001Okay. The time is now 8:04 a.m. I call this meeting of the Granberry 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. We will now begin with an invocation led by Mr. Mike Moore. >> Good morning. Please pray with me. Father God, we're so thankful for this beautiful day and I'm thankful for everybody that's here this morning. Lord, I just simply ask that you give us your wisdom. We know that you are in control and that you just open our minds and our hearts that we do the best for Granberry ISD. In the name of Jesus, I pray.
002Amen. >> Amen. And please stand and join us for the pledges. Okay, now we will go into our public comments. Uh there's a new law in Texas. Dr. Moroski talked about that on Monday where we are to prioritize our parents. So our parents will be speaking first. Um we've had three district parents sign up to speak. Jessica War, Stuart Neil, and Adrien Martin. So we'll start with Jessica War. Morning. >> Check. >> I can hear you. >> Thank you. Good morning, trustees and Dr. M. My name is Jessica War and I'm a parent and taxpayer in Grimbury ISD. More affectionately, I'm known as just a mom. I attended the schoolboard meeting on Monday night and I left with serious concerns about the process that has been used to evaluate the district's insurance proposals. Your board
003policy ch local makes it clear that the superintendent is responsible for establishing criteria to evaluate purchasing decisions. That policy exists so every vendor is measured by the same yard stick and so the community can have confidence that decisions are being made transparently and in the best interest of our district. What I saw on Monday did not reflect that standard. First, I want to ask directly what were the evaluation criteria that were set and how were they applied because from the way the information was presented, it was nearly impossible for trustees or the public to compare the proposals on equal footing. Second, I want to address our chief financial officer. Why were none of the exceptional attributes of the TE risk management proposal highlighted? That proposal contained important elements such as advantageous deductibles, broader coverage terms,
004and governance structures that give districts an actual voice in oversight. Those features deserve to be laid out plainly for you, the trustees to yet they were absent from the presentation. I have to ask, was that omission intentional or was it simply overlooked? Either way, the result is the same. A community that's left questioning whether our district is truly receiving a fair evaluation of the options before us or not. And third, to you as trustees, did you realize that nearly half of the material in the TPS proposal consist consisted of extras, optional products that would only be available at an additional cost? On Monday night, those items were presented as if they were part of the core program when in fact they would require the district to spend more to access them. That's not a transparent
005com comparison, and it puts this board at risk of making a decision based on incomplete or misleading information. Trustees, I say this with respect for the difficulty of your role, but also with urgency. The way this process has been conducted undermines public trust. Board policy, CH, requires clear evaluation criteria, and our community deserves to see those criteria applied openly and consistently. Anything less looks like favoritism or worse, collusion, and that's not acceptable for a decision made by this board. Our ISD, their ISD, my ISD, your ISD is better than this. I urge you to conduct a fair applesto apples comparison before voting to bind this district to years of financial exposure. The taxpayers of Granberry and the students in our classrooms deserve nothing less. We can do this together. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next
006up, we have Stuart. Next up, we have Stuart Neil. I'm going to ask that the audience refrain from clapping so we can get through these comments and get to the business of the district, please. >> Amen. >> Madam >> Yeah. Yeah, I can. >> Thank you, >> Madame President, Dr. Moroski, members of the honorable members of the board. As you know, I've been an attorney in Texas for over 20 years. And for six of those years, I had the pleasure of serving as the city attorney right here in Granberry. I sat next to the mayor and the city council, and I offered my legal advice on almost every major decision that they made, including most purchasing issues, signing interlocal contracts, reviewing all of the city's insurance contracts. And as you can imagine, when it comes
007to purchasing for governmental entities like cities, there's special rules that have to apply. And I'll tell you that there's a vision a provision in the education code that applies those same procedures to school districts when you want to buy something more than $100,000. One of those procedures is that you can sign an interlocal contract with other governmental agencies like a buyboard type process. In that situation, the buyboard goes out and does the competitive bidding for you so that you can purchase from the VIBboard. And when you're talking about insurance purchases, that type of procedure is called a risk pool. But unlike most interlocal contracts, which can be signed by two governmental entities, the Texas Insurance Code specifically says for an insurance purchase, a risk pool must contain five school district members. So for me, here's
008the concern because when I looked at the public website for the Texans for Education, excellence in education, irrespective of how I believe their proposal was incomplete and inadequate on its face, they appear publicly to have two member school districts, possibly three, depending on whatever their complicated relationship is with Keller, which they go to great lengths on their website to disavow. However, per the insurance code with two members, they are not a statutory risk pool. So, here's the critical issue for me legally. Can Granberry ISD bypass the purchase procedures in the education code to sign a contract with a non-government entity for the purpose of buying insurance when that non-government entity does not meet the statutory requirements to be a risk pool. Now, let's be clear. I'm not your lawyer. You're not my client. And this
