December 9th Public Hearing (5 PM) & Regular Meeting (5:30 PM)

001David Garcia, Jacob Perez >> here, >> Delma Sinas >> here, >> and Joseph Green here. Let the record show that there is a quorum of board members present and that this meeting has been posted in accordance with government code chapter 551, State of Texas Open Meetings Act. The Kingsel ISD board of trustees will conduct a public hearing to discuss the following. Item A, overview of school financial integrity rating system of Texas for first Dr. Peter B. Thank you, President Ruiz, Dr. Martinez, members of the board. As required every year we need to have a public hearing to discuss the financial state of the district. It is called the financial integrity rating system of tech. The reason why it's a lagging indicator is because it needs to include the audit for the previous year. So all

002school districts at this time are conducting their public hearings for the 23 24 data because the audits for those years are complete. Once the audits are complete then they are sent to TEA. Then TEA examines the audits to see if we are in compliance with financial practices and also looks at things such as our fund balance and assets and liabilities to see where we stand. So natural practices at the end of the 20 2023 2024 school year. So first is an acronym. It stands for the financial integrity rating system of Texas. And again, this basically examines not only the final financial health of our school district, but also the financial practices of our School districts get one of four ratings. There is no D rating. A for superior achievement. That's what we want. And that

003is what we received this last year. 94 out of 100. And we have received several high first ratings. We we've talked about how uh last year we had a 92, but we've talked about that it does also look at the financial health of our district, which uh is going to be hard to maintain an A in future years. So the first four indicators do not get a score. They are simply passed or fail. And the first one is did we file it in time? There are deadlines of when we need to file the the audit or the annual financial report with TEA and we did file it on time. Was there an unmodified opinion? That means that did the auditor find that all of our accounting practices were sound? If they were not sound, he

004would have a modified opinion. He would change some of the things that we said that that um were in our financial statements. But unmodified is a good thing. Was the school district in compliance with the payment of all debts at the fiscal year's end? And yes, we were. And number four, the fourth indicator has three specific um governmental agencies and and then it it does have some minor governmental agencies. Did we make payments in time to TRS, IRS, Texas Workforce Commission? we were in compliance with uh all of those uh deadlines. Indicator five, total net position. So, total net position has assets and liabilities. All of our assets in the district include all the buildings, all the vehicles, everything that we could sell right now if we wanted to. The liabilities, they're anything from what

005is owed to employees for salaries or what is owed for um the pension liability. Right now, if we sold everything that we had in the district and we had to pay everything off in the district, including all of our bonds, we would still have $35 million left over. So, our net position is greater than zero. This is just a pass or fail option. Uh number six, three-year average change in fund balance. So um our three-year average in fund balance is actually 9.83%. Because when we were getting the esser funds every year, our fund balance was increasing. We had a positive increase and last year was the first year that we started to go back down um again because we didn't have the esester funds. But because it's a three-year average, we are we are fine.

006And as long as you don't have a 25% decrease uh in three years, then you're also fine. You can also pass this indicator um by having at least 75 days of operating expenses. And we do currently have in our fund balance 122.89 days of operating expenses. Again, just a pass fail indicator. uh cash on hand first indicator where you actually get points on and all the points that you can possibly get add up to a 100. So uh is are the number of days of cash on hand uh greater than um uh the threshold and we need at least greater than or equal to 90 days and we definitely do have n higher than that that is 114.94 days. uh that's going to be one that is going to be harder to maintain and get

007a perfect 10 as the amount of cash that we have in the bank um decreases. Current assets to current liabilities. So current assets are what we have uh anything that's liquid um our cash in the bank and and anything else that um we have that we can readily convert to cash and current liabilities. That's basically our debt payment for the year. And this is actually the first year that we have received a 10 on this rating. And the main reason why is because um our our basically our liabilities are decreasing every year. Uh we have done a good job about doing the decences to get our debt payments down. Um general fund analysis. So there are two day two ways to pass this indicator. First of all, if your revenues are greater than expenditures, you

008automatically pass this indicator. Unfortunately, our revenues were not greater than expenditures, negative $2.9 million. And again, we had a decrease in fund balance uh a little bit more than this, but that's because there's transfers from one fund to another. This indicator doesn't look at transfers between funds. It only looks at our expenditures and our revenues in the general fund. We didn't pass that part of the indicator, but the other way you can pass this indicator by is by having cash on hand of at least 60 days. And we had uh almost double that. So, we passed this indicator with 10 total points. Okay. Long-term liabilities to total assets. Again, another one that we got 10 points and we haven't in the past. Um so um one of the reasons on this again is that the

009amount of liabilities that we have the $44 million has come down. We had over $70 million of debt um five six years ago and we have really worked hard through defecence to get that number down so that we only have $44 million of debt. And um our assets have basically they they've decreased a little bit as far as depreciation but we have also purchased new assets such as school buses as well too. Um so um the amount of liabilities has gone down assets has been fairly constant. So because of that we receive 10 points now on this indicator. debt ratio. Again, another one where we receive 10 points where in the past we haven't always received 10 points. Uh two reasons for this. Number one is that our debt has gone down that we've talked

010about. And number two, the amount of uh assessed property value has gone up. In the last several years, property values in the district has have increased fairly significantly. So because of that we have um a a much um lower ratio than we have before and we have 10 points on this indicator administrative cost ratio. So this is where we lost a lot of points and the biggest reason for this is because of the esester grant. The grant has a a requirement that you have to spend a certain percentage of your grant on learning loss. So because of that we put a lot of our instructional expenditures in the grant in order to get the money from the grant. You were required to have a lot of instructional expenditures in that. When you do that you

011move you move some of your instructional expenditures um from the general fund and the general fund doesn't nec I mean the EST grant they don't cover a lot of administrative costs there. There is no uh requirement that you have to have administrative costs in there. That's the biggest reason this this uh cost ratio will be higher this next year because we won't have a lot of instructional expenditures in the esester student to staff ratio. So this looks at as you decrease the number of students, are you also decreasing the number of staff? Because that is a key metric of are you going to be able to balance the budget? Because they pay you by not only the number of students that are in the district, but they pay you if they come to school. So

012um if you have less students in the district, you need to have less staff in the district. Uh we did pass this indicator. is a three uh three-year average. Um at the same time though um our ratios we're still working to to rightsize the district to get to healthy ratios. Average daily attendance projections. So we are required to two years in advance submit what we predict will be our ADA projections to tea ahead of time and then if we are not within 20% then we get docked. It's either all or nothing the five points you either get it or you don't. We have for the last again it's two years uh we have projected our our margin of area was 3.99%. And I will say that uh we projected over what it would be. Um

013our our ADA was lower than what was projected by 3.99% but again well within the margin of error of 20% that you have to uh be in order to get all five points on this indicator. Pam's data. So PE's data has has several components of PE's data. It has staff data. It has student data and it also has financial data. And we are required to have alignment within 3% of what data is submitted to teams for finance and what data is submitted in our finance system and in our audit. That needs to be in alignment with no more than 3% variance. In this case, uh, we were within $41 of 31,632,033 and that comes out to about 0.005 or six zeros uh before you get to a a one or a two on the percent.

