001May is Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. >> This is a time to recognize and celebrate Harris County area educators who build bridges of understanding through their stories and a deep commitment to our classrooms. Martha Wong is the first Asian-American woman elected to the Houston Independent School District Board, the Texas House of Representatives, and the Houston City Council. >> She proved you can unify and strengthen communities in the classroom in the state capital. >> Dr. Renu Hour, she's the first Indian immigrant to lead a major US research university. >> She transformed uh into a tier one powerhouse. >> Dr. Paul Chu is a University of Houston professor and a worldrenowned physicist who made a massive breakthrough in a superc conductivity right here in Houston. >> He won the National Medal of Science, proving
002Houston is a global leader in high-tech innovation. >> Jennifer Holtz was selected as one of the district's teachers of the year. >> By integrating her Hawaiian heritage, she creates a vibrant community that supports both her, her students, and her fellow educators. >> And Dr. Corrana. She's a physician, philanthropist, and assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine. >> After running a successful medical practice, she had devoted her career to UNICEF. >> These incredible minds have made such an impact on not only Houston, but have strengthened communities worldwide by building bridges of opportunities. HCB proudly celebrates the Asianamean, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian community. At Harris County Department of Ed, we know that every student has a tremendous amount of potential inside of them just waiting to be discovered. >> Our teachers show up each day helping
003learners grow in ways that last a lifetime. From our littlest ones in Head Start to our most senior learners in adult education, our schools empower students, strengthen families, and help us build a stronger, more connected Harris County. To thank our amazing teachers, here are the voices of the students whose lives they've changed. >> Because of you, I am able to stay sober and graduate high school. Because of milk, I'm learning my ABCs. >> Because of you, I'm going to get a job. >> Because of you, I learned I can try again even when I make mistakes. >> Because of you, >> I learned to share. >> Because of you, I am proud of myself. >> Because of you, I can have a better future. Even on the hard days, and there have been hard days,
004you've been there for us. Because of you, I have a second chance. >> Thank you, teachers. You are the impact. and an upbeat attitude. He is happy to take on extra task because he wants to learn and grow as a professional. Miss Jasmine Castleberry, federal programs compliance manager for case said he never complains and he takes a lot of care and attention to detail. He handles it all with ease and is really incredible to see him at work. A thrillseker at heart, Larry is known for his daring escapades throughout the world, including ziplining through the jungles of Mexico. No sir. And paraselling over the ocean, he channels that energy into his work, helping to provide students with educational opportunities outside of school hours and during the summer while overseeing more than 2 million in grants
005each year. Larry works with the city council members and county commissioners to ensure that grants are equitable and meet community needs. In doing so, he has built relationships with more than 300 local nonprofit organizations and service providers, making valuable connections between programs that benefit students. Having grown up in after school programs himself, Larry knows what the students he supports are experiencing. So doing the paperwork, making sure the programs continue in helping students is a passion project that comes from the heart. It's a personal journey that Larry takes pride in coordinating so local youth can experience things they otherwise would not. Our comms team has created a short video about Larry and his contributions to case in our community. I'm Larry Moses II investigation for 16 years. I did my undergrad studies in criminal justice as
006well as received my mers in educational counseling. I grew up in a single household. It was just my mother and I. She was doing all she can to support me. just seeing her work two jobs and uh making her wait for me, her drive and seeing her passion, it made me strive and drive to say no, okay, I'm not going to do the minimum. >> Working with Larry is such a pleasure. He is such a professional in everything that he does. >> Professionalism as a skill, if you've never seen it, it is Larry. And I think he brings that to everyone that we collaborate with. And he is just such a pleasure to work with. He does the paperwork and the detail and the charts and the money and navigating all of that. He really
007is well-rounded. He knows what they've experienced. He knows what they're going through. And so, he's been able to be a real resource. My main vision for our youth was creating a learning experience. So things that I didn't get an opportunity to do as far as taking field trips and getting to play instruments and getting to go on trips to Washington and going hiking and canoeing. It ignites me that I'm a part of seeing those youth getting those great opportunities in life. Uh we all should experience new things. So when it's opportunities, take advantage of it. I'm a person that like the excitement. You can find me ziplining or going in the middle of the ocean on jet ski. I was just that daredevil to want to just experience new things. It's never a moment to
008where I just sit back and relax cuz I know within due time my story will be complete to where I can look back and tell my future child that this is what your father did in life. Moses II, our May 2026 employee of the month. Yay! All right. Next is uh superintendent monthly report. >> Thank you. I've got a few things to update the board on. This is a busy time of the year as we try to close out the 202526 school year. Um it's been very very busy and we've got a lot of activities coming up. Last Wednesday, we had an opportunity for the Education Foundation Heart of Education Foundation lunchon, which I thought was excellent. Uh Trina, stand up. Let's give her a hand. So, why was it excellent? Um it was excellent
009for a lot of reasons. One is our foundation has gone through a transformation. Um, it is a different thing than what it was when I first got here 14 years ago. And the event that I saw last week couldn't be conceived of at the first half of my career at Harris County Department of Ed. At one time, our foundation had dwindled down to maybe two or three members. And now it's robust. It's healthy. And I saw the lunchon as a reflection of how it has transformed into something we always aspired it to be. Not only was it well attended by people who have a vested interest in young people and the things that we do, but is very well organized and coordinated. And so I'll thank all of the HCD employees, including facilities, absolutely comms,
