Granbury ISD Board Meeting - April 21, 2025

001The time is now 5:00 p.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 and 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. Texas Government Code 551.074 and consultation with the attorney, Texas Government Code 551.071. Um, real property Texas Government Code 551.072 to deliberate regarding the purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property, including possible discussion of real property more fully described in agenda item number 8D. And the time

002is now 5:02 Good evening. The time is now 6 p.m. We will now reconvene into open session by beginning with an invocation led by Miss Nancy Alana. If you'll pray with me, please. Our most gracious heavenly father, we thank you so much for this beautiful day. We thank you Lord for this beautiful season and all the wonderful things that we see blooming and growing around us and reminding us each and every day of all the things that you have provided us. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to represent Granberry ISD and all the students and the families. Lord, we pray that you'll be with us this evening as we make decisions. And Lord, we just pray that you'll be with each and every one of us as we travel home after our meetings. Lord,

003we just pray that as we go forward in the ending of our school year that you'll be with each of one of us. And Lord, we just pray that as we make decisions for our coming school year that we will make decisions that will be pleasing to you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thank you, Miss Alana. And then we have some special guests here from Emma Robertson Early Learning Academy to help with our pledges of allegiance. Right over here. Over here. Yeah. Are you ready? Okay. We're going to face this way. Look at these guys. Turn around. Look at these guys. You got it. Okay, we have some special students here. These are our ambassadors. And one didn't want to wear his jacket. But what happens at school is sometimes different than what happens

004at 6:00 at night. So, we'll see how this goes. Okay. My name is Harrison from Clarkations. [Music] I pledge aliance 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. Say, "Hi, my name is Hayden." Hi. I see Miss Aiden. This is Aiden from Miss Kids class. From Miss Kit's class. Please join him in the Texas pledge. Honor flag. Ice to the Texas. One state and indivisible. Good job. You did it. Good job. And I would like to introduce parents and their teachers, Miss Willie and Miss Kits, and thank them. These kids are wonderful. [Laughter] All right. Ready? One, two, three. Good job. Thank y'all for helping. And now we will go into our achievement spotlight. First

005up, we have our unified robotics presented by Sandemarini and coaches. Good evening board. Thank you for having us here tonight. Um I'm Sandy Zerini, the occupational therapist in the district. And this is our third year to have our robotics unified division students competing um not only within the district but also going down to Austin and participating in a competition that is put on um and I'm going to turn a little bit so I can see our parents too and our administrators because we couldn't do this without them and our coaches. Um but the Special Olympics has been a huge huge advocate for our students with providing us the materials that we need um to actually build the robots and also for the funding purposes with the competition going down there. They provide all of our

006hotel expenses and also travel expenses. Um this year we also had a donor um Mara um provided all the t-shirts for all of the the students and the coaches. Um, and we also had Graanberry Optimus Club. We want to recognize them for providing um, some assistance with transportation for some of our families as well. And we couldn't do this at all without these wonderful coaches that are over here that have spent a lot of hours with the students. And that has been huge, huge, huge. Thank you all. And we have several coaches that weren't able to be here tonight, too. Um, but I can't thank you from the bottom of my heart for your patience. uh and just day-to-day working with the students and seeing the growth and their determination um as to for the

007finished product which our families were able to see down in Austin which was amazing. Um and what we're going to do next is highlight all of our students. So we're going to start with Maybro Elementary and Coach Burton's going to come up here. Coach Miller wasn't able to be here tonight too, but Coach Burton's going to take over the words for Mambbro. Thank you, Miss Sandy. And I would like to take a minute because none of this robotics, any of this mess would happen without Miss Sandy. So, I would like to thank her for all that she does. So, I do appreciate we do appreciate her tremendously. And I'm just going to call out some names. I got only only one from my actual team and I'm calling the rest from um Mrs. Miller's team.

008So, um, my team, Alli Hutra. All right. And then from Miss Miller's team, Zoe McBride, Avery Rudd, Jonathan Musco, and Jackson Marcy. Great job, guys. I'm really proud of you. All right. Um I am Coach Wright over at AMS and this is Coach Leuentes. Um we kind of tag team our group for AMS. Um this year we had one team of Ken Buffkin, Dalton Markham, Harper Fox, and one that couldn't be here tonight, London Broadhurst. and coach Swanberg wasn't able to be here tonight from GMS. Um, we do have two teams over at GMS, but we're only able to have two students to make it tonight. We have Ronan Butler and Axton Gil. And uh myself and Ashley Gomez coach the high school team. We only had one team this year, but we had six

009members on our high school team. And we have four of them here today. Haimey Roses, Gavin Hutchinson, Micah Griffith, and Alex Pohas. You get right in the middle. All right. One, two, [Music] Thank you. And if we have any parents in the audience, please stand so we can recognize you. Okay, next up we have the recognition of the Lamar Award recipients presented by Gary Merritt with the he is the Masonic Lodge President. Turn the podium this [Music] way. This way. Other way. Other way. Here we go. Good evening. I'm Gary Merritt with Granberry Masonic Lodge and the Masons of Texas. I appreciate the Granberry School Board and their participation in the Lamar Award program and allocating the time here tonight. Thank you. The Lamar Award, what is it? Masons are currently involved in education and

010charity and support of our communities. It was created by the Grand Lodge of Texas to honor those who have excelled in education and overcame adversity to inspire others in leading by example to giving their selves and their time above and beyond expecting nothing in return. That's the reason it's called the Mar award. It's after and named after Maribou Bonapart Lamore who was named the father of education in Texas for this reason. He was the first v first vice president of the Republic of Texas. He was the second president of the Republic of Texas. And in doing so, he recognized a lack of education at that time. We're talking like in the late 1800s and uh there was no educational process in Texas. So, uh, in Texas legislation, he set aside at that time two proposed

011land grants. Today, those land grants are the University of Texas and Texas A&M. In Texas, there's 254 counties and 124 of them are named after Texas Masons. Last year, the Masons presented over 26.4 $4 million in scholarship to Texas seniors. With that said, I'll move right into the presentations. This young man experienced a major hurdle to overcome adversity due to life-changing issues. uh he has a personality is inspiring others in his class in doing so and conducts himself accordingly and his peers look to him for a lot of necessities and needs and he sets an example for them. Ladies and gentlemen, my first award goes to Wesley Black. Good job, young man. You're well respected in your community. You just don't know it. Is there are there any supporting members or family members with Mr.

012Black tonight? Please come forward. We don't want to negate the fact that a lot of times in a student's success and his personal success that the parents play such a major part and we're so glad to congratulate them. Also Wesley right here is a plaque indicating everything I just talked about the Lamar Award and that to you and here is the medallion showing Lamar with your name inscribed on the back of it. My next award goes to a student who had a traumatic life-changing experience that happened to her that was not only emotional but to deal with in all aspects of her life and also her school and her academics. this young lady's home burnt down. Now, if that won't set you in a spin, I don't know what will. There's so many things that

013are said about about this young lady, and she academically plans to study children's education at the University of Alabama, and she's dedicated service, strength, and adversity, and commitment to her future to make her a remarkable student." I quote, "My next recipient is Lily [Laughter] McCoy." Little Here's a plaque with everything I showed and said, with your name on it, signed by the secretary and worshipful master of Benberry Lodge. I'd like to present you with your MR award him and your name is inscribed on the back from the Grand Lodge of Texas and Texas license. Thank you ma'am. Moving right along. Maybe my next award goes out to a young lady that due to a lifealtering event took her out of school for some time and for this period and it was beyond her control. But

014after after this time she returned and persevered and moved forward with her epademics and showed her personality and perseverance. This is a very strong candidate in which we are glad to present to Khloe James. Chloe, here's your plaque. Okay. Also have your medallion shows the bus and your name on the back. Thank you so much. These were all students. Once again, if we have any parents in the audience, please stand to be recognized. This next lady is an educator and for we have good teachers. No doubt. But what we're after is the teachers that go above and beyond and they don't have to. But for the betterment of their students, they get so involved that they think outside the box and try to do things in a different manner that bring them to a different

015pinnacle. And that's what we're looking for with the Lamar Award. We honor our good teachers, but then there are those that just stand out. This lady, I could speak probably a couple hours and never even touch near enough of what she's done. She's involved in the special education programs and with her skills uh and non-verbal communications is amazing. Uh she presides provides a learning environment while maintaining needs and healthc care, feeding and mobility throughout the day. Um, this lady had something happen. Had to go to the ER during the class school. Well, she couldn't teach for a while. She wasn't able to, but she got back to the classroom as soon as she could. She couldn't drive, but she made arrangements to be there for her kids. Once she was cleared by the doctors, she

016was back teaching full-time again. This is what you call dedication, people. Did she get paid extra money for this? No. Did she get gratification for this? Deny, yes. These are the type of educators we want in Granberry school system. With Katherine Ross, please come forward. Ladies and gentlemen, Katherine Ross. Let me sum this up by saying congratulations to this year's Lamar Award recipients. You've been a great audience. I look forward to seeing each of you next year. And thank you to the school board members. Thank you. [Laughter] Okay, moving on. We have our UIL recognition of UIL state powerlifting medalist presented by coaches Leah Haley and Brad Morrow. Good evening. And Chris Cobble. You're welcome. Yeah. Yeah. Stand up there. That way everybody can see you. All right. Thank you so much for the opportunity

017to recognize these uh student athletes. Uh these young men and women represented themselves in Granberry High School honorably during uh competition and they proudly represented their school and community on and off the field. The great thing about these three is they are fantastic in the weight room, but better yet they are great young men and women in life. And I have no doubt that they will be very successful and productive in any community as community members wherever they land. Uh so I personally like to thank their parents and loved ones for raising such amazing young men and women. Makes our jobs much easier. Um powerlifting consists of three different events uh three different bits uh lifts where you get uh three attempts at each. You get a back squat, a bench press, and a deadlift.

