La Porte ISD Board Meeting 4/08/2025

001Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Port ISD and thank you for being here. It is now 7:03 p.m. Tuesday, April 8, 2025 and I hereby call this meeting to order. Notice of this meeting was posted in a manner required by law at 5:00 p.m. April 4th and the subjects to be discussed andor considered upon which any formal action may be taken have been listed. The board of trustees of Laorn Independent School District is now convened. Let the record show that uh we do have a quorum present as uh Miss Hall is away on business. Uh, as Leaport ISTD board of trustees, every student success is our number one priority. We are here to set goals, adopt policy, approve budgets, contracts, personnel appointments, and communicate the district's vision and success to the community. It is not

002the role of the board to make the day-to-day operational decisions. The management and day-to-day operations of the district are the responsibility of the superintendent. This is a public meeting of the board of trustees, not a meeting of the public. Schoolboard meetings are open to all who wish to attend and hear the matters discussed. However, audience participation is limited to the stakeholder presentation portion of the meeting and board members may not respond to those comments made in the public comment section. These proceedings may be recorded and I respectfully ask that you please refrain from talking while others are speaking. And at this time, will you please stand for the presentation of colors led by the Leort High School ROC. Tonight, the American flag is being handled by Command Sergeant Major Yasmin Solis, Texas Flag Private Kaye

003Dory, Texas Guard Sergeant Firstcl Class Avarado Garcia, and American Guard Private First Class Mika Morales. You'll join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all and the Texas flag. Honor the flagg to the Texas one state and indivisible. Ready present arms order arms center face time march. At this time, will you please bow your head for tonight's invocation given by trustee Russell Shopppee? Heavenly Father, we come before you with grateful hearts seeking your wisdom, guidance, and grace as we gather for this school board meeting. Bless the work of our hands and the intentions of our hearts. Grant us the clarity to make decisions that uphold the

004dignity of every student, the courage to advocate for justice and truth, and a compassion to serve our community with love and humility. May the Holy Spirit guide our conversations, and may all that we do be rooted in the values of faith, hope, and charity. Help us to see Christ in every child, parent, and educator we serve. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen. May be seated. We'll now move to item five, board recognitions. Tonight's recognitions will be presented by director of communications, Mr. Adam Holland. Adam, thank you, Mr. Hanks. Uh, good evening, everyone. We're going to start out our recognition uh portion of this meeting with some entertainment by Jenny Reed's Tiki Club under the direction of Miss Jennifer Arisco. You guys can come on in. Good evening. ing. Hello, I'm Jennifer Risco

005and I'm here with Jenny Reed Roadrunner Tiki Club. We started this club about three years ago, I think. And um so I have a couple couple of fifth graders who've been in it for all three years and they are getting better than me and I can um and I've got some If you're in second grade, raise your hand. If you're in third grade, raise your hand. If you're in fourth grade, raise your hand. If you're in fifth grade, raise your hand. So, we got we got all all walks here. Um, but I don't know if you realize this at your house, but tomorrow is star testing day tomorrow. So, but you know what? We um we are not worried at all. Can you start me with a C? We're not worried. is [Music] why 1

0062 3. Don't worry about [Music] me. It's going to be all right. Don't [Music] worry, not me. Everything going to be all right. Rise of this morning following the rise [Music] sun pure and true saying this is my message to [Music] you don't worry [Music] and everything going to be all [Music] right. Don't worry [Music] about everything. I don't know. Can you Can you do this? Oh, good. I knew you could do it. So, they're going to help us out. Um, so I need you to put some words to that. The words are hey now. Can you do that? Hey, now. You'll probably know when to do that, but if not, we're going to kind of like be looking for you. We'll help you out. Okay? Because after the star test, F please. F. We're

007gonna have some fun. One 2 3. Here we go. Dancing by fire. W here we go together. talking now. I go on my way. Shout out to the island. Grab your shoes by two. Frankle Taco feet. So, it is time for us to go so we can get some good sleep before the star test. Sunny, you can just set it right there. can have a C C unless you are handing things out. Go get them. And if you are a school board member, could you raise your hand cuz we have something for you. All right, here we go. King of all praise before [Music] we meet our name. I am you one day before we until we meet again. [Music] that way. Parents, after the photos, um the students are going to exit that way

008and we ask that you do the same. It helps us avoid a bottleneck here. This hallway goes around here. Thank you. You still take me serious? [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] She doesn't have glass. Oh, thank you, sir. Great. You're welcome. All right. Everybody look here. One, two, three. All right. It does match your outfit. It does. I mean, I totally Good job, guys. Thank you for coming. [Music] Can we stay here? Do you want to stay here? [Music] How are [Laughter] you? Moving on to the next portion of our recognitions. The Houston Livestock Show in Rodeo Art Show Art Shows Hoff Gallery at NRG Arena featured seven works of art by Leaport ISD students in 2025. Students from Leaport High School, Lommax Junior High School, and Heritage Elementary Schools schools earned best of show awards

009for their respective age categories in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Art Show. Artists from Leaport High School, Lomax Junior High School, and Leo A. Resudo Elementary were represented in the gold medal category. And our best of show honores are Rihanna Lemon, Leaport High School. And I understand she could not be here this evening. I think she's playing softball. U Oh, showing a pig. It is auction week. Sophia Rodriguez, Lomax Junior High. Aubrey Rylander, Heritage Elementary School. Sophia. Sophia. There's Sophia right there. Oh, come on up, sweetheart. Come over here. Come this way. Get that trophy. Wow. Awesome. Good job. Our gold medal winners. And and if you're here, please please do come up. Uh Nadia Olsen, Leaport High School. Let's stay here for Nathan Buouie, Leaport High School, Ethan Hoffman, Lommax Junior High School.

010And finally, Kale Ebersol, Rudo Elementary School. And a little something additional about Kale is if you vote in a few weeks, and certainly you all will, you'll get an I voted sticker. Kale designed that sticker and won the city's contest. Oh, the yearbook cover. He also designed Rzudo's yearbook cover this year. So, art teachers, if you're here, please come up. Christina Tadaro and Emily Rei are the art teachers for Leaport High School. Bobby Lucansky teaches at Lomax Junior High. Jamie Looold and Mona Gibbs teach art at Heritage and Leo A. Resudo, [Applause] respectively. One, two, three. Congratulations. [Applause] [Laughter] For the second straight year and only the third time in school history, Leaport High School was represented at the Texas High School Women's Powerlifting Association state championships. Freshman Hannah Stafford and sophomore Samantha Gilder finished

011eighth and 15th at the March 15th State Championships, respectively. Ladies, come on [Applause] up. Now, Hannah's finish uh is the best ever for Leaport High School powerliffters. They are also the first duo in school history to advance to state. [Applause] These ladies set a combined six personal records in the process and they are coached by none other than Beck Neil. Y you look too good. Congratulations. Now I introduce you to Miss Terry Cook, our partners and education coordinator who is going to honor one of our business partners. Thank you, Adam. Tonight we have a very special recognition and a thank you to one of our area industries. Our friends at Lion Delbasel Bport Chote recently made a a donation of a classroom set of TI84 CE calculators to the Leaport High School mathematics department. This

012donation of 30 calculators is valued at approximately $4,000. According to plant manager Amy Caldwell, who's here with us tonight, Lion Delbasel wants to help ensure that students have the tools they need to be successful in math. Many of the jobs at Lion Delbasel, from engineers to millites to pipe fitter fitters, require strong math skills. To show the company's support of our high school math students, Lionel Basel contacted us to make this generous donation. And I'd also like to thank Kelly Mules and Angie Vitor for helping us to coordinate this the particulars of these calculators. Lion Delbasel has always been a generous supporter of Leaport ISD in many ways. In addition to supporting the Leaport Education Foundation and activities such as the recent robotics competitions, the Lionel Basel Bayport Chot site is a very active partner

013in education at Bayshore Elementary School. So I'd like to ask Amy Caldwell, our plant manager, to come up, please. [Applause] Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, I'm sorry. All [Laughter] right, board. In consideration of our guest speakers this evening, we are going to move out of order to item 10 in our uh bond finance update and discussion. Oh, I'm sorry. We're going to do we're going to go back. I apologize. I said that out of order. We are going to go to public comments. Item six. The board will now hear those who wish to make comments and who have completed and returned the public comment participation request. This section will be conducted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act and board

014policy. As such, this is a reminder that board members may not respond to those comments made in the public comment section. Complaints and/or concerns for which other resolution channels are provided shall be directed through those channels. Vice President Martin, do we have any registered speakers? Mr. President, we have zero speakers this evening. Please note for the record, we do not have any registered speakers. So, we will now move on to item 10. And here are bond updates. Yes, the bond. Yes. Cool. Okay. Good evening board. Dr. Jackson. So, tonight Doug. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Tonight, Doug Whit with uh Samco is our their financial advisors and he is going to present um the summary of our plan of finance for our third bond sale. You have this presentation in front of you. Thank you. Okay.

