001the Board of Trustees of the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District is called to order at 6 30 PM this is the regularly the regular monthly board meeting being held on August 15 2023 we have a quorum with all members present please join me in a moment of silence to observe as you feel appropriate please stand and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance and the pledge to the Texas flag led by Daniel Chavez from westendorf middle school 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 honor the Texas flag I pledge allegiance to the Texas one State under God one and indivisible thank you a fun fact about Mr Chavez is that Daniel
002can solve a Rubik's Cube in under a minute and a half and worked all summer to improve his time thank you um let's see Dr Nivens are there any recognitions or Awards tonight yes ma'am a few recognitions we'll have Miss Michael Hamilton come to the microphone uh the first one this evening is Miss Addison Hedman Addison please come on up she's a 15 year old sophomore at George wins high school and she has published her very own fantasy novel called the Ruby savior Addie found her passion for creative writing only a year ago but was Fearless when it came to researching how to publish and promote a book what started as a fun hobby has become quite an accomplishment for our young scholar and recently Addie celebrated her first book signing in Sugarland town center
003and in her free time she loves to read dance and figure skate so we went to bring her to you the board this evening to present our new Young author Miss Addie Heffernan thank you information all right trustees as you take your seat I will share just some other recognitions we recently held our second annual back to school block party on Saturday July 29th the district wide event provided a chance for thousands of our Lamar CSD families and community members together as one to kick off another great school year those in attendance had a chance to engage in an educational enrichment activities meet campus and District leaders to get all of their back to school questions answered as well as enjoy outdoor activities and inflatable snow cones concessions and so much more the event was
004well attended and could not have happened without our amazing volunteers and even Partners more than 70 District departments and area Community Partners organized and participate in this year's Hands-On activities and I just want to run down a quick list of everyone who partnered with us this year for the back to school block party we're at nrgwa Parish Memorial Hermann Hospital Sugar Land Texas Parks and Wildlife Brazos Bend State Park Oak Bend Hospital Frito-Lay Pisco Education Code ninja crocodile encounter YMCA of Greater Houston unite and Inspire New York Life Franco proddy Richmond Rosenberg Helping Hands t-h-c-a-t-t Texas Children's Healthcare access through telemedicine the butterfly project child Advocates of Fort Bend family roots for Life Davies speech and hearing Access Health and the innocent Raising Cane's of Fulshear Fort Bend County Health and Human Services premier martial
005arts HGI Sugar Land Space Cowboys Wharton County junior college 360 photo booth remind Google Fort Bend Literacy Council Fort Bend libraries Children's Museum of Houston United States Army United States Army National Guard Mr Joan Bail Bonds Houston Community College bugs and bugs creation Brazos Valley Educators Credit Union Texas state Technical College Anchorman Church Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Tutoring Club of clay Katie and Missouri City just between friends and packed Texas Rosenberg fire department Rosenberg Police Department attacked poverty friends of North Richmond and Rosenberg Houston Dynamo Southwest Nazarene church and Waypoint church and a special thanks to Lamar educational Awards Foundation providing funds for the event as well everybody's funds and donations support the educational experiences as well as provided free books for our family so a round of applause thank you for everyone who
006came together to make that amazing event happen [Applause] and then in thinking about analoging those donuts we realized we never gave shout outs to the people who participated in the May 26 confrontation event that event was designed to say thank you to thousands of District employees who worked tires tirelessly to support our district our staff was treated to free food and drinks fun games massages paintings a vendor fair with over 60 local businesses and we're so grateful to our staff and hope they were able to end their year on a fantastic note before starting school yesterday and this event was made possible through the support and donations from our community and so those who partnered with us were rice and Gardner imagenet Consulting Indico Pfluger Architects Pro Computing Gallagher benefits Service Incorporated K-12 insights vlk
007Architects air systems Brazos Valley Schools Hilltop security Fort Bend County Fairgrounds bracewell LLP Wiley Consulting Engineers Estrada in a Wholesale Company Incorporated RBC Capital Market Jeffries cybert William shank and Co LLC stifle and the Post Oak Municipal advisors again thank you to everyone who partnered my district to make our event successful activities are all our announcements at this time foreign thank you see Dr Nivens are there any introductions tonight no no they're not okay uh we will now have board member reports trustees please keep your comments uh reports to one to two minutes anyone want to go first anyone okay go ahead I'll go um pretty much covered it though but uh yes our new teacher dinners the uh Stampede that was exciting to see all the new teachers and thank you to leaf for
008providing and getting that organized it's so much fun to see new teachers and staff come in and get excited about becoming part of the lcisd family and I do want to thank everyone involved with convocation it was very exciting again exciting and a lot of energy in the room and it's fun to see our schools kind of like a big old pep rally um I'm sure we'll talk a little bit more Ms bronzel about the opening of Terrell Elementary I'm still your thunder on that one because it was a it's one of those openings that brings out the elite of lcisd the people that have been here and it's fun to reminisce with them so I had kind of a really good time too and I've gotten to visit a few schools and I'm excited
009about another new school year after 34 years of teaching and over 10 years on the board I still love the first day of school on the other side but anyway that's about it go ahead um I think for me it's just I'm excited about the new school year I've spent the mornings yesterday and today I had a couple schools and just to see our teachers and staff engage with students um it it was awesome to see I got to go out to also out to Randall high school for their midnight football practice and so it was they had their first football practice of the year into that midnight and it was cool to see teachers and students just come out there and support and just build that with it being still a new program to
010build that those traditions and all that so I'm excited about the school year and I'm thankful for all of our staff they're amazing uh shout out to principal Graham he invited me to the right Junior High sixth grade parent orientation night last week and then after convocation I swung by Terrell Elementary which is housing Roberts middle school and and walked around with Mr little the new principal over there so I hadn't seen that Campus before so it was good to be good to be there um yeah the opening of Terrell Elementary was great it's a beautiful school um Mr Terrell was a friend of mine so that was very special for me to be there and witnessed that it's going to be an amazing School very exciting um uh wanted to send a special thank
011you to all of our police officers that that are not our police officer well thank you to our police officers they're amazing but all of our um neighboring police departments that are helping out we're helping on the first day of school that will continue to help out the first couple of weeks with all of our traffic control and everything that's a big help to all of our schools and of course thank you to all of our teachers and all of our staff they're doing a great job our best drivers cafeteria workers everybody takes a lot these first couple of weeks to just kind of get everything moving so thank you very much um let's see Dr Nivens do you have a superintendent report yes ma'am I do you know the Marcia's fast growing one of
012the fastest growing this is going to stay to Texas and so as of today we have roughly 2 000 more students than we did this time last year uh and so we have a lot of students in the Marshall ISD a lot of families coming a lot of property being moved um I want to give a special shout out to our transportation department uh what people don't know is that all of our students had routes on Friday and on Saturday morning there was an update to the system and 4 000 students were deleted from the system on Saturday and so then the team had to come in and and uh really hustle to get that working and so we felt to hear that yesterday and so yesterday we had about 87 buses that were over
01310 minutes late and then uh so last night got the team together and Greg was texting me at 3am telling me how the routes were getting back together and so they didn't leave last night and so today this morning we had six and so uh you know I just want to applaud that team because you know they had a plan together and you know I never quote Mike Tyson except you know he says when everybody has a plan to get punched in the mouth and you know I'm sure whoever woke up and saw 4 000 Mr students a couple of 48 hours before school I'm sure that was a good punch in the mouth and so they came and uh got it together and we still only had you know 87 late buses um yesterday
014and so today you know it was a much better day and so especially in the four tier system and so you know I really want to apply our transportation department our Child Nutrition department our custodial services our teachers and our principals because you know there's been a lot of change in our district we changed school time start times we're starting two weeks earlier and we changed our bus schedule and uh you know everybody's working hard and doing the best they can and so uh you know just continue to give us you know behind out the Kings this week and so uh but I'm very proud of the team for their efforts thank you Miss Johnson are there any public comments foreign if you wish to address the board you must fill out a card and
