001call this meeting board uh the board of trustees Paris County Department of Education to order. It's now convened in a regular board meeting uh this Wednesday, January 21st, 2026 in room 401 of 6300 Irvington Boulevard, Houston, Texas, and it's now 106. We wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone present at this meeting of the board of trustees. As trustees, we are here to set goals, listen to reports from the superintendent, approve budgets, contracts, personnel appointments, and set policy for the district. It is not the role of the board to make day-to-day operational decisions. The management and day-to-day operations of the department are the responsibility of the superintendent. We have policies and procedures in place to resolve concerns and issues. This is a public meeting of the board of trustees, not a meeting of the
002public. Prior to this meeting, board members received information related to items on today's agenda. Agenda items are not necessarily will not necessarily be handled in the order listed on the notice. The meeting is open to all who wish to attend and hear the matters discussed. During the course of the meeting, the board may determine that a close session is necessary. In that event, the board will meet in close session to consider matters duly posted for this meeting as permitted by section 551.071 to 551.084 inclusive of the Texas government code. I respectfully ask that you please refrain from talking while others are speaking and that cell phones are turned off or in silent mode. Thank you for taking time today to join us and for your interest in the Harris County Department of Education. We will
003begin with the invocation um led by Charvon Pipkins Kamaya, a resource development specialist with the center for grants development. >> Let us take a moment to pause and center ourselves as we begin this meeting. We ask for wisdom, clarity, and compassion as we carry out the work before us. May our decisions be guided by what is best for the children, families, and educators we serve across Harris County. May we listen with our open minds, speak with respect, and work together in a spirit of cooperation and shared purpose. Let our time together be productive, thoughtful, and focused on strengthening opportunities for every student. Thank you for the opportunity to serve. May this meeting be guided by integrity, care, and commitment to public good. Next, uh, the pledge of allegiance to the US and Texas flags led
004by Arnaldo Sandoval Guerrero, a civic engagement project specialist with the Community Development and Education Foundation. >> Good afternoon. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Thank you. Don't believe we have any speakers for our open forum. So we will go on to our reports and presentations. Uh beginning with employee of the month presented by Dr. Tyrone Sylvester, our chief of human resources. First vice president can to board of trustees Mr. Colbert. Today we honor Mr. Richard Sanchez as our January 2026 employee of the month. Richard is a senior systems engineer in the information
005technology division overseeing HCDE's network and technology infrastructure. Richard is referred to as an architect of ACD's network as he spent the last five years revamping the design of the systems that support ACD's technology backbone. George Henry, IT operational systems manager, said Richard is a self-starter who tackles problems even if they are not a part of his everyday work. Richard is a very proactive at working on things that is not necessarily a sign for him to do. Henry said there is never an issue or a time that he's not willing to work. When we have emergencies like the freezes or power outages, he's right there in the thick of it. Henry noted that Richard's work is virtually invisible to most ACD employees as he ensures access to the internet, connections to servers, ACD's phone system and
006all the information in the cloud is available to employees. But when something breaks, everyone at ACD knows about it. What they don't know is that it's Richard who is the first on site to help work out the problem. His teammates know him as a quiet but steady presence who is always willing to help out and mentor others as they excel in their careers. But Richard is also an avid learner who constantly seeks out new trends in technology, finding ways to implement those best practices at ACDE. Richard strives for continuous improvement in the field that does not favor complacency. Henry wrote in his nomination, "It is very tough to maintain technical proficiency at the level that Richard operates under." Our comms team has prepared a short video highlighting Richard's contributions to ACDE and his love of
007technology. My name is Richard Sanchez. I on charge of all the HCD infrastructure, networking, uh, server, storage, internet. Most of the time the infrastructure is invisible for the end user. You know sometime you say okay I need access to internet go to my computer type the URL but behind of that process have a many things running and connected and you know many things you have to configure for you can have access to that information. Last year we we made many big project and it's not only my work. It's a work like the team you you see every single people in this team have the task to do and together we make the the big project or >> with Richard you never have to worry about what he's doing when he's doing it or where he's
