001[Music] Dear Lord, we stop and tell you thank you at this moment. Thank you for this day. Thank you for letting us be a part of it now. Lord, we gather here in this board meeting. We ask that you would come in and be with us tonight. open up our wisdom and our understanding and let us make the best decision for the district. Thank you for these that are being recognized on tonight. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible. Anybody sign up for? No, sir. Okay, I'll move
002us down to three education spotlight. Okay. Um, I need to call the Texas High School Coaches Association region 6 coach of the year, Coach Vixon to the floor, and he is going to You all didn't know that because that I think came out today. I didn't know. You know, congratulations. you big check or nothing be all right. So anyway, have a seat. And he is um has the pleasure of acknowledging and um honoring all of our players. Your season was going into May. Great. And uh so this was the opportunity we that we had to be able to recognize our athletes, our players. Um and we appreciate families, all the hard work. It truly was amazing. It was my first few months in the district and wow that was exciting. I'm your number one fan.
003So from your number one coach and the coach in region six as they say too he's going to go ahead and hand out some um certificates for you. Thanks everybody for the support. Uh first thing I'm going to do is uh have coach weight this year come up here with me. This this guy makes it go. So you see those pitchers um throwing well and putting up zeros and striking people out. He coaches them and we wouldn't be as successful as we are without him. So we appreciate you. Uh we got most of our guys here. We're missing some. When I call your name, just come up, get your certificate, stay up here with us till everybody's done. Kayen Carney. Uh, Payton Harrington's not here with us. Alex Hard not here. Landon Johnson, Evan Aldava,
004[Applause] Brendan Fitzgerald, Uh Luke Green's not he could make color fountain. [Applause] Alex McGill, Isaac Sap, [Applause] Connor Young not here, Marcus Johnson, [Applause] Jasper Donnell, Cash Pierce, [Applause] Parker Tarington, [Applause] Rhett Wallace couldn't make it tonight. Jason Warner, Jensen West, [Applause] Hunter Wood. [Applause] Come on, Ree. [Applause] Kayen, Payton, Alex, Landon. Those are our four seniors and we're going to miss them. But most of these guys, you'll you'll see them again here next year. So anyway, we appreciate your support. It was a great season. We just want to thank everybody. [Applause] They're used to getting Get in the middle. Get in the middle. Get a good picture. Thank you gentlemen for Good job. Um, the next rec that we want to um make and um I know that our audience is small for this
005um which is why next year I'm going to make a little adjustment to the calendar um but we have some amazing staff um employees in all departments teachers we couldn't do the work without all of these amazing people and we have um every department and every uh school has an employee of the year or a teacher of the year and we have a few um here this evening that we will get certificates to. But I'd like to go ahead and first start with our uh presentation. It'll be [Music] Do I need to narrate? I can read and we'll have this posted. I hope we'll post this on the website. [Applause] Thank you Lori for putting all that together and thank you for coming employees of the year. Um, and these are okay. And we'd like
006you to come forward. Lesie Hurst, elementary teacher of the year. [Applause] Okay, you stay up here. Lisa Maldonado, middle school teacher of the year. [Applause] Bring it in. Bring it in. They know. I know. Chassity Dodd, our admin office. [Applause] She needs to give a speech. So, we're super grateful for all of that they do. And um and again, you see all of the other people that uh we let them have a summer or maybe they're on vacation. So, uh we appreciate their work as well. We'll get that posted to the to the internet so you can see that. So, congratulations. Let your picture Perfect. Thank you all so much. [Applause] And you all can stay and enjoy the rest of the evening or you can go out. Thank you all so much. I will
007now move us to item four public hearing 2025 2026 proposed tax rate. All right. Um for most districts, u this would be the night that we actually uh adopt our tax rate, but because we're a July one fiscal start, we don't get our um max compressed rate from TEA until July 15th. So unfortunately, we this is part of the posting requirement that we have to do prior to the night that we adopt our budget as well. Uh but unfortunately, we won't we we can't adopt a rate tonight because we don't know what our maximum maximum compressed rate will be. Um, additionally, um, I have in the posting I kept our rate exactly as it was last year. We're actually anticipating that that max compressed rate um, probably will be reduced just a little bit. Um,
008so I'm expecting that the tax rate could be lower than what we actually posted. Um, additionally, the $140,000 homestead exemption will play an impact um, on our on our tax revenue. Um and so everybody's tax um taxes will be less on homestead property by an additional $40,000. Um so unfortunately this is just part of checking off the box that we um have to have the meeting to discuss the proposed tax rate as it sits right now. Our proposed M tax rate would be 7575 which is exactly what it was last year. Um and our INS tax rate would be 28 cents u which is exactly what it was last year. I do anticipate really that both of those probably could decrease just a little bit. Um but we have them posted to cover us if
009those end up being the rates. Um any specific questions about tax rate? Uh we're seeing that the because the legislature did some more with compression. Um, that's why I kind of assume that our M rate will reduce just a little bit because typically when they work on compression, that legislation will produce a lower compressed rate um that they've been doing really over the last six or seven years. Um, and we've seen that our, you know, our tax rate trend over the last four years for sure has been um negative, you know, going down each year. So, anyway, that's my that's my hope. Um, I don't anticipate um that it will increase at all. So anyway, any questions about that? Any further discussion? All right. Thank you, sir. Appreciate. I'll now move to five consent agenda.
