001it is seven o'clock p.m we'll reconvene from closed meeting uh we'll go to item four bro board protocol will be read by me of course uh board president uh the board trustees the laporte independent school district is now convened i wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone present every student's success is our number one priority as la porte isd board of trustees we're 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 the role of the board to make day-to-day operational decisions the management day-to-day operations of the district are the responsibility of the superintendent this is a public meeting of the board of trustees now meeting of the public school board meetings are open to all who wish to attend
002and hear the matters discussed audience participation is limited to the patron presentation portion of the meeting board members may not respond to the public comment section these proceeds may be recorded and i respectfully ask that you please refrain from talking what others are speaking thank you for taking time this evening to join us and for your interest in laporte independent school district at this time we will stand for the pledge of allegiance we join me in the pledge to the united states flag 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 now the texas flag the texas flag i pledge allegiance to the texas one state under god one and indivisible for the
003invocation uh i also will be giving the invocation if you please bow your heads dear heavenly father as we gather here today we thank you for fellowship and family we ask that you strengthen us restore us and inspire us with your love lord would you fill us with your peace as we work to become a stronger team for the benefit of our students employees and community as we share together may you guide us by your holy spirit and lead us into all truth in jesus name amen amen you may be seated we go to item five board recognitions and tonight we have a performance by laporte elementary students good evening ladies and gentlemen you picked a wonderful night to come i heard them rehearsing for the last hour so you're in for a real treat
004the laporte elementary school music ensemble under the direction of kathy parrisher ready we're so glad to be here i know you've had lots of choirs come and sing for you tonight i'm going to show you more like what music classes like okay so i have fifth graders on the instruments i have third graders singing and if you notice before we started this group over here was playing a little game it was called oakley sauna that's the name of the first song we're going to do it has one word in the whole song and it's kind of funny because translated things i hit my hand on the rock because instead of beanbags in africa they have rocks okay so obviously here we go um oh [Music] oh [Music] oh uh [Applause] uh okay [Music] these [Music]
005me all right [Music] music uh this is a song that um i wrote with a friend rachel sam on our way back from the tmea convention thank you more for letting us go to tme88 you got inspired all right so the name of this song is take the time to be kind i wrote the chorus and a couple of kids wrote the verses charles wrote the first verse janine wrote the second verse and we're just gonna see what happens so i don't see ella but she's there somewhere ella would you play the first phrase i'll sing the first take the time to be kind keep others in mind soon you will find it's a better world for you and me and the first verse let's sing it without the instruments over here charles wrote this
006first [Music] better ready for you and me and janine wrote the second verse ready [Music] for a better world [Music] a better word [Music] is [Music] take the time foreign me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] um [Music] come over here [Music] oh yeah here we go um right she did awesome well that was fun it was really fun um we have some student recognitions tonight if you follow us on any social media you've seen all of the art awards that have been handed out earned lately by our wonderful students with that i present to you mr matthew burke director of performing and visual arts thank you adam for the 10th consecutive year laporte isd has received the houston livestock show and rodeo's school art super show award this award requires strict adherence to rules and
007regulations overall presentation of our show and the quality and the amount of student artwork presented 2022 success has cemented laporte isd membership into the hlsr houston livestock show and rodeo school art hall of fame tonight eight laporte isd art students received honors for their 2022 houston livestock show and rodeo art show entries which were displayed in the half gallery at nrg throughout the entire rodeo these students and students if when you hear your names if you're here can you please come up and dr wally will give you a certificate and just line up here and if we could hold our applause do we get through some of these because there's several ethan from our elementary division ethan hoffman college park elementary best of show and his teacher was a gianna lewis [Applause] or you can
008applaud doesn't matter that's fine i like that as well just line up right here okay elementary katie anderson from heritage elementary school gold medal her sponsor is mrs jamie lewpold from our junior high division zoe lucas from james h baker sixth grade campus gold medal her teacher was miss meredith sanderfer from lomax junior high john stakes best of show his teacher was jessica little is john here tonight okay make sure he gets the certificate from our high school division leslie torres laporte high school best of show teacher yadavi barasa [Applause] excuse me dana garcia laporte high school gold medal teacher christina tadaro is dana here okay from the port high school gold medal brianna lamont or is it how do you pronounce that limon i'm sorry limon gold medal christina tadaro from laporte high school
009alyssa legrand laporte high school special merit christina tadara [Music] we have several more awards the harris county department of education serves as the regional sponsor of the scholastic arts awards program which was established in nineteen twenty three this program hosts yearly judging and award ceremonies for thousands of writing and art entries submitted by harris county teens three laporte high school student three laporte high school art students have received honorable mention in the esteemed scholastic art and writing award senior alyssa legrand junior cash luck lusk excuse me and candace lynch both of these students won awards for the pencil digital art and oil paint respectively moving on to kayla juarez laporte high school 9th grade student won our inaugural bulldog coloring book design pages and coffee mug design contest candace lynch laporte high school 11th grade
010student won the 2021 laporte isd christmas card design contest daniela vasquez laporte high school senior won the bulldog coloring book cover contest these are our visual arts students please give them another round of applause our district art show just kind of a public service announcement our district art show is may 3rd tuesday may the 3rd from 5 30 to 7 in the james h baker campus uh library it's open and it's a come and go as you please also have a few other announcements some other performing arts honors that we like to recognize this evening nine performing district music art programs have thus far earned uil sweepstakes honors at the junior high and high school level with 11 total groups receiving uh the sight reading first division honors uil concert and sight reading sweepstakes awards