010who help make that happen. But people are starting to hear more about the things that we do beyond just the major five divisions that we have. And so it was really proud. It was really well attended, well-run. and I just thought it was fantastic. So that was last um Wednesday. Then on Friday, I went to ABS East graduation uh which not only was it a graduation, it was a recognition of every single child on that campus. I was not expecting that. I was like, "Oh, this is going to be easy. This is going to be I'm gonna be in and out of here in 20 minutes." I'm like, "No, every child uh was recognized." And it's just so powerful to see family come and celebrate their child. Uh to see school district staff make their
011way to our facility to celebrate and support the children that they work with in their ISDS. And we've got a couple more of graduations coming up that I'll talk about in a second. Uh this past Monday I had an opportunity to fly to Laredo uh along well I was the only one that flew but Mr. Parker was was there uh Danielle Clark uh Dr. Williams Michelle Williams we all presented at the Laredo Youth Conference where I believe it's somewhere about 120 to 150 kids. This is run by Dr. Amasquad. This is something he's been doing for years. Um but really good opportunity to sit down with um high school juniors and seniors uh and they were very well disciplined um and I had opportunity to sit in the breakout sessions but interesting u um conference
012and something that I look forward to attending in the future. Now, moving forward, what's coming up tonight? We have you have a a card for the celebration of excellence that will be tonight in the 500s uh from 5:00 to about 7:00. And in that ceremony, we'll recognize all the employees of the month throughout the year. Um but there will also be some special recognitions through several of our divisions. And we've been doing this, I think, going on the fourth year. And so this is a really good opportunity to once again acknowledge our staff. They'll be able to bring family. Um and so it's always well attended. So certainly attend that if you have time today. Uh next Thursday at 10:00 we have the ABS West graduation. Um and so that will be taking place there.
013I'm not sure how many uh seniors they have, but they may also be recognizing their students too. And then on Friday, we have the forest graduation, which I believe we've got a couple of graduates this year for that. Um May 28th, we are taking our teacher of the year and TA of the year out to dinner. And so that'll be a recognition, too. And then next month, I'll tell you more about our uh adult ed graduation. The final thing is, you know, I've been a superintendent going on 15 years, and for 14 of those years, I've been doing convocation. Um, and I'm going just tell y'all, I hate planning for convocation. I love doing convocation. Um, but planning is it's it's it's challenging. Uh, Danielle Clark and I will stay locked up in a room
014for a couple days trying to figure out what we're going to do. The hard part is trying to do something different every single time. And I'd like to think that we reestablish the bar every time and we challenge ourselves. This year will be no different. Um, but we have decided that the theme for 2026 convocation. Hold on, I got to tease it somewhere. So, you know, previously we did the 80s. We've done the realm of possibility. We've done uh uh aspire to be exceptional. We've talked about get sist. Last year we were varsity. That was the theme. This year's theme will be the NFL. So much so in our last leadership team meeting, we held a draft and divisions got to choose. Well, they didn't really get to choose. Let me restate that. They got
015assigned. They had to go through the lottery system. You know, they just like the regular athletes, they don't always get to choose what team they're going to play on, but they got drafted and they uh got assigned some specific teams and there were several teams that didn't get picked up. Cowboys, Steelers, and yeah, there's some people that were all up in their feelings about what team they got, but they've got to they got to represent them regardless. So, ju we'll have more details coming out about some of the things that we're going to be doing leading up to convocation because we know how much our staff likes to participate in that. But prior to that, we'd like to just show this promo video that we put together. So, roll a video. And this is not
016me singing in the video, by the way. August 7th. Yeah, you know the day. Kingom builders where we cate deep. No bench players here. Everybody keep dear. Yeah. Squad loud and clear. Breakfast tacos waiting. Thank you. No fear. Special schools you run the field case for kids that impact seal the door. Yeah, you change the game therapy coming through. Let's play choice partners making deals smooth and teachers. Yeah, they clear the way. Head start shining our youngest light. You'll be the mal. Yeah, we set the arrival. Yeah, we stand alone. Friday 10 a.m. Don't miss the show. Kingom builders. Yeah, that's the place to be. My vocation 2026. >> So, we're excited about it. The thing that we love the most about convocation is the fellowship. And it's an opportunity to get together and it
017sparks the beginning of another great school year. And there's nothing more powerful than to have a thousand HCD employees in one venue and that we all come together for a common thing. And so everybody get into it. We're going to have a great convocation and I look forward to it. And with that, that's all I have. >> No, the Cowboys did not get drafted in the pick. So >> no, no, no, no. See, trust me, GE is always mixing things up, man. He's always messing it up. >> Thank you. That's all I have. >> Thank you very much. And on to the annual division update. We've got two of them. And the first one is records management. Right on point. >> Look, he's even got the green tie on. I mean, >> he's the GM
018of the Green Bay Packers. There we go. We got the GM here. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let me put that right there. >> Fourth pick, by the way. Fourth pick. Fourth pick in the draft. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, President Hindosa board. Uh, Superintendent Cobert. >> I am Curtis Davis, your division records manager, director. Um, I've been here for 24 years now. Uh, still loving it, still enjoying it, still at the top of excitement right now. Haven't decided to go down yet, so I'm still doing it. Uh I and in this year in the last probably 20ome years I was able to bring more of my staff than I've ever brought here before. Records will you please stand. We have Anthony Washington, operations manager. Donald Mims. I'm trying I'm trying not to say pastor Dr.