009is not my area of expertise anymore. It probably was a long time ago, but it's not now. I'm just a concerned dad who is worried about the liability of his kid's school district. And I'm asking you, please do not make a rash decision today because of political pressure or because you think you're going to save $15,000. Because if that savings of $15,000 leads to a multi-million dollar lawsuit, you didn't save any money at all. What I'm asking you to do is if you're going to consider this proposal, adjourn into executive session, call your lawyers. Ask them for their advice. Show them the proposals. Ask them to give advice on those. Ask them how these about the interplay between the procedures in the education code and the insurance code provision. Do your due diligence. I'm asking
010you to do this on behalf of all of the parents in the district. Please do your best to find the best value for the district. >> Thank you, Mr. Neil. >> Thank you. >> Next up, we have Adrien Martin. I don't believe I saw her in the audience. I don't think she's here. Okay, moving on. We'll go to the community members. We have Mark Lowry, Connie Leman, Monica Brown, Jim Brown, Beverly Cheney, Barbara Harrington, Tony Mobly, Nancy Bennett, Denise Reeves, Randy Reeves, and David Rogers in that order. So, we'll start with you, Mr. Lowry. [Music] board. President Gore, Dr. Morowski, my heart achd for you Monday night evening because your staff failed miserably presenting the insurance contract case all in the public view. Your staff did not have important answers to important questions regarding what
011standard and best practices in this process should be. They either refused or did not know the answers. Either way, it was an embarrassment to GISD and you. Frankly, it's shocking that senior staff members did not have a master understanding of the issues and questions. I hope you have made it clear to your staff that their execution of duties failed you and the board in public view. An RFP was not issued. The suggestion Monday that an informal RFP was issued. Informal RFPs do not exist. That is exactly why this entire ma matter is in chaos. RFPs are to ensure fairness and clarity to all parties. Can anybody tell us the truth of how this played out? We certainly didn't know Monday. This is a mess and has pushed you to the last hour for this important
012decision. It is very clear following Monday's meeting that GISD is overpaid by what appears a significant amount of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars. This has occurred for some years. As a citizen and taxpayer of this community, I ask GISD to conduct an audit of the office of the CFO. I suggest an independent outside investigation team be contracted to perform the service, not Welsh and Galagos or any of their subsidiaries. Dr. Dr. Morowski, a following Monday evening, you did not lose confidence in the staff and how the executive leadership managed this issue and how they were unable or refused to answer important and basic questions and their overall performance on this critical issue. You and GISD are in for a troubling future. My opinion there is a severe lack of competence, sheer laziness or corruption
013or maybe com combination of all three. To the board, you have a fidiciary responsibility to the taxpayers of this county. You have an opportunity to make a decision that clearly is in line with this responsibility. You have proven weak on this responsibility before using taxpayers money to buy an airplane. and the core of the board remains here today. Demonstrate to the community that you understand and accept the responsibility we have placed upon you and do what is clearly right. Dr. Morowski, I believe you are good selection for superintendent. I remain committed to this decision, but I also believe you must challenge the status quo to be successful for GISD going forward. This will take courage. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Lowry. Next person up. Um, I saw Miss Martin. Adrienne Martin. Did you want to
014speak still? >> Okay. She's here now, so I'm going to have her come up. >> Uh, good morning. >> Morning. >> Um, I believe the plane was bought with a grant. I may be wrong, but um TE, Texans for Excellence in Education, is a shady uh political organization with hidden funding and organizers. Anyone suggesting that the district should trust a unproven show organization clearly is either getting paid or they have a political agenda. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Martin. Hey, next up we're back to our community members. Connie Leman, am I saying your last name right? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes, you've got it. Thank you for uh being here. Um all the work that you do and I trust that you do your due diligence. I trust that you research what we
015need. Um I don't want you to be influenced by outsiders of this community. We have a great community. We need to be Granberry Independent School District strong. I trust Sydney. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hey, next person is Monica Brown. Good morning. Can I get this passed out? >> No, we aren't passing out. You can hold on to it, but we're not passing it out at the dis. >> We'll get it after the meeting's over. >> Okay. Well, hold on just a second. I'm sorry. Is that a new guideline? >> It's been a guideline. Um, last meeting materials were passed out by mistake. It shouldn't have happened. >> Okay, I'll hand them to you. I have extra for the community. It's just a conflict of interest questionnaire. I know we have policy here, but I
016think our biggest issue is not following policy. Um, back to the airplane. Sorry, that was a debacle. >> The airplane's not on the agenda. Please keep it to the insurance. >> Oh, thank you, Courtney. I will do that. >> I'll do that. I'll get right to the point, okay? We've been locked into an overpriced policy with zero competition for years. That's a fact. That is just one line line item in a bloated, unchecked budget. If a single policy reveals this level of waste, it raises serious questions about the rest of the district's spending or even your propositions. That's why they failed. I've had enough of watching insiders protect each other while taxpayers get played. Enough of informal requests for proposals, missing and action agreements like the Decker Gym and United Way, integrity related fiascos like
017the airplane use and book debacle, questionable mismanagement issues related to the Hood County Appraisal District. Please keep it to the insurance backroom hidden decisions. informal requests for proposals. We need a full audit. We need real transparency. We need leaders on this board who don't owe any favors to anyone and who do not mind asking tough questions. The decision has been convenient for some and very expensive for the rest of us. I'm interested in ending the crazy cycle. Just one of many reasons I'm running for GISD trustee. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Brown. Next speaker is Jim Brown. And I'll remind the speakers again to please keep the topic to the insurance only. I just wanted to say thank you to Karen Lowry and Tim Bolton for stepping in the gap for this community. This board