014So very close in our the accuracy alignment of our financial data in the financial system and audit with teams. Uh last one is a p I'm sorry indicator 17 is a past fail uh internal controls he just looks at our auditor looks at our practices and he reports on this and we've got ceiling material compliance uh with the annual financial report basically looks are are we following all the the particular laws um and are we following all the program guidelines for the grants the contracts that we have and the auditor found that we were in compliance. Financial postings, there are certain things we need to post. For instance, we need to post this meeting. We need to post about our audit. There's uh different things during the year that we need to post for finance

015and we were in compliance with that. Did we talk about our property values? This is a discussion that we usually have the month or two uh before passing our um our budget for the year. we are required to have this discussion within 120 days or four months of adopting the budget. And finally, um this last indicator, if you are not able to pay your debts and ask for a financial uh hardship, um then you would get penalized for this indicator. But that wasn't the case with us. So we are required as part of this annual financial report to report the last two years of financial information. I will just quickly touch on on the second year. Um last year we had a 92 out of 100 score and again this is last year's rating but

016it is 2324 rating but it is based on 2223 financial data. We filed it on time. The auditor had an unmodified opinion. We tr we paid all our debts on time. We paid the governmental entities such as TRS, PWC and IRS on time. Um our net position, our assets to liabilities was greater than zero. Um change in fund balance, we passed that that our fund balance again our fund balance at at that time was increasing. So definitely there wasn't um a huge decrease in fund balance cash on hand. We've passed. Uh number 10, current assets to current liabilities. That's one that we didn't get uh 10 points last year. We did get 10 points this year. Um revenues versus expenditures um or cash on hand. At that time, our revenues were greater than our expenditures

017at that time. Budgeted versus actual was not scored. There was a time where ever since um uh COVID happened, they they uh suspended budget uh indicator number 10. The main reason why is because it was it's very hard that when you budgeted uh ahead of time that your actual would actually match because there were so many variables with CO they even though CO has been ended for several time they suspended that indicator until this year. Long-term liabilities to total assets we had 10 points debt to property ratio. This is another one that we got 10 points this year. Um and uh the biggest reason again is our debts going down and our property values going up. Indicator 13 again we struggle. That's where we have a lot of our instructional expenditures in ESER still. Uh

018student to staff ratio uh we pass that indicator then remember that's a three-year average um as far as did it not decrease by a certain percentage. Average daily attendance was not scored at that time again because during COVID it was you had to project two years ahead of time much harder to predict. Um our PES versus financial we were also very close no material weaknesses in compliance with grants contracts and laws. We posted everything. We talked about our our property values and we did not have a financial hardship. So that was the previous year. [clears throat] >> Also, as part of this report, we are required to include a copy of the current super intense contract in in a packet. August 18th, 2025 was the date it was signed and we are required to report

019board and superintendent travel. So more than superintendent travel is during the um year that is in question which was September of 2023 to August of 2024. And if you notice on there we do have two board members for place number six. Um at that particular year there was a board election in May of 2024. So the first uh person there uh in place six served until May of 2024. The second person served from May of 2024 to August of 2024. That's why we have two different place six board members on there. We are required to present in these specific categories on there. Uh other most of that other is registration for different conferences. Um they don't have registration of a specific category. They do say that we need to have other as a specific category.

020So you see how much was spent by each category. Total amount of board and superintendent travel for that year September 23 to August 24 was just over $34,000. Uh we are required to um disclose any outside compensation for uh or consulting for the superintendent uh during that time period who is Dr. Cecilia Reynolds Pettis. Um and again I uh did reach out and make sure that I got all of this information a statement from um the superintendent all board members for this time period. Same thing I did get a response from every single uh board member um and the superintendent on any gifts received. Um any gifts received is defined as anything in aggregate over $250 in the year. So if if the board member or superintendent receives something less than $250 total during the

021year, they would not be required to disclose it. Same thing, any business transactions with the district and the superintendent, everybody responded in the negative. That is the end of my presentation. Any questions? >> Any questions on the board? Do we have any public any comments from the public? >> Oh, no. No. >> Okay. Well, hearing no comments, I do hereby adjourn this meeting at 5:21 p.m. 2025. I call this regular meeting of the Kingsville Independent School District to order. We will have roll call. Joe Mirez >> here. >> Brian Kufall >> here. >> Martin Chapa. Martin Chapa. David Garcia >> here, >> Jacob Perez >> here, Delmaas >> here, >> and Joseph Reese here. Let the record show that there is a quorum of board members present and that this meeting has been posted in

022accordance with government code chapter 551, State of Texas Open Meetings Act. We move to a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance and the Texas pledge. 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 the flag to thee, Texas state under God, one and indivisible. [clears throat] We now move on to item number four, public participation. Do we have anyone that wishes to address the board? Yes sir. We have a Myron Sand from HK topic URL inconsistency and then we have a Monica from HMK as parents. >> Thank you. I would like to move >> Jesse. [laughter] Good evening. My name is Myers London and I'm here tonight as a mother who

023once trusted this district's processes and who believed that when concerns were raised, leadership would act with clarity, fairness, and consistency. But that trust has since been broken. I want to bring to your attention a UIL concern that occurred this fall at age 15. On September 18th, the UIL eligibility officially closed district-wide. This rule is not new. Anyone working at the school district knows it, or they should know it. On September 22nd, my daughter, myself, and other dancers were told that they were ineligible. At practice that afternoon, their coach informed them that they had until September 25th at 4 p.m. to raise their grades to regain eligibility. So, they followed and worked towards those instructions. They trusted that information. On September 25th, my daughter and other teammates brought their grades up as exactly as they were

024told. But later that same day, administrative administration stated to us that the information we had been told was just wrong. and no matter what they had done, they would remain ineligible until October the 16th. After I met with admin that day, I spoke directly with the drill team coach to understand why the students had been told that they had still raised their grades by that date. She showed me correspondence on her personal cell phone, explaining that she had relied on that written communication when she instructed the students. Let me be clear, if the rules had been applied consistently from the beginning, we could have expected that. But they were not. While my daughter and her teammates sat out, other ineligible students in other programs continued participating without restriction. No, not no one can explain that.

025No one has to explain that and your silence is not an explanation. Weeks later, a parent reached out to me. She had come across and obtained a copy of a timestamped September 5th email from administration stating that grade change forms were due at the end of the day due to eligibility. And she forwarded this email to me confirming that this was not hearsay, not confusion, and not miscommunication. It was a district originated guidance acted upon by staff that contradicted what administration claimed. That is the same that is the exact same day students were told by their coach that they could still become eligible. A seven and that was 7 days after the UIL district cut off. This is not speculation or rumor. This was a written communication from district employee. If those grade changes were

026tied to eligibility like the email stated, this is a serious issue. If they were not, then the district should have clarified that immediately. But you haven't. I met with administration on October 29th. I was told that there could have been a technical issue with the system migration due to the news power school system. I was advised to file a formal complaint. So I did and I submitted the evidence. Last week I received this district's conclusion and not one single concern I raised was addressed. Not the September 25th email, not the conflicting instructions or inconsistent enforcement, and not the timeline discrepancies, just the blanket statement, no irregularities found, case closed. So I requested clarification, and since then, I have yet to hear back. Our children are not naive. They see when the rules shift depending on

027the program. They see when adults contradict each other. They see when parents ask questions and the district falls silent. Every morning, they wake up before the sun rises. They come home after dark. They spend 10 to 12 hours in your care, more time than they spend at home with our family. We entrust you with their education, their emotional well-being, their safety, and the values that they absorb. So when the adults in charge model inconsistency, lack of transparency, and selective enforcement, you are teaching them that integrity is optional. The accountability depends on who you are or who you know. The system bends for some and breaks for others. That is not leadership or education. How can we teach core values that help our children thrive and flourish when the leadership they spend most of the day

028with is modeling the opposite? It's counterproductive, harmful, and undermines everything that we are working to instill at home. And now we need a firm Now I need to place something firmly on the record. On December 7th, I filed a formal Texas Public Information Act request seeking the district's own records, including team rosters before and after eligibility determinations, UIL certification forms, administrative communications, written eligibility procedures, participation logs, and any UIL complaints submitted by parents this year. This request is lawful, evidence-based, and directly tied to inconsistencies your staff has communicated to parents. I am not requesting this information because KISD can't provide answers. I'm requesting it because you won't. And when a parent is forced to file a legal request to get straight answers about their own child's education, it's not a communication problem. It's a transparency

029problem. I'm not doing this because I want to fight. I'm doing this because every time we raise concerns, we are met with silence, dismissals, case closed responses that ignore the facts in front of us. This is not accountability. This is avoidance. And avoidance does not build trust. It destroys it. If KISS believes its processes were correct, then proving it should be simple. prove it. If the district cannot provide answers internally, then external oversight becomes necessary. I brought printed copies of every email, every time staff, every documented discrepancy. I will provide them to any board member who requests them. I'm not here to impact the district. >> Okay. >> Please make sure that your time. >> Thank you. And if anybody wants you would like >> Yes. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Just give it.