018Uh we compete bi-weekly and must qualify for regionals uh before qualifying for the state championships. First, I'd like to rep uh to introduce our senior Enrique Sanchez. He's Ricky is a two sport athlete. He competed in Abalene against the entire 5A and 6A uh competition. Uh there was a total of 45 lifters that qualified for state in his weight class and uh Ricky finished 17th with a personal best of 1655 lbs total. So if you do the math that's over 500 lb each lift. Very proud of you, Ricky. Uh for the Texas High School Women's Powerlifting Association state championship, sophomore Cat Goodner, also a two sport athlete, finished one spot off the podium. Um in her weight class, uh she finished sixth place with a total of 920 lbs. And then finally, our junior, Estraa

019Diaz, who was a three sport athlete, um, brought home the silver medal, finishing second in her weight class with a total of 990 lbs. All three of these guys were state finalists last year as well. We're going to miss Ricky uh next year, but we're excited to build upon the success uh of this year's powerlifting season. Uh thank you guys. Uh thank you to the board. Thank you to our administration and to our amazing coaches who I get to work with daily. Thank you guys so much for having us. Thank you. If we have any parents in the audience, if we have any parents in the audience, please stand so we can recognize you as well. Okay, next up we have recognition of our UIL academic allstate lady pirate basketball medalist presented by coach Alan

020Thorp. Good evening. Hey, howdy. Um, got Coach Gamboa with me, uh, our varsity assistant, uh, helping me with with certificates. First of all, let me tell you what, uh, these young ladies accomplished this year. Uh, we had six seniors on the team. All six of them are here, uh, which is something. Uh it really is. Um so we recognize them for academic all state and what that consists of there's three different organizations in girls basketball. Texas girls basketball assoc or Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, Texas Girls Coaches Association, and then Texas High School Coaches Association. um Texas girls uh coach association and Texas Basketball Coach Association. A lot of stuff. You have to carry a 92 average for seven semesters. So the time they come into high school, they have to carry a 92 all

021the way till Christmas of their senior year. Then it's averaged up. If they're 92 or above, then they qualify for that uh award. All six of these did that. Texas girls or Texas High School Coaches Association. It's a 94 average there. Once again, all six of these did that for seven semesters. They've kept their academics that high, which is huge, huge accomplishment for them. So, we've got a a certific certificate for them for that and then one from the board recognizing you for this. Uh so, first of all, Lily Barto [Applause] Sterling Dunigan, Faith [Applause] Fry, Bailey Goodman. [Applause] Okay, I'll come back to you. Back up. Izzy Nether. The only reason I came back to Kate uh is because uh not only is she brilliant in the classroom like the rest of them, she

022did qualify for track going to the regional uh track meet in the 100 uh 100 hurdles 100 hurdles. And we got something today that I didn't even know about uh for her. and she got recognized as all state basketball. That is thanks to Texas Girls Coach Association. Uh recognized her for all state. Awesome. Do we have any parents in the house? Please stand up so we can recognize you as well. We have uh one more quick recognition too. Uh Coach Thorp is announcing his retirement this year after 37 years in uh education, including the last six years here at Granberry. So, Coach Thorp, thank you for your service here. Next up, we have our Shot and Kirk senior of the month presented by Shottenkirk. Good evening. I'm Brian Thompson with Shotttonkirk Automotive and I am

023here to recognize a special student, uh, local Optimus Club member, excellent student, member of the community, and, um, attending Blind uh, college after his senior year. So, the senior of the month for April 2025 is Brandon Hernandez. Any parents, please stand so we can recognize you as well. Okay, next up we have our Leap Academy graduates presented by Mr. Wes Jones and Tammy Clark. All right, it's my turn to brag on people. Yay. Thank you for having me this evening. Um, the mission of our LEAP Academy is to develop leadership capacity in our GISD teachers, our instructional specialists, some of our assistant principles, and any district personnel by providing them quality learning and coaching experiences with a focus on individual and organizational growth. So, this year's LEAP Academy started in September and met through April

024and monthly. Various topics were presented by district staff and our our principles for our attendees to gain more depth of knowledge on our campus and district leadership. When participants had attended three sessions, then they were assigned a half a day to shadow somebody that um that matched their personal growth goals. And those being honored tonight have attended at least six of the eight sessions. And um they dedicated their own time and energy to their personal growth as well as learning more about GISD. We are grateful for the leaders in our district that presented. Everybody who was asked stepped up to the task as well as those that hosted a colleague to show details about their everyday activities and duties. Our GISD leaders take a team approach to learning, growing, and improving our practices together for

025our students and families. So, please honor the following professionals as LEAP Academy participants for 2425. Miss Courtourtney Arnold, Chelsea Avalos, Brianna [Music] Barker, Meredith Bremer, Shannon Butler, [Laughter] Nathan Dubois, Claudia Duke, Andrew Dunn, Tana Lucky, Lauren [Laughter] McNeel, Kelly Pollock, Debbie Ranselman, Courtney Renard, Natalie Richards, and Shelby Sergeant. I want to personally thank you guys for coming and spending your time to grow with us. And um I look forward to you continuing to rise as leaders in GISD. Thank you and thank you to all of our LEAP Academy graduates and our admin teams surrounding other leaders and helping grow leaders in our district. We appreciate all your efforts. Uh next up we have the superintendence report by Dr. Courtney Moroski. Uh yes, good evening. A couple of things uh to celebrate. Uh, we just found

026out that we have two golfers going to state. Lincoln Cheryl is a freshman and Riley Ron Ranisek. So, I hope I said that right. Ronniseek, a senior. Um, so congratulations to both of those golfers. We're excited about that. Also, from the last time that we were here, um, over that time, we had assistant principal week, which was April 7th through 11th. So, we want to make sure and and acknowledge and celebrate the assistant principles in our district. And then also, this is public school volunteer week. And so if you have any volunteers on your campus or see them, we want to make sure and acknowledge and appreciate them. We have um one of our seniors was chosen um as one of the top 20 in the state to be on the all state academic team,

027which is a really big a really big thing. It's Pete O' Carol and he was named by TASSP to be one and 20 for academic team. So let's celebrate those. Let's do some some applause for those. Perfect. Okay, just a couple of updates from the last time we were together. Um, we are working uh on a timeline for our facility assessment that was approved last month. So, be on the lookout for more information coming. Also, we began training for our Blue Bonnet math curriculum. So, we had district and campus leaders that are in the process of being trained after all of that was approved and teachers will begin in May. And then lastly, a couple of announcements. We have our next coffee with the CFO on May 13th at 9:00 a.m. Um, we'll have lots

028of great things on the agenda, but I know we'll be going over some fun balance um with Mr. Whitefield on that. So, that will be a great day of learning to join us there. And then lastly, just make sure you have graduation dates on your calendar. We have Stars Accelerated High School on Thursday, May 22nd at 7:00 in the high school auditorium. And then, uh, the Granberry High School graduation is May 23rd at 8:00 at Pirate Stadium. And if you're not able to attend, the Granberry High School graduation will be livereamed as usual. So that's my report. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Moroski. Okay, next up we have public comments. We had three people sign up. Uh first up is Monica Brown, and they signed up to speak on what was the agenda item? 10

029D. 10 D. Yes. Monica Brown. Good evening. 10D is discussion on a change in board election terms. Understand no action will be taken tonight and a lot of community discussion is going on already about this topic. I know the Hood County Republican Party uh just released a resolution requesting that we have partisan elections, including on our school board, and that we stay with the primary and general election cycle. So, tonight, my encouragement is that you really think deeply about this and made your make sure you get community support if you're going to change it. Uh three years is good. If you change to four, that's not such a big deal, but three might be easier to get people to serve if they know they can finish serving in three years. Um, so I believe it's

030in the public's best interest to align with the primary and general election cycle. And the reason I say that is because when you I think I think everyone here that's in leadership understands that if you break that cycle and you go outside it, you have a lower voter turnout, which means you have less of the community voice behind what you're doing. And if you will wait for the primary um primary if it is a partisan election and you will wait for the general election, you'll have the largest turnout of voters. Traditionally, that's what happens. So your answer that you get from the voters will be nice and strong rather than a small group. So there's a possibility that when you do this, when you try to flip it, which is what Miss Townson has recommended,

031then you end up dealing with a much smaller group of people and that could be isolating and it could also be affecting the the actual outcome of what voters want. Voters also get tired of voting and people um would like it to be a little just a little more uniform, a little more predictable because this year, thank God, we didn't have anything in March or April or May anywhere in that time frame. No bonds, no runoffs, no nothing. And that was nice because we've just had a string of elections. So my special request is that you keep it as highly accountable and transparent as possible and that you keep it with the general election cycle and don't throw in an odd date where we are where we already know we have lower voter turnout. So

032if you just study voter turnout for the last 10 years, your highest voter turnout is during those presidential years and not in the off years. So, I hope that you will stay with that and definitely not change it to something that's more random or um for example, a May election is kind of a tough month. I don't know about you, but my Mays are always busy. Graduations, Mother's Day, birth, whatever it is, birthdays, especially graduation and Mother's Day. So, um, if you really want the voice of the people and you really want to know with a solid answer what the voice is, then I'm asking you to keep it to the larger elections and don't try to slip it in on one where we have lower voter turnout, please. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Brown.

