001[Music] The board of trustees of the Harris County Department of Education is now convened in a regular board meeting on Wednesday, June 18th, 2025 in room 401 at 6300 Irving. ington Boulevard, Texas at 10:02 p.m. 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 pos 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 public. Prior to
002this meeting, board members received information related to items on today's agenda. Agenda items 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 this meeting, the board may determine that a closed 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 551.071 071 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. Hello everyone. All right, so we will
003begin with invocation. Uh, and we have Janet W walks. Janet walks. Now, if you could bow your heads and and Hello. [Applause] Sorry y'all. This was written when uh my big brother passed away. And so it just takes me a sec, but we'll get there because God is good and he gave it to me. Father God, in the name of Jesus, we give thanks this day for the great blessings you have provided us. We thank you for the gifts and talents you have given each and every one of us here to be used to help others as you guide us, saying, "The footsteps of a righteous person are ordered of the Lord." with your guidance. Oh, hello. We are here at HCDE to serve, protect and encourage our community so that they may in turn
004show the same kindness and caring towards others. We will turn obstacles and make we will turn obstacles into making opportunities using these talents all to your glory. May these words of our mouths and the meditations of our heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, Janet. All right. Next, we have the pledge of allegiance. Perla Hernandez. 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 thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Okay, we have no one for open forum. So, we will move on to reports and presentations. And we're going to start with recognition of Junth. President
005Henosa, members of the board, Mr. Colbert, tomorrow is Yeah, tomorrow is Junth, which has become a federal holiday and has been celebrated around Texas um for a couple years. So, the comm's team put together a video to honor and recognize this new federal holiday. [Music] On June 19th, 1865, 2 and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation, enslaved African-Americans in Galveston, Texas, finally received news of their freedom. This day, known as Junth, marks a powerful moment in our history, and it began right here in Texas. Following emancipation, education was an essential next step to empowerment. For generations, African-Americans were denied access to education and self-sufficiency. More than 90 schools were built in the years that followed, creating spaces where black communities could learn, belong, and redefine freedom on their own terms. We honor Junth by
006continuing the work of excellence through education. From Head Start classrooms to adult learners, Harris County Department of Education supports educational access and opportunity for all 365 days a year because education keeps us moving forward. HCDE proudly celebrates Junth. [Music] [Applause] All right. Next is the superintendent monthly report. Mr. Colbert, thank you. I just have two things to update you to. Um, you have a couple of reminders at your station. First, on July 24th, um 2025, we have a professional translators conference. This is a uh first time we're doing this. Uh I'd like to thank Stephanie Delis Santos for all of her hard work. She has advocated for translation with Harris County Department of Ed uh tirelessly um for a number of years, and this is really the culmination of that. So hopefully this will be
007the first of many to come. The second flyer that you have is for the 2025 convocation. Our theme for this year is HCDE is varsity. Uh we will explain more of what that is all about when y'all come to convocation, but you are also driven with a task prior to coming to convocation. If you do choose to partake and come to our convocation, we would ask that you look in your closet or you may have a box in the attic or a storage unit and you need to dig through it and find the old pair of sneakers that you wore in high school, your favorite pair of sneakers. Now, some of y'all that might be some Nikes, some Jordans. Others may have some Ksw Swiss or British Knights and Some folks got Converse, Chuck Taylor's,
008not much cushion in those shoes. But I would invite you that if you can't find them or your foot might be a little bit larger now, Trusty McGee, that you might get on Amazon or whatever and try to find those favorite pair of sneakers that the ones that you always wanted, you might not have been able to afford them. And I would invite you to find those sneakers and wear those and bring them to convocation along with your spirit. This is uh an annual event that we do where we like to come together as a family, have fellowship, um and also to get fired up for the beginning of the school year. And so this is the first invitation for that. It will be on August 8th from I'm Let me put my glasses on.
