchange
034students will be acknowledged prior to the certification of graduates during the ceremony. So, I want to make sure and follow up with the team on that. Um lastly, we had a um announcement a couple announcements, coffee with the CFO tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. So, join. It is free. It is fun. I think there's donuts and coffee. Is that right? Donuts and coffee? Tomorrow 9:00 a.m. and coffee. Super fun. Be there, be square. Um uh all golden pirates are invited, so hopefully we'll have more people that show up. It'll be great. Also, [snorts] we have a job fair coming up April 11th. It's a really important to our district to have a job fair, and it's for all departments. So, not just teachers, it's for all the departments that um are hiring. Um secondly, at this
035time of year, I start to get questions kind of about finances especially when we think about the conversation around enrollment dips. So, I just want to make a public comment about it. Um while we did project that we would have more students, with that projection we projected we would need more staff. And when more students didn't show, we didn't hire more staff. So, because we budgeted very conservatively, we're not in a place um of needing to cut finances or do anything differently. As always during the budgeting process, I know we'll get to that tonight with our CFO and we'll just talk about any adjustments going forward into the budgeting process next year, but we've done a great job of the board monitoring that budget every year and and allowing us to to be very conservative
036in that. So, we're we're very happy with where we are with our finances. And then the last thing that I want to announce is tonight we're excited to celebrate Maggie Walton. Um at the end of the school year, she will step into the role of director of strategic initiatives. While she will certainly be missed on her campus, we're confident that her leadership will make a tremendous impact as she helps us move forward on many of our strategic plan priorities. Congratulations, Maggie. Good job getting a picture. Yep. Sorry. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you, though. Okay, moving on to district reports. First up, we have Mentors Care, Mr. Brian Blackwell. We're actually going to start um as well with Reneisha Hardy. So, he's going to join Mr. Blackwell. Thank you. Good evening, board. Appreciate uh y'all
037having me introduce Mr. Blackwell. My name is Reneisha Hardy. I've been a volunteer at the high school over the past few years, and I currently participate in the superintendent's um advisory group. Um this past fall uh our superintendent asked me to look into some mentoring programs. And uh so, I I scouted different programs, came up came up with some suggestions for him. And the funny thing is, I didn't have to do anything because they found Mentors Care without my effort, which was perfect. Um the program [clears throat] requirements that the superintendent set out were that it was be well structured, that we'd have a successful record, and have an immediate impact on students. So, those were the three criteria we were looking at. After reviewing several programs, obviously Mentors Care was the one selected to
038bring to the board. And I and I think you guys will eventually make a decision. It won't be tonight, I understand. The [snorts] Mentors Care program is in multiple Texas high schools, and I think it's about 22 schools now, if I'm not mistaken. I have spoken to principals in Godley, uh Mr. Curtis Flood, and Midlothian Amanda Rogers. And Amanda Rogers is a You know her. She's a um graduate of the GISD program. So, she came out of our high school. Both rated the program highly and noted that it had immediate impacts on their students. Um that each of these students required one-on-one attention, and and it had an impact on them, like I just mentioned. Godley in in November Godley had 27 students in the program, and I just spoke to uh the Midlothian uh
039principal. And they've got 55 to 60 kids in the program. Both programs have 100% graduation rates, and many of the kids are going into college. So, they've got it's a successful program. A couple of key critical success factors that the principals told me was um the staff has to understand the program's purpose. So, it's got to be really clear. Mentors Care staff, because we have a staff person in the high school, uh they have to be an effective They have to be effective at their job, and recognition it recognizing that we're not competing with our counselors. This is not a counselor program, it's a mentoring program. So, I want to introduce uh Mr. Blackwell tonight, Brian Blackwell, and he'll walk you through the details. One last comment I want to make about uh Mrs. Rogers
040at Midlothian, she raved on this guy. And she just said he was a great principal, and I guess I that was at a middle school Yes. in Midlothian, as well as the leader of this program. He's done a great job, and that was her recommendation to us. So, with that Go ahead, Brian. Thank you. Good evening, board. Good evening, Dr. Moraski. Um it's an honor to be here with you tonight. And uh I'm just going to go through my presentation and answer any questions you guys have. Mentors Care, uh our mission is connect struggling high school kids with tools, resources, and mentors to guide them toward graduation and a purposeful life. One of the things I remember as a middle school principal was uh not having anything for my kids who struggled. We had We