019Okay. Donald Mims, rec center tech. Eld is our uh administrative assistant. Kim back there is one of the imaging clerks. And Chi Edwards is everything else. She is our customer service guru. I don't know what happened here. >> It went off. Reboot it. >> Thank you, sir. must touch the button. >> Is that is that what it is? >> Okay. I don't know. This thing is not working for me. >> Did it go? So technology >> some old school. If that was a 386 computer, I'd have had it all day. Don't put that on there. It's >> the new stuff. Arrow. Thank you, sir. All right. So, the the customers that that we deal with here, um the only difference this year some from the last previous year we've added um Christian schools. We had
020our first Christian school signed up with us. So, we haven't Oh, sorry. we uh we deal with with all the different uh districts in in Harris County and other counties, but we had our first Christian school sign up and and I think that's going to be a big one. So, with the voucher program going on, I'm trying to follow it as close as I can. There's a lot of students getting transferred over to more of the private and the Christian schools right now. So, we should be able to pick up a a lot of more business uh that way. Uh the staff here um within this staff, we had two people retired last year. Two of our seniors retired last year. One was here for over 30 years and one was here for over 20
021years. So they decided to go ahead and and call it quits and retired. We replaced two of that staff with two new people that's on here on the list. Jamar Scott is a record center tech. He's new. and Kimberly Hines, which is in the audience now. She's new to the staff and we're still looking for one more senior staff member to hire in the very near future. But we're operating right now with 14 people. We really never went over 15 people. And and I say that for a reason. You'll see why. Because this is what we cover. We cover all of Harris County areas for about 19 different school districts. Some we don't deal with that have their own internal program. And then we also cover other counties that we cover with those again 14
022different people. So we introduced oursel into Sanesto County last year and we went into Austin County last year. There are other counties we had already had uh business in those counties um from previous years on. So, we're we're doing a lot uh for the districts and school systems and the education system throughout the years in different counties now. And we're we we approached the GRV last year area and we got invitation to come back this year and talk to Hadago County GRV. Did I say it right? >> RGV. All right. Okay. Correct me. I don't know. Um, so we have invitations to come back and and talk to Hordago County very soon. Probably be going down to do a presentation with Dr. Mesa uh on records for the whole area and and his his brother
023invited me to come down and so I got to go and talk to them. So we're we're expanding. We're trying to expand the services to help more all over. Um if we can just talk to you then we can help you. Now, we don't have to be there physically, but we can just talk to you and help your program out. That's what we're trying to do. The the services of course that we that we that's a benefit of our services is the the regular transportation services, the the index and the catalog and the pick up and destroy. One of the biggest things, of course, is to pick up and destroy records because every year school systems create so many records that need to be shredded. I mean, just tons and tons of records and and
024again, if you look back in all the counties that we deal with and all the school systems that we deal with, we pick up tons. I I know one year we probably picked up over 60,000 boxes of records with 14 people, mind you. Well, no, actually the record center the guys is only six of us and seven, you know, when I get in there. Um, and we go all out and we stay on schedule. Our our customer service is just the best that that in my 40 years of working, this is the best customer service staff I've ever worked with. Uh, more of the um the stuff that we do, service providing. And one of the things that's really really picking up that that I started about four or five years ago is the bin
025services, the recycling services. Now, it's it's weird because it's in a way it's kind of a part of records management, but it's a it's an independent business. So, we incorporated that business into what we do. And now, not only the city of Houston, the school districts, um, county agencies are now taking these bins that we have, as you see, and doing recycle programs with us. Lots and lots of recycle programs. We started off with about 45 bins. We're up over 600, Anthony, maybe about 600 bins that we are rotating uh on a yearly basis. So that's that's something that's really really picking up. Sorry, this is me, man. I'm magnetic. Uh oh, that didn't work. Oh, there we go. Okay, so again, who do we serve? This is a the little chart of the breakdown
026of all the different entities that we serve. Uh our, you know, I've noticed that our out of county is is starting to catch up with our inner county, uh business because we're getting a lot of uh conversation out of county. We're getting word of mouth is really really going through the system. We get calls on a monthly basis of somebody that used to work in another district and say, "Hey, I used to work in this. I remember your records management program. Can you come do that for us here in our district now?" And and people are traveling way out um instead of just staying local, they're traveling way out to districts all over Texas. Um we actually we are now going to Dallas probably once a month. U one of our charter schools is saying
027hey can you go pick up in Dallas? Can you pick them in Austin? Can you pick up in San Antonio? So we we we now know our charter schools is going to give us a lot of more business than they have been doing before. And and now that they know that we can go out to those type of locations then they allow us to do that. uh some of the data highlights the um the that what makes our our customer service so unique is the the web process. We have a si a web-based system that you do all of the work on that web-based system that we can do in-house. So the customers get a login password to that web-based system and they can order everything that we can do inhouse on that web-based system.