033Uh, next up we have Mr. James Wall speaking on the same agenda item 10D, the board election cycle. Thank you, President Gore. Thank you, fellow school board trustees. Uh, I thank y'all for going and giving me an opportunity to speak to you all about this tonight. Uh, I know I'm going to sound a little bit like a broken record over here from what we just heard for the last three minutes. So, bear with me. But I think there is a lot of concern when it comes to section 10D of this agenda tonight. Now, I know that we're not taking any action and I'm happy to hear that, but there are some concerns with it. So, I know that uh Miss Brown back there went ahead and went ahead and explained a little bit of what

03410D is as basically going ahead. You're extending your term board members from three years to four years and then you're moving the elections from an annual basis like we usually do to a bianual basis on the grounds that it's going to be offcycle years. No presidentials, no midterms, and that is going to lower your voter turnout. On a historical basis, if we just go back to the last two years of elections, 2023, about 11,000 voters showed up. In about 2024, about 28,000 voters showed up in our schoolboard elections. That's over 16,000 voters that had their voices heard in our 2024 schoolboard elections that went ahead and voted for President Gore and Trustee Bolt. And that's great because more voter turnout is showing that our democracy is alive and well. Unfortunately though, this proposal, what it

035ends up doing is it cuts the ability of the people to have their voices heard in half. And additionally, it also goes ahead and it limits how many people are going to actually turn out in an election. Also, I know there's been a lot of conversations amongst many individuals, Republicans, Democrats, independents, about seeing a lower amount of office time for elected officials. We're increasing it though in this proposal from three years to four years. That's the exact opposite of what people in this state have been wanting across the board. So in the end, what I see is it goes ahead and it feels that right now this community wants to come together. It wants to work with the school board. It wants to work in the schools and make GISD a better district. But what

036this does is it feels like it goes ahead and actually limits a little bit of our capability to have that impact and to give an affirmation for whenever y'all are doing a great job and also to give a referendums whenever it's time for that change as well. So I hope that y'all go ahead you'll consider some of the public comments on this tonight uh and your discussions. I hope that you end up tableabling this motion. Thank you so much and God bless you. Thank you Mr. Wall. Okay, next up we have Mr. David Rogers speaking on the same agenda item 10D the board election cycle. U madame trustee and honorable uh board members, thank you for affording me an opportunity to speak with you this evening. I want to talk about the proposal to change

037the terms of service for the trustees uh presented by trustee Townsen. My biggest concerns with these proposals is it's going to severely decrease voter turnout. It's going to severely increase voter fatigue. And one of the problems is by going to a three to a four-year uh term of service, you give the voters less influence and less opportunity to affirm or change their representation. Um, the other concern I have with this is the special interest groups on the left and influence factions of the left. It's going to amplify their voices and severely decrease the voices of conservatives. Uh, for example, like our honorable trustee Tim Bolton, who's brought managed business practices here with res with innovative and resourceful approaches to increase our student opportunities and make our programs more effective to decrease the burden on our

038teachers and help get skills to our students. like honorable trustee Karen Lowry who's been a voice of courage and compassion for our children who stood for truth and transparency on this board. My concern is that the motive and intention and the outcome of some of this is going to be to silence their voices and make sure people of honor don't get elected to this board anymore. It's going to help groups on the left and severely decrease the groups on the conservative side from having their voices heard. You know, like Bill Maher says, the only purpose of the First Amendment is for people that you don't like saying things you don't agree with. Otherwise, there's no purpose for the First Amendment. My concern with this proposal, it's going to have a very uh debilitating and corrosive

039effect on the First Amendment of conservatives in this community. And I believe we need our voices heard. If you know taxpayers and working parents the last six years in GISD the the income the revenue has increased over 56% while the enrollment only increased 13%. Taxpayers and working parents need to have a voice in this community all the voices. These proposals are going to decrease the diversity and representation of all those different voices. If we're going to have a discussion about going from three to fouryear terms and only having elections in off election years, meaning it's not going to be a presidential or a midterm, then perhaps we need to have a discussion about term limits in the community. Governor Abbott has been very clear that he wants to streamline the elections. He don't want these

040May bond elections in municipalities or school boards. Uh there's also proposals and legislation pending right now in the Texas House to make all positions on the ballot, including municipal nonpartisan elections and schoolboard elections partisan positions. So this kind of flies in the face of all those efforts by Governor Abbott and the legislature. So for a long list of reasons, I think this will have a debilitating and divisive effect on the community if this is pushed through. So I'd like to ask the board members to consider saying no to the proposal by Trustees Townsen. Thank you, Mr. Rogers. Okay, that's all the public comments we have. Uh so we'll move on to action um items discussed in closed session. Consider staff recommendations, probationary contracts, catastic glee requests, and possible action regarding a res resolution declaring 7

041acres of real property as surplus. So, first up is action um on considering staff recommendations item 8A. Do I have a motion? Madame Chairman, I move that we approve the staff recommendations as as presented to us in close session. Okay. I have a motion by Miss Alana. Do I have a second? Have a second. Second by Mr. Bolton. Do we need to separate all of these out or can we vote on all of these together because this is land separate? Okay. Just want to clarify that. So this is on staff recommendations and probationary uh contracts. I have a motion by Miss Alana, a second by Mr. Bolton. All in favor raise your hand. Let the record show that is 70 in favor. The motion passes. Okay. Next is consider possible action regarding resolution declaring seven

042acres of real property as surplus and authorizing the sale of real property including delegation of authority as set out in the resolution for district owned real property located at 2850 Actton School Road. Do I have a motion? So moved. Madame President. I have a motion by Mr. Moore. Do I have a second? I'll second that. I have a second by Miss Townsen. Any further discussion? All in favor? Raise your hand. Okay, that is 70. Yeah, I did this one and this one. Oh, okay. Let the record show that is 70 in favor. Motion passes. Next is the catastrophic leave request. Do I have a motion? Go ahead. I thought we' already done that. Madam President, I move that we accept the catastrophic leave request as presented. And do I have a second? I'll second. Second

043by Mrs. Lowry. Any further discussion? All in favor? raise your hand. Let the record show that is 70. The motion passes. Okay, moving on to the consent agenda items. Uh before we move forward with this, I am going to be pulling consent agenda item 9B, board operating procedures. There's a few more there's a few more changes that we need to make before this is ready. So, I'm pulling item 9B. I'm taking it out. It is off the table. Okay. Do I have anybody who would like to pull any of the consent agenda items for further discussion? Uh, I'd like to pull 9 C, Charlie, and 9H. I don't know what word you use for H. the budget amendments. Okay. So, I'm having item 9C, legislative priorities, and 9H, budget amendments, pulled for further discussion by

044Mr. Bolton. The floor is yours. 9C. Yep, it's yours. The floor is yours. Is your mic on? It's page 46 in board book. 46 in the board book. That's right. 9C. I just Yeah. [Music] Go ahead. So, I just wanted to ask about uh and I don't know who I'm asking this to. Maybe um the bit about the third one down is boost special election funding including walk-in services and evaluations. Help me understand walk-in services and evaluations, please. Yes. And hopefully I I may need some support from the audience, but uh we are required by law to provide evaluations and certain walk-in services such as speech. Am I speaking correctly? To students that qualify whether they are um enrolled in our school district or not. So, uh, the the point of that bullet is to

045make sure that when we're required to do that, we'd like to be funded to do that. Thank you. So, the I'm just making sure that I understand that. So, really, anyone who comes in who wants to be tested off the street, not even students of ours, we would do that at our at our expense. It is at our expense. We do that today. Yes, we are legally required to do that. Um, some of them attend private schools. Am I speaking correctly? Yes. Um, yeah, let's call up the one of the experts just to make sure I do not misspeak. Thank you. Thank you, Tamara. You're welcome. Um, I'm Tamara Hudson, one of the special programs coordinators. Um and so we do um we are required by law any student that is zoned um to that

046lives in one of our attendance zones uh whether they're private school or home school um if they request an evaluation we look at all of the information and then most of the time we don't have to move forward but most of the time we do provide those evaluations and then we do have a small portion of our budget that's called proportionate share that we set aside to provide speech therapy is how we choose as a district to spend those proportionate share dollars. Um and and um and so a student that's in a private school that needs speech therapy, they can receive those walk-in services. That's what we call it, walk-in speech. Um but yeah, that's that's um we are required by law to consider evaluating all students. Thank you for that. I don't I don't

047know if this pertains to you, but I'm going to bring it back into context because the discussion is about making this a legislative priority so that that can be properly funded, right? Okay. Yes. Correct. Thank you. Thank you. Right. I've got one more. Okay. Uh this is related second from the bottom align parental rights with school accountability requirements. Yes, I think that relates to HB1416 if I'm not mistaken. Correct. There's language in there that requires uh districts to provide accelerated instruction for students who did not uh meet a certain standard on STAR testing. Sometimes that happens. If a parent opts their child out of the STAR test, it counts as a a fail. they don't get credit. It's like they didn't they didn't take the test, they get a a failing grade for the test.