009Uh we'll open doors at 8. The program will begin at 10. With that, that's all I have. Thank you. And we'll move on to the annual division update with communications and client engagement. Good afternoon, President Hanosa, board of trustees, and superintendent Colbert. I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to highlight HCDE's marketing and client engagement division. As a director of marketing and client engagement, I'm Stephanie Delos Santos, by the way, if somebody didn't know. Um, it is my privilege to begin today's presentation by introducing you to the members of the HCDE marketing team. I'm going to start with Janet Walks, who's our assistant director. If you can please stand and stay standing. Lynette Gonzalez Tonsil, client engagement coordinator. Luis Sanchez, marketing coordinator. Wendy Utterbach, translations coordinator. The one I was tyrously asking for, Jade
010Swan, administrative assistant, and we are currently looking for replacing our marketing coordinator who just recently left because he moved to Dallas. Um, so we have that opening and we're interviewing, but you'll see in the picture an extra person in there. We have an honorary guest team member, Jasmine, and she is my daughter. She's joining us today. So I will say that although we are we are small in number we are mighty in the quality of work that we produce which I truly believe makes us the best team here at HCDE as many other divisions say division directors say collectively our small but mighty team has done exceptional work we love that word throughout the year as you will see to in today's presentation. MCE continues to push forward in achieving division goals by providing marketing
011support to our revenue generating divisions and nonrevenue generating divisions as well as o overall marketing efforts of HCDE. The various ways we support HCDE are through trade shows and email marketing. There's a longer list here, but I'm just going to highlight a few. translation services, podcast, event support, advertising, swag, and much more. As you can see on this slide, a few highlights for this year is we received 11 state awards, including best of category at this year's Texas Public School Relations Association, which we call Tespra conference in February. We've done approximately 20 presentations which include trainings um vendor member workshops t-spra and PRSA breakout sessions online learning CRM training and of course PTIC presentations. The best of category was for the inaugural EFHC heart of education fundraiser lunchin program booklet. We were very proud of
012that. So key highlights. The final key highlight that I have today is that we are launching on July 24th. MCE is launching 8CDE's inaugural professional translators and interpreters conference, also known as PIKIC. This is the first of its kind in Texas. We had to go to California, you know, to get our training, but we're bringing it to Texas and we're excited about that. Each of you should have a printed invitation in front of you and we hope that you can attend at least for a little bit. The next few slides that I will quickly go through contain the work we have done throughout the year by the number. We have designed and pushed out more than 30 e newswsletters and podcasts. We continue to put systems in place and processes in place and an effort
013to work smarter and not harder. key. This year, we were able to assist Fortis Academy in their accreditation process with a strategic marketing plan and a crisis PR plan. We have attended 30 trade shows and have distributed more than $10,000 worth of HCDE swag. So, you can be sure that the HCDE name is out there. We um this year alone we sent out more than 350 eblasts um and executed 40 plus email marketing campaigns. We also assisted with more than 30 events. Other areas of accomplishment includes welcoming 120 new members for CP, more than 150 translations and interpretations, more than 80 advertisements and PSAs, and more than 350 social media posts on LinkedIn and division social media platforms. We are looking forward for the next year to continuing um create increasing the visibility of HCDE
014and the various divisions at conferences and through presentations. Thank you for your time. Oh, what questions do you have? I was trying to get away from that, but any questions from the board? I would just like to say how hard our marketing team actually works when we go to these uh conferences. Okay, Trusty McGee's got his heart out. I thought I hid that from him, but he's found it. I can't do it, right? But um you know, these the exhibit halls are huge with hundreds of different companies with tons of swag. And you know, I like to always make our way in finding our booth. And I just I'm always like, man, y'all have been standing here for hours. You got to be exhausted. We get the carpet though. Yes. But um it's always cool