028It's not taking out the customer service part of it because of course they still call, but uh it's helping them do everything. It's like we're Amazon and you go and you order your box and it comes to you and you're done. You're done. You know, you don't have to worry about it. So that that web-based system is really really helping us over the last five or six years is is really been impactful to us. Our scanning process, we our average is about 1.2 million scans per year. So, we're still in that average area of over a million scans that we do every year for uh all of our customers. We're trying to pick that up uh a little bit more this year and for the next future years. We're trying to pick that scan process
029up uh because we know now that the retention of the records is starting to fade and people destroying records, but the newer records are more digital. So, we're trying to create that system where we can help our customers in a digital format, pull records, send records, and all that stuff instead of sending boxes of records to us. We love storing your records, but we're going to keep up with the future on this one here. Um, uh, a new boxes receive, it's last year was a pretty pretty decent year. We got over 13,000 boxes. But on the other hand, the boxes that we destroy from the internal space that we have was only like 697,000 boxes, which is good because our ratio is we putting more new boxes in versus taking boxes out in out of
030storage. Uh so that that's a that's really a good uh uh feature right there. Um so our our still our core scan is high school transcripts. We have at least 10 different schools. Every every district is sending their now they're sending their electronic transcripts to us, which is already digitized, but to put them in our data management system so they can have access to them. And not that they don't trust TEA, but they're putting them in our system also so they can have access to them and be able to give them out to kids right away when they need them. So they log in, print it out, send it straight to the kid. And we getting we an electronic transmit as opposed to the old day, the old days of the cardboard transcript and you
031have to digitize that and all the little grades falling out, test scores falling off of it. So we're we're doing a lot more there. And as we scan every year, the the volume of scan documents increase. Now we're over 30 million documents in our system scanned. Um, which is impressive to me. You know, it's very impressive. And we we hope to get that number up more and more. Um, all our customers on on a renewal contract. Everybody is is satisfied. Everybody that we have in house is satisfied. We have them coming out and saying, "Hey, you know, we miss you. You know, we actually had a customer leave about six years ago and came back and and came to us and say, "We miss you. Sorry, but we miss you." It was some decision made
032somewhere in in upper management, you know, on the board somewhere that uh they came back and said, "Oh, we are so sorry, but we love your services." So the the trends are uh of course we are always always looking for ways to cut costs. You know we want to do business with with every educational institute in the state of Texas and there's a lot of competition and the cost is is high is low. So we want to keep it our cost at a at an affordable rate. And I don't think I've in the last 20ome years, I don't think I've ever heard somebody say, "Y'all cost too much." I haven't heard that. So, I'm I'm kind of happy for that and able to keep the cost, keep the operating cost down and actually keep the
033and be able to u say make a profit, but put some money back into the system for us. All right. What questions do you have of me? I just like to say that you know our records management is one of those supplemental services that we provide not only to ISDs but to other governmental entities in the area. Um, most people don't know that we maintain the records for what 22 of the 25 districts in the county or is it 23? >> 19 of them. >> 19. Okay. >> Uh, but also for the city of Houston, >> from city of Houston, >> fire department, >> Ben County and >> yeah, >> different departments. >> So, um, you know, they do, your group does a fantastic job down there. It is a well-run machine. Um, you know,
034the records has had to go through a transformation because everything is going digital now. >> When I first got here, >> Curtis was wanting to infiltrate the second floor of NO to put more racks for records up there. And now the boxes are diminishing and the imaging is increasing sort of and so it's just amazing how quickly things change. So I appreciate you, sir, and your leadership. Um, and certainly I appreciate your entire staff. So thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. comment, Mr. Davis. >> So, I'm interested in the recycling program. Are you sure you can't uh maybe farm out that service to the city of Houston since they're having issues with their solid waste? >> The city of Houston is is Well, yeah, they'll pick up trees and stuff now. Yeah, believe me.
035>> Yeah. >> No, I'm seriously. Uh, so we bring it in and we shred it. >> We bring it in, we we Yeah. Like the different departments of the city now has some of our recycling bins. They got rid of the the shreds and the, you know, high cost companies and they do the recycling with us. Lots of it. Lots and lots of it. We have departments that have 20 bins and they rotate them up on the floors themselves. So yeah, they do we do a lot with the city >> and we charge by the bin. out. Every time it gets picked up >> when we walk it out there and when we when we back it up is a bin cost to go and the bin cost to pick it up. >> So, yes.
036>> What do we do with the shredding material? >> It gets shredded. It's uh it's uh recycled. >> Yeah. Everything is is cross shredded. So, everything that we do has to be cross shredded according to law and it's recycled. >> It's recycled. Uh the other question I had was uh you said we go all the way to Dallas to pick up boxes or >> we go to Dallas. Yeah. >> Are we charging >> Oh, yeah. >> Gas. Gas. Gas. >> Okay. Just wanted to make sure. >> Yeah. >> Great job. Thank you, sir. >> Yes, sir. S. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh great job. As Trusty Cantu alluded to, you mentioned 30 million records that we store. Do we scan >> that we've scanned? Do we documents >> documents that we've scanned? Do we
037capture those in the cloud? >> We have Yes, sir. We have a database management system that we have all those records in with client access. So, if you had access to those records, you can come in and do whatever. You can print it, redact information, you can maneuver the indexes of the the information. It's entire database system of records, >> right? You mentioned wanting to do more possibly. Are we limited in terms of how many how much time wise what our capacity is? >> Timewise we are I mean within a given year. So if you want to do >> 2 million scans within a given year with the staff that we have we may not be able to get to the 2 million mark you know but that's increasing staff increasing machineries increasing scanners and