041had some things going on, but we didn't have a mentoring program. And uh I was in Midlothian for 29 years, and my last year I got involved with Mentors Care. I said, "I'm going to check this thing out." There were kids going to Midlothian High School and Heritage High School and graduating that I said in my mind when they left my school, "This kid may not make it. There's a good chance they won't." And these kids were graduating. So, uh I I investigated it, got involved as a mentor, and and just saw the excellence that it brought. So, I was really really really blessed uh to be able to um to go to work for them when I retired from Midlothian ISD. So, I don't I still get to be around kids. I don't have
042to work discipline anymore. So, it's it's awesome. But, uh our mission is to to find those hurting, struggling kids in your high school, get them paired with a mentor, get them the resources they need, be it food, clothing, school supplies, counseling, and help guide them toward graduation and their goals. Just about us, we started in 2009 at Midlothian High School. Dana Petty is our founder. She was a disciplinarian volunteer, and the principal at Midlothian High School, a good friend of mine, Dr. Al Hemley, said, "We're going to start a mentoring program." In the first year, uh we mentored 25 kids with 25 mentors at Midlothian High School. And as Midlothian grew, we added a second high school. Um and we we went there, then we went on to Palmer and and Ferris and Red Oak
043and Maypearl ISD. We now serve every high school in Ellis County, which is awesome because there's a high mobility rate. So, when a kid moves from Red Oak to Waxahachie, boom, that mentor just picks them right up at their new school. It's a beautiful thing. We serve um four different educational service regions. We serve regions 10, 11, 12, and 14. We're in six counties right now. So, um we're growing, and we would um we feel like that Granbury would be a good fit for us. Like I said, we started out with 25 students and 25 mentors that first year. Last year, we mentored over 1,000 kids, 850 mentors. And that's not because there was a shortage of mentors, that's because we have many gung-ho mentors who take on more than one student. We have a
044gentleman named Raymond Richardson at Ennis High School who mentors three kids. And we have mentors who have been mentoring with us since day one. Uh we have we have community members, we have church members, we have city leaders, we have the superintendent at Godley, Dr. Dear. I'm excited he signed up to be a mentor just today. So, uh we have school leaders, policemen, folks from all walks of life that mentor for us. How we do it, we depend on the school to identify the kids for us that would benefit from having a mentor. We could argue that every high school kid would benefit in some way from having a mentor, but we want your most most at-risk kids. And so, when when we we go in and we train the staff in August what we
045are and what we do, uh we partner closely with counselors. The staff refers the kids to us. We want your most struggling kids based on TEA at-risk indicators, which you guys know those. But, we also know that things like anxiety, depression, uh substance abuse, being parents going through a divorce, um death of a parent, those things affect kids profoundly. So, students are referred, we do an interview with the students. We have a full-time coordinator at each campus. They're there every day that the students are on campus. We interview the students. Once the student says yes to the program, we send home a parent permission form. Once we get that permission form, that parent signs off uh that we can we can see their grades. We can use your Skyward student information system to see grades,
046and the mentor has access to the grades every week. Then we pair them with a mentor, male students with male mentors, female with students with female mentors. All contact happens at the school during the school day in a semi-private area, like a hallway, a cafeteria, a library, a place where there's eyes on and where there are cameras on, and there is no contact outside of school. All all mentoring happens uh at the school. And then uh we provide ongoing support to that student. What I love about our program, what I was missing as a principal, is every to be a friend, a role model, and a confidant, and they have their coordinator they can go to if they need food, if they need school supplies, uh if they're if if there's an outcry of abuse
047or neglect, that's typically who our kids go to. Because in our large really large high schools, 3,300 kids, a lot of the kids don't even know who their counselor is. So, but we do work very closely with counselors. If there's something that goes beyond our scope, our our staff is trained on signs of substance abuse, neglect, uh things like that, but they're not counselors. So, we work very very closely with school counselors. You Like I said, you have a full-time coordinator. They're they're well versed. We do continuing education with our staff on on uh drugs, alcohol, depression, mental health. Trafficking has been an issue with some of our young ladies. We've had uh been able to help some young young ladies and work with the police to get them out of those situations. And then
048the last part's relatively new. A lot of our kids will go on to four-year college, some will go to junior college, some will go to trade school, some go to military, but some of them just want to go to work after high school. And we have those relationships uh with some These are just a few of our our employers where we can make a phone call on behalf of that student, and I can call Weston Mayze at C&P Plumbing in Mansfield and say, "Hey, Weston, do you have an opening for an apprentice plumber?" He'll say, "Yes, sir. Send him my way." You can go to Gerdau Ameristeel in Midlothian and make 60 grand right out of high school if you work hard and work some overtime. So, there are lots of opportunities for those kids.