015Good evening. It's good to be back. It's good to see everyone. It's tough to follow Bob Marley, I must say, but I'll give it uh I'll give it my best shot. Uh so, yes, we're here tonight. I definitely can't carry a tune. All right. So, uh we do have a summary of the plan of finance. This is our third installment of bonds that were approved by the voters. We want to give you a summary of that plan as we ask for your approval to issue some of those bonds this summer. So with that on the first page um this is our bond buyers index municipal bonds. It is it's a weekly index of municipal bond interest rate a national index. Some of you have seen this from me before. To the far right of the

016graph you'll see a number 4.34%. That's slightly above our average interest rates that run across the middle uh at 4.02% in the blue horizontal bar. Now, this is a modern history of interest rates. Bottom left corner is January 2001. At the top was 2008, the financial crisis led to the great recession as they called it. Down at the bottom in 2020, there was federal government intervention in our markets during the pandemic. We actually recent refinanced some bonds in 2021 when you had those record low levels provided an enormous amount of interest cost savings on the principal that you had outstanding. So little above averages. I will say this that if you've been paying attention to financial markets over the past week to 10 days, we're having some gyrations, right? Normally our municipal bond market is

017pretty quiet, pretty tame market, but uh we're getting a little bit of more volatility in ours. 7 days ago I was talking about interest rates coming down 30 basis points. Today I'm talking about them they came right back up to where we are. It's about 10 basis points. So all in all we have a little above average uh but we do have some some girrations going on in the market. So daytoday can make a difference. Your recent bond ratings uh AAA based upon the permanent school fund guarantee. You have outstanding credit quality ratings on a standalone basis in this district at double A2 by Moody's and double A by S&P Global Ratings. Both of the two largest credit rating agencies have you at very high categories. It goes AAA which is the permanent school fund.

018There's one category between you and AAA. It's double A1 double A plus. Very very few districts reach that category. There's uh again you're at a very high percentage of credit quality districts on the way you manage your finances and your debt here in this district and the analyst side large and growing tax base uh diverse economic and employment base strong wealth and income levels and strong reserves. Reserves is the fund balance that you know uh that we talk about. So here's your historical uh refunding and redemption results. Uh just a reminder. So, I bring this up. In 2024, the second bullet from the bottom, uh, we paid some bonds off early, some prior bonds early. In 2023, we did that as well. Uh, and then again, 2021 in the middle. That was the big refinancing

019at the record low interest rate. So, all in all, about $33 million of savings from refunding bonds or paying them off early. I must say I don't like it, but there is legislation uh that is being uh introduced as we speak. It's passed through the Senate. It's an attempt to make you go to your lowest common denominator of your INS tax rate rather than keep a steady tax rate and use any excess for early redemption. I don't understand it. I don't agree with it. As someone who manages uh bond portfolios over a period of time, I would love to see a local school board have the option of setting your tax rate and if it creates excess to pay down on bonds early or lower your tax rate, which we've done in this district as

020well, but it should be, in my opinion, a a local long-term debt management versus tax rate. But I'm know that u uh I'm preaching to a choir, so to speak, in terms of uh you all feel the same way that I do. All right. Review of bond election parameters. Uh obviously we presented this to the voters in three propositions. 164 million,5 million and 56 million. Uh with the proposition B being the technology equipment, Proposition A being your primary proposition and Proposition C being some of that mandated third proposition uh of which we've issued those bonds and y'all have completed those projects. The second bullet point uh you break it down by proposition and purpose. We break it down by useful life of the asset. So 220 million was facility improvements. 15 million we call capital

021improvement or technology equipment. Uh no tax rate increase was required maintaining 28.19 cents of INS tax rate because our bond model was performing very well. Your tax base is performing very well. Your industry is performing very well. Our interest rates have been very good. You were able to lower that temporarily uh down three pennies as you needed some uh disaster relief penny adjustment, keeping the total tax rate the same. Right now, skipping forward just a little bit, our plan of finance is to add back one penny per year over the next three years, taking us back to that level. That's subject to your discretion and our overall game plan. So clearly uh the last bullet point is important in this district. We're not we have two types of bonds, facility bonds and technology bonds. So

022we may sell it as one bond series, but for me we make sure that we're advertising the short-term technology in the first couple of years and the bond the facility bonds over a longer period of time. So just know that we're not doing two-year technology with 15, 20, and 25 year bonds. Okay? So, we're paying those off in the useful life period. Here's a look at your taxable value. I don't know if you can see those numbers, but on your page, uh, clearly in column 2 since 2005, 2006, your tax base has gone from 4.5 billion to right at 15 billion. We've been at 142, 147, 149 in the last three years. One of those years included some additional homestead exemptions. So we still survive that so to speak. You do get some hold harmless

023on your prior bonds. Uh for that with the elevation of 100 to 140 that is proposed. The way that uh law is written, that hold harmless for that homestead exemption is currently different than the hold harmless that was associated with the rise from 40,000 to 100,000 in hold harmless in homestead exemption. Uh that's unfortunate. We're asking them to just go cut and paste from last time to this time. And for those of us that have already passed our bonds in this district, it's a very minor nuisance, if you will. We are an industrial taxbased district. For some of my bedroom only communities, it's a pretty significant discussion point as part of this. But all in all, the way the bond model is set up now, you were at 14 billion9 last year or this year

024that we're in. We're using 14 billion7, a slight decline. It's very preliminary. You will get preliminary certified values at the the end of April. In your last three years, sometimes the preliminary value has been spot-on. Sometimes it's been a little bit too low. Sometimes been a little bit too high. So tonight, you're going to be authorizing the issuance of bonds and delegating authority to the administration to complete the sale. We will make a determination when we start getting the preliminary values whether or not we're ready to move. It would be a no-brainer to move pretty quickly because our bond model is sufficient. We have all the wiggle room we need. The one caveat to that is that if we collect more revenues than we have in bond expenditures, which we won't know what those revenues

025are until after certified values in July, then they want to take away some of your hold harmless. So, they're taking away kind of our discretion. In the past, we would move forward, set the 2619, put the bond structure in there, uh, collect a little excess, and then use that excess for early debt retirement. This time, we're going to have to think about the exact timing of what we're worried about the most, market, tax base, hold harmless, etc. But those are deep, deep discussions and decisions that will be made as we move forward in the summer. Okay. So I think that's uh the taxable value tax rate and fund balance history. Uh you know your tax rate history in column two column three uh that's maintenance and operating and interest in syncing fund. Obviously the interest

026in syncing fund or INS tax rate is dedicated solely to voted bonds which is the purpose of why I'm here tonight. Again we were at 2819 for a couple of years at the bottom of column 3 now at 2519. Uh our intentions right now are to be at 2619 next time, but knowing that we don't have as much ability to just pick a number without having some implications that we've been in the past. In the past, we did we could take 2819, move it to 2519, and we knew exactly what to do with it. This time, uh the tax rate will be something that we're targeting, but we'll see if we can set it. In column five, it's important to note, you can see there that at your discretion of managing uh your bonds and

027your maintenance and operating, you went from $2 million of INS fund balance to four, four to six, 6 to 10, and then we purposely drew that down back down to 5 million. 5 million is about 12 a.5% of your annual budget. Uh which is a good good number. And again, we should, everybody in Austin should be very proud of this district by putting yourselves in a position to do that and pay those bonds early and save interest cost uh on this. For the life of me, I don't know why they don't want us to repeat that over and over again. I'm sure they're very proud of this. I am. and your taxpayers should be uh because you're doing the right thing on a long-term analysis of your debt position rather than what's the shortest term

028gratification that we can get. And you can see there your total tax rate has come down from $145 to $142 to $138 to$128. Today it's at 9739. Your tax rate has been declining at the same time that you've been paying off bonds early. So the the taxpayers getting a win-win. Uh less interest carry cost, lower tax rate. Um again, it's a good story. It's one that I like. I wish I could continue indefinitely, but they meet every two years and we react accordingly. All right, here's our outstanding profile. Again, it's a little higher in 2425 on purpose. That's the draw down by having a larger amount of principal in blue paid off in that year. We have a placeholder there. A drop in debt service to 2627. Another drop in 2829. Another drop in 20

02934 2035. All of that is what you would know is capacity to add in the additional bonds that have been authorized by the voters to continue your projects. Speaking of authorized but unissued bonds, we have 69 million left in Proposition A. We have 12 million in Proposition B. and we have utilized the Proposition C uh bonds for those projects. Now, of the 69 million, our gam plan, which you'll see on the next slide, is to issue 39 million.5 of that. That will keep you on schedule with the projects that you have in your uh facility plan of the Proposition B. Our intention is to issue 3 million of that. And that's been our intent all along. This is kind of that short-term what we call rolling replacement bonds. You issue it, you take on the

030technology, as the technology expires, you redo it again and the bond model has that built in with no future tax impact from rolling that uh over time. So the summary of the plan of finance again 39 I said five 39350 I think is our number uh 39.35 of Proposition A 3 million of Proposition B the order that you have uh by the way Diana Martinez with Andrews uh Kurt is with us tonight Hunting Andrews Kurt now uh she's with Tom Sage's group who you've seen before they are your bond attorney and the legal uh liaison for the district They prepare the legal documents of which the order you're going to adopt. The order has up to 69 million because that is u the amount that we have authorized. But our intent is to issue 39350.