030[clears throat] >> Good evening. I'm not here just as a parent, but someone who has watched children lose their sense of safety, confidence, and trust in a program that was supposed to build support. Our children, your students have been seeing have been singling and they have now and have and there is something wrong. Their voices have gone unheard and silence have been made to keep safe. Speaking up is my only option. One of the first concerns that was brought to my attention was a student who was questioned about the classroom interaction and the way that it left them feeling intimidated, dismissed, and blamed. They walked away believing that their feelings did not matter. They that our focus had shifted onto them and that their safety was not a priority. No child should ever feel unsafe

031or their but their voice unheard. This is not leadership and fear has no place in our school. On a school trip, students were moved to a a a different bus without any parent notification, including students with medical needs. One of those stu students experienced a medical episode and the sponsor is unaware of the students had any condition. As a parent, realizing you don't know where your children is or who is responsible for them is terrifying. This wasn't an an oversight. This was a broken down and a basic safety procedure that put children at risk. During that same trip, I personally witnessed along with the entire coaching staff emotional outburst from the sponsor, crying, raising voices, visibly distressed, and in front of miners who were looking to seek answers and for an adult who could stay

032steady and in control. Students sat silently on the bus for nearly an hour. Some looked scared and others were embarrassed. Children whispered, "Are is everything okay? What's happening? Something's deeply wrong." This is the moment that affected me the most as a mother. The sponsor scheduled a mandatory morning practice, but did not notify administration or obtain proper approval requested under the UIL and district guidelines. When my daughter arrived, prepared to split her time with her already scheduled tears practice, she was confronted and publicly questioned about her choice. A simple phone alarm led to raised voices, pressure, and humiliation in front of her peers. She left the gym in tears and sought help from another coach because she no longer felt safe. No child should ever be made to feel attacked or tried to have or or

033have the responsibility of balancing two school commitments. Later, I asked for an explanation, but I was only met with with multiple action, multiple conflicting um responses. If an adult cannot communicate clearly each other, how can they guide our children? Throughout the year, students repeatedly share concerns about being taken to practice in unsafe areas, being asked to perform in ways that make them feel uncomfortable, being publicly called out or criticized, feeling discouraged rather than supported. Extracurricular activity programs are to help children grow. Instead, they're walking away feeling embarrassed, confused, and afraid to speak up. If this this is not an isolated incident, and if it was, I wouldn't be here, but rather a pattern. Activities happen without proper approval. last minute changes that disrupts families, explanations that shift. Children are afraid to speak up. Parents are

034afraid to speak up as well. ignoring these patterns is how children can get hurt. I was also made aware of private student information by the sponsor, including I should have never been told, including student grades and details, CPS related situation, and UIL grade changes due to eligibility. No parents should have had access to that, but should no employee should share it. But there is a there is one thing. I'm a parent. She was an employee of KISSD. Entrusted with our students safety, privacy, and emotional well-being. What I witnessed did not reflect professionalism. It blurred boundaries, created division, and caused emotional harm to our students who had no control over their information being shared. Administration asked me administration asked me not to speak while my while the investigation was going on and I honored that. But

035during that time, a narrative was formed that was not accurate. Meanwhile, children and parents were left in the bark in the dark. Silence did not protect children. Transparency does. I'm asking the board these three things. Take these concerns seriously. Our children are telling us that they're not safe. Look at the patterns, not just individual incidents. There have been over 35 complaints, including meetings that have occurred. Anyone supervising minors must show emotional stability, consistency, and professionalism. Ensure that individuals with close professional contact into the situation recuse themselves. This aligns with tea guidelines and protects the integrity and dis. It protects the integrity. This is not about your job, but this is about the children. I did not come here out of anger. But I'm here because I believe in our children. I believe in their tears.

036I believe in their discomfort. I believe in their quiet voices. When they whisper, I don't feel safe. When a child says they are uncomfortable, we have the responsibility to listen. Programs don't make students, students make programs. And our students deserve a program built on safety, compassion, leadership, and stability, not fear, confusion, and inconsistency. I have all I have offered alternative solutions to ensure the drill team programs. [clears throat] >> Thank you, Miss Escan. >> [clears throat] >> We now move on to item number five. >> Okay, [clears throat] >> Elizabeth Ramos. Good afternoon, superintendent board members. Um this is the what these ladies said has been a concern for many many years probably priority me getting getting here but um with I know you've always talked about having committees and I think that would be

037definitely one to form for you guys committee on booster clubs and PTO's a committee for sports and athletics a committee for CTE so that there is some kind of um baseline for um how pe how people's roles rules are supposed to be played and how you know you're supposed to act, what kids are supposed to do and get that information out to the public so that there is no confusion that everyone is aware of what their responsibilities are. Um, it it doesn't take much to make a committee. I mean, I'll nominate myself. You got one five others, but I just with all this, it' be a good idea to finally get some committees going. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Ronald. [clears throat] We now move on to item number five, communication of administration. Item

0385A, superintendent update. Dr. D Martinez. >> Good evening, board president, for members and members of the public and the KD staff. We're really excited about launching the school improvement plan and we want to make sure that we have transparency and communication with all stakeholders. And so for this purpose, we are going to be starting a series of information forums which begin next Wednesday the 17th uh 5:30 to 6:30 here in the boardroom. And we invite all the community and staff members who would like uh to come to hear more about the proposed plan that we have for uh the consolidation of the elementary schools uh as well as some of the TEA grant funding that we have applied for which you will also get um a presentation today on [clears throat] that as well. We

039want to make sure we hear from the community and that we take um all concerns into consideration before we present the plan for final approval to the board um which we plan to do in in the beginning of February time frame. We are going to be posting all of these scheduled meetings and events through uh different organizations in the community as well as coming to each of the campuses and um uh inviting everyone who would like their voices to be heard. Uh again, we want to make sure we are as transparent as possible and that we listen to all the voices uh in the community so we can make a well-informed decision uh as well. Today we continue with the STAR testing EOCC at the high school. Uh on Wednesday of last week we tested

040about 104 students for English one. Um Thursday the 4th we tested about 108 students for algebra one. Um on Monday, yesterday unfortunately we have to suspend testing because as you are aware we had uh no electricity in some of our um areas to include Herold Elementary the central office right here as well as the bars depot. Unfortunately when we lose electricity because the main frame is here at central office internet connectivity is impacted. So we did not have internet at any of our campuses. Therefore we had to pause uh testing for that date. But we continue today and today we test uh tested for English to 79 students for US history 25 students and for biology 24 students. Uh we are going to continue makeup testing Wednesday through Friday uh for about 58 remaining uh

041students that are retesting for ELC. Uh I want to thank uh Miss Williams uh Mr. Cooper, U, Miss Moore, and all the high school administration for their resiliency and and preparation and planning in administering this test as well as care and DAP uh faculty and and administration. Thank you so much for your efforts in ensuring our students uh are successful in this uh testing. Um just to end I would like to remind everyone that as we are preparing to close first semester in about a week. Um we still have a lot of work to do. We have to stay focused on instruction and we don't have any time to waste. So our expectations is that instruction continues in every classroom every day as we prepare to celebrate the the holidays. Happy holidays to everyone. I

042hope you have a wonderful, wonderful time with your families and friends. And remember that all school district offices and schools will remain closed until January the 5th. That is when our teachers return for um school level PD. And then Tuesday the 6th, they have a work day. students return to school on Wednesday, excuse me, Wednesday, January 7th. That's when we want all students back. Wednesday, January 7th. That is all for my report. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Martinez. For any questions? >> Yes, Dr. Martinez probably asked this every single time and I apologize. The tests that are taking place now are for students who have taken the test before but have not successfully passed the test. Is that correct? >> That's correct. >> And they're these tests are required for graduation. >> That's correct.