018continues to show itself in budgeting. >> Please keep the topic to the insurance. >> Am I okay? >> As far as insurance, you have chosen a company that you've dealt with for years that has been overcharging. A competitor was brought to the market. It was ignored. Now you're trying to paint it off on the insurance company isn't worthy. I just am simply here to ask that you make right decisions that are for this community. I'm not here to be against anything. I just wish after three years of being through this, I could see a board that would make right decisions for the community. >> Thank you, Mr. Brown. Next speaker is Beverly Cheney. >> Good morning. I want to apologize for not being prepared to speak on this on Monday night. However, I didn't realize
019at that time it was an issue. If I read the documents correctly, if I do, then TE was late to the table with their bid. And to that point, if you consider a late bid from on this issue, how does that affect your future dealings with vendors? Also, concerning this issue, last Monday, there were speakers who seemed to be more aware of what was going on than I and most of the audience were. Those speakers spoke a lot about transparency. So I want to talk about that. One of the speakers who identified herself as a former member of a school board from another district failed to mention that she is also a sitting board member of TEE. Her husband, who also cited his experience as a school board member, failed to mention that his board
020is involved was involved in a costly lawsuit due to fundamentalists curriculum that was introduced under his presidency. Neither of these things make those bad people or totally discredits them, but the people of this community deserve to know who is standing at this dis and giving what they consider expert advice to this board. I was concerned about the onset of the district's possible possible involvement with TEE, but having a chance this week to look and compare the bids, I have even more concerns. The TEE bid would appear to be, even to this layman's point of view, incomplete. The first notable thing that I looked at when I went to go compare the ratings of the carriers is that the TE bid doesn't even mention carriers. How can a bid be taken seriously or verified if it
021does not name the carriers that they're going to use? Additionally, there are major emissions like value of property. There's a vast difference in the two bids in coverage, deductibles, and premium. But how can you as a board trust a bid that is late, that doesn't tell you what carriers they're using, and is not hasn't even valued all of your property? If it seems too good to be true, possibly it is. I strongly request that you do not fail prey to the people who use dog whistle words like fiscal responsibility and transparency in order to manipulate this board and instead follow through with the high level of responsibility and professionalism that you have shown in the past. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Cheney. Next up is Dr. Barbara Harrington. Thank you board. After having devoted
022more than three decades of my life to this district, I feel vested in it. I will tell you that over the past two years, I've watched you as board members with great deal of pride as you've come before this board prepared. Uh you've had honest discussions and you've done a great job. Monday night, not so much. I went away disappointed. I came not for this issue because I thought it was a non-issue. I came for the UIL because I served on a state board uh waiver review for them 25 years and I was very interested in that. I left here confused and disappointed because you appeared as individuals at a board as confused and and not sure about what where you were or what was going on. This bid should not have even been an
023issue because the one of the proposals was late. If you send out an uh RFP or if you get a bid and it doesn't meet the basic criteria, it should not ever be a discussion. And I sat here and watched you take written information. And having sat on that dice for so many years, I can tell you none of you had time to look at that information and try to make a decision on it Monday night. But it should not have been allowed. I urge you as you go forward as representatives of me and the other people in this district that you continue to come prepared. Don't do again what happened Monday night. Look at the issues, examine it, do what is right for this community and do what is right for this district. You
024have an outstanding CFO in this district and you've got some great leadership at the top. It is time for you to step up and support them. And I would urge you today to vote for the original full proposal that was given to you. I also would urge you as you work the through things uh that you look at your budget and when you come to the dis to vote on the budget that you support a tax rate that will support that budget fully as you go forward. Thank you again for your service. many of you are my friends and I love you and I appreciate all the effort all of you give to this district and thank you again. >> Thank you Dr. Harrington. Uh Tony Mobly. >> Well, thank you board. Uh thanks for
025the time. Thanks for entertaining uh the crowd out here. Uh the fact that you give us this forum to talk about these issues. Um, I find it inter entertaining that the fact that you have some people come up here preaching to you. These are folks that have never run a business. Um, they're trying to te tell you how to run a business, how to educate the kids, and how to raise your kids. Um, and yet >> check their success rate. >> Okay. the um there's been some discussion surrounding the price difference between last year's renewals and the bids this year. Just like gas prices, you don't compare the insurance premiums year-toear and assign a savings. You certainly can't say the board has been neglectful in their fiscal responsibilities because those premiums do not persist over
026time. There are macroeconomic factors driving the actuary tables that determine the premium. For example, we wouldn't compare the price of gas at HB uh in August of last year and then go to Racetrack across the street and look at their prices and say we should have been buying racetracks gas for the last year. Like the oil and gas markets, insurance markets fluctuate. This is where it becomes critical to cont to contract with wellestablished risk pools such as TPS. I trust the fiscal responsibility of this board to evaluate the proposals and decide what best serves the needs of the district. And to put it in perspective that maybe everybody here can understand as far as the late late arrival of the final bid. Um, imagine a world where a high school senior turns in his finals