008doing it. If he sees an issue or a problem he starts working on it right away. We have to leave for political and security reason. So we have to move on and start a new life in new country. My wife found that job and tell you know what this is describe you and they say well I can try and in November 19 and in health desk and then in OST in February the the 20 >> I first met Richard when he was working in the help desk and he was overqualified for the job he was doing but he accepted the job because he needed a job And when a position opened up on my team, I told him that he would be an excellent candidate for the job, he joined our team then and he's
009been an excellent part of our team. >> My mom, my dad, they always say, "Son, you have to follow your values, your heart. You know, when you feel this is your way, you have to follow that way." And always always do the good thing you know do the good thing. I work in many companies in my career and this is one of the team I found the service for the public for the teachers for the kids we have to work together like as a team you know is is the only way we can achieve the our goal. I proud of my my team, my managers. >> I'm glad that he came here and he decided that he wanted to work for HCD. And I can't even really describe how fortunate that I am that he's
010on my team. >> I am pleased to introduce to you Mr. Richard Sanchez, our January 2026 employee OF THE MONTH. THANK YOU. >> CONGRATULATIONS. Thank you sir. Thank you sir. Thank you sir. >> Okay >> you should take it. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Thank you again for your service, Mr. Sanchez. and congratulations on behalf of the board. >> Uh next is our superintendent monthly report, Mr. Colbert. >> Thank you, Trusty Cantou. Just a few things to update the board on today. Uh first, uh you know, we lost uh a really good CFO who had been with us for quite some time. We didn't lose him, he retired. Shouldn't say that. Uh Dr. Messa has been a staple of HCDE for quite some time and I think that we really did a
011good going away um party for him but then it was the opportunity to try to fill the position and someone asked me who did you get to replace Dr. I was like I didn't get anyone to replace Dr. I just hired a CFO. And so, uh, those who know me at the leadership team, we have this thing that we talk about where, you know, you just heard me do the board appreciation month and talk about varsity. You know, I do a lot of athletic analogies, but we'll do one more. And so then I talk about something with the leadership team that when we look to fill positions, we need to not always recruit from high school. Sometimes we got to go jo. But I'm going to evolve that even a step further. Now we got
012the portal. Sometimes we got to go to Ohio State or Michigan to find a kicker or a wide receiver or something. So this is beyond Jo. We went to the portal. Uh, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce to you all our new CFO, Ann Westbrooks. Uh, a few things. We've got some events coming up. Uh, first thing, there's several of us traveling to Midwinter um conference, which is the largest educational conference of the year for the state of Texas. It's typically held in Austin. This year, it will be San Antonio. And as you know, we've got some weather issues that we are taking under consideration as we make that determination of when to go. Uh that conference this year is from Sunday through Wednesday. Um and so we're going to be keeping a close
013eye on the weather. I'll talk a little bit more about that here in a second. The next thing is we have on January 31st, we have our fourth annual uh uh early children's winter conference at the When is it? >> 40th. 40th, not fourth. >> Oh, 40th. Okay. >> Just a few more years. >> Okay. I don't have my glasses on. I'm trying to do the best I can. Um, folks, this is a huge conference and right now we've already got over 800 participants that are signed up throughout the entire state. It's an incredible thing to go to a conference on a Saturday, you know, and watch people take time out of their lives just to become better educators for children. And so fortunately this year I get to do the welcome. I don't always
014get to do that because I'm typically going to mid- winter conference, but if you get an opportunity, you need to go to Kingdom Build Builders on the 31st for our 40th annual early childhood winter conference. Significant. Uh the final thing that I'll say about the weather, it looks like we're certainly going to get rain on Saturday and it's going to get cold that night. And then Sunday we'll get a little bit more of the same. really the temperatures. Just know that the superintendents in the county are really tied at the hip and making decisions about whether we have closure or open up for school. Uh we typically do phone calls at 4 or 5:00 in the morning because we have to get in front of school buses to make decisions and let parents know so
015they can make provisions especially for elementary children whether school's going to be open or not. Um, from my vantage point as superintendent at Harris County Department of Ed, it's a it's a little bit more intricate of a decision because we service 57 school districts and so we have to typically be more open than closed. Um, and so, but at the same time, we have to take into consideration our employees who live all over Houston and some people come from Katy, Fort Ben, Pasadena, all over. So, we'll certainly take that into consideration as we make some decisions. So, be aware of that. We have a phone tree that gets activated. It has never failed. I've never in the 11 years I've been here said that we're going to be closed and someone shows up to work.