010Any discussion? I have budget amendments for consent agenda. I'm sorry. That I gave everybody a copy of the um budget amendments. Um really what these are uh is my final year end budget amendments. I I want to be clear. We likely will not use uh the total amount in these budgets. You will see those in bold and kind of italicized what the current budget was and what the amended budget will be. Um really what I'm doing is under instructional leadership um with Dr. Thornton coming on um before the school the school year ended. Um we just had to amend that budget to account for that. Um and then under school leadership, again, those are really what I'm concerned about is any audit adjustments. We're just we're pretty tight on that budget. Um and so really
011what I'm doing is giving myself a cushion just to make sure um that we're not um we don't go over budget. Um but we will not spend we'll only spend what um what the auditors make us do in adjustments. Uh, but we basically spent everything. As of right now, we're below budget. I just again wanted to make sure that we didn't get caught in a situation where we went over budget. Uh, the last item that I'm uh amending is under shared shared service arrangements. Um, I'm going from 55,000 to 60,000. Um, we our shared service arrangement that we've had has been for our OT and PT services or just OT. It's OT and PT. Okay. Um, and we've shared them with Hudson. We've had that shared service arrangement with them. That uh arrangement is being
012terminated after this year. The reason I'm increasing it is because I don't know what adjustments will come because of the termination of the agreement. Um and just trying to make sure that we're we're covered. Um but I mean it'll we're only spending um exactly what we have to in that budget. Why did it get terminated? Um I think Hudson got to the size where they needed a full-time and so they hired her full-time. Um and so we'll be replacing that. Mr. is in is looking at options to do for contracted services. Um and so we won't have an employee that fits that role. So we likely are going to reduce our budget um in total by that shared service arrangement for next year. Yeah. Um now it it potentially is going to have to go
013into a different function to cover those contracted services, but we're assuming it's going to be pretty close in in the same expenditure. And since they're already needing that person, that fulltime person, they're moving in direction. How far are we from that individual? Are we right now? Right now we service about 30 kids right now, which constitutes about two to two and a half to three days of actual work considering between our person who provides those services as well. is the assistant that provides the therapy and everything. So unless we have a large spike in students that need occupational therapy services, I don't see it going beyond that anytime soon. So right now, I'm looking at different uh people through our co-op that provide those services and provide them in different ways to try to make
014what is, you know, the best decision for our kids. And for clarity that when I when he says co-op, we're talking about a purchasing agreement, not you know in M. Davis, you'll remember we were part of a specialed co-op. We're we won't be entering into a special a co-op. This would just be a vendor that is contracted through one of our purchasing cooperatives that we're a member of. So um we're not we're not moving back toward a um a special ed um co-op again. I just wanted to ask the question because in the future if we're knocking on that door is something we need to plan for down the road. Sure. I I think it probably is a legitimate, you know, maybe two or three years, but again, we're kind of in that no man's
015land where it's going to be difficult to have a full-time person. Um and and honestly, it sounds like we're going to be able to get a contracted uh service to provide those needs. Um and really down the road, it may end up costing us less money because we don't have all the other expenses that come with payroll. The other kind of a thing to note too, sometimes it's cyclical. So in the younger grades, they might start out with direct services, but then um as they're in it, a lot of times it'll be consult only, meaning that person's asking the teacher, do they need any other direct oneonone? Are we good? And so when they get to the point of there's not a whole lot more to teach them. They just have to guide the teacher
016and how to remind them of how to hold things or whatever. And becomes indirect services just checking in with them. So I just want to make sure kids are getting we need to plan for this down the road. That's all I would say. I don't think we're within I I I mean I think that's it's going to be hard to forecast that we will need that. Um if if you know our enrollment stays similar. Um our participation in in special ed that need those services stays similar. We're going to stay with a a pretty it may fluctuate by 10 or 12 kids, but that's probably still not enough that would warrant a full-time OT services. Okay. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. So, Mr. Clifton on the uh 20 425 on the actual Yes, sir. It's
017a 20 million 914. I get I get the other 65,000. That's decisions we made. What What do you think when it all settles we ended up on the deficit and taking out a fun balance part? Um I love it. This is my favorite question. Well, I mean, I don't have the last what we actually Yeah. adopted versus what we spent. Very true. Um I really honestly I feel like we're going to hit somewhere around that $500,000 deficit. Um, but that's just me trying to make forecast about what the what the and I hate to always give that caveat, but not that the auditors come in and make these massive adjustments, but they could easily adjust another 50 to $100,000. Um, based on, you know, last year's financials, carryover, that kind of stuff. Um, I don't