031The reason we put in up to 69 million is if in two months we have some sort of change that we need to make and we needed to take it for example to 40 million, we would have that authority to do that. Um, so again, um, the method of sale negotiated 20-year amortization, 10-year option to prepay, permanent school fund guarantee. We're using a conservative interest rate, we believe, at 4.75% for the preliminary numbers. Uh, your taxable value again was 14.9 billion in 2425. Through all of the mechanics that we do, we're using right now about 14 billion7. we'll know where we're falling in April and then we'll decide, do we need to wait to do July for the certified value or can we just proceed off the preliminary value? Again, we would normally proceed off

032the preliminary value because we have the wiggle room, but I'm a little worried about the tax rate versus the hold harmless. I think I have an answer to it, but I'm going to need the TEA to agree that they're interpreting the law the way I'm interpreting the law. So Doug, is the uh is the assumption made are you taking some of that into consideration? Are you anticipating the the legislation to affect that number? Yes. If uh so for example, if I go and I set 2619 and then I structure on this page where you see I'm structuring in the yellow payments. Yes, sir. If I structure it in to where we have some surplus that we would normally use for that fund balance build up over time to then deploy for early principal payment. Yes,

033sir. Now, if I collect a little bit as it reads today in layman's terms, if we collect more than we have in scheduled payments, then their theory is that you don't need our hold harmless. Well, that's not accurate. uh we need your hold harmless to continue our bond model over time. We're just not perfecting it in any given year. Okay. So, um again, that's that's how it's set up. Um and so the yellow bars are preliminary numbers structured to target 2619 at a preliminary value. Uh, and again, we'll see if we're going to go ahead and proceed before the certified value or not. It's a it's going to be an ongoing theme of every time you set your INS budget. Where do we set it each and every year? This year, we have targeted new

034bonds that we can target into that budget. You also have some bonds that can be prepaid like you've done in the past. What I would like to do is go ahead and sell the bonds here in June before the mad rush from May elections and those districts who have to wait on their certified value in July. If I sell in the spring or summer, early summer, June, we avoid that log jam. Okay. But in today's world with the legislation, the benefit is we avoid the log jam. The bad news is we're kind of pricing and structuring blind into the law and the interpretation of the law. So that's our challenge today. Um so what we lay out here on this graph as you can see basically our budget's going to be very similar this year

035that it was last year uh within that penny that I've talked about. The the light blue is the remaining authorized but unissued that we would layer into that space. And then the red, the pink, and the light red, I guess you would say. Those two, two and two are those technology bonds where we're advertising over two years that we're layering in every other year. This is our year to layer in 3 million of that. Uh because it's three two years ago that we issued the first amount of that. And then you're going to have a big drop off in 34 and a big drop off in 40. The future is bright in this district for you to um address what you need to over time. You can accelerate some of that blue, yellow, and light

036blue out long. You can lower your tax rate. You can address additional facility needs that you have on an ongoing basis. We're 10 years out to that, but your future is bright to be able to do what you need to do in this district uh going forward. Preliminary schedule of events. Again, we're uh here on April 8th looking for an adoption of the order, authorizing the issuance of the bonds, establishing the parameters of those bonds, and delegating authority to the administration. Uh right now, the schedule is planned to sell the bonds in early June. We'll be in contact with the administration to say, do we want to proceed with that schedule or do we want to back off and buy a little time given the uncertainty of legislation? But if we issue the bonds in

037June, the bond issue will close in July and that's when the money will come into your construction fund and you will continue on with the projects that you have. So with that, uh, I'll stop and see if there are any questions about any component to the plan of finance, uh, and what we have before you this evening. Doug, you've done Yeah. No, no, no, Doug. You've done a good job of explaining all of this. Um and you've almost projected already kind of your thoughts about the future. Um interest rates and all that you believe is going to continue to increase or you feel like take advantage of it. What's been weird and and you can see it most people see it in the equities market and we do not as a municipal bond we're usually

038detached from what's going on not in the overall macroeconomic conditions but we're not really connected to the equities market but here more recently you've seen the equities market go down where the Dow Jones Industrial Average loses money that's people selling out of stocks and they're taking that money and pushing it over to bonds. The normal location for those bonds are federal treasuries, but the federal treasury market is also a little bit uncertain because it's an international market whereas our municipal bonds are a national market. So, we don't have any of this trade stuff of tit for tat or any of that that's really should affect our market. uh because that's a Federal Treasury issue, not our issue. But generally speaking, interest rates kind of try to move together. So now we're getting tied into this

039a little bit. So what we've seen in the past 7 to 10 days is when the equity market drops, people put their money into bonds, buying bonds. So there's an inverse relationship between the price of the bond and interest rates. So when they buy our bonds, prices go up, interest rates go down. So we saw 30 basis point moves which normally 30 basis points is 3 months worth of moves. We've seen that in day trading. So when it turns back like today in the equities market it started up 2% it ended up down 1% or some such. Our market is starting to gyate with that which is highly unusual. So to make a long story short, we have some navigating to do which we normally don't through the interest rate market. And if anyone wants

040to raise their hand and predict the future of financial markets, I'm all ears. I've been doing this for over 30 years. And uh it's virtually impossible to predict the unpredictable. And that's the market that we're in. We won't try to perfectly time the market, but we'll try to make some wise decisions within the context of that atmosphere. Question. So, you kind of hit this, but if I heard it correctly, you said that after this order, uh, it still could the legislation could effectively essentially cause you to pause or postpone on this. Although the market rates similar, something that would happen drastically one way or the other. Well, see, that's the trade-off that that's the decision. We in our in when you're in finance, you have to make business decisions that can be both right and

041wrong. And there's competing reasons to make that decision. The reason to move forward is to remove market risk to avoid the log jam of other schools bringing their bonds to market this summer. Uh, if we do that and we set 2619 and it collects a little bit excess, which I'm going to need it to do, I I don't want to be on the other end of that. If the 2619 doesn't collect enough and we're drawing down that 5 million further, if I draw it down a million, not a problem. If I draw it down 2 million, not a problem. But if I draw 5 million down to 500,000, we don't have any wiggle room into the future. So, I want to be kind of conservative on that 5 million, not to use it all. Well,

042if I structure it that way, and the legislation does pass as it is today, then it's possible that we might collect say 500,000 of additional INS tax revenues and we would normally put that in the bank. But what they will do is out of our $2 million of hold harmless, they may take 500,000 away and only give us a million and a half. So I don't want you to lose your hold harmless. But in a my tradeoff is that loss versus three more months of interest rate girrations and more crowded market. So there's no perfect answer to this. Uh it's something that we need to go through. I do, as I mentioned before, I have a hold card. The whole card is is that if if the smoke clears and I'm going to and I'm

043going to have $500,000 of excess and they want us to balance the budget rather than put it in the bank, I can accelerate 500,000 of your other principal and make a balanced budget. But what I need the TEA to do is tell me that they will give us credit for that and continue to pay us the whole harmless that they owe us. So, so that's kind of the world that that we're working in there. So, essentially with this with pending leg legislation, you're looking there's really no vehicles to to add to the the balance the right like to our bank. I mean, what how would we ever be able to add more to that 5 million? Not only that, but think if you're starting out and this is your first and only bond, if you're

044a rural West Texas district and you have zero INS fund balance, you're going to tell me that you want us to perfect that. Yeah, you can't. You need to collect excess to have some ongoing fund balance. Um, so yeah, what they're what they're saying is, okay, I'm I may be taking up too much of my time. Let's go back to 2023. In 2023, they tried to strictly prohibit a district from maintaining a level tax rate and using excess for early principal retirement. It passed in the Senate, failed in the House. So when it came back this time, it was not that. It was okay, do what you want to, but and again I'm using not legal language. You might I'm using layman term. It's do what you want to, but if you collect excess, then

045that means you don't need our state aid to hold harmless that you owe us because you changed the rules. So, that's the way it's written this time. Uh, it'll be interesting to see. I mean, there's a lot of people who've been doing what you've been doing and we'll see how it plays out. The other the other caution that I give you is again, the preliminary value is April, the certified value is July. Sometimes your preliminary value is spot-on, sometimes it's not. So if I price and structure into the preliminary value, I cannot perfect your revenues to your expenditures. Okay? We're going to have to accept some uncertainty with tax base, some uncertainty with legislation in this district. I don't mind that uncertainty because this is not a oneanddone year. This is an ongoing marathon and

046process. Uh but those are some of the things that that we're thinking about as we look at the timing of the issue uh uh going forward in through this summer. Sir, sorry. I do want to ask question. Um and this is actually to to everyone on my team here too. When we you mentioned the way we wrote the bond, you said the way that it's written and how we it's redeemed and things like that excess. When we presented the bond to the community, it did it did it explain in full because I can't remember our kids and have slept since then. Did it explain in full our plan of how we pay it off or how we you know how we do not pay it off but how we utilize it. I think we I