016So, it has been very effective with that. Sir, that's all I have. Excuse me. >> We wanted to ask if we could ask our employee of the month if they would like your family to come up and take a picture together. >> Yeah. Hit it. There you go. If your family would like to come up and take a picture together, we we want to be able to incorporate that and make sure that we are saying thank you for coming and participating and being a part of this. And we're so grateful for the our employee of the month and want to make sure that we get an opportunity to get you all to have come come have a picture all together as a family before we move on. >> Yes. Come on up. >> Yeah. Do
017you want me to move this? >> Oh, no. It I hear it can't be moved. >> You're good. >> Can some of you file around back? screwed in. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. That's what I was doing. >> Yeah. >> Sorry. I was trying to give you that look. >> Focus. I know. >> Okay. Okay. >> All right. Uh next, uh we'll start with our first annual division update from Center for Grants Development. Hello everyone. Happy new year and happy board appreciation month to vice president Cantou, Superintendent Colbert, and others on the DES. I'm Joyce Akens, director of the Center for Grants Development, and I'm pleased to give you this year in review of the grants office. First, let's meet the grants team. This is a picture of the team bringing holiday greetings. We have
018from left to right in the photo, Venanishia Baldwin, development coordinator. Alma Ooa, secretary, yours truly, Crystal Frasier, development prospect researcher, Dr. Vita L. Avery, manager, and Shvan D. Pipkins, Kamaya, resource development specialist. Let's give them and thank you team for your wonderful work. The mission of the grants office is to implement diversified funding strategies to help enhance or expand HCDE's programs and services. And we do this in several ways. Primarily through grants and bids in supplementing division's efforts to acquire donations, sponsorships, and volunteers for certain programs such as cases equal challenge. We also use our skills to assist divisions with special projects such as scoring writing entries for the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition. In FY25, we served 11 divisions and the education foundation with a mixture of grant applications, bids, soliciting donations, sponsorships, volunteers
019for events, and special projects. Preparing grant applications and bids can be quite involved and requires the support of many HCDE divisions. Starting with grant staff working closely with the program division. I'd like to acknowledge and thank the divisions that assist us along the way with information signatures, budget approvals, social media shoutouts, reliable technology for online submissions. It really does take a village. In FY25, we were as productive as ever, submitting 31 grant proposals in 17 bids, requesting over $71 million. The pie chart shows a mix of federal, state, and local foundations, and corporations, and it also includes the bids, grants awarded, and our impact. Head Start is always the big winner with the successful recompetition award, continuation applications for both Head Start and Early Head Start and private sector grants for the super mentors programs.