038all that but and we want to stay at a level where we can afford to do it. >> Gotcha. So no issues related to capacity. No issues related to capacity. Okay. Thank you. >> It charges us enough. >> I knew they would, right? Thank you. >> Any more questions? >> Thank you. >> The next division update is from communications and marketing. I have to say, um, we got a fortune cookie today from Mr. Parker. Um, I I feel like I have to read it. >> And it says, I'm gonna have it right here. And it says HCDE's marketing and communications teams are varsity. >> Parker, where'd you get that fortune kick cookie from? Foris. >> Good afternoon, President Hinosa, board of trustees, and superintendent Colulbert. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to highlight HCDE's
039marketing and client engagement team. I am Stephanie Delos Santos, director of marketing and client engagement. I must say we are truly varsity, especially when you have a varsity board and superintendent leading the charge. on behalf of MCE and from the bottom of our hearts and in the actions of Trustee McGee, thank you for all that you do. >> As a director of marketing and client engagement, it is my privilege to begin today's presentation by introducing you to what I always say is a small but mighty marketing team. Please stand as I call your name. Our newest member is Mity Loera who is the assistant director. The next three names that I call are marketing coordinators. Lynette Gonzalez Tonsil, Payton Keane, Luis Sanchez, our administrative assistant, Jade Swan, and our translations coordinator, Wendy Utterbat. Even though
040we are a small team, I am proud of the quality our team produces and the amazing support that they provide our divisions throughout the organization. I absolutely love our team and will stand firm on labeling them as one of the best teams here at HCDE. MCE continues to push forward in achieving division goals by providing marketing support to revenue and nonrevenue generating divisions as well as the overall marketing efforts of HCDE. Not only is MCE the face of our organization at various trade shows and conferences, the team also supports HCDE through email marketing which you'll see here through conferences of course as I mentioned campa market marketing campaigns, brand management, translation services, podcasts, event planning, advertising, super cool swag, and so much more. A few highlights for the 2526 calendar year include this, a best
041of category in video marketing for the choice partners division video from the Texas School Public Relations Association TESAR conference in February. The team also received a total of 21 awards from that Tes conference, one of which was the best of category. We've given 20 presentations, 19 to 20 presentations and or trainings um which include CP vendor member workshops, TES breakout sessions, CRM training which is HubSpot, HCDE connects and a numerous number a various number of virtual presentations. In November, we launched HCDE Connects, a quarterly event for local district employees, including HCDE employees as well, who support language access opportunities for students and families. Our team also worked clo closely with choice partners to create a new vendor category uh for language access products and services uh which recently an RFP went out that generated great
042interest. MCE worked with the center for educator success to launch a new monthly a new monthly newsletter and pro uh podcast for principles. Our team successfully al hosted HCDE's inaugural professional translators and interpreters conference. That was in July of 2025. With this being the first of its kind conference in Texas designed for educators, we had more than 200 registered attendees and 18 vendors and sponsors that participated. In front of you is an invitation for PEK 2026. and we hope that each of you can join us to see the impact that HCDE is making locally, statewide, and nationally. Another highlight that we were able to secure, this is the PEK conference. Thank you, Mr. Cobbert, for presenting or welcome presenting the welcome there. Another highlight was that we were able to secure positive media coverage twice
043on univers on WB 39 and an interview on NPR radio. We have also designed and published more than 30 e newswsletters and podcasts. This includes the launch of the principles world and words with wadley which I mentioned early earlier. That's the newest podcast. MCE continues to put systems and processes in place in which allows our team to always work smarter not harder. Key for us this year is we're collaborating with comms to incorporate sprout social which is a social media platform that helps manage measure and optimize social media strategies across all major networks. The next uh few slides that I will showcase is the work we have done throughout the year by the number. We have exhibited at more than 20 conferences or events this year and distributed more than $10,000 worth of swag which
044you would have received a bag with all the swag, the newest swag that we have at the January uh board appreciation event. This year alone, we've sent out more than 400 elasts and carried out more than 80 email campaigns. We also assisted in planning for more than 50 events from the start to finish. Other areas of accomplishments include 600 plus um social media posts, 150 translations and interpretations, and more than 90 plus advertisements and public service announcements. As we look forward to the future, MCE will not only continue to work hard in increasing the visibility of HCDE externally, but we will also continue to provide the kind of marketing support internally that will always produce positive outcomes with excellence. This is what makes our marketing team varsity. >> That's right. I'm going to now pass
045this on to our sister or maybe brother division uh to the amazing Christopher Smith who's the director for communications. All right. Good afternoon board president Henosa and the board of trustees and Mr. Cobert. My name is Christopher Smith and I am the new director of communications and creative services for ACDE. I've started in ACDE on April 6. So, I'm I'm still getting acclimated, but I can say in my brief time here, one of the things I've learned, I kind of knew going into, but I've learned really how how great my team is. I have a very skilled team and they're very high performers and I'm going to give them a little shine today. What you'll notice from communicators a lot of times is we're used to standing behind the camera, behind the screen, behind the
046mic, behind the computer. So, I'm going to give them a little shout out today. Of course, we have Angel Verdeo is our communications manager. Listen, team members, please stand up when I call your name. I'm sorry. We have Juan Lopez, our graphic design manager. Debbie Sanchez Trice, our multime media manager. He's down in the in the booth back there. We have Oliver Dyke, our web content coordinator. Shelby Buckin, our events coordinator. Racco, I'm sorry, I told him I was going to mess it up. Rosac Aoray, our creative content coordinator. Vienna Torres, our another creative content coordinator, Jessica Le Young, our multimedia content coordinator. She's back there in the booth as well. In the booth with her is Caleb Relerifford, our multime media productions coordinator, Shelby Tran, our communications coordinator, and finally, Emily Ortiz, our administrative