015submit it before the presiding officer calls the meeting to order while speakers generally have five minutes to address the board the presiding officer May establish an overall time limit for public comment and adjust the time allotted to each speaker when necessary to accommodate a large number of speakers however no speakers shall be given less than one minute all of this is in compliance with HB 2840 each speaker tonight will have five minutes while the board values hearing from members of the public trustees may not respond to comments as they are prohibited by law from discussing or deciding any subject that is not on the boards publicly noticed agenda speakers having complaints against individual District employees or trustees may only address the board after filing a complaint form and in the manner provided for in board
016policy dgba employee complaints FNG student and parent complaints and GF public complaints the presiding officer or designee shall determine whether a speaker has filed a complaint according to policy any speakers who complain of individual District employees or trustees during public comment will be directed by the presiding officer to stop addressing the board and we'll refer the speaker to the appropriate complaint policy please state your name when you come forward our first speaker is Theo Ferreira good evening um my name is Theo Ferreira and I apologize I'm going to be running a little bit late or I'm gonna have to probably cancel all my questions or comments because I didn't have a chance to do a run through on my dry run on my speech I realize you can't answer my questions um as just Illustrated
017um so I'll take this time to inform you of some things all right um I'm from West Africa I grew up in a third world country in a public school system as well and my mom was a teacher and my grandfather was a teacher and so I have a real deep appreciation for what Educators do and I appreciate that your day doesn't end and your teacher's days don't end when school lets out and I know your job doesn't end when holidays come around so I want to first start by saying I really appreciate everything you guys do for our schools and our kids and we really appreciate it that being said I also want to touch on some things that have made me really frustrated as a Lamar parent yesterday I think um Dr novins
018you mentioned that there were 68 buses later than you know 68 7 buses later than a certain amount of time and today they were apparently six I want you to check the data because two of my kids at buses that were more than 25 minutes late today and so I don't believe that I'm two of the six buses for two different children I do have three children um in three different schools and four different people already mentioned Terrell opening um so my son is in Roberts um and so I really am concerned that I don't think the transportation department was aware that Roberts is moving to a new facility because if there were then smart tag wouldn't illustrate a time schedule that would say that my son would get picked up by a certain time
019and dropped off by a certain time when in reality there was no possible way for that mathematically to happen so yesterday the bus stopped at the Bus location 45 minutes late to pick up my son but by then I'd already taken him to school all right but the problem was I also have a daughter that goes to Layman so they were sharing a bus because they were supposed to be on the same bus so I couldn't go to both schools from all the traffic so I had a friend take her they both ended up being about 45 minutes late for school there were no emails no texts no notifications sent on any of the systems to any of the parents that there was a specific problem happening for a specific bus route either in general
020or specifically for the extent to which you can communicate with us directly with the apps and the software as a service systems that you've employed I find it strange that text couldn't be sent out and I had to ask a bus driver what is going on it was strange to me that the bus driver would respond and say something that is completely different to what smart tag schedules is which is very simply no no I'm going to the high school and into layman and then drop all those kids off and then we're coming back for the sixth graders that is probably not what was said in smart tag so when I looked at smart tag and I saw that my son and my daughter were getting on the same bus and then getting dropped off
021five minutes later at Layman and then five minutes later at Roberts it was clear to me that either a the transportation system still thinks Roberts is where it used to be or B we figured out teleportation I don't think the latter is possible so excuse me for my levity there but today it was not much better however yesterday my seven-year-old was dropped off 0.8 miles away from her usual place where she would be dropped off so this is another problem last year the keys were dropped off 0.2 miles from their house from their mom's house at least this year they're being dropped off 0.8 miles away from their mom's house so their drop completely changed now there's no reason for this because the initial drop-off Point still exists so by speaking eventually to the drive
022dashboard we got that position changed but it shouldn't take our effort to do that right because if you have the data and you have all the information then I don't sure what is going on that kids who were dropped off at a certain place a year later would be for two months later would be dropped off this much further and I think anyone can agree that dropping off a seven-year-old at six foot expecting a seven year old you picked up at 6 45 in the morning 48 miles away from her house is not relevant it's not acceptable I know my time's gonna expire so I want to I want to just close off by saying that we can't accept the the the reasoning that it's just a first week or first day of school situation
023there were some serious failures when the transportation department um yesterday and I do not think that most of those issues are as a result of just First Take Jitters because on the 23rd of May everything was fine thank you thank you sir our next week our next speaker is Daniel Chavez good evening my name is Daniel Chavez my wife says that Chavez and I are proud blue track parents we are honored and excited to be here today to Advocate and sustain the momentum on an important safety issue that we have been spearheading since April 2023 we have humbly and proactively submitted a brief proposal in hopes we work together to continue to build trust within our school communities Dr Nivens the next critical step in our effort is to obtain input to three critical clarifications
024submitted on August 4th to you regarding the zero tolerance policy safety video from May 2023 along with Sheriff Fagan and how it relates to critical parent Communications The Proposal provides guidelines in hopes that a spirit of transparency and consistency is upheld across all lcisd campuses for all weapon related matters joking are real that occur within the district we would like to respectfully extend an invitation to any members of the board parents and Guardians who are interested in becoming part of the solution to provide input to it and clarifications that we have put forth or to Simply obtain more information about our proposal to please reach out to us directly lastly I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate to you and your team that discretion should not be applied for any safety matters or
025safety Communications where children are involved with respect to safety Communications subjectiveness cannot and should not exist when a student makes any type of statement that involves the mention of weapons or guns on lcisd campuses this is what zero tolerance means to lcisd parents thank you for your time we hope to hear your input on our clarifications and proposals very soon thank you our next speaker is Bob Simmons foreign Bob Simmons um I've got two kids in the district um and we have I think this is our third year we've enjoyed it so far um but just wanted to take the time to communicate my concerns regarding uh the NDA that was sent to the teachers late last week it seems that teachers and the Board of Trustees might have been caught off guard by this
026request am I concern related to the NDA is why does the administration feel it is needed when there are already policies and regulations written in law to protect private information requesting teachers to sign an NDA without explanation and per the tcta in contradiction to their employee employment contract only breaks down the relationship and trust between teachers and the administration there are a lot of amazing teachers in this district and this move has only damaged the ability to retain and recruit recruit the best of the best which is what we all want and need for our kids the perception of the NDA request for me is what is the administration Administration attempting to hire maybe I am jumping to conclusions but in this environment many school districts across the country are pushing and teaching a very
027divisive ideology and attempting to hide this from parents the fact the NDA was not communicated to the Board of Trustees for their review only solidifies my perception uh is this somehow related to District of innovation which was pushed quietly through the quietly through at the end of the last school year it is my understanding DOI process was started with the request by Dr Nivens it's also my understanding that DOI potentially allows for the administration to put in place local policies that deviate from t and potentially change the curriculum can this be done without board approval to build and maintain trust my hope is that any change that can be driven by the DUI or by the administration is made transparent and reviewed by the board and that this NDA was not an attempt to circumvent
028that process by the administration to keep teachers from discussing certain changes to policy or curriculum with parents that is currently allowable without the NDA it is also disappointing that an NDA discussion was not added to tonight's agenda so that it could be debated publicly the board must conduct a thorough investigation into the motive behind the NDA and what it was and make those results and those findings available to the teachers and the parents thank you thank you at this time we will open the public hearing to discuss the budget and propose tax rate for the 2023-2024 school year at 6 55 pm we will first have a presentation good evening Board of Trustees Dr Nivens and members of the public tonight I will discuss and open the public hearing on our proposed budget for 2023-24