043>> Okay. >> So at the high school level, they have to pass five tests currently. English one, English two, algebra one, US history and biology. And uh so students have to continue to take the tests until they pass them. If they do not pass them by the time they are uh in their senior year, they have the opportunity to complete a plan that is mandated by the state and upon successful completion of that plan that can be extended to up to two of the uh EOC test. So this test will be administered again um this year most likely in the spring. >> Yes. So in April in April we have the official uh firsttime testers as way as well as the makeup uh testing for those who have not passed the test as well. >>

044Students that are required that don't pass up to two go to the committees. Are are we keeping detailed documentation on on what a tutoring they're going to all the extra help that they're getting to present to the committees? Is that >> I would like the high school principal to come to the podium and address that please. And Miss Williams, I think you wanted to say something. So, please come to the podium. >> Yes, sir. So, we have um our binders from last school year um and the students at the very last uh moment. If they don't pass, then we do have all of the IGC meetings that we need to have. Um each department um we present um the English, the math, the science and social studies. We went through uh CNI last year before

045we um approved the materials that they had to complete. Um and then we have their binders with all of their information that they have to turn in and have a parent meeting. So their parents come sit down with us, too. Yes, sir. >> And Mr. Kufu, I just wanted to provide some clarification. And um the majority of our students who are taking these tests are retesters. There are a few exemptions to the rule in reference to US history. Those students who are in those dual credit courses that receive credit for 1302 um are eligible to take the test in December as a firsttime tester. Um so those are the only students who are the exemption to that rule. The other ones are um retesters or if for any reason we have students who have transferred

046into the district from another district who does semester um based courses then we can test them as first time testers in December as well. >> When are the results of this test now >> February end of January early February I have the exact date on the calendar of events I can get that date to you. Yes, I think we preliminary results in January towards the mid end of January and then the official cleaned up as they say uh report cuts early February. Yes, ma'am. >> Dr. Williams on the students that we're we're going after every student that qualifies to take it in order to give them an opportunity. I mean whether they went to tutoring or didn't go to tutoring. >> That is correct. We have a tracker for each um cohort of students and

047if they were unsuccessful and they qualify for retesting, we are testing them. We are not giving them the option to opt out. >> Absolutely. That that way parents know that we are given every opportunity where whether they're they're 100% of the time or 50% of the time, they get that opportunity. >> That is correct. That is correct. Um, and so they have this opportunity if for any reason they are unsuccessful that they test again in spring administration and then they even have summer to test again if for any reason they're unsuccessful in spring administration. Yes, Senator. >> So just a a principle more if you can speak about what provisions have been made to provide additional support for the students who have not passed the test like double walking etc. So this year, uh, coming

048in last year, um, a lot of our biggest complaint was our students didn't get their remediation for the STAR test. And so they take, um, you know, their algebra and then now they're in geometry in all of these different subjects. And so what we did the English department is I blocked all retesters that needed to pass English one or English two. And so they're pure retesting classes. And so that way they're getting additional instruction in their English three and four class. In algebra, we have every student that needed a retest in our algebraic reasoning class and so they're getting the strategies that they need there. Also, um in US history during Brama time, we've locked it in for biology and US history. Um so that way those students that did not pass during those Brama

049times, the certified biology and US history teachers, so they're getting the additional class in brain time, they're giving that instruction uh during that time. And so our teachers worked really hard on top of the before and after school tutoring that um the um teachers are providing. So we had a lot of time within our schedule uh for them to get the remediation during the game. >> Wonderful. They uh wanted to get the remediation school are they signing in? I mean is there documentation showing that they are showing up teachers present? Not so much a teacher present their students showing up for that. Uh so if they were not successful we can show the parents for example these are the days we did it these some of the days he showed up or these are all

050the days he showed up I mean something that shows a track record that these kids are being addressed and not maybe they came four or five times but >> it's an official class so attendance in that class that period is an official class on their schedule >> okay >> so if it's if they're absent it's counted absent just like any other day and so that's what we did with the BMA time now The English is already built into their three and four, but algebra algebra is built in throughout the day and biology and US history during their frame of time. So, they get a grade and they get um their attendance every day. >> Any other questions? Hearing none. One, item 5B, the lasso cycle 4 report can be found on pages 6 through 17,

051Miss Flowers. Good evening, Dr. Martinez, board of press release and board members. Um, Dr. Wells here, assistant superintendent going to introduce Miss Flowers and Dr. Arum, director of school improvement, and I can repeat the last for you. >> Good evening, board president Ree, Dr. Martinez, members of the board. Um, as Dr. B said, we're going to go over the learning acceleration support opportunities, which is lasso, uh, cycle 4 grant opportunities that we recently applied for. So just a brief overview of what we can expect to receive um in terms of support for these different lasso grants that we applied for. uh the key areas of support that align with our goals and our incentive or our initiatives. Uh high quality instructional materials and curriculum implementation, leadership development, coaching, professional learning, blended learning and strategic use

052of supplemental products, targeted improvement support for identified campuses, and our pathways in technology early college high school planning. So the first grant that we're going to go over is the leadership and instructional foundations for Texas or Lyft grant. Uh the purpose of this is going to strengthen district and campus instructional systems over three years by supporting curriculum adoption, implementation, and instructional leadership development. Uh one of the nice things about this is a three-year grant. Um I will tell you the lasso cycle 3 that we're involved in right now, um we're we're really starting to get things up and running off the ground and and getting some traction. And I feel like, you know, if if this were a three-year grant instead of a one-year grant, we'd really be able to to make some moves. So,

053I'm I'm excited about this opportunity for sure. Some of the key supports, um uh we would have to partner with a approved provider um which again we currently do for the last cycle 3 that we're involved in right now. So the approved provider is going to come um from a list from that tea has for us and then we can move forward with whatever supports uh we feel that we need with that provider. Uh development of an observation and feedback systems ongoing coaching, professional learning, instructional leadership coaching through our principles and all of our district leaders. Um in order to be eligible for this grant, we would have to commit to implementing blue bonnet curriculum for both math and rla. Uh we do currently implement Blue Bonnet for math and um as far as Blue

054Bonnet for RLA, we're going to be considering that um and obviously bringing that to the community's attention and your attention in the near future. Um again, these are just grants that we've applied for. We haven't necessarily received them and certainly haven't accepted anything as yet. Um as far as funding goes, we're looking at $855,000 to $4.5 million per award. Uh the reason that these funds are so um large again it is a three-year grant um and it has one second it has combined three of the grants that they're um that they have been separate in the past. So the three grants that it um combines is the strong foundations Texas instructional leadership and Texas Texas lesson study um those are the three grants that are kind of combined into one for this lift. um, as

055far as whether or not we think we would get this grant, we are pretty high priority. So, we're a priority, too, based on our current district status. Um, so we're we are looking at a lot of of different ways that we may be able to use uh this money already. The Lyft add-on is another grant that we can um utilize for school improvement purposes. This one is only a one-year grant because it's just supposed to support that initial push for everything that we're trying to implement as far as school improvements. Uh the only schools that are eligible for this are ones that are have that school improvement designation um which is all five of ours. So this is going to provide additional funding for support for that title one school improvement identified campus. We are

056going to have to continue that um uh contract with an approved provider from TEA. we would have additional outside support in order to implement this grant. Um, same requirements as far as Blue Bonnet. We would have to commit to implementing Blue Bonnet math and RLA for the 26 27 school year. Um, and it's going to give us a monitoring system for that blue bonnet curriculum implementation. Another grant that we have applied for is the blended learning grant and the eligible grades for the blended learning grant are kinder through 8th grade. The purpose is to support the design and implementation of highquality blended learning model to strengthen student outcomes in mathematics through targeted software use and professional development. Key supports include professional development for blended learning design, vendor partnership support, digital licenses, technology, supplies and personnel

057for blended learning. The requirements and funding we would need to implement adaptive software plus the blue bonnet map, participate in training, site visits, and datadriven planning. The estimated funding for this grant would be up to 450,000 uh per campus and the duration would be for three years beginning in March of uh 2026. Some of the programs that we know are approved with this grant or ST math and CERN which are vetted supplemental resources that support math instruction in the classroom. The next grant that we have um applied for is the additional day school year grant that Miss Flowers will discuss. So our additional day school year or Etsy is going to support our district in designing highquality extended year summer learning programs. Um it's going to give us strategic strategic planning, professional development, um and

058technical assistance in order to implement these additional days. Um some of the key supports, guidance to design evidence-based ad Z programs. Um and what that looks like is um math instruction, reading instruction, and then um uh enrichment as well uh throughout the day. uh technical assistance from a TEA approved provider and then support to create an ad aligned calendar which would have a base of 175 instructional days and then additional ADY days that are specific to um this type of programming. So right now we work on a calendar that is 167 instructional days. So this would increase that to 175 as a base. So again, just things that we've applied for and are looking into. Haven't been awarded or accepted anything uh at this point. Um requirements for funding, we must serve 3K to 5.