027after graduation. Do we allow him to graduate? No. Deadlines mean something in the real world. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Mobly. Next speaker is Nancy Bennett. Thank you so much. Um, I won't reiterate what other people have already said. I do just want to point out I have a little bit of experience in the nonprofit world and looking at the IRS forms that TE has filed. Um, the one from 2023, they had two employees. Two, that is what is listed on their form 990. I personally would not like my district that I have been part of since we moved here in the 1980s to take a bid from somebody with two employees. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Bennett. And next speaker is Denise Reeves. [Applause] Good morning. I thank you again for allowing
028me the opportunity to come and speak to you this morning because having sat in your chair, I understand the weight of the responsibility that you bear and I appreciate that you hear all perspectives. I want to start by saying thank you again for all that you put into the issues that you are dealing with in this insurance situation. But I also want to express to you my disappointment in how things were went unfolded on Monday night. I know that the proposals the RFPs that was misrepresented I think at some point to some of you and I it was troubling that that happens on this board. Insurance is not about just upfront cost. It's about what happens on the back side when a disaster happens. As I mentioned earlier this week, deductibles and coverage limits can
029make or break a district when the storm comes. And there here in North Texas, the storms will come. The TPS proposal saves Granberry ISD with danger leaves Granberry ISD with dangerously steep deductibles and narrower limits. In the event of a major hail storm, tornado, the district could be forced to absorb hundreds of thousands out of pocket before insurance pays its first dollar. That would mean diverting money away from classrooms and staff and programs for years to come. On a simple read through, the TPS pro proposal prepares Granberry more for a terroristic attack than it does a tornado or a windstorm. This makes zero sense. My concern today is not only about the policy itself, but about the process used for the review. When a strong competitive option like T risk management and its partners is
030not given an equitable review, it's in fact subject to what appears to be deliberate bias and its advantage and it deprivives the board and this community of a fair comparison. It also undermines the principle of transparency that is so vital in public governance. It doesn't matter what process you use to compare the policies. The T riskmanagement proposal wins on virtually every front. I urge you to look again closely at the full picture as presented and give each option the full and fair evaluation that they it deserves for the community of Granberry ISD and the students, parents, and staff. I thank you for your time and for your service. Again, thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Reeves. Next speaker is Randy Reeves. Well, I as I told you Monday night, I am a ex-member of the
031Odessa Ectctor County Independent School District School Board. I didn't know that I had enough power to manipulate you guys, but I'm not even going to try to do that. All I want you to do is listen to the facts. I state and that's what I'm looking at. TE's number one does business with more than one school district across the state. So if anything if they weren't qualified, I'm sure somebody would have caught it by now. The other thing is as I as I return today, I I've seen some things that uh across the the area that should concern you and it definitely concerns me as a taxpayer. Number one, a lot of the districts are seeing reduction in their insurance from two to 10%. Before TE's came in and offered their bid, TPS were going
032to go up on theirs 34%. That is not that there's something wrong there. And if you don't feel that way, then I guess there's a problem with some the taxpayers and you because the thing is there is no way There's a gap of 34% in there if they're treating you guys right. And they're not. They're disrespecting your authority. They're disrespecting. They don't think you can catch them. And they're sitting there doing that because they think they can get away with it. And probably because they have got away with it for multiple years. If they told you why they were 34% higher on their bid, why would you believe them? They weren't honest with you upfront on what their cost was and and the profit they were trying to make. I'm really concerned as a taxpayer
033that we do things that will make enhancement to education to teacher salaries to facilities as we need them and we don't spend that money on places where we hardly ever get any return on. So I urge you, I really urge you to look at this from a open eye standpoint where you're not saying one against the other, but where is the quality? Where is the benefit for for go for Granberry ISD? Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Reeves. Next speaker is David Rogers. Uh, Madame President, honorable trustees, uh, Dr. Morowski, uh, thank you for allowing me to speak with you this morning about the insurance, uh, cost. I just want to talk about it. Uh, the contract for the RISD, uh, Governor Mike Huckabe, to quote him, "Competition yields excellence and a lack of it
034yields mediocrity." What's interesting is that just by some of our trustees, the Honorable Karen Lowry and Tim Bolton, asking the question about why we can't have a open bidding for insurance contracts, it was shown that we were paying over $300,000 a year, uh, more than we should have been paying for the past years of this contract. Just pursuing competition yielded a positive result for our taxpayers and our parents. I believe I believe our teachers and our parents and our kids are the best in Granberry, the best in the state of Texas. And I believe they deserve the best. Several of the trustees on this board did not pursue the best. They could have pursued the best just by simply asking the competition, asking the question why we can't have open competition for insurance contracts. the