018anticipate that it's going to be significant. Um, but at the same time, it is um, you know, the possibility exists. That's my guess. Um I I think I told y'all um at the you know somewhere toward the middle of the year. Um we just need to be prepared for somewhere between 400 and 700 depending on that. I I really feel like we're not going to be over that. Um, and you know, I think I was just right. Maybe just a little under that, but well, the reason for my question, and I appreciate that, is to just to make a point that, you know, we're all of us, we're moving and shaking and spending money and we had a lot of changes this year. We had a lot of things that were out of the ordinary
019and and you're always on on on the money and making sure we're we're staying in line. And when you you brought that up, I think I like 450 to 750 it could be and we may be under a half a million. Yeah, it's possible. I thank you for that. Sure. Because when it all and I know what you do you sandbag. That's what I do. It's not it's not called sandbagging. It's called being uh conservative. Thank you. There you go, sir. Mr. S, you came in just at the right time to help me with that word there. But thank you because it is stressful and I know you put a lot of work into it. Uh and when you think about some of the we had to do. If we hadn't done them, it wouldn't
020have been good. But if we hadn't had to do them, we would have had a balance budget. It it would have been a lot closer, you know, and and a lot of this has to do too with how revenue shakes out. You know, it all depends on um you know, really our ADA was a little higher. When I say a little higher, we're talking about fractional, so it's not going to move the needle substantially, but you know, our AD ADA didn't increase kind of what I thought that it might. Um so, in general, it it really is our collections. um how they finish up. You know, we historically don't collect as high um as maybe some of our surrounding counties. That that's just part of I mean that's our community and um we collect what
021we collect. Um and so depending on how that shakes out will really determine where that needle is. Um and you know I've I'm being pos I'm being optimistic. It's fair. And the last thing I'm gonna say is our kids coming to school and I know our principles work hard every year to have our elementary have our intermediate high school and I don't know sometimes if people don't realize the impact that has on us financially when we just don't come to school that's right it makes a huge difference we we we I know we talked about that Dr. appreciating to do whatever we can do next year. The more kids that come to school, the more the state's going to give us and the better shape we're going to be in. 100%. Thanks for all your
022work. Yes, sir. Any further discussion? You have a motion. I'll make a motion to approve the budget amendments presented before us. a motion and I have a second. All in favor? Motion carried. Um I think was that all my budget all of it? I need I'll change it if it's okay with y'all just agenda. Yes, you want me. Okay. All right. I will now move us to six action discussion items a consideration and action if any upon adoption of 2025 2026 budget. All right. So, um I've also given you guys a copy of this summary. Um so I this is the exact budget that I brought to you guys at budget workshop. Um minus two vans. We're going to purchase um two CTE vans. Um and we're holding off on the other two at this
023point. Um, so I really don't that you'll see the the child nutrition budget is exactly what I brought to you um at budget workshop. Um, and then the INS budget is exactly what I brought to you. Um, you will see that the the thing that changed is extracurricular activities for the CTE um vans. We reduced that by roughly $115,000. Um, all in all, you guys know that this budget that I'm asking you to adopt tonight is kind of the base where we're going to start simply because we have to make some decision. We just got guidance last week about teacher um pay. Um, so we have to work our way through that, make sure we have everything where that needs to be. I will have that for you guys um at the July meeting. Teacher
024pay doesn't start new until uh September. Um, and so we have a little bit of time to get that worked out. We just wanted to make sure that before we do budget amendments, we wanted everything to be right. So, we this is the base budget for all of our expenditures. This allows us to continue business July one. Um and then we'll make amendments for the increase in payroll and we'll also increase um our revenue projections at that point. It's still not super clear depending on which revenue projection template you look at exactly how much money um that they anticipate that we're going to get. So, it makes it difficult on someone like me to determine which one of these models I want to use um to make our revenue projection. Um expenditure- wise um if
025we historically hit around 96% of our budget um based on this budget and revenue um we we'd be about 150,000 $200,000 in a deficit. I really feel like when we get new revenue projection we did get some additional dollars um in the small midsize aotment. We got some there going to be some additional dollars in special ed um aotment. So, those will help offset some cost. We're going to get a little bit of additional money in the safety aotment. Um that safety aotment just they're they're finally going to give us a little bit of money for all the things that they required us to do up to this point that we funded um on our own. So, those all will help increase the revenue just a little bit. Uh but all in all, yes, that's
026been that the fact that we've already done these things will be Will we be allowed to hold on to that money? Is that money got to come? Because we are we're already showing that we spend 100% of that aotment. Okay. And really all that does is help it really it goes into the general fund. It helps offset the deficit. What was the dollar figure? It depends on which estimate you look at. Roughly $95,000 increase. That's 95 for the safety. That's correct. Yeah. So the difference in dollars is about 95,000. We're looking at anywhere from like this year our lot was 89,000 and some change. It's showing it would be, you know, 180, but I've also seen 195. So, it's ADA based. It kind of depends on how the ADA shakes out for next year, too.