048And then we are required to honor parental rights. Obviously, we we're partnership with the parents and we want to be able to honor those parental rights of them to be able to choose to opt out. However, it counts against the accountability rating for the school district. And then on the flip side of that, we're also required to provide accelerated instruction, which HP1416 codifies that they can also opt out of that. So then it counts against our accountability rating there as well. So, just to clarify, we want to align parental rights with school accountability requirements so that we can honor those parental rights without accounting against us negatively in our account uh accountability rating. I see. It kind of blows the bell curve when we have when we have Z when when when parents opt their

049children out of the STAR test, correct? Then it counts as a zero. And so it it it throws our uh our performance metric. Correct. We we are legally required to offer them the test. We cannot force them to take it but we have to offer them the test and if they don't take it um the parent the parents have the right to opt them out but if they don't then it's as if they failed the test and then it hurts our accountability rating as well right doesn't harm them they don't get the zero we get the zero basically yes okay and so th though that legislation doesn't align with what the schools are legally required to do and our accountability rating as well the letter grades so our ABC rating that we get as school

050districts. Gotcha. Okay. All right. Thank you. That's the way I read it, but I didn't want it to really be that way. So, so all right. Appreciate you. That's it for me. Thank you. Okay. And then your next one was the budget amendments. Oh, yes. That's the green sheet. The green sheet. You tell me when you're ready for that. The floor is yours. Floor is mine. Okay. Well, I'm going to read uh the donations that come from the community. uh one-off donation from Oakwood's PTO to the campus activity account for musical ticket funds. That's $1,235. Donation from Oakwood's PTO to the campus activity for supplies and basketball goals. That's [Music] $190.80. Donation from Jeffrey Ross to the GMS choir student activity account for program needs for $100. Donation from Billy Martin to the GMS campus

051activity account for Saturday school meals $900. A donation from Stacy Furniture, Rick Stacy to AMS band student activity account for to support the program for $500. Donation from the Optimus Club to the GHS children's charity account for unfunded lunches, $18326. Donation from the Optimus Club to the GHS Junior Optimus Club to fill the athletics freezer for $400. Donation from Christine Kristen, excuse me, Kristen Taylor to the GHS FFA student activity account to sponsor the vet sciences vet science CDE students for $500. donation from the AGRA accountant Ferris Smith representing that to the GHS FFA student activity account to sponsor CDES another $500 donation from 104 cattle company that is Blake and Amber Campbell. Thank you to the GHS FFA student activity account to sponsor the range team CDE. Also $500. Donation from the Vampire Penguin

052to GHS Bleacher Creatures Student Activity Account as a sponsor. $100. Donation from Bion. Help me with that. Land say it. Bionis. Thank you. landscaping and GHS uh to GHS F1 in schools student activity fund to supplement travel to the Nationals. That's $1,000. Donation from the United Way of Hood County to GHS culinary campus activity account for catering services for program event. $1,000 donation from MCJOC Booster Club to the GHS. MCJ RO TC student account fund for the support of that program for $7,000. Donation from MidwayUSA Foundation to the MCJOTC student account activity fund for the rifle program is $3,84 even. Donation from Thomas V. Giddens Jr. foundation to the GHS MCJ ROTC student activity fund in support of that program for $45,000 for your grand total of donations from the community this month of $62,1936.

053Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Bolton. And thank you to all of the people who've supported Granberry and all the student activities and programs that we have with these donations from the community. Your support is very much appreciated. Do I have Do I have any further discussion on consent agenda items? Do I have a motion to approve? I'll make that motion. I have a motion by Mr. Bolton. Do I have a second? Second by Miss Lowry. All in favor, raise your hand. Let the record show that is 70. In favor, the motion passes. Moving on to discussion action items. Agenda item 10A, page 67 in your board book. This is consider approval for the pay schedules for pair professionals, professional and auxiliary staff. Mr. West Jones. Thank you, Madam President. Each spring we bring in uh we

054bring to the board these pay schedules uh that we have uh that that need adjusting. And so uh I think highlighted in your board packet are all the adjustments that we were going to make. And um if you have any questions I'll be happy to answer. Any questions for Mr. Jones? Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the pay schedules for prepared professionals, professionals, and auxiliary for the 2025 2026 school year as presented? So moved. I have a motion by Mrs. Townsen. Do I have a second? I'll second. I have a second by Mr. Moore. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? Raise your hand. Let the record show that is a 70 vote. All in favor? The motion passes. Okay, next up is consider approval for the TE's certification of provision of

055instructional materials. It's page 73 in your board book and Miss Stacy Brown or Carla Wilmouth. Good evening. Before you, you have the TEK certification. This is um to ensure compliance with state requirements and allow the district to order our resources through the EMAT system for the 2526 school year. Upon approval, our curriculum director, Stacy Brown, will submit the certification electronically to TEA. Do any of you have any questions tonight? Any questions for Mrs. Wilmouth? Can you say what EMAT is for the group? Emat is the system that we go um through to order all of our instructional materials. Uh it's an electronic system and um that's just the platform we use to order. Yes. Thank you. Any further questions? Thank you. Thank you. Easy peasy. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve [Music] the

056TE certification of provision of instructional materials? So moved. Have a motion by Miss Alana. A second. A second. Second by Mr. Bolton. Any further discussion? Okay. All in favor raise your hand. Let the record show that is 70 in favor. The motion passes. Okay. The next one is consider the approval of anou with Lake Granberry Youth Services Center to provide emergency transportation. Mr. EMTT Whitefield. Thank you, Madam President. Lord, in front of you, you do have theou with the Lake Granberry Youth Services Center. It is operated by right of passage. That is the the youth detention center just uh north of here. Um this is an emergency um situation that um if they had to evacuate, we would provide them with transportation to their Brownwood facility. Um that would be the only instance they would

057need us. There would not be any housing of prisoners or I should say there would not be housing of their students on our campuses. Uh it would just be a transportation issue and they would be they would be responsible for all costs and security. We were fe providing them with a bus actually two buses, two bus drivers and um they would pay for the fuel to get them to their Brownwood location. And this wouldn't interfere with any emergency we were having as a district if we needed to evacuate our students. Our students take priority. Would this be an ongoing event or would it be a onetime thing? This would be in a case of emergency. Um this came about um a month or two ago. They had a fire in their laundry room and um

058the head of security um realized that he had a verbal uh communication with us on that, but he felt like he needed something more formal in case emergency that he did have to evacuate that building that he would have somewhere or have access to our transportation to get them to Brownwood. So to be clear, this is not a current emergency emergency situation. This is to prepare, lay the groundwork in the event of an emergency. This is in case. Yeah. Thank you. And it be to Brownwood, correct? Yes, sir. Okay. We're going to let them borrow two buses and two bus drivers to move kids from here to there at their expense. Yes, sir. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Do I have a motion to approve theou with Lake Granberry Youth Services Center to provide

059emergency transportation? I'll make that motion. I have a motion by Mr. Bolton. Do I have a second? I'll second. I have a second by Miss Alana. Any further discussion? All in favor raise your hand. Let the record show that's 70. All in favor? The motion passes. Okay. Next up is discussion on a This is discussion only. We are not taking any action tonight on this item. Just to clarify, discussion on a change in board election terms. Mrs. Barbara Townsen. This is page 106 in your board book. Thank you. And this is I appreciate the fact it's going to be a discussion because this isn't something you can just turn around and do. I this is I just wanted to bring it up. Um I have had the opportunity over this is something I've actually been

060talking to other boards about across the state for well over two years and most school districts have their elections in May. We have chosen quite a while ago to move our elections to November and that that's fine. That's a decision we've made with moving to November. Looking at other districts who have done it, there are 14 districts within region 11, which is what we are in that have November elections. 12 of those have um four-year terms and then two of them or actually four of them have let me start over. There are 14 districts that have November elections. Four of them have three-year terms. All the rest of them have four-year terms. The three that the ones that have three-year terms are Granberry, Toller, Lakeworth, and Paradise. Everybody else has four-year terms. If you go

061around looking at the rest of the states, everyone except for one other district has four-year terms for November instead of three-year terms. So, there are some things that help with four-year terms. One, it helps with continuity within the governance. When you have a group where there are going to be two years where these eight people are together, they can come up with an initiative and actually have a chance to finish it before another election starts. So that's number one. Number two, it reduces the amount of elections we have. Right now we have election every single year. Every single year we have it. So we're having it during the uh presidential, midterm, and then the off ones. Every single year we have an election. Every single year that's costing us about $50,000. This is going to

062cut that in half. Also, you have an alignment with best practices with what other districts are doing within the state. Now, the way I want to talk about it is I'm not trying to not give people a voice. That has absolutely nothing to do with it. But if you look back at our past elections, the way that when you're doing for the presidential election, for example, the way the ballot is set up, it goes Republican, Democrat, Republican, Democrat, Republican, Democrat. How do we pick in the school district who goes first and who goes second? We pull numbers out of a hat. So if you look back at our last few elections, if it's during a midterm or a presidential, number one wins and that has nothing to do with anything other than they got lucky

063enough to pull out a one. So by putting it so that it is off election, now you're looking at these as who is it that's out there? who do you want to run and who do you want to vote for? It makes people do more than just say I'm going to pick number one one or I'm going to pick number 2222. You're going to have to actually look at the ballot and see who it is you're voting for. So those are my reasons, but I am really open to hearing what other people have to say. And I appreciate the three people that did talk today. I understand we moved to November elections a while back so that we could get more voter turnout and this isn't going to change that. These would stay in November.