049But, the main thing is the relationship. And like I said, every student gets their mentor, that's their friend, their role model, and their confidant, and then they have their coordinator who's on campus every day. Our coordinators have eyes on most of our kids every day because we afford our kids two snacks a day. Many of them have food insecurity, and so they're coming by to get those snacks, to get those water bottles, and we're talking to them, "Hey, remember you got that test tomorrow? Study for that test. Hey, remember that paper? You got to turn that in. Have you done your FAFSA yet? Have you signed up to take the ACT or SAT yet?" So, um two advocates. The results um that number that first number sh- it I I made a correction and I
050sent the wrong presentation. We had 100% of our seniors graduate in 2025. This is an older presentation. In the 5 years I've been with Mentors Care, the graduation rate across all high schools has been 100% in 20 24 is 98%. We had one kid at Palmer High School who just disappeared. Um He We think he went back to Mexico, but uh we lost him. But uh we had 85% of our kids um meet the one the 90% rule for attendance this year. It was around 2/3 of our kids. No, it was No, it was 90%. 90% met the 90% rule for attendance. Uh we had about uh 92% of our kids this year. That's That's from last 2024, but about 92% uh earned the required number of credits to be promoted to the next grade
051level. We connected Every year we easily connect between 40 and 50% of our kids to outside resources like food, clothing. If they go homeless, if they need their light bill paid, we can help with those things. Um so, you can see those numbers there. >> [snorts] >> The results are are to me as they're incredible because these are kids who aren't coming to school typically. They're behind on credits. They're failing classes, and many of them have been in and out of DAEP, or they've had some discipline issues. Um this year this past year of our kids who had discipline, 63% of those kids reduced their discipline referrals the next year. So, I love what our principal say. Uh Reagan Berry is out of Abilene Wylie. They're comparable to your size. I think they're around 2,000
052kids. Uh she says this program uh should be in every high school. And then Julie Warch is the associate principal at Red Oak High School. She said that our program helped kids graduate who would have never graduated. Uh these are a couple of kiddos. Uh these are both my students uh over at Walnut Glen Middle School. Um Jesse was dealing drugs in high school, dropped out, came back to high school. We got him a mentor. He We helped him get into Universal Technical Institute. He learned how to work on cars, got hired by a BMW dealership in Dallas. They sent him to Florida for 3 months. Jesse makes about 90 grand a year, and he's married and has three little boys, and he comes back and talks to our kids. Uh great story. Haven uh
053was in a really abusive relationship with an older boyfriend, dropped out, came back, uh and you'll meet her on the video that we're going to show. Do you have the video? It's okay? Okay. Uh I'll tell you Haven's story. Haven uh was a freshman dating a senior. What can go wrong with that? Uh he was abusive to her. He introduced her to drugs. She was a Pantherette at Midlothian High School on the drill team. Uh dropped out, getting in trouble. We helped her get back in school. She graduated. And if you watch her video on our homepage, uh she says in that video uh without this program I wouldn't be alive. So, uh we we save lots of kids. Uh we love what we do, and uh we're here to give these kids hope in
054the future. So, any questions for me? I just want the board to know that I appreciate the presentation. I appreciate Renee and his group and talking about it. The importance of this really um the community input has been important to this conversation because people want to be involved, and it's important to our district that we keep um keep kids protected and safe. And so, I think this program has both of those things, and so I'm really excited, and thank you um to both of you gentlemen for presenting, and then y'all would love to answer questions with you guys. I don't have a question per se, but I work in juvenile justice every day. I'm a prosecutor for Tarrant County in the juvenile division, and I can tell you that every day I see the benefits
055of mentoring programs on at-risk youth. And I think this is a tremendous idea. Thank you for the work that you do for the kids. Sure. I'm here. And thank you for um doing what you can to help them. Yes, sir. There's a lot of kids out there that need a lot of help, and these mentors are awesome. So, thank you for what you do. Thank you so much. I have two questions. >> Um are the mentors paid? I'm sorry. Are the mentors paid? >> They're volunteer mentors. We recruit. Uh we do all the legwork. We go out in the community. We have people who their full-time job is to go out and recruit mentors and resources from your community. So, but the mentors are not paid. And how do you select your mentors? Mentors apply.
