001all right sorry for the delay everyone so it's it's to open session for our uh our meeting um just we're going to start off with a pledge of and to the allegiance for which it stands a nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all texas flags [Music] thank you uh we do not have anyone for invocation tonight i will have an introduction here moving on to our superintendent spotlight all right president montemayor and board members at this time i'd like to ask our deputy superintendent to come up and we're going to recognize some amazing students and this is something we have been planning on doing for quite a while we started last month obviously with covet it really put things on the back burner but this is um in my opinion um my
002favorite part of board meetings is being able to recognize students so board members i'll enjoy everything we do but this is really this is the most fun part so mr roberts yeah thank you mr gallagher board of trustees uh superintendent gallagher thank you very much for this time uh i do uh i do like to say as as you did that uh looking out across the um across the crowd this evening this is a great honor to be able to do this and it is in fact one of our best times in being able to celebrate uh the greatness of our students so with that being said uh we are going to move into our star awards superintendent star awards and that is for our elementary campuses and so elementary students as i call your
003name uh please come to the front and we have an incredible little trophy for you and we will take a quick picture and then all of the star award winners please stay up here at the front and we'll take a group uh picture as well okay so without further ado um our superintendent star awards for the month of may from brent elementary we have savannah i'm sorry my printing's so small we have savannah price [Applause] all right from chavez elementary we have jeremiah j arkerfull [Applause] here we go come on down jay congratulations here we go all right congratulations jay from hackberry elementary we have riley diesen [Applause] from lake view elementary we have emery sabuka [Applause] from oak point elementary we have reese obasoji [Applause] and from prestwick elementary we have eli chanduenza [Applause]
004and so i think one thing i would like to say about this group of students again this is our second group uh for the superintendent star award and uh as we take the group picture uh when when i read all of the comments from our campus administrators words such as citizenship students with empathy very kind very respectful and so this group of students represent those characteristics and so we're extremely proud of them and how about another round of applause [Applause] thank you guys [Applause] okay uh now moving into our middle school uh student recognition program uh from strike middle school we do this a little differently we have a uh a representative from that campus come up and talk about that particular student that has won our our monthly student recognition and so i have
005miss chelsea guerra from strike middle school [Applause] good evening i am honored to present our strike strong student of the month to miss lilly webb lily is active in athletics and cheer is and is a section leader for our varsity picanto choir she is also one of our most faithful soccer concession stand volunteers and is always eager to help her teachers and her peers she does all of this while maintaining high grades in her honors and high school level courses her teachers say that she is simply amazing and approaches everything that she does with a positive attitude teachers never hesitate to give lily uh leadership roles and responsibilities because she constantly exhibits our core values of excellence integrity respect and compassion lily shines bright in all aspects of life and we are delighted to award
006her student of the month for strike middle school lilly lilly webb come on up but i think we want you to stand yeah all right thank you miss guerra moving on to walker middle school we have uh miss kelly carr principal at walker middle school and she is making her way down to talk about their student of the month good evening i'm mrs carr the principal of walker middle school and this is one of our fantastic spanish teachers mrs rivas we are here to celebrate walker's may student of the month i will let mrs rivas take it from here and then i'll come back and translate good evening thank you mrs carr so primeramente so christian if you'll head up here start talking here come on up there we go uh from mrs rivas there
007he is come on up [Applause] from mrs rivas christian displays integrity respect and excellence in my clash of men in school he always completes his work on time and is a very responsible young man and makes great choices in his life christian is a fantastic student who exemplifies all the four core values that make up our four houses at walker middle school integrity compassion respect and excellence he's an extremely hard worker whose grit and determination to master every task put before him sets him apart from many other students his age that's from coach jameson and for mr hoffman christian is an excellent student in person he is always completing his work on time in addition christian is always willing to help other students that are struggling understanding a concept he works with them until they
008understand christian deserves to be the student of the month we are so proud of you christian and we wish you the best at high school [Applause] mr gallagher if i could one last thing i don't want to forget about the parents and guardians of these incredible students so uh superintendent star award as well as the middle school student recognition if you are here please stand up and be recognized this time for your support in your love parents and guardians thank you mr roberts are you finished i think we have high school next oh well i was gonna is dr pretty here yeah oh dr pretty here she is okay so dr purdy is our high school principal she's here to recognize students of the month for our high school thank you mr gallagher thank you
009board president little elm isd school board i am here to present little m high school students of the month for both april and may and we have three seniors to recognize junior tonight our student is garrett smith coming up garrett here is one of our students of the month for april garrett has attended little elm schools for all four years of high school he stayed busy challenging himself with ap classes and is involved in academic uil and national honor society i'm especially proud of garrett because he recently nominated two of his teachers mrs gaston and mrs brown for recognition by the united states navy they came out and presented them a plaque and everything it was very special garrett's appreciation of his teachers is one of the many things that sets him apart from his
010peers he is truly appreciative of the hard work of educators and he lets them know his teachers are thankful to have him as a student and use many of the same adjectives to describe him leader positive happy brilliant confident and spoken miss gaston said that garrett is a class act he is brilliant but more importantly he is a great human being he is kind funny and goofy and she did put goofy i appreciate how hard he works and how he brings joy and laughter wherever he goes garrett finished in the top 10 of his class this year he is joining the united states navy and will train within the nuclear engineering field after his time in the navy garrett plans to attend the university of texas at austin to major in chemistry or computer engineering
011and we are so thankful for garrett and for his commitment to our country and we wish him the best [Applause] and his parents are here and if his parents would stand and be recognized as well [Applause] our next student of the month is cadence hernandez cadets come on cadence is a junior so she's our one junior so we're keep we're taking we're graduating three wonderful students but y'all are keeping one okay all right kadence is a junior at little elm high school and she's our second student of the month for april and she has attended little elm schools since pre-k she is a varsity softball player and she is one of our athletic trainers she is also a member of hosa and national honor society cadence stays busy with lots of ap classes and dual
012credit classes while also managing her extracurricular schedule cadence's favorite thing about little high school is the people she has met through the years at school and the memories that she has made with them kadence is well thought of by her teachers ms santa her ap english teacher said that cadence hernandez is probably the ultimate example of what it means to be a lobo displaying characteristics of honesty integrity positivity and humility she is the kind of person that makes the people around her want to do more reach higher and be better not because she judges them from a vantage point of great skill in athletics or academics but because she is someone who loves and sees the best in other people all of cadence's teachers echoed similar accolades she is bright thoughtful competitive trustworthy and a
013leader among her peers cadence still has another year to figure out where she wants to go to college but she knows she wants to play softball and major in kinesiology and then go to physical therapy school congratulations cadence and her mom and dad are with her tonight indiana good morning [Applause] okay our next student is isaiah hernandez come on up isaiah [Applause] i'm gonna i'm gonna talk give you a lot of good stuff about isaiah but i need to also let you know that i was isaiah's dad's teacher i was his science teacher so if you need like a check on how old you are when one of your high school students parent comes to you and says oh you're my teacher at plano east he was a good student so all right so isaiah
014hernandez is one of our may students of the month isaiah is a senior and he will be graduating and leaving us at the end of this week isaiah has attended little elm schools for the last 10 years and at the high school he has stayed very busy as a member of the football team and the wrestling team this year he was selected as one of our cutx student interns isaiah has appreciated the privileges and the opportunities he has been given while being a student in little elm isd teacher after teacher stated isaiah is a great student and a pleasure to have in class isaiah is a role model for other students for the kindness and respect that he shows others every day and i have had the pleasure of teaching and coaching isaiah for three
015years isaiah is a hard worker and not afraid to take on a challenge and on top of that he is such a respectful young man isaiah has demonstrated to us what we like our lobo student athletes to be in our community isaiah will make us proud as he goes into our community to become a productive citizen in our society recently isaiah signed with presbyterian college to play football and he will major in marketing and finance we are all confident in isaiah and his future and look forward to seeing his success congratulations and his parents are with him tonight too you all would stand and please be better [Applause] i think his dad looks really young okay next we have trinity bridges [Applause] trinity is our second student of the month for may trinity is also