015to bump into people during the sessions who've actually stopped by the booth and they've got some of our stuff. And I just really appreciate all the support that you provide, not only to representing HCD externally, but also helping us internally. You know, we just recently had the signing day where, you know, somewhere in there is the DNA from, you know, um, our comm's department is embedded in some of the things that we marketing. Yeah. And so, um, I would also say that, you know, an important thing is promoting the services that we provide. Uh I had a lunch yesterday with uh region 4's executive director and it's just interesting that as similar as we are in some ways they still don't know some of the things that we do and they're surprised like man that's
016really unique. We didn't know that y'all did that. And so but the people that we provide the services do. So thank you to you Stephanie and your department. Y'all do an excellent job and I appreciate you. Thank you. Appreciate that. [Applause] Okay, now on to communications. I'm Lindseay Sanders, director of communications and creative services. I also want to start by introducing my team. Uh, when I say your name, please stand. Um, Angel Verdeo, who's already standing over there. Uh, Carl Gladzels, our graphic design manager. Debbie Sanchez Trice in the back, multimedia manager. Oliver Dyke, our web content coordinator. Rosac Aorid, creative content coordinator. I skipped Juan Lopez, creative content coordinator. Mity Loera, multimedia production coordinator. Jessica Leang, also in the back, multimedia content coordinator. Shelby Tran, communications coordinator. Shelby Buckteen, events coordinator, and Emily Ortiz,
017administrative assistant. Give them a round of applause, please. [Music] [Applause] I also want to play a quick video. I can't get up here and not play a video from um our communications team. And so it's just an overview of HDD and our services. This was played throughout social media, a lot of our events that that took place this year to just give our audience an idea of what we do. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat [Music] up here. [Music] [Applause] Okay. So, how do we support HGD? Uh, okay. I'm just going to uh we do it through internal and external communications. um storytelling through a number of different channels uh through our website and internet, social media, photography, graphic design and video production like you
018just saw through publications, through media relations, um reputation management and event planning as well. And so through this we touch every division in HCDE. I will quickly go through some data highlights from the last year. I want to start with our website. We currently maintain 217 pages on the website, over 3,000 documents, and we received 1.3 million views um on all of our websites combined this last year. Videos, uh the video team produced more than 100 videos. A photo team shot, edited, and published more than 3,000 photos. Um we saw a huge uptick in our video views this year, more than 1.2 million views on social media and through uh YouTube. and specifically on social media. Um, our views went up more than 100% this year. Uh, print and digital assets. Uh, we printed more
019than 6,000 pieces and this could be anything from um flyers for an event, signage for many of our events, ECWC, ECWC and things like that. Um, and then uh quadfolds for our schools and our um external divisions. the the writing team produced more than 213 stories that went on the blog and our internal communications. And then each week uh we produced two digital um digital newsletters. And so overall that was about 95 newsletters. The connector that goes to the board every Friday and then the hub that goes directly to inboxes for staff every Monday. Social media was also we saw a huge uptick in social media this year. Uh we almost doubled our posts. Um, and with that we saw a 10% increase in audience growth across three of our platforms. That includes Facebook, X,
020and Instagram. We also had more than six million views across all of our platforms. So, that was a real highlight for us this year. And then events. We have an event coordinator on staff. So, um, they help plan and support 13 different events, including our picnic in the parking lots for staff, our annual celebration of excellence, chili cookoff, and our, um, helping CES with the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. some of our key highlights. Um, internal communications is a huge part of what we do, making sure that staff feel engaged and involved. Um, and so this year we launched in December, we launched the portal, which is our new internet. This enhanced functionality for staff. It got them more engaged. Each week we have new information, new polls. We even have an HCDE community section
021with social forums so staff can connect uh socially as well as professionally. Um, and easier resource sharing for staff. Each division has their own team site, so it's easy to share those resources with their own teams and with other divisions. We have seen over 284,000 views to date on um the portal on the website. And then we also have a mobile app. So staff like therapy services that are off-site, they can easily access the portal as well. And we've seen over 28,000 mobile views. Some more um highlights are uh presentation or um participation in conferences. Um, as Stephanie mentioned, um, both MCE and communications teams did very well at Teespr this year. This is this we won 32 statewide gold star awards, including a best of award for some of our Head Start promotions. And