011went to laporte junior high band lomax junior high band laporte high school mixed varsity choir laporte high school treble girls varsity choir lomax junior junior high choir all three laporte high school orchestras varsity and non-varsity and varsity and the lomax junior high orchestra the laporte high school band will be competing in three weeks at april 26 27-28 in fact their pre uil concert is going on right now at the high school so and one other accolade we'd love to talk about tonight the laporte high school one act play advanced from zone competition to district competition laporte isd is truly a place for the fine arts thank you very much congratulations [Music] congratulations we go [Applause] would you direct them ladies and gentlemen we have another recognition this evening national assistant principals week is this week
012april the 4th through the 8th and we're honoring the enormous contributions of our assistant principals this student's success this year our celebration takes on even greater significance as we recognize what assistant principals have conquered amid the pandemic and consider what their ever expanding and evolving role might look like moving forward through it all laporte isd's assistant principles have demonstrated unwavering leadership becoming a source of strength and inspiration for us all i'm going to get my handy-dandy clicker first mary garza assistant principal bayshore elementary school eva galvan assistant principal college park elementary school [Applause] jennifer barker assistant principal heritage elementary [Applause] karen lawley assistant principal laporte elementary tammy king assistant principal lomax elementary school [Applause] stephanie davis assistant principal jenny reed elementary janet freeman assistant principal leo a rizzuto elementary [Applause] janelle tarr assistant principal of
013james h baker's sixth grade campus [Applause] from laporte junior high school we honor jennifer ingles associate principal of laporte junior high [Applause] also we honor jose molina assistant principal laporte junior high [Music] [Applause] from lomax junior high dr rahm crespo associate principal of lomax jr [Applause] and assistant principal lomax junior high stephanie brown [Music] [Applause] from laporte high school dr thad mitchell associate principal stacy joseph assistant principal laporte high school juliana lee assistant principal laporte high school miss nakiba george assistant principal laporte high school [Applause] [Music] monica martinez assistant principal laporte high school and finally yesenia de la cruz assistant principal laporte high school they really are working or resting wow thank you all for everything that you do can you please we would love a picture with you and our board of trustees yeah
014y'all i'm a little rusty [Applause] thank you here good all right my purse okay board without uh any without objection from the board the like to move to item 9a action or discussion item approved hiring of deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction and deputy superintendent of administration and support services okay and huh um if you want to speak on them then we'll make a motion yeah so so bored and uh members of the audience three words that describe dustin bromley are motivational inspiring and passionate mr bromley was born and raised in a small town in kansas and the value of hard work and determination was instilled at him in an early age dustin began his career as a teacher coach at north shore senior high school his infectious and gregarious personality coupled with his brilliance
015helped him to professionally advance he has worked as an assistant principal at galena park high school and he served as the popular crosby high school principal in his current role he serves as the executive director of operations in crosby isd mr bromley earned a bachelor's degree in education from oklahoma state university a master's degree in administration from lamar university and in june he will become dr bromley and complete the doctor of education degree from lamar university mr bromley possesses a wide range of knowledge and experience that will allow him to be a major contributor to the future success of laporte isd dustin's experience lies in successfully developing and implementing new processes significantly expanding current practices and managing all programs to maximize efficiency and realize consistent growth mr bromley is adept in overseeing a full range
016of operational responsibilities including transportation maintenance and facilities safety security nutrition and construction i strongly believe mr bromley will be a wonderful addition to the laporte isd family in the role of deputy superintendent for administration and support services i ask that the board join me in welcoming mr dustin bromley to our laporte family let's give him a hand just just introduce if you brought some guests with us and board's going to take a vote in a minute what a uh [Laughter] also like to introduce to you dr rebecca brown dr rebecca brown has over 27 years experience in education with 20 of those years serving in educational leadership roles in both large and smaller 6a school districts dr brown's vast leadership experiences have allowed her to work in leadership positions in the alden houston and spring
017isds dr brown has earned a remarkable reputation in the academic community for her laser focus on data-driven decision-making and school turn around leadership to improve learning for all her formal education consists of a bachelor's of arts degree in education from the university of houston a master of education degree from prairie view a m university and the doctor of philosophy degree from prairie view a m university she currently holds the position of assistant superintendent of high schools in the spring isd a district of 34 000 students dr brown's educational perspective is quite comprehensive she was a classroom teacher for 11 years in the alden district additionally dr brown has served as a literary literacy skills specialist middle school assistant principal and high school principal and executive director of academics throughout her long and exceptional career dr
018brown has provided overall strategic leadership and support in research coordination planning and implementation and evaluation of systems everywhere she has worked she has made the system better and student learning more meaningful each of dr brown's references praised her leadership and the ability to collaborate and get results i strongly believe dr brown will serve our district in a unique and respectful fashion as deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction and i ask that once again you join me in welcoming dr rebecca brown to our laporte family dr brown did you bring any [Music] son but guests am blessed and honored to be part of the poor community in schools dr ali i'm going to learn from you i've got big shoes to fill i know that but i'm here to learn thank you [Music] okay board uh
019seek a motion i make a motion that we hire both of these great individuals to join the laporte bulldog nation okay miss thompson made a motion uh seconded by mr shoppe and so call for the vote is unanimous thank you so much welcome to laporte isd and if y'all would mind coming up we'd like to have a picture with you so sorry thank you all right yeah [Laughter] yeah i don't blame them yeah look at the little one just skipping that's awesome okay we will now go back to item six public comments 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 policy complaints and concerns for which
020other resolution channels are provided shall be directed through those channels ms thompson do we have anybody wishing to speak yes we do we have three actually uh first would be emma thompson and i'm not going to read her whole address for privacy reasons uh lives in laporte and she would like to speak to us about restroom accessibility okay emma if you come up to the mic right there please yes okay thanks for coming is there a mic that's right there that you can yeah yeah pull that mic towards you babe you see that yeah yeah there you go perfect good evening board i am an athlete at laporte high school i participated in soccer for four years and for each of those years i've never seen a female restroom in the weight room and though