056And uh if they pass muster with the school, we talked about this in our meeting that there might be people in your community who might be able to pass a criminal background check, but you may not want them in your school volunteering. We would eliminate those people. We use your background check, and a background check is done on every single mentor before they ever set foot on campus. And then every mentor their first year is required to attend about an hour and a half long face-to-face training where you're trained on what you are as a mentor. You're a friend, you're a role model, and you're a confidant. You're not a savior, you're not a social worker, you're not a counselor. We train them what to do if there's an outcry of abuse or neglect. Good
057question. So, I want to have a question. >> Yes, sir. I have a question and probably a comment, too. Uh So, how do you select the students and and know when you started you talked about the at-risk, but it's like a I think I'd like to hear maybe a little bit more about that process. >> Yeah. Um When we train the staff, we give out paper referrals, and that referral can be filled out on any student. But we teach them what we're looking for. We want your your kids who have one foot out the door, your kids who are your 17-year-old freshman. Uh we want your most struggling kids. It's kind of like triage at a hospital. Mhm. Uh everybody needs health care, but there are those who need it more than others. And so,
058the staff principals, counselors, teachers will fill out a referral. They'll put it in in our coordinator's mailbox in the office. They take that referral. They interview the student to make sure they're a good fit for the program, but the student has to say yes. Uh it's not often, but we have had we have a few kiddos who will decline the program. Uh we have some parents who won't sign the permission form. My experience as a as a principal was is that some of those parents they don't want their stuff being talked about at school. So, uh we we really depend on the staff um to refer the kids to us. But, we'll have kids come by say, "Hey, I heard about this program, and I think it would help me." So, sometimes they'll ask. Mhm.
059That's That's That's another reason that I asked the question cuz there's there's kids that aren't technically at risk, but they are looking for a mentor. Yes, sir. And uh so, I I'll end with this. Uh I'm not in a DAEP or uh situation working with students, but I'm a former principal or former assistant principal. I I got the joke about the uh doing the discipline cuz I hated that part of the job. >> But, what I will tell you is that that mentoring all the research, and I've done a lot of research on mentoring, and mentoring makes a difference. >> It does. And you guys have a structured program, and a lot of people try to do it, but they don't have the structure that it looks like this program has. Uh we I think
060on this dais, but in me in particular be one of your greatest advocates cuz this really really a neat It looks like a neat way of doing the the the the job, and you've got great districts in there. I know Dr. Rich Dyer at Godley. Uh I worked with him at Tarleton State, and so uh I'm looking forward to seeing this program in action. >> Yes, sir. Thank you. I do want to add that the my first question as a mentor is, "What am I about to talk to this kid about?" I've worked with kids for 30 years, but it can be tough. We have a very focused curriculum. It's copyrighted. Uh it was written by our founder. It's called 24 Talking Points. It starts out with icebreaker activities, and it goes into uh "What
061are your goals for this school year? What do you What do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?" Uh it's it it stresses the importance of school attendance. Why showing up to school is literally half the battle. Why your grades matter. Why What you can expect to earn based on your education level. Why a high school diploma is better than a GED, and for sure dropping out. Um avoiding dangers of drugs and drugs and alcohol, uh finding the right friends, getting involved in school. It covers a wide gamut. So, the conversations are very focused. And they're being intentional every week. All right, I'll speak as a beneficiary of a similar program. Um so, uh certainly made all the difference in my life, and so I can appreciate what it is and what you're doing.