020The proposals we submitted for Head Start yielded $26 million. case for kids. The $ three and a half million dollars represents grants from the TA 21st century cycle 11 year five in cycle 12 year three applications private sector grants from Henderson Foundation in Centerport Energy for the EcoBot Challenge and a grant from TDCU for kids day entrepreneurship. Adult ed received $3 million from the Texas Workforce Commission to support their programs. School-based therapy services received a grant from the Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities to help cover expenses for training. Center for Educator Success received $5,000 or for the early child at winter conference from HB. The Education Foundation also received $5,000 for scholarships and special schools received a private sector grant from Dollar General for their summer reading program. We submitted a record 17 bids this
021year which included center for educator success, center for safe and secure schools, records management, therapy services, and the special schools divisions. Biz helped the divisions become an approved vendor and open the door for contracts with school districts for donations and sponsorships. We received a large number of passes from LA Fitness for attendees at the early childhood winter conference as well as sponsorships for the procurement divisions IP pass event, case for kids events, adult ed graduation and other events. The total amount of donations and sponsorships sponsorships the grant office helped acquire cash and income was $52,555. We also provide auxiliary services such as grant workshops, our focus on funding podcasts, and assistance with the scholastic art and writing awards. In FY25, we scored 99 writing and art entries and provided congratulatory certificates from a few elected
022officials for the special SC scholastic honores. Key highlights of the year include we successfully recompeted for the Head Start grant and were able to continue all of our grant-f funded programs. Continued funding helped us maintain hundreds of HCDE jobs and allowed us to continue serving thousands of children, youth, and adults with meaningful programming. Another highlight are the contracts that resulted from the bids we submitted on behalf of divisions. Divisions have garnered contracts with several school districts totaling over $4 million. We also recognize HCDE's August employee of the month, our very own Charvon D. Pipkins Kamaya. She was nominated for her outstanding work on the Head Start grants. Other highlights, excuse me. Other highlights include a variety of successes for different HCDE divisions, including acquiring sponsorships for case, CSS, and marketing and client engagements, training events,
023and other activities to to demonstrate that we are available to assist any way we can. We're happy that we've been able to maintain a high satisfaction rate. This past year, our client satisfaction rate with the divisions averaged 95% across all categories of specific services, which means we are meeting the division's needs to a large extent. trends and looking forward. As a result of erratic federal funding, there is increased competition for private sector funding. AI is a part of the grants world in terms of helping with some tasks such as grant research, generating ideas, and summarizing text to meet character limits in online proposals. Looking ahead, we are leaving no stone unturned in order to seek out funding for divisions. We will continue to work with them to assist in expanding services and collaborating with other
024entities to bring in resources. And as always, we will continue to implement diversified funding strategies to enhance and sustain programs. In some the grants office is working in different ways to generate resources to serve HCDE divisions and the community. We're always varsity. >> And what what questions do you have? >> I just like to say that um your department has done a fantastic job in holding down. We have massive federal programs with Harris County Department of Ed and as you can see, we have a tremendous amount of money coming through um with our grants department. Y'all have always done a very effective job and professional job of taking care of that. And then any assignment that you're given to seek out new money, um y'all are better at doing that than anyone else I know.
025So, y'all need to be armed and ready for that to do more of it. because we live in a very unstable environment right now >> and Harris County Department of Ed is fortunate to have a a division that can dedicate resources to seeking out and finding opportunities. Not everybody has that and so I just want to tell you and your staff how much I appreciate you. So, thank you. >> Thank you. I would just like to add we will have certificates from us as well moving forward. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Aens. Uh, next the annual division update from Community Development and Education Foundation of Harris County. >> Good afternoon. I'm Trina Silva and I'm the education foundation and partnerships director here at HCDE and I'm going to give an update on community
026development and the foundation. So, first I want you to meet my team. Uh this is my team. They are volunteers and they include some of you guys up there. Um and without my team I could not do all of the things that I need to do for the education foundation. These are some other very important people that are part of my team, our interns. So we have a partnership with University of Houston where we've been getting several interns for the last few semesters and um we also recently got an intern from Aldine ISD Victory uh Early College and she's a daughter of one of our staff members and she's been amazing and so she's going to be joining us for a second semester this semester and then we will have two more University of Houston