016a senior at little elm high school this year and she will be graduating this friday trendy has attended little elm school since her sophomore year trinity was selected as a student of the month because she has impressed all of our front office staff her kindness trinity welcomes new students to the district and she gets a great first impression of little elvie lobos and she also tries to teach them how the how the rooms are numbered it's a challenge to our new lobos and she also tries to teach them how the how the rooms are numbered it's a challenge trinity is also one of our advanced culinary arts students and being in the kitchen is her favorite thing about her experience at little elm miss hood her culinary arts teacher had this to say trinity always
017responds in a positive fight she embodies truth goodness and beauty by her actions and reactions to everyday situations i believe this provides her the space to live in the present moment and gain insight as well as capture growth opportunities she provides a welcoming and open-minded attitude which also gives those around her with the freedom to experience growth and coach alvin jackson said that trinity is the sweetest student she comes to class every morning ready to learn trinity is always ready to engage in conversation willing to help out a fellow lobo trinity will definitely make us proud when she goes out into the community and is a good citizen and contributes to our society as a great young lady after graduation trinity will attend oral roberts university this fall and major in entrepreneurship congratulations [Applause] trinity
018and her mom and dad are both here if you would stay in [Applause] mr birdie thank you so much and um what a and again that is truly um the best part of the board meeting is to be able to celebrate these wonderful students um and dr you're correct your former student does look young so uh next i'd like to ask our director for fine arts mr frank felice to come up for a fine arts recognition [Applause] thank you mr gallagher board of trustees i uh have the privilege of recognizing several of our fine arts students this evening who have qualified for a state level event or has won something at a state level so tonight i'm going to start with our band members is mrs sturch here this evening i haven't seen her but
019okay so we have three band students who have qualified for the uil state solo and ensemble contest to do this they had to perform a class one solo they're basically three classifications with one being the most challenging they had to receive a superior rating and they had to play the piece from memory and to do all of that to advance to the state level so tonight we have three students if we can just hold our applause until they come up together let's see is adria sorry here adria come on up next is benjamin whitaker benjamin come on up and alexavia paz is alexavia here all right [Applause] all right next i'm going to ask our choir directors from the high school uh mrs adams and miss lewis if they will come up and assist me
020with this we have several choir members who've also advanced to the state level solo and ensemble contest and so we've got several people to recognize here let me see if i get all of them here we go and we'll start with those that are advancing to the state contest as a soloist miss tia davis come on up tia and next would be arlene ginn next is keller bagby and next is patricia cruz escobar the next group of students we have coming up uh advance to the state contest as an ensemble or in an ensemble malik ahmed edgar barbosa destiny crook katana mcclellan evan reza and then the following members advanced in both a solo and an ensemble gracie miller michael reyes ava herrera julia wilson eli miller and harrison miller i know the harrison the
021millers couldn't be here this evening but they have three students all or three children in the same family all advancing to the state level contest great kids very musical family so congratulations to our choir students [Applause] oh yeah don't get don't get in there go ahead and get in congratulations and next we have some students that advance to the state vase competition which is the art competition uh and just to give you an idea about these students over 31 000 students start at the region level uh competing for the state-based competition and about less than 2 000 of them actually advance out of 31 000 less than two advance to the state level so these students advance to the state level first is andrea salamonca [Applause] next is kierra clements [Applause] next is catherine kangarati
022[Applause] and finally alex geiser [Applause] and actually if i could have uh mr amelia and miss sutherland come up and help for just a second because i want to tell you just a little bit more about these students uh if the two of the students whose names i called out catherine kangarati and kiera clements also received a state medallion at the state contest vase contest and we had one student alex geiser who as a junior not only won a state medallion but she placed in the top .5 by receiving the highest rating on her sculpture that the state gives as well as receiving that gold seal and out of 31 000 people that start the process 150 receive a gold seal and alex did that so congratulations [Applause] thank you very much catherine i'm going
023to ask you to stay right up there catherine and uh i want to talk about catherine too we also have a yearly art contest that's held by the state representative michael burgess as the congressional art contest it's a statewide contest where people send in their artwork and uh catherine kangarati won best of school from little elm isd so congratulations catherine and i'm going to have come up beside her giraldi morales is giraldi here tonight yes come on up please giraldi yep [Applause] for the first time in our school history geraldi was announced statewide the grand prize winner for the congressional art contest yep if you look up on the screen you'll see her drawing she titled acceptance yes that is a drawing pretty amazing congratulations guys [Applause] thank you very much thank you mr felice
024and again um congratulations to all these students um impressive and and really amazing their dedication uh so fine arts um from fine arts to academics i would like to ask our director for curriculum and learning mr doug sevier to come up and we have a big celebration for stem and i'll kind of lead into this um when i first came to the district we had one campus that was a stem campus and yeah we'll we'll wait for just a minute let y'all thank you all again for coming yeah you're welcome to stay the entire board meeting there we go so when i came to the district we had one campus that was a stem campus it was prestwick stem academy and one of the things that we really uh the board and myself we talked
025about how can we expand this so no matter what zip code you live in in little elm or little misd you will be guaranteed a great education and we are very proud to say that all of our campuses are now stem certified campuses so at this point mr sevier i'm going to let you take it away thank you president montemiyar superintendent gallagher and members of the board tonight i'm just honored to be here to celebrate the work of all the campuses especially three campuses who are our final three to earn the stem certification award as we uh begin this i also wanted to take the time to recognize a few people but also recognize the journey that mr gallagher mentioned at the beginning so we'll start by which with just a small recognition first i'd
026like to recognize jennifer culver she is our director for science here elementary and secondary [Applause] and she has truly provided the leadership and the training to support all the campuses over these past several years through many compliments that i receive regarding the work from the from what she has provided for teachers and administrators i know the vital role that she played in the success of the journey that we've been on so again thank you for all the work that you've done next i'd like to recognize christy gibson chrissy if you'd stand up real quick she has been leading on the side for the past two years and really what she's provided to the schools and the principals is a unique perspective as a sitting principal which allowed her to offer support for our decisions and
027how they would impact uh the campuses that we're trying to earn uh this certification so again thank you for all the work that you've done on top of being a principal but also helping about seven schools now six or seven schools get their certification so thank you for all the work you've done [Applause] so again as mr gallagher stated earlier i want to go back and kind of look at the historical perspective of where we started so up here you can see a timeline we're back in the fall of 2014 presswood stem academy opens up and that's where really our journey for stem really began but then you can see in 2017 2018 there was a district-wide emphasis on we need to provide some equity and get every school every kid to experience some of
028the stem activities that we're providing and that's where our committee came together and we formed this group to say okay how are we going to do this for every school every kid then in 2018 2019 we began with our stem kits and we really looked at our fourth and fifth grade students how do we get them ready for what they might experience in middle school and then moving on into high school after that we really thought about how can we raise the capacity of the teachers what do we need to do to really not just provide materials but provide the learning and the support and the staff development that they need and that's where we really came up with this nice campus certification and it was really just a charge from mr gallagher to look
029and see how can we make every campus get the um access and the support that they needed for kids to get this stem education so really we looked at hackberry presswick and and that was the first two and we certified 17 teachers and that got us our first two campuses that were nationally certified next we brought in brent chavez strike and walker and strike and walker were really our big push that year because again bringing in two new middle schools we wanted to make sure that both um campuses and all students had the equity to bring up that idea of what stem meant in the middle school so again four teachers were there and we certified 48 teachers that year next in 21 22 which is this past year we finally certified our last three
030teachers and has nothing to do with what they did it was just a progress that we made and chose campuses along the way but this year we brought in lake view oak point and little elm high school and again we certified 72 teachers and we were the first district in the state to have every campus in our district certified for stem after this year so big round of applause for everyone who took part in that [Applause] so next year what we're going to be looking at 22-23 is we want to be the first district in the state to be certified at the district level and so we're going to be beginning that process and hackberry and pressric will begin to recertify as a campus and you can see there will certify 72 more teachers this