062And so, I'll say thanks. I'll thank say thanks to Mr. Shahardi for finding you and uh bringing you to us. And to Dr. Ann for identifying a gap there. I think that that's very important, and so I can certainly appreciate that. So, uh thank you for all of that. And Thank you, guys. Appreciate y'all. Thank you [clears throat] for sharing all that information with us and for everyone who worked on putting this together. I know that this has been a while in the making, and we appreciate the effort, and we're excited to have you. Okay, next up have our March budget 2026-2027 update, Mr. Emmett Whitfield. Thank you, Madam President. Board in front of you, you do have the the March budgeting process update. This is a new process that we're going through to kind
063of bring you along in the budgeting process to kind of keep you up to date with where we're at and what we're doing so that when we come to the July budget workshop, you're kind of already up to speed on it and you know kind of where we're at. Now, on February [clears throat] 18th, I took the PEIMS data and enrollment to where everybody was at and I kind of rolled that those grade levels up into the different pockets of where they're at and then I just kind of kept the kindergarten enrollment and pre-K enrollment kind of the same. So, that's kind of where we started. We were going to have as kind of a zero-based not zero-based, but we're not going to no no increase in enrollment and we just kept it kind of
064where we were at. So, that left us at about 7830 on the student enrollment. You can see that little chart down there where everybody landed. That was about 7830 on them students. You can see at the high school that we do a one $130 $34 per student on the enrollment for there. At Stars, we do $40 per student and then you can see at the elementary level at the middle school, we do $110 per student and then we do $98 per student for the elementaries. And that comes out to about $886,919 for the campus and budgets for they where they budget on the campus level. Then we did then we did zero increases at the department levels, which was about $14 million. So, that's where we start off when we send those allocations out to
065the campuses and out to the department budget managers. And they meet with their departments and their their their um campus level department levels and they go through and decide what do we need on our campuses and we that they set their budgets. And they come turn them back into me at April 15th and they're going to have that entered into Skyward and then I'm going to go through and check their allocations to be for sure they didn't go over or maybe they they had it in a different place and I'm going to go through and check those and make sure it's where they really wanted it. And then currently, we have the salary kind of estimated at about $80 million and then we're kind of expecting that our with the zero student growth, we're going
066to have about a $3.8 million recapture again. And that's kind of where we're kind of at this at this point and that's kind of where we just kind of basing it at right now. Just a not preliminary start and then we're just going to go from there. And that's kind of where we're starting out and that's kind of where we're at for y'all to kind of look at it at this point. And I'll be glad to answer any questions I can at this point. Thank you for that update and for breaking it down and just kind of giving us a general overview of the whole process and I think it helps go towards that transparency that we're building with our the rest of the board and our community and appreciate the the time you just
067took to put this together for us. Yes, ma'am. I do want to make sure the board and heard that in the past, we have used a two or three percent growth rate and for our budget and we are using a a zero percent. So, that is one way when we're asked about tightening up, I would say that is our our process at this point is that we're doing a zero percent growth as part of our budgeting process. Yeah, but we take it we take the the students at one point in time. I mean, any point in time it could be larger, it could be smaller, but we just take that one one point in time and that's what we're going to budget on at this time. It it could grow, it could get it get
068smaller, but you know it's going to be minimal fluctuation. Still, that's the that's the most conservative approach to budgeting assuming that we're not going to have any growth in students and then when we do, it's icing on the cake. Correct. Appreciate that. Thank you. Okay, next up we have our financial statements for period ending February 28th, 2026, Mr. Emmett Whitfield. Thank you, Madam President. Board, you do have the the financials for the month ending February 28th, 2026. The revenue collected to date does equal 91.85% of the budgeted amount compared to 84.26% of 2425. The expenditures to date do represent 49.04% of the budget compared to 49.33% of 2425. The only thing you'll probably see on there that's a little bit um concerning or not concerning, but a little bit out of whack would be the
069local property taxes are 88.12% and then you can see the state funding is at 114% and if you'll remember when we talked about that, the state local funding and state funding have an inverse relationship and now that we've settled up on local property taxes being collected mostly, I'll be bringing back a a budget amendment that kind of shifts those budgets into the different areas now that it's kind of settled down and it has a lot to do with uh frozen levy laws and those things and had to do with the elections after the elections settled down in November, had to deal with them going from 100 to 140 on homestead exemptions and then the the new frozen levy laws. I I say frozen levy laws, but the on the new exemptions that had to do
