001The board of trustees of the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District is called to order at 5:32 p.m. This is a special called meeting being held on May 5th, 2025. We have a quorum with six members present. Uh Trusty Yubenac is absent. The first item on our agenda today is recognitions and awards and today we would like to recognize uh Trustee Bronzelle. Um this will be her last board meeting with us. Um and I prepared a statement I want to read to you then wanted to go ahead and pass it over to you if you would like to say anything. So, um, tonight we want to express our deepest gratitude to Trustee Mandy Bronzelle. Um, as she completes her eighth and final year of service on the Lamar CIC Board of Trustees, her term may be
002ending, but the mark she leaves on this district will last for years to come. Trustee Bronzelle has been more than a board member. She's been a servant leader, a thoughtful advocate, and a steady presence during times of change and growth. As a trustee, secretary, vice president, and president of the board, she's helped guide us through critical decisions with wisdom, grace, and clarity. Always grounded in what is best for students. But her legacy stretches beyond titles and responsibilities. She's been a voice of balance and a listener and a builder of trust here in Fort Ben County for decades. Her quiet strength and ability to lead without meeting the spotlight has earned her the respect of colleagues, educators, and families across this county. And behind every great leader is a is a support system. So to Chris,
003Ty, Cody, and Hannah, thank you for walking this journey with her. Her your sacrifices and support have allowed her to give fully to this work. And we know that the time she spent here was time borrowed from you. Trusty Bronzel's service has been marked by compassion, courage, and unwavering belief in potential of every student. She leaves the district better than she found it. So on behalf of this board, our Lamar CIT team, and the entire community, thank you. Um, this chapter of service may be closing, but the story you've helped write continues. So, thank you so much. Zach Lambert, you're not gonna let me make me cry. I told you I was gonna Yeah, you're not gonna make me cry. Thank you. I just have something short to say. Um, I just want to thank
004my fellow board members, past and present. I want to thank Dr. Nven and former superintendent Dr. Randall. I want to thank our fine educators and all of our staff members. I want to thank everyone who helped me educate three amazing children that are successful and talented young men and women who are thriving because of the foundation they received in this district. I can never fully repay that debt for what so many of you did for my own kids. But I hope that my years of service here go towards providing that same care and love towards other families and students who deserve and enjoy the same high standards of success. It has been um a great opportunity, great joy. Um thank you so much. Any other trustees would like to wish or say anything? I'll just
005uh I always whenever I first started running for this board in 2019, I used to I'm a life mo I've spent most of my life in Fort County and when I would talk about running or anything in and one of the political parties I'm affiliated with, everybody I knew knew Mandy Broncell and it seemed like every connected leader um and and she and I actually went to high school together and so but we weren't that close then. and but getting reacquainted with her over the last six years is has been fun and we haven't always agreed. We've had some good times and some good laughs. So, I enjoyed our time. Well, I was introduced to Mandy right about the time I was going to run the first time and I think there was a problem
006with your where you were living but I after you moved I ran into you. I don't know if you remember at Hobby Lobby. And I said, "Do you want to come on?" And she says, "Yeah, I think I am." I said, "Come on." And uh it's been for the m the last well eight years, we have seen a lot. We've done a lot and we've had to make a lot of hard decisions. But it's been a joy and a pleasure and an honor to work alongside you on this board. And thank you for your service. And I know you're gonna continue because we're not going anywhere, are we, Mandy? Yes. Mandy, it has been an honor. Um, I know we only served two years together, but especially my first year and then you presiding over
007last year, which was such a big year with so much responsibility in the resoning. I just really appreciate you and like Kay said, I know you'll be back. You'll be around. So, yes. Thank you. I was going to say the same thing. We've only served two years together, but thank you. And my kids have been in the district for longer than that. So, thank you for everything you've done. We appreciate you. And so, to ensure Well, we'll present you with this and then we'll allow Dr. Nven to speak. So, to ensure that you will stay around and you're not going anywhere, um the district has prepared a gift for you that wasn't quite ready yet, but we'll like to present with you a lifetime ambassador badge. So, um, all the events and all the things
008and all the theater and choir and sports and state championships we will win. Um, you have a lifetime ambassador pass. So, this is yours. And so, Dr. Nonsens, well, Mrs. Bronzale, thank you. Uh, I won't I won't I won't cuz I'll cry quicker than you. Uh but you know I I appreciate you seeing something in me to uh uh to vote for me to become superintendent here. Uh and that means a lot. And over the years uh the way we operate is uh we become more than colleagues. You know we actually have a a genuine care for each other personally and um I appreciate you for that and I appreciate you for checking on and asking about my kids and checking on me as a person. Um and you'll be missed and I appreciate you.