031following year with that i'm going to turn it over to ms cover to kind of talk about some of the other steps that we we can see through this training so if you need a graphic representation of the teachers in little misd we are growing every year and certifying 72 teachers who have taken on this challenge with me to go through 38 individual indicators to look through their classroom while we think this is just a certification in a rubber stamp when we ask the teachers what it means to them one of recently um oak point teacher came up to me after the certification ceremony and said this was the best professional development she's ever had because she was a veteran teacher not a new teacher because it made her really reflect upon her teaching and
032implement it immediately into the classroom now while we think that's great for teachers what about students so um it does impact our students um i was walking out of brent just after a full day meeting with teachers meeting with students and a pair was walking up to me and she go for a full day meeting with teachers meeting with students and a pair was walking up to me and she goes hey you work for school yes ma'am i didn't tell her what i did or what to do one amazing community but jimmy goes let me just show you this and she bragged about how amazing her son is invested into the stem stuff that he is doing every day just because he can problem solve it gives him that time to problem solve working with
033oak point as they got certified this year the teachers and the students were talking about the fact that their students were able to make the interconnectiveness between science and math and apply it in the real world in an ecosystem pbl so what we are doing here is making an impact i also would like to highlight the fact that we're not just certifying teachers for one year to rubber stamp as you see the numbers of our attainment of our teachers we currently have a district average of those that have been gone through certification of 91 percent if you're a returning certified teacher will you please stand so you can be recognized we have several here in the audience tonight please stand [Applause] all right now it is time for recognition i need to turn over back
034to mr sevier so again we get to honor three campuses this year that worked really hard through this really it was a tough year with subs and everything else going on with this pandemic second year we are just really proud of the work that they committed to the first campus we want to recognize is oak point elementary if the principal miss worth would come up you can go up and take a picture and miss did you have any teachers that came tonight or they're just worn out with last week's okay okay all right thank you just yeah hang out [Applause] next is little m high school dr priddy [Applause] and i believe there are a couple high school teachers here tonight that earned their certification if you guys would come up and be a part
035of this [Applause] [Laughter] yeah and last lakeview elementary miss opitz [Applause] and are there any teachers from lakeview here tonight please come up and join us because we know you guys did all the work to get this certification [Applause] and before these guys step away one thing we do want to really um kind of honor up here are the teachers that did all the work here and what you see is a group of teachers that's not just science teachers teachers from across all content stem is not just about science it's about all content areas working together to provide this educational concept of stem and to get kids ready for this real world experience that they're going to hit in post-high school experiences [Laughter] and mr savier while they're taking a picture if you look behind
036us this banners what is displayed at every one of our campuses now so this is the high school's banner it will be uh brought back to the high school uh probably tomorrow i would imagine mr sevier but we'll get these up at all of our campuses and you can see the plaques that they received just such a a huge accomplishment you mentioned earlier we were the first or we are the first district in the state certified by nise which is the national institute for stem education it started out of rice university and we're also the second in the nation to have all all of their schools certified so this is a it's a huge accomplishment i'm very very proud of the teachers the administrators that made this happen but neighboring districts like right next door
037are really working at trying to become nise certified so mr severe i think you have a couple more i do one other group that we'd like to thank tonight is the board of trustees for having the vision and just allowing us to push forward during these times to make sure that we get our kids the education that they deserve and it has been a really sweet journey so what we decided to do was get you guys just an oversized cupcake to say thank you and on this cupcake what you'll find is a laminated card and there's about seven to ten quotes from kids and what they've taken away from this idea of stem entering their classrooms entering their schools and again we just want to say thank you to the board thank you guys for
038allowing us to have this vision and supporting it both monetarily and with just the idea of the vision that you guys are creating for this district so again thank you very much we hope you enjoy the quotes from the kids we know that's probably what you're gonna treasure the most the treats are sweet but it's really the kids that matter so thank you guys very much [Applause] all right thank you mr sevier and we have two board members that aren't here tonight so we'll have to we'll have to what we'll thank you they missed out now we'll put it in the fridge for them don't worry all right i would like to ask our athletic director uh coach young to come to the uh podium for a presentation on our athletic program all right first
039i'd like to thank everybody for having us here tonight this is a special night for us because we're recognizing the group of people that really make this whole thing work uh we take a lot of pride here in little elm of when we host an event an athletic event of how it's run the the not just for our fans but for visiting fans and we have a group that helps us with all this it's a lot of work you know and during a pandemic it made this even harder and these people are also very important because there's thousands of people in the dfw area that come here and sometimes their first and only really interaction with anybody from little elm is our workers so they're very important and their personality their smile they're engaging with
040the people is a really really important thing for not only us our community and our school so we take a lot of pride in that and i will promise you that's not always easy because people come in and sometimes don't like electronic tickets or bag policies and different things that have gone on so sometimes those are hard to deal with but they take a lot of pride in how they do it and they're very special to us and they're very busy they all have other jobs that they work and they come up here and they do this at night uh just the other night we had our last round of games and we had four games and one night so it's they get spread thin they're overworked and underpaid but we really do appreciate them
041so we're going to spend the night to recognize all them and also their years that they're going to be here that they've been helping us sorry all right we're going to start with shanina stanback three years with us nathan leonard three years sandra lamb four years audrey bell four years olivia mahaya five years [Applause] henry johnson six years nevelette giddens eight years [Applause] lashonda stanberry nine years [Applause] vanessa de valia ten years [Applause] maya leonard 12 years mark rutledge ii 12 years mark rutledge 12 years [Applause] maria orteg ortiz 14 years [Applause] and joyce king last but not least 16 years [Applause] again we appreciate all that you guys do all for the district for our kids the parents everybody you put on a good show every time that you guys work and we really
042appreciate all of you for what you do and uh you'll never know how important you really are yeah mark you off to be at the back [Music] right [Music] [Applause] yeah i want to thank coach i want to take a minute i want to thank um each one of you all you you all do make it happen and what coach said is is true um you might be the only person somebody interacts with from little my steve if they're coming in from the outside but there's one person i want to thank and and really give a special thanks to um this person has been here for in the district 17 years and i get a chance to give this recognition away once or maybe twice a year this year i'm giving two away um it's
043our tripoli award and this person has been with the district 17 years and honestly makes everything happen in athletics and look she's already she's already putting her head down alma you need to come up here i'm going to give you our tripoli awards [Applause] [Music] [Applause] let me let me say i'm going to talk for just a minute about alma alma is one of those amazing individuals that no matter what is going on in your day she will make you smile she is always coming in always to my office asking me how i'm doing tell me to have a blessed day she is absolutely amazing and when we talk about family and little mystey alma is one of the people that really makes it a family and we're truly blessed to have her here um
044you're amazing and you deserve this recognition and i'm just proud i'm proud to be the superintendent to be able to give this to you because you mean it you mean so much to the district so with that [Music] [Applause] thank you [Applause] everybody [Music] [Laughter] oh my goodness i'm lost for words so what are you [Music] that's my book thanks [Music] and alma thank you again and we truly truly appreciate you everything you do for us so from recognizing one family member who's been with us for 17 years we have some new family members we're going to introduce here when our executive director for human resources ashley brown she comes up to the podium for some new introductions all right thank you superintendent gallagher mr montemayor board of trustees it's my pleasure this evening to
045introduce some of our newest lobos um last month we brought to you for consideration several new hires in some very um critical positions support positions in our district and so two of those folks are here tonight so i'd like to start with um introducing our new assistant superintendent for curriculum and learning dr penny trammell dr tram will you join me so dr trammell's professional accomplishments are quite impressive she started as an elementary teacher in louisiana that was kind of her early career she moved into coppell isd where she served still as an elementary teacher and team lead elementary assistant principal and also an elementary principal still in coppell isd she went on to serve as the director for curriculum and instruction there followed by being the executive director for curriculum and instruction most recently dr