047assistant. Like I said, a lot of times they're at these events, they're gathering content, they're producing these great videos, and it's just, like I said, I wanted to give them a little shout out. Y'all can see that. Now, services we provide for ACDE. We increase awareness and understanding of our programs and services, which is really key for organization like us because we're not like other school districts, right? We're a unique organization. Stronger employee engagement and internal alignment. We enhance our public trust and organizational representation. We elevate our visibility among our districts with their accomplishments and our student success. And we improve our stakeholder engagement across all channels. Now, how we do that is kind of some of the things that people would assume. I think a lot of times when people come to communications, they
048think of us as like that that production house, if you will. I need a poster, I need a flyer, I need a video. And we do that, but we also provide consultation to make sure that we are providing the best method to communicate the message to the audience that we want that message to go to. We don't just want to broadcast to everybody. The key to communications is having strategic messages hit the target audience. All right. So, of course, we have our website, hcdestes.org, which is a very useful tool with 539 pages and over 2,000 documents. And I want to say before I get in that too much, Oliver Dyke is our lone singleton, I say, because I'm a I'm a former teacher. I was called a singleton when I was the only teacher of
049that kind on campus. He is our lone staff member that deals with a lot of our web content and he helps facilitate the use of our website. So year-over-year, our users, our page views, our engage assessments or engaged assessments, sorry, engagement sessions have all increased tremendously. And I think one of the newer things we have to ACDE, the portal, which is our internet. A lot of times you'll find in companies that your internet is usually not that well done, but that's not the case here at ACD. It was implemented last year and it is like I say it's grown tremendously. It's more than just that place where you just dump that file that you want somebody to read from time to time. It's a very valuable resource and our engagement of course since it's new
050has grown tremendously. And not only that, we recently won an award for our our internet which is called the portal. We got the second place for best design from Thought Farmer. And Thought Farmer is actually the vendor that provides that platform to us. And I say we got second place but that wasn't just among educational agencies. That was sorry that was amongst government governmental agencies and private companies as well. So that was quite a recognition. Social media everybody knows that right? Our social media growth is going up. We are increasing our follower counts in every platform with Facebook leading the way. But one thing I really want to say is even though you'll see on our numbers, our posts published have gone down, our engagements are going up, our views are going up, our link
051clicks are going up. So it's not always just about how many posts you're getting out. It's about are you creating content that is hooking your audience. I always tell people right now in present day, everything is vying for your attention, right? So we have to break through the noise and let people hear our great music, which is all the great work that we're doing. So, I like to think of us, I think Stephanie refers to her team and they do a call to action. We're more a call to outcome. What outcome are we getting out of our students? What outcome we're getting out of our programs? What kind of uh services are we providing to our partners like with our records management newsletter production? So, we have kind of two newsletters. One is the hub.
052We go just it goes out every week. That's our internal newsletter. Of course, again, even though we have the portal, that hub is that email that's going out letting the employees know of the important things coming up that we have such as open enrollment and all those kind of uh benefit programs, but we also have the connector which is Mr. Colbert's superintendent newsletter that you know goes to you all every week. So, my team actually helps package all that information together. We produce high quality content and I will say I've worked with districts all over the state in different capacities. This is the first organization of its kind that produces the quality of content at the rate that we're providing it. It's very high quality, very quick, very well done. News stories, which are of
053course driving that message, driving the news. 183 news stories uh we've produced in the live on the blog, but a lot of times those are also being linked in some of those newsletters and some of those social media areas and and other places as well. with 183 stories we wrote last year. Graphic design projects over 6,000 printed. But I say printed means actually goal physical. Anybody knows about graphic designs, you're going to have digital elements. You're going to have items that may be in a print thing that you had to design independently. So that's why I put countless on there. Think also too people don't realize, you know, if you write a paper, you do a revision, you just kind of change that area, right? A lot of times if you're doing graphic design and
054you had to go with a new idea, you had to create a whole another design. So you had to start from scratch. So it's it's a lot of work that goes into the graphics photography. We have 156 albums just in the last year alone. And we use SmugMug uh to share those albums with you all and with our community. So we have all kind of photos. They're tagged and labeled depending on the vision, the event. It's a really great resource. And in those 156 albums, over 8,000 photos. And sorry, not even just taking them. We have to edit those as well because sometimes, you know, you got to adjust the colors. The lights may be a little bit different. We have to do a little bit of touch-up on there. Also, video production, over 155
055videos, 33 of which were short form reels, which for social media, a lot of times to grab people's attention. I know if y'all have kids or you have nieces and nephews like me, they lose attention quickly. Even parents, we're getting our younger parents now, they lose attention. Also, sometimes you got to be quick with your messaging and hook them really, really fast. So, that's also a growing area for us. And over YouTube, 829,000 views, but our watch hours are high with 6,000 watch hours. Event planning, it's a big one for today when we have our celebration of excellence coming up this afternoon. Event planning, we also have Shelby Buckine, again, another one of our singletons that's out there running around and getting things done for us. And Shelby does a lot of our highlevel events,