059So this is an elementary school grant. We must operate on or adopt a 175day instructional calendar for the 2627 school year. And we must implement blue bonnet for math and RLA. And we would um require a qualified district project manager for that. Um and again this this funding would go towards that. Uh estimated funding up to $200,000 and this would be for two to three years. So some of the things that we would like you to start thinking about um in order to comply with some of these grant requirements that um in total that we are looking at we would need at least 181 instructional days um which would be that base of 175 and the added max days. So, some of the options that we would like to bring for your consideration, uh, summer

060learning, which would be in a summer enrichment program, it would be roughly an additional 20 days of academics, reading and math. Um, [clears throat] at the end of the traditional school year, which for us would be about in June for at least three hours daily by a certified teacher. Option two is an inter session calendar would offer targeted remediation for a specific group of students. We would probably have two separate weeks during the fall, one week during the spring. And this again would be for that targeted group of students based on STAR NWEA MAP scores. Um, and then interse interession will focus on reading and math instruction. And then option three, we can do an earlier school start date. These are some of the things that other districts have implemented. Helps with some of that

061summer learning loss that we experience with our students. And then the days would be added just before the school year. um for a targeted group of students, making sure to focus on reading and math instruction. Option four, we can do a combination of any of those three. So again, just things to start thinking about and how we could implement these ads days. Um in addition to the grant, there's also formula funding for adding these days. So that would be state funded um days for for uh implementing the ads model. Next we have the school action fund restart accelerated campus excellent grant excellence grant I'm sorry and the campuses that we applied for our AD Harvey NM Harrell and JR Bendis. The purpose of the grant is to support struggling title one campuses through a full

062ACE restart model which relaunches campuses with highly effective leadership at least 50% highly effective staff and a redesign academic program to improve student outcomes. These supports include to support support to implement a new school model and academic program, funding for leader and teacher recruitment, resources for community engagement and transition planning, integration of blue bonnet, researchbased instructional strategies, and strategic master scheduling. The requirements and funding for the grant include campuses must be title one school improvement identified must implement blue bonneted in reading language arts and math board members must participate in TEA approved training and the estimated funding for this grant is up to 1.1 million per campus and the duration of the grant extends between two to three years. Implementation of blue bonnet reading language arts contingent upon board approval and blue bonnet map has

063already received board approval and is currently being implemented at this time. supports the district's uh proposed reconstitution plan by funding the transition from three campuses to two redesigned schools, preK through second and then third through fifth with strong leadership and highly effective staff. and it advances instructional improvement goals through resources that strengthen tier one instruction, coaching and recruitment of highly effective teachers aligned to our Lasso and effective schools framework priorities. It also improves student outcomes by creating more consistent and instructionally focused learning environments that accelerate achievement and long-term growth. Now the last grant that we applied for is the Pathways and Technology Early College High School or PEK grant. Uh the campus applying for that is HM King Early College High School. It's uh this grant is going to support the development of a highfidelity

064PEK model that enables students to earn a high school diploma plus those industry based certifications uh andor an associates degree through strong college and industry partnerships. Uh it's going to support technical assistance to design and implement the PEK model. Going to uh provide staff training in academic rigor CTE pathways and workbased learning. Um increase and strengthen our formalized partnerships with institutes of higher education ICE um and industry partners. Um, it's going to give us more career focused supports, um, uh, advising, mental health supports, academic services, um, and then those work-based learning opportunities, internships, job shadowing, and real world projects with our industry partners. Requirements for funding. We must be a high school serving 9 through 12. Must be new to the college career readiness school model CCRSM with no prior PEK planning or designation. And

065we must identify the IG or industry partners for all of our grade levels. Estimated funding up to $100,000. It's a two-year grant. Um and then this does align pretty well with what we have already established um as our plan moving forward. the high school has already applied for that planning year for the PEK. Um, so this this would support uh that planning that we we've already um discussed and and approved. So I know that was a lot of information because we applied for those grants. So we know how much it is. So if there's any questions, we are here for you. So just let us know. I have a quick comment on on the additional days that looks like it's just going to be a school year school year year round school calendar. Isn't that

066basically what that is? >> So there there is a model that's a year- round school year which is more than 200 days and at this point we haven't really considered that. um we're looking more around the one 181 is kind of our our baseline and those are those those ad Z days are for a targeted group of students. So even if you think of the model we have right now we we do have kids in school in June and that's a targeted group of students. Now this is a different model um than what we have now but it wouldn't necessarily be all all year. No sir >> Miss Flower. So the only commitment that we would we're looking at is the blue bonnet curriculum tech break on most of these there's no money amount no

067monetary amount match >> the the P tech grant does have a match um but again that is the one um initiative that that we've already agreed upon um that we would move forward with anyway and the high school did apply for that um in November. So that is one that does have a match requirement. Um and then again we should hear probably March on whether we um are receiving any of these grants and then at that point we can make some determinations. >> Thank you. As far as technology in in the district, are we set up for all this or do we have to purchase more or are we good where we're at? Do you know? So the the one grant that we we could use for purchasing the technology would be that blended learning

068grant because that is more um geared towards those supplemental programs that are going to um match match well with our blue program. So but that grant does provide money specifically for technology. So if we needed to purchase more we could. >> Thank [clears throat] you. The branch require an approved provider. >> So TA will come out with a list um of their approved providers and we are allowed to interview them and their sales pitches. So currently and I'll I'll make some comp comparisons. So we have our lasso cycle 3 implementation grant and we partner with Carnegie Learning. They come on campus. They provide on-ampus support. They provide PLC support coaching uh for our blue bonnet implementation. And then we also have our strong foundations planning grant and we partner with Mo Casey for that. And

069we're developing a framework for our RLA um curriculum. >> How much of the grant funds do they do? >> Uh I don't have the numbers for next year. Um but for this year for example 50% of the grant goes to the approved >> and so you've got the lift the lift add would there be separate charges the provider it's got to be the same provider so they're going to take >> yes they would they would take a piece of the lift grant and a piece of that Lyft add-on grant how disruptive is it to a district change curriculum Um I think our so I mean I I see where you're getting. So our implementation of math has gone pretty well. So um we we have not used Amplify in the past and Amplify has transitioned

070to Blue Bonnet. So this would be for RLA. Um, this certainly would be a transition, but if the curriculum is going to have and and I'll speak for the blue bunny because we are implementing that right now. The curriculum has everything the teachers need. So, TEA is backing programs that are going to have have everything the teachers need from misconceptions before each topic and um terms and vocabulary mapped out with graphics. Sometimes uh it's going to have lesson plans already created, uh scope and sequence already mapped out. Um it has questions for facilitation. So if if you're trying to make sure you're getting everything that you you can out of your students, it has questions for you to ask them to make sure, hey, hit this point because this this one's really important. Make sure

071you get a good answer for this. So backing these curriculum are is what TEA is doing to support us. So, you know, blue bonnet math, blue bonnet reading. They're going they're going to have everything that the teachers need to support their students. >> Who who are we with on reading now? And >> so, right now the elementary school we have McGraw Hill Wonders and at the secondary level we have McGraill study site. >> We transition to them. >> Was Blue Bonnet even considered? >> No. Oh, so blue bonnet was not available last year was the first year if I'm not mistaken that blue bonnet was even a item >> in in the considerations of these these grants applying form award even if they're awarded not get accepted. Is there a basic analysis done in terms

072of is this adding personnel that are going to remain tax the grant? Are there going to be subsidiary cost when the grant ends? being right into that in a bit with you we've got we've got some residual cost if you're looking in terms of the extended calendar days you take into consideration faculty transportation food services the additional janitorial all of those kind of things when I mean your basic dollar and cents analysis that's included with with Dr. picture finance department comes involved in the dollars look appealing. Do we actually look down to make sure that we're not taking a pig and a poke now or some some cost down the road that it's going to be tough to answer your question sir really good question. So every time we get funded uh by the state

073or the federal government by the form of grants, we have to be very strategic and judicious on what do we use that money, right? Because one of the things that you mentioned with ESR funding, a lot of districts created a lot of positions, right? when the funding disappeared, everybody was running ragged because how do we pay for all of these positions that we didn't anticipate or our budget cannot support. So part of the strategic uh planning that we are engaging in right now is to determine what are the best uses for that for the money that hopefully we will get from those grants and determine if there are additional positions that need to be created which there might be right because the grant will provide us with that opportunity. Like you heard there's one particular

074grant that is a three-year grant, right? So we can uh hire a person for that particular position and we specifically say is grant funded and so the person that takes that position understands that yeah I'm going to get this position and or this additional statements or funding but it is grantfunded. So the minute the grant runs out the person will have to apply for other available positions because we don't guarantee them their position. So we just do that as a matter of human resources type contracts right that will address those uh in terms of what you mentioned the cost that we will have to assume for example during the summertime we have to provide you know the electricity and the the additional support etc. Basically, we pretty much always offer summer school. So, we incur