022then the team presented at multiple state conferences, um, leading sessions on leading multigenerational teams, using AI to enhance videos and events, and then communicating climate and culture through storytelling. We also saw, we talk a lot about filling the gaps at HGD. Um, we found a couple of gaps in school communications as well. Um, this year, this past May, we worked with the chief communications officer as well as MCE to lead a communicating and chaos mini conference. Um, and this we um had more almost a hundred different school communications professionals across the state participate virtually and in person to talk about how we communicate and promote our school districts in a choice environment. this was a gap that was missing in um public relations um professional development. And so we thought this was a place where
023we could step in and help school districts with their communications. And then last September, we also held a regional event um where communications professionals could come meet media members and media partners to see what they're looking for, how to send press releases um and how to get their events um in their newscasts as well. And of course, we have our ongoing marketing campaigns and we added a new one this year. So, the marketing campaigns um this year were the overall HUD awareness campaign, two recruiting campaigns, one for schools and then one for Head Start staff as well as the new addiction awareness campaign. And looking forward, of course, we always want to expand on what we're doing um and deepen the footprint and on on the website, social media, and through media relations. We want
024to enhance our internal communications and employee recognition events so staff feel um engaged and and get that belonging, that sense of belonging that HGD is known for. And then of course, we would love to continue leading school PR support for our surrounding districts. What questions do you have? Yeah, I'd just like to say um Comm's department is fantastic and um when I meet with other superintendants, it shocks me how aware they are of that department, you know, and I think they're always trying to steal people from our department. Some of them will boldly tell me that, too. Uh, I appreciate comms for pushing the boundaries with me. You know, I hate filming videos. Hate it. I'd rather do an hourlong speech on stage than do a video. Yeah, I don't do multiple texts either. But
025I mean, they've had me with wigs on and riding horses, our unicorns and and so I I think what I love about our comm's department because it it blends in with so many of our divisions. Perhaps it's the mortar that kind of holds the brick together. Um we rely on y'all to convey the story, to provide a message, and at times to even respond. And I think our department does a fantastic job of that. In fact, I would consider us the standard bearer when it comes to that. Um, I have seen a number of comm's departments seek out to replicate our systems. Um, I think recently when we've done recent activities, we're going to become the hub or the the safe space where they can come and learn and build and grow together. Not that
026we would teach them, but we're the place and space where that happens. Uh, our comm's department wins statewide awards and even national ones. And so, you know, it's so in line with what our objective is as an organization and as a system. And for every one of our divisions, which are unique, school districts don't have a lot of our divisions. You know, it takes a very effective comm's department to articulate not only what it does, but the impact it has. And I think y'all do a fantastic job of that. So, for that, I'm appreciative of all of y'all. So, thank you. Thank you. [Music] Thank you, Madam President. Uh Lindsay, outstanding job. Sanders and uh Stephanie as well. And and certainly I do I do love love comms uh dearly. Um I just wanted to
027tell a quick story if I could just always want to stop and uh let uh let you know how much I appreciate your assistance and I'll brag on Debbie a little bit. Debbie u Debbie and I guess Shelby as well. They did a the introductory video that's posted on the website for me and they did such a good job and this is the part that I really want to share with you. They did such a good job that when my wife and children saw the video they said we can use it at your funeral. I mean, that's that's literally how good it was. We So, we we're going to we're going to hold it back for a while, but uh that's how that's how good of a job that that you did. So, in making
028me look good. So, thank you for that. Angel comes and catches me at super mentors, but uh so thank you so much. I just would wanted to share that with you. You do you do an outstanding job. So, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. All right, up next is Choice Partners. Wait, is there Oh, it doesn't move, does it? Okay, let me play this real quick. All right. Good uh good afternoon board members. Good afternoon, Mr. Colbert. This is Lingua. My name is Jeff Drury with Choice Partners. Um you know, you say we're the unicorn. We're kind of the unicorn within the unicorn. I think a lot of you guys have heard me before except our our newest trustee. So, u some of my stuff might be a little old.