035the the superintendent answers to the board trustees and the trustees have a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers. So the taxpayers should have got the best option available. We did not get that from several of the trustees on this board. We need to have open bidding on these contracts so we can yield the best results for our kids, our teachers, and our students and our parents. That did not happen with these insurance contracts. I believe it was wisdom that trustee Karen Lowry suggested that we have attorneys or we have our attorney and our accountants be involved in the oversight process to review these contracts. The risk has not gone down. The cost have not gone down. And yet just by asking the question about why we couldn't have open contracts, we were able to get a
036$300,000 a year less price quote. How could that be? Because competition yields excellence and the lack of it yields mediocrity. Every trustee on this board should be pursuing excellence in everything we do. Our kids are excellence. Our students pursue excellence. Our teachers pursue excellence. Our parents pursue excellence. The families and taxpayers in this community pursue excellence. But several of the trustees on this board don't. And that is wrong. And unfortunately, this is one of a long list of things where the trustees have been reckless and negligent in this regard. >> Please keep the topic to the insurance. for this. This just unfortunately it's another in a long list of items where the trustees have been negligent and reckless and not pursuing the best for our students and asking the right questions. Our people deserve the
037best. The trustees here should be pursuing the best in everything including our insurance quotes. Uh thank you for your time. Thank you. appreciate. >> Hey, our out of district speakers are Brandon McCra, Lindseay Lions, Paula Burns, and Don John Petri. In that order, first up would be Brandon McCra. >> And you spoke at Monday's meeting. Are you with TE? >> No, I'm not. I'm with Insurance One. >> Insurance One. Okay. And you contract with TE. >> Yes, we are the agent brokers. Thank you. >> All right. My name is Brandon McCra. I'm with a principal at Insurance One. I have served two terms on the IIAD. ID is one of the largest local insurance associations in the nation. Insurance One is also active as a member of the IED and is heavily involved with the
038IAT. IT is a state association which works closely with them on legislation on a state level uh in the insurance industry in the state of Texas. Insurance One is also registered with TDI, Texas Department of Insurance, and is in good standings with the department. For more than 53 years, we have served schools, universities, nonprofit businesses across the state of Texas with 15 offices statewide, over 20,000 policies brokered. And I want to clarify this from a size standpoint. We do have over 120 employees at insurance 1, as well as IPMG has over 60 employees. So both of us are very large institutions. We have built a reputation on expertise, client services, cost-effective coverage. Insurance 1 is one of the largest agencies in the state of Texas, writing over $150 million in premium. I'm proud of that.
039At Monday's meeting, there were some questions about insurance 1 and IPMG. I've included some organizational charts so you can kind of see. I know there was some confusion of how that flowed. So I've just included that's real simple. I'd also like to address some comments regarding Insurance One IPMG not being rated by TDI. Neither Insurance One or IPMG is rated because we are not insurance carriers. We serve as broker agents and program managers. We build and manage programs. For your reference, I've included a list of carriers and their AM best ratings as well as Monday night. I included that as well. Just wanted to address that. Um and I can re I can resubmit that to you. Every carrier that we have in the program is A or A+ rated, A+ superior or A++ superior.
040Want to go over a couple of notes that I had. Uh, you know, really we we submitted our proposal and we did not know that it was a an an RFP. Actually, we submitted our prop we were requested by you as a district. So, you all had an email. you knew that we were a option to do that. We were submitted uh from from from your department uh a request a bid. We took that information and we went forward with it. So from that standpoint, you were the ones that requested a proposal from us. >> Um can I ask a clarifying question? Can you pause the time real quick? You said you're with insurance one. We didn't go to insurance one for any kind of proposal. We went to TE. So can you clarify that
041for me, please? >> Right. And on my organizational chart, it starts one is I want to clarify this. T is an association. The T risk pool is a totally different deal. So I understand they have similar names, but the risk pool is separate. So the risk pool has a separate board and everything else that was specifically set up for the insurance part of it. T is the association. As agent brokers, insurance one was charged to go out and to find and put together those carriers that I presented on Monday night. So we went out and put together carriers at best with our with our with IPMG. So we partner with IPMG on several programs, but they're basically the TPA. They're the third party administrator. So insurance one was charged with that. So we're basically the
042agent brokers that manage the the risk pool. >> So you put together the proposal on behalf of TE. Is that correct? >> Well, we worked with TE. Yes. But yes, it is our carriers and our stuff. We manage the program on behalf of the program. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Well, I'll sum it up. I know that we're we're done, but basically, we know that we were, you know, by our numbers. Uh we have competitive pricing. We have superior coverage, and I've got a superior team. We have our people ready to go any any time. So, you know, we we can serve you. We're we're looking forward to serving you. And uh you know, hopefully uh we can serve you in the future. Thank you. Okay, our next speaker, out of district speaker is
043Lindsay Lions. >> Good morning. My name is Lindseay Lions and I serve as the chief operating officer for Insurance 1. Thank you for allowing me to speak today. We're honored to be here on behalf of T Risk Management to introduce you to our risk management partner, IPMG. Insurance. IPMG is the insurance program managers group. IPMG is the fourth largest program administrator in the nation. A designation that reflects both their scale and their credibility in the public entity insurance and marketplace. Since 1997, IPMG has served as a program administrator for public entities, providing claim services to more than 630 public organizations nationwide, including over 210 school districts and three established risk pools. Their growth has been remarkable. In 2014, IPMG worked with only 20 school school accounts. Today, that number has expanded 10fold, and as of