027interns joining us this semester as well for the foundation and civic engagement. And so I want to kind of show y'all in this little chart here that I wear two hats. And actually I wear many hats, but these are the two big hats I wear. And uh part of my job is representing Harris County Department of Education and then part is representing Education Foundation of Harris County. And so I like to call myself a matchmaker. When I'm out and about in the community, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to find where can these guys fit in with us? Can they fit in with the education foundation or some of our divisions? And so when you see me out there, when you see me on in photos and online, that's where I'm at. I'm
028usually out there trying to meet people. And so with that, I have two different budgets. And so I have my education foundation budget, which helps support the 25 school districts in Harris County. and it helps fill the gaps in education. So that's through our partners in education initiatives which includes grants, scholarships, school supplies and sponsorships. And then I have my community engagement funds which are more directed towards partnerships that we already have or memberships such as chambers of commerce and policy focused or education forward events. And so a good example of that would be our community partner breakfast that we had last January where we invited community partners to come learn about us and figure out ways how we can partner. And this is just a list of some of the uh sponsorship and memberships
029that we have for FY25. Um as you can see we have a lot of them. There's a few at the bottom right that are they have an asterisk next to them and those are partnerships that we do not pay for those memberships. Uh we haveus for those and so we are pretty much out there uh whether it's me or the civic engagement team or Barts or my board members were busy at work. And then here are some new partnerships that we made in FY25 and 26. Uh Calpine Corporation made a generous match to us last fiscal year for our holiday uh giving campaign. We also had Leadership Houston come out um to have their education day with us last year and we're doing that again this year. And so that's 50 at least 50 people
030coming in that are learning about what we're doing and hopefully becoming ambassadors for us and all the great things we're doing. Uh we also have a few new donors like Specialty Injury Clinic and Stellar Bank. I'll talk about that in a little bit. The Latina Leadership Podcast had me on their panel this year and we also were able to table with adult education and with um civic engagement. And then Service Corporation International is our newest one. We have a new advisory board member that's joined us from there and um we are working on building that relationship more. And then here's some of our funding sources from FY25. Um I listed them in order of who where we get the most dollars from. So SC sponsorships and grants are at the top. And I'm going to
031dig a little bit more into this in the next few slides. We also get funding from HCDE uh events. We're we had a second event this year. Talk about that in a little bit. Corporate donors and individual donors. And so I do want to talk about the individual donors a little bit. We have several employees that have given. Some of you guys have given. Our foundation board gives and then also our holiday giving campaign. And so, um, I am working on building more relationships with individual donors to really tap into those dollars. And then here's a breakdown of some of the sponsorships and grants. I know Joyce just talked a little bit about that, but um, these are some of the grants that are coming in through the foundation and then they're going back out
032into HCDE divisions. And so, Case for Kids got three grants that came through the foundation. And then there's three others. The Center for Educator Success, Head Start, and Special Schools received the $5,000 one at the top from HB. We actually got $10,000 from HGB, but 5,000 came to the foundation and 5,000 went to the Center for Educator Success. And one of our events that we had is the Heart of Education lunchon. And this year we're having our third annual one. We actually moved it from the fall to the spring. And right now um we have two sponsors that have said that they are going to come back and sponsor our event. So Corollo Engineers is one and so Versa Creative. And we do have sponsorship opportunities available. This is my shameless plug to everyone. If
033you know anybody that is interested in sponsoring, please send them my way. Um and we are also seeking silent auction donations. We are bringing back our co-m's Lisa Holland Nelson Bowman and Shiovana Roberts Shriber. And this year we are honoring Donna Fujimoto Cole who is a founder of Cole Chemical but also one of our founding funders for Ecobot. And we have a few new funding sources from last year and this year. Um Kendra Scott, we did their instore sales and online sales where a percentage came back to us. And so, thank you to everybody that came to that. Um, in my opinion, I love it whenever you can go shopping and then you know you're shopping for a good cause. Um, also I love to eat. So, we had our Smashburger fundraiser as well where