029Anyway, um I got to start off just with a a little bit of a downer because I'm going to have to repeat myself uh from something I said last year and I know y'all probably don't want to always repeat, but just remember three words and and you'll remember. Uh best year ever. Uh we're tracking a million and a half dollars ahead of last year. So, we're having a good year. So, Choice is Choice is doing well. And I want to say uh the reason for that success. We have a number of people and it's pretty hard for me to stand up here. I'd love to to give you a dissertation on everybody in our exceptional team, but I would like for the exceptional folks to stand up for a moment to be recognized. [Applause] [Music]
030Thank you. I sit there and look at the faces and I see how much has changed within 10 years, but they just keep keep cranking. We keep having a lot of our folks recruit better and better people. It it's it's a great thing to see and it and it's a it's a lot of fun. And uh as uh the uh what was it called? The signing day when Mattress Mack was talking and he said, "If you truly enjoy your job, you're never going to go to work." I haven't been to work in 10 years now. So this is fun. I enjoy it. This is a as a great time, great team, and uh we love being part of HCDE. We're going to talk a little bit just real quick about who we are, what we
031do. I think it may be repetitive for some folks and uh hopefully our newest trustee may find out a little bit about what a purchasing cooperative is, who we are, what we do. Uh we have seven these are just numbers 733 active contracts right now about 25 a little over 2500 members kind of if you drew a pie chart about 37% are K12 uh school districts nationwide not just Texas. Uh we're growing national reach. We just keep going by leaps and bounds uh as far as uh going out and uh and going to other states, going to conferences, getting members. We have a little contract with the company called Amazon. I think they're in about 16 or 17 states now. So, we're just and we were at zero two years ago. So, we're just just
032we we keep growing uh the footprint also. I know that's always a goal. I I hear it in in all the board meetings. And so, we're trying to do trying to do our little part. uh the comprehensive support. We get a ton of support from folks like MCE, from our purchasing department. They help us with a lot of our events. Uh we have I think we have only one group that's out this week, but typically in any week, especially in the w in the summer or some some of the busy parts of the year, we may be at three or four or five different events, different states, same week. We're out out and about all the time and and it requires a lot of work from uh Stephanie, Lindsay, all the all the uh marketing
033communications teams, obviously Dr. and the purchasing people, but uh anyway, uh some of our highlights for this year. Um probably goes without saying, but uh we'd like to say that we're uh an exceptional and a top performing team. the highest revenue and operating margin per employee for every person that we have, regardless of what job they do, it all contributes to uh the difference between our cost of operation and the uh the money we bring in. And so that'll be in a slide coming up here in just a second, but it's about $478,000 per employee as far as operate operating margin. And that's the difference between cost and sale. That's not just total sales. uh our expansion and outreach. We've started going to a lot of the ASBO events. We're all familiar with TASBO K
034through 12. This year we went to Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, California, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and uh we're getting some getting some footholds in some of these places also, but it's it it's it's tough sledding because uh people don't like to give up their territory that much, but but uh but we're we're fighting it. Uh just one of the influences that we come across, lower admin fees. We had a major competitor this year that uh just just finally said, "Oh, we're going from 2% to 1 and a half% in a certain group of uh of uh contracts they have." And it's like we we we get we fight kicking and screaming with that race to the bottom, but sometimes we have to follow that race to the bottom in order to to get business. So, you'll see
035that in another slide also. We talk about kind of where the admin fees are going. we kind of have to seem to work a little bit harder all the time. But, uh, our team growth, very happy and excited about our team growth. We've got a couple of field reps that have been, uh, purchasing directors and a third one coming on uh, that have worked at at places like uh, La Hoya in the in the valley, Eagle Mountain, Sagenol, Fort Worth ISD, Dallas ISD, Richardson ISD, and held director positions, things like that. So, it's great when they go out and talk to a lot of their friends. They're they're really not working either. They've they've worked there 25 30 years and I go to these conferences and they're like, "Hey, Jeff, come over here. Come meet
036my my good buddy." And these are people on the Tasbo board and all this people that I couldn't approach in the past and now we're now we're friends. So, our field reps, we've made some nice nice additions there also. And I'll just read the last part with align goals success becomes sustainable. It's the difference between simply functioning and truly excelling. We have everybody pulling in the same direction. Makes life much easier for all of us. Key highlights. These are actual uh numbers before we get to a few of these little graphs. And I know sometimes your eyes glaze over with graphs, but that's kind of how we live and breathe and and to understand things. A billion dollars in member reported spend across all contracts for this year or anticipated. Last year we gave out
037over a million dollars in rebates. It's our second year. Remember you said let's let's try it for a couple years. I think it's kind of a resounding success. So I think we hopefully with your blessing we're going to move forward. But this is our second year and it and it just seems to keep helping us on and on and on as far as people want rebates. I know they're talking calling Christina Jane some of our folks saying where's my rebate? What how much do I get in a rebate? That's good when you have them. I'd rather them call us than call someone else. So that's great. Uh 15 new contracts awarded across uh growing categories and the expanded national footprint. We talked about that just a second ago with some of the ASBOs. We also
038go to places like NIGP uh government procurement and NAP which is educational procurement national shows. Been to Florida, South Carolina, Colorado, a lot of different places. So we're getting more exposure uh in across the US with that also with those type shows and groups. Okay. These are just some of the numbers that we were talking about and uh you can see this past year it was 128 I think we're uh projected just depending again we have about two and a half months left so we don't know how the year is going to end up but we should be at or above that number uh from last year and if you look at the orange graph our expenses haven't gone up crazy we're still right there 2 million 2 and a half whatever the number is