047think we it's very detailed. So everything that he's telling us is exactly how it would be telling how we communicate. And you still have your misconceptions where people think that soon as we passed the $232 million bond that we got $232 million, right? We sell them. So, right. So, ultimately we're the they're basically we're not grandfathered into anything and what we presented to how we're going to manage this whole system whole thing can change at their end both there being the legislature the legislature. Yeah. Yeah. So, how we're going to manage the financial end of it, but we are bound by law, Chris, correct me if I'm wrong, to the wording of the proposition that the money would be sent on spent on what spend it on exactly what we just how you pay it

048back. But I just the payoff that means how we're paying it off and everything we presented to them. So, the TA said, "No, no, sorry. You don't get to use it that way if you have the excess because of the whole, you know, they want to apply towards that." Everything you talked about in terms of your facilities, you are on track. Everything that you talked about on the plan of finance to finance those facility improvements, you're on track even better. You're slight your your bond model's outperforming what we would assume pre-election. So for the community listening, we are better than target with respect to this finance plan that we're talking about today. We've done everything within our power to manage that way. So, anything that changes outside of what we said we were going to

049do? No, you legally and um community communications wise, you were spot on on both aspects, the facility plan and the plan of finance for those facilities. Again, you're better off than in the finance plan. you actually have had some flexibility to help uh do other things in this district because you are ahead of schedule. Right. And this district has a 30 year history of nominal finance. Exactly. And it's reflected by I'm an advocate for you. Obviously, I represent you. I have a fiduciary responsibility to this district. But an independent credit rating agency is looking at this district and they're saying this is spot-on district, right? You have a very high elevated uh credit quality and credit rating. Did I answer the prior question? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Or we good? Yes. Mr. Whit, thank you as

050always. We appreciate you. Thank you so much. The board consider the adoption of an order authorizing the issuance of Leaport Independent School District unlimited tax school building bond series 2025 levy a tax and providing for the security and payment thereof authorizing a pricing officer to approve the award of sale thereof and in accordance with the specified parameters and enacting other provisions related to there too. If you have any questions on all of that our expert here did I say it right? Yes, that's right. Awesome. So, I seek a motion. I move that the board of trustees adopt the order authorizing the issuance of the Leaport Independent School District unlimited tax school building bond series 2025 as presented before the trustees this evening. I take a second. Second. Seconded. All right. Any other discussions? I call

051for the vote. Please note that it is unanimous. Thank you, board. That was easy, huh? Yes. Thank you, Mr. W. Yeah. Thank you for your patience. All right, board. We are going to move back to um where we at? Yes, we're going to go back to item seven. Thank you, Mason. Dr. Jackson, would you like to start with your superintendence report? Sorry. Sorry. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Good evening, board. Mr. President, you have a copy of my superintendent's report. I will not read that. Uh but you have a copy. I would rather go and share uh my legislative update uh as the 89th legislative session is still underway. Uh it's quickly beginning to take shape as all of the uh bills have been filed and committee meetings are wrapping up and soon the House and

052Senate will be taking historic votes to determine the outlook of our state for the next bienium. There are thousands of bills and these are just a few that I'd like to bring to your attention that could and might impact Leaport ISD and students and staff. House Bill 2243 would establish a commission to study and deliver a report by December 31st uh 2026 to the governor and legislature that recommends statutory changes to improve teacher job satisfaction and retention. House Bill 3546 would allow a school board to change its general election date to the November uniform election date. House Bill 1998 would increase the threshold for competitive procurement from $50,000 to $100,000. House Bill 2 would raise the basic aotment from $6,160, which is our current, to $6,55, that's a $395 increase, as well as adjust many

053of our student population allotments from the TEA and add a fine arts allotment. This bill also focuses on increasing the special education aotment and it creates a regional disaster insurance allotment given to specified districts along the coast. Do y'all know any uh districts along the coast might that might benefit from that? I think Leaport would, right? Um and then Senate Bill 1636 would prohibit a school district from using interest and syncing tax revenue to pay for deferred maintenance. And so, Mr. President, that will be my uh conclusion of our legislative update for this evening, and we hope to see some things work in our favor in the next few months. Thank you, Dr. Jackson. Do you have any questions for Dr. Jackson? Okay, we're going to move on to B, our bond safety and security

054update. Welcome. Welcome. Good evening. Good evening. All right. Oh, welcome officially. Officially. Thank you. Yesterday your first official. It was yesterday was the first official and you showed us the second. That's good. Right. So, thank you all uh trustees Dr. Jackson opportunity to speak in front of you all today. Um so before I get started, I just want to officially just thank you all for the opportunity to uh serve in Leaport. Um you know, it's it's been a a transition, a whirlwind, right? I feel like uh this is not the second day because uh I've been putting in a lot of time getting to know some folks. Um so just thank you all uh for welcoming the department, the staff, everyone has been fantastic. You guys have an excellent thing going on here and I'm

055excited to be a part of it. So just officially I just want to thank you all and thank you to my previous district. very very um you know gracious and allowing me time to to be here to get to know the folks to get to know uh my department um you know and so it's it's been very um appreciated on both sides so thank you all so much um you know and again just as I kind of give you a few updates you know I've just been amazed coming into this role uh just the uh attention to detail the commitment to excellence um you guys have a lot to be proud of in this district we have a lot to be proud of uh now now that I'm there. Uh but just to to go

056through some older uh photos and some renderings and just see kind of where uh we've come and and where we're going. Uh it really is exciting. And so uh the picture uh that I'm looking at of the uh nearly completed stadium um and Legacy Complex. Um you know, it's just a it's a very um it's special, right? It's a special part of the community. It's a point of pride, but it's also a great looking facility. I mean, you just look at it. Um, you know, several of you guys have been on some of those walks here recently. Um, and it's just fantastic. It it really is overwhelming to just kind of to to feel that scope and just soak it all in, but it it's just fantastic. So, again, I just want to thank you

057all uh for the opportunity to be be a part of this this project. U, so as we look ahead, right, we we've gotten through a lot of the exciting things, right? you know, you see the the the complex form and the stadium and and you know, so some of the things that we're looking ahead to maybe aren't as exciting, but uh you know, I went in uh actually yesterday just to look at some of the installation of the doors and hardware just to to put eyes on some of the flooring. And so uh in the next few days, we'll start seeing some of that uh sound system testing for connectivity. You've got to wait for things are in place before you can uh see how some of those things work. And so, you know, that

058that's what we have happening here. I know the last tour that we went on with, uh, some of you guys, uh, we didn't have the flooring in the second floor of the legacy complex. It's there now. Um, so that was just from yesterday. We've got some of that epoxy, that textured coating going into some of our wet areas in the locker room. Uh, it's really exciting when you look at the weight room floors. You start seeing that come to life with the logos. Um, and so, um, and then of course right there in the bottom is the pedestal where we're going to have Ty. And I know that's uh exciting for everyone as well. So uh there's a lot happening, you know, wrapping up. You know, you see that uh punch list item. We've got

059I was talking with Blake yesterday. I think we have over 600 pages of items that we got to comb through to make sure that they're taken care of. But again, that's that attention to detail and we're going to make sure those things are taken care of before we get that full release. Um but we're excited about that. So um and then you know something else, inspections, right? uh you know, no one really gets excited about those inspections other than once they're done and they're good, uh we're we're good to go, right? And so, you know, we've got a few things happening uh should be happening by the end of the week or in the very near future uh to make sure um all those systems are operating properly. So, that's on the horizon there for

060uh the stadium and the legacy complex. And then we're going to move right into uh the renovation uh Leaport High School. Um and then we've got the competition gym, LowMax Junior High. Um, you know, there's a lot of work been happening on that already. Uh, we should have for the uh junior high the slab poured uh here in the next few days. I was just talking with uh Blake here and and the rain kind of put us off schedule a little bit, but I think we're at a point where we should start seeing some movement uh here in the next few days on that. Um, and soon after that, you'll start to see the structure take place. The steel will go up. It's already been set in curing. Um, and so we'll have an opportunity

061to to really see that space come to life. uh which is going to be exciting I know not just for the staff but for the community in that area. Um and then uh Dr. Jackson I I know Adam went we had an opportunity to speak uh to the staff. Dr. Jackson did a great job presenting and just letting the staff know was wellreceived uh about what's lies ahead for them. Um you know there's going to be some movement of a lot of work happening uh for that high school renovation. Um, and so for to have an opportunity to uh present to staff uh let them know what's coming, let them see uh some of those renderings, let them ask questions uh was really wellreceived again by the staff. But um I think again it's just

062a great opportunity and I was very uh pleased with Dr. Jackson for introducing me because they're going to get to see me a lot um over the next few months, especially as we begin that work um in May. So, we've got some meetings actually tomorrow to to start planning for those. A lot of uh data systems conversations and technology and so uh that'll be tomorrow for the high school and then just continuing those conversations with uh Lomax Junior High. Uh so, just some additional updates on the security side. So, one of the questions I had was where we were with the intruder detection audits. And so, we're um you know near uh completion of those. We we've had I think we have two remaining campuses left. The last two campuses that were visited were Rudo

063and DeWalt. Uh the good news there were zero findings and um you know zero corrective actions there. Um so that's obviously um a great thing and again we've just got those two remaining campuses. We'll make sure those are smooth um in regards to our safety and security. And then just a couple of milestone dates, right? Um I think that's uh exciting. Everyone's looking ahead. Spring football games. It's going to be a great opportunity uh to uh you know just have everyone in Bulldog Stadium. That that will probably be the first time um and you know some of the the last time for some of these seniors that but to give them an opportunity to to be in that space as we uh hope to have some of our fine arts programs um actually being able