070with the elderly and disabled exemptions. Those kind of things are a little bit hard to to project in um August when it doesn't happen until November and then when I all start coming in. So, that inverse relationship, I'll bring I'm in the back and it'll kind of adjust those a little bit and make it make it show up a little bit better. Uh I wanted to ask a question. Yes, ma'am. Um transportation, last year Mhm. we were at 60 66% and this year we're at 56%. Does that have anything to do with Okay, so so also with the passing of the new legislation, if you'll remember, they gave us the $106 per enrollment and we chose to use those in utilities and fuel and so those we we we put those numbers in utility. We
071we could use them in different places, but that was where we were having the most uh fluctuation in cost in our utilities and our fuel and we put those in those budgets. So, it just kind of increased those budgets a little bit. So, we're not using up as much of that budget at this point in time. So, they last year we had to amend that budget later on in the year. We're not going to have to do that this year cuz that that money's already in that budget over there for him to use later on. I was hoping it was cuz of the new buses were just more efficient. >> [laughter] >> It's more it's more of fuel budget that I did. It's over there for him to use later on in the year. Okay,
072thank you. Any other questions? Okay, next up we have our cash flow and investment report for period ending February 28th, 2026, Mr. Emmett Whitfield. Thank you, Madam President. Board, you do have the cash flow and investment report in front of you. In February, we did gain $349,321 in interest for that month. Last year at this point in time, we we had $287,184 in interest and for the total for this year, we're at $1,524,000 in interest that we gained this year in this point in time. Last year, the total for the year was $1,073,209. So, that again, that money that we have put away that was that we have in um unearned revenue is still working for us in interest revenue. So, we're we're just putting that down and that's in your financials up there as
073under interest revenue. So, it's still working for us. Thank you. Next is our categorical categorical spending report. Mr. Emmett Whitfield. Yes, ma'am. This is the expenditures that that we we spend and we we buy through a purchasing co-op that y'all have approved early on. Expenditures through between 50,000 to 100,000 and we do do it through a approved purchasing. Um and it was for $71,423. I did a PO that was approved and we've done it the PO is out there. It actually will not happen till the summertime, but it is for mowing recovery services. It's going to be to clean the ducts and at at Acton Elementary and Backus Elementary. It'll happen this summer and the PO was for $71,423, but it is out there and it is committed funds and it like I said, it
074will happen this summertime. Thank you so much. Any questions before we move on? All right, moving on to consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items as presented? I'll make a motion. Do I hear a second? All right, I have a motion from Mr. Dr. Calvin Worsham. Do I have a second? I'll second it. And a second by Mr. Mike Moore. Any discussion? Okay, hearing none, all in favor, raise your hand. >> [laughter] >> Okay, let the record show at seven in favor and none against, the most motion passes. >> [laughter] >> Uh next up we have our discussion action items. Uh 13A, discuss and take action on the board election local policies BBB and BDAA, Dr. Courtney Maroske. Yes, thank you, Madam President. And board, as a reminder, um
075at our last meeting, we you all adopted a resolution to change board terms from three to four years and also included a transition plan that would hold elections on the odd number years. So now, it was time for us to update our policy. So I'm I'm bringing forward to you two policies, both local policies BBB and BDAA that will outline what what you've already adopted as a resolution. Um the one thing I want to point out and make sure that you're aware of besides confirming that all of the information is correct in BBB um is that in BDAA, want to make sure that you all know that if you're an officer, you will now have a 2-year term versus a 1-year term because we hold officer elections in tandem with the board elections. And also
076there's been a change in the wording that officers may succeed themselves in office instead of being limited to a two-term cycle. So I'm happy to answer any questions if you have them. Okay, do I have a motion to Do I have a motion for item 13A? Make a motion we approve. I have a motion by Mr. Stewart Neil. Do I have a second the motion? Second by Dr. Calvin Morris. Any further discussion? Still opposed. Okay. All in favor, raise your hand. Any against? Let the record show that is six in favor and one against being Mr. Bolton. And next action item is to discuss and take action item action on Senate Bill 546 seat belts compliance. And I know who's going to be presenting on this, I don't know. >> [laughter] >> Good evening. Brian
