001I'd >> like to welcome everybody out to our Lake Dallas Independent School District Board of Trustees meeting for what is today? September 22nd. Uh first thing we'd like to do is to uh honor our country and the great state of Texas by uh uh we'll have a moment of silence and then we'll do the pledges of allegiance. So join me in a moment of silence. Thank you very much. And we have some students from Lake Dallas is Lake Dallas High School Theater or Dallas. >> Yeah, they're all Lake Dallas. It's early still. >> To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. flag to the Texas one and indivisible. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate that. We'll move on
002to our student staff reports and recognitions. The first of which is Lake Dallas Elementary purple star campus designation. and we'll hear from Carrie Blevens, our principal there at Lake Dallas. Hi. >> Hi. Good evening, Dr. Brown. Good evening, board. >> All right. We are proud to share some exciting news about a special recognition that our school has received. The Purple Star Campus designation is awarded by the Texas Education Agency to honor schools that go above and beyond in supporting military connected families, students, and their families. This designation highlights a school's commitment to meeting the unique social, emotional, and academic needs of children and military families. And every fall, campuses across Texas can apply for this honor, and only those that meet a rigorous set of criteria are selected. To be eligible for this recognition, schools
003must meet four key criteria. First, campuses must designate a staff member to serve as a military liaison, someone who supports military families and helps them get connected to resources. Second, schools must maintain a dedicated, easy to navigate web page with information and support for military connected students and their families. Third, schools must implement a campus transition program, something that supports students as they adjust to changes in schools and communities, which is common for military children. And finally, schools must complete at least one additional initiative to demonstrate their support. And our school proudly chose to participate in month of the military child in April. So throughout that month, we used our morning announcements to highlight the experiences and contributions of military connected students. We also hosted a purple up day encouraging all students and staff to
004wear purple in a show of unity and support. And additionally, we took time during our leadership assembly in April to formally recognize and celebrate our military connected students. And we're proud to say that our campus met and in many ways exceeded all of these criteria. With that, I'm thrilled to announce that Lake Dallas Elementary was the only elementary campus in region 11 to receive the Purple Star campus designation for the 2526 school year. This is not only a testament to the hard work of our staff and community, but also a reflection of our ongoing commitment to serving all students, especially those that serve alongside their military families. We're incredibly proud of this accomplish and grateful for the opportunity to support such resilient and inspiring young people. Thank you. [Applause] That's awesome. I appreciate that. All
005right. Our next presentation, we'll hear from Melissa Champ, our uh high school theater director. She's going to tell us about Texas Thespian Gold Honor Troop designation. >> Thank you for having us here tonight. Um, I would like to, um, introduce you to our leadership board, um, who have worked tirelessly and endlessly last year and also this year to be able to, uh, allow us to receive this distinction from the Texas Thespians. I have Kimmy, I have Lily Dennis, Teresa Kuth, and Rose Starks. And Teresa is going to tell you all about um, all the things that we have to do. This is completely run by them. They are responsible for turning in all the stuff every single month. they're responsible for making sure that it all happens. So, this is truly 100% um accomplished by
006our students. >> Good evening. Um so, Lake Dallas High School's Thespian Troop 4101, which is our troop, um has earned gold honor troop recognition for the 2024 2025 school year. What this entails is it's a recognition program offered by state chapters of the International Thespian Society. It acknowledges and celebrates theater troops for achieving a high level of excellence in their school and community. Throughout each month of the school year, um troops are given assignments to complete and turn in. And from there, these task tasks are graded on a 100 point scale. Some assignments include making smart goals for your troop, um community service, community outreach, um reaching out to the middle school, having them involved, um creating more opportunities for not only thespians, but people who are interested in theater to join in. Um troops
007are awarded gold, silver, and bronze honor troop recognition. And to earn the highest level of achievement, which is gold, the troop must score an overall grade ranging from 90 to 100 for the whole nine months that they are doing this. Um once an honor troop is earned, a banner and a plaque are awarded at the beginning of the next school year. And that's awarded at um troop days, which is what we went to this past few weekends ago to get the banner and the um plaque. Yeah. >> Thank you. So cute. [Applause] >> All right. Sounds good. Appreciate that. Congratulations. are uh we gonna do pictures. They tried to trick me again. We're going to do some pictures real quick and then we'll uh go on to our next item. Okay. Something's off balance and
008I can't figure out where it is. I think it might be Mark actually. >> Erin, will you take a step in so you're in between? Thank you. And then Dr. Brown, will you take a step up? Yes. Thank you. Okay, everybody ready? One, two, three. >> Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I snuck up behind you. Thank you. >> It's off. Okay, ready? One, two, three. >> I like Dr. Brown's idea. Can you all do heart hands? Okay. Our next item is the September teachers and employees of the month. Dr. Brown. >> Yes, sir. We honored our September teachers and employees of the month a few weeks ago at our employee breakfast and uh their video will be playing during close session. >> All right. Thank Thank you very much. It is now 5:39 and the board will
009Hang on a second. I got a little thing I got to read. The open session of the meeting will adjourn. The board of trustees will reconvene in executive session pursuant to one or more of the sections of the Texas Open Meetings Act, chapter 551 of the government code, Texas government code. The board of trustees will reconvene in open session to take any final action decision or vote on a matter deliberated in executive session. And it is 539. [Music] Instrument. We decide. [Music] relax. [Music] King [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] There you go. [Music] I two. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Keep [Music] on. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Mhm. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Don't worry. [Music] Okay, it is 7:01. We are back in open session. Our next item is public comment.