029and also our proposed tax rate first of all I will cover three budgets that require official adoption by the Board of Trustees the general fund The Debt Service fund and the Child Nutrition fund Lamar CISD adopts the budget at the functional category level which has to do with the Tea's uniform system of account code account coding each function level describes which which piece or Department within the organization benefits by the expenditures so that's uh and then also any Amendment any amendments that are made during the year that cross those functional categories all also have to be approved by the Board of Trustees with respect to the general fund we are proposing a revenue budget of 446.9 million dollars uh that includes three sources of revenue some from local sources State sources and also Federal sources
03043 percent of that Revenue budget will come from local sources with uh the primary source being property taxes that consists of a current year Levy as well as delinquent taxes that are brought forward from a prior year so our total tax revenue budget is 186.7 million dollars and then 900 000 also is budgeted for penalties and interest and other tax revenues um with in the area of State program revenues that makes up about 56 percent of the budget or a total of 251.8 million dollars with most of that coming from the state funding program and the foundation school program there are some prorations within that state program budget for instance there's about 8.1 million of proration of the fast growth allotment uh the expected State per capita or per student revenue is right at 16
031million dollars with the rest right at 214 million dollars being from all of the various funding sources and allotments within the state revenue about 3.4 million dollars comes from uh Federal sources that are reported within the general fund the bulk of that being from shars which is a source of Medicaid service funds so with that that's our budget of 446.9 million dollars in Revenue within our our budgeting process we're required to talk about property values with the board and the public our net certified taxable values for this year are 25.065 billion dollars the taxable value we use for budgeting is 24.982 billion and that allows for some properties that are still being protested by taxpayers our estimated values are up about 9.06 percent over the 22 year values and that's also after allowing for the
032increase in the homestead exemption if you'll recall the legislature has approved but it will still have to go to the voters that the homestead exemption will be a hundred thousand dollars this year up from forty thousand if it's approved by voters if we had stayed at a 40 000 homestead exemption values would actually be up almost 18 and a half percent in comparison to Prior years last year our our property values increased about 24 about 10 percent the year before and about nine percent the year before that with respect to property tax revenues and the legislative changes and tax rate compression property tax relief can be provided to taxpayers just by decreasing the m o tax rate in relation to property value growth that is done through the compressed tax rate the maximum compressed tax
033rate is the starting point for our m o rate and after those calculations are done and have been approved by the state our MCR is 0.6192 cents and then we add five cents of enrichment for our tier two funding sources and so as I said those two items combined uh give us a mno tax rate of 0.6692 as proposed for 23-24 with that rate current year taxes are estimated at a little over 185 million dollars and then adding 1.6 million in Delinquent Tax collections we're at 186.735 million dollars in tax revenue moving on to the expenditure side our estimated budget for the 23-24 school year is 438.074 million dollars with the bulk of that being from payroll costs and benefits that total being 369.742 million dollars the next Heist category under that would be our
034professional and contracted services including utilities and and things of that nature totaling 37.51 million dollars comparing the two the revenue budget of 446.9 million to the expenditure budget of 438.1 million roughly leaves and excess revenue of almost nine nine million dollars those funds if the budgeted amounts are realized as expected we will have funds that we can deposit into fund balance but we will we're developing the plan to earmark some of that to pay for costs for opening new schools which we will be opening several each year in the next foreseeable future moving on to the Compensation Plan the compensation plan for the district includes all budgets and pay categories that are authorized by the board and rates of pay for supplemental duties and also part-time employees the pay schedules are that are included in
035the plan include teacher hiring schedule pay grade tables there are several of those the administrative professional clerical paraprofessional Technical and manual trades uh we also have a listing of all the stipends that are offered the pay hourly rates for athletic events concessions Fine Arts events and then also the rates paid for Subs administrators and paraprofessionals as well as part-time employees for this next year the beginning teacher salary will be 62 500 and our proposed budget also includes raises for all returning staff being a flat raise of one thousand nine fifty for all those employees paid according to the teacher hiring schedule and then also three percent of midpoint raise for all other staff moving on to The Debt Service fund this is the fund that we account for monies that are used to pay for
036principal and interest on bonds we are starting with the revenue side of the budget at our tax rate of 48 cents and a collection rate of 99 we're looking at property taxes of right at 133 million dollars that will be dedicated for Debt Service only we have a budget there for penalties interest and delinquent taxes of five hundred fifty thousand we will be using interest earnings on capital projects funds capitalized interest and other sources of revenue of right at seven million dollars and then we will receive statehold harmless funding for debt which mainly has to do with the change in the homestead exemption of a little bit more than 15 million dollars so that would give us a total revenue budget of about 155.5 million dollars which is the same as our total debt service
037expenditures for Bond principal interest and other Bond related fees the principle that we will be paying this year will be a little over 34 million dollars and then the interest is a little bit over 121 million dollars so that is a balanced budget our tax rate this year for INS is right at 39 cents and we're looking to go up to 48 cents so we're proposing a 48 Cent rate and it's recommended recommended for several reasons that we do that we need to accommodate the significant in increase in principle and interest that will be due this next year because we did sell two um two we did sell two installments of bonds this year the series 23 and 23A bonds we would also be able to achieve some certainty with the new legislation and the
038increase in the homestead exemption we can save our capitalized interest which is additional funds that are generated through Bond sale transactions we can save those funds to use in future years and also we have a potential to maximize savings to taxpayers by using some of these funds to pay down a significant amount of our currently outstanding debt also we have an opportunity beginning in February of 2024 to do that moving on to the tax rate we have for the 22-23 year a we had a tax rate of a dollar 24 to we are proposing a rate of 1.1492 for the 23-24 year which is a decrease of between nine and ten cents in total with maintenance and operations rate being 0.6692 and the interest in Sinking rate being 48 cents the Child Nutrition fund is
039a balanced self-supporting budget the estimated budget for next year is 26.06 million dollars the funds are generated from breakfast and lunch sales and also Federal reimbursements and the expenditures are your your typical ones with the largest being for salaries and benefits food costs and other supplies the breakdown of that budget is what you see here with 12.3 million dollars for payroll and benefits and 13.2 being for the supplies and materials I mentioned and with that I can answer any questions um so when you when you talked about keeping those the funds I can't remember what the fun what you call them but the funds to possibly be used for opening new schools so when we do bonds is that not included in the bond like the costs for opening new schools some of some of
040those costs are but most of most of the funds are for construction costs so we don't include that I mean we wouldn't build that into the bond we do we do build a large portion of the cost to open the buildings but we do we but we pay for salaries and benefits which is a large cost out of the general fund we're not able to use bond funds for those types of costs Ms Ludwig uh I I talked about this today um taking our enrollment numbers and I posted it on my Facebook page and I had someone say uh with all the growth and our schools are capped why are y'all lowering the tax rate and I I figured I gave an answer but you're more articulate in this area than I am so could
041you briefly talk about what the legislature did and why we're lowering the m o rate and and how we came up with the 0.66 cents right um the there's a there's a formula that the state uses and um there's a set growth percentage for the state that the um the state of Texas estimates that all the properties within the state are going to grow by and if a District's property value growth rate is higher than that then their m o rate is decreased uh percentage-wise by that excess growth um we are actually at the floor of the MCR calculation at the 0.6192 and then we add um some tier two which is enrichment funds pennies five cents of those to get the to the 0.6692 um changing subjects a little bit can you uh do
042you have the number off the top of your head or even a rough estimate of what are our total Bond debt is as of this moment have it in front of me but one of my staff might be able to pull it right quick yes you're right it is on there and there's a there's also a footnote on there that will the details out how much will be added uh on the sale that's closing on Thursday on August the 17th so am I seeing this right it's 5.3 billion is that right No it should be too that 2.834 the 5 billion you're looking at includes the interest uh through uh the maturity of all the bonds so that the 2.8 is is the actual number okay 2.8 so it's 2.8 but we're likely going to