027Unless you got right Now that question, but that could change. I anticipate that we're going to be a lot closer to a balanced budget. I'm just No, I'm just asking. I'm not holding you to anything. No, I I Yes, sir. I I really feel like we probably could end up putting if if the revenue holds the way that they are projecting it a couple of those. I do believe it's possible that we are going to look at maybe putting two or 300 in fund balance for next year. But we could also just be balanced. And if we can get balanced, then we can make adjustments as necessary to stay balanced for the next year. we have to be through next year to help get to that. So I think that's the commitment we all made
028as a workshop to make sure we do that. Now I think the I think the good news here is that we we have maintained a fund balance that is um healthy enough to offset our the state not really funding us the way that we thought that they might. Um, and so we, you know, we've made decisions and done things assuming that more money was coming and it just never came. Um, so 26 27 there shows to be even just a when I say a little bit more, a little bit more. Um, you know, and a lot can change in between there. ADA could increase some um you know those hold harmlesses that they that they say that they're going to incorporate because of the $140,000 homestead exemption. There's just a lot of question marks that
029honestly they can't answer yet and I can't answer for you. Um I think we have a base budget that really is what it is. Is there some in there that we could trim out? Yeah, we could not buy the CTE vans. Um here's what I'll tell you. Unfortunately, CTE spending kind of looms over us and we have to spend that money based on the aotment. And so we're kind of in a situation where we need to um programmatically to make sure that we meet our our maintenance of effort for that particular aotment. The state has transitioned away from the basic aotment being the primary even though it's the primary amount of funds that they give to us through the basic aotment. All these other things that they give us are these allotmentbased revenue streams. And
030with those aotments come these spending requirements that makes it difficult for boards such as yourself and the the leadership and management to make decisions with the money that they're giving us because we're somewhat tied to making sure we spend those a lotments. Now we're saying that song. There's nothing we can do about it. I mean, it is it is what it is. And we tried to be proactive on the school safety side of it because we didn't know what was coming and we jumped out there and we spent that money thinking the state come back and they haven't come back like they said they would but we didn't have a choice. We had to do it. No. And that's why I say they're finally funding us a little bit for all these things. The relief
031not the relief that we deserve. My opinion. Yes sir. As the as the board president you can I I'll sound like a whiny school person when I say stuff like that. Somebody looks at me and says, "He's just a whiny bureaucrat." Well, no. I'm I'm trying to make sure that we have the things in place that we need to operate the school. And I would stand toe-to-toe with anybody and argue that we don't frivolously spend money. You know, we don't we're not just overstaffed greatly that we can, you know, that we have half a million dollars we could trim out of our budget by reducing staff. It's just not I mean based on the number of kids there we are going to try to make some adjustments uh which will be part of the amendments.