064This isn't changing it today. That's correct. Same day. Same day that we It's not a special election day or anything like that. Has there been any discussion on partisanship uh as far as Democrat, Republican, any other parts of the state of Texas or are they all nonpartisan? They're all nonpartisan. that I have looked into. That does not mean that they all are. I do not know the answer to that question. Can you talk a little bit more about the continuity and governance? When we go every other year like this and in most of the districts that I looked at that have November elections, they're on four-year terms and it is because of that continuity and governance, it gives the administrative team time to actually get initiatives through. Can you talk a little bit more about

065that? Well, for example, you know, we are uh looking at these legislative agendas right now. Okay. We're a little bit behind the eightball. I mean, the legislative session's almost over. So, we start looking at it now. If you have a a team that's together for two years, you can start coming up with things like that to be prepared when legislative session starts so that you are having a voice in what's going on. Um, let's say that when we uh were changing the um uh grade point averages, the way that was set up for um the high school, if you had it, if you started doing that, you would have the same board who began looking at that be the board that ends it as opposed to a new person coming in in the center going,

066"What are you talking about? What was wrong with them? Why had it changed?" and you're constantly having to bring somebody up to speed. This would allow that to happen. Now, the way it would work is you would have one term would be three people are up and the next time it's four people are up. Three and then four. Three and then four. And it would just be going along like that. So instead of three, two, two, it's three, four, three, four. Yes. Okay. Mhm. And then uh did I hear you correctly when you said this would cut our election expenses in half? Yes. Uh you can look at it actually two ways. Um let me go back to my notes here. Doing a presidential election. There are more ballot locations that we have to pay

067for. that cost us $68,000. On an off election year, that costs us $45,000 because we're doing fewer polling locations. So, one, by doing it every other year, you're cutting our expenses in half, no matter what they are. By getting away from presidential election year, you're cutting it because there's fewer polling locations you're having to pay for. because we're in more than just Hood County. We're in Hood County, Parker County, Johnson County, and even down into Somerville County. So, we're having to pay every single one of those counties to be able to do an election. We would still use all of those counties, but we're not going to have to pay for all the polling locations. Another thing, if you brought up a partisan type of a vote, would you be required to run a primary?

068A partisan, you mean? Yes, because they were talking about there were some some talk about having partisan elections in the school board. If I understood the speakers correctly, I think that yeah, you I would think you would have to have that. So if you if you ran so a partisan election, you'd have a primary for for Democrats and Republicans, but you'd be h you'd be actually trying to elect four one year and three the next year. So I guess the high four or three uh Republicans would uh would run and then however many would run against a uh a Democrat and kind of like we do in a county. uh you'd end up running one on you know it I guess it'd be four on four or three on three if they put up put

069up the same numbers. I would think that you know if we're going to start talking partisan that that's kind of different from what we're looking at here and that's something I know that the uh as was mentioned the Republican party here in Hood County is looking at and also I know that they're also talking about it down in cost a lot more money. Yeah, that would cost that would defeat the purpose of trying to save money with with this because we're twice as many. But that's really kind of separate from what we're looking at here. So, I don't want to get get it too confused. All right. I appreciate the the comments from the gallery and the public. Um, and some of them mentioned me by name. That was fun and interesting. But, uh, so

070thank you for that. Uh I I do consider a little bit of this personal to me in so and I know you don't mean it that way by the way but and does certainly come across that way. Um I think that election was uh special in the way that it happened back this past November and there was a ground swell. So I think that was true too. I I don't think we would achieve that if we didn't have that kind of election and we wouldn't have that kind of a turnout. And so my concern with this is that when you have a lower voter turnout, which we would if we were doing it in off-year elections, I mean, um, Mr. Wallace suppi supplied us with some of those numbers. If I'm not mistaken, 8,000 showed

071up for the 2023 election. 24,000 showed up for the, um, for the November election, this past year in the, let's say, evenear election. Um, and so that that's a vast difference. And I think that being the case that that that larger crowd represents a bigger better cross-section of the community because more people are engaged and involved in doing that. And so when that's the case um you get uh more diversity in that in that cross-section of the community. And so um so I I don't like the idea of doing it in offyear elections. Uh so in let's say oddyear elections. um four-year terms. So, let me let me address that one for a second, too. I I don't mind the idea of four-year terms. I get the notion about um about having continuity and governance

072and we have some camaraderie amongst one another and we'll be able to achieve that and move forward and do things together for a longer period of time. So, I get that. I appreciate that. That's understood. I do get also the other side of that. I mean I am uh um forever not sitting on this board but just generally in my life I like to hold I like to hold elected people accountable and the way to do that is to have frequent elections and change them out often. So um so the that is something that I have to I have to come to terms with that on my own whether that that threeyear term and the value of accountability plays into that versus fouryear term and having us do um this together for a longer period

073of time. Certainly two years would overlap right between the two. Um I like the idea uh that are on on your um ideas the rationale for change. um reduced election frequency. I I again I understand the expense of doing that. Uh bleeds right into your next point of cost savings. I did some math on the cost savings. $68,000. Uh let's say that you do that on those larger elections in even number of years. Um so you do two of those in the same span of time. So it cost the sum of the two years would cost 136,000. And so then of course half of when you when you double it, it's 136 and when you cut it back in half, it's 68 again. Um versus the 45,000 that you offered. So, the only difference there

074is $23,000 to do it in the big elections. So, it's not that big a cost savings, especially when you take that $23,000 into a $96 million budget. It is there's eight zeros before you get to a whole number in terms of percent. So, that's uh that is barely a drop in the bucket. I'm I I'm all about saving money, even $23,000, but I don't think it's worth what we'd have to give up to do that. Um along with uh if you do it in an off year, you're not going to get the sort of media coverage or visibility and you get low turnout. It feeds back into my first point of low turnout. Um, and I think that that also offers and I think um I think Mr. Rogers uh kind of pointed on this

075one as well that you get some higher influence from special interest groups that in a given election when there's a low voter turnout, you can overwhelm that small that small count. And so that concerns me greatly. Um voter fatigue, I get that. And so the same thing is true there that that if we do it every other year instead of every year that would reduce that as well. So that works on both sides. Um and then I already covered less diverse uh less diverse representation and more voters equals a greater cross-section of the community. Um so I I'm not completely out of favor with this uh concept of going to four-year terms. I I do like that it should stay or I'll make one of the conditions of of well I won't say it that

076way. I'll say that that I think it must be an even year elections that we have to leave it in evenear elections. All the benefits of everything that you described are still the same. Even with even elections, only you also get the added benefit of a higher voter turnout, more visibility, uh less of an influence from from single interest uh special interest groups. Um it still does has the same benefit of of voter fatigue. It has the additional benefit of more representation of what the people want. And so I like even your elections. And I said this at the beginning. I I kind of consider and I know you guys don't mean it that way, but I kind of consider it a little bit of a personal affront to me um that we should move

077to oddyear elections uh for all the reasons that I just listed. Those things would not be true in the election that brought me onto this board um if we didn't have that uh an even year election. Well, first off, this is something I've been working on for well over two years. Well, before you even considered Well, it would be true for me, too, then. Yeah. Here's my here's my dilemma. The way we pick who's first place and who's second place is by pulling a number out of a hat. Yeah, that's right. I appreciate that. So, whoever has won on even years wins. Yeah. Mhm. So it kind of discounts the special interest groups at that point because so it becomes a real problem because people have been going down this big long ballot and let's

078face it was pretty long this last time and they're not looking at people's names anymore. They're just going doing the same. If I did one all the time down, I'm doing one all the time down. If I did two all the time down, I'm doing two all the time down. They're not even looking at the name. I have a question. Cas comment. Um, have we spoken with Stephanie about changing the ballot when it comes to the part of the school board where there's a sheet that says you're now coming to school board, it's nonpartisan. You'll have to pick the person or put them in a line. Maybe something could be done on the ballot so that it's not one, two, one, two. I'm pretty sure when you get to that part it says nonpartisan races,

079but I'm I'm Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I know there's uniform election laws and all these things, but I I'm not sure. That would be a discussion to have with her to see what kind of changes she could make, if she's even legally allowed to make those changes. Um, but I wouldn't mind looking at that. My my my personal reason for wanting to do it on eyed as opposed to even is just so that people are actually looking at who's on the ballot. Right. To me, it makes it more it it it makes it more clear that this is we're voting specifically for school board and you don't have all the other noise happening in the background. so people can focus on what the actual issues are that they want to address with who they

080choose for leadership in the school district. Oh, I think if we look at some of the districts right around us that already have four-year terms, it might help us to see that it's not uncommon. No. U Bluffale has four-year terms. Huckabe, Lingleville, Morgan Mill, Keen, Santo, Palipinto, Pville, Brock, and Garner. They're all neighboring districts, and they all have four-year terms. So, it's not uncommon for our area to have four-year terms. In fact, there's more around us that have four-year terms than those that don't. So, it's happening across the state. There's uh if you look at all the districts around the state, it is more common to have four-year terms than not. And I think it's also uh fair to say that if we look um every other year we're going to have um elections that