075in those costs anyways, but there is a large portion of the ad grant that we will be able to use to put some of the the funding into some of those areas. Not all. Some of them we will still have to absorb but we can uh certainly include the great majority of the funding that is related directly to instruction and instructional support personnel to be compensated from from the grant. >> I appreciate what you said about the u the person that might be hired or could be hired knowing the rent funding because we didn't do that here and so that's part of our deficit. So that being up front is uh being up front and honest you know it ends at this time if there's another job you can apply for or not then that's

076job. So thank you for that. >> It goes the same as with the ACE restart grant that we're applying. So we will be able through that grant to offer pretty substantial compensation uh to the principles, the teachers, the sport staff from those schools. Um just to give you an example, La Hoya ISD which is a district in the valley uh did in implement the AE restart program. I believe this is their second year and um they they paid for example their their principles right uh it was $15,000 as a stipen the assistant principles $2,500 uh teachers will get $10,000 and everybody else the additional instructional staff will get 77 7,500 and that's their model that we we're going to you know with your um support. We're going to present to you what we're recommending and

077it will be your decision to approve one amount or another uh based on what we're getting from the grant to proide. But again, the same happens with the sitements. When the grant is is over, those statements will no longer be available for for the reception. Yeah. tremendous amount of work and [clears throat] I appreciate I'm sure the whole board does just understanding just putting the presentation together to be be able to explain I'm sure was was troubling enough but thank you looks like some good things may be coming down >> if I may I would like to thank the team that curriculum and instruction team including Miss Miss Williams, Miss Barbieel, they work really, really hard to put all of these funds together. It's an enormous amount of work and paperwork and data that needs

078to happen to support uh the uh submission of this grant. So, thank you to the team. Great job. >> Thank you very much. And now I'm on item 5C, special education report can be found on page 18. This is Gloria Garcia. [clears throat] Superintendent Martinez or President Ruiz. Again, I have the honor and pleasure introducing two more members of my team. That's the RDA resultsdriven accountability for school year 2025. US director Gloria Haml Garcia and our um compliance specialist Barbie. Thank you. Good evening uh board president Ree, Superintendent Martinez, and board members. Today we're going to walk through uh the 2025 resultsdriven accountability determination framework known as RDA and what it means to our district for our district. I'll give you a clear overview of how TA calculates determination levels, which indicators matter the most,

079and what recent updates mean for us. This presentation is designed to help us understand our data story and plan next steps for improvement. Now, RDA stands for resultsdriven accountability. This is TA's accountability system for emergent bilingual and other special populations. The other special populations include foster, homeless, and military. The emphasis is sorry I think I was clicking this where we should be. Every district in the state of Texas receives an annual determination level that's based on these outcomes. Understanding how this system work is what is going to help us make datadriven and compliant decisions. What does RDA uh why does RDA matter? RDA has real implications for our district. Our determination level drives what type of monitoring, intervention, and reporting we must complete. It also highlights the strengths and the weaknesses in our special education

080program so [clears throat] we can adjust instruction, services, and compliance practices. Ultimately, RDA ensures that our students are receiving high quality instruction and equitable services. There are four different determination levels. DL1 means that we meet or we met requirements. This is where every district wants to be. DL2 indicates that we need some assistance. A DL3 means that we need intervention and a DL4 signals substantial intervention. Our district is currently level four. Our goal right now is to understand the areas that are affecting our level and also ensure that we stay in compliance with improving our student outcomes. Now, TEA uses a combination of performance indicators and calculates performance levels that are also called PLS. These PLS get averaged into something called a PL mean. Then, TEA uses a percentile cut points 99th, 95th, and 80th

081percentiles to assign each district a determination level. In short, our performance is compared to other districts in the state of Texas. These indicators up here are the special education indicators that factor into determination levels. They include special education representation, star performance and growth, graduation rates, dropout rates, early childhood outcomes, and federal results elements such as instructional setting and behavior and discipline removals. Understanding why we where we stand on each of these indicators is key to improving our determination level. Now, one of the major updates for 2025 is that discipline indicators have been removed from the DL calculations due to recent legislation. However, our district uh discipline metrics are still be reported. They just don't count toward our determination level. This is important because we need to monitor discipline trends closely, [clears throat] especially disproportionality. I

082also like to include that this is an area where we went from a three to a two this past year, but since it was removed, it didn't help us since it wasn't calculated in this year's DL calculation. What happens after a DL assignment? Well, once TEA assigns a determination level, there may be required actions. Some districts must complete a self assessment. Others must create a targeted improvement plan. And districts with higher levels of need may require intervention actions. As a DL4, our district must develop a strategic support plan and we must submit that report to TA by November the 19th. Well, December. We'll also have um initial midyear and end of the year conferences with TA as well as monthly check-in reporting meetings with TA. What I'd like to do now is turn it over

083to our uh compliance specialist uh that to uh talk about KISSD special education RDA performance levels. She um produces longit long longitudinal um report from 2021 to 2025. Good evening. So this is a document that you have the table there of the performance levels. I created this several years ago as a special education director. I've since retired, so I work part-time for the district as the compliance specialist. Um, but I created this document because I think it's really important for our educators and our district leadership team to see that this is about specific numbers, but it looks better whenever you you see deal four, but we're breaking it down to show you what that means, right? Not just, oh, it's a four, oh, you got a PL3 or oh, you got a PL2. It really

084breaks it down to show you how far we were from getting the next better level, right? So um if you look at our sped star 3 through eight passing rate um that's academic achievement falls under domain one and so these are your three indicators that have math, reading, science, social studies which is all of your star performance. So um if you look at 2025, you can see the trends as we went from 21 to 25. Um you see we've maintained threes in math and reading and then in science um we maintained a three as well. We went back to a four in social studies. You look at the very last column there. What I've done is I've gone in and used the TEA cut points for each section to determine how many students away we

085were from the next PL. That make sense? So if you look at I highlighted yellow there for social studies. If one more of our students had passed the social studies test, we would have been a P3. That really helps teachers to see, hey, that's just one more student that needed to pass, correct? We know who those kids are. We've uh Miss Bour just talked about tracking that at the high school. So, we know who those kiddos are. So, that's why we want to do really um intentional targeted instruction for those groups. Um and then you can see appeal two for math would have been 34 students, 22 in reading, and 16 in science. Um the year after exit, that's the year after exit from special education. So if we dismiss students from special ed, this

086whole section shows how they've done. What you'll see on star test, what you'll see is NASA, which is not assigned special analysis or a 1 essay special analysis. And what that means is that for each of the groups and for each of the areas that they measure, you're looking for a minimum size requirement of at least 30. Okay. So, in those areas, it was not assigned special analysis because we didn't meet the minimum size requirement. Okay. Um, we did get a one essay in reading and that was a special analysis because the other years we had it for met the minimum size requirement and you'll see science and social studies were not assigned. So, there were not not enough students in those groups. um our star end of course pathway rate um we were a

087three in algebra uh zero rai required improvement. So the system has a built-in improvement option in it. So when they do all the fancy calculations that they do to determine what your performance level is, if you've had improvement over a certain number of years, they take the numerator, the the the denominator, they figure out the formula, and because you've made improvements, you can get a required improvement uh score as your PL. So we have a zero RARI there. So we've made quite a bit of progress in biology over the last five years. um US history um we one more student would have gotten us at a a performance level of one and in ELA uh we would have two more students we would have been a PL3 for that one section is domain two which

088is your post-secary readiness that's your grad rate graduation rate and your annual dropout rate and if you'll notice the asterisks there next to annual dropout rate this is two-year-old data So it looks for the students in grades 7 through 12 that graduated with their cohort um based on data. Okay? So it wasn't this past year's data. It's lagging data. And so if you'll see there, grad rate, we were a one. We made improvements there to be a zero. We would have had to have four more students graduate. And then our annual dropout rate, we were a one. So we needed four three fewer students um on dropout rate. So that's indicator goes backwards, right? Because you want more instead of less. I'm sorry, less instead of more. Um, then the last domain three disproportionate analysis,