010We have nobody signed up for that. So, we'll move on to our information items. And that item is summary of strategic plan objectives met for 2024 2025. And we'll hear from Dr. Kelly O Sullivan. Hi, >> good evening. >> Straight from the farm. Right. >> Farm to podium. There we go. >> Good evening, President Stacy and Dr. Brown and school board trustees. This evening we are going to review progress towards our strategic plan objectives um as well as some goals for 2526. So starting with priority one student success we have three components um and within each of the components are several um criteria and indicators and we are going to start with our yearly student academic growth. So part of that academic growth absolutely is STAR. We reviewed STAR earlier this year for 232 24
011and for 2425. And when we developed the strategic plan, we only had 20 uh three 22 23 star data. Um but we've built on that throughout the year and have updated it. And um at the time for 23 60% 63% of our students uh all students all grade levels were achieving their year-over-year growth. So 63% of our students were achieving their expected growth measures. For 2024 we went to 66% and for 2425 70.4% 4% of our students, all grade levels, all subjects met their yearly growth measure for STAR. Then when we look at our littles, preK through two, we have several assessments built into that preK through two um component including preK, our CLI testing, children's learning institute, our kindergarteners have Texia, our first and second grader, kinder first and second also have TPRI. That's
012the Texas primary reading inventory. And then we also have MAP math testing. So an array of assessments and they really assess students readiness to learn reading readiness and math readiness. And those are scored in areas of developed or still developing. And so for 24 2024, 76% of our uh students for preK through two in um those areas were showing as developed. And for 2425, 79% were showing at that developed range. So they're ready to read. They're ready for math. That means counting, number recognition, word recognition, some comprehension. For goals for 2526, we're looking at 5% increase. It seems um reasonable and realistic um for our students to um grow at least 5% in both of those categories, seeing as the growth measures are have already met or exceeded those. Looking at components 1.2 and 1.3,
013student engagement and culture as well as responsible contributing me members of the community. We um start with student participation and voice and that includes our student organizations, clubs, extracurriculars, um committees and advisories. For 20 um 24 the 24 school year, we were at 60% participation in student voice and we ended the 25 school year at 66% and that includes elementary, middle, and high school. Some of those areas are student council, national and junior honor society. At elementary, we have our kindness club. We have our lighthouse leadership teams and um the attend uh the announcements club. Also in that same component is attendance. And so attendance we know is a huge priority and efforts have been made um reaching out encouraging attendance um really educating parents and students on the importance of attendance and the connection
014between attendance and achievement for the 23 24 school year. We started that baseline of 93.4% and we ended the 2425 school year at 95%. for attendance, behavior and discipline. It has uh several components and throughout the year we were looking at the best ways to measure it. As we talked uh last year and the year before when we were developing the strategic plan and really putting those measurements in place, we had to say how are we going to continue to measure this? What adjustments do we need to make as we look at those metrics along the way? So, we had set the metrics at reducing disciplinary uh incidents that resulted in outofclass placements. And so, we're going to continue to um focus on that area. We have um implemented elementary they have their PBIS um
015systems that has high expectations as well as behavior management systems that are consistent and communicated to parents. Middle school and high school also have implemented expectations, recognitions, consistent behavior management plans, communications through grade level assemblies and with parents. Um at the elementary level, we had experienced 86 student um with referrals and um for the 2425 school year and the year prior they were at 82 referrals. So a slight um drop of of just a four referrals in that area. Looking at um middle school and high school, we had in the 23 24 school year, we had started um with that baseline of about 300 students in middle school receiving a referral. And that could be anything from um excessive minor infractions, IDs, um horse play, things of that nature. And in 2425, it was at
016335 referrals. So it did not go down, but along the way, the middle school did implement some more um systematic approaches to um addressing whether it was lunch detentions, um consulting with students. So, we're really digging into that and looking at how we can best measure that um so that it actually uh so it accurately reflects behavior referrals. The high school in 2324 had 280 referrals and in students who had referrals and in 2425 it was 250 students who had referrals. So, it did drop um quite a bit. And then specifically looking at that indicator that talks about um reduction in disciplinary incidents that um result in outofclass placements for 2324 there were 98 um DAP placements and in 2425 there were 75 students who were placed in DAP. So there was a reduction in