009Thank you again, uh, Trusty Bronzel. Um, we will now begin why we're here. So, at this time, we're going to take action on the action items. So, Dr. Nons. Yes, sir. We have um our strategic plan uh presentation. Uh Miss Co Hamilton is here ready to present that if the board would like to rehear that or if the board just want to take an action, you can do that either way. So uh I'll I'll work at your discretion and how you want to lead that. If you would like if you would like to hear the presentation again, we can do that. If you just want to make a motion, you can do that. So let us know how you'd like to proceed. Trustees, do we like to have the motion or hear the presentation? Yeah,
010let's hear the presentation. Let's go. Yeah, for the committee's sake, let's just speak through this real quick. Thank you. Yes, sir. Okay. Good evening. All right. So, board of trustes last month, um, you all heard from representatives of the strategic planning committee where they presented a draft of the strategic plan. They also provided you an overview of the process. And so, tonight I'm going to share the draft components of the plan that will include the values, vision, mission, and priorities. So, the committee was responsible for developing the values. And in no particular order, the values they present for consideration are accountability, big thinking, compassion, excellence, integrity, and joy. Now, the vision statement, trustees, you all created the vision statement, and so the draft vision for consideration. We are a valuesdriven community where innovation thrives, excellence
011is the standard, and every student has access to an elite education. Trustees, you also created the mission and the draft mission for consideration as we equipped every student with the knowledge and skills to pursue meaningful opportunities boldly shaping futures filled with purpose, possibility, and impact. And then lastly, trustees, the committee did create the priorities. There are five priorities. Priority number one, enhanced student learning experiences. Lamarcisd students achieve academic excellence and skills for life through innovative instruction and student- centered experiences. Priority two, safe learning and working environment. Lamarcsd ensures safety and belonging for students and staff by addressing physical, emotional, and mental well-being. Priority three, staff quality and support. Lamarcsd attracts and retains the best staff through competitive compensation, comprehensive professional development, and supportive work environments. Priority number four, home and community partnerships. Lamarcisd cultivates lasting
012partnerships with families and the community to support well-rounded student development and success. And priority five, organizational effectiveness. Lamarcis drives continuous improvement through servant leadership, effective communication, and accountability at all levels. Trustees, those are the components of the draft strategic plan before you for consideration this evening. On priority two, we're talking about safe learning and working environment. Can we maybe condense the end of that sentence to like addressing physical and overall well-being like the whole person which would include um Lamar CS ensures safety and belonging for students and staff. So take out mental well-being and emotional and mental well-being and do overall yeah addressing overall well-being which describes the whole person. Um yeah what does everybody think? Can you expand on why or what your thoughts are on that? Yeah, I think it's inclusive of all
013of that and maybe more. It's a personal preference, I guess. Yeah. So, Lamarc ensures safety and belonging for students and staff by addressing phys what would you like it to say? Physical and overall well-being. Yeah. trustees. I mean, this is a draft form and I I obviously respect the work that the committee did um to craft these statements, but I think we as trustees have, you know, the same responsibility to make sure that the words are concise and aligned with what our goals are. Um, so I'm okay with that. I mean that encompasses a safe environment, safe learning environment. I think that probably they put it in there because we've been the last few years especially tried to highlight and work towards because we have seen so much more of our children having more issues
014and that we're having to address in the classroom and in the schools. And I think it's just spelling it out more concisely for people to understand where we're going with that. I think that's my why I think they put those words in there. Um they are powerful words. Having attended uh most of the strategic planning committees meetings, I I was a fly on the wall. I wasn't participating uh very much at all. Uh there was an emphasis on uh word choice specifically um by Mrs. Cole Hamilton. Um, and and you gave a very poignant example when you talked about uh you gave an example of Thomas Jefferson, one of the words he was going to use from the Declaration of Independence and he chose one word over another and it made just a and I