021our locker room has a connected bathroom we find ourselves not able to use it at times the track girls often change in the stalls of the bathroom which causes us to not be able to use it um we have to be at the field at a certain time so puts us at a disadvantage after warming up on the field we go to the weight room on thursdays and tuesdays and thursdays during the off season due to the distance from the weight room to the locker room being so far away we are told to hold it this is very aggravating because most of us go the whole day without using the bathroom in order to not use lose precious class time and because the bathrooms are locked during passing period this is also infuriating because we
022know that if there was a closer bathroom that was open we would be able to really relieve ourselves in any emergency i sincerely hope you take our concerns into consideration not just for the girls soccer athletes but for all lphs female athletes thank you for your time thank you emma thank you okay and our next speaker is rosie thyler is that right okay she also lives in laporte and she has another bathroom issue to speak with us about hi um good evening my name is rosie fowler first of all thank you board roger jackson for all that you do for our students at laporte isd we all know it's a challenging time to navigate and stay in the course during these challenging times i have two children of laporte isd alexis and connor and my
023reason for being here tonight is to address the issue that i feel is very important for our girl athletes and our women coaches the bulldog house is used by our students for weight training does not have a bathroom for the women or the girl athletes um sorry i'm a little nervous yes there are restrooms but there should be a single user gender bathroom designated one for men and one for women it's unfair that our women coaches and our girl athletes have to run to another building to use the restroom when needed i'm not sure the reason behind this i have heard different stories but that should not matter any building that's occupied by both gender should have a restroom to be used the women coaches and girl athletes of laporte isd should be respected and
024treated equally as our main coaches another issue that is very important is the fact that the old gm and the old locker rooms where the girls are track soccer are infested with roaches bats and mice when you hear of a mice running across your feet that is a big concern this has been an ongoing problem in that area my daughter has used those locker rooms her entire time while at the high school and had a mouse and her locker that ran out as she opened it this incident was reported i'm not sure if any action was taken apparently there is no pest management system in the place to safeguard our students and teachers and if there is it needs to be revised rodents spread more than 35 diseases these diseases can be spread to humans
025these diseases can be spread by contact with urine drop-ins and saliva from rodents i believe that our cross-country track enfield and soccer athletes deserve to have the same type of clients clean area as the volleyball basketball and softball girls my daughter has been in athletics and for years while at port isd thankfully she will be graduating this year but i need to speak up for the future girl athletes and all the wonderful women coaches that are employed by our district they need a place that is clean for pests and mice race where there's no pests and a nice restroom for them to use during their training or daughters i do understand that the new bond goes through there might be a remodeling to that area and honestly if it doesn't i hope that you will
026do something about it thank you thank you thank you okay last speaker this evening is christy thompson also lives in laporte and she would like to speak to us about restrooms as well good evening good evening my name is christy thompson and i'm a parent of three lp isd students emma alyssa and evan first i would like to thank you for hearing our concerns last year regarding our head our head girl soccer coach you came through with a wonderful successful successor while we may not have had the results we hoped for the entire experience was truly an anomaly from the previous years and has given us a hope for a brighter future i come to you today to voice a concern that isn't new as you've heard this has been an issue for many years
027our girls need restroom access in the field house or weight room i am the mother of three young ladies two are varsity soccer players and one will be a hopefully a golf on the golf team next year they all have had or will have to use this facility in their respective sports for strength and conditioning they utilize this building pretty much year round and have to leave the building to go to the restroom in the stadium or run back to their locker room beside the old gym to relieve themselves sometimes it's cold sometimes it's raining and there are even times when the track team is in the room the restroom and the doors are locked so they can so they can't use those either we are all very aware of the issue concerning the bathrooms
028within the high school itself i am an educator and i know the reasons behind current registered restrictions however these young ladies cannot use the school facilities sometimes our locker room restroom is locked and then they don't have access to one in the weight room where are they supposed to go it is no secret that biological females have specific needs which biologic biological males will never have many have had to leave school to take care of such needs because of the lack of bathroom access this is not okay i am begging you to find a solution for our girls they deserve better than this how would you feel if you were in their shoes how would you feel if this was your daughter i know lpisd can do better for our female athletes these athletes make
029our district shine in addition i believe it also needs to be noted that there is a major critter problem in the locker rooms and offices by the old gym many girls have opened their lockers to find little friends taking residence there this is this is true about the office areas too again our students and staff deserve a better a safer and healthy healthier place to meet change plan or whatever it is they need to do to prepare for their respective competitive seasons can we not provide some sort of measure to alleviate this problem i am confident in our board and our school leaders to find a solution that has everyone's best interest at the forefront thank you for your time this evening thank you ms thompson thank you ms thompson okay we'll go item seven
030reports dr jackson thank you mr president i'm gonna call up uh the superintendent will um forego my own um comments tonight because i've asked our cfo ron nakami to come and share some what we believe to be some good news uh and so she's gonna come and share some things about hold harmless that we talk about a lot and have talked about a lot in the last two years through the covet pandemic rhonda's going to share and then we've got some other uh presentations this evening miss combi good evening okay the um commissioner has come out with a hold harmless for our low attendance percentage and it's operational minutes adjustment oma they're adjusting the operational minutes but in truth what they're doing is taking the attendance percentage and it's called the um target percentage attendance
031rate and what that is is that's the rate of attendance for the four six week periods in 1920 right before we went out of colit we get that attendance percentage calculated on our first four six weeks periods for our 21 22 year if it's better which of course it is um our average is 90.1 for our first four six weeks our ta tpar rate is 94.1 94.0 rounded so we'll be able to it will help us now how will that help us it will help us to get closer to what we budgeted so i went back and looked at some numbers we budgeted enrollment for 67.88 we budgeted 80 ada for 63.05 our current ada is well our projected ada without the operational minutes adjustment and this is a projection so keep this in mind