064to do some type of performance or something. So the spring football game is going to look different than it's looked in years past because it's going to be exciting. It's going to be a celebration and so it's gonna be a selloff. Yeah. So, but you know, it really is a great opportunity to give some of those students who are graduating that opportunity to um experience their programs uh in that space. So, that that is a neat thing. Uh Legacy Walk um May 22nd. Um so, we're also excited about that. And then, of course, we've got our two graduations. DeWalt's going to be in the Bulldog Center. And then we have um you know lots of planning and prep work getting ready uh for uh graduation on the 30th in Bulldog Stadium. All right. And that's

065what I have for you guys. And again, thank you all so much. Any questions? Any questions? That's going to be your easiest one. Yeah. Give him a pass tonight. Oh, good job. We appreciate you and look forward to working with you. Appreciate y'all. Thank you. All right board, we are going to skip eight and go to item nine, our consent agenda. All right, the board will now proceed to our consent agenda unless removed from the consent agenda. Items identified within this consent agenda will be acted on at one time. A determine and approve any consent agenda items. B. Approve board meeting minutes. Regular board meeting minutes March 11th, 2025. C. Receive principal report. One, Early Childhood Center. Two, Behore Elementary. Three, Cotler Park Elementary. Four, Heritage Elementary. Five, Jenny Reid Elementary. Six, Leaport Elementary. Seven,

066Razudo Elementary. 8, Lomax Elementary. Nine, uh, Baker Sixth Grade Campus. 10, Leaport Junior High. 11, Lomax Junior High. 12, Leaport High School. 13, DeWalt High School. D, receive financial report for February 2025. E. Receive human resources report. F. Approve budget amendment. D. Approve employment of professional staff. H. Approve purchase of installation of true grid system at Bulldog Stadium. I. Approve purchase of painting services at DeWalt High School. J. Approve second reading and adoption of TASBY local policy update 124 affecting local policy CA, CDA, CY, DH, EHB, EHB, FFG, and GKA. [Laughter] This one uh approve term probationary non-certified contract recommendations for certified teachers, administrators, and professionals in pay grades 1 through five. Thank you. L authorize superintendent to approve hiring of contract professionals of director level or below on district's pay scale from April 9th,

0672025 to August 29th, 2025. Vice President Martin, will you please read back our consent agenda? President, all the consent items approved, we have items A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, and L. All right, I'll seek a motion to approve our consent agenda. Some move. Second. Second by Mason. Call for the vote. It is unanimous. Thank you, board. We'll now go back to item K. M. Martin. I'm just being I believe we have an amended list of names. Is that correct this evening? So, my motion is that we make a motion to adopt amended list of names. The amended. Okay. Got a motion on the floor. Seek a second. Call for the vote. It is unanimous. Thank you, board. I can do that. All right. So, we will now move back to

068item eight, the board officers report under United uh right here. Right here. Let me do it now. Okay. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so Mr. President and board trustees, uh thank you for for for your consent item acceptance and approval. At this time, I'd like to introduce to uh the board and the community some administrators that we've had the privilege to interview and vet and hire. Mr. Joseph Chandler, would you stand, Mr. Chandler? Let's give him a hand. Mr. Joseph Chandler will be the principal at the Academy of Viola Dewalt High School here in Leaport ISD. Joseph Chandler brings to Leaport 28 years of experience in education. Throughout his career, he has served as a high school special education teacher, department chair, assistant principal, associate principal, and principal in an urban, suburban,

069and rural school districts in Texas. Mr. Chandler earned his bachelor's degree from St. Minred College in Indiana and a master's degree from the University of Houston main campus. He is also a proud alumnest of Raise Your Hand Texas principal program and the Rice University Executive Leadership Partners Program which is reap of 2019. During his tenure uh as principal as at Macario Garcia Middle School in Fort Ben ISD, the campus was recognized by the Houston Chronicle for significant academic gains among subopuls. As principal of Willow Ridge High School, he successfully led the campus out of school improvement required status within two years. He's been busy. Under his leadership, Willidge earned academic distinctions and increased its graduation rate. While serving as the principal at Brinham High School, Mr. Chand was Chandler was honored with the region 6

070innovative principal leadership award in 2019. In short, Mr. Chandler has been a successful leader in every role he's held. When asked why Leaport, he says he recognizes the outstanding traditions and successes that are happening, and he'd like to become a member of a small town with a great culture similar to where he grew up. Outside of work, Mr. Chandler enjoys traveling with his family, reading, and watching movies with his wife of 26 years, Kadum Chandler. His son Mauricio is graduating from the University of California at Berkeley this May and his daughter Camila will be a high school senior next year. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming Mr. Joseph Chandler. Mr. Chandler, would you have have any visitors or would you like to say anything to the board and community? Well, first off, my

071appreciation. I want to give you guys a just a a piece of gratitude. Thank you for the opportunity. It's uh it's I'm very excited to come to a a A+ district and I'm I'm looking to make great contributions um to the district. Tonight, unfortunately, my wife and daughter uh have a school event they're attending and my son should be in class right now. Good luck. So, uh but I promise you this down the road, uh they're very involved. You'll have the opportunity and they'll get the opportunity to meet you guys. But again, thank you so much for the opportunity. Welcome aboard. Thank you. Welcome, Joe. Mr. President, I'm equally proud and honored to introduce to our board and to our community, Miss Candace Tibido. Let's give her a hand as she stands. Miss Candace Tibido

072is will be the associate principal at Leaport High School where every day is a great day to be a bulldog. Miss Tibido comes to Leaport High School from Clear Falls High School in Clear Creek ISD where she has served as an assistant principal since 2019. With 31 years in education as an English teacher, department chair, administrative intern, and assistant principal, she will be a strong addition to the Leaport High School leadership team. Miss Tibido holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Mr. Martin, Texas&M University and a master's degree in educational I didn't hear anybody say. Okay, come on y'all. Come on. from Texas A&M and a master's degree in educational leadership from Lamar University. Her passion is building strong relationships and ensuring success for all students by establishing strong systems that support instruction and

073understanding the the value of recognizing student and staff growth accomplishments. Miss Tibido looks forward to joining the team and is excited to become a bulldog. Please join me again in welcoming Miss Kimo, do you have any guests or anybody you'd like to introduce or any words? First, I'm just um so honored it's at this appointment. Thank you to the board. Dr. Jackson, Dr. Griffin Leaport. I am so excited and honored to be a part of a district that has such a culture um steeped in tradition and dedication to its students. My husband Mike and our children who are not here tonight because they should be studying as well in college are really excited to become Bulldogs and I just can't wait and thank you so much. Congratulations board. I'd also like to introduce to you

074another rockstar candidate. We've hired a lot of rock stars here in the last few days. Miss Brooke Watson. Please welcome Miss Brooke Watson. Miss Watson will be the assistant principal at Leaport High School. Miss Watson also comes to us from Clear Creek ISD where she currently serves as a math teacher and department chair at Clear Creek High School. She also serves on the campus leadership team and is also the PAL sponsor. In her 18 years of educational service, Miss Watson has also been a math instructional coach and special education teacher in Dickinson ISD, as well as an ESL teacher in Ethiopia through an innovative mission opportunity. She holds a bachelor's degree in human development and family studies from Texas Tech University and a master's degree in educational administration from Lamar University. She is looking forward

075to the pride and spirit that embodies Leaport High School and joining the Leaport family. Please join me again in welcoming Brooke Watson. First off, thank you so much for this opportunity. Everybody has been just beyond welcoming and kind and gone above and beyond to make me feel comfortable and welcome here. So, I appreciate that so much. And my son is at AU basketball practice tonight. Um this is my daughter Savannah. Hi Savannah. Hi Savannah. Yeah, but again just thank you so much for the opportunity. Boy, great. Thank you. Another rock star forward. Please join me in welcoming and congratulating Miss Casey Dixon. Let's give it up for Casey Dixon will be the assistant principal at James H. Baker sixth grade campus. Miss Dixon. Yes. Yes. Give it up for her. Miss Dixon, a Leaport alumni

076uh with 18 years in education, is honored to be selected as the next assistant principal at Baker. She currently serves as the math interventionist at Beayshore Elementary and has also been a teacher at the campus since 2017. Prior to returning to Leaport, she was an elementary teacher in Deer Park. We won't hold that against her. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from East Texas Baptist University and a master's degree in educational administration from Lamar University. As a member of Leaport ISD's aspiring leadership academy, Miss Dixon understands the value of growth and development and she is grateful for the phenomenal leaders who have poured into her life. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Thank you all so much for this opportunity to report to all the principles I've worked with over the years. It's really great to be