015remember you presenting that like the second to last meeting when they were really wrestling with this with with this. Um, I'm okay with the way it is because of the committee's work and because it's been presented to us already and because um I I think I think it kind of captures what we had previously agreed to. I'm a little hesitant at the last moment to make a a change of of one sentence for a document that's going to last at a minimum for five years. So that those are my thoughts on it. Can we hear one? Yes. Can you expand on priority two please and what some of the thoughts were for the committee and through that process on I think the so one one thing that the committee did talk about as they were
016developing and and workshopping the language for all the priorities was to be concise but to be very clear about what the intention was and so there was conversation about condensing it more but being clear about here are the things that we are standing on and spelling out. So, I do think it was intentional when the committee did spell out physical, emotional, and mental well-being. I think Miss Danziger, you brought up a point that there was some um intentional uh steps in previous years to really flesh out what mental support looks like for our students and some of the partnerships we engaged in. And I believe the community still want to hold true to true to some of those initiatives. Okay. I'll just say that it's probably not how I would word it, but I agree
017with John that we should at the end of the day just honor what the community have said already because it is a last minute change. So, okay, any other questions? Any more discussion from the table? All right, trustees, we can now take action on it. Um, may I have a motion for the board of trustees to approve the Lamar CIC strategic plan as presented? I'd like to make that motion. Secretary Welch makes the motion. Do we have a second? Trusty Danziger makes a second. Now, is there any other additional discussion? Uh I'm just going to use this opportunity for those who might be watching this video in the future uh going back to this point because this document is going to live uh for at least 5 years or until next strategic plan is presented
018that that many of us on the board have been very involved in this process and I I really uh feel a little bit of ownership with this even though I didn't come up with the verbiage and and everything but I think it's a good plan going forward and I think it really sets us up for success. uess and I'm very thankful to uh all the folks who participated from the administration to JG Consulting to all the different community members and all the different meetings we've had just to get this verbiage on a on a piece of paper or on a screen. So, uh thank you very much everybody and to echo what um Secretary Welch just said that this plan is something how we're going to live and go forward within our district. So from
019all of our assessments and um from goals from board of trustees down to campus goals will be vertically aligned to to the strategic plan. So um our committee members made up of um community staff um business leaders all that um they worked tirelessly and had some great discussions in this around this. So uh thank you to everyone that was part of the process. Any other discussions? All right, we will now call for the vote. All in favor say I. I. None opposed. The motion carries. All right. Now, Dr. Neans will move on to 6B, which is a consider of approval of staff salaries and teacher hiring schedule for the 2025 2026 school year and other budgetary items. Yes. So trustees this this information has you know it's ever changing as we continue to get updated
020information from the state. So Miss Lugw will our CFO will go through this presentation for you. Thank you. Uh good evening board of trustees Dr. Neans. This evening I will cover uh some additional information on the 202526 budget and in advance of um presenting a recommendation for staff salaries for next year. So as I said um we will go through revenue and expenditure estimates and then also salary increases mainly. Uh the first few slides are a review of some information we provided last month uh on some options and all of these options are actually included in our expenditure budget at this time. The first option is uh regarding instructional aid pay. If you'll recall this table, uh going from left to right, you'll see the paygrade table, the paygrades, the paygrade levels for this particular
021paygrade table. And then the second column is the number of employees that are currently in those roles right now. The third column are the adjustments that we would need to make uh to come into alignment with our comparison districts. Uh the next column is the 3% of midpoint raise estimate for each of those pay grades once we did get to the comparison levels. Uh and then the estimated total annual increase per employee if we implemented both of those adjustments and then the estimated total budget impact. So uh taking example paygrade one there's 196 employees there and to align all of paygrade one with our comparison districts it would cost $55352 uh three $55352 uh in order to get there and then uh a 3% of midpoint pay increase per year would be 83.56. Uh, so