043pay this out over a series of decades yes so it's probably going to be closer to 5 billion as we're sitting here right now that's an accurate statement is that right yes but um periodically we have opportunities to refund or refinance bonds early and we take advantage of those opportunities um and we actually have an opportunity to do that this next spring as well thank you any other questions please sir let me just extend the clarification um just for common common language let's talk about uh Miss boxer's question about open School versus open facilities and so the bond money will allow us to open the facility like the actual building itself and so Bond monies can only be used for the infrastructure building the building we're talking about opening School we're talking about opening school
044with staff principals you know teachers and all those things and so that's why that money that has to come from our tax rate and from our local funds and so that's why we're asking you we're going to put the plan together and we're going to ask the trustees to approve a plan for us to set aside that money because we have to be able to staff those buildings so the Bond's going to be able to have us build a building um and so years ago I talked about last Bond I think in 2017 you know there's a school district in north Texas that had about four brand new buildings open but they couldn't staff them and so they had brand new buildings sitting there because they couldn't they didn't have them under Staffing so they
045went out for a bond you know the kind of diverse the money and it failed uh diverse the money and it failed so they could not staff those and so we want to do is make sure that we set aside some money now knowing that next year we're gonna have to open four campuses another next year is four campuses and it costs us about a little bit under three million dollars to staff the campus and so the bond will take care of the facility but the Staffing will have to come from our local funds and so that's why we're asking that because it takes a significant hit when you open to a four schools at once that's 12 million dollars we have to find somewhere and so we want to start saving towards that now
046so we're not doing anything make any rash decisions later and then um uh as far as Miss love we talked about as far as the ins tax rate you know uh us being able to pay down our debt sooner and that's going to help us with our uh with our uh with our bond ratings and so but also we can pay that our debt sooner help us with our vibrators but also we can refinance some bonds and so I believe last year we refinanced some bonds and it saved us about 30 million dollars over maturity of the bonds and so we could refinance those sooner you know when that we're not we're not callable we refinance them we have the money to do that and then we'll be able to save that money in the
047long run as well so I just want to offer up their clarifications those clarifications thank you any other questions or comments okay uh this is the time in the public hearing where the public has the opportunity to comment if you're interested in commenting on the budget and proposed tax rate for for the 2023-2024 school year please come and stand by Miss Johnson each speaker each speaker will be given five minutes for comments please state your name before you begin as a way I do want to say that we're lowering the tax rate by almost 10 cents we're lowering the tax rate by almost 10 cents lowering the tax rate by almost 10 cents you're here yes it can be answered you can make you can ask the question but we can't answer the question but
048you can you can come over there okay okay then we will close the public hearing it is 7 14 pm and at this time we will take action on the consent agenda are there any items that the board would like to pull I would like to pull some item J 1 and k6 let me write that down item I'm sorry I didn't hear you uh Jay K1 and k6 K1 and k6 okay may I have a motion to approve the current consent agenda with the exception of items J K1 and k6 which makes the motion do I have a second Mr hubenik makes the second is there any discussion no discussion and I now call for the vote all in favor of approving the current consent agenda say aye aye aye any opposed um the
049motion carries okay and now we will go through the pulled items someone's gonna come up to us extract okay so that's going to be item J it's the first one so I guess we need a we need a motion first is that correct so we'll need a motion to approve consent agenda item J I'll make that motion to approve proclaiming Hispanic Heritage Month and do we have a second Mr hubenex Seconds and now we'll have discussion correct um really and it's for the same three just make an amendment to to strike the following statement of the resolution it says whereas the lamarce ISD Board of Trustees or its core values and actions demonstrates a commitment to diversity Equity inclusion within our School Division um I discussed this with Dr Nivens and this verbiage doesn't come
050from lcisd comes from an outside organization and you know it's a Dei statement and I feel the statements used in this way they're divisive and I feel like we can show you know what we value by our actions and that this verbiage isn't necessary for us to approve to the consent um let it be known by our actions what we value in our district I'll second that motion we're just do we're not motioning are we assuming discussions okay now we have discussion on that right you know we have discussion on just the amendment that's right on the amendment and a second on the amendment correct and so now we're going to have discussion on that correct got it so my discussion is I've been on this board longer than anybody else and that's been there
051forever on everything we've ever done I don't see this is something new or different um that we're adding from somewhere else I just feel like this is something of who we are and I don't think it goes against who we are and I think it just brings it all together I don't know one way or another why it's a problem well I just think with think what i is used divisive and you know of course we're a diverse District so it makes that what makes it makes our nation so great in my opinion you know my family's diverse we are all different and that's great I just you know Equity is not equal Equity doesn't mean equal and so that's where I have a problem with that and I feel like when these statements are
052made it's made in a way like to be divisive and that's not what these resolutions are about this isn't I don't know I guess I haven't been on the board so I haven't paid attention to the whereas statements and if Dei has been on it forever because Di has really just kind of been a thing that's been used recently so that was just my my thing you know I think yeah this is great Hispanic Heritage Month this is great but and the verbiage didn't originate with lcisd and I don't think it's necessary those uh those three words Dei like individually are good words but together in that sentence that has that connotation of can start to apologize either way um I would like for us as a board to discuss what those three words mean
053to us within the the framework within the vision the looking at through the lenses of Education here in Lamar CISD so we talk about um diversity we are the third most diverse County in America and that's one of the things that we definitely want to celebrate that we want to learn from it we want to celebrate the wins and then walk alongside each other in those challenges and all that the equity part and you mentioned equal and there's there's a massive confusion on what we want to do sometimes unequal treatment is fair and so when I think about that unequal treatment is fair I think about wheelchair ramps that is unequal treatment that is fair we look at um if I look at think about in the 80s the the war on hunger and making
054sure coming in scene where students can't learn if they're hungry so we our our systems our government created systems to make sure students are fed whether they're lower income and all that kind of stuff so we want to make sure that that would be an unequal treatment but it's fair because everyone's going to be able to eat and all that kind of stuff and so then we look at inclusion um and I think president Brunswick to maybe even propose us having a board Workshop or something to where we can talk about these things because I don't think we can even like Define them in this right here but I would I would think about what it would it be like if we remove that word inclusion and put the word belonging because we belong we
055want to belong we want everyone to be long we want people to have that sense of belonging within our community where they feel safe where they feel valued what they fear they have the environment to where they can learn we we hear the stories of um when the the casualties and the the hell happens at schools um and one of the things that's resounding is that there were loners they were all alone all that kind of stuff so I want to look at look at these three words look at how we represent ourselves as a district um I think about that um Integrity is burst out of accountability and so we we have to have some words in there to where we're going to be our litmus test so um we know those three words
056they're triggering for me they're triggering I'm like you know I don't want to they start hiring off of this I don't want to base our um Staffing I don't want to lose it lose I don't want to we don't need to go there but we need to celebrate through the through the looking at the lenses of Education in Lamar CISD and knowing what we know about our community knowing what we know about the students we represent how when you have a diverse Community you also have a wealth Gap that is enormous like enormous and so we we have all these things so I don't want to like totally dismiss it but I want to propose that we create a space for us as trustees to have dialogue about what does that mean because in my
057profession my profession I serve students that are under resourced our high school students and so I see this day to day every day where i'm like okay I'm walking alongside a student trying to get McKinney vinto filled out for the student working along inside the social workers in a wraparound specialist and I'm making sure that our coming alongside the school district making sure our appearancing and teen mamas have vegetables and fruits and all that kind of stuff so I want to propose an opportunity for us to sit and chat maybe it's a board of Workshop maybe it's something I don't want to just strike it but I we do need to be aware that those three words can be used in a way that we don't want within our school district we don't want to