032Um but we have to let all this all the the changes and the trans the transition take place before I can nail down exactly which positions are not coming back. Um and that's all through attrition. You know there's nothing you know nobody's lost their job. It's just we're trying to make best decisions based on the amount of money that we that we have coming in. Um, I promise you we're doing everything we can to try to in a note for that and I know that was kind kind of an adjustment um or a new way of think not new way of thinking but a way of thinking when we were looking at class sizes and staffing for next year and and and I'll be honest with you Matt shared well hey good luck let's try
033it and so we did and we're being as conservative as we can to be um as equable as we can and not spend on extra staff. Even though extra staff is amazing and it would be great to have, but our our principles are on their head because they are working the system and doing everything they can to make our staff um stretch and serve kids appropriately but not be frivolous. So we so consider in the benium type government that that Texas has, we get this budget set for a two-year period. Of course, y'all all know this. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. So it is It is reasonable to suggest that in year one of the bianium we need to put money back in fund balance so that in year two we're going
034to be closer to a balance but that's harder to forecast out when we yet are not super clear about revenue. So we're not anything that we have in here is stuff that honestly it's just part that we have to operate. We have to fix air conditioners. You know we have to fix plumbing when issues come up. You know there's we have to Our kids play in the gyms. We have to refinish the gym floor like that. It's just, you know, you can't just keep going on something and not maintain it because then you get behind and you can't do it. To be clear though, Matt, and this is what I was trying to say a few minutes ago that the community knows. I mean, we go back seven, eight years ago when the community overwhelmingly
035said, "We're not passing a bond right now. You've got money in the bank. They'll fix it with what we have." The last five years, that's what we've done. We've gone out and spent money on we needed to fix. So, we've done that. But our auditors have told us the last three or four years. You're in a good place financially. So, we've done that with our business managers, you and our previous one that retired and this board and others making sure we stay focused. Now, we're at the point where a lot of that has been done and we're almost right there at a balanced budget. And so now our big push with our new superintendent has been curriculum and making sure our kids have everything they need to be educated. Certainly we talk about staff and
036we talk about health. Those are the things we have to look at as we move forward. But I'm just saying uh I I'm the one that has said it just like Josh. You know, we want a balanced budget and I just think we're real close to being there in light of all of this stuff that we've done. And I guarantee you, I could be wrong, so don't quote me in the newspaper, but I bet we spent well over a million, a million five in the last five years on stuff that wasn't in the normal budget. I guarantee we did. When you think about everything that we've done and and honestly, it's stuff that needed to be done. Yeah, that's my point. You make the AR like Yeah. Anyway, I'm not going to beat the dead
037horse, so to speak, but it's better for the kids. Sure. It's a better learning environment. Honestly, the build are a living, breathing thing that we have to we have to pump life back into. Um and and it costs money. And when you look at what it cost us now to replace an air conditioning unit that was five or six $7,000, now it's $14,000. And so inflation has really created an issue for us just like it has for everybody else. But the revenue has not we're not seeing that same trend in revenue. Hey, I'm appreciative of the fact that they are they're they're giving us some additional dollars, but you you know as well as I do, there's more work to be done. So, um Mr. Sand, to answer your question, yes, I'm proposing a deficit
038budget. I don't know how to fix that. Um because the money is what what it is. I think it's going to be less of a deficit potentially than what I've got proposed here once I can get a clearer picture of what our total revenue is going to be. Unfortunately, I'm not just willing at this point. I'm not willing to bring this template model to you and go I feel pretty confident because I'd be lying. I don't feel confident at this point. So, any further discussion questions from Mr. I will now entertain a motion for the 2025 2026 budget. Make a motion that we approve the 202526 budget as presented and appreciate all the work that Mr. Clip and our superintendent have done to get us in this position and we'll do a good job to
039make sure that we try and balance it by the end of next year. I'll second all of that. I have a motion and I have a second to everything Mr. Watson said. All in favor? Motion carried. Move it to be consideration action update 125. Okay. Um so what this is, it's posted in your board book. Um it's great reading. um um what they propose they annotate sometimes they revise sometimes TASBY recommends for deletions and in the um item that's actually posted it's probably 100 pages long so I'm not even going through that as 100 pages there's deletions you can see lines through you can see word changes a lot of times it's vocabulary um but the primary topics um in this 125 was changes for board committees and and at this point I don't see
040that we have committees per se on the board but sometimes there might be particular committees and it's one of the changes to ensure that parents are part of committees things such as that so it's just the what constitute a board committee not the board but committees that we might uh create based on that uh one of the topics is school safety transfers and there's some revisions on attendance for credit the majority of that I see are not new but are revisions. Um they dabble in vocabulary. It'll show you the vocabulary changes. The deletions make it easier to read for the most part. Um but it is posted in your workbook if you would like to read all of the um update 125. It comes and I'd be lying if I know once a year or