032none of these numbers are actual how we're going to end is 6103 which is quite a bit less than the 6305 however with the oma or our tp ar adjustment percentage it's going to be 62.65 which is pretty close to what we have budgeted and for us it's just a reduction of recapture but because it's it's getting our budget where we had estimated it being so remember we budgeted enrollment 6788 our enrollment 6963 keep in mind that we don't get ada on our total enrollment right even if they all come we have pre-k enrollment we have about 200 pre-k students and of those 200 pre-k students we only get half-day funding they came out with the early education allotment to provide all districts to go to full day pre-k we were already doing that so
033that was kind of a a win for us but it doesn't add into the ada so that takes it down to 68.63 then you have some ee students which is early education some of them we get ada for some of them are speech only and those kind of things but they count in our enrollment so just keep that in mind too that's why there's some differences but all in all it's going to benefit us about 162 ada it's going to put us almost right to where we were budgeted so all this is very good news and we were hoping for it dr jackson has alluded to it and and we're glad they did now also they're going to give us an adjustment on our special programs that's our bilingual early education allotment special education ftes
034career and technology education fees and pregnancy related fts it doesn't include our state compensatory education but it will adjust these i i don't know what those numbers are they're adjusting ada some of these are ftes so they're kind of i haven't seen uh how they're actually going to do those but it's a good thing for us so rhonda can you say that number again we budgeted at 6310 and the new number that it's going to bring 305 ada 6305 and they're bringing us up to 62.65 0.9 okay let me tell you these are preliminary numbers i've estimated these no i know so our campuses have been doing great on attendance the last six weeks they have been really working at getting those rates up if those rates are up then these numbers will go up
035right so because we're not getting any adjustment from tea on the fifth six weeks in the six six weeks i don't know what those numbers are doing so i kind of took worst case scenario based on our first four six weeks and traditionally as you go through the year your enrollment goes down and your ado goes down where our enrollment's held pretty firm so so far and we're almost to the end of the fifth six weeks so um it's looking good if we can just get him to start coming to school i think we'll be okay yeah that's that's a bit important isn't it so um any other questions on that all in all it's a good deal it's a good it's it's an idea it's a great thing for us and it is going
036to benefit us some districts i don't know who that would be may not benefit because if your percentage is higher than your tp ar then you don't get it and before that year we were running about 95 attendance so uh the elementaries are usually around 98 the secondary usually around 91 92 and average together it's it's about 95 so we haven't seen that since covet so hopefully we'll start coming back to normal well i think it's probably a silly question but how do we uh take attendance is it a certain time of day yeah does it vary by campus or how yes each campus takes attendance and they have an attendance accounting period and i can't tell you what it is but it's in the morning and it it's a window that ta gives us
037usually before 10 o'clock right yes usually before 10 o'clock so in the window between the 8 and 10 o'clock and at the same time every day unless i think it can be different times for catching days and stuff like that but uh yes the same time every day the campus takes it the teachers take it turn it in and then the attendance clerk uh make sure reconciles it and everything i think i know why you might be asking that question jeff um you know because i've had some folks ask me this before so if we take attendance at 10 o'clock and a child shows up at 11 30 is that kid counted for for attendance if they bring a medical release yes so like if i go to the dentist in the morning and they
038can go back and add that attendance for a medical as long as they come sometime that day um if they don't come at all that day and the next day they bring a medical note no right what if a teacher misses that deadline well so it doesn't have so they have to take attendance by that deadline the attendance doesn't have to be recorded by that deadline so they're constantly cleaning it up if the teacher misses that deadline i don't know um that i guess that's more of a principle question because i'm not out there on the campuses control i've always been to as a teacher if you missed that deadline you don't want to get them in trouble with their principles do you i understand i mean i i i don't feel like that's a
039problem but i think the teachers are aware of the importance of attending yeah well also i just i want to add with the um the balance of the copic uh attendance and stuff as well that people who were had to be out on quarantine because of their siblings and things like that i know that that was a big strain on the attendance clerks themselves too so there were a few people who were like my kids getting you know called for this well it was just simple corrections they just had to call them so i think they handled that beautifully but i do know that it was a lot of strain on the attendance clerg for that so i did want to you know bring that up too because that might have affected us in some
040cases as well i hope it was a lot of strain on a lot of people it was crazy but yes our team is close and they all work hard and we have good attendance classes ronald you know i don't know if you give me exact number but what would be the impact had this hold harmless not been signed into effect like how much of a financial detriment would have been about a million dollars for nine weeks i'm old-fashioned jeff a million dollars is a million dollars yeah a million dollars is a lot of money i mean if you break it down to 250 yeah any other questions all right thanks for bringing us some good news rhonda yes i love being here and next month we can we'll start talking about the budget we should
041get our values in the end of april so we'll start putting down that okay awesome yeah we got two more items under the superintendent's report that's why i forward my um my comments but at this time i'm going to invite uh miss tilly to come and talk a little bit about the nine week marking period good evening i whenever the district dae picked that wrong wrong committee maybe they should be doing the calendar i don't know no one of our deic met back in the fall to develop the calendar for next school year one of the things that secondary administration and representatives brought up what was the question could we consider going to a nine week grading period from a six weeks grading period well at that point it was a little early we needed
042to do some research and and meet with uh people the stakeholders that would be impacted by that so i've had an opportunity to speak with mr burke and um and coach thompson and and they were able to speak with their coaches and and really uh talk about this and see if there was going to be an impact on that some of the reasoning uh just very simply uh a the biggest reason that administration felt like uh the nine-week grading period would be an improvement over the sixth week is that we have gone to um common assessments and really holding fast to our assessment calendars and and trying to measure our students growth and whenever you end at the six weeks and if you you know if you look closely at our calendar this year we