039and then that gray graph That's what you really want to look at. That's that that that uh net operating margin. It seems to keep growing and growing. As long as we can kind of keep our expenses in line and keep uh keep adding adding revenue, adding fees, if you will, admin fees, uh we will uh continue to do well. Margin per employee. This is what I was talking about. And that's what I think this is a the it's one of the most beautiful graphs in my opinion is that uh I know it's as beautiful as a graph can be uh is that we're at almost $500,000 per employee and that's that's after covering expenses that helps go back to to uh help out uh ACDE the community everything else that's uh that's out there that
040we do. Uh admin fee. This is not the most fun slide, but it is what it is. I think the the number between the 2.37 to 1.37 is about 30 35% decrease, which you know, it's like paying your bills with 35% less income than you had last year with the same expenses. So, we have to keep uh increasing that expense because or the dollar amount of billing because those uh percentages keep going down and down. Oh, I went a little too far. Okay. How do I back it up? Previous. Pre previous. Oh, no. That's it. Okay. All right. Some of the priorities we have going forward is uh hiring, empire, empowering staff with meaningful training, enabling them to succeed early, help drive the cooperative growth. Uh we've had uh uh nice this nice this year
041as far as adding some employees and some headcount next year. We've already got uh I know Dr. Sylvester and his team, we've already got all those things posted and we're ready to rock and roll and bring some people on to uh help grow our team and uh and get going there. Uh we're going to uh engage in some we call them CP hosted engagements and orientations. We've actually had a little bit of a lull. I know we've had a few things happen in the building recently, but we just uh need to get back to doing more of those. People like I think there's still a little bit of that co effect that's still there. People still like to engage and be around people and and and interact. So, uh we need to start doing some
042of those not only local hosted at NPO andor Irvington, but we've had them in places like Arlington, uh Fort Worth, uh Grapevine, San Antonio down in the valley. So, those are places that we need to get back out to more. And uh our uh filling of some of the spots with the field reps being out there knowing a lot of our customers is really helping accelerate that back. Also, um you know, just a lot of the other things are are fairly self-explanatory. Um continue the path building consistent operations, measurable performance metrics. So, we not only like to work, we like to have fun. These are a lot of our events that we've had in the past, our celebration last year for having the the great year in the bottom left in the top. I believe
043that was Tasbo last year. Uh that's their big show in uh February, March of every year. And uh uh that was our award ceremony uh in January. Mr. Cobbert spoke. He's we've had him come for a number of years. We want to continue that. and uh Miss Arita with uh employee of the month there. That was a great great honor for her. And uh this is one of our field repres Bethany at at one of our trade shows. So we don't just only focus on numbers. We like to have a lot of fun. And look, our picture in the middle was uh uh supporting uh Trina and the Harris County Education Foundation. You see our cheerleading team here with Dr. Amqua there. Looks like he's working hard there. I don't know if uh I don't
044know if anybody want to have to do all that hard work. Pink day. So, we love to participate. We had our little card that went out with all of our faces on uh kind of Christmas boxes or whatever. Uh that uh that marketing and and comm's I guess it was marketing. Sorry, Stephanie. All right. Sorry. Just marketing. Sorry, Lindsay. I don't want to give you false false credit, Lindsay. But uh and then uh a lot of our shows we have themes and uh as Mr. Colbert doesn't like wearing his unicorn hat and all that. I can't tell you that I just really cherish this stuff, but uh but being a being a good sport, I I get to dress up in some uh some funky outfits and so does our whole team and our whole
045team really gets into the spirit and uh like I said, we don't I don't have to work I haven't had to work a day in my life for about the past almost 10 years now. So, I'm just going to let y'all look at that and read that. And I would also like to thank our ELT team member, Dr. Michelle Williams, that helps us out and helps lead us and and and and advise us on things. And uh I'd like to know what kind of questions you have for us. Any questions from the board? Yes. Sorry, you're on. You're on. Hello there. Thank you for your presentation. I do recall a lot of your priorities are similar to in the past. So, I just would like to say that if there's anything that we need to
046do to invest in your team culture, um your hosted engagements and or the strategies for member-driven operatives, please let us know because I do recall these priorities being a priority before. And so, um please just let us know if there's something we could do, especially with investing in team culture. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Go ahead. I just like to say, you know, Choice Partners, I call y'all the Excalibur because you're really like the secret sauce to really Harris County Department of Fed success. We would not be able to build new schools if it wasn't from the revenue of Choice Partners. Um, we would not be able to lower the tax rate at the rate that we've been doing for over 10 years in a row if it were not for Choice Partners. We would
047not be putting money into fund balance if it wasn't because of choice partners. We wouldn't be able to lower fee structures to the services that we provide to ISDs where they're getting services below cost if it were not for Choice Partners. You know, the interesting thing about Choice is that amongst their tribe of all the different um buyer co-ops, they're an anomaly. you know the their people are not getting commissions and bonus checks and going on these fancy trips and doing all this stuff and they're not doing that at all. They have a different mission that's more of a righteous mission and they believe in the mission of Harris County Department of Ed where we're trying to serve the community, the public, and they see themselves even though they could easily be a private entity