058lead with these things because on everything we're saying you know it could be flipped and misinterpreted and perception and all that so but um yeah uh yeah um do these have to be done tonight is there a way we can uh maybe pass hold tight on these for now the ones that have this verbiage in them and maybe if you guys might be comfortable we could just not take any action on these tonight whoop and and then we maybe have some discussion on this verbiage maybe talking about these before we take any action on them so some of these are mandated by by policy and by law so I'll let Miss like Mr Hamilton discuss that yes thank you so the the report the women's Independence Day resolution and the American Indian Heritage day resolution
059are part of um board policy and those two it's a stack of them but those two in particular one does fall in August and so we typically bring things to you all early in advance so that it can be approved and then on celebrated in real time the American Indian Heritage one falls in September and so if we were going to include those in this year's celebration then tonight would be the time that you would approve them so to answer your question uh president Brazil we can always get with our legal counsel and see you know if there's a stipulation timeline on Windows have to be approved I don't know off top of my head if the law says this must be approved by certain dates I don't we don't have that information but we
060can actually counsel to review that and give and give the board some guidance on that if you also choose since we're in the comments section and um yes this is we got to remember this is a resolution to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month yes fact that Zach you're talking about we need a commitment to diversity we are one of the most diverse counties in the in the nation we already have policies that we're gonna we're gonna hire and we're going to educate anybody that walks in our door and anybody that applies to our district that is qualified not based upon race or or gender or those kind of things so this is already a resolution uh honoring uh folks with a Hispanic heritage so I don't understand the reasons to keep the the word the phrase
061commitment to diversity there I mean we're already committed to diversity by educating whoever walks in our doors and and this resolution itself is is talking about uh honoring uh folks with one particular ethnicity so I think that striking that whole uh sentences is a good thing So when you say it's not in policy or it is in policy so this exact wording is what goes into our policy no no ma'am no um as trustee box said we do receive a sample language from either a governing body that's opposing the resolution or sometimes a special interest group that proposes a resolution but we do have the ability to amend okay and I'm not saying that we're going to throw the baby out with the bath water by no means that we're not and I totally agree
062with you we we have a commitment and we have laws and all that kind of stuff for it I just I don't want us the public to view that like we know we're striking once in it so we don't value those three things individually so I think that's just a clarification that I don't I mean we we know that a lot of times people hear sound bites and Snippets and all that kind of stuff so um I don't I'm not saying I just want to say like you know maybe we propose and we we don't we just talk about what do these mean and how do these affect our our students that were through the lenses of Education because looking through those looking at those three words through other lenses that don't apply to us
063and that's what sometimes the media throws that and it's like no we definitely don't want to look at it through those lenses I agree with you because I think when you say diversity by itself when you say Equity by itself when you say inclusion by itself those are all words we believe in individually but once you want them together they become an ideology basically that not everybody in Lamar is going to be agree with and there's also just the problem that these words it's it's like linguistic theft that one side takes a word and creates a totally different meaning than what it is intended to mean so I like your idea and I and I agree like we want I want to be able to own that for ourselves and Lamar cic we are going
064to leave that effort for us we're not going to allow some media Outlet leave that for us we're gonna our our our words are gonna match our actions not gonna match somebody else's actions or our actions aren't going to match somebody else's word so as we're leading this District I want to do it where we're leading with authenticity and we're leading for us and so I mean like I agree when you when you're reading like this so I I'm I when you're reading this these three words together are we're celebrating women's Independence Day and all that stuff but I just just the idea of those three words so that's why I propose a special Workshop where we can sit and talk about that so which one did you say was August women's independence day is
065on August American Indian Heritage day is celebrated September 29th but this this one specifically would be September 15th October 15th so isn't there a way that we could come to some consensus tonight take care of this and then for the future moving forward take care of what we need to I hate to put a stick in the Cog of the wheel of trying to get some of this done and then we can sit down as you proposed as a board and take time I hate doing anything rushed and out of a yeah I want to do things for a reason and not just for it feels right to me if that makes sense to you so I think maybe we should just move forward tonight and then we are supposed to be having a board
066Workshop in the future and that could be on the agenda and then we can go forward to when we these are proposed to us again and have them better um verbiage in there that we can have a consensus with the true well we would just take a vote on my the motion to strike the sentence and vote right yeah yes can you restate your motion I think I have it but just just to amend it to pull the following sentence from the resolution that's all yeah and I could vote I can vote for that for this one if we have an understanding that like Hey we're going to make a commitment to figure out what this means for Lamar Consolidated and so we are attacking and moving forward appropriately within the lens of Education so
067if we support the motion we're striking the sentences so do you want that motion to be for all three correct can we vote on the same same sentence all three at one time yes I make sure I have this that would be on item J K1 and k-6 so the motion was made by Miss Fox and seconded by Mr Welch to amend the motion to take out that sentence basically is that correct and the sentence is whereas the Lamar CISD Board of Trustees through its core values and actions demonstrate a commitment to diversity equity and inclusion within our school division is that right yeah so oh sorry um so all in favor of the amended motion say I Hi and um against raise your hand oh I'm sorry I already voted okay motion passes five
068to one is that right six to one six one six one okay oh we have to vote again we have to vote on that that was a motion to amend the wording of the resolutions now they've been amended now you vote to adopt the resolutions as a minute so what do I have to say here to adopt the resolution that's in good motion so I'll make a motion to vote on the resolutions as amended do I have a second second all in favor say aye aye anyone against no motion passes okay you're good okay [Music] okay at this time we'll take action on the action items foreign approval of adoption of the 2324 budget and Compensation Plan earlier and so we would just asked for a motion at this time for that okay and actually
069that would go in place for a tax rate um okay same I have a motion for the board to approve the adoption of the 2023-2024 budgets and Compensation Plan as presented box and do I have a second is hotzel any discussion hearing none I call for the vote all in favor say aye aye aye the motion carries okay may I have a motion for the board to approve the adoption by ordinance the 2023 tax rate for the 2023 and to 2024 school year as presented I'll make the motion okay do I have a second um any discussion hearing none I call for the vote all in favor say aye aye any opposed the motion carries I have a motion for the board to approve the 2023 tax year appraisal role and new property value as
070presented Mr kubernet do I have a second this box hearing none I call for the vote all in favor say aye any opposed the motion carries oh my gosh may I have a motion for the board to approve the certification of the 2023 tax year anticipated collection rate as presented uh do I have a second any discussion hearing none I call for the vote all in favor say aye aye any opposed the motion carries is up okay all right trustees next we have Mr McKenna up and so we have uh this is going to be a multi-faceted uh approach to this let me see mechanics going to come up and talk about discussion of possible approval of order calling bomb elections for Trader Stadium repairs Mr Buchanan Board of Trustees tonight discussion and possible approval
071of calling a bond election for trailer Stadium repairs the scope of work if you remember during the 22 Bond preparation when we started looking at this this was the priority One list we separated that away from the 300 in approximately 48 million dollars that we have for the campuses and left trailer Stadium um by itself this is the same document that we produced there it's the same totals that document if you'll look at the line above what was the spreadsheet that we presented for the overall cost and what we proposed to the tax rate tax voters on our prop D of our 2022 bond election in November so the fiscal cost of the 3.9 million dollars included a four-year inflation anticipating that that project to be completed by 2025 so it has an additional 1
072million eighty nine thousand forty seven dollars in inflation um putting the total project cost at just under 5 million dollars again the major scope of work for this would be replacing the lighting that you see um that we're having to constantly go in and their incandescent lights they have to repair and then the picture on the right is them repairing the turf during a pre-game because they were the terrific tour during their pregame warm-ups as they were doing it so they're having to sew that Turf back together since then we've identified additional scopes of work that is needed we need some foundation and structural issues with our bleachers along with bleacher planks the additional cost is 10 million dollars so the total cost would be 14 million 978 501 dollars if you look at the