043have two six weeks that are only five weeks so the first two six weeks or five weeks and then you'll have a six week and then uh because in secondary we really need the school the the first semester to end prior to the christmas holiday um with this calendar uh we will have equally uh the same length of uh nine weeks that we'll have two nine weeks grading periods the first semester two nine weeks grading periods in the second semester so i feel like that that will be very beneficial to our uh teachers our students our coaches and um as we teach and then measure what they are learning as i said i spoke with coach thompson i spoke with mr burke uh you know our uil uh eligibility with a nine weeks calendar not
044that i would ever be concerned not that any of us would ever be concerned but our our athletes the first you know would have the first nine weeks of the school year to be eligible and then they would go on to the three week uh cycle because there will still be an expectation that every three weeks that we would uh do a uh progress report so uh and we're gonna do progress reports uh every three weeks anyway so our parents the timing um is still going to be the same miss tilly i believe on the nine week period the six week progress report is the uil mark correct so they have to be ineligible at the six weeks and then they can regain for every three weeks at the six weeks okay nine weeks three
045years they can't go through the whole first nine weeks they got to go through the six weeks three to six weeks okay so that's just for uil purposes all right well and that's i'm trusting you i'm trusting coach thompson goes back all the way to the uh every nine weeks correct okay it's still better than the five weeks that we had but it's we did i mean and and this will uh sync us with the elementary so everybody is getting a report card at the same time and and families can all have the same expectation so so board we vetted this with principals and coaches and band directors and choir directors and everybody we just kind of simply want your blessing on this so that we can move forward and then we can begin kind
046of really promoting this and sharing this with with our parents and everybody you got it were there any objections not a single one not the same really truly not a all scenario thank you thank you thank you and then last but not least each month dr wadley myself miss whitfield miss tilly miss abram miss anderson somebody's up here talking to you about our teachers and what our teachers need sometimes it's even our instructional coaches and so this time for the month of april i've asked that we get some teachers to just come and briefly address the board on their life and what's going on in their world because i think it's important for you to hear from teachers a lot of times you hear from me talking about what's going on with teachers and dr
047wildly but i think it's important that the board hear from teachers and so we're going to invite they're going to be three teachers one from each of the levels and so we're going to invite to the podium at this time and y'all can all stand together if you need that moral support but uh at this time we're going to uh in uh invite miss yolanda joseph from college park elementary to come let's give her a hand [Applause] thank you all so much for having me i would like to say greetings from college park elementary this has definitely been a time of growth in hindsight aren't we so so excited that dr jackson called for return to learn i see the benefits of just in time instruction instead of remediation and the benefits of our amazing
048district coaches as a teacher i chose to embrace the changes and the structures that the district leaders put into place because of the choices we have made as a district in the relationships that i'm building with my students our students are thriving socially and emotionally i have parents calling and telling me how much their kids are growing socially and that can only happen on our campuses our students are making academic progress our students are coming to school our students the students and the teachers are moving from novice and beginning to become experts at using the state online platform for assessments campuses are opening up to parents for lunch and field day and most importantly our students are safer because we are able to ensure their physical and emotional safety with these things being said remember
049it's been a long emotionally taxing time for teachers leaders please encourage and support your teachers we need continued praise validation and understanding thank you for your time thank you thank you and from lomax junior high we have christy bostick let's give her a hand as she comes [Applause] all right good evening guys um so yeah all right so i'm here to talk to y'all i guess about how we're closing the gaps with instruction at lomax um we have our weekly plc meetings and and in these meetings as teachers we analyze our data from unit tests we work together to create these engaging lessons to hopefully raise student achievement our instructional coaches they work effortlessly by our side to aid us in our classroom and we greatly appreciate them this process and support has shown a
050positive improvement with student learning on our campus we also have enrichment period that we use to create specific tutoring groups targeted lessons for our students that need this instruction this time we also have or we work on our social skills through our character strong program another enrichment opportunity is through our saturday m3 tutorials this opportunity is open to all students seeking any additional support to meet their academic goals as we move through the remainder of the year it's important that we continue to partner with our parents while we work towards closing this gap the work we do at school to build relationships and help the work we do it at school to build relationships and help students to become the best versions of themselves can only be achieved if they're present and on our campuses
051therefore we value our parents support greatly so thank you for getting thank you to the parents for getting them to school day in and day out and with their ongoing support and trust that allows teachers to educate the children of laporte isd um because without them with all their support our hands will be tied so we appreciate them i want to give recognition to our campus principals who provided these resources and time to their teachers to be prepared in the classroom i'm fortunate to have dr griffin dr crespo and ms brown they made me put them there leading our campuses towards these instructional goals because without them they would make our jobs ever more difficult but even with this added support in the classroom us teachers we're still filling our plates with new responsibilities unlike
052before we're not only teachers but we're counselors coaches friends role models and so much more to these students each day in and day out we're continually monitoring their achievement building these social capacity and working to create a partnership at home and at school all while trying to balance our personal lives into this mix but although these added initiatives may put a strain on us teachers i know that will rise to meet our goals i know this because we've overcome so many things in the past last couple years proving that each of us are exceptional and determined to be a positive influence in the lives of each and every one of our students so thank you guys for your time thank you and lastly we will have miss kristen williams from laporte high school [Applause] i