017that. So we're going to look at what is working and what is supporting that effort as well as how we can best measure it um campus to campus um and across um the behavior and the incidents. Moving to the character development and service, this is to um promote that responsible and uh contributing members of the community and we looked at the involvement as well as those um community service projects. So over the 24-2 school years um the elementaryaries have implemented a high quality character lesson um with all students and they roll those out daily. Counselors lead those, teachers lead those and they make it part of their um weekly focus. The middle school is continuing to work on their house system and building that character within. And uh the high school also has leadership um
018sessions through their Falcon time. They talk about college and career readiness and future readiness that incorporates that character and that servicemindedness. And then we are also looking at that additional studentled service project every year adding to that whether it is a community event. They have canned food drives, food distribution events, clothing drives, the and as well as community performances for our senior care centers and at holiday events. So looking at those metrics for 2526, we are setting a goal for a 4% increase in student involvement in voice. We are setting a 2% increase for attendance, 5% reduction in those outofclass placement and adding an additional studentled service project priority two. So turning our attention to faculty and staff engagement. These components consist of recruitment and retention, professional development and engagement and culture. So, our retention
019rate in um Lake Dallas is uh above 90%. In fact, we're just above 91% in teacher retention in Lake Dallas. And that is higher than the state and the region. And they're sitting at about 87% uh retention. Mentorship providing 100% mentorship coverage for all new teachers and that is done. We had 11 brand new teachers to the profession this year and each one has a mentor assigned to them and they meet on a regular basis. They observe classrooms together. They debrief. They have coaching and feedback sessions as well as to attend professional development together. In addition, we are looking at our recruitment uh partnerships to continue to recruit um the best and we're going to continue develop and expand the partnerships to attract top talent. Um and we had um developed that partnership last year
020with Dallas College for teacher residency programs and so we were looking at adding another um extension of those programs this year. So the retention rate we always want to recruit the best and retain the best. So setting that goal at 2%. Um mentorship sustaining that 100% mentorship for new teachers. And so it may not be possible to build on 100% but we can certainly improve it and expand it. And we are surveying the new teachers and their mentors and the campus administrators on what's working, what else is needed and how can we improve that mentor program so that it does support retention. And then our residency partnerships, looking at increasing those opportunities, whether it's student teachers, teacher observations, and those true residency partnerships um that allow someone to be an employee of Lake Dallas ISD
021and have that opportunity to learn the art and skill of teaching um while they're employed. Moving to 2.2 and 2.3, professional development and engagement and culture. Um, professional development is not only for our approximately 280 teachers, it's for everyone across the district. And so, a focus was to broaden the staff involvement in professional development. And for 2425, we broaden it not only for the um diverse and array of professional development that was offered, but also who participated in professional development. Um, professionals, um, teachers, pair of professionals. We focused on areas of need that align with the district improvement plan and our strategic plan. Um we had committees on professional development give insight and input teachers committee uh teachers and campus staff alike. We had professional development that looked a little different. Sometimes it was piloting
022a program such as our new Apple devices or our math curriculum. That is very much professional development. what they brought up brought back and allowed us to learn feedback sessions and observations going into each other's classrooms and learning from one another. We met the 5% increase through expanding PD topics making relevant um professional development sessions to responsibilities such as customer service and attendance um sessions as well. And it aligned with curriculum and ongoing coaching and support throughout the year. So it wasn't a oneandone. This is your training uh and this is it. It continues throughout the entire school year. Uh we also empowered staff to lead and facilitate PD sessions. Um so they are receiving the training and then they are going and leading that on their campuses and for the district as well. Leadership
023development. Um our goal was to launch and expand leadership opportunities in Lake Dallas ISD. Again, along with teachers and other staff, we want to recruit and retain um leadership within the district. This year, um we worked really closely with our assistant principles to um develop their leadership capacity and move them towards that principal goal. And we also launched an aspiring administrator academy for participants for staff who they have enrolled possibly in a um administrative leadership program or they have their masters and they're wanting to know what those next steps would look like. And then staff input in voice. The focus was to increase participation opportunities. Um and that has happened through advisories and committees and expanding DEIC with the subcommittees now that are available. So our target areas for 2526 are 5% increase in PD