077Rogers, our director of transportation and myself, Hussein Shahabi, assistant director of finance and procurement. Good evening, board. We came back. So last month we presented in details everything that we have gone through. So this is going to be more um um more of a recap and what the law says about what the board is required to to do. So based on transportation code 547 701, the board must determine whether the district budget permits the purchase or contracting of buses with three-point seat belts. It's not replacement, not retrofit, purchasing new buses that are compliant. The law requires by September 1 that all the buses operated by school districts in state of Texas must be fully compliant. So tonight we ask you and Brian will show you the numbers in in a little bit, but tonight we
078we ask the board to vote to determine whether or not the district budget permits full compliance with the three-point seat belts requirements. Depending on your decision and determination, it will trigger few things that we will have to do. It will depending on the vote, we are required to report to TEA through Sentinel and then we will have to share the minutes from this public meeting and as required by TEA by May 29, 2026. That's and then these are the actual quotes and actual estimated that we we got from two different vendors. Just real quick before you move on just to be clear and to reiterate, this is something we have to determine that we would be able to be in full compliance by September 1st of 2029. So we would essentially have 2 and 1/2
079years to get this done. Is that correct? Yes. So yes. Currently we talked about this last month, but currently we have 27 buses that are three-point compliant, they're ready to go. Excuse me, those are the newer buses that were bought 2019 and newer. Unfortunately, we have 44 buses that don't have seat belts and 15 that only have two-point lap belts. Those guys are not in compliance either. For a total of 59 buses that require something done with that. What they ask you guys to do is determine if you can replace those buses. The total replacement for 14 special ed buses 41 regular ed buses and four activity buses is $9,220,000 for replacement. Now we also put up there retrofit estimates of $1,933,387. And we will report that to TEA at when we when you guys
080make your determination. And that's what they the TEA will use to determine are they going to send money back to the district to help with a retrofit or whatever they need to do at that point. But what they're asking from us is do we feel like we have enough money to completely replace? Completely replace, yes, ma'am. The $9,220,000. In 2 and 1/2 years, isn't that what you said? Now I know too that you've been working on, Dr. M. a budget for replacement at regular intervals. And so then in the course of the next 2 and 1/2 years through September of 2029 do we subtract that amount from I mean, it'd be hard for us to argue with the state that we can't do any of them when we already have >> We budget for about
081seven and on average seven buses every year. So I do I can use my calculator. >> 52. That leaves a considerable amount for us to say it is not currently we have not budgeted for 59 buses. We budget for seven a year, about seven a year. And that's that is something that's manageable in our budget. >> And the long-term downstream effect of this is that we're going to replace 51 buses all at once or >> Right. And then that puts us in a position where we have to replace them all again at the next time. So it's we don't like to do them more rotation, right? So currently, you know, if you were asked me whether we have money in our budget to replace all of our buses, my answer would be a strong no.
082>> Right, of course. And so then is what's being asked of this board tonight is a yes or no? We're we're going to tell the state that no, we don't have that budgeted. Yes, my understanding is that it will trigger some things on our end. In the end, we have to comply. And so we may bring other plans to you later once the state makes its decision about whether it's going to fund some of these items. We've heard some things about retrofitting will cancel warranties and is actually outlined in the law as as not a probable response. So we're kind of waiting a little bit, too. So your job tonight is decide whether we have money in our budget for $9.2 million in the next two basically two budget cycles. >> And on your advice,
083we don't. If you're asking me, we have not budgeted for 59 buses. >> Yeah, thank you. Any other questions? Okay, so um thank you for the information. Thank you for the getting all this put together for us and laying it out so it's plain as day as to what exactly the state is requiring us to do, how long we have to do it, and how much it's going to cost us. Yes, ma'am. And you guys do you have to vote, correct? So I'm asking for a motion. So the motion will either say that we do or we do not have it in our budget to replace the buses. So I'll make a motion. Go ahead. I move that we do not have the funds available in our school district to buy seat belts on our
084buses. I have a motion from Ms. Nancy Amana to vote to report to the state >> to the state that we do not have the budget for replacement of 59 buses to be in compliance by September 1st of 2029. >> And I have a second by Mr. Bolton. Any further discussion? I will say one thing that we get these and this is clearly a mandate from the state. We do get these mandates from the state that don't always have money attached. At least this time they're asking us if we have money. Yeah, there's a lot of mandates from the state. Yeah. They're not They're not giving us the money. It's not yet, but at least they're asking us. Okay, so any further discussion or questions? Okay, hearing none, all in favor of the motion, raise
085your hand. Let the record show that is seven in favor, zero against, the motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. >> And with no further business the time is now 7:26 and this meeting is adjourned. >> [laughter] >> Mhm.