053talk in front of teenagers all day so you think i would be made of steel but i'm still a little nervous so bear with me um good evening thank you so much for the opportunity to speak to you today my name is kristen williams and i am finishing up my third year of teaching english one at laporte high school i chose to teach english in order to cultivate empathy and students through literature along with a love of reading i recognize this as a lofty goal but it is incredibly important and i am up for the challenge with the time i've been given tonight i want to tell you about a few challenges we faced this year and how we overcame them one major opportunity for growth we face every year is writing as you know
054english one is a star-tested course that includes an essay section this along with the fact that writing is an important part of life means we spend a great deal of time writing our ninth grade students this year are in a unique position because they have missed writing instruction due to covid the last time they had to write an essay for the star would have been in elementary school as opposed to seventh grade because of this we started this year with a gap that needed to be filled in order to address this in my classroom students write a daily journal entry students struggle with putting their thoughts down on paper just in general so this helps them do so in a low stress situation as an english 1 team we also assign high interest prompts along
055with student selected prompts that allow students to pull from their experiences and explain what they think we emphasize the importance of being able to clearly state your opinion on a topic and provide evidence to support your thinking we also study the star rubric and sample essays to give students a clear picture of what is expected of them as a larger group the english department also met as a team to calibrate and strengthen our skills ninth grade students completed their exam today and i am confident that we have prepared them to be at rest and the things that i saw today this isn't on my paper i'm going a little off script the things that i saw today were so great and so i'm very proud of them our next challenge was deepening our understanding of
056the tek's resource curriculum to tackle this each grade level had priorities to focus on that the curriculum department helped develop the priorities are not the only thing we study during the year but they are the foundation of student learning in english we've used our professional learning community times to deeply look at what we want students to know and how we know how they sorry and how we know they've learned it this has helped us begin to refine backward design and alignment across grade levels we also completed a two week star blitz focusing on our priorities that we design with the help of our instructional coach marissa khan marissa has been a valuable resource this year last but certainly not least a continuing challenge we face is engaging students in reading and creating a culture of
057readers to cultivate this in my classroom i have implemented first chapter friday so one friday a month my students vote on a young adult novel that we read together in class i show them book trailers and summaries to help them choose and include student suggested choices my hope is that students will become engaged and want to continue reading the book on their own time i can proudly say this has worked with a few students and that was a major win for me as a team my fellow english 1 teachers and i chose high interest y a and graphic novels to read in class this year this is a continuing effort as a department and school as building a reading culture does take time i know that dr jackson is also focused on growing literacy in
058order to do this we need to give students access to robust classroom and school libraries right now crap classroom libraries are largely teacher built as readers ourselves we pick up copies of interesting reads to keep in our classrooms whenever we stumble upon something new students need and deserve more than teachers can afford on their own it is my sincere hope that more dollars can be put into these libraries as we continue to nurture a culture of literacy in the court in closing i thank you again for this opportunity to speak i'm excited to continue growing professionally here at laporte and i look forward to continue to continue growing critical readers writers and thank you thinkers thank you [Applause] that will conclude the superintendent's reporting okay see we're easier than teenagers thank y'all i want all
059of those teachers to show back up next month y'all make me look really good okay we go to item 7 c board offers report uh number one trustee continuing education training hours reporting them bought mr sharpie's computer here to uh read the report for some reason i can't pull up the attachment but uh under a state board of education rule completing required continuing education each year of service is a basic obligation and expectation of any sitting board member the president is required to announce the name of each member who has completed exceeded or is deficient in meeting the required continuing education so what i'm gonna do is uh i'm gonna read off each board member's name and then give how many uh hours or completion uh tier one hours was orientation uh for new members
060or legislative updates exp for experienced members and that'll be either completed or not completed tier two hours is the team building board and superintendent tier three hours is board development and tier four hours is evaluating improving student outcomes that's biannually required david yonda tier 1 completed tier 2 0 hours tier 3 45.25 hours tier 4 completed dan thompson tier one completed tier two zero hours tier three 29 hours tier four completed russell shoppee tier one completed tier two zero hours tier three thirteen hours tier four completed melissa crutcher tier one completed tier two zero hours tier three twelve hours tier four completed jeff martin tier one completed tier two zero hours tier three 14.5 hours tier 4 completed chris murdock tier 1 hours not completed tier 2 0 hours tier 3 7 hours tier 4
061not completed the hours shown above are for the period beginning april 9 2021 and they had the last board office report and ending march 31st 2022 and i like to just add a comment that we did have a team building meeting on august uh 14 2021 but since that was not led by a a trained uh presenter uh that that did not count uh to our tier two hours so just let the board know on that um there any questions or comments concerning the um trustee training hours report that team building might not have been led by a certified trainer but it was a very valuable team building anyway yes i agree yes yes yeah okay okay we'll get that rectified yes we will okay we go to um item eight consent agenda a determine
062and prove any consent agenda items okay sure no i don't have my little consent sheet that's okay go ahead i'll i'll go from here okay you won't go ahead go ahead okay we've got item b approved board meeting minutes number one regular board meeting minutes march 1st 2022 two special board meeting minutes march 7 2022 c received principal reports one early childhood center two bayshore elementary three college park elementary four heritage elementary five jenny reed elementary six laporte elementary seven leo a rizzuto elementary eight lomax elementary nine james h baker sixth grade campus 10 laporte junior high 11 lomax junior high 12 laporte high school 13 bill dewalt high school d received financial reports for february 2022 e receive human resources report f approve employment of professional staff g approved budget amendment h approve agreement
063for participation and source well purchasing cooperative i approve 2022 2023 allotment antique certification form j approved application for staff development minutes waiver okay approve authorized representative ad form amending lone star authorized representatives l approved laporte isd district of innovation renewal plan 2022-2027 m approve a proposed amended 2022-2023 academic calendar like that pool please okay and approve proposal and purchase of e-rate wan slash dark fiber for fiscal year 2022 2023 oh approved purchase of laptop charging carts p adopt a resolution number 2022-05 for schools and libraries universal services e-rate for 2022-2023 q adopted resolution number 2022-06 amending textbook authorized representatives ms thompson do you mind reading back the consent agenda sure consent agenda items include b 1 and 2 c 1 through 13 d e f g h i j k l n o p and