073picture on the right we've had to go in that first picture that you see the red circle that is a piece of angle iron that has bent and uh just deformed the picture the little circle down below is where we've had to put a masonry block and then wood support up for those steel structures underneath the bleachers the center pictures you may be hard to see but the shinier portions are aluminum the other portions we've had to put in wood planks and structures there and then the picture on the right again is another portion of the bleachers where the footwalk is between the bleachers and the uh track where we've had to support it as well before I turn it over to miss Ludwig for the financial section are there any questions about the scope
074of work I was going to be clear Mr McCann are you saying that the uh that's the student section of the beach is correct that is correct sir and which is supported by a wooden beam that's right that's correct we've had to add additional support to the steel structures with wood and masonry blocks okay I just want to be clear on that yes sir can I ask a question so when you all talk about replacing the lights um would y'all not be replacing the post you've been producing the lights itself yes ma'am the posts have been replaced recently we're looking at just replacing the head light fixtures one thing that we do on that is we have an engineering company that comes in and they do a foot candle for the the whole stadium using
075our current poles because we have the load winds that are on those poles and the structure that they can hold and they design a lighting package for our pose for that field and the same with the bleachers so they would be replacing parts or replacing all of the bleachers what we'll do is we'll have a structural engineer come in and look at that and be able to say this is our scope of work and and plan that out so part of that 15 million dollars is a design fee to be able to bring that structural engineer to say these are the repairs that need to be made so it could be under 15 million or no I mean like where do you get the number from if you haven't had a structural engineer come in
076what we've had is we've had our architect along with their Engineers come in and do a visual inspection um to say this is what we estimate the budget to be to be able to attain this scope okay foreign thank you the financial impact of this this Bond would be first of all we have to develop assumptions before we can consider how much the bond would cost uh we're looking at 15 million in principle it would be issued next spring the annual interest rate that we're estimating it to be would be four and a half percent we would have a shorter amortization or payback period of 20 years and then we're looking at the same value that we just used for budgeting at 24.9 billion dollars and a 99 collection rate the annual Debt Service on
077this would be 1.15 million and the 48 Cent tax rate that we just that you guys just adopted for this year would take care of that as well as some other existing funds that we have uh the impact again to the to this Bond we would still be reducing the overall tax rate by almost 10 cents and we would be able to accommodate the new payments with that we'll move on to student services any questions foreign last time how much were we asking for to fix trailer Stadium do you remember is this this 5 million [Music] and then the additional scope was the 10 million so we're actually adding more to this Bond than was on the other Bond correct correct right yes we haven't we had in the last Bond and then the structural
078needs in the bleachers is what we've added that's the additional scope of work along with the 10 million dollars okay can I ask something at some point there were Cuts made to programs across the district and both in high school and Junior High what did those cuts actually pay for I mean and I think it was cuts to coaching staff as well all right that's what's coming up next is the student services impact yes okay all right Dr Waits good evening trustees Madam president Dr Nevins this portion of the presentation will be represented by our interim athletic director Mr Gavin thank you good evening I'm going to talk to you about the student services impact on Athletics on August 9th the 10 5A DEC met they voted six to three against our plan on playing
079high school games on campus stadiums because of that we've had to restructure our football schedule there'll be a new football schedule coming out Magnolia ISD Friendswood ISD Alvin ISD and Fort Bend ISD are working together with us to limit those games to be as budget neutral as possible to help us out we had six football games moved from Trailer Stadium to high school campuses because of that and they were outside of our scope of the district that's where the dec stepped in so the other budget allocations that you were asking about our football staff was reduced by one one position for each campus we limited our number of volleyball tournaments we limited all of our sub Varsity tournaments by one tournament at the sub Varsity level the admission price in the past since covet we
080were four dollars before covet once covet hit we stayed at four dollars but with the electronic ticketing go fan took a dollar of that so lcisd was only getting three dollars we're going back to where we get the four dollars in the one dollar go fan ticket will go back on the buyer our Junior High tennis was moved to pay to play that 25 they're going to pay to play will cover the cost it's going to be for our high school coach and the junior high coach to coach them for that month so it's a little bit of a redesign with our individual sports our coaches at the high school can actually coach the kids at the junior high the current effect for Football under the current conditions URL will allow us to play our
081inner District games lcisd versus lcisd on our campuses so on August 25th Foster will play at George Ranch on September 21st full sure will play at Terry we're still awaiting final DEC approval on that game but we expect to have it tomorrow on October 20th Lamar Consolidated ISD will play at Randall High School if we were to pass the bond currently we're operating with half of our coaching professional development so when we send coaches to coaching schools coaching client coaching camps we're at half budget with that staff right now we're currently operating with our spring Sports still restricted as far as tournaments we've restricted Mills for each of our teams by two meals our JV golf has been limited to three total tournaments our freshmen are only allowed to play Same site same day as
082our JV tennis in the past you've had JV tennis and freshman tennis we've combined those to save the day our sophomore baseball is restricted to end District play only currently our current operating procedures affects will continue to operate on the decreased budget that we have if we have to pay for the lights next and for the bleachers next our athletic funding will have to be used for those things as opposed to using it for the turf for next year The Limited use on the stadium by other departments what people don't realize is since the last football game of last year we have not had any football practice we have not had any band practice or rehearsals in our Stadium we have not had any Lamar Consolidated soccer practice or the marked Consolidated ISD soccer games
083within our Stadium it will limit our ability to host the marching band Festival it will limit we we limited lchs senior Sunrise has traditionally been done at trailer Stadium they did it at Mustang field this year any questions yes ma'am okay um so now we've had the edict that we the games that were being played by out of District teams are going to be moved somewhere else yes ma'am is that going to be a cost that we're going to have to absorb or is someone else helping to step up because that was the whole purpose that we didn't want to see we've got other school districts working with us um the two games that have failed the two school districts that affected was Magnolia ISD with two teams Magnolia Magnolia West and Friendswood they have
084made a commitment to try to help us financially with that and we're looking at playing at Fort Bend ISD and at Alvin ISD so they're also in that same DEC we've worked with the police department we went through a plan this morning where we're taking our security and police with us to help minimize the cost your biggest cost when you rent a stadium is actually the police it's not anything else it's the police you take with you and we're working on doing that in-house to lower that down we think with those things working together and the ticket sales it'll end up being budget neutral but we will get money from the ticket sales for those games a concession stand right correct okay but would you once you know the cost of that will you let
085us know what we're looking at yes okay go back a couple slides and just kind of some of the different things um like the return of the professional development allotment I was under the assumption that if this Bond passes it could only be used for infrastructure and repairs not not salaries and increasing the number of games and those kinds of things so that's correct so this plan was everything so we reallocated funds out of athletic department to cover for the turf okay so if the bond passes then all that money will all that money now will be allocated so now we can go back to our regular plan for athletics in the spring so so all this month is just reallocated the bottoman would not pay for this anyway but we would not be have
086the funding for the turf and for the other things that we need to have so the so just nine short months ago public rejected a five million dollar Bond for these things and so we've tightened our belt and we've eliminated some things and we've done some other things that other districts are having to do like ask for some help from other isds and now we're going to go back out and ask for 15 million so that we can return some of that extra money back to those other programs yes sir how how are we going to sell that to the public well because because the board the board just voted to lower our overall tax rate by 10 cents and so typically when you talk about a bond you know you talk about you know
087this is going to cost the voters x amount of pennies you know over the tax rate but what the board just did he just lowered your tax rate by almost 10 cents and so now we tell trust what we tell the community is you gotta take your new tax your tax rate was 1.24 now it's a dollar fourteen so we lowered the tax rate and we're still going to be able to do this uh with a lower tax rate and still be able to pay the bill and so hopefully you know our you know uh folks that want the information will hear it uh and we'll digest it and know that you know we lowered the tax rate I keep saying that we lowered the tax rate I need people to play this part of