046trammell has served as the chief academic officer for curriculum i'm sorry chief academic officer in college station isd she has a wealth of experience in everything from stem implementation which is going to fit right in to curriculum development and strategic planning on a more personal note so we all know her resume and it's impressive but on a more personal note her husband's name is andy and she has um two children clayton and chelsea and she has one grandson who hangs the moon and the stars whose name is kaden and he is starting kindergarten this fall when i asked her what's your favorite team and or sport to watch it's a loaded question but she responded correctly by saying that um even though they're not winning like she'd like for them to her favorite sport to
047watch is football and her favorite team to cheer on are the dallas cowboys yes seal of approval seal of approval when i asked her what her proudest accomplishment is she said the career accomplishment that she's most proud of is converting a traditional school into a stem school a little known fact about dr trammell she says that she loves to zipline and she has ziplined in costa rica um so we have an adventurous assistant superintendent so without further ado i'd like to invite dr tramwell um to speak to us as our newest lobo thank you it is awesome to be here i am so blessed to be here when um so many people have received awards and recognitions i think it just speaks to the the great place this is to be and um i just
048want to board of trustees and mr gallagher thank you for allowing me the opportunity to come and serve the children of this district i am so excited to get started and roll my sleeves up and get right in there and work right along beside you to do great things for them so thank you you dr trammell um so i'm elated to introduce um our next newest um um announcement but not a new lobo a current lobo that's moving into a new position so i'm elated to introduce the new principal of lakeview elementary mr chris reza what's going down [Applause] mr reza has been a little elm lobo since 2014 and has served in many capacities in our great district um he has been house principal and associate principal at little elm high school he's been
049the virtual summer school principal the first ever and hope maybe last ever um maybe in summer 2020 um he was the lakeview elementary summer school principal this past summer and summer 2021 and he's currently the assistant principal at strike middle school where he helped open that building and establish the culture helped establish the culture and traditions of that new campus prior to finding his lobo home here mr reza was a teacher and coach of many sports there's a long list of sports um for about 10 years on a more personal note mr reza is married to candace and they have uh uh three children four children um evan who's a graduating her who's incoming seventh grader and ayla who's three years old and is at the daycare here at zeller's is she here hi [Music]
050um so when i asked him again what's your favorite team and or sport to watch again a really great answer he says i'm a pure dallas fan he loves watching everything but especially dallas star hockey and um dallas cowboys football and basically if the tv's on he's watching sports uh when i asked what his about his accomplishment is he said it's becoming the last view principle i've been working hard to be able to be in this position to lead this campus and he's looking forward to that opportunity i asked him if he collects anything and he said he collects experiences um he doesn't want things like gifts he wants experiences him and his wife love love to watch live music and love to travel he's seen over 100 different artists in his life his very
051first concert was paul mccartney um a little known fact about mr reza he is originally from el paso teach el paso texas and he taught not only math but also ap art um so mr reza is a very experienced educator we're super excited to have you leading our lakeview campus and without further ado i'll give you the podium board of trustees mr gallagher um mr ross um ashley brown i just want to thank you guys for the confidence that you have in me and the opportunity to be the lakeview principal um and to move that district into brand new heights um if my mom comes running up here she still thinks i'm 12. so he's taking pictures i appreciate it um but i'm just really excited for the journey i'm really excited to get started
052i've already been working with the staff and know most of them well and and i'm really looking forward to the the challenges that it brings but also the great growth and all the things that uh the stem certifications that we've already gotten started so thank you guys very much congratulations and welcome and um hopefully that's not an interview question like what sports teams you i mean that i don't think that's new actually hopefully it's not all right uh mr roberts we have um some recognition that we want to um present to some of our teachers who are members of the superintendent employee advisory committee and this is something that's very important to me we started this a couple years ago it really provides us a connection a closer connection to the campuses and really a
053voice for the campuses so i'll let you take it away yeah thank you mr gallagher board of trustees um i want to keep the theme going with incredible employees that we have from miss rutledge to our new hires here new family members and i want to move into like mr gallagher said our seek our superintendent employee advisory committee i believe this is our second go-around now uh mr gallagher and myself get to spend four evenings a school year two in the fall two in the spring with these incredible employees and and teammates uh and really our number one objective and the purpose of seek really is to improve district systems and really have that two-way communication and and to gather feedback so that we can become better as an organization this group definitely does that
054we did some incredible activities just a few weeks ago on some different topics they always are open to share their thoughts and we have just a great time so we can't say enough how much we appreciate this group and the input that they give us we look to continue with this group as the nucleus and we want to add more employees to them as we grow next year so with that being said i'm going to go through we have some beautiful certificates for our sikh members and i'm going to go through these and as you come up just stand here and we'll hand those out and then we'll hold our applause to the end okay so first up uh brenda adami thank you brenda blanca aryas irene bagby uh jaquandalin below blaze brockman julia espinoza
055carla figueroa thank you so much latrice garner dina glitzos chelsea guerra and yvonne ugly ivanovic pretty pretty close a practice over and over [Laughter] but we've actually made changes based on the recommendations so one of them is account count calendar next year where we have the significant rate in the fall yes so that this is really this isn't all of them [Music] right right here we need two rows i'm sure [Applause] now as i've said before you all are welcome to stay the entire board meeting but i know it's been a long day you don't have to stay so thank you all so much for being here and for serving on that important committee so are we ready to go to reports the superintendent okay all right dr glover if you'd come up and let
056us know about the federal funding i will i don't have any accolades or cupcakes but i have federal programs so let's go good evening president montemayor superintendent gallagher board of trustees each year we come to you and share some information on our intent to apply for federal program funding in front of you you will see some of those federal fund opportunities that are included including our essa funds which are inclusive of title 1 2 3 and 4 are cte or perkins strengthening career and technical education idea or individuals with disabilities act as well as idea pre-k and this is the really fun alphabet soup part um the the corona response and relief supplemental appropriations act which is our sr2 the arp homeless ii arp american rescue plan sr-3 it's never boring and uh the esr
057supplemental and additional grant opportunities and all teasing aside this has been an amazing opportunity to bring these funds into our district and really put them to some excellent use already as well as going forward on your next slide you'll see our entitlements and you'll notice that i have them listed there on the side essa perkins idea and then sr 2 3 and supplemental with the approximate entitlements for essa perkins and idea those are formula funds that we receive each year sr2 ester supplemental and sr3 those programs opened with a back award of march 20 excuse me march 13th of 2020 and to sr2 and esther supplemental are complete in 2023 and sr-3 is complete in 2024. we do have some opportunities coming up for our community to share their questions their ideas their thoughts on
058any of these programs sometimes it's just interesting for people to come and listen what everything means and what it's for we have had an open survey for sr3 we did get some great feedback and then also we have our district education improvement council meeting coming up at the end of the month and also a call for public input any questions the public may have on june 2nd and that will go out in our community newsletter as well as be posted on our website so we do encourage people to come to that zoom meeting so that we can answer any questions so what questions may i answer for you regarding federal funds yes so earlier we heard about the um funding that we'll be able to use to get 35 positions yes ma'am are there any
059ideas that have been shared about what to do with these funds with the the funds not part of the the new positions absolutely i'm glad you asked so these funds are as miss adams mentioned for closing the gaps for tutoring for extension anything to accelerate learning for our students not just in academia but also the social emotional learning the home piece and so it's it's a very each campus has the opportunity to spend funds as they see fit within their campus plan to target their specific students and their needs and so it has been a fantastic um infusion and opportunity for us and so in addition to the positions um we have had the opportunity to get some intervention programs some additional summer school help for our students that may need that as well as
060materials our teachers may need to increase the resources that we have but we're really excited because one thing about esser though it's called three different things the same allowability for costs are across the board there are 20 allowable costs and within each one it can range from funding positions to social emotional learning to summer school i mean so there's a lot of different things that can be done there so we have both campus autonomy for their specific students but also the opportunity to bring in some of those positions absolutely isn't it okay absolutely dr glover i think you're up there for that and i'm back okay fantastic we're holding one moment okay thank you very much again this evening we have your curriculum and learning update both myself as well as amanda ball our director