056but she also helps people with some of our lower level things, too, and help helps a lot of our divisions just get sometimes just their thoughts organized about what they're trying to achieve. And she's awesome at that. And really, um, I say she she really helped us with that draft that we had last year or last week at the leadership. She had to go out and get those hat secure hats and secure them fast. And I was great. I was glad to see that hat. If y'all don't see it, our chief of human resources had a really interesting hat. I might I may have to email it to you so you can see it. It wasn't quite I mean I have a big head myself, but his hat didn't quite fit properly. But it was
057a really great moment. So I I should have put it in here. I wouldn't even think I should have put it in here. All right. So conferences, we go to national conferences and local conferences and our chief communications officer who provides great support to our uh our department also is known in the industry right she received a mentor legacy award at the inspert conference last year. So that's no I can't even really speak to how how great of a chief D is but I say she she leads by example if you will right so at the conference or the TER conference we won 28 awards and we had four presentations also to show everybody teach how we are leading the way with what we're doing and our work kind of sharing some of that knowledge
058and helping bring others along with us. All right, we had a we also have communication support meetings for our partner districts in the area. So we had a meet the media event which partnered with our Houston area school public relations association. So we brought reporters and other news journalists to the table to allow our school school communicators to communicate with them in a way when there's not emergency going on, right? There's not there's not they're not trying to gather some story from them. So it's able to kind of build those relations because they help disseminate our information. So, it's good to at least have a base working relationship to start from. And recently, we held a workshop with Final Site. Final site is our website vendor, and it was their largest workshop that they've had
059in the nation. We had over 50 school communicators from districts around, I would say, Houston area, but I know we had people coming from as far as Bowmont, I believe, that drove in just for that meeting. And it was so uh such an impactful event for them, their CEO actually came out and and joined us that. And I think he told us that was the first meeting of the type that he actually came out and felt like he needed to come and be a part of. And that's because he knew that we were going to have such a great turnout. All right. So looking forward, one of the things for my challenge is the team's already doing great. So the the work can't fall on my watch, right? We got to keep delivering high quality
060content across all of our mediums. We're going to expand the use of the portal just because it's a new resource and it's very useful. Sometimes I think we still have to kind of retach our staff how to use it sometimes just because it if you haven't seen it, I would love to show you. It's just it's it's unique. It's one of a kind for sure. And strengthening our position as a statewide and national leader in school public relations. Again, with changing technologies, changing methods of how you want to share those messages, we have to stay on top. We have to keep training ourselves so we can keep pushing the limits of uh our communication efforts. Um, and that's it. Any questions? >> Yeah, I'd just like to say, um, great job. You know, you've gone
061through a lot in the past few weeks that you've been here. You're kind of getting hazed. Um, first I want to speak to client engagement. Um, folks, these people work hard. You know, they're traveling thousands of miles a year. And when I see them at some of the conferences I go to, I don't see any chairs at their booth. They're standing 10 hours a day for like three or four days. They're at golf tournaments at 100 degree heat, you know, trying to be excited even though they can't wait for the last team to come through so they can leave. And so, um, really the tip of the spear in promoting us throughout the county, but more than that, throughout the state and the nation. And then with our comm's department. and our comm's department does
062such a fantastic job, I think, at telling the story. Um, not only do we do it through video, but we do it through imagery. We do it through our newsletter. We do it so many different ways. I'm trying to tell you, our comms and marketing department serve as standard bearsers. they it is a standard that so many other districts aspire to be at but even if they achieve it what they cannot maintain is the pace that we run it at and so you had mentioned earlier that the newsletter that you you have seen and you've done you've dealt with you've rarely seen that anywhere but on a weekly basis I mean a a school district is lucky to put one of those out per month we do them every single week that's a pace that
063most people cannot maintain. They can't do it. And so that is a woven into the fabric of our organization. Uh not only does your staff perform it at a high level, we're going to continue to perform it. And we're always reshaping. And so we have one of the best comms and marketing departments easily in in Houston, but probably in the state of Texas. And I know that because people come and visit me and they steal my stuff. They'll sit out there literally and they will steal the year in review every time we're having to restock stuff because they're taking stuff and stuffing it into their bags. I'll walk out of my office and they're taking pictures of some of our stuff. I've had superintendents flat out copy our entire year review. Even look like me
064sitting on the front page. I'm like, Kyle, you copied the whole thing. So, um I'm just so incredibly proud of what the department has evolved into. You know, one of the challenges that the department has now is trying to regulate services because everybody wants y'all to do something for them. It doesn't work that way, but that's a good problem to have. And so, kudos to you. But without question, I want to tip my hat to all the employees and our client marketing and and certainly in comms and the work that you do. I'm so incredibly proud of you. I will not take it easy on you. I'm still going to be pushing and they will step up to to the challenge anytime I request to do anything. They try to find a way to make
065it happen and that's what it's all about. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> All right. Are there any other reports from board members concerning attendance or participation in a board or HCD related conference event activity or committee? >> Okay, Trusty GU. There we go. Actually, I wasn't able to attend, but I do want to give a shout out to uh the administration, the staff, uh the education foundation of Harris County. Uh had a our annual um lunchon. Uh I'm sorry that I missed it, but I was home coughing my head off with some bronchitis. Uh but I'm so proud that we raised nearly $100,000. uh we're taking it to the next level every year and I just didn't want to miss this opportunity to congratulate the administration and the staff for all