077a part of the leadership team here in the port. Y'all grew me. I can't wait to give back to the community. My mom is here. This Becky Parker, my husband, and my two children were here with the star test tomorrow. And her teams are very important in our house. So, they had to make a Yes. Understood. Understood. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you, Mr. Person. Well, to all of you, welcome. And if there's anything the board can ever do for you, don't hesitate. Welcome to the family. All right, board. Now, we will go to item eight. Under state board of education rule, completing the required board member continuing education in the eight training areas outlined by the SPOE for each year service is a basic obligation and expectation of city board member. As board president,

078I'm required to announce the name of each who has completed the required uh continuing education, has exceeded the required continuing education, and is deficient in meeting the required continuing education. The requirements for training are measured as the first anniversary of the date of trustes election or appointment or a 2-year anniversary of his or her previous training as applicable. All members still have time remaining to complete any required training by their respective election anniversary date. To the extent applicable to each board member, I will announce the completion or deficiency as required training as well as those board members who have scheduled training to be completed on time. The following trustees completed topic one, this legislative portion. Danny Hanks, Jeff Martin, Mason Perez, Russell Shopppee, Melissa Crutcher, Deianne Thompson, and Karen Wheeler Hall. The following trustees completed

079topic one SBOE. Jeff Martin, Russell Shoppie, Melissa Crutcher, Karen Wheeler Hall. The following trustees are registered for topic one SBOE training scheduled for April 29th, 2025 to be completed before the deadline. Danny Hanks, Mason Paris, and Deian Thompson. The following trustees are registered for a topic 2 team building training scheduled for April 29th, 2025 to be completed before that deadline. Danny Hanks, Jeff Martin, Mason Paris, Russell Shopppee, Melissa Crutcher, DM Thompson, Karen Wheeler Hall. The following trustees have uh met their development continuing education hours required under topic three. Danny Hanks, Jeff Martin, Mason Paris, Deianne Thompson, Karen Wheeler Hall. The following trustees are registered for their board development continuing education requirement under topic three and are scheduled to be completed before the deadline. Russell Shopee and Melissa Crutcher. All right, you get all that. I

080got all that. Did you get all that? Great job. All right. Thank you. All right. So, we have been all over the place today. We've done that. We've done this. So, yeah. I apologize. Yes. That's okay. So, let's see. So, we're going to go back to item C. I mean, yes, item C under item seven, the CTE update. Last but not least, no, we're good. We're going to make this a very quick update. I feel like I feel that. I think that's great. We should do that more often. No. So, thank you everybody for allowing us to give a quick presentation. Unfortunately, Dr. Baker was scheduled to be with us tonight, our CTE coordinator. Unfortunately, she had a family emergency, so she's not here. So, you get second prize, which is Dr. Griffin and myself.

081So we just want to we want to give you just a quick update of the great things that are happening in CTE. Um just a quick reminder about what we are doing in CTE and what our mission vision are. Um we are we are here in CTE to make sure that we prepare passionate, highly skilled, empowered and future ready students. Um our mission is to provide that in an engaging real world scenario with challenging learning experiences in a safe and caring environment. As you know, the goal of the CTE programs are to ensure that our students are getting challenging academic learning um that are aligned to their f their future pursuits in education and careers. Um most importantly, CTE programs are supposed to be and should be aligned to high wage in demand and highskll

082occupations that that are about our community and our region. Um our teachers are teaching students those life skills to help them with those future endeavors. And in CTE we are creating those career ready students. Um just a little nutshell about how CTE is designed. Um in our nation we have a CTE national program. It talks about our nationally recognized CTE clusters. There are 14 of them. Um and this graphic illustrates those 14 CTE national clusters. Within those national clusters we have local programs of study. Um and in those programs of study in um Leaport or in all in all states on all the districts in Texas, those programs of study will then um funnel down to core sequences that culminate in practicum experiences in their senior year and then ultimately industry based certifications that they

083can earn. So it looks like this. You have a clear cluster that is an architecture and construction career cluster. It's not something that we offer here, but just as an example. From that cluster, you would have a program of study. There are there are several of them here to choose from. Um, one of them could be HVAC. Um, and through that program of study, you would have a sequence of aligned courses. So, that level 1 2 3 and four course work. All of those culminate then into a culminating IBC um either an OSHA 30-hour construction or an HVAC level oneert that would then let students earn an employable be employed using that certification at the end. So, that's kind of how that all works. um in Leaport ISD. We're also very careful about the programs

084that we offer. Not all IC's are not are created equally. Um so when you think about some of the popular IBC's that are out there, Google Analytics for example in 2023 um Microsoft Office special world um specialist word, we had um you know 7,000 students in the state of Texas taking the Google Analytics IBC. 6,300 of them took the Microsoft Office Specialist Word IBC. But when you think about the alignment then to that IBC that that certification and then jobs um those are high um a lot of students taking those IBCs but not a lot of culminating jobs then in the job market. So we're really looking at how can we make sure that we're offering IBC's that culminate into great um career opportunities for our students. So if you if you think about some

085of the other programs um like like welding for example um we had students who I'm trying to think where it is here. I don't have my right glasses on. 3,100 um welding um certifications that that were um granted in the state of Texas and there were 6,500 job openings in 2023. So really trying to ensure that we have high wage high need um certifications that our students are are leaving with knowing that not all IC's are created equally. critical needs in region four. Um these program these numbers after those titles are just connecting to those program codes, but you'll see that in region four, some of the critical needs, the career prep that we're looking at are nursing, transportation, construction trades, education, welding, and advanced manufacturing. We offer programs of study in almost all of

086those. The only one that we do not offer um at this time is through the construction trades fully. So that's something that we're looking at because all of these are critical needs um for career and employment in our in our region. What are some of the examples of the pathway for transportation? So in transportation, the primary one that we have is maritime. So when you think about that transportation career cluster, then the maritime program that we have in partnership with Sanino College is a primary example of that. Another example would be our automotive tech and our and our automotive um collision repair are also in that transportation cluster. Okay. Y thanks. Um, so when we think about career readiness and CTE, we're thinking about that CCMR. And so remember that that is part of how

087we get our accountability is how we're preparing our students and if they are career ready. Um, knowing that we have had a continuum of what that looks like in the state of Texas. It continues to increase. Um, CA likes to change the rules. And so what we have now are kids um need to be both completers which means that they have to have three courses or four credits and four credits um in a careerclustered sequence of courses an appropriate sequence um and a culminating IBC that they have passed in order to earn that career readiness designation for that CCMR distinction. Um, and so those are things that we're looking at with our students, ensuring that they are getting some early understandings of the career opportunities that we have for students so that they can start

088those sequences early and stay within those sequential courses as they go through high school. Certainly, kids can hop around and and explore, but we would love for those students to be able to to have that culminating experience that a that a sequence of courses will allow. So, in Leaport ISD, just briefly, we offer 10 out of the 14 um recognized career clusters. We offer 15 total programs of study um which is which is outstanding. U most most districts our size offer between five and seven u programs of study. So we have a we have a robust offering for our students here in Lord ISD. 82% of our students approximately are enrolled in CTE courses. We currently offer different about 18 different IBC opportunities for our students and we are projecting that our students will earn

089over 300 IBC's when they leave the senior class. So, it's pretty pretty exciting stuff. So, I'm going to turn it over to Oh, and just certifications earned to date. So, so far you'll know that most of these IBC's and the testing happens in April and May. So, we'll see a big surge in April and May, the culmination of those courses. But currently we have 23 students who have earned food management um certifications, 10 students who have earned social media marketing certifications and 19 students who have earned an ASSE refrigerant recovery and recycling um certification through our ASSE or automotive program board. I want to that food manager deal the success rate of first attempt on that is less than 50%. That is not an easy certification to obtain. That is a 8 hour very extensive

090very in depth. It gets to the micronet. It it is on a different level. So that is a huge accomplishment. There are people that have been in the in the profession that struggle to pass that test. Great. So they're looking for jobs. So just so that you know. Yeah. That's great. So I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Griffin who will tell you a little more about all the great things that are happening with our students on the campus. So, I actually have the the easy part of the presentation. I can tell you about all the great things that we have at Leort High School. Um, all the different opportunities that the students have. Um, and then where where we're headed and the discussions and things we're putting into place to really push those

091programs to the future. Um, so just highlighting some of the different programs, some of the opportunities and experiences that our kids get to have. Um, our welding students are constantly making projects for different things. Uh, the most recently they they created these picture frames for some Christmas gifts for for different people in their lives. and you guys. So, I mean that was a really great project. Um, we had the agriculture fabrication students uh the students who were in the a welding and the a mech uh making these birdhouses for the rotary auction. Uh the practum in culinary arts, these students uh provide local catering for different things throughout the district. We're looking to kind of expand that program. I'll talk about that a little bit later. Um our business students operate the school store inside

092our CTE building. Um, you know, it gives uh not only does it provide the service to our students and staff to be able to go in there and buy spirit items, but also teaches them those really valuable skills and small business ownership, stocking and uh profit margins and things like that. Uh, our grow your own program, which we are super excited about uh with our education uh platform uh pathway. Um, we send those students to be leaport elementary. They go and provide different uh support and tutoring for students. Um, and then also looking at early education, we have some of those classes that go over to some of the daycarees, local daycarees where they get some early education experience working with students in that age group. Uh, our ROC program, you guys know, uh, they're