061for professional learning and advanced academics last month there were some questions about igc and what a district does not only our district but in the state of texas what we do to help support our students who are great students but for whatever reason they have not been able to reach academic success on the on the eoc specifically and so what we've done is we do igc committees along with the rest of the state and so who that is for i just want to give you a a brief overview of what that is and how it works and so a squadron enrollment charter can award a high school diploma to a student who has taken but failed to achieve the end of course assessment graduation requirements for no more than two as you know we have
062five required eoc's english one english two biology us history and algebra 1. and so if no more than two courses we can convene an igc that's established at the end of or after students 11th grade year and it can't start before the subsequent school year okay so how do we make those determinations our end goal is for all our students to be successful so this is a and i will show you on the next slide this is an opportunity that came to us as legislation back in 2015. when we look at individual graduation committees that are rooted at the campus there are other determining factors for students to be qualified to graduate under an igc including attendance did the student take the tsi as vab i will make sure you have that information but the
063main one that is followed across the state is the completion of a project related to the subject area of that course so that a student can demonstrate proficiency so or they can prepare a portfolio in in our district and across the project is done that can be supported through the campus staff as well as the curriculum and learning department support and so a student must also complete all credit requirements this is completely separate of credit requirements and then they must also complete all additional requirements recommended by the igc and the committee's vote must be unanimous so how do we do that here that gives you a good overview what it is if you had to explain it this would be what it looks like so for us we first determine who qualifies for an igc
064we notify our parents and we review our students specific needs any certain programs that we need to make sure that we take care of all those specifications for our kids we hold that initial igc meeting in those different content areas they access the project and they complete it under supervision at their home campus they submit the final project for grading with feedback and we pass on the final project recommendation to the students campus so the grade isn't necessarily the idc the the individual graduation committee is a committee made up of the principal of the a content area teacher for whichever content the student is trying to reach that proficiency among several others and so with that we pass along the project information and the igc meets to make determinations if a student may graduate under
065this bill you also have on this very first slide down at the bottom if you're interested in some light reading you have the evolution of the legislative senate bills that we've had the opportunity to work with each year they each time we have a legislative session they come forth and they update it for the years right now our igc is for any student who would have graduated between 2014 2015 and 22-23 they will do a re-up of sorts in 23 and hopefully continue this process and so last month when you asked what is the igc and dr mecca said we'll show we'll share with you what that is that is what it is what questions may i answer for you before i turn it over to miss fall yes ma'am i have one about how
066do parents um or do students access this process and when do they need to when do they need to initiate it or is it something that we initiate kind of we initiate we keep a careful eye on all of our students each student so as soon as it they go ahead and they take that assessment but as soon as the need arises we are making the student the parent everyone aware of the opportunity before them and so there that begins a little bit that begins quite a bit earlier in the spring after those december results come in and so we provide the support to the student at the campus level and then we also provide they provide support at the campus level and we also provide support in our department okay thank you absolutely yes
067ma'am how many students have we have to take advantage of this program so since 2015 as of this morning 123 um of course you 2020 we didn't have it was a kind of an unusual year the process changes a little bit each time but we make sure that we pay very special attention to it because of its obvious importance and so as those rules change we see does this apply to more students how can we make this work how can the students show their great proficiency even though it's not an eoc and so we do pay attention to those things and so we're proud to be able to support them in this way certainly all right at this time i'm going to turn it over to amanda ball our director for professional learning and advanced
068academics certainly awesome president montemayor board of trustees mr gallagher thank you so much this has been a busy evening so i appreciate your time i'm going to be brief miss adams mentioned people earlier in our investment in people and so it's a perfect connection and also our stem certification all the people we've been celebrating and so i'm glad that i got to to go tonight with my update so some highlights for adult learning for this summer and this time of year moves at warp speed for us in our office and you know slows down for some people it's like crap at the end of the year and i can't even answer a text message at this time of the year so it's an interesting it's an interesting dynamic um the feedback that we get from
069teachers and we had some of our seek members here and some of their feedback led to a major change a major shift in our summit as well and we're going to talk about that in just a second but the feedback that we get from teachers has a direct impact on the work that we do in the summer and so the first step that we take is we do curriculum revision and refinement over the summer and so that's the first thing we're doing and it's two days after school is out we get groups of teachers together that are volunteers some of them choose to get paid some of them choose to do exchange hours but they are giving up their time to take the feedback that teachers have given all year long and put that to
070work revising and refining our curriculum and the purpose of that is to make sure that we're developing and maintaining a guaranteed and viable curriculum for our students so that's the first part of our kind of highlight for a professional during the summer and then we have summit and we've got a lot of firsts this year for summit we're going to be in our new building and so we are putting together a conference blind you know we've gone over and we've seen this kind of you know construction zone but we're kind of doing this in a new way we're also having a hybrid conference for the first time so the last couple of years we've had it virtually and it was popular it was popular to a lot of teachers that were able to go on
071vacation and still attend professional learning but we know that there's a lot of power in face-to-face learning so we don't want to give that up so this year we've committed to offering in-person and virtual sessions so we have 92 sessions and 25 of them are virtual so we're gonna have these concurrently and this is the first time that we're doing it in this way and um and so we we've got quite a few things happening for the first time we're gonna be in this new building and in july and so our teachers are gonna get to see it and and mike's very excited about that um admin launch this is we call it a retreat it's we don't go anywhere really we'll be in the new building for this as well but this is an
072opportunity for our administrators campus and district administrators to come together and really the purpose for this is to get on the same page this is about visioning this is about clarity and our goal is to get ready for the first day of school and we give our campus leaders what they need to open the doors on the first day this is really about setting the tone and it's three days that we get to spend all together for um again that kind of clarity and purpose for our teachers so they know that we're all on the same page too lobo welcome week you guys are always invited to our breakfast our lunch that we have we'll make sure that you get that invitation this this year as well this is a week-long orientation and hr has
073done something different the last couple of years is they've taken a little bit off of our plate because they're doing weekly orientations and onboardings with our new hires and so we've really been able to dig in instructionally in that week and we don't have to worry about giving people their laptops and and making sure they have their you know benefits they're doing that in the summer so we're really being able to focus instructionally with our new hires during lobo welcome week and making sure that they have those foundational skills that they need to be confident to start the the school year off on the right foot and then it's fall kickoff just like that and we're all back together again and this is a mix of campus-based and district-led professional learning and it's strategic to
074make sure that we're all getting to experience all this um that collaboration and it's also protected work time for teachers we we build that in on purpose today so they can have that time to feel prepared for the first days of school so that's it that's how fast it goes and and then we spend the rest of the year um taking all of that learning that we did in the summer and we we practice we apply it and we give each other feedback and um and then we make those connections and i wanted to just kind of leave you with this we we designed the professional learning to get the most out of our time together because we don't have a lot of time and we don't want to pull teachers from instruction so we
075have to take the student data think about what it is that the skills that we need to transfer that into for teachers and then um and that's what we design to get the most bang for our buck what questions do you have for me okay awesome thank you so much guys thank you mrs paul great job thank you um next i would like to and i'm going to do just a very brief um update on on the bond election and you know as the community knows um board knows the the the 2022 bond um did not pass i guess it was a week ago this past saturday it seems like it was a month ago at this point you know the the district [Music] put together a committee of of community volunteers that really put
076that bond package together based upon what the needs are of the district moving forward as you all know [Music] we have a bond workshop coming up on june 1st that that we'll be able to get into some more of these topics and discussions at a deeper level but um i don't have the clicker but on the next slide it says what what we know um the reality is you know because the bond did not pass there will definitely be an additional cost to the district and taxpayers and what we mean by that um is it and and i may ask mr martin to come up if you have questions about this but for every six month delay there is it will add at least a four to six percent increase to the construction cost so