064q okay seek a motion so moved miss thompson made a motion second in my mr sharpie a call for the vote is pash unanimous thank you we'll go to item m approve propose amended 2022-2023 academic calendar [Music] miss till i have one question okay on m um pull it up real quick i think it was september 16th it was an early release day if i remember correctly i don't have it up here but that's true no for this one for the coming year right it's a friday september yes yeah i'm just curious what's for the early release day what's the reason for that professional development okay and that is part of the the waiver that we just have one early release okay i just want to make sure thank you that's all right okay okay
065with that board uh uh seek a motion so moved miss thompson in motion seconded by mr sharpie a call for the vote is past unanimous thank you [Music] we go to item 9 b approve term and non-certified contract recommendations for certified teachers administrators and professionals and pay grades one to seven if any discussion i seek a motion so moved miss thompson okay miss thompson made a motion seconded by mr sharpie call for the vote is adopted unanimous thank you we go to item 9c discuss and take possible action on future board meeting dates uh mr murdoch could not be here this evening there is a change with his work schedule and he would like to request if the board would uh possibly go to a second tuesday of the month as opposed to the first
066tuesday of the month so that is up to the board if they were would be willing to make that change for and this would be effective for the next time we meet in may it's then you'll definitely need a special meeting so we're going back to basically second one holding the fourth one in case we need a workshop kind of deal that's correct i'm i'm fine with that how does that affect the uh well i mean we we made the changes trying to accommodate folks and so i guess my question would be will this be because we were going to have some conversations about moving forward where were we going to be is this going to be how we move forward for the rest of the 202 23 school year that would be my question
067to the board i think that's imperative we do it that way yeah i think once we go we need to yeah we need to be in one i mean one or the other yeah because what what happens is you know we also have legal counsel that needs to be here for those things and yeah so we're throwing we're throwing a lot of schedules off i get it that we're trying to accommodate but in that process and so uh we'll make it happen if that's what the board's pleasure that that's the board's pleasure okay well with that uh if there's not any further discussion like the seek of motion mr shopping made the motion uh to move to the second week second tuesday of each month okay second and fourth tuesday schedules change a couple times
068is he clear that this would work for him good question jim yeah so okay we have a motion by mr shoppie seconded by mr martin call for the vote okay is approved unanimously thank you we go to item 9d discuss and take possible action on mesh backpacks and student dress code and i'm going to pass it off to miss crutcher if you're mine kind of lead us on uh 90 questions that's right yeah miss whitfield and miss tilly to the podium and they because they can help us uh because they supervise the campuses and if there's any questions they can help us with those questions i'm so sorry no um okay sorry i do we're having trouble with our agendas no i just was like i was trying to make sure okay um oh you
069can't pull up the backups yeah it could be don't have chrome on there that may be the issue oh okay yeah that's what i'm having he's got okay right it's not coming up but then we were down sorry um so um yeah i i know that we've moved to we've been in mesh backpacks and clear backpacks for a while um i have been doing some independent research talking to some other schools um you know parents different things like that um just in the interest of some you know going back to a little bit of um normalcy if you will for children and then having a little bit of the uh and ability to have a little bit of creativity with their you know backpacks and things like that but also the um the consistency across
070all of the schools i've noticed of being on multiple campuses there's not a consistency on the backpacks themselves so just um try considering you know the consideration of possibly going to back to regular backpacks um and of course it's not something you know obviously i want to know what our educators you know think about that and if they feel like it's their policing or if they they're blowing it off or whatever it may be um but it's just one thing that when it comes down to it we are a title one district a lot of the parents can't afford to keep buying clear backpacks that are falling apart and they do fall apart regularly i've replaced multiple backpacks during this time and i'm grateful that i'm blessed to be able to do so but some
071parents can't some parents can't afford the first backpack for the year so i just wanted to kind of bring that back up and bring that option up for consideration we initiated the clear and mesh backpack really in response to the tragedy in santa fe and at that point we all became very hyper um sensitive or diligent about safety um and and frankly it just i mean it hasn't come up in a discussion since then so other than at the beginning of the year parents spreading because we can't find a clearer mesh backpack but um but truly i mean that's we do take the dress code to deic every year correct so we present the dress code at deic every every year before we publish and approve the dress code so we certainly i don't think
072our principals have any it's their preference i just again i don't think they have a preference i don't think they have a preference they as i said at that point certainly at that point i mean you know how we all felt every i don't know anybody oh never mind yeah a little desperate what else can we do absolutely right [Music] is it a mandated thing in the state or federal yeah i mean i think some of the comparisons we have i think if i'm not mistaken and mr shoppie can help me with this deer park has regular backpacks so even right next door um they're regular backpacks pasadena friendswood you know so it's just a matter of you know okay my friends get to do it that kind of thing but also like i said
073being a title one district that's a lot of extra expense for some of our parents so um just you know miss crutcher may not know or maybe she does i don't know can you refresh our memory who all is on the deic committee just for her so she'll feel a little better about the decision sure sure each one of our campuses are represented represented by uh either an administrator the principal or an assistant principal then parents are also on the committee from each campus and then we have teacher representatives on the committee and then some central office staff okay so thank you nice cross section 40 yeah about 40 45 feet a 10. got it okay oh nice it is like it is the best well-oiled machine united nation i'll say this is a i
074mean if you're saying that maybe the principles are the people are kind of indifferent in terms of yay or an a uh i have a first grader and a third grader with clear backpacks and every single day it's amazing we help them load their backpacks and they come home with stuff with like snacks and treats there's all kinds of stuff in those backpacks that dad doesn't know about and so if somebody wanted to truly carry a weapon or whatever it is you still i mean my point is you can still hide anything you want to hide in those clear backpacks so to me if it's a burden on anybody whether they have to monitor it or parents have to stress about it sure i don't know where that stage yet but i'm definitely in favor