066the hard work. Thanks. Okay. So um any report from any board committees? I don't think so. Okay. And so we will move on to monthly financial reports. It's all good. >> Good afternoon, President Henosa, members of the board, and Mr. Colbert. We are here to discuss the monthly financial report for the month ended April 30th of 2026 and we are sailing through the fiscal year. We're already twothirds of the way through about 67% through the fiscal year. And so just getting a first look at the general fund the revenues for the month ended as mentioned April 30th 2026 we are have received or build for $62 million of which just under $6 million were received in the month of April and we're at about 79% revenues received compared to our budget as mentioned in the
067previous month. Of course, it looks like we're running quite a bit ahead of the the budget, but that's because we've finished our heavy tax season and as mentioned, that will smooth out as we finish off the fiscal year. The tax collections, we're keeping an eye, of course, always on how the property values are trending as we go through the fiscal year. Of course, we budgeted at 688 billion and right now at the end of April, the values are about 682 billion. So that would be with the levy of about $284,000 less than what was originally budgeted with revenues for all funding sources. Year-to date, revenues received are 100.2 million and 14.7 million were received in the month of April. On the expenditure side for the general fund, we had total expenditures for a year to
068date that just over 48 billion of which 7.8 8 million were in the current month and of course the vast majority of that was in our payroll cost at 6.3 million and our expenditures are about 63% of the budget which is right aligned with the time of the year. Looking at all funding sources with expenditures total expenditures year to date 87.2 million with 12.3 million being in the month of April. the look at our education foundation. Here is our year-to- date as of April 30th commitments of $481,475. Our small business report for the month, we had $2.1 million of expenditures that went to small businesses of uh compared to our total business of just shy of 11 million. So, our ratio is about 20% of businesses going to small businesses. And here's a look at
069the list of those small businesses that made up that $2.1 million. And that's our monthly financial report for the month of April 30th, 2026. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Does anyone have any items to pull from consensus? All right. Seeing none, then I will do I have a motion. Uh motion to pass consensus items uh by Trustee Davis, seconded by Trusty McGee. Any discussion? All right. All in favor? Motion passes. >> five >> six. Motion passes 6. >> All right. We're going to move on to the non-consensus items and I'm going to pull item 7 five. Okay. So, the first item 71 consider approval of agreement for head start and age of learning in the amount of $27,196 for the period of 1112027 through for my math academy and my reading
070academy software subscription for Head Start students and professional learning for Head Start staff. Do I have a motion? Motion by Trusty Davis, seconded by Trusty Gandu. Any discussion? All in favor? Motion passes. 6. Consider approval of agreement of the Center for Educator Success and Proivity Government Services, Inc. in the amount of $181,370 for the period of 612026 through 12312026 to provide marketing services for the CES teacher certification program. Do I have a motion? Motion by Tresu. Seconded by Trusty Dick. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I'd like an explanation. >> Okay. Trusty Davis would like an explanation. >> This is a contract with Proivity, which is a strategic marketing agency to launch the open enrollment and hybrid program for the center for educator success. It is a crowded field in this industry and we need
071a comprehensive marketing plan in order to break through the noise. And while we are endeavoring to get this expertise on the team, we just don't have it at this time. >> Thank you. All in favor? Motion passes 6. Consider approval of the job order contract with quality security systems for fire alarm replacement at NPO in an amount not to exceed $219,787 and delegate authority to HCDE superintendent or his design to negotiate, finalize and execute the job order contract. Do we have a motion? Motion by Trusty GU. >> Seconded by Trusty Davis. Any discussion? All in favor? Motion passes 6. Consider approval of the job order contract with Atlas Universal for partial roof recover at NPO in an amount not to exceed 1,218,93 and delegate authority to HCD superintendent or his designate to negotiate, finalize, and
072execute the job order contract. Uh moved by Trusty GU, second, >> seconded by Trustee Davis. >> And I would like an explanation, please. Yes, ma'am. So, we're currently replacing the rooftop units at our no uh administrative building. And with that, we're going to replace half of well, actually, we're going to recover half of the roof for the existing building. So, and recovery consists of adding another membrane on top of the existing membrane. So, we're not taking off the roof insulation, and that seems to be a more feasible option for us. All right. Any other questions? >> Any questions? >> Mr. May, >> was it was it damaged by one of the recent >> uh No, sir. It's just beyond his life expectancy. It's about 30 years old. >> Okay. >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you.
073>> Yes, ma'am. >> Uh all in favor? >> Motion passes 60. Trusty Dick, was that a hand raised? Yes. Okay. Very good. All right. All right. And with that, we will move to executive session under Texas government code pursuant to any and all purposes permitted by section 551.001 through 551.084, including but not limited to 551.071 and 551.074. and we move to executive session at 2:15 p.m. >> We are now reconvened at 2:33 from executive session and I think it's time to hand over to Gavl. >> Y'all y'all see this right? mine. I I have the gavl. >> Hold. Whoa. Way too much volume in here. Way too much volume. Come on. >> You know I have a meeting, right? You know I have a meeting. >> The last junior varsity. >> Yeah. Freshman now. >>
074All right. ELT, settle down. >> Um, am I supposed to read something? I'm supposed to read something you said. >> Yes. >> Consider election of president and one or more vice presidents of HCD board of trustees. Do I have a motion? >> Yes. I move for trustee Canu to be president, trustee Davis to be first vice president and trustee McGee to be second vice president. >> Is there a second? Okay, we have a second. Is any discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. >> All not in favor. >> Abstaining. So, we have a 501 uh approval. I'm going to go ahead and there that makes it official. And do I move the gavl over to >> And then I'm going to close the meeting. >> Okay. >> 10. >> I'll let you have that
075back. >> And then uh we'll do the gavvel transition next meeting. Um and with that we Oh, motion to >> future >> number 10. Uh discussion and possible action regarding any future agenda items. >> None. Okay. And with that, do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Moved by Trusty Katu, seconded by Trusty Dick. And all in favor? And we are now adjourned at 2:35.