077we're talking um labor cost supplies is that correct mr martin um and really that cost that you're looking at there that 15 million 367 525 dollars that would be the cost at the time of build so whatever those projects are those costs will be increased so for example elementary number seven had an estimated cost of 35 million five hundred thousand dollars because the delay um it will be projected to be at 39 million seven hundred sixty thousand dollars so the the you know the the reality is we had the capacity to go out for a 398 million dollar just under 400 million dollar bond 400 million dollar bond without a tax increase for all of those projects which would be the expansion of the high school elementary 789 middle school number three um the playground
078equitability um in in the the the different specifics regarding the high school you know the the the gym the competition gym um the orchestra spaces and and so on because of this the board will have to determine um really what what angle we want to go as a district we want to go out for um the same dollar amount do you want to go for a lower dollar amount right now based upon what i know today our capacity is still under just at 400 million without raising the current tax rate um to go out for all of these projects i think at this point we miss the window to do that without raising taxes so you are going to really have to get together on the first to look at what we want to do
079as a as a group so um so some additional costs that will be happening if the bond doesn't pass in the future will be transportation cost and portable cost next slide and again now this is all contingent upon a future bond not passing so if the board uh calls for a bond election in may or in uh this november and it doesn't pass um [Music] i think we missed a slide here okay go to the next slide we can come back to this one next slide so if the bond is not called for or does not pass in november these are the things that we will have to look at as a district we'll have to consider busing students so when for instance oak point elementary is a great example it's we have over 900
080students there right now so as new students move into that zone one of the options that we can look at is busting those students that move in to other campuses that have openings we can also look at rezoning our elementary campuses and then of course it's not on here but you know we certainly will look at using all available space in our schools meaning library space spaces common areas and then at the secondary level we would have to look at increasing the number of teachers that are floating you know and what that means is if you're a teacher that is floating you will be teaching in a classroom where that teacher's on conference period if that makes sense and i've done that as a teacher it certainly is is is challenging but it's doable the
081bottom line go back to that slide so the board is going to have to determine at a future date you're not voting tonight if you want to initiate a new bond committee if you want to call the old i don't say old committee the previous committee back together or if the board really wants to make a recommendation as the board on um you know really what you want to do the deadline to call for november 8th bond election is august uh august 22nd and um you know we've got some challenges ahead of us again if if the bond is called in november doesn't pass um i would certainly make a recommendation to go out again in may this next may um but then if it doesn't pass in may this is where we'll have to
082take a hard look at some of these um you know these suggestions or possible solutions so it's really important for the community to know those things that that we just talked about the busing of students the rezoning it's not to scare people into voting for the bond it's it's a reality doesn't mean it's happening this coming year but it will happen if we don't have the the capacity to build new schools the students are coming and this is what i what i've told people is the students are coming we're going to serve the students we have to find a way to serve them and find a a place for them to learn questions mr flores comment more than anything it's unfortunate that that it failed with just about 200 votes right and the previous bond
083passed with flying colors and i think as as i think about what happened is maybe communication we may have failed in communicating how this was going to work and even more so now that you're saying what the effects of of this not passing we need to even communicate that even more if we decide to go for a second bond in in november yeah i'm glad you brought that up and and this is one thing i want to be real clear with the community because people have asked me well why didn't you say that during the election we really can't and we're not there's no campaign right now but the one thing we've got to be careful i have to be careful superintendent i'm superintendent 24 7. i cannot advocate for the bond all i can
084do is present the facts it we have to be careful as a district now board members individual board members when you're acting as a board as a group of seven you also have to be very careful on how you communicate but individually all of this information these are facts this will happen i just can't say it because we never want to be accused of trying to scare people into voting for a bond now if people and i see our cfo assistant soup over there shaking our head if people ask me because they did ask during that um during our community uh meetings what's plan b and the answer really is portables um you know we will have to purchase new portables and when you do that that's going to come right out of operating funds
085and again mr flores you're correct i think communication is is key um we i've got to be careful how we communicate um and the district employees do but individual board members i think you've got a little more freedom as individuals to to talk about this what you won't see is if you do call for another bond election you're not going to see me talking about well if you don't vote for it this is what's going to happen i just can't do it but it's it is the reality the kids are coming and we have to have a place for them so i i do appreciate that because we definitely have been talking about how can we say things a little differently we'll definitely review what we communicated and maybe how often yeah i just want
086to piggyback off what mr flotus said i think a lot of it is communication i know i i take it like i take that very personally um i know i could have been more vocal i kind of i think there was what i've realized been talking and realizing how i communicated or did not communicate during the process and then with people afterwards there was a lot of apathy i think from a lot of people that i've spoken to that are supporters of the bond and of these processes there's a lot of them that didn't vote because they just assumed the last one was so successful we've done great things since then et cetera and you know definitely that's going to be something that we'll need to change going forward um i will also point out
087that is why you know there is a thought exchange out that's just because you know my own personal belief is i think we didn't answer the questions on the ballot says it's a tax increase we say it's not how do you bridge that gap that i think that was the overriding reason um to a discussion on why not a second high school that was i don't think that was ever as comprehensive enough as it could have been an explanation as to it's not just a land issue yes okay what does our district look like as two high schools would we not have you know we wouldn't have c utx we wouldn't have culinary arts we wouldn't have welding we wouldn't what would a two high school little elm school district look like and i think
088that would also change the discussion a lot too about just yeah can we build a second campus yes so what does that look like and going back to what mr flores said we've already talked um cecilia and i um for those listening cecilia is our director for communications doing those ask the superintendent videos and you know submit questions really doing a series of those videos this is again where we have to be careful that during the campaign once you call for an election right now we can speak a little more freer um about it so we'll have to get some of these videos out um sooner so that's why i mentioned that's why i think that thought exchange is so important because even though those are the two issues i think that may not be
089the two issues that really come forward if we do get a good participation of the authority change and really i think that is why it's so important because we do need to hear from our community on what the real issues were good yeah i i agree i just want to kind of echo it president montmartre said is i had several people ask me you know could the district have done more and my point blank answer was yes not necessarily the district i think the district and mr gallagher did a fine job as david said i think we as a board could have done a tremendous amount more and the one thing that i point out to everyone that asked me it said is remember we as a board we're the one that called for the
090election we're the one that asked for the bond not the district not mr gallagher it was kind of it's kind of on our shoulders and our job if we're going to call for a bond to be to go on election we need to help that along as much as we possibly can when we had the last one in 17 i know that every single one of us board members were out there quite often almost every single public meeting that we had on it and we were afterwards i think every one of us were engaging with the community and talking to folks quite a bit um this one unfortunately not so much but my time is short but if it does come back i will be out there trying to rally the community as much as
091possible um i think there was some confusion with people who thought they were having a property tax increase and we couldn't be clear about the damage that would happen um i honest i the the community members who reached out to me are now feeling badly about not having voted and about not having voted yes i feel confident about in the future having a favorable outcome i honestly think this was just an unfortunate life lesson learned for the whole community no one i've talked to wants this outcome that is pending for us and i think there's more understanding unfortunately from failing um and now there's clarity on oh that's what's going to happen oh we don't want that to happen so i honestly feel like definitely we could do the communication but the communication and the
092consequence is out there and everyone is looking at the consequence right now so as close as we can get to the they won't be the the right before we can't say anything else we just need to be reminding people of this negative consequence until we can't anymore you know um because it's it's a painful consequence to think about portables and the waivers and going back to i mean that that's kind of going backwards and we're growing so we have to go forward so people just need to understand that well and it did and again i appreciate all the comments and i agree um wholeheartedly with each one of you um and mr flores we definitely are going to re-examine how we communicate and what we communicate um so i definitely appreciate that the one thing