034a percentage of those sales came back to us and it was a really great time for us to fellowship together. A lot of HCDE employees went out there and we got to enjoy lunch but also learn a little bit about the foundation. And then this year we are participating in birdies for charity. And you might have seen it on our social media or you might have heard of it, but 5% uh there's a 5 percent match from Chevron of all funds that we raise. And so I went ahead and put our QR code there. So if you know anybody like just send it their way. We're trying to get to fourth place. We're in fifth place right now. And then this year in November, we had our first Topgolf tournament and it was a huge
035success. We got a lot of great feedback. There was over a hundred attendees, 18 sponsors, and we raised $40,000. We honored Holly Maria Flynn Viaca. And the most exciting part to me was that the awards were made by students that have re received a grant from us through our partners in education grants program. and the students got to come and present those awards and participate that day. And so it was a really fun time for them and a really great way to see this go full circle. Now I'll talk about our partners in education initiatives a little bit tools for teachers. We partnered again with challenge office products and registration filled in five minutes. It was the fastest ever. It was crazy. Like I thought something happened that bad but it wasn't bad. It was
036good. And so 1,250 educators were offered a $100 shopping coupon. And we served 23 out of our 25 districts through this program. And this year we have $125,000 dollars allocated. Again, these are some of the students that got some of the uh supplies. And then we have our grants program. And so, as you can see in the red, a lot of the grants that we awarded went to college and career readiness. And then it was kind of almost a tie between STEM and special education initiatives. And so, we were able to fund 12 grants to 12 districts. A total of $100,000 was awarded. And this year, we have $100,000 more to award. And then our scholarship celebration. This is actually one of my favorite things to do. I love seeing the scholarship students get their
037awards and how proud their families are. And this year we awarded 13 scholarships totaling $32,500. And um we had we changed it up a little bit from last year. Uh we had a former scholarship student come and share some words of advice and encouragement. And we had our first underwriter, Stellar Bank, who also presented a scholarship. And we also had two student scholarships that were um funded by HEB. And we also had a few inind donations. Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages and Labesa ice cream came and they brought some more goodies for us. So it really enhanced that event. And this year we're allocating $30,000 for scholarships. And then our civic engagement highlights. Um, so our civic engagement team has been really pounding the pavement, going out and working with students and families, um, with lots of
038engagement across HCDE. And as you can see in that top left, you can see that that's whenever we were recognized at city hall for civic health month and also some of those students there getting some books about voting. But two other exciting things that happened was the summer civic art trip that Case was able to participate in. They got to go jump on a bus and check out some really great art and murals and learn about being civically engaged and also the Texas Capitol field trip for Foris and um it was a really fun way to for those students to learn about civ civic engagement but also getting parents involved. know the Head Start programs going out to their meetings and sharing with their families how how they can get more informed about voting and
039providing re resources for naturalization. And then here's a recap of my goals. So, I actually inherited my FY24 goals because I haven't been here that long. I'm going to celebrate my 2-year anniversary in March. I'm really excited. and um my FY25 goals and then um my FY26 goals. And so I'm really hoping for a very successful year this year and definitely counting on my board and my interns to help me make it a successful year. And with that, what questions do you have for me? And these are some of our board members here. >> Thank you, Miss Silva. Mr. Cobbert has a question. I'd just like to say that, you know, um it's cool to see our foundation start to actualize what it was designed to do. And I hear it from the other end.
040I hear it from the superintendent perspective and from the educator's perspective. And uh they're appreciative to it and I see them looking forward and seeking out support. Uh evidence of this is the grants and how many requests that we have have. I've always said we'll know we're doing well when we start turning down some of the people who've requested grants because we have so many people requesting them. There's a line and it will make them more valuable also. So, I I think that you've done a very good job in in leading this division. I thought the golf tournament was excellent. Um it's difficult for Harris County Department of Ed to host a full-blown golf tournament when we have no alumni. We don't have an attendance zone. Now, there are other organizations that still do big
041golf tournaments, but they're not always easy to do. I had never conceptualized having a golf tournament at Topgolf, and I've been playing golf for a long time. I've never heard of that, but I was thoroughly impressed with how well that tournament, how well it was run. It was airond conditioned. I ate chicken wings and nachos. And even people who didn't know how to play golf still had fun. And then we ultimately got $40,000 in what, four hours or something like that. That's, you know, it's better than being in a six-hour golf tournament in 100 degree heat with dust and bugs and everything else running around. So, um I really look forward to see uh us continue to do things that have actually worked for us while trying to travel and navigate into new space to