093everywhere. Uh, they do a great job. They're their honor guard comes and and really makes uh, really narrows the focus and gets everybody into what we're doing and and knowing how serious things are and and just adds a different flare to our events. uh health science practice students go to local clinics around the port uh to job shadow, learn new skills, do different things. Uh and then our AV program, I mean, I really can't say enough about our AV program, whether it's LPTV or LP Sportsnet, the skills and the real world application skills that these students are doing and the product that they produce um is just truly top-notch. Um and there are not a lot of school districts that even have the equipment that we have, let alone uh the the ability to put

094the things together that they're able to put together. It really is a a great program. So, just kind of talking about some of the successes that we've had and kind of things that we're looking to build upon. Um like we had six of the Taffy students, the future educator students attend the state conference and one student qualified for the national competition this summer uh in Orlando. Really excited about that. Uh our DECA students, which is the business program, uh you know, competed against 4,000 students at the state level. our FFA students. If you know anything about the FFA program, that goes on all year and we go to shows all across the state of Texas and they bring home banners and buckles. That's what they say. So, uh we're we're really proud of them and

095all the success that they have. Uh the JRTC, I mean, is really absolutely killing it this year. Um this is the first year that we've ever had a team qualify for the JAB National Championship. Um, we are now one of 40 teams out of 1,750 teams, not only just in America, but in Germany, Puerto Rico, Japan, and Guam that are still in this competition. This this competition started in like November, and it's still going on to this point that now will be in DC. So, we're really excited about that. And then the archery team in their first year is being in the open uh field major state competition. So, we're excited about that as well. So, one of the great things about um our CTE students is that it goes to the research about students

096being connected in things and being passionate about things about their school and what that does to performance. And so having those different opportunities for students is just another way to get them plugged in. And so what these graphs are showing you is that our CTE students compare to students who have not taken at least two CT classes and then how they compare to our population at large. Um, and you'll notice that our CTE students are outperforming um, the the non-ct students in every category. And I think that really lends itself to being connected to whatever their passion is, what what it is that gets them up in the morning. Um, and so you'll see that the the first two columns have to do with graduation rate. They're graduating at higher numbers. Uh, the next columns

097have to do with the actual specific how they're doing proficiency wise in math, English, science, and social studies. Um, and so it's just a really big testament to to all the things they have going on there. So, some of the changes, um, you know, we're we're we're constantly re-evaluating programs and making sure that we're putting the best product forward for our students and giving them the best opportunities to be successful. Um, and so some of the things that we're doing are based on course request. Um, our students, uh, the first one is removal of the plant science pathway. Um, that's a program that the course request our students much more often are course requesting the uh the animal side as opposed to the plant side. I mean, not really enough to to really make that

098program make sense. That's that's just not where their passion is. And so, we we we kind of made that decision to move in. We are still going to keep floral design. That is a very popular class. Um, and there's some competition stuff associated with that that we're really proud of. Um, we are replacing medical billing and coding with medical assistant. And some of this also has to do with kind of some of the stuff that Miss Aram talked about before about what the region needs. Uh, and so we want to make sure that we're offering the courses that not only are our kids passionate about, but are going to give them those experiences that when they get out, it's something that's transferable to something that this region needs compared to some other regions of Texas.

099Uh, we need to expand the computer science pathway. That's just a necessity. um just in today's age. I mean, we we we need to make sure that we're offering those things and it also goes to what this region needs, what the what the companies are telling us that they're looking for. So, we want to make sure that we have those opportunities available to them. And this is probably one of the more important things we we're going to add two courses to the junior high level in the CTE pathway. Um, again, getting those kids uh plugged into that and going back to what Miss Abrams said, getting to those practum courses. They now have to be a completer, which means that they have to have at least three classes, but four credits. And the reason why

100it's three classes as opposed to four classes to get four credits, it's because most of those practum classes are double blocked. And so that eats up schedule. It eats up um their ability to be involved in the other things. And with high school, we don't want kids to be involved in everything. We want them to have as much opportunity as possible. So the earlier we can start them moving in that direction, the easier it's going to be later on in high school. And lastly, we need to we had to streamline and make sure that all of our programs had that practicum class. Uh because that was not always the case. Making sure that we, you know, not only have the practum class at the end, but then have an IVC that is associated with it.

101The project lead the way program, that's our engineering program. Again, going back to those things that we're being told by industry that we need to that that they need and they're looking for. Um, so we are we are partnered up and and doing the project lead the way engineering program at the high school level. But in uh but this year we actually are starting that program at the junior high and adding some classes. Those classes I was talking about before. So in 2526 we're going to be able to offer eighth graders the ability to earn high school credit through principles of applied engineering. Um and so that gets them one whole step closer to that CCMR. they'll have that first credit before they even walk through the doors of the high school. So, we're very

102excited about that. Also, we're excited about each of these programs were awarded a $10,000 grant for, uh, 2526, uh, from Chevron and Philip 66. So, that's amazing. So, uh, one of the great things about our secret room is that we do partner with our community. Uh, Leaport supports their high school. There's no doubt about that. um the we you know working with Terry Cook with different people getting the partners and working with them we um have those experiences in our practicum courses because of those industries that are around here that are opening their doors to our kids to provide those skills. Um there's a lot of job shadowing that goes on in all these different places and mentoring. Uh we had uh Baskam uh come through and do a short presentation on uh female engineers

103to try to get more girls interested in that uh field. And so they came in because they know that it's that symbiotic relationship. They're here in this community. They want to invest in this community and they know that that's going to pay off for them as well. Okay. Goals. So, uh, like I said before, we are continuously evaluating all of our programs, uh, making sure that what we're offering is what the community needs, what the region needs, and then it's also going to produce those high wage jobs. uh and giving the kids the necessary skills to get into those programs. Um making sure that we are staying up to date on our materials that we're having for the students to utilize, especially in some of those technology classes. That stuff changes so rapidly. Um and

104the things that we have, I mean, it we got to make sure that we are in line with what the industry needs. And so making sure that we have that. Um, again, we talked about the uh expansion into the lower grades to make sure that our kids are on track and making it to those levels to make sure that they are a completer, they're hitting those practical classes, and they have the ability to pass that uh IVC. And finally, just the professional growth for our CTE teachers. Um, it's it's it's definitely harder uh on us to to find those opportunities for those teachers. I mean, and so we we do rely on those industries to help us provide some opportunities for them. um you know we we have a we we can easily get all

105the math teachers together and work on what we need to do to make them better math teachers but you know I I'm not very handy in an automotive shop. So uh so coming up with those opportunities is something that we're always looking for. And so when we talk about the future of CTE uh especially at Leaport ISD we're really looking at what opportunities can we provide in the higher education level and partnering with Santa College. We're very lucky to have, you know, one of the larger, more prestigious junior colleges right in our backyard that we have a great relationship with. Um, and so expanding those opportunities again, getting those credits, making sure it fits in kids classes, but also giving them the most up-to-date um, learning that they can in those areas, and then also

106help by using some of the resources that Sanino College has that we don't have or can't uh, get our money to do. So, I mean, the the new if you haven't seen the new process tech center at Sanjack, it's it's incredible. I mean, it truly is incredible. So, have have our kids opening up a new program to where they can experience that uh is is going to be a a really amazing thing for us. And lastly, uh the career exploration where we we we've now gone into junior high. the next step is to move it into elementary and what can we do to help get kids excited about the careers that are going to be, you know, ahead of them, but then also having our kids at the high school level go down to to

107help teach those kids about what are those things that they can look forward to at the high school. What are those pathways they can be thinking about as they move through their uh educational career? Um, we are going to have a CTE signing day. uh you know, we have the signing days where we have the uh sports come in and they sign the letters of intent to go to their college, but we're going to have a signing day where the CTE students can come and sign their contracts for the jobs that they're going to be taking on after they uh complete their time here. And uh one other thing, uh we talked about some of the success of the different programs that we have in CTE, the different teams and the organizations. We are going

108to be creating some other teams within different organizations. One that we're really excited about is a welding competition team next year going different things, doing different welding projects. Um, and then a culinary catering class. Uh, right now it's it's just kind of period by period kind of through what we do, but we're going to have a really specific class uh with that is going to be during the lunch period. Uh, and so that way they'll be able to get to different places around the district during different campuses lunch times in order to cater events or events here just wherever they're needed. And that is that. Do you guys have any questions for us? Yeah, I I will say I meant to share this with Dr. Jackson earlier when it happened, but I went to a

109donor appreciation lunchon at San College today in the Lionell Patrol uh Lionel BLE petroleum center at Sanjack and they had students who had either received a scholarship or were a part of the promise program which of course promise provides free college to any land Sanjac taxing district. I met a student from Leaport ISD, Leaport IST graduate. They went to the petroleum center at Sanjac while they were still a senior, looked at it, saw it, and that's what drove them to go in and and go to the certification. It was I don't know if it was a field trip or if y'all been to the facility or what happened, but they visited sometime while they were a senior in high school, and that's what led them to go into the program. And now, you know, I