041a couple times a year they do the updates. Lauris So it's like every other year. Sorry. So, this is just a few of the things I will tell you on a side note, it is not in here, but you have seen and I'm just kind of adding here. So, thanks for going with me. Uh, speaking of legislator, you have um seen other districts post about the cell phone ban law that was passed. There was a cell phone ban law that was passed. It is actually not in this update per se, but we are um we are obligated to adhere to that law. And so, as an admin staff, I not presented that with you because we are going to determine how we're going to implement that that um I think it's one thing to have
042a law that we have to follow. It's another thing to make sure that we have our procedures in place and I don't want to present a law um out there yet until I know the procedures because it only opens questions and doubts if I don't we don't know because what happens at a K uh three campus is going to look wildly different than a 912 campus just because of access and all the things that you can imagine. So um we want our procedures in place before we make this uh a public statement. You'll see a lot of parents just giving you a warning. Start talking to your kids. You're not going to have your cell phone for the instruction day. That is one of that was the law that was passed and it's legitimate. We
043just are going to figure out how we maintain that. So that is not part of 125, but there are laws that have come out of this legislative session that we get to work with them through. So I'll share with you how we're doing that once we get back together as a group and solidify our procedures. So do we have to take action on this? Any further discussion? I don't know. It's just consideration. I think we chang second. All in favor? All right. Motion carried. I move to see discussion only curriculum and instruction. And at this point, um, our curriculum instruction is going to be a report from Dr. Thornton. She has a couple of updates just to let you know in the instructional setting what's been going on. So, I just want to give you
044a quick update on where we are with our Blue Bonnet Blue Bonnet curriculum um implementation. So, over the month of June, we've had uh several of our members of the leadership teams from both the intermediate and middle school attending the materials and internalization training. We've also had teachers from the elementary, intermediate, and middle school attending Blue Bonnet Productmies throughout the month. Uh we have another team, I believe, of 19 that'll attend tomorrow through Thursday. Um and they're learning more about effective implementation of the curriculum. So, um I've heard some positive feedback both from the leadership teams and the teachers that have attended. um maybe a little bit of um better understanding of what that curriculum would look like. Um I just even from my own personal experience before coming into Huntington, I know a lot
045of teachers worry that the Blue Bonnet curriculum is scripted, which means it's taken away my ability as a teacher to um to hone my craft, to put my own voice into the curriculum. And through these trainings, I think some of these teachers are learning and to a better understanding that that's not what it is. It lays it out for you. It is scripted. So, if I was a first year teacher or if I didn't know the curriculum or my subject matter, it would be a great tool for me to use that script. But for an experienced teacher that has that their u has taught the curriculum before or has taught the subject area before, they're able to put their own spin on it, their own voice, excuse me, their own voice into this lesson. So,
046I think they're finding that and they're a little more relieved once they've understood it and actually put their hands on the curriculum. So, uh that is going well. All of our trainings are being paid, they're being provided through region 7, but they're being paid for through our ESF and ESSA grants. So, these are not general budget items. Um on the presentation um I was also asked to kind of cover some of our preliminary star scores, but you have a copy of this at your desk or your table. Uh so you don't have to stretch around or or turn or crick your neck. I just kind of want to hit a couple highlights and let me tell you a little bit about what I did. Um on this document and on the screen you will see
047by grade level our 2024 scores and then the next column is our 2025 and we can compare third graders for example by year. So you can see what's happening in that grade band or if you look at the color coding that I've added we can look at it by cohorts. So, for example, in 2024, our third graders scored 78% uh in reading, but in 2025, that same cohort again scored 78% passing in fourth grade reading. Okay. So, I think it's just as we like to look at that grade band, it's so important to look at our cohorts to see how they're growing throughout the years. And excuse me for another really quickly, I just wanted to make note this is the overarching approaches. So, passing. You can break this down and we will at a
048later time meets and masters. The other thing that I wanted to take note of this isn't the final scores because what TEA does is takes out anyone who wasn't enrolled in our school at snapshot. So, they don't count for us. So, there's some cleanup that happens in the data, but I asked Dr. Thornton just to give us the big picture of what was shared um so far in on the state side and kind of what we're looking at. This will be adjusted a teeny tiny bit one way or the other. I'm not really sure but when they remove students it changes data just a tad but I just sorry for interpr August. So just a couple of things I want to highlight as we look through these scores. Umvious you know we obviously have some
049areas for improvement, some places we want to work. And I'm just going to point out some of those, but I'm also going to point out um some highlights that we think are where we're doing a good job. Um if you look at the reading our by cohort, our sixth graders to seventh grade, you see decline of about 11 percentage points. Okay, the tests are different year to year from the fifth grade test, I'm excuse me, the sixth grade test is a different test than seventh grade. Okay. Still covering a lot of this uh grade level all the grade level teaks but maybe at a more difficult u rigor rate. So you know it's not easy still to compare and say they dropped that much. Okay. But that's where our students were. So we see that
050decline from sixth to seventh grade. But I want to show you in English one. If you go down to the bottom and I'm going to skip around. I apologize. But if you look at English one, I'm gonna say English one is probably the most difficult star test that our students will take. And um most definitely the most difficult EOC without a doubt. Um we scored 75% passing in 24 and in 25 stayed at the same 75%. But I also want to draw your attention to right under that 75 I have 80% FTT. That's our first time testers. your 75% takes into account anybody that retested. Okay? So, our freshman, primarily freshmen, scored 80% passing on that English one. And I'm again going to say that that's that is an extremely difficult test. So, I just