089they're looking at your uh classroom rates. So your instructional arrangements for students starting with uh indicator six all the way down to indicator uh nine, we're looking at our rates of where our kids are receiving services at. Um and then it looks at our discipline. So how many removals we have. So indicator 15 is our spend total disciplinary removal rate. Again you'll see the asterisks there because it is lagging data. Again it's based on 2324 data based on the summer submission team snapshot I mean pink submission. So if you look at our total disciplinary rates as Miss Haml Garcia was saying we didn't make improvements there. we went to a two and so we had fewer students that were being removed um based on that 23 24 data. One other item that's included and you

090do have a copy of our special education um uh results driven accountability the report itself. We have the federally required elements that are in there. They'll be on the very last page of your report. Those are our state performance plan indicators. So that's uh indicator 11 and 12 which is our timely evaluations. So I track that in a spreadsheet and I work on that every single day. So every single day that I'm here I work on that every day. I look and see where we are, what kids have been um uh referred for special education evaluation to ensure that we evaluate them within our 45 school day timeline and that we have their ARD meeting within um 30 calendar days from the date of that report. It also looks at um indicator 13 which is

091transition, indicator 14 which is postsecary and um those are SP indicators. It also looks at valid, reliable and timely data meaning I'm getting our submissions turned in on time. Status of uncorrected non-compliance. We are at two there and that's because we're of year two corrected non-compliance. And then finally the financial audits. Um and that's uh done kind of like the first ratings are as well. So I have great news on our two there for status of uncorrected non-compliance. Tamil Garcia and I met with TEA today and we have been approved on all of the last hundred folders of submission that I turned in over the past two years and we are now um no longer in uncorrected non-compliance. And you know, I've been here in this district just a little over two months, so I

092don't know how much credit I can take for that. So, I'd like to take a moment to thank um our our team in the special ed department and also um Missel to for um that big accomplishment for Kingsville Independent School District. Definitely a time to celebrate. Okay. Um Okay. So one of the things that we talked about is the correlation of our ADA A to F accountability along with RDA. So you can see in the years that we were F-rated we were fours in the last year we were a DL3 and we were D. Okay. So there is a correlation there. Um [clears throat] I did want to note that under other special populations for this coming school year um we were three. So when we when our district leadership team meets next week to

093write our strategic support plan, we'll be looking at that other special populations, it was 3 through eight math and graduation rate, uh I'm sorry, dropout rate for our foster homeless. And so we'll be looking at those two areas, including those in our strategic support plan. So I wanted to make sure that I brought up other special populations, but you can see over time um how the correlation is there. For us right now, the biggest focuses will be improving the data accuracy, strengthening our instruction, and also using RDA results to guide continuous improvement. Every indicator tells part of our story. So the more accurate our data and the stronger our instruction, the better position we are to achieve or maintain a DL1. Um therefore, I'd like to end our presentation with just talking a little bit

094about what our next steps are here in our district. We are um spending time, our district leadership team is going to be developing a strategic support plan to capture our district key priority areas which align to the RDA uh domains and they are to increase student outcomes, improve the quality in of instruction, strengthen leadership and instructional capacity across all levels and we also want to improve special education instruction services compliance. science and accountability. This uh plan again is uh due to TEA on Friday the 19th. Ongoing progress monitoring of identified SSP strategies and data and also uh next steps will include participating in those scheduled meetings with TEA. >> Quick, does that need board approval? That's fine. No sir. No sir, it doesn't. Thank you. I'd just like to uh you know commend the [clears

095throat] this uh this group because I you know I've been on the board a couple years now and I don't think I've ever quite seen u such detailed information. I mean I I uh you know you hear information but not really understand what uh was being presented. So thank thank you all cuz this is uh you know definitely understandable right for somebody like me layman that doesn't know anything [clears throat] about the K through 12. So thank you so much. So I'd like to to ask a question just if I could for this uh sorry I don't know the last >> okay what is your schedule for KISSD? So it varies from week to week based on the needs of the district. So like this Friday we have our evaluation team meeting. So I'll be

096here all day for that day. Um >> okay. So how do we get you more days here in our district? Because [laughter] one day is not going to do it. [laughter] >> And what I'm saying is because our diag uh our spended department needs the assistance. Okay. And I don't know how I know that with our teachers, our staff, uh, Dr. Martinez staff is going in and walking through. Do you do the walkthroughs through the, uh, spended programs? Are you sitting down with them assisting the diags as they're functioning in their in their class? I think that's that's key because uh one day it's not going to do it and and we're going to get I mean I'm excited about the results. Don't get me wrong, but we we still need to do more and

097not be satisfied with just >> I try really hard to get her to come back, but that's a another story. But uh to kind of answer the second part of your question, um those walks we we have and we will continue to include our special education departments such as um Claudia Claudia and um Miss Ham Garcia in those walks so that when we're looking we're looking at not only Jed, but we're looking at the supports that are given to our special education students and we're also having them work with within our PLC's and our inclusion teachers to plan with our gened teachers so that we're intertwining those supports into our regular tier one instruction. >> Board member to answer your question why we couldn't have her more time is because of her retirement considerations. She's

098not more time that she can give us otherwise that will be done already. I give you as much time as I can. This week I'll be here three days. So um actually four but we keep my hours under. I can't work more than 92 hours a month and I keep a track of it and Dr. Pit stays on me to make sure that I'm taking care of keep track of it. I can lose my retirement in probably more days. So, but I do work in the background a lot with our diagnosticians and our speech therapists and our school psychologists as well as contractors. Miss Tamil Garcia does more of the instructional walks, but I work directly with them to ensure that they understand they have legal questions, if they have placement questions, if they have

099any questions about timelines or anything to do with any of the 13 disabilities that are recognized in Texas. I work directly with them and they'll tell you just like I answer I worked at the service center for eight years, so I have lots of contacts in the region and I answer questions all the time. and I will never not take a phone call from them even if I'm not in person here working because that just helps me learn too. >> I I appreciate the trans uh transparency and I've talked to Dr. Martin uh many times about transparency and and we're getting the real story and not a candy story of what's what's really happening and uh you know that that puts us where we need to be. We know where we're at and where we

100need to be because we end up being potato. I appreciate it >> and I'd just like to conclude and thank you all for giving us this time and opportunity to present but also to talk about the fact that the things that you've heard here with the RDA as you can see they are in line with the superintendent's priorities and those are the same things and the reasons that we're looking at those particular grants because they will support us in achieving the superintendent's priority which uh again are the a priorities which will help us get to where we all know our kids should be in this district can be. Thank you all. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we now move on to item 5D. Um, can we do 5D and need it together? Uh, in the

101next four minutes, Duck, can you go get through the check register from October 2025 to be found on pages 19 through 27 and also uh for September 2025 be found on pages 28 through 34. Documents Thank you, Miss Reese, Dr. Martinez, members of the board. Um, just going to point out a couple of things on the September check register. That first one, quarterly appraisal fees, that's something that all taxing entities do have to pay. We pay that four times a year. uh workers comp, we pay that every month, but that is uh there is a one time at the beginning where we pay excess premium basically um coverage if we have any overages. Um we you'll see that the next month is quite a bit lower. We pay about $220,000 a year in workers comp.

102Student tuition, that's how much for the whole year. It's almost a misnomer. We get free tuition through the fast program, but we have to pay for fees and we have to pay for online subscriptions for textbooks as well too. That's how much it comes out through the year. Um then if you look uh there are several renewals. This is September. So renewal for stadium rental for the year. We pay $50,000 so that we can use that for our varsity and JV football games. Uh you see all our instructional technology renewals as well on there uh too. Um and our renewal for our work order um system as well. Any questions on the September check register before I go to October. >> Real quick, I have one question. >> Yes, sir. >> Notice that there's a

103charge for pest control >> services for food service. Don't we have an employee that does that for the district? >> We do have an employee, but there's certain things that they can do. They can they are certified to do the outside applications, but not the inside applications. >> Okay. Okay. I see this service. Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Dr. Pitts. >> Yes, sir. I always see this name at the trains we go to because they've got the best bubble gum and the best pins. Walsh Gos. >> Yes, sir. >> What What do they do? >> They special. >> So, special attorneys, why do we call them for? Like, give me an example. >> Well, two different two different scenarios. One is we have a $1,000 retainer for the year that allows us to

104call at any time to ask basic questions that we have on procedures or compliance, things like that. And then then we do have uh legal issues um that they assist us with as well too. And that that's where the the big costs come up. Like you see on there, it was uh $10,000 and change this year. Um so that was um that obviously I can't talk about that issue right now but sometimes there are um issues where they provide legal um representation for us >> but was that just for the month of September >> that so sometimes they they are behind on their billing um but no that wasn't just for the month of September but that is just the last uh I can I can get the billing period and what that is for