088the conversation over and over and over we lowered the tax rate and so we'll be able to uh go out for a bond while we lowered the tax rate and so we're not going to ask for any additional pennies as we go out and we start having our factual campaign about this and and what's the anticipation for the next round of bonds for schools is it would it be 12 months later we're looking at for schools yeah for 2024 because uh probably up to us bring spring 25 I mean we're only we're on a two two and a half year cycle uh you know because remember we have to build 20 23 schools by 2030 and so you know we're fast growth and so this last Bond only addressed about 10 schools and so we
089still have more to come uh and now I think our number has gone up I'm a conversation with Greg I think we're up to like 26 or 27 now at about 20 33 2034 and so we still have quite a few schools to build so we can do this while lowering the tax rate I'll also say that Fort Bend county is doing a bond also at this time so it's kind of a good time to tag on and I think when you're looking at it too when you're bringing in security and safety of even being in the stadium we're losing Revenue not just because we can't use it but we can't open it up to let anyone else use our Stadium which we have gotten money from when people use it for playoff games now
090that we have an amazing Press Box that there's a lot of people that look into we want to use your stadium and we're having to turn them away because I know we get extra revenue from that so it's kind of a win-win but it's also to a point that I wouldn't want my students in the student section of the stadium stomping their feet during a football game and for their security so I think that that's where we have to look at it that we're doing this for the safety of our students and that's what I was going to say the additional scope of work of safety I'm having flashbacks right now is when I was in high school and one of my friends that I hung out with all the time disappeared because she fell
091through the stadium and she was about a third way up in the stadium and because it was unsafe conditions and so I'm having like very real memories right now of the trauma that we experience as a student section when all of a sudden one of our dragonets was no longer there so um I think the safety is a thing that we've got to to focus in on that I mean if we have unsafe conditions then we need to address it um and this was a wood bleacher section and all that kind of stuff that it's like wow those are absolutely valid just just to make the point if this passes in November of 2023 the football season will have passed by the time we get this money and make those repairs so so if it's
092unsafe we're gonna have to make those repairs before this thing passes at all uh if it passes the board tonight okay so in I guess it was April and y'all made the budget cuts it was about five hundred thousand dollars and we said that was going to pay for the turf just the turf yes just the top layer of the type only the top layer so now the turf costs 1.2 .2 billion so is there more to it or is there more to it now that we're we're not just doing the top layer And to clarify my statement I mean this was a higher up where this incident happened it was not where our student sections so to clarify this is like where we are having these issues is not Apples to Apples but it's
093yes yes so one thing that we're looking at now is just a very plain there's no branding it is just a grass Turf it has no money to do any kind of substrate anything to add impact resistance on the underneath the bottom of the turf itself so that's what we're doing now it is just a Bare Bones putting grass on the field if the bomb passes then we were able to come in and actually help with the infrastructure also lay down some impact layers underneath it input branding on our turf you know words can be mistaken you said the word grass I'm sorry Turf artificial it's artificial grass not natural grass artificial Turtle yes sir yes so we are moving forward with doing that or we're waiting to see if the bond passes to do
094it all so current yes so currently right now we have a small window of time between post football season and the rest of spring Sports so we're working with vendors to get that purchase order done now to uncover the funds so that they can start producing it if November the if the board calls for the election and the event it passes then we can amend that purchase order after the election knowing that we have additional funds to do a different scope of work but it allows that production to start and let's get in line because there's other people that the turf manufacturers start to look at to say where does this Turf go and where can we put other fields so then instead of installing the new Turf in like December we would be looking
095at next fall for a brand new Turf no ma'am it would still be installed December January February that time frame but what it allows us to do is get in the production line and then by the time you know if the if the bond is successful for us to be able to modify that in them to bring in the new additional scope of work as well and still keep within that time period and then so this Turf had a life of 10 years are these new turfs we're putting in do they have about the same yes ma'am life so shouldn't we put save money every year maybe to go towards that cost like or it's not a rainy day fund but it's a just like you would for your house Home Maintenance so yes ma'am
096in 2003 is when the turf got originally installed and then in 2013 our board and our taxpayers decided to re-turf it using bond funds okay that's why it was used to go to the bond election in 2023 to redo the same as well so up until now that was the method that the board and the taxpayers had approved to replace turf at that point in time okay and then we're still only using one side of the stadium this year is that correct or no no no no if they're on their school campus there's only bleachers on one side of the stadium with the exception of Terry but at Terry there's no restrooms or concessions on the opposite side so it's like homecoming going to be able to be normal everybody's homecoming will be at trailer
097Stadium okay every game at trailer Stadium will be as normal as it ever has been okay let me let me clarify that uh let me let me throw a wet blanket on that we have to make sure that this that the stands are safe for students and so you know coach Gavin and his team and and our maintenance team will be monitoring that Foundation of peace every single week because you know it's our students get pretty Rowdy and it's great that they do they have law school spirit and uh so what I don't want to do is say that every game is going to be normal and then come October I have to make a decision and say now our Engineers say now this part of the stadium is not safe so now we have
098to rope that off and make sure no one sits in that and so I just want to make sure that we're clear on that that we have to make sure that our students and our staff and our parents are going to enter into a facility where it's not going to crumble down under them and so I don't want I want to make sure that we say that because you know we're not hiding anything we're not having anything and I and I've said it during the bond cycle is that uh like with a closing with our cabin enroll our cap and overflow you're going to buy a home looking at a school and you're going to have to go to a different school because we're building schools and so same thing with this we're going to
099judge every single week that's first off that's why we're limiting games and limiting limiting uh participation on the field but every week you know I'm gonna depend on Coach Gabbert and Greg and his team to give me a report to make sure that that space is going to be safe and the moment they say about the numbers it's not going to be good I'll let you guys know and then we're gonna have to say this section we can't use and so then we just have to readjust and then so just hypothetically if the bond doesn't pass we keep all these budget cuts yeah so the bond doesn't pass we keep these cuts and then we come back and report we re-prioritize Turf over foundational safety in the stands and lighting and so that we prioritize
100because at first it was just the turf and other things so now we re-prioritize that and if we say well the foundation is going to be the most critical piece then we go back with our budget cuts we fix the foundation we continue the budget cuts and then we fix the lights and then we continue the budget cuts and we fix the turf so I mean we're going to get it done one way or another you know our job you know we that Educators we fix stuff but you know it's not going to come without um a little bit of lashing on the teeth can I ask a question so is there I mean this is our only stadium so obviously we need to take care of it and it needs to be safe but
101is there a way where we could break this Bond into two separate bonds so that you have the necessary like there are things that are necessary to prepare um and then maybe things that are additional I don't know I just felt like the the cost has gone up so much I think a lot of people are gonna say you know I guess I was surprised when the last one didn't pass well I said the boy's will if the board choose to do so our bond counselor is here and so uh we did last time we went in the closed session we talked talked about what that language looks like you know we drafted it so if that's the board's will you can do that which is I know a lot of people are upset about
102the programs that were cut um but then you know the Bond's not passed and so if I don't know I think if we break it could maybe break possibly just look into breaking it down into more things where it may be something that's necessary where some of those funds can go back to the schools and um they can have those programs that are missing I don't know I don't know how that would be reworked um yeah no that's at the bottom that's at the bonds will so I mean Mr frails is here and so that's a conversation yeah no we could use a fun so if the bond did not pass we would continue with the budget cuts so we can fix the infrastructure you can't use those funds that's what bond does pass that
103we don't need the budget cuts because now we have funding to fix the infrastructure right so if we broke it into separate ones and one did pass some of that money could possibly come back to those programs because we still have to fix the other things so say for instance uh say for instance we separated into proposition a is Turf only right and proposition B is lights and proposition Z is I'm just okay just an example B is like C is foundation and a passes for Turf only so we still have to continue the budget cuts because we started to fix the lights and we still had to fix the foundation as long but what you're asking is possible our bond council's here and the board can decide I mean possibly put all safety issues