048but they embrace the mission of a public servant. And so I so appreciate our choice partners and I believe in everything that y'all are doing. Jeff is a workaholic. We played in a golf tournament last week and he's on his freaking phone half the golf tournament talking to Stephen. Steph CJ's yelling at him, "Get off your phone, man. You got to putt. Come on, Jeff." You know, and I'm like, "Someone go hit for Jeff. He's on the phone, you know, and it's like it's nonstop." And so, you know, it's it's really kind of the engine to the organization that helps propel us forward because we know we have something that generates revenue unlike any division here that's it's designed to do that. And so, um, you have an exceptional staff that's dedicated to supporting Harris
049County Department of Ed. They are focused and experts at what they do. Uh, y'all have a good morale and y'all are always doing something corny. It seems like dressing up as Batman or whatever. Yeah, Trisha's not here. She's usually the ring leader for the the goofiness. It's hilarious. So, I just really want all y'all to know how much I appreciate y'all and I know the board does, too. And we appreciate everything that you do for Harris County Department of Ed. Before I sit down, can we have them stand one more time? Yes. Let's give up a great team. [Applause] Trusty McGee is is throwing it hard. You know, I thought we were on kiss. I I wasn't going to say anything, but I was hoping that that we'd get the get the uh get the
050nod there. Okay. I was I was going to open with that and say there's nothing on underneath here. White t-shirt. I knew you didn't want to see that again. Once is enough. All right. Nothing else. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] any reports from board members concerning attendance and participation in board or HCDE related conference. I figured I just want to um update that I was able to attend the summer leadership institute for TASBY uh last week and it was amazing as always. There were several sessions that I was able to attend that I got some new information which I think this was the fourth conference I've attended. Um the only one that I didn't attend was in 2020 but year after year we're still still able to get wonderful information from these sessions
051and they're really fabulous to attend. Um it was incredibly fun and we were grateful for the company that we had there. So attend if you can guys. Thanks. Anyone else? All right. Any reports from committees? And on to monthly financial reports. Dr. Mesa. [Laughter] Clear the room. I'll let them clear out. Not during the summer. I was looking for it too. I was like, "Oh, it's dude at the camp." Right. This is the uh these are financial highlights as of May 31st, 2025. Um, and I want to make a preview announcement. Uh, we have a a notice coming from the transparency star from the controllers's office. Um, we should get it formalized next month. Uh, we have four stars and we're getting a fifth star on pensions. Oh, there's five stars. There's five stars. Uh,
052that's as many as we can get. There's actually a six star, but we were not eligible for that one. So, we'll we'll we'll get it next month. How many stars did they go up to? six gen six but um the highlights for May 173 in t uh K in tax revenue this month uh debt service payments our next one is in August uh we're at 69% uh year-to- date revenues and 62% in expenditures uh 47 million in equity as of May uh 50,11 in March donations uh values at 660 billion out of 665 billion projected uh 7.3 million benefit variance and you will see more of that from choice uh when we get to that slide. A foundation at 286,000k in equity. Uh 10% small business uh report will be uh um later on in
053the slide as well. Uh 99% of the urban project and and they're all just pending the uh retainage release uh for the to to complete those those projects. And uh I just want to mention to you at the end of the meeting. We send it to you electronically, but we have a the budget book uh that we'll give you so you can take with you. We'll have the budget workshop next uh next week. And so we'll have a a copy for you. We'll give it to Jessica to to distribute. Um and then we have some budget amendments uh that we'll we'll review uh through the uh through the process. So budget calendar June 24th is our bud uh board workshop here. Uh and then we'll have uh July 16 another workshop and budget adoption. uh
054tenatively will receive the the certified values around August 25th and then determine if we need to adopt uh in September 17 or in October depending on whether we're going to uh you know depending on the values and whether we are above or below the uh no new revenue rate we will see that based on the new new truth in taxation calculations in terms of the balance sheet we're at 52 million in assets 3 million in liabilities and equity of 47 million. Uh we have uh 14.2 million in excess uh revenues over expenses as of May which will be utilized between now and August. Our u ratios financial ratios we are at 43% in fund balance to in the general fund. Um and working capital ratio it's a little higher at 48 48 million than than
055a year ago. Our unassigned fund balance, we're at 42% of total and debt to income ratio, we're at 4.5. Uh our combined debt, uh still at 82 million as of uh May 31st. The uh tax revenue to total revenue ratio, we're at 29%. And then the indirect cost ratio uh is at 2.7%. The fee for service uh re revenues we're at 19% the same as last year and then the growth is actually negative at this point in time primarily because some of our contracts that have been uh um because we didn't um receive them because of the whole that uh a couple of the uh divisions and then also the uh a school that uh we could not take on additional uh contracts. Uh we have previous uh budget amendments. Uh we had 350,000 leadership
056academy prairie view grand match uh facilities and then uh tax uh reduction and uh we have a new uh budget amendment for 1,789,450 and primarily is for the supplement the NPO Hback system. Again, budget to actual we're at u 69% and expenditures or outflows are 62% year-to- date. Um donations are $50,011 for the month of May and primarily those were uh donations that were made for Head Start uh the different uh Headstart centers. Year to date, the collections uh in terms of the property values, we started with 665 billion and right now we're only at 660 billion. So we'll have about 5 billion reductions, which means we'll we'll have a a loss of uh potential earnings of of that tax uh revenue um going forward because of the uh values that came in lower than
057than the previous uh when we started at the beginning of the year. Year to date in taxes we are at 30,690,549 or 95.7% collection from budget to actual. In terms of year-to-ate payments to HCAT and uh uh Harris County Tax Office, we're 734,248 in terms of our payments for appraisal and for tax collection. We're at 95.7% collection rate where we last year we were at 99% collection rate and a lot of that has to do with the with the values that are that are lower than than we projected at the beginning of the year dispersements. So we're at 157 u um I'm sorry we're 157,5,752,258. There's one extra zero in there. So, 448 transactions, uh 652 PE cards and six transfers um in them there. All the information is posted on on our web page.