105and get that to the board because there's another one on October as well too. Um that is a a large expenditure as well >> next to it for say September. >> Okay. >> So that we know if I see it it's just the September and to me it's a lot of money. >> Yes. Yes. I I can get some more detail on >> Excuse me. Director Garcia, can you please come to the podium? The question is about what do we use Walsh and Goss for? So if you can answer in a general form without getting specifics that help. >> Um we have a $1,000 fee that we pay every year for the for the school year. Um, and what that allows me to do is to call those attorneys and ask them, speak to them

106over the phone and and just ask them for guidance on anything that that pertaining to to our department. Um, and that is at no cost other than the third the 1,000. What I have asked um are those attorneys is that, you know, we I I was very clear that we are in a $4.2 2 million deficit and um I expect for my them to take care of of of me in this district when I call if I for any reason overstep and um they're going to start charging me for anything then then my expectations are that they let me know that that's happening at that moment with whatever it is that I'm asking. Um and so we have been since I've been aboard on on on um on staff here in the district um our

107we haven't been charged anything. Um what we also do is that we have um Mr. Maddox that that is our attorney on the the gened side I guess for lack of a better word. Um, and there are times that I may call him and ask him some u questions pertaining to to special ed because we can get him uh to handle some of those situations that may end up costing us somewhere else. So, um we app I appreciate having um at least those um options to make sure that we are keeping the cost down here in our district. Um, however, you know, there's there would just be things being done differently since before I came aboard. And um, I'm hoping that we've put systems in place right now that will um, remedy that and and

108we won't be seeing that anymore. And you're right, Miss Garcia. You you just came aboard, so it's not something that we oh this is on you and it's not it's on you thing. But I'd like Nick Maddox to be more involved in those calls, Mr. Maddox, if we can just so that way we know where we can cut a little bit. >> Okay. And if we have to use Miss Barbie, her expertise can help us as well, >> right? Uh, do you see the expenses that we're >> Sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's why I said when we took I did take a look at that when u coming on board and um I can assure you that that you shouldn't be saying that ever again. >> Thank you. >> Substantial. Yeah, >> I mean like and

109I I mean I totally understand this was prior to you coming out of the board, but >> yeah, that's why I wanted Miss Garcia to come to the podium and explain because when she was higher, we had conversations about the expenses that we were incurring in terms of legal fees and moving forward. We want to be very judicious with why do we call, is it necessary, how long do we stay in the call, those kinds of things because it's very easy to engage in conversations that you know are costing the district big bucks. So definitely Mr. Max and being really instrumental in helping us and we appreciate him very much and there are certain things that are very technical in nature that Miss Garcia needs to contact you know the Washington groups they specialize in

110that particular field. Uh but for the most part we utilize matters as well. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to the October check register you see at the very top $812,000 and change to do west. That is the construction company working on the HMK drainage repairs. They are almost done with the small list of punch items but um there is still $220,000 outstanding there. They haven't build us for that yet. Um, if you uh look further down, it all we also have AGCM $16,000 for the project management for the drainage repairs. That is final. That is all that is owed to them for that particular issue. U school bus, you see that we we finally got the school bus in working on getting the camera system together for that so that it can be

111operational. That was one of the large expenditures approved by the board over the summer. um our district software uh for for student uh staff and finance. You see the annual renewal cost for that. Um uh annual cost for data backup recovery. That is an annual uh cost as well. I did want to point out legal services for O'Han. Um uh the uh so I called them and went through the all the expenditures with them and I consulted with Mr. atics on this as well too to make sure that all those expenditures were still supposed to be uh build to us. $15,000 of that is for the superintendent search and the balance of that is for um there was an ongoing um uh lawsuit issue that was carried over in May and June by O'Hamman u

112that they actually did uh fulfill those hours for. Uh there is no more outstanding left on hand. >> So we won't see them on the check register anymore. You won't see them on the check register anymore unless for some reason um there is uh authorization um that um there's something that uh we cannot handle or um uh but right now we are allowed to retain two attorneys but nobody has gone to them for any type of uh legal representation. We all go through handling the one exception being Walsh Gloss first medical education >> but everything is going through Maddox right >> everything's going through Maddox yes >> Dr. It's the school bus, right? Brand new. >> Brand new. >> Was it fitted with the threepoint? >> It has the It has the three point seat

113belts on. Yes. >> Any other questions from the board? >> Hearing none. Thank you, Dr. Bits. We now move on to item uh six, new business. Item 6A, no action is needed, but just to kind of recap, um the summary of training hours. Um now, I know that in the board packet there's one, but that actually was not 100% accurate. I do have the most up-to-date version, so I'm going to go ahead and read those out for the community just to kind of be aware. Mine Chop overall 81.25 hours um in his tenure as more trust on the board. The hours earned from December 24 through 25 is 34.75 and his status is completed the required hours. Brian Kufall uh overall has earned 201,500. [laughter] Just kidding. overall has earned 2011.50 hours earned uh for

1142425. There is some some lacking and some deficiencies uh has only earned three hours and he'll be working on child abuse prevention, cyber security, evaluating and improving student outcomes and school safety in this upcoming year. Thank you Brian. Uh David Garcia overall 120.25 25 hours. Um and then hours earned for December 2425 is 37.75 and he has completed the required number of hours. Joe Mirez um overall 117.75 hours earned for December 24 through December 2025 is 32.75 hours and he has completed the required number of hours. Jacob Edis overall 71.50 50 hours earned hours earned for 20 December 24 through December 2025 is 43.75 hours and his status is completed the required hours. Joseph Reese overall 74 hours hours earned for December 24 through 2025 is 30.75 hours and he is identified as completed the

115required hours and then um uh Miss Delma's overall has completed 111 hours uh hours earned from December 24 through 25 is 2550 hours and her status is completed the required number of hours. So, thank you to all the board and all the training because definitely we need it. This is uh you know definitely good information and helps us do what we do as trustees. So, thank you all. [clears throat] We now on item 6B, election of board officers. Um, this item I brought uh up because I'd like to um just kind of discuss this actually with legal because I have a question uh before we actually come out in open session uh and and make this uh this vote public. So, uh we are going to go ahead and um table item 6B and move

116into close session. Um so, we'll now move on to item seven. Close session. the board during close session in accordance with Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code 551.1071 and 551.1074 to deliberate and consider the following. Item 7 A consider deliberate legal council regarding legal and personnel matters. Item 7B to discuss participation in multi-dist litigation involving uh youth social media usage and related litigation uh and entering into a contingency fee contract with Helen and Bonan uh PC and Mohan Death and Castillo PC uh to represent the district [clears throat] um Texas government code 55.071. No action will be taken until we return to open session. We are entering into close session at 7:01 Yeah. and take necessary action on matters the board may now discuss in open session upon which action may be taken. We

117are returning to open open session at 7:54 p.m. Going back to item number 6B, election of board officers. Uh we will take no action on that item. So the board remains intact as is. Uh we now want to item AA, discussion, possible action regarding legal and personnel matters. Is there anything that we needed to discuss schematics? >> No action needed, Mr. President. >> So, no action needed. Item 8B, consideration and adoption of resolution approving contingent fee legal contract, including findings needed for submission of contingent fee legal services agreement and request for expedited review by the Texas Attorney General. Do we have a motion to accept that U recommendation? Motion made by Delma Selenas. Second made by Brian Kuall. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose. Motion carries 6. There being no

118further action. Uh do I hear a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> Mr. President, we have one more C. >> Oh, I'm sorry. uh HC uh consideration adoption of contingent fee legal services agreement with uh Elen and Bonan BC and O'Hanland and Demra and Castillo PC. Is there a motion to accept that? >> I thought that's what we just did. >> So, Mr. President, members of the board of trustees, the way that the agenda is worded is 8B is the adoption of a resolution determining that these services are necessary for this district. 8 C is the adoption of a legal contract with these two law firms to fulfill the needs as declared in that. >> So, so motion made by Brian Kufall, >> second made by David Garcia. All those in favor say I. I

119any oppose? Motion carries 6. There being no further action by I hear a motion to adjurnn. Made by Dasina, second by Joe Mes. All those in favor say I. I. Motion. Uh we are adjourning the regular board meeting at 7:57 p.m.