024and staffled professional development, 10% increase in leadership development. We are um preparing the applications for that aspiring administrator academy and we're looking forward to um having um several new folks show interest in that recognition adding one new opportunity to recognize um staff. Campuses are coming up with some innovative ways as well to recognize their staff and not just waiting for a big ceremony to come up. not just waiting on what that date is on the calendar, but if it may be week by week, it may be by grade level, it may be by content, but to really showcase and highlight the great things that are that are happening and recognize that those staff and then staff input and voice increasing that as well by at least 5%. Um we have done that um in several
025ways through uh expanding committee opportunities and advisory committees. Um and so we look forward to continue building that priority three turning our focus from staff um to parents and community. These prior uh the components within this priority are the parent and community communication and engagement. And so looking at social media um participation and engagement. This is one of these that has so many layers and we're digging into it and finding how can we measure it by campus, by activity, by event. And so we're looking at doing a much um more structured approach to this. Um the goal initially was to maintain month overmonth engagement across platforms. And so campuses have set goals um with their staff and their partners to post on social media the positive things that are happening as well as the district
026um post. In addition, PTA membership, a focus was not only that our PTA uh was continuing to grow and needed to uh continue to grow, but also the number of Lake Dallas ISD staff and employees that join PTA and really support that effort. And at the end of 2024, there were 60% of staff who joined. And at 2425, there were just over 70% of Lake Dallas staff who have joined PTA. And that just helps build that up and get that um PTA supported community and advisory participation. This uh the focus of this measure was to ensure repres representation from staff, parents, community members and local businesses on decisionmaking committees and we have surveyed our committees from last year and we received um so much positive feedback about the expansion and the multiple opportunities and then
027several have asked for more. what else is there? Um we have um parents and community members who are always willing to serve and um and sharing their voice and their expertise. So the goal is to increase these opportunities by two or more um whether it's through expanding current committees or adding committees. For example, this year we've already added our school library advisory committee and so we're well on our way to um adding that priority four. uh moving to efficient operations. These components um include ensuring strong financial stewardship, well-maintained facilities and safe school environments. So with these um starting with the financial stewardship, um two really big areas and components within this include our first rating and our audit. So our first rating is that financial integrity rating system of Texas and that's a statemanded accountability
028system that evaluates financial management practices within the school district and issues us a rating. And so um Lake Dallas ISD has an A rating and so the goal is to maintain that um and continue to build the efficiencies within that. And then audits um keep zero findings in the audits and so there are processes and systems um support to support that for our facilities um components and uh metrics within the facilities were identified as work order assignment and communication followup and completion timeline um and cleanliness satisfaction. So those measurements were put in place and these are daily facility requests, not an emergency issue or not a crisis situation. So when somebody puts in a work order, ideally the goal is 48 hours, they are communicated back and it's followed up with and depending on if
029parts need to be ordered, if something is on back order, u any of those kinds of situation, the goal is to have that resolved before seven days. Um but I know they are continually seeking that feedback and seeing if that is most appropriate. But that is not for emergency or are uh critical items. Those are for daily in-n-out work orders. the um upbeat survey um rating for um um was 73% and so our goal is a 5% increase on um that positive feedback from staff looking at safe school environments. Those metrics are compliance, emergency procedures and practices and security partnerships. And some of those descriptions and how we are able to uh meet those metrics include completing all required annual surveys, audits, and reports for the district TEA and the Texas school safety. And then
030um also included in that are updating district emergency operation plans, conducting monthly campus standard response protocols, delivering annual staff safety certifications and drills, and maintaining ourus with Corinth and Lake Dallas PD to ensure daily security coverage. So those are measurements that we don't necessarily want to increase by 5% or 10% but it is overall 100% all of the time and maintaining that and keeping that in place and building on it. So that is just a review and an overview of some progress and next steps for our strategic plan. Are there any questions? >> Thank you Dr. Oseldon. Any questions or comments from the board? Oh ma'am, we appreciate it. >> Thank you. Our next items are the consent agenda. Consent agenda are those items that can be handled in one motion on one vote. Is