081are going to be in those areas where it's not a a presidential election or a midterm election. And so those are going to be elections where you're going to have a low a lower turnout. And those seem to be the elections where people that are really concerned about the school board are going to be coming out. They're going to be the educated voters who are really looking at the candidates. They're not coming out to vote Republican or Democrat. They're coming out to vote for the individual candidates. And having been a voter in this this county for well over 40 years, I can remember when this school board, it did not matter whether you're a Republican or a Democrat. What mattered was whether you were really wanting to be on the school board to make this

082a better school district. And there were people sitting on this school board that were Republicans and there were people sitting on this school board that were Democrats. And it did not matter. What mattered was what what you wanted to do to help this school district improve. And it's only been in the last eight or 10 years or so that it really mattered what group party that you belong to. And that is when u we began to see more partisan issues come up and be became an issue. And so um this is something new. You Those of that are new to our county and new to this district probably don't understand that we can work together, that we can work to make this a good school district no matter what party we belong to. And that

083these shouldn't be issues of Republican or Democrat or whatever these issues are. that we can work together on making these educational decisions and that it should not matter what platform we're standing on that we should make these educational issues. And so, um, it's been done. It has been our our what we have done in Granberry for many many years. And it's unfortunate that we're having to to make issues or decisions now based on political decisions. And so, you know, to have to uh look at this now and say, well, we're going to have more voters on uh presidential elections or midterm elections because people are coming out to vote for president or whatever. It's a shame because we want people on this school board that want to come out and vote for people who want

084to make this a better school district. We want people on this school board that are running because they want to make decisions for Granberry ISD, not decisions for a political party. And the way I look at it is whether it's a three-year term or a four-year term, we want people voting whether it's a three-year term or a four-year term because they are here for Granberry ISD and that they are here uh whether it's for a Republican party or a Democrat party or a conservative party or whatever. And so my decision would will be based on whether it's a whether I'm first on the ballot or second on the ballot or third on the ballot. I that should not make any difference. But unfortunately, we're in a situation right now where uh our voters are coming

085to the ballot and they feel like if you're a Republican, you're number one and if you're a Democrat, you're number two. And that's the way they're looking at it. And it's unfortunate. So the way I'm looking at it now across the state, the fouryear term is becoming more of an issue simply because of the political situation. Um four-year terms I would be open to. I'm open to more discussion about it. I'm interested in hearing more information about how it's working in these districts. What I'm hearing is that it's working well. Uh for those that don't know, when I uh when I first started running for the board, I could run a campaign for $400. My last campaign was well over $15,000. And that's simply because of the the politics that has has come into it.

086And so it's become it very expensive to run a political campaign and not everybody that wants to be on this board can afford to run or uh to be on the the the school board. So a lot of good people that want to be on the school board may kind of back off of it because it's costing so much. So for those that want to run a four-year campaign, every four-year campaign might be a better situation for them rather than a three-year campaign. So I'm still open for a lot of discussion, but a four-year would not would not be something that I would get would rely on. Would it would it be possible to set up some kind of I don't know Zoom meeting or visit to talk with these other districts to see how

087it's working for them and and get kind of a um feedback from them on how the four-year terms are working. I think that would be helpful for members. Do you know if any of these are even year or odd year? I do not know that. Okay. That'll be something needs to be looked into. I think I think that would be great for the rest of the board, for all of us, myself included, to get more information on what this looks like in their districts and and how that would benefit us. Ultimately, our goal as board members is to to implement policy to approve the policy. We don't implement it, uh, but we set the policies that ultimately are going to improve student outcomes. So, everything we do should be through the lens of improving student

088outcomes. And keep in mind, we've got neighboring districts that are four years. They're already on this four-year this four-year cycle. So, it's it's would be very easy to visit with these folks. I agree. I think that would be something that we should definitely do. I'm willing to concede on the four-year thing. I want to address something that you talked about for a moment there, Nancy, about um about the partisanship versus an interest in education. I I it was clear when I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. I'll just start by saying that that I don't think that uh you're I I don't care who you are on this board or um those who are interested in running someday anytime in the future that that those two are mutually exclusive. I don't everyone who's on

089this board I think you don't I don't want to put words in your mouth. I'm trying to figure out how to say this delicately that I don't I don't think that you guys have the impression that I am not interested in what goes on in these schools and my interest in it and and I ran on a campaign not strictly Republican. I let people know that I'm a Republican and and I'm not ashamed of that. But but my campaign was everything about education first and taking care of teachers first and having a voice for parents and making sure that we have uh some fiscal responsibilities back to the taxpayer. And so I don't think that those are mutually exclusive. And so I have an interest in all of those things and making sure that this

090is the best school district in all of Texas. So um so that I don't think those things are mutually exclusive that because I am a Republican and I'm vocal about that that um that I don't care about schools. So that not suggesting that that's what you're saying, but but they are not mutually exclusive. Um and um so I I'll make the concession even now to say I'm fine with four-year terms. I think I open that way. Um so I'm not afraid of that. I think that they do need to be held on um on even number years so that you have an opportunity for a larger voter turnout. I don't think that I won this seat because I was in the first position. I ran a good campaign and I talked to a lot of

091people and I shook a lot of hands and I heard from the community what they were interested in. they were clearly interested enough in that to vote for me. So, um so I don't I hate to attribute that I won based on that um factor alone. I don't think you're wrong. I mean, I don't know that that solves it that I think when you get the if if let's assume that that is right, that there is the luck of the draw, you're still going to have the luck of the draw in in offy-ear elections, too. So, those things are still going to be true. And I don't know that this solves for that. And so, I'll say that as well. And then um my last note is that in the same way that Congress, I'm

092going to US Congress, can't vote for themselves a pay increase. It doesn't come into effect until the next term, the same is true here. I think that we won't be able to implement this until all of this current board's terms expire. So, we could vote on this, but we can't do it in a way that affects any of us. I just want to add that we would have to seek legal guidance on making sure that that transition plan was well um thought out and so that that would come later if you guys choose to continue this conversation. I'll take that. Thank you. And I think the way I look at this from the lens of improving student outcomes that continuity and governance is what really piques my interest because it allows initiatives for a board

093a board to start and see through. And I think that continuity and governance is huge when it comes to improving student outcomes. And so for me, that's that's my perspective. That's the position that where I'm at on this. Um I'd like to visit with other school districts doing this and find out more about if they're in off years or not. And I do know we are in the minority when it comes to having a November election every 3 years. Yeah, that is not what most districts are doing. And it it really does boil down to that continuity and governance and and how that affects in student outcomes every one year. I'm sorry, for three year terms. We don't threeear terms. I'm sorry. Four year terms versus threeear terms. Yes. So I'd like to see that

094too. I in fact I wrote that down when you mentioned it a moment ago that uh I'm interested in talking to those other school districts. either three or four year terms is fine with me, but I want to know if they vote. Oh, I guess it'll only be four-year terms that they're even or odd years and the consequences of that and May or November elections. Yeah, I know the majority of the three-year term districts are in May. If you're in November, they're majority of them are four-year terms. So, most districts that are on that three-year term are having their elections in May. So, this doesn't have specifically to do with schoolboard elections necessarily. the comment I'm about to make, but um I still want to advocate for making election day April 16th across the board

095everywhere. Well, do a board member. To to finish this up, I just want to say how much I appreciate this dialogue. Yes. the fact that we were all able to talk and give our feelings and our thoughts and there was nobody trying to get after anybody else. And um I appreciate the comments from the uh three people that spoke. They gave their opinion, gave it very rationally and nicely and I appreciate it. This is the way a board is supposed to work and thank you very much. I second that. Yes. Thank you all for the discussion. It is very appreciated. I I enjoy hearing everyone's perspective and thoughts on on this matter and I look forward to speaking to other districts to learn more about how that looks in in their ISD. Um, do I

096have any more discussion on this item? Okay, hearing none, we'll move on to reports. We have our AVID report by Mr. Jason Shahan. Thanks for your patience, Jason. And I I just want to I just want to say this program is amazing. I love it. My daughter was in it and it set her up for success throughout her educational career. So, I look forward to this presentation or report. Okay, are you ready? Okay, good evening. My name is Alejandro Landanda. I have been an AVID since the seventh grade and I am AVID council's vice president. So, the big question is what is AVID? AVID stands for advancement via individual determination and there are 305 of us in GSD that are doing just that. We all join this class with the big expectation of improving ourselves

097and pursuing our dream of someday earning a four-year college degree. So now I introduce you to Christy Torres to talk about some of the main components of the AVID classroom student. Hi, my name is Christy Torres and I'm an AVID senior. I've been an AVID for six years going back all the way to seventh grade. Um, a couple of the main components of the AVID student are the expectations of being organized, using a calendar and planner on a daily basis, and being a collaborative student through our in-class tutorials and study groups. Another is to be a student who develops self-confidence and be able to speak publicly much like I am right now. Finally, to be a giving student through our serving through serving our community, which will be discussed further in a moment. Oh, and

098by the way, next fall I will be attending Texas A&M at College Station, majoring in business. Now, let me introduce you to my AVID family members, Lily McCoy and Ashley Hernandez. Hi, my name is Lily McCoy. I've been an AVID student since the seventh grade. In the past eight months, my 30 AVID senior classmates and I have submitted over 200 college applications. I'm proud to say that I submitted eight myself. And in the fall, I will be attending the University of Alabama with no student debt. Now, check out what my friend Ashley is. Hello, my name is Ashley Hernandez and as a aid class, senior class, we've submitted 167 college acceptances and I have got 18 acceptances and I'm proud to announce I will be sorry I will be attending Texas Tech in the fall.