022that total is $1,3578 per year. And if you multiply that by the $196 employees on that paygrade, you're at about $266,000. So once you add all four paygrades together, that total budget impact is 1.445 million. That being said, the $1.445 445 million is in the third column from the left here again. Um and then with the raise uh the 3% raise that's already included in the budget, this proposal would cost an additional $98,000 roughly. So that's that's if we align this particular pay grade with our comparison districts. So, Miss L look, let's stop let's stop at each option to allow for questions. Okay. Um, so in the where it says 3% pay increase, didn't on the previous slide, was didn't you already do that? You brought them up to comparison district and then added the
0233 point. Yes. Um, so I went back to the previous slide. Um so to align our paygrade tables with the comparison districts, we would need to do uh the column with that's entitled adjustments needed to align with midpoint of comparison districts. Then once we were at that midpoint, if we applied a 3% pay increase, it would cost the additional $83. Um and then the com the combined total of those two columns is $1357. and then multiplied by the 96 employees gives you the 266. So the total cost of that increase all the raises and the adjustments would be the 1.4 million. Mhm. And then I think where the confusion may come in is that uh the 536,621 roughly is already in our budget and that's a 3% of midpoint at our current um the way
024we currently do uh raise adjustments. So that was already in the numbers prior to this proposal. Okay. So the additional cost is 98,000. Okay. When you say comparison districts, the ones within our reach or within within our area within our area, not um looking at school districts of our size, uh just in our geographic area. Okay. M which they're comparable in size too, you know, and growth. We are now. Yeah. Mwick. uh folks who might be employed in the district looking at this chart uh offhand I'm not asking you to go look look it up right now who are the folks in the pay grade one two three and four do you have that breakdown in your head uh we do I think Ivonne might be able to get to it quicker than I can
025um many of these are going to be classroom aids so pay grade one would include aids for bilingual ESL compensatory innovative school day, physical education, prek, project learn. Paygrade two would be computer lab aid, credit restoration, keyboarding, uh special ed resource and inclusion. Paygrade three would include aid for ALC special sites compliance uh academic program, early childhood inschool suspension reset program, SCSC transition program, structured learning classroom. Then pay grade four would be a uh the braille powerpoint sped intervenor and registered behavior technician. Can you can you go back just one slide? There you go. Okay. Thank you. Ready. Okay, the second option or um allowance that we looked at was specifically in the area of special education. And here we looked at training and observation in order to build skills for the substitutes that are
026serving self-contained classrooms. So in this example, we were going to provide 10 paid days of intensive training and then five paid days of observation. The goal was to have a 100 self-contained classroom substitutes and the budget impact is 187,500. Um 125,000 of that would actually be paid for within the current 202425 budget. Uh and we would have paid training days at $125 per day. uh 10 days and um with a hundred subs that would be a cost of 125,000. Then the observation days would occur in the next fiscal year and that would be $125 a day also and so that cost would be 62,500. The next area we were looking at was uh to increase the self-contained substitute rate and the cost of that would be $220,500. It would be $35 a day for the
02712 leave days that they're allowed. We estimate that there would be about $525 teachers and/or aids there. Uh, and you'll see our current rate in the table is $90 for non-degreed, $105 for degreed, and $120 for certified. Um, and we would increase each of those by $35. So, you'll see the new rates in the middle column, 125, 140, and 155. Then the next uh proposal is to add wellness days uh in the self-contained setting. we would pro provide two more days. They're getting one day right now. I mean, two days right now. So, they'd end up with four days, four wellness days. The estimated cost of that is $147,000. So, um, back to this table, if you look at the degreed rate, the new rate of $140 we would use to compute this 140 times