058In terms of the uh segment division, we have um benefit variance subsidy of 1,260,236 for center education success, records management 585,986, therapy 1,78683,184 and schools of 4,686,552. and we have a positive variance in the choice of 7,365,250 259. Our budget amendments um is for ADPO Hback system 1,789,450 and then also appropriating uh 361,000 in interest earnings for the capital projects. Uh in terms of the special revenue funds uh we have additional uh increase in revenues for case 23,104 um 35,000 um OST cares and then also we have adult education uh the the uh new round that's uh starts on July the 1st uh 2,786,823 in terms of our foundation uh equity equity of 286,495 as of May 31st and you have all the detail as to what's uh uh how is that uh allocated in
059the in the foundation uh in terms of the lease revenue projects update we have the small business report um and basically we have the list of small businesses we have um small business uh contracts of 1,877,00 non-b businessiness of 21,268,287 or an 11% uh ratio from small to large businesses uh primarily the the percentage of uh which is above the 10% that we had it's projected into into the uh into the into this uh various projects. uh the list is uh included there of all the different uh small businesses that are make up that 11%. In terms of the PFC and maintenance notes in total in the total CIP, we have 3,67,910 uh uh available in terms of equity and assets uh available. Um the retainage that we have pending is 1,257,908. both PFC and
060maintenance note uh and these projects as soon as they uh get uh completed and turn in all the documentation we will be able to close those out. Uh in terms of the 2024 maintenance notes we have uh available 10,218,069 and um we have a retainage of $34,445. Again, all our um projects are 98 99% completed with the exception of the retainage. Uh same thing in the in the in the maintenance notes. Uh they're committed. Uh the majority of them uh there's a few that uh are still have not gotten started. So they're at 14% or 11% some of the some other projects that will be u um also um completing those u during the rest of the year. So the amounts that uh move this out of the way that are included in the our
061maintenance notes and projects uh available balance and that totals to 6,779,513 that is still available um after all the allocations uh that have been made to to those projects. uh Urban um the Urban was funded by two nodes the 2020 and the 2024 totaling 11 million781,519. That's the report for the month of um May 2025. What questions do you have? Any questions from the board? Okay, then the next one is the investment report. And I believe that they started to meet earlier, but I don't know what the outcome was of the Fed. But uh um our investment report uh all posted on our web page uh again the Fed funds rate was uh 4 and a/4 to 4 and a2. Um and so uh the rates right now are between 423 available at 1 month
062and for 4 for uh 490 and the 30-year u our horizon is really under two years which is 396 423. So as you can see it's a little bit inverted on between the one month and the 2-year. Our um portfolio total 63,765,573. Uh 30% is in Lonear, 7% in Chase, 14% in Texas class, 30% in Texas Star, and 19% in tech school. Uh the uh BFC it's 345,942 uh 75% in text pool and 25% Bank of Texas. And in terms of u the uh comparison from a year ago, we are at minus 9% I used uh the cash or the portfolio that has been utilized. And so we're at 63.7 million down from 7.4 from a year ago. Again, primarily because we've already spent those those dollars of those projects. Our funds are uh overnight
063and uh we earning um 1,863,335 year to date and in the PFC year to date is 345,972. Uh we are earning 428 uh on our investment portfolio. And these are the rates. Uh as you can see, they're starting to kind of come down. uh here the last uh two months you've seen a little bit of a reduction of of those rates. That's the report for the month of uh May. What questions do you have? Yeah, we are we're holding steady. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Are there any consensus items that anyone would like to pull today? Right. So then do I have a motion? Motion by Trusty Davis to approve consensus items. Seconded by Trustee Duhan. Any discussion. All right. All in favor? Motion passes. 5. All right. Action item number 71, consider approval of
064services agreement for the safe for the center for safe and secure schools with safer schools together for the period of 619 2025 through 930 2027 the amount not to exceed 178,400. Do I have a motion? So moved. Moved by Trusty Duhan. Second, seconded by Trusty Davis. Any discussion? All in favor? Motion passes. 5-0. Action item 72. Consider approval of AIA B 101 contract with Create Architects for architectural services for 605 Westview HVAC and roof renovation project. Do I have a motion? Moved by Trusty Duhan. Seconded by Trustee Davis. Any discussion? All in favor? Motion passes. 5-0. Action item 73. Consider approval of project delivery/contract method of construction manager at risk for the 605 Westview HVAC and roof renovation project. Do I have a motion? Motion by Trustee McGee, seconded by Trusty Malik. Any discussion? Is
065this related to the budget amendment that we have before us now? Okay. All right. Thank you. Favor. Motion passes. 5-0. Number four, consider approval of change order number one with Target, Inc. for the purchase and installation of carpet for North Post location in the amount of $88,275. Do I have a motion? Motion by Trusty Duhan. Seconded by Trusty Malik. Any discussion? All in favor? Motion passes. 5-0. We'll now move into executive session of the Texas Government Code pursuant to any and all purposes permitted in sections 551.001 001 steps 5551.084 including but not limited to 551.071 and 551.074. And we'll move into executive session at 206. Okay, we reconvene from executive session at 2:22 p.m. And we'll begin with 9A. Consider non-renewing of teachers chapter 21 term employment contract for one or more reasons outlined in
066policy DFBB local. Do I have a motion? Yes, madam president. I move to nonrenew Lauronica Johnson's chapter 21 term contract for one or more reasons outlined in HCDE policy DFBB local as discussed in executive session and to direct the and to direct the superintendent or his designate to notify Miss Johnson of the board's decision in accordance with applicable laws and policy. All right, we have a motion. Do I have a second? Seconded by Trustee Malik. Any discussion? All in favor? Motion passes. 6. Item 10, discussion and possible action regarding future agenda items. Do we have any? No. Okay. Seeing none, do I have a motion to adjurnn? Uh motion by trustee Davis, seconded by Trusty Duhan. Um all in favor? Motion passes. 6. And with that, this meeting is adjourned at 2:23 p.m. Great. [Music]