042provide additional opportunity for ISD. So, thank you for your leadership again. Thank you, Miss Silva. Great report. I appreciate you sharing your goals. Um I'm I'm doing a an exercise with my staff uh asking them to put some goals together for the year. And so I appreciate you sharing those because I think it helps keep keep ourselves on track. Um um question, do we accept uh I know we reach out to school districts to invite them to apply for grants. Do we uh accept grant requests from community organizations, nonprofits? >> No, they have to come directly from the school district. So either administration or their education foundations and if they have someone that they're trying to work with like that is a community organization, they can work with that community organization to come up with
043a grant to submit to us. >> Yeah. Because I think I reached out or I some uh an organization reached out to me to to share their their work that they do within HISD. They provide um basic hygiene products and toiletries and stuff to kids that are in need. And they started in one school and they're now serving the entire district. And I just thought if you know that if we could help them a little bit because, you know, they work throughout >> the area that we work in. Uh >> but yeah, they may have to. >> And I did get connected with them. >> Oh, you did? Okay. Okay. I was trying to remember their name. I was looking up their information. I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but
044yeah, I got connected with them and >> very impressed. I actually went out to visit. It's a a group of ladies in Myerland that basically rent a house and the entire house is just full of supplies and that they get donated and >> um amazing. >> Yeah. Anytime we can connect with groups like that that are >> practically fully, you know, uh volunteer run, it's it's a it's a no-brainer. um just uh impressed that we're moving forward and getting bigger and getting busier with the foundation. I remember those back days back in the day when we had to fight to to keep the foundation alive and to move it forward. So, I'm really really personally gra uh glad to see that uh our foundation is thriving. And I do want to put a plug in
045for uh for the idea of us having our own golf tournament with all the golfers that we have uh in house and all the connections that we have within all the other districts. Um I think it'd be a no-brainer. I think we would have a great uh I think we could raise over $100,000 doing a golf tournament. So >> you'll be on the committee. >> I will. >> Fundraising chair. Anybody else? >> Yeah, I did. U Thank you so very much for the work that you're doing and congratulations on your two years coming up. I just have one question. What are some if any challenges that you may have fundraising like getting the donors, individual donors, uh or corporate donors? >> I think in my first year here, what I was having issues was uh
046with the lack of a database. And so that's been something that I've been working on the last year is building up that donor database. We actually have like a CRM that we use and um my previous role I was at University of Houston. We had a lot of donors in there because of alumni. And that's been something that has been hard for me. I didn't get, you know, inherit this database of alumni. And so I'm building that. I'm working with my board to build that. I need um people to give me leads to people that are um interested in supporting education initiatives and that have deep pockets and um and then also building a portfolio for myself and my board members so that we can work together to fundraise more. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh
047I liked your goals as well. I know we're not a part of this specific, but I know we're with HCD and I would challenge your board with the rest of the board and see who can make the most money on um trying to do something with that. So, just keep us posted and I'd like to be more involved in a way that the superintendent feels necessary. And um thank you again. Thank you. All right. Uh, next is uh any reports from board members concerning attendance, participation in a board or HCD related conference, event, activity or committee accolades for HCDE staff member or any other deser deserving person. >> Oh no. Justin McGee. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um would like to uh I'm wanted to use one of your athletic just giving us opportunity athletic
048comparisons to say in hiring Miss Westbrooks, you hit it out of the park. And so it's great to great to have her uh here. But I wanted to share wanted to share that trustee Duhan and myself were able to participate in the uh head starts surprise visit. U we sat down last uh was that Wednesday last Wednesday and we were part of the board uh interview for that and process went extremely well for us and I think overall it went well. Um and so we're just uh really fortunate to have uh Head Start and what we contribute uh to certainly young learners and um it was just tremendous opportunity that kind of a surprise visit is really kind of scary to a certain extent but uh we were so well prepared for it and Trusty