0282 days and the 525 employees gets to the 147,000. And so if there were any questions, um, I can answer those. Then the next few things, uh, we have a few more items on our to-do list with the budget committee. We'll be looking at the rates of pay for regular subs. And then, uh, we'll look at an analysis similar, uh, to the comparison districts that we looked at before, and we'll present that to the board budget committee. And then we'll also consider options for revenue generation um mainly facility rentals and how we can tweak that process and we'll also provide that to the budget committee. Just one second, Miss Lo, did anybody have any questions on option two when we talked about the um substitutes and the wellness days? Um a couple things. I just
029real quick, do our teachers or our employees take advantage of the wellness days? Okay. All right. Well, let me tell you, there were because we know there's people that don't want to be out of their classroom. I was one of them. All right. Um, and I guess this will be for later, but have we been, and I know you're probably not going to do that slide today, have you been able to start tweaking down and finding more money for the budget so that we won't it'll get better as the summer goes on? Yes, we do have uh some conservative estimates on the revenue side and we're still working through the property value estimates in the in that model. Uh we are also looking at the expenditure side because we feel like there's some areas that
030we can still um analyze more closely and find some savings. Um in addition looking at the 10-month period versus the 12 month period, we might be able to find some, you know, some savings there as well. Okay. Just see and then also you mentioned um maybe changing how we do rentals. Yes. the is that something that would come to the policy committee meeting because remember we did kind of vaguely talk about that about making those changes would it it's I mean if the board wants to do that you can that's the board's will. Yeah. I mean I'd like to see what they come up with before it's sure fully implemented for sure because it would be a change in policy wouldn't it? Uh not all the way but if the board wants to you can
031I mean we can bring that to the board and then whatever y'all decide to do what you can do. I'd just like to maybe see it in the next That's not a problem. That's not a problem. Okay. So, here are the updated budget estimates since last month. Uh there were really no changes in the revenue estimate at this time. So, we have estimated 56.9 million on the revenue side and then uh we're at 510.2 million on the expenditure side. So, where we were at 5 million deficit last time, we're at three million this time. So, we're getting there. Cranking it down. Yeah. I just still want to say publicly, we're still at a $3.3 million deficit. I just want to make sure everybody hears that we're still we're working on it, but we are still
032at a $3.3 million deficit. And we've been saying for years the deficit is coming our way, right? It hadn't hit us yet, but it's here. So, we have to work through that. Okay. So, the our goal tonight is to recommend uh salary increases and adjustments for this for this next 2526 budget year. As I mentioned before, these adjustments that I went through are all included in the budget uh that we're re we will be recommending. And then we are also looking at a starting teacher salary for next year of 65,700. Uh existing uh teachers will receive a flat $2,000 raise on the table. And I'll show you a side by side of the table in a moment. And then all other staff will receive a 3% of midpoint raise. And as I said, the other
033adjustments as options are in there. Miss Lick, uh earlier there was a question about who all is on the teacher pay scale. Yes. Um if you have that information, can you share that now or Miss uh Miss Dawson? Yes, she's got that list. Okay. In the meantime, I'll put that table up. So you'll see that the the middle um column shows the 2425 salaries and then the 2526 for the bachelor's area or on the far right column. And the way you look at or see the $2,000 raise is if you're at zero years experience this year, you're making $64,100 and next year you will be on step one and be at 66,100. So that's where you see the $2,000 increase when you move from one step to the next. So, everyone that's on the teacher
034salary schedule is um accelerated accelerated language program facilitator, art specialists, assistive technology specialists, athletic trainers, behavior interventionists, counselors, diagnosticians, dyslexia specialists, early childhood and family engagement specialists, family support specialists, GT facilitators, high school registars, instructional coordinators, campus and instructional coaches, instructional specialists for special ed, intervention specialists, librarians, uh, load facilitators, nurses, occupational therapists, orientation and mobility specialists, physical therapists, pre-K compliance facilitators, project learn specialists, ROC instructors, sheltered instruction, professional development specialists, speech therapists, testing coordinators, and transition specialists. And this site can be found on the website under 2425 compensation plan. With that, we're answer questions because I just want to make sure we're very clear. Go back to the the salary slide. And so I just want to make sure we're clear on that. So if I have if I'm a first year teacher, I