031there any questions or comments regarding the consent agenda? If not, I'll entertain a motion. >> Motion to approve by Mr. Applebee. Do I have a second? A second by Mr. Tucker. Is there any further discussion? If not, all those in favor of approval, please indicate. And that passes unanimous. Thank you. >> Just for the record, I had nothing to do with that. [Laughter] All right. Our next items are action items. The first of which is consideration approval of DAD nominations. Dr. Brown. >> Yes, sir. This is uh your opportunity. If the board wishes to nominate anyone to be on the DAD board, if you all nominate someone, then it goes on to the official um ballots and then it comes back to us later for approval or for your actual vote. So, this is just
032the nomination if anyone has any. >> All right. Is there any questions or comments from the board? Any nominations from anybody from the board? If we have no nominations, it was a little underhanded, wasn't it? Uh, we have no nominations. I guess that uh that item will die for lack of a motion. Yep. Okay. All right. We'll move on to our next action item, which is uh consideration approval of investment policies as stated in board policy. And we're going to get to hear from an Hon. Hey. >> Hello. How's it going? >> Doing going well. >> Good. Good to see you. >> Thanks. You too. Good evening, President Stacy, Dr. Brown Board. So, tonight um I'll just be presenting our investment policies. It's a requirement that the board review and approve the investment policies annually.
033So, I'm just going to touch on the kind of the high points of both CDA legal and local. Starting with CDA legal, it states that the board must adopt a written investment policy regarding the investment of its funds and the funds under its control. Again, it also states that the board must review its investment policy annually. The district shall also perform a compliance audit of controls on investments. And this is usually done in conjunction with our annual audit um that we have every year. The district must also designate an investment officer to invest the funds. I was appointed that um I think this exact month last year. So, I'm currently the investment officer. The investment officer must attend required training and I have completed the training that I'm required to have. The investment officer must
034also disclose if they have a conflict of interest and I'll kind of touch more on that a little later. The district must also follow a standard of care and investment of funds shall be governed by the following objectives in order of priority. The first priority is safety of principle and this basically means that we're regulated on what we can invest in. The second is liquidity. We must keep keep enough cash in hand um to be able to pay our bills and also to meet payroll every month. And the third is yield. So we're required to just invest in state safe yielding programs. We're also required to submit quarterly investment reports to the board. And then in CDA legal, it also also has the authorized investments under the law. And in CD8 local, you'll find the
035approved investment instruments for the district. These range from certificate of deposits, repurchase agreements, bankers acceptances, commercial paper, and investment pools. The district currently um mainly invest in investment pools. We have four main investment pools that we use, and they typically invest in government notes um which can be treasury bonds, mortgage securities, things like that. CDA local also states the investment strategies for particular funds of the district and it also documents the internal controls of the district. The there's also the requirement that I mentioned earlier that the investment officer must disclose to the board and the Texas Ethics Commission any personal business relationship with with a business offering to engage in an investment transaction with the district or a personal relationship with an individual seeking to sell an investment to the district. I've written a letter
036to the board and Dr. Brown stating that I have neither of those. Um any questions over the investment policies? Thank you, Ann. Is there any questions or comments from the board? >> No, ma'am. Thank you. If there's no questions or comments, I'll entertain a motion. Make a motion we approve. Motion to approve by Mr. Barrett. Do I have a second? Second by Mr. Bartley. Before we vote, is there any further questions? Nope. If not, all those in No. Okay. Stop it. All right. There's no You did. >> Oh, okay. >> All right. All right. There's no further questions. All those in favor of approval, please indicate. I'm sorry. And that that also passes very unanimously. Just celebrating Mr. Tucker's uh retirement. So, all right. Our last item is our uh upcoming meetings and events. Dr.
037Brown. >> Yes, sir. You have two pages of amazing opportunities to engage with the school district. Um, next week is homecoming week. So, I'll let you review all those dates, but I did want to point out that October 7th, uh, we kick off Falcon Insider. And so, uh, we hope you guys are available to come by and meet our new people. >> All right. Does anybody have any questions or comments? All right. If not, It is 7:28 and we are adjourned. Thank you.