049Dun did an outstanding job so we uh really grateful to be a part of that and glad that it went so well which is just uh representative of the great things that things that we continue to do here at HCD. So, I just uh love being a part of this organization. Uh really do meaning a great deal. Thanks for the award earlier, Dumba, but but thank you. I'll just add to that that Trusty McGee was um an integral part of making sure that we got across the information that we needed to in that conversation and you did a wonderful job and our administration makes that role so very easy because everything was aligned the way that it should have been. There were no gotcha questions that we needed to worry about because there is no
050gotcha. you you've got it. You got it all taken care of and you know what you're doing and it made our role very easy in that conversation. So, thank you. I would like to take some time to um address um I want to I want to I want to be positive as well as uh bring some constructive criticism. So, one of the things that I uh is a big deal to me because I'm uh I've run community centers, been in charge of buildings and properties throughout my career at uh Houston Parks and Wreck and uh neighborhood centers now Baker Ripley. And so I uh really hold in high regard when buildings and properties are uh wellmaintained and uh um uh I'm always ready to give a shout out to those that do that work. Uh
051the unsung heroes that keep our restrooms clean, keep our uh grounds delittered and looking nice. Um, and I and I just want to say if I haven't said it before or enough that our team here does a great job and uh especially the restrooms. I'm just like it's uh never never have I encountered anything disappointing. It's always been top top job. uh uh as well as I did point out many years ago that we needed to kind of spruce up our entryway and since then uh the plants, the the flowers, the trees, everything's been kept up really nice. Um and so shout out to to Julie especially uh because her and I have had conversations about that. Uh, but I I do need to bring up uh an issue that I've brought up before and
052I'm disappointed that I have to, but need we need to step up uh the the maintenance and care of the the trees at our new building across the street. Uh, currently there's I think three dead trees. Um, and and I went by there this morning on the way in just to double check that we had u uh irrigation and there is irrigation. So, that's not an excuse. Uh, I'm not sure what's going on there. But we need to It's a beautiful building. It's a I take much pride in that building because I'm really passionate about what we do there. Uh but just that little detail, those couple of trees there that just don't I don't know what's going on. We need to double check the the soil or or the the the watering uh cycle
053or something. But uh uh that's a a small blemish that needs to be addressed. And I just uh wanted to bring that up because I think it's important that that it looks top-notch. And then uh on a lighter note, I want to uh express a happy birthday. Today's my twins 22nd birthday. Uh Carlos and Katya. I'm very proud of of them. Uh they're both working, going to school at Lonear. Um especially proud of Carlos because he's, as his older brother says, he's living his dream. uh on on his way to become a Harris County Sheriff deputy. He's currently a detention officer at Harris County Jail, which is uh kind of scary, but uh he's enjoying it. And he comes home with really really uh great stories almost every day. And so uh uh proud of
054them. U keep up the good work. And I think my son's home. He's off today. So keep up the good work. walking. Okay, there we go. Um, I know this is just a small fraction of all the people that make HCDE what it is, but I just wanted to express my gratitude. I didn't really know what I was like walking into this morning with the board appreciation um event and I just, you know, I kept saying to my fellow, I'm like, I'm very overwhelmed. This is so incredible because I think I know I feel very uh blessed and I have a lot of gratitude to just even get to be here. So, it's like I'm grateful for you guys and it was I don't know very um emotionally overwhelming to to have people come up
055to us and like thank us for our service and I'm like, "Oh my god, you guys make it so easy. This is the best place ever." And I just wanted to thank everyone for just it was really unexpected. And next year I won't be as surprised probably. But yeah, this year I was like, what is happening? I have no idea what's going on. Uh, but it was really amazing and incredible and I'm just uh filled with a lot of gratitude that I get to be part of this organization and this board and I love my fellow trustees. >> Any any reports from board committees? If not, we will move on to our action items, our consensus. Do we have any request to pull anything out of order? >> If not, we'll entertain a motion to
056approve our consensus. >> Got a motion by Dr. Davis, second by Trustee McGee. Any discussion? All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes unanimously. >> Future business. >> Wow. That's it. No, no separate action items. >> Number nine. >> Any discussion or possible action regarding future agenda items? >> I would like a conversation about when we're going to have a board retreat. All right, we'll make note of that. I think that's all we got today, folks. That's uh yeah, the shortest meeting ever. Do I hear a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion by Dr. McGee. >> Second by you. Oh, Dr. Davis. Any discussion? Not. All those in favor raise your right hand. Motion passes unanimously. We are adjourned. Thank you very much, folks. >> 2:02 p.m.