035have zero zero years experience. This this year I'm making 641. Put my glasses on. And then next year I'll be on step one. And so next year on step one I'll be making 661. Is that right? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Trustees. Is there any questions or discussions beyond that? Um and in previous board meetings we've talked about the TIA which is a teacher incentive aotment that this next year is going to be our investigative year. Um that be clear that that's not in process not in step yet. This is not there. Correct. And and and these numbers are with current law. And so if the if the legislature does something different at the end of this session then those numbers will reflect later. But right now what you're seeing now are under the current law
036and the current uh state statutes of everything we can expect to see. So the increase of basic aotment could result in an increase in those numbers given that's what if there's a percentage or anything the state legislators say that needs to be applied to. So yes that is not reflected based off of rumor yet. Correct. Just to be clear. Can I ask a question? Yes ma'am. So it was presented as option one and option two. Are we having to choose between an option or no? These are just the presented things that are being presented and proposed. Those are included in um our expenditure budget currently. Okay. Okay. And so what we're uh making a motion on tonight is the teacher salary and the budget committee. We still have some more meetings coming up where we're
037going to be talking about the overall budget and be voting on the overall budget, but we wanted to put out the teaching salary. Now we're just voting on that last chart. We're not voting on a Are we voting? Yes, that that's part of the saddle. Yes. Okay. But there there was a slide there was a slide. I interrupted Miss Lugwood. There was a slide about the uh apologize. What the U finance committee asked us to go to start researching more of. Is that in here, Jill? Yes. Um I interrupted you while we was talking about that. Right here. Uh no, sorry. right there. Yes. To do this. Yes, you can go go for that, please. Okay. So, we are still looking at um adjustments for the regular uh substitutes as well. And then we're looking
038at the revenue generation options. I'm sure there might be some other things as well that might come up. All right. Trustees may I have a motion for the board of trustees to approve staff salaries and the teacher hiring schedule for the 2025 2026 year and other budgetary items as necessary. Vice President Hodzel makes the motion. Do I have a second? All right. Trusty Box makes the second. Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll call for the vote. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. The motion passes. We'll now have reports and presentations on the information items which is me of we will be reporting on the board member training. Um so under state board of education role completing required continuing education year of service is a basic obligation and expectation of any sitting board
039member. As board president, I am required to announce the name of each member who has completed the required continuing education, has exceeded the requiring continuing education and is deficient in meeting the required continuing education. As board president, I am pleased to announce that the all board members have exceeded the minimum required amount of continuing education. Um required to read these out loud. So board members have hours are as follows follows, excuse me. Suzanne Box 32.5 hours. Mandy Bronzel 21 hours. Kade Danzinger 39.5 hours. Jackie Hodzel 32.25 hours. Joe Eubanak 14 hours. Zack Lambert 39 hours. John Welch 31.25 hours. Any discussion question here? All right. It is it is 609. We are adjourning to close session pursuant to Texas government code sections 551.071 551.072 551.074 and 551.082 082 the open meetings act to discuss personnel
040land acquisition or consultation with our attorney Board of trustees are returning from close session. We are now back in open session. It is 6:55 p.m. We have a quorum. Are there any motions to be made? Yes, sir. Mr. President, I move to accept and adopt the administration's recommendation for proposed action to give notice of proposed termination to employee Farra Hark Rider. We have a motion. Do we have a second? I'll second. Uh, Trusty Bronzel makes a motion. Trusty Danzinger makes a second. Uh, we now call for the vote. All in favor say I. I. None opposed. The motion carries. The meeting is adjourned at 6:56 P.M.