099Okay, now check out my AVID classmate, Royce. Hi, my name is Royce Castile and I am the senior representative for this AVID class. Um, I want to talk or briefly talk about the importance of the AVID family. I moved from Granberry to Granberry from Colorado at the beginning of my junior year and I didn't know a single person in GHS. I was enrolled in an AVID back in Colorado, but I quickly realized once I had arrived to this AVID class in GHS that the complete vibe and sorry in a vibe and an environment compared to my old Colorado AV class was completely different. Every AV average student felt like a family and had a connection and loved each other. And I was a little bit scared that I wasn't going to fit in, that nobody

100would accept me. But within a few weeks, I was quickly accepted into the family, and I've quickly assimulated to being one of them. Um, the students have been the most welcoming classmates I could ever ask for. I'm glad to have them. And by the way, I will be returning back to Colorado D to attend the University of Colorado at Boulder. Now, let me introduce you to my fellow AVID council member, Estraa Diaz. Hello, my name is Estraa Diaz and you may recognize me from earlier. Not only am I very strong, but I've also been a part of the AVID program since my seventh grade year. I also serve as the AVID council treasurer. And now let's talk money. I'm going to introduce you to Puja V and Danella Gonzalez. Hello everyone. My name is Puja

101Vatilura and I'm an AVID senior. I've been an AVID since the seventh grade. And here with me is my AVID family member, Della Gonzalez. At the beginning of the year, my AVID senior classmates and I set a goal for how much scholarship money we wanted to earn over the course of our senior year. We weren't really sure what number to start with, but we knew we wanted to set a record and beat the class, the AVID class of 23 and 24. After much discussion and calculating, we agreed on a goal of achieving $2.3 million in in qualified scholarships. My very creative and talented classmate Daniela created this beautiful progress tracker and we went to work in AVID filling out multiple scholarships on a regular basis. I'm now very excited and proud to announce that not

102only did we meet our goal of $2.3 million, but we exceeded that mark. As of last week, our grand total for only 30 students is $3.2 million. Speaking of scholarships, in the fall I'll be attending the University of Texas at Austin completely debtfree. Hello, I'm Daniela Gonzalez and um I joined AVID in my sophomore year um in high school. And to piggyback on PUA, I will also be attending college this fall, completely debt-free, at the University of North Texas. And I'll introduce you to our AVID council leader, Addison Mallerie, and her friend Talon Roberts. Good evening, everyone. My name is Addison Mallerie, our AVID council president. I've been AVID since seventh grade and I've also been serving on the AVID council all four years of high school as well as serving as student council president.

103As AVID students, we perform a variety of fundraisers for numerous reasons. The ones are near and dear to my heart are the ones that benefit those in our community. Our most recent fundraisers have been benefiting a student or a child here in Granberry named Flora Overreet who suffers from Hurler syndrome. It's a rare genetic disorder that affects her body's ability to break down complex sugars. Over the past three weeks, you may have seen pink flamingos in different people's yards. That is because our my avid classmates and I have been flocking yards in our community to help offset the cost of these expensive treatments. We have had a lot of fun with this activity and we've learned a lot about organized coordination. I should also mention we've raised over $1,000 from this event alone. Our next

104event that we're hosting is on May 3rd at our high school and we'll be having a color run also benefiting Flora. So please make sure to join us for that event. This fall I will be attending Louisiana State University and it's because of an incredible experience I had from our AVID college visit to Baton Rouge just a few months ago. Speaking of fundraising, let me now introduce you my friend Talon Roberts aka Avid Fundraising Champ. Hello, I'm Talon Roberts and I've been an AVID since I was in seventh grade. Um, individually I have been able to raise $3,000 as a whole and we as a senior class have been able to raise over $20,000. And this helps us with school service project events and our life skills prom and our senior signing day. But it

105also most importantly helps out with our college trips that we take. And to finish us up, we have Val Caro. And I'm also going to be attending Charlton State University. Hello, my name is Vania Ko and I've been an AVID since the seventh grade. I also serve as our AVID council historian. So, please give us a follow on Instagram and Facebook. As Talon mentioned, a majority of our funds go to our college field trips. I brought with me a map to show you all the colleges that we have visited as AVID students over the past six years. Luckily in the spring of 24, coach Jahan made us go out to West Texas to some place none of us have ever heard of, which is St. Angelo. We weren't quite sure what coach had in mind,

106but because of that, um, we we weren't what Coach Reed was doing, but because of that and the experience I had at Angelo State University, it has led me to decide to attend there next fall and major in mass media and communications. My story is one of many and of the opportunities that AVID has provided its students and we are so thankful that it's been provided by GISD. Thank you so much and have a great evening. I I can't let a mic get away from me and when I got the opportunity. So, don't have a bunch a bunch of great kids here. Give my hand. There's There's 30 There's 30 of the seniors. 20 of them are here tonight. Uh and that that makes me real proud because out of our 30, 22 of them

107have part-time jobs that they go to every day after school. And so 10 of them had to work tonight and couldn't make it. But uh I got a lot of success stories and each one of these are all collegebound at some place somewhere. And so if you ever run into them or you're up at the school, stop by and we'll tell you all about where we're headed to. So thank you all for your time tonight. Appreciate it. Thank you. [Laughter] Okay, next up we have our special education report by Is Shelly here? No. Okay. One of our special programs directors will be coming. Who? Okay. Left, right, left, right. All right. Thank you. Um, good evening again, board. Um, my name is Tamara Hudson and I'm one of the special programs coordinators. Um, Shelley could

108not be with us tonight, so I am honored to give you our annual special programs update. Uh with me I also have Kira Charman um and Shannon Parker who are our other two coordinators. Just in case you have questions that I might not be able to answer, we're all here. So um we'll go ahead and get started. Um Shelley did choose this graphic um just to recognize that April is World Autism um awareness month. Um and so we always like to to recognize that um during April. Um so just some numbers for you guys. Our special programs includes about 1,400 students. um that is that are served through special education and we also serve about 868 students through section 504. In those numbers, 663 of those students are are identified with dyslexia. And the reason

109that that Shelley chose to highlight that specific number is that there has been some recent legislation over the last couple years that has changed how we identify and how we serve students with dyslexia. Um so, um those are the numbers of students that we serve under our special programs umbrella. Um, and this piraphph just shows you the percentage of of overall students in Granberry ISD. 71% of students are not served either in 504 or through special education. Um, about 11% are currently on a 504 plan and right about little less than 18% are served um on an IEP through special education under IDEIDA. So, that kind of gives you an idea of how it's broken up. Um within the special programs personnel um on campuses we do have 85 teachers and 90 pair professionals. Um

110within our department um some housed here in the administration building, some are campus based. Um we have 13 well we have 12 diagnosticians and one ARD manager. Um we have three school psychologists and three behavior um intervention specialists. Um we have 13 speech therapists. Um and in that number um we actually have 10 speech therapists and three speech assistants. Um we have two occupational therapists and one occupational therapy assistant. Um we have two teachers of the students with visual impairment and they also u provide orientation and mobility services. Um we have 15 providers of dyslexia instruction. Those are all certified teachers. Some of them are full-time, some of them are part-time. And we have four office staff. Um we have four um four clerks in our department. Um, within the special education services, we serve

111students in many different types of settings, including mainstream or inclusion, where they're in their general education setting, and they receive supports in their classroom. We also have speech therapy rooms, um, structured learning classrooms, and life skills classrooms. Um, some of those more individualized services that we provide to students include occupational therapy, um, accommodations or modifications to their current uh, program, um, assisted technology, and again, orientation and mobility. Um so um the way that we um uh serve students um under IDA um some disabilities are considered um high incident disabilities the more common disability um uh um areas if you will those include speech and language impairment specific learning disabilities or other health impairment um 32% are considered low incidence disabilities such as autism intellectual disability emotional disability orthopedic impairment and visual impairment ID IDA does

112recognize 13 different disability conditions. And so when we talk about whether it's, you know, the higher incidents, there's more of these students that are identified in these ways versus lower. Um we do have a very large population though of low incidence disabilities. 32% um is is a good number um of students. Um, as far as programs budget, um, for our expenditures for the 2324, um, state and local budget, um, it was just shy of $12 million and our idea be federal grant, um, was right at $1.6 million, um, is is what we, um, have spent uh, supporting our program in the 2324 school year. And some special programs initiatives that we would like to continue. Um we we really try within our department to foster an attitude of belonging, of inclusion, of having students not

113segregated from their same age peers um because of their disabilities. Um we do have partner PE uh where several of our campuses have um uh special education students that go into general education PE and they partner up with their non-disabled peers uh for their PE time. Um we do every Wednesday take different groups to the YMCA. We have a collective um we have a collaboration with the YMCA where we take a different group every Wednesday. Um right now with swim season, so if you'd like to see us in our swimsuits, come on Wednesday. Um and um but all throughout the year, we we do different activities at the YMCA. Um we do partner with Cook Children's and the Brazis River partnership. On May 2nd, we are having um our cast for kids event um where