075if it's not a mandate and and the principles and you guys aren't fully opposed to it i would support going back through it i was going to ask officer novosad i did kind of just give him a heads up that i was going to ask him to come and if there's anything that he'd like to share uh i'm not stacking the deck because i think most of us are indifferent about that but just wanted him to you to hear from him yeah i would love to share that we get rid of backpacks and carry computers only that would be great i digress so and there's another option so the backpack thing is so it's kind of complex so like mr mark said you have a clear mesh backpack but what else is in there lunch
076kits pencil pouches whatever else could be in there to hide anything that you want to whether it's weapons drugs anything can be hidden inside of a clear backpack now do i look at clear mesh backpacks when kids are walking the hallway absolutely just to see but if you really get to looking at what you can physically see in those things it's it's almost impossible to see anything um so for me as far as safety and law enforcement is this clear and mesh backpack gonna make a big difference no is my professional opinion on that so i'm a support if we go back to regulars for my officers it's just we have other things that we are dealing with other than what color what type of backpacks the kids are carrying so that's that's what i
077have okay thank you when is the next deic meeting the last one yeah and would that be the discussion point at that time about those things the last one and then publish the school because i know we usually approve those things during the summer so well we actually post the dress code usually in the hand right in the hand before right yeah well it's in the handbook in the fall but we put this out so parents can shop over the summer yeah and you know right right oh yeah yes yeah okay but this gives you time to make this a discussion point with absolutely absolutely good okay i appreciate it i just like i said for consideration either way have expressed like well i was going to say i think that's our biggest thing is
078if we can get them to school if they're going to carry a mermaid backpack or a clear backpack they might come with that mermaid also like to express i like to see us maybe move back to regular backpacks as well but from what i'm hearing from the board or for the majority of the board that maybe would like to see that but let you know bring that to the uh dic and uh and take a look at that and i don't think we need to take an action on this at all but you kind of seen where we're at so in our opinion so uh well thank you so much so thank you thank you thank you thank you for bringing this up yes i appreciate it okay so with the um without board objection
079i'd like to move to item e discuss and consider appointment to fill vacant board trustee position number two and related actions seek emotion i make a motion that we fill the vacant board of trustee position number two yes um with uh danny hanks um i think that he would be an asset to our board okay miss crutcher has made the motion i seek a second mr martin has seconded call for the vote is unanimous okay we'll go to item 10 action on closed session items there is no i believe we have any items we need to take action on there so we'll go to item 11 closing comments of the board trustees and superintendent bless you a attendance at recent district and community events b announcement of upcoming district and community events and see outstanding
080performance by district staff and students and board since this is our first time doing this in a while what my vision of this i'm not going to call out names if anybody wants to speak um just go ahead and just jump right in and make your comments i just ask that you stay within those three parameters of uh a b and c okay so boy if anybody like to jump in with comments i will i'll just i'll just say that tonight tonight's performance um from the elementary school from laporte elementary was beautiful it was really awesome and i had a good time learning uh the xylophone even though i did not do it quite so well and i apologize for our musical skills yes right i'm used to playing a saxophone not not a xylophone
081a bit different okay anyway anybody else um the honoring our top 100 last week uh the uh students there are just amazing and talking to them and everything i it just really gives you so much confidence um and the students that have again gone through so much just in the past couple of years and and to be so resilient and lots of familiar faces i loved seeing so many of the faces there and just really proud of all of our students um and just grateful to be able to honor them um last week awesome okay i know you put these things in place for me so um this first one is for under b uh upcoming so i just want to uh in case you haven't heard so now i wanted to uh to welcome
082uh mr bromley and dr brown we're certainly excited to have them but i'll be remiss if i didn't say uh sincere thank you to dr watley and mr clawson for the the well-deserved retirement the many years of service blood sweat and tears you guys have put back into our district i know that your retirement's coming up we're going to honor you guys but as we welcome in the new the new guard we're very appreciative of all the work you guys have done uh to get us to this point right absolutely so we're honored to uh to be going to the future but we fully recognize all the work you guys put in to get us to this point so we thank you guys sincerely [Music] and since i missed last last month um we had
083in february dr jackson and his team a lot of people when uh made this happen we had a state of education at the uh the bulldog center uh he we were honored to have dr jackson come and uh as part of our chamber of commerce do a state of education he represented our district in a phenomenal way and it was amazing a lot of those people that came with 200 people there and a lot of them had never been to our bulldog center and so to see them and them kind of be in awe of all the things and mr burke had a really cool uh display of the rodeo art i talked to him and he actually agreed that we could display some of these artworks at our chamber commerce building going forward so
084we're really really thankful for that um the other thing that i had um again i i we appreciate i know we can't go back and forth with anybody that spoke tonight but i we appreciate the the citizens and the students that got up and spoke yes we have full trust and dr jackson his team that they will address those issues and the last thing and that's kind of silly but i just want to recognize all the staff i mean it's impressive that you guys the the acronyms that you guys can keep up with i mean i really need like the acronyms for dummy like worksheets and uh you can make that happen that would be awesome first i'd like to say one outstanding performance by laporte elementary students and let's give them another round of
085applause for an excellent performance i'd like to also thank our assistant principals for the job they've been doing all year and in in all i know it's been a rough year but uh i know they've been working hard and doing what's best for uh students and uh as far as upcoming i do have a legislative advisory council meeting that i'll be going to this saturday in austin i'll be representing region 4 and la porte isd and looking at educational issues um going towards this uh state of texas with the legislative session coming up in 2023 and with that if there's no further comments from the board we will now adjourn at 8 31