044now, they serve over 200 districts. This steady growth was not the result of aggressive marketing, but rather the outcome of delivering consistent coverage, exceptional service, and the results that districts can trust year after year. Price is always an important factor in purchasing in school purchasing decisions, but retention tells the deeper story. With 98% retention rate, IPMG has demonstrated that their clients not only choose them, but remain with them because the overall service platform is meeting their needs. That platform goes beyond claims administration. IPMG provides risk management consulting, training programs, and proactive loss prevention tools to every client they serve. IPMG is not a generalist firm. Their team specialized exclusively in the nuances of property and casualty claims, public entity liability, and school risk management. This means that Granberry ISD will be served by adjusters and
045claims professionals who know the school environment, who understand the unique exposures districts face, and who have a proven track record of speed, accuracy, and fairness. The numbers illustrate their performance. Auto claims typically close within 14 business days, minimizing disruption to district operations. Property and work comp claims are generally resolved within for 30 to 45 days depending on the complexity of the repair or the medical treatment involved. Litigation rates and similar programs remain exceptionally low, a reflection of IPMG's early intervention strategies and proactive risk management approaches. Beyond efficient claim complo composure, IPMG provides Granberry ISD with full access to a secure web-based riskmanagement information system. This Remis platform is not simply a back office tool. It's a transparent window into the entire claims process. Administrators will be able to see the claim status, reserve activity, uh
046payment history, and trend analytics in real time. And you always will maintain a full line of sight oversight, ensuring transparency, accountability, and confidence in how your risks are being managed. I'm sorry, I'm running off time. Um but >> okay, thank you. Your time is up. >> Thank you so much. >> Next speaker is John Petri. I'm sorry. Paula Burns. Thank you board so much for letting us come today. We appreciate the opportunity. My name is Paula Burns. I'm the vice president of risk management for Insurance 1. I've been with insurance 1 for 15 years. However, I'm going to age myself here. I've been in the industry over 40 years. I've seen a lot of changes. I hold designations as a certified risk manager and certified insurance counselor. The following comparison that I have reviewed in
047the analysis from TE and the competition, I'm looking at specifically with my years of experience in working with educational institutions. Um, so I want and for the sake of time, I know we don't have a lot of time. I had a highlighted handout that I want you to look at afterwards so that you can follow along with what I'm saying, but I want to go over just a few key highlights of things that I want you to look into regarding coverage. Um, the first item is sexual abuse coverage. We all know that we see that in the forefront of the news daily, right? Unfortunately, it's the reality we are living in. Um, one of the key highlights I want to point out and strengths of our coverage is that our program covers studentto student abuse.
048It is not excluded as noted in the competitor's proposal. Um, we are seven times more likely to have a child abuse another child than an adult actually abuse a child. So, the likelihood of this risk is high as you can imagine. So, it's so important for that coverage to be triggered in the insurance portfolio, okay, program. So, I want to highlight that for you. Um, our risk management, I know that we have a lot of policies and procedures available, but that's one of the things I specialize in is how do we reduce that from even happening to begin with? How do we protect our organizations? Um, auto liability would be another line item I'd like for you to look at. We do offer a million dollars in liability coverage whereas y'all are carrying the state
049minimum um which does comply with that. But when you do go out of state there could be an exposure if other states have higher minimums. Okay. Y'all have buses that travel out of state I would imagine and take teams and take trips. So that's another consideration on the property coverage. the T program does have a better all other peril or any other perils except for windhill deductible at 50,000 where the competitors at 100,000 you know that's more than double that's a consideration also the windhill minimum deductible for us we're we're both at a 2% windhill deductible but our minimum is a h 100,000 where theirs is 500,000 when we were charged to um help build this program we didn't want to just develop another program. Um, we want to develop a better one. Thank you
050so much. Thank you. Our next speaker is John Petri. Good morning, trustees. Thank you for allowing me to speak to you this morning. My name is John Petri. I'm the president of Texans for Excellence in Education and I also sit on the board of T-Risk Management. Please keep in mind that that is two different nonprofit corporations uh for for your awareness. Uh just to uh uh position ourselves in this discussion today, I do want to let you know that despite other public comment, Texans for Educ T serves uh currently nine full-time districts. We we train hundreds of trustees across the state. We just recently, just this week, just completed a superintendent search for the seventh largest school district in the te in the state of Texas. T- risk management is established with uh let's see,
051six member school districts in our insurance risk pool. So, we do meet all statutory definitions uh that are required of us. Um in your handouts, if you're able to review uh here in a moment, you will see a timeline. There seems to be um a misconception after sitting through your meeting on Monday night that there was some formal process that occurred during this during this process and there absolutely was not. I have provided you a timeline of our interaction with the district and I would challenge anyone on the district to provide written documentation either either published on your website in email format in any shape form or fashion of any deadlines established. I'm going to run through the timeline very quickly. You also have it in handouts in front of you or to the side.