093um that again is another fact is it put everything benefit past if you call it it puts everything back a whole year so elementary number seven was going to open in august of 2024 and now at the earliest it'll be august of 2025. so we will have to have some plans in place to address the you know the the students that are coming and i do want to say for the community that's listening you know that this this bond uh bond 2022 we really started planning this with the community the community and the committee way back in 2021 and really almost in 2020 we started looking at when we would have to go out for a bond for the growth that's coming so this wasn't thrown together there was a lot of thought put into
094this a lot of hard work by these committee members multiple meetings a lot of discussion a lot of healthy debate and you know at the end of the day we're going to obviously respect the voters with what they decide our staff our teachers they've always risen to challenges definitely appreciate the support of the board um but june first we'll have an opportunity to dig in and you all will be able to have some discussion about what what path you want to take as a board so i appreciate you all appreciate the support and you know june 1st is coming up pretty quick and it'll be it'll be a good meeting any other questions all right thank y'all all right [Music] all right uh so first up i do have uh mr ty phillips who just
095uh approached the podium just state your name and then you'll have five minutes i'll give you a one minute heads up towards before the end [Music] okay my name is ty phillips and i'm here to talk about accountability i mean we sit and we listen to all these good things tonight and then we have the discussion about how we could have done so much more for the elect or for the bond several years ago i helped mr english with his re-election campaign and afterwards mr english asked me to be a part of a group to hold him accountable to his campaign promises that never really happened but mrs watkins our new board she worked really hard in her campaign she talked about academics first she talked about accountability and she talked about specifically holding the
096board accountable i think that's great but i'm not optimistic that one person can hold the rest of the board accountable and so tonight i want to talk about training last month mr montemeyer mentioned that only mr blackwood was the only person that completed all the training but the mention was was about the additional training that extra training that's done every year so it's kind of not transparent it's kind of misleading i have here the records of all the board members training and and you can also find what training is required on the board member website of lusd it says topic one special required training uh mr blackwood has done a lot of training in his six years and this is an example of the required training governance for improved student learning which has to be
097done every two years what board members need to know about sexual abuse sex trafficking updated every two years evaluating and improving student outcomes to be done every two years child abuse prevention it's a one hour course to be done every two years then there's the open public meetings act and cyber security there is only one other board member that is required that has done all those required training dr thompson has only been us with us for a year and a half and she's the only other one see last year um this said that mr english had completed all of his training but some of the other board members were lacking well mr flores he's been with us for eight years his last training in the topic one was in 2015. so all those things that
098i just mentioned no record of being taken in eight years um mr english even though it said last year on the website that he completed all of his training as of 2014 he's only done three others in the topic one child abuse prevention he took in 2020 and 2021 in cyber security 2021. i'm not even gonna go through the rest that's like a train wreck we're talking about academics first but we're not even doing the required education to know that we're putting academics first we're not doing these things now we are paying for conferences and you know we have board members that are going to conferences with topics like don't let embarrassing complaints embarrass you or avoiding daisy chains and chain gangs i stay out of jail free session one clean it up because i'll
099be back but it's time for the public to be the ones that hold the board members accountable thank you mr phillips all right the second person we have is uh mr jason salisbury hey you can state your name and i'll give you one heads up for five minutes total good evening everybody board president i always forget what you say first president first then everybody else firstly before i go into my little diatribe i would say yes the board needs to come back yes you need to do a new committee because the old one is going to leave a bad taste in people's mouths so get a new one let's get it into and let's get it one let's just get it done so [Music] my name is jason salisbury and i've been in little elm
100for over 20 years i've had one daughter go from k through 12 and i currently have two other kids in school one in middle school one in elementary i'm here today because there's something going on in texas and i think it needs to stay the heck out of little elm there's a lot of talk about book banning i'm against it clearly because i'm up here i've been told little um isn't curly partaking in this and i want it to stay that way my wife and i are the parents of our kids we will be the people who decide what they read watch and learn a parent's choice which should be considered sacred i lost my place she could be considered sacred as well as to the board should there be something that we do not
101wish our kids to learn read or watch we will make that decision ourselves in the interim of all this i've also submitted other policies in case it keeps creeping into little elm i've submitted four policies to the board to potentially circumvent them what i consider our ideas letting parents get involved letting parents if they don't like a book a portal that has previously been discussed so that they can choose what their kids get to do a policy that doesn't ban a single book unless the parent choose a library bill of rights a parental portal book which is i've been told in coming basically what i'm getting to is it's each parent should parent their own child each household should make their decision for their kids i don't want anybody making any decisions for my kids
102anymore that i know nobody wants me making decisions for them and their kids you don't summon rushdie said if there's a choice between absolute safety and freedom then freedom must always prevail thank you mr all right so moving on we have um action item consider approval of financial reports for march 2022 mr weiss sorry jessica i skipped ahead first item is uh consider approve consider the regular board minutes uh of april 25th 2022. everyone's had a chance to review those is there a motion to approve so is there a second second all right any comments or edits or questions on those all right all those in favor station all right motion passes thank you very much now mr weisser good evening superintendent gallagher president of board of trustees the privilege of presenting the financial reports
103tonight in our general fund tonight we're not presenting any budget amendments to the general fund we'll bring a final budget amendment uh next month to close out the year there's no current impact on the general fund highlighted in green um board policy indicates that we maintain fund balance of at least 24 of our total annual operating expenditures so we're meeting that requirement currently in our capital outlay fund this has been updated to include uh all projects as of april 30th and all projects are on track from budget perspective and we're about 21 million project budget dollars remaining on approved projects no debt service fund we've realized all of our revenue for the year our debt service payment will be made in august we're on track for that at this point we don't anticipate any changes
104to the fund balance for the year but we'll again we'll update all that with the final budget amendment that we bring next year or next month the administration recommends approval of certain march 22 financial reports as submitted all right is there any questions actually is there a motion to approve the financial reports as presented is there a second second any questions all right all those in favor all right thank you mr rice thank you very much all right um is there anything from consent agenda that needs to be pulled out individually okay anything else uh mr gallagher are we able to speak to that on its own yeah yeah absolutely do you need a motion [Music] a motion to pull it out is there a motion to pull out item a from the consent agenda
105onto its own all those in favor okay all right president montemayor board member so item a is um a an update to ef local she'll um sonic do we need to that was to pull it down do we need another motion to open it for consideration okay thank you so ef local um this is a policy update uh regarding instructional materials and in our policy ef local library books are one of those considered instructional material so what this policy update allows is when a book is challenged informally we have an internal process that jeff weisman our curriculum department and our librarians have developed um because there are some concerns that are starting to we're seeing it on social media we're hearing about it on the news this will allow when a library book is challenged
106informally it will allow the committee to review it internally and to while they review it and especially for those books where there's only one copy this allows for that book to be pulled during that review process because right now it it actually states access to challenge resources should not be restricted during the reconsideration process except the district may deny access to your child if requested by the child's parent one big problem with that is when they are reviewing a book if especially if there's one copy we certainly can't leave that on the shelf while they're reviewing it mr flores mr gallagher would you kind of explain the process let's say we open up a new school a new high school can we get the motion first and then and then discuss it okay well i
107guess were you done yes okay but i can ask more answer more questions yeah so is there so is there a motion to approve uh the changes to uh ef local board policy update as presented [Music] all right is there a second second okay now questions yeah so maybe it would be helpful to explain the process in how the books arrive at a library when let's say we open up a brand new high school how to how do we select the books that come into the high school in the first place yeah so um it can be purchased in bulk and that's what we see a lot of times when a new building is open um you're ordering thousands of books and i don't know the exact number of library books that we have at