051wanted to point that out. Um, and then if you'll also look at our seventh graders to eighth grade. So, I showed you one where we declined, but our seventh graders scored 79% passing in 24 and went to 89% passing in eighth grade and 25 for reading. So again, making great progress in many, many areas, but we also see areas we need to improve. Um, in math, scroll that up. So we're going to go to that bottom table in math and just look at a couple of things. We do have area an area for growth going from six to seventh grade. We went from 85% to 62%. From six to seven, it went down from 85. Sorry, I thought you said growth. Oh, I'm so sorry. Well, it's an area for growth. It's an area or
052growth. I'm sorry. Excuse me. Sorry. Everybody Sorry, I got you confused. But a couple things I do want to point out. If you even look at fourth grade, just the grade band, we went from 55% to 62%. So, again, working harder in the classroom. Our teachers are working hard as well. Um if you look at again just some areas for growth uh fourth grade to fifth grade cohort we went from 55% to 72%. And fifth to sixth we went from 70 to 81. Now I also want to say these are uh third fourth and fifth. This 2025 year is the year our teachers implemented. In third grade, it was Blue Bonnet. Fourth and fifth was Eureka math, which is Blue Bonnet, right? So, you can see some of the jumps we're making already. And I
053point that out because typically when you implement a new curriculum for at least two to three years, you're going to see, excuse me, you're going to see a decline in scores. And already just in the first year of implementation from three through five, you're seeing an increase. Maybe not huge. A third grade was 66 to 67%. Still an increase, not a decline. We should see a decrease sometime soon. You may see, but I think we're doing well. I'm going to say your principles. Your principles have done an extremely amazing I'm just going to say amazing job with this implementation for math. I feel it'll be the exact same way in reading. Unfortunately, elementary was our guinea pigs because they had to learn a lot last year and we're learning from them to implement that at
054the intermediate and middle school. Um, uh, much of our the way we set up our trainings for this summer was based on how they did it last year because we saw the success the elementary was having with that implementation. So, we wanted to copy that and replicate it this year going into intermediate middle. So, no, I don't expect it to come, but that is we're working hard to make sure that doesn't happen. And again, already seen it on these scores. So, I'm really impressed and very excited about what the future holds. Um, so just quickly on science and social studies, you'll see there's no colors. That is not those tests don't happen every year. So, we really can't show you a cohort. Um, when I show you this later, I have a cohort data sheet
055from 21 through 25. And then you do get to see a little bit of a cohort between those years, but it's not much. So, um, again, you can see the fifth grade band in science is moving has moved from 58% pass to 68%. And I I'm hoping I'm not saying this wrong. Um, before Miss Powers left the middle of the intermediate school, she added a fourth grade science teacher. So, she's pulled that out of the math teacher and had an individual science teacher that's going to teach fourth grade. And I say that because they're not tested, but I think that's going to help to increase our fifth grade scores the second year. So I think you're going to see that score. It's already up 10 percentage points. I think you're going to see it continue
056to climb. Okay. Wanted to make sure. I didn't want to over speak. Um and then again, you'll see the biology EOC is as over 90. Let's see. Really with first year testers, it's at 93% this year. Um social studies grade. Uh, you saw a 5% decline, but again, I'm going to say this is one of the hardest tests. This is probably three through eight hardest test those students take. It covers a large amount of information that they have to learn. And so, it is a very difficult test. Um, and I just want you to see that. I want to acknowledge that for those eighth grade teachers and students. And let me acknowledge too for the science, there is a big decline from an 82 to a 70 versus science. We kind of jumped over that
057one real quick. But one thing that we um have talked to them about is um there's a an additional resource I don't believe that they were using STEM scopes which is um actually created out of Rice University um in my past two districts. We've used it very successfully. It's uh well written and it targets uh the TESS appropriately and this test and we're going to start allowing them to use that as a resource. So um just going off that thank you Dr. Fetti. We had used stem scopes here in the past and when we had the adoption the year before that went into was implemented this year we chose a different curriculum or a different textbook we chose hill I believe is that correct maybe not every scope so the teachers oh I'm sorry I
058think that might be h but the teachers have gone to their principles and advocated for their students and themselves and asked for us to purchase STI scopes and we are doing that on July 1st so they will have it in their hands to implement that in their classrooms this year. And you can see the why. Yeah, you can see the why. And so we're trying to react and um be proactive, not just react, but to our teachers know what's best really and we need to make sure we got the resources in their hands to do what needs to be done. So I really appreciate them doing that. Um so again, this is what our data looks like right now as preliminary data. We will have that final D when it's released in August. Scores have
059been released in the parent portal and instructions are on our district's website under recent news for parents to be able to find out how to access their students scores. But we'll have more information, a little more in-depth data dig when our scores are released in August. Do y'all have any questions? You're fresh. Thank you so much, Dr. Thornton. I wanted to make sure that you had that over and she is so great about working with our principles and um she bears with me as I nose in her room and ask all the questions and so anyway great team player and she is number one advocate for our kids in curriculum so I I can't wait to show you next year's so that'll be exciting um any questions or anything else with that thank you Dr.