052On February 24th, uh who's and I'm going to paraphrase here, uh Mr. Trobe, uh submitted an unsolicited online insurance application to the TIS rank T risk management pool application process. He did not provide property values as part of this online application. On April 3rd, T-Risk Management emailed Mr. Trobe asking him to clarify property and content values by completing the attached uh Excel workshop worksheet template. Also on April 3rd, Mr. Tro Trabe emailed back and he included uh on the on the Excel worksheet a total insured value of 223,91,771. And on a secondary handout, you will see a screenshot from the Excel worksheet that Mr. Trobe provided T- risk management. You'll see a total there to the values that we insured. On July 22nd, we issued a quote to the district that it that it covered
053those values. On August 18th, Mr. Troby let me know that our competition had come in 30 million over. On August 19th, we submitted a a subsidary quot uh a secondary quote increasing ours by 30 million. Again, we have no idea we're in a formal process here. We just thought that was the district's expectation. And then on August 25th, we became aware of these RFPs and informal RFPs and all of the things. So we just implore you to review the facts of these of this situation. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Mr. Petri. And that concludes our public comments. Um before we go into discussion action, uh we have a a superintendent report. Dr. Moroski, >> sorry, President President, where was the signup sheet? I didn't see the list anywhere. >> Our signup sheets
054are online. Everything's online and if you don't have access to the internet, we have a computer out front where you could sign up. Um, but the the sign up process is on our website and it's all through uh all all online. It was open through 7:30 a.m. this morning. >> Okay. Yeah. I thought there was a signing at the front. That's >> No, we haven't used the signups on paper for a while now. I apologize. >> Okay, I want to take a minute and um clear up some of the confusion that happened Monday night, and I take um some credit for that. Um and I'm going to share with you our process that we used that fully complies with uh the law, and I'm going to show you where that exists. Uh board members prepare
055for meetings the week before they happen. Their board packet this this week or this month was over four 400 pages. Our district does the same thing. We prepare very hard. I ask questions all along the way. What can I clarify? Where do we need to be more clear? So I want you to know that this was a surprise that we were unclear about our district processes on Monday for this. So I am going to now clarify what we did that followed the law that allowed me to make the recommendation that I will make in just a minute. First of all, when we talk about insurance, we have to choose as a district the process that we use to select a vendor. So when we go to our um process selection, we have to start with
056policy. Um and so our policy clearly states that a contract for a purchase of insurance is not a contract for professional services. a district must award such a contract using one of the methods in the education code. And I'm going to show you what those are, what's available to us. But on this slide, you will see that that was our first step to decide how we're going to approach the selection process. So I also um linked in here that we the actual wording from the Texas Education Code. On the next slide, I'm going to show you the Texas Education Code that says these are the approved processes by law that we need to use for a selection of an insurance company. The words um competitive bid, RFP, all of those things have been thrown around.