110think it's a two-year program with the one he was on. So, halfway done. And how how neat. I mean, beautiful and I I'm very glad that we're going based off and that's part of Sanj's success is they're listening to the industry and seeing they have their pulse on and they're they're seeing what we need and not in education in the petroleum field and any field and I'm really glad we're following in that in that those footsteps because that is a big part of their success. Absolutely. Students being able to see that early on. We did the same thing. We brought up San with our son and we walked it. Yeah. Um he chose to go to the military but he's getting classes right now that go towards being able to go. So you know um

111seeing seeing it and seeing personally what the unit looks like because they can't get in everywhere. And I mean, and just to your point, I mean, one of the things that's so important about the career exploration is that our kids may know that their parent goes and works in a plant, but they don't actually know what they do or what other jobs are available or what that even looks like. And they're never going to go into the plant and visit it. Chevron doesn't want you to go in and take a look. And so any opportunities that we have to give students to do that, it's definitely something that's really high on our priority list. Very cool. Say kudos on a couple different things in this program. We have seen a lot um evolving through the

112years since we since I got on the board. This is actually there have been a lot of great things happening. Um but specifically I wanted to say for our welding students um you picture um seen them do some great things. They actually uh made our trophies for the Leort Education Foundation golf tournament for us. So we actually um invited them to do that. They did it. We purchased our trophies from them. It was an amazing everybody was so excited to receive those. Um so I have to say thank you for that and also that they did a great job. And then um for ROC, if you don't know this, you can look in this packet for the maritime center. They have this simulator. Um but ROC, there's a club that many of them are a

113part of and they have a flight simulator, guys. So awesome. And they can actually fly like 15 different types of planes in the simulator and it we got to see that and it was just really awesome that that was actually a joint program between our welding classes and our RTC program. So it was a great crosscurricular uh program for our students and it just it really is a very impressive simulator. I loved it. I I was just super impressed with them having that and um so you know it does give them firstirhand experience to help make decisions about their future and that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to give them Yes. resources and tools to provide for themselves and Thank you. Thank you guys very much. Item 11 will move on to item

11411 action on close session items. We do not have any action. So we will go to item 12 closing comments of the board. Our superintendent go ahead. Russell was able to attend the top 100. Uh very nice little ceremony. Pretty quick little ceremony, but uh it's nice to see those kids up there. I wish I could have been a part of one of those back in my day, but uh 101 101. Uh but uh other than that, uh good luck on the star test coming up. Uh kick some butt and take names. There you go. We're in the home stretch um with star testing and everything. Honestly, uh just to our families and to our kiddos, um just do the best you can. Progress over perfection. We've got this. Um going to do great. And

115educators, thank you so much for the time that you have put into these students getting them ready. Um it's a lot of pressure, but y'all have really done a great job. Um and I appreciate your for all of that um every single day. So, good luck and make a list of the things you want to do when this is all over and celebrate. So, I echo that sentiment. I wanted to give every teacher a gift card to our local liquor store. Dr. Jackson said that appropriate. Um, so no, we certainly wish everyone the very very best. All the students, the teachers, everybody involved, all the parents, the kids are stressed. We wish you all the we know you're going to do great. So, uh, you have the full support of this board and we're so

116proud of you guys. Um, we talk about CTE, so I know we have the FFA has their big auction on Thursday night at the Lumax Arena. Looking forward to that. It's a great, if you haven't been to it, I know our our board, our administrative staff supports that tremendously. And so, uh, it's a great food, barbecue, uh, and just help support those kids on Thursday. So, we're looking forward to a great event. Also, we have our 69th annual Sil Beach Day Festival. We're excited to have all our schools participate in the parades. Thank you, Dr. Jackson, the team for letting us use the facilities uh to uh stage our parade and to use the parking lots and all the things. We're so honored to have a pageant. Uh the ISD is one of our presenting

117sponsors for all your involvement. So, we we really appreciate the support of the of the schools. We're looking to have a great event. So, please send up prayers for obviously the safety of everybody that comes out to and everybody involved with that festival. Also, that we would have good weather. So, um we had a the culinary arts that was mentioned a couple times in that CT program and update. So they I had this chance to see them at a uh a home dedication for Habitat Free Mandy on Friday. Uh they had their picture in this in that presentation. So it was really awesome. They came out and brought uh some snacks uh to the family and all the people that are out there to help welcome that home. Uh it's awesome that they were out

118there doing that. So I really appreciate that program. Uh also want to say congratulations certainly to our new principles, assistant principles. Looking forward to getting to know them. Uh excited for the job they're going to do. And I said this in our executive session. Uh but Mr. Mr. Wickliffe, I want to uh say this to you personally, man. It's awesome that uh I I've had parents, staff members, and volunteers that are going in and out with DeWalt on a regular basis, and I've heard nothing but just amazingly positive things for that job you did in such a short period of time, man. Uh I love DeWalt, right? And but we know that sometimes it's kind of the wild west, and you brought some structure and some some discipline in there, but man, I it just

119it was immediate impact. So, I appreciate the job you did and I'm glad you're not, you know, I leave the district. I'm a little sad that you're not going to be at DeWalt, but I know you're going to do great things uh and your job here in the district. So, thank you for the what you did. Thank you. [Applause] Okay. Um Jeff stole a lot of my uh notes. Thank you. He really did. I wrote them all down. Uh the FFA students are showing as we speak. I believe pigs, lamb, excuse me, pigs and um they call them hogs. Hogs and chickens and turkeys were all being shown tonight. So hopefully that all went well. Hopefully my sister did good. Um Blake, we I have heard great things about everything you've been doing across the

120district from um principles on campuses to just teachers, how quickly work orders are getting taken care of. Uh so I wanted to give you a kudos on that. We we certainly appreciate it. Um, and then I shared my Sanino College story a little early, so I'm I'm about done, Dean. Okay, awesome. I'll be quick. Um, I just wanted to say how uh how endearing that Jenny Reid performance was tonight. I just thought it was the sweetest, cutest thing ever. Um Mason and I attended winter governance and student voice in um Galveastston together and uh got to see some great uh kid presentations where students were actually doing the uh continuing education for us. So we got to see some of their perspectives which is always so valuable for us. Um attended a baseball game recently.

121My my thought was to go to part of that and then go to the softball game, but the softball game ended before the baseball game. So, I will make it to softball, but I didn't make it there yet. And board, just to you, I will be attending my second TUR meeting on Thursday and maybe I'll understand more what is going on there and I can report back to you then. Thank you. Once I get a little better handle on that, ask you for update. I know. Well, I'll give you an update at the next meeting and um look forward to seeing everybody out at the livestock auction and at the Silven Beach Festival, which is always a fun family and community event. The end. Um lots of encouraging things today. And uh again, just to

122the teachers, obviously the kids are are uneasy about the test. You know, our support and admiration for you is unconditional. It it it's not ever going to be contingent on one test. uh that's such a poor representation of really what you do on day in and dayout basis. Um I I hope and I pray every single day that you truly understand the profound impact you have on these kids. Um it's lifealtering and uh it doesn't go unnoticed and I know it's not always acknowledged, but you've got to have faith and trust that it is there. Uh because I see it. I see it everywhere I go. um every campus you just see in the kids and they need that and you're providing that. So um I hope that you find some some peace and you

123don't have any anxiety tomorrow or this week as you test. Uh again, it it's we're going to love you just the same. So I know everybody's putting their best foot out there and and that's all we ask. Um and we'll see what happens after that. The Chados have their spring show also Friday and Saturday at the theater. Um, this is the first year since CO that they moved back to the theater and it has its own challenges. So, uh, I'll be gray-haired by Saturday if you see me. Um, but get out there and see that show again. Uh, let's pray for good weather for Silva Beach and let's look forward to May and getting in that Bulldog Stadium. So, I'm excited to see that for sure. So, thank you everybody. Dr. Jackson, because it's star,

124I'll say something. I've had an opportunity to visit uh Jenny Reid today and they the kids just always anytime I'm I'm energized anytime I go to a campus. But I got a chance to talk to them uh in their star pep rally and they had a kickball game that I was supposed to play in, but I had my best cheap suit on. But anyway, um I left them with this message and I asked Principal Davis if she could just share this in her announcements for a few days and it doesn't have to be something she does every day, but I shared with them and I said it a hundred times. And so they caught on and started saying it with me. I'm smart. I'm intelligent. I work hard and I matter. I'm smart. I'm intelligent.

125I work hard and I matter. And the kids said it and even outside on the kickball field, they were saying it to me because it caught on. And I just thought to say that to them and I'm saying that to all of our principles here, whether you're secondary or elementary, kids need to have something they can tag on to. And so, thank you for what you do for our youngsters, teachers. Thank you that are listening. Uh, but we're going to be fine. And I'm saying this in front of all of my board members, my bosses. I've got seven bosses. You're more than a test score. I mean that from here to heaven. Our kids and our teachers are worth more than just one day and one test score. And I believe the board believes that

126as well. And they've said it 100 times over. But we all say that we want our kids to do well. We want our teachers to feel good about it. But our kids are worth more than just one day and one test. And so I'm glad that I work in a district where that is not the end all beall. It's a piece of it, but it's not the end all beall. So, thank you for everybody that helps, but thank you to this board who supports us in doing that work. And thank you, administrative staff, all of you. Thank you.