060Yes sir down seven superintendent report um in your board book is monthly expenditures um and you can that out. Um, school supply list I wanted to share with you. Uh, it's very simple and the school supply list uh I've never been to a district where the district um, uh, supported our students in such a way and they buy the school uh, supplies for them which is pretty amazing. Um, and uh, I've asked is that something that we need to cut back on or be good? And it is so minimal cost in the big picture and it does support our students so great. It's a really amazing service that we It's simple. It's a simple list, but it's really great. Um, so we provide the list and what is I assume the backpacks. So that's what's
061required by the Is that correct? Yeah, that's it. And any specialty items that they want to have that they like one particular pixel over the other that's on the parent, but we do uh supply that. So there's a school supply list. There were there is um an update on the website Skyward and app visits. Um that is a report that technology shares with us. Uh we've had um well there are three different columns throughout the year. Um broken down into quarters, lots of lots of visits. Let me just say lots of visits. So if you want all the details, you can read them read those yourself. School calendar. Um we are not changing the school calendar. We've already adopted the school calendar for next year, but we're amending one piece of it, and I wanted
062everyone to really be aware of that. Um, on Thursday, May 21st is the new graduation date, 2026. So, 20 May 21st, 2026. We originally had it at May 23rd, 2026 on a Saturday. We have changed that. We signed a contract or an agreement with SFA. So, our new um graduate our graduation location will be at SFA on a Thursday at 700 pm. So, um regardless of weather, regardless of whatever that is where we're headed and um it'll be a big venue for us. That was the only change to this calendar, but we wanted to make sure everyone was aware of that. Um Philip or Mr. Wood just asked me about just a reminder, July 31 is new teachers. That's the yellow box for new teachers. August one is the yellow box for our returning staff
063and that's the convocation day. I think nothing else changed. That didn't change. I was just kind of highlighting it again. Any questions about the calendar? So, we're not really adopting a new one. I just wanted you to note the change of graduation date. So, we'll repost this on the website as well. Um board meeting dates. Um I will show this electronically as well, but you've got basically a um kind of a column here. Um I listed the board meeting dates attempted to begin to list some of the um recognitions that we would like to do. Um did everybody get this? It looks like three columns. Apologize. On the back of the calendar, there you go. Um I made note in your middle column. I made note of I wanted to staff and employee of the
064year. This is their summer. They're typically not here to be recognized and I want them to feel special and they work hard for that recognition. So, I want to move that up to May. By the way, um I want to have our new employees be introduced the best that we can in July, which will be great for recognitions. And then you can see the schools that will have the school recognition and they do um they are recognized one per one time per semester. So, that is board meeting dates. Any questions on that? Just for your reference. still have a training on the 21st. Correct. That's the next one. Team of eight um and accountability. They're combining that. I believe it is we said 5 to 8 July 21st. And that is Joseph, Mr. Joseph Coburn
065from region 7 is coming out to do that. Um we decided I decided that we have a lot of services from region 7 that can support our trainings. There were I'll be honest with you, we just got out of the schoolboard conference and the required trainings were rarely offered. If you were going to look for child abuse, it was like one time over a three-day period. Um, so not to worry, we have a solution for that. Um, region 7 can provide those. We have signed up for the service for them to provide on-site training for us as needed. Dr. Yes, there was another class that me and Shirley went to that they said was required. We was required to go to the student achievement. Was that it? I think that was only offered on Wednesday.
066There's because what is required is um the legislative update. Child I think child abuse was the other one student outcomes. I know there's a fancy name for it, but it's student outcomes. We can on July 21st find out anything else that we need to set up to ensure that our hours are your app will tell you exactly. So the great thing is is we have the resource for region seven and they will come to us which is lovely which is lovely and um I know Shirley also met somebody that another I don't remember if they were region seven or not Tazby is willing to come to us for free as well so we can get some of these required trainings on site as needed. So, which is great. And then again, I said opening complication
067August 1. Do you guys have any questions about any of that? Yes, I've been practicing. Yeah, just wait. Yeah, we got lyrics going to be printed and bands that are going to be playing and all the things. And I'm actually not kidding. We have our students that are going to help us. So, it'll be exciting. Further discussion. All right session during the course of meeting discussion of any item on the agenda should be held close meeting 551 subap. Back into session consideration action if any resulted from executive session. I need a motion for the personnel reported. I have a motion. I have a second. All in favor? It was a second. Sure. I thought it was you, but I didn't really hear it. All right, I'll move us down to 11.journ. I entertain motion to
068have a motion. Have a second, Mr. Watson. All in favor? Motion carried.