057I highlighted the process that we used. We chose to go with an interlocal contract, meaning that we would select a association that has a pool of members and that is what we've done in the past. So with that process, we really define how we do that and we chose to solicit bids from people that were member members of interlocal contracts. When we choose and make the recommendation as a $98 million business, as a CEO of that business, I use these qualifiers. And so the state gives us the law and they say you must consider these items. All items were considered. However, the first five were the ones that we considered the most. So if you read on here, this is from the Texas Education Code. One, we consider purchase price. Two, the reputation of the
058vendor and the vendor's goods and services. Three, the quality of the vendor's goods or services. Four, the extent to which the goods or services meet the district's needs. And five, the vendor's past relationship with the district. Although the other ones were considered, they did not impact the decision the same way that the first five did. When we considered all of these um required parts to offer a service contract, uh we considered the purchase price first. Both proposals came in that came in before our required documents were due to me for the board meeting. Um were similar. There were strengths and weaknesses for both of the proposals. So I go to the next line and my team actually analyzed this for us. The next item is the reputation of the vendor and the vendor's goods or
059services. When I go to that line, I will let you know we reached out to all of the references that were um offered by both companies. Um and I shared with the boards the ones that we made contact or made contact back with us. And for TE there was no outstanding reference that said you must choose this company. They're doing wonderful things for us. So it was very neutral. TPS we have a reference check with ourselves that we have positive claims history and quick customer service. Number three, the quality of the vendor's goods or services. When we did our assessment, not afterwards, as as any vendor knows, we have a deadline to meet for an August board meeting. Um, when we did our assessment, TPS, we were not certain, we are not and we still
060are not certain that they meet the quality the qualifications of an interlocal agreement. They shared an interlocal agreement contract with us which we had reviewed by our attorneys and it's unclear if they meet all the guidelines for the education code the insurance codes um and the governmental codes and so that is an uncertainty on our end and I have to consider that when I make a recommendation for the taxpayers TE I mean sorry I might have said that >> I'm sorry >> TPS >> I was going to TPS we are certain >> TPS we are certain that they meet and I apologize TPS we are certain they meet the qualification ifications as an interlocal agreement. We are not certain TE meets those qualifications. Um there is conflicting information. It's hard to know if they have
061three members. Now they have six members. I've heard 18. Is difficult to know how many people are in that pool because that pool matters. The amount of money that is collected in the pool of districts matters when we have catastrophic events in our district. Number four, the extent to which the goods or services meet the district needs. They were very similar. Like I said, they weren't. It's hard to compare apples to apples when both companies come back with proposals, but they were similar similarly able to meet our needs. And then five, the vendor's past relationship with the district. We do not have a past relationship with TE. We may in the future, but currently we do not. And I have to consider that by law when we are making a selection. So the board has
062approved this insurance company and when I say this, I mean the current company we use TPS without question for the last six years. This year price was questioned and I responded because I want to take action and save our district money when I can. So, we did put it out for competitive bid. Um, and we got a better quote and I'm grateful for that. I am grateful to save. It is more like $200,000. I'm not sure the 300,000's been thrown around. We are grateful for that. I am grateful we have competition. I'm grateful for reminders about that. Um, and so I I want you to know that this is a good win whichever way we go as a district. But it's still my job to make a recommendation. The timeline is set by me. I
063have to have documents in order to make decisions before a board meeting. I have to be able to review those documents with my board officers. So in front of you, you will see the timeline that was used. Um, all agenda items were due by August 8th to me. All documents were due to me from everybody in the district by August 15th. I did a board officer agenda review August 18th. I did small group board agenda reviews. August 20th, we had packet pickups for boards. August 20th, um I do I do a practice run with my people. When I know that we're going to give a presentation, I make them come sit down with me and we do a practice run and we try to think of all the things that we need to answer. Um
064we did that on August 21st and then we posted the meeting to the public on August 21st. So that is the process that we use. We use similar processes for everything that we do. Everything. Sometimes we're surprised with the question that we weren't prepared for and that's exactly what happened on Monday. But you can rest assured that we will be prepared for every single question that comes our way in the future. That is my promise to you and that is what I demand from the staff that puts things on the agenda. So going forward you will see that you will be fully aware of the process. It will be apparent. Thank you for your time. Any questions? >> Thank you Dr. Moroski. And I would just like to stress the importance of getting all your
065questions to the superintendent prior to a board meeting so that our admin can be prepared to answer those questions. It's part of our standard operating procedures for this board and it helps our administration be able to prepare and have information for you to be able to answer those questions at the board meeting. If we are surprising our superintendent and administration with questions at the last minute during a board meeting, it gives our administration and our superintendent no time to gather the information needed to be able to fully answer those questions. So, I would just stress the importance of following our standard operating procedures for this board and ensuring that you get those questions to our superintendent prior to the board meeting so that our administration can do their job the best that they possibly can
066for this board so that we can make informed decisions for our district, for our staff, for our students, and for this community. >> Okay, next item on the agenda is uh discussion action. Yes, Miss Alana. >> Madame President, I move that we accept the proposal uh to accept uh the proposal uh to TPS as presented um by the the recommendation as presented. Okay. I have a motion by Miss Alana to accept TPS as the renew to renew with TPS for the property crime general liability educators legal liability and automobile automobile insurance. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. I have a second by Mr. Moore. All in favor, raise your hand. >> Oh, okay. Discussion. Any discussion? >> First of all, the information that the trustees were provided uh was false. Um on the
067front page that we received on this packet, uh interlocal was never mentioned. Um first it was an RFP, then it was an informal RFP and then all of a sudden interlocal started showing up. I asked the superintendent if an RFP was used and my answer was yes. Obviously the staff did not provide a truthful information. Interlocal does not require a deadline. So the argument for TE being Miss Lowry, the discussion is for the motion to approve TPS. >> I'm I'm making my point for the other one. >> This is regarding the process and Dr. Moroski already presented on that. >> We we have this this is costing us more. And if you guys decide that you're going to vote for this other group, then we'll let the taxpayers and the parents and the teachers decide
068whether or not they want to continue to spend more money on something that's costing more and getting less for the district. Any further discussion? Okay, hearing none. All in favor? Any against? Okay, let the record show that's five in favor, two against. With no further business, it this meeting is adjourned. The time is now 9:05 a.m. [Music]