114um we uh take families um and students that that might not ever get the opportunity to go out in a boat or go fishing. Um and so we partnered with the Brazes River um authority and Cook's children um to make that happen and then also grow our Special Olympics programs. Um you guys got to see a little bit of the Unified Robotics um earlier today with Sandy Sarah Marini and she um uh I can't give her enough praise. actually got um our department of the year um employee this year um because she um heads up a lot of these special programs that we do for um for our kiddos. Um so that is basically um our annual snapshot of the special programs um department. Do you guys have any questions that I can answer? Easy

115squeezy. I just I appreciate all the work that y'all do. Um I started in special education. I have a child who receives services and so y'all mean the world to me and the work that you do with our kids. So, thank you. Well, we we appreciate you guys as well. Thank you so much. All right. Next up, sorry. Next up, we have our academic update by presented by Miss Tammy Clark. All right. I'm here to talk to you about um our progress monitoring for attendance and disciplinary removal. So, I just want to um show you how we track our attendance and our disciplinary uh removals and what we're looking at when we do those things. The reason why attendance is so important is when students are missing class, it impacts them greatly academically and it

116also has an impact on our funding. Same thing for disciplinary removals. We want to see the behavioral trends, the things that our students are struggling with that are impacting their instructional time. And so that's why we look at those things. it. Oh wait, it is important for me to tell you that our we are funded on ADA. So if we have attendance issues or we have disciplinary removals that are to um out of school suspension that um impacts our average daily attendance and that is how that impacts our funding. Um so attendance we were trending um this year really really well the whole first semester better than the last two years and then you can see where I turned it red in January and February flu hit and it hit us hard and we are

117still trying to recover on um to catch back up to those good numbers. It was promising to see that March was um ahead of the past two years again in March. And so hopefully April and May will track the same. Um our ADA absences um is 58,034 absences. So that's quite a few. So when you multiply that by the percentage of the um average daily allotment for our students, our to date missed revenue is just shy of $2.5 million in missed monies because of attendance. Um those excused absences are close to 1.5 million and the unexcused absences are almost at 1 million. And when you say absences, 58,000 absences is last lost hours of instruction. And that's difficult as well. Most of the time when we have disciplinary removals, they're for secondary. So that's the

118numbers that I brought to you today. We code them as fives and sixes. Five is out of school suspension and sixes are in school suspension. If they need to be placed at DAP, that's a seven. And then if it's a partial day for OSS or ISS, that's a 25 or 26. You can see how many removals we've had to date. In secondary, the numbers are very, very small. In elementary, um, we have over 200 referrals. So having just shy of 1,200 referrals, we're trying to use other means for disciplinary action if we can so that we can keep them in school and learning. Um, chapter 37 of the education code governs many of these decisions. Some of the some of the decisions that our students make for disciplinary removals are out of our hands. They're

119mandatory placements for quite a few of them. And so our hands are tied. We can't we can't keep them in class for some of these um decisions they're making. Here are the top five discipline behaviors that we are seeing right now in our secondary schools for removals. You can see that ecigarettes is by far um one of the things that we struggle with the most. Um these we look at these um we look at these behaviors to see what we can do as far as maybe being proactive so that we can try to change our education around these uh these things. So, ecigarettes, we have some some work to do there um with some proactive education for our students and our families about what that is doing to them health-wise, but also it is a

120mandatory um placement. Skipping, disruptive actions, scuffling, pushing, and shoving, and disrespect to school personnel are at the top. There are other things that are also causing loss of time, but these are the top five solutions for a lot of these things. we're trying to put into place like disruptive actions or disrespect is our CK program. And we're also trying to help our teachers um with some strategies to engage all students during instruction so that they are um excited to be in class and learning. Um after any behavior that we remove students from the regular educational setting for, then we're trying to partner with parents to help with that behavior moving forward. But um ecigarettes, it's an epidemic across the country. We're looking for ways um like vape detectors. We're looking into vape detectors for some

121of our spaces to include restroom areas and we're looking to partner with parents. I know that the high school has had a whole secondary presentation that they invited people to. Um it wasn't attended well, but hopefully next time we have it, we'll continue to push it out and and we'll um partner with parents on that together. But ecigarettes is a mandated placement per TEA. And so this was a very very brief snapshot um of our attendance and behavioral progress monitoring. And if you have any questions about it, I would love to entertain those before our preview of next month. I'll take that. Yeah, come on. You touched on it already, I think. But um but I do want to hear uh back on your first page I think. No, way after that. Um so let

122me ask you this about um ADA in your in your chart where you turned red for flu. Yeah, that one. Thank you. Yes, you're welcome. Um so not only is flu taking kids out of school and then some of them just choose to skip school and that sort of thing. Um, I guess that's a truency problem, but but when when when that's them acting on their own behalf when when we take them out of school, right, for discipline problems, I guess that carries into the next page. Um, are they counted absent those days from an ADA perspective? So, the ones that are counted absent for an ADA perspective is the out of school suspension. And so our assistant principles, you can see that that's much lower than in school suspension. We get credit for them

123being there. They get instruction. Their teacher can go to the ISS room, send them work there. They have access to their um schooling there that and a teacher that can help them. So out of school suspension when they are not at school that that affects their ADA. So, we ask our assistant principles unless it is something that is um very disruptive, right? If they're fighting, we're going to be sending them home, right? If um something like that. So, that 126, it's a it's a low number. They're trying not to do that if they can help it. I get that. But the downstream effect of that is that when they're not in their seats and ADA goes down, then that affects funding, affects salaries, affects our ability to recruit and retain good teachers. Correct. Eventually to

124all the way down that chain is to be able to deliver good education, right? And like and you said it the most, delivering good education. They aren't there to receive that good education when they are not in that seat. Right. So when in a nice world they would make all of the right decisions and we would get to keep them there the whole time actively engaged. So yeah. Yep. Thank you for that. And I think that's a good point. So many times uh you hear that um we talk about wanting them there and the good attendance and we stress good attendance because we want the money but the most important thing is that you can't teach a child unless they are there at school and that is what we're here for. The purpose of the

125school system is to teach a child and unless they are there in their seat we cannot teach them. And so that's very important that we stress attendance so that they are there so that we can teach them. So the funding is important. Yes. But the most important thing is to have them there so we can teach them. Yep. I appreciate that. Thank you. So then my I don't envy the place that that the school office the principal's office and the decisions they have to make because sometimes you will I mean you got to balance between a disruptive kid is disrupting the education that the other kids in those classs are able to have. Correct. And it might be more valuable to take him out of that situation than to let him continue to disrupt class

126or god forbid harm teachers and the rest. Right. If they're disrupting class for 24 students, then it is it is a travesty to let them stay there, right? So, we need them to behave while they're there so that they can stay, but so that their classroom peers are respected enough to get the instruction that they deserve to. Yeah, that's tough. That's two-edged sword. Emmy, you've been stumping me with uh acronyms for the last two years. There's only one that I didn't know. DA, disciplinary action EP. What's that? Education placement. Yeah, that academic clear alternative. And will you tell them what that is? That is our um that is our disciplinary campus. BT we call it BTC, behavioral transition center. That's the that's what we have been calling it, but DAP is the state term for

127it. um and we send them to over here by with Miss Rodriguez and they get a placement there. So, and those are required um a lot of times by law. And so, some of the examples of those students that go there would be would be at stars. And what's the e in ecigarettes? I'm just kidding. Right. Oh, yeah. Yes. I uh I wish there were not ecigarettes, but there you go. No, no cigarettes. That would be best. Thank you. That's good. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Well, last week we got um in teal our A throughF release for 2223 and um it was what we were expecting to get, but it will be released later this week to um to the masses. We do not know when 2324 will be released and then

128if 2425 will be released, we'll see how that goes with the state, but as that comes out next month, we'll bring that information so that you can see and get a glimpse of it so that if the rest of them are released, everybody knows what they're looking at. So that's our preview for next month. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Moving on to the financial statements for period ending in March 31st, 2025. Mr. Emit Whitefield. Thank you, Madam President. Board in front of you, you do have the financial statements for March 31st, 2025. It says uh the transactions that have occurred between September 1st, 2024 and March 31st, 2025. You can see that the revenue collected to date equals 87.17% of the budgeted amount compared to 83.52% in 23 and 24. The expenditures

129to date represent 56.25. 25% of the budget and compared to 54.89% in 2324. Uh we look to be right on track from previous years. So I'm not too concerned about those, but if you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer them. Any questions? Okay, moving. I'll take one. Okay. Not spending beyond our means. Not going to run into deficit spending, right? We're we're hovering there now, but I think it's just because those revenues haven't materialized. This is true. This true. Um we we are we do have a deficit budget that that you have amended to, but um with revenues coming in, I expect us probably not to realize that complete deficit. I mean, if I if I can get away with a half a million dollars, I'll be I'll be glad. But we did

130amend that deficit budget of that $2 million we put into fund balance last year to make improvements across the district. And um if we don't realize all that, we still have that money to use next year. Minimal risk. Yes, sir. Thank you. Any further questions? Okay. Moving on to the cash flow and investment report for period ending March 31st, 2025. Mr. EMTT Whitefield. Yes, ma'am. Board, you do have the investments for March 31st in your hands. Uh for March we did make $320,110.96 as compared to last year in that same month $350,334. Uh investments are still strong. Uh we are slightly lower than we were last year. Our total um interest at this coming for this year was 1.39332049 and last year it was 1 140060710. So it's still strong. It's just trending a little

131bit lower than it was last year. Thank you. Any questions? Okay, with that, with no further business, we will adjourn. The time is now 8:08 p.m.