104in the bond that's the board's will whatever the board foreign I don't know Mandy can I ask one more yeah let's go ahead yes so just to be clear about that 9 million that Miss Ludwig said was earmarked we can't use that money for this or could we uh clear for clarify for me which nine million the that we have earmarks for the opening of future schools uh the excess revenue of this budget um some of that could be allocated of course that would be um up to the board um well I mean I know you have already have it you're marked for certain things so like what would the consequences be um well we would um we don't have anything earmarked I mean so our print our job is to present that recommended to
105the board and the board you know earmarks that and so we haven't decided exactly what amount with the earmark that's our next plan I'm just imagining the public saying they have nine million dollars over here why don't they use that so I just want clarification I'm not saying I think really the key thing is the nine million dollars that we might have is an estimate because the only way we will have that additional nine is if the revenue comes in at exactly what we budgeted and the expenditures are exactly what we budgeted we could have more or less than the 9 million okay you know if we're about to have another legislative session possibly so there could be some changes there and um you know all there's a lot of variables so it's kind of
106hard to Joe said like one consequence could possibly be just not being able to pay teachers not being able to physically open the school correct all right and truthfully all of this to me is safety whether it's the turf because it's the safety of our players or our students and with the lights I feel like all three really fall into the category of safety in essence and so that's something that like you said Miss Fox this is our only stadium in town we really need to keep it where we can use it religiously every week and the parents and teachers and kids know that it's a safe place to go so when y'all say Roofing what Roofing needs to be replaced so there's two sections one of the main roof is the game day locker
107rooms that are over there that the board members when you changed for graduation and things of that nature a lot of that money that's earmarked for that is both locker rooms showers and air conditioning along with the roof in that facility that's when majority of that that money is going um that that facility has been used in in Mr Gabbert Camille to talk about who uses it and when they use it so when we have a football game that's our home team locker room unless Lamar consolidates playing if they're playing they're in their field house and the visiting team is in that locker room so that we can keep them separated on the fields we also use it for graduation um you guys have been in there for that we've used it for our that's
108our we call it our LGI and Athletics that's the biggest place we have to put people in to have a coaches meeting things like that we use it as storage as soon as football is over we use it for track meets for our meetings with coaches so it gets used for a lot of things it's just small in space for the amount of people that you can put in there to have a meeting poop any other questions okay we're gonna hold off on voting on that right now so we'll talk about it in closed session so um let's open your counselor session yeah so I guess you wanna future thanks we have our future action items uh so Mr Buchanan is going to talk about our design development prototypes good evening board trustees and Dr
109nimmons um we'd like to bring forth a discussion of our design prototypes for elementary 35 and we have prototype one so I just remind the Board of Trustees earlier on tonight we had a floor plan for Prototype one and prototype two so just earmarking these to let you know which one of the two will be we talked about tonight to remind the board Elementary 35 is going to be on the Tomas Junior High Bank Tomas High School Banks Junior High School site it will be located at this section on the south east corner of the quad this is just to remind the board that the board had approved this in April the design development for Tomas high school and the design development for banks Junior High so we'll be taking this on August the 21st
110to a design committee that voted on the design development for the last two but this will be option one that they look at Option One is very close to the elements that were used in the Tomas and Banks option two has a little bit of designs but it's changed some of the text the structural elements on the outside the different materials used on the exterior of the facility and option three is a little bit more radical temporary design for that facility our architect we have had them review all three of these designs and all three of them have the same cost associated with all three of them so they have assured us of that so we're just bringing forth these options to the Board of Trustees that again that committee will be meeting next Monday
111or this coming Monday to design and then they will vote and then we'll bring back that recommendation in the voting from that committee for the board to be able to take action on possibly in September and ask a question are any of those two-story or they just have the view of being two-story it is just the architectural elements of two-story no ma'am they are all one story schools okay and the architect for this is Joyner construction architects sorry that one looks like Georgetown could any more trustees and Dr Davidson I won't bring forth a discussion of Elementary School 36 which would be Prototype 2 and this is fluger architects the game the design committee will meet on August the 21st to vote on the exterior just to remind the Board of Trustees Elementary 36 and
112this is just right now A mock-up of where it would go it is in Cross Creek West the borders already purchased that piece of land and they are bringing in roads and utilities to that site for us so this is option number one all the elements that we've looked at we've looked at the neighborhood itself along with the amenity centers and the other outside exterior elements as you come into the neighborhoods so this is a one story again Elementary School again they have changed the exterior and the finishes on it and then they have put a little bit more contemporary design out for that facility again Fluker has Architects has confirmed that all three of these designs will cost the same no matter which design that is chosen and we will be getting feedback from
113the design committee next Monday to be able to bring back to the board yeah me again um when we start making new prototypes because we had the other one for the last what five or six schools will these be able to be repeat or as we move forward we will always be creating a new prototype for our elementaries and or is it going to be depending upon the site in which they are going to be no man what we looked at is when we this year we did gray and Terrell Elementary together um and we realized that that was a determinous workload on a single architect so at that point in time knowing that we'll be opening two elementary schools at least for the near future pulling the two prototypes So the plan is to
114open a new prototype of each every year until 2030. so we're buying these prototypes to use for the future and just deciding which one goes where that's correct okay because that's I don't know if the new board members but it costs us every time to create a new prototype that's correct the fees is half once you start using for The Architects and Engineers to repeat a design so their fee gets cut in half after we do the initial prototype design and then next year we'll continue to change um depending on what it is with different different materials as we go through the neighborhoods but that was a design we'll lay out for the next which they've probably seen because we've used the same prototype of high schools but none of them look the same that's
115on the outside so lastly our future action out on Board of Trustees a discussion of design development for Middle School number seven District on the board again this is the layout for Tomas and Banks middle school number seven is on the northeast corner of that quad this is Tomas high school that was approved in April this is Banks Junior High that was approved in April our first option for Middle School seven it matches very much to the same design and feeling of tomasa and Banks option two again it tweaks the exterior and changes some elements on the outside in design seven is a different design as well again changing different materials and architectural designs of it this is pbk pbk has assured the district that all three of these designs will cost the same thank
116you [Applause] okay it is 8 13 p.m we are adjourning to closed session pursuant to Texas government code sections 551.071 551.072 551.074 and 551.082 the open meetings act to discuss Personnel land acquisition or consultation with our attorney foreign it is 9 25 p.m and we have a quorum may I have a motion to approve an order by the Board of Trustees of Lamar Consolidated Independent School District calling a bond election to be held within said District making Provisions for conduct and giving of notice of election and containing other Provisions related there too I think that much um Mr Lambert makes the motion do I have a second Miss danziger makes the second any discussion yes sir I just wanted to let the public know I came into this meeting thinking I was going to vote
117against this because we had just gone to the public nine months ago but I think it's responsible to to let the public decide this this issue so I'm going to support it may I I any opposed the motion carries okay um and is there any other motions Madam president I move that the Board of Trustees approved the land purchase for secondary eight schools Elementary School 41 and Elementary School 45 as discussed in closed session the second Miss Hotel makes the second um all in favor say aye aye opposed say no motion passes okay um let's see are there any items on the future can no that's not right hold on hold on are there any future agenda items that the board would like to add I would like to us to begin to talk about
118what it would look like to hold a workshop regarding those three words of diversity Equity inclusion or belonging just so that as we are growing as a district we are on the same page and know what we want to push forward from the market Consolidated Independent School District it anything else okay um the meeting is adjourned it is 9 27 pm