108the high school but let's say we opened a new high school you would have to a librarian is not going to hand pick each book to put on the shelf a lot of the distributors and the vendors will will sell i'll describe it as like packs um bulk packages to really to fill the shelves that's hopefully that makes sense okay so we don't know as a district what's really going in there until somebody points it out no that that's that's correct to a point um and again there's thousands of books in our libraries um in in i mean to be blunt it's impossible for the librarian to read every single book you it just isn't going to happen we don't have the staff to read every single book in our libraries it just it's impossible
109i wish we had the staff for that um but they're teaching classroom in classrooms at this point so so i guess in addition to that so then how do books get added to the current book availability at current libraries yeah from year to year or periods period and i don't have a librarian here but i can talk from experience uh when i was a principal so what we have um especially with our aging buildings or buildings that have been been around for a while the librarian will look at the inventory they do inventory all the time and especially at the end of the year they'll go through the inventory they'll run a report on which books are checked out on a regular basis and which books haven't been checked out for for maybe years so
110you only have you have a limited amount of shelf space so what you want to get are books that are engaging that students want to read you know we want our kids to read so we want want to get material that they're going to be interested in so the librarians will pull books that are haven't been checked out they're just not kids aren't interested in them they'll pull them and then they'll order new books to replace those so i don't have an exact number but i would imagine you know it can range from 50 books a year to and i might be making these numbers up well my question wasn't so much the numbers but how do they choose the titles that they're ordering is there like a a refresh pack or uh there can
111be or or it's by topic um you know it's by obviously age-appropriateness and then topic you know really what are kids interested in you know if you you think about the books that were in the library when although i'm older than you but when i was in school i don't think the kids would be interested in that today so it's really by topic they might be able to order a small package that's already pre-packaged but that's what you're going to find a lot when you're ordering books is a lot of pre-packaging and they do look at titles but you you still don't really know unless you're reading the books could a teacher or a student make a request for a particular book and then the librarian ordered those books yes yeah yep okay absolutely yeah
112and that that happens if there's a you know high interest topic um kids um they'll they'll ask the librarian you know we don't have enough copies of whatever it is i remember when i was in elementary uh principal it was kept in underpants that was the big we didn't have enough enough copies of those so um it depends on on what the desire is and what the topic is that the kids want because it was my understand that there was also just kind of certain um literary awards that are given out to books each year and stuff and that we would automatically get any books that won certain awards or something like that that's yeah that's what's going to lead to maybe some more controversial topics coming into our libraries because they've won certain prizes
113that would then automatically put them on our shelves is that well and i can't speak to controversial topics but i can tell you like the blue bonnet award that's a big one for elementary schools caldecott um the newberry award calcutta's um it's been a while picture um it's the illustration books that are illustrated newberry is is more of a novel um and then the blue bonnet is what they um yeah it's the state state recognitions but i guess the takeaway is our librarians are still have full discretion whether they pick those order those or not yeah absolutely we these aren't just sent to schools and we have to take them um they're ordered or we accept them if they're in some sort of package so then what's the um what's this process look like now
114if a parent a parent comes or a student or a member of the community or someone comes to object to a book what's that process gonna look like now so we already have a process in place um and this is something that um you know when this in different communities are experiencing this in different ways i wanted to make sure it was on our website so it's currently on our website we have a formal process that if a parent or staff member or anyone really challenges it can be instructional materials it can be a you know an activity a teacher does in class it can be a library book it can be any sort of instructional material there is a formal process that is there to date i do not believe we've had any formal
115challenges of library books or instructional materials that i'm aware of i don't believe we've had any since i've been here superintendent we do have an informal process again that the librarians and really it's a small committee consistent of our director of library services and our librarians that if a community member maybe is not a parent or a staff member if they say hey i've heard this book is highly inappropriate for schools rather than us you know just jumping to that formal process i think it's incumbent upon us as professionals to review that book and determine if there is any validity to that and if there is then we can recommend that they go through the formal challenge process but in the meantime i think it's important that you know what this does what this allows
116is if we are reviewing that book um it allows us to review it and you know pull it during that review time so if the review finds it's inappropriate it gets pulled um would that be public somewhere like who gets notified about that or how does well if it's polled um it will be pulled while it's being reviewed but if it's pulled we're not going to pull it permanently that that is not something the district will do the community member or staff member or whoever has a concern with that book will need to go through the formal process so if the formal process finds that something should get pooled what happens um or that not that again if the formal process finds that something is appropriate what happens then that book or instructional material would
117be pulled at that uh so one of the wondering types of comments that have been made you know social media and public hearing tonight if somebody does want to have their kids read something that a school is deemed inappropriate they're still free to do so right i mean they can say hey my kid's not getting access at school but this is the list that i want to now pull to is that going to be available for them not if something is um it's if it's deemed if it's a library book then it will not be available to that child's uh to the to the parents children if that makes sense so yeah it won't be available to any of our students if it goes through the formal process or finds that it should be pulled
118it won't be available to anybody but how are do how's that going to be tracked and does that get made public now if something if you look at our formal process our former process is not about banning books or banning instructional materials it's really up to the individual parent okay so if for instance dr thompson if you know you have a if your daughter has an assignment or a library book that you don't think is appropriate we'll go through that process and it won't be available for your child but we're not going to pull it and ban it for all students except for this process no it wouldn't just while it's in just while it's just in the review yeah so the current policy is aligned with pico 1982 supreme court about not removing something
119while it's being reconsidered the today may 16 tasby issued policy recommendations specific to how we can manage it we haven't had an opportunity it was just issued today so we haven't had an opportunity to review casper's policy alert specific to this where they provided updates from what ta recommended we literally it just came out today so i think there's a i mean we're needing to review the latest information um and specifically make sure that what our new policy is doing will not take us too far away from aligning with the law the current policy is aligned the chasm policy updates the alert i haven't had a chance to to review it um it literally just came out today um and the ta when i did get a chance to look at but i think we
120need to compare side by side and most importantly we need to make sure that anything we do differently from what we have is still going to be aligned with the law that's really this this still is what this allows is if it's specific to library books because again when you have one copy and if we want to review it as a district because of a staff member how can we review it and still make it available for students if it's pulled off the shelf during the review right the only issue i mean i haven't had it i haven't had a chance to review the new policy alert so well it's not a policy yet it's it's up to the board if it becomes the alert about making the policy specific to the library books being
121pulled the alert just came out today unless i'm mistaken may 16th today yeah yeah i it just came i haven't i haven't had a chance to review it and i'd be more comfortable reviewing their alert and comparing it to what's being recommended i'd i'd be more comfortable knowing the latest information especially on such a sensitive i mean it's a very simple i just want to be clear this yeah this doesn't ban books it doesn't remove books permanently but it allows because currently the way the policy reads is we can't pull the book off the shelf to even review it because you're still going to have to leave it there to make it available for the students i i think you're concerned if i'm understanding correctly right if if it's graphic in nature sexual in nature
122and and it's very evident that it's described sexual acts of some kind and then we i think we should we would want to pull it for temporary reasons because i certainly don't want my children reading anything like that i mean we wouldn't allow a movie inside the classroom let's write the r rated x why would we allow the book and i'm not saying that i'm in favor of just banning books because there's a list of books that need to be banned right i'm saying let's well that's something that's really evident that's in sexual nature or graphic then i think we should pull it temporarily until it gets reviewed yeah and that's really why this um this came about is if a community member a parent or a teacher or staff member discovers a book that
123they have a concern with we really need time to review it without removing it permanently but mr flores that's that's exactly what it is again my issue is that we are aligned now with the law and specifically pico was specifically about officials removing books from school libraries that is entirely what do you know about this isn't removing books though so what would you be doing according to what you've written that's what it would be we haven't reviewed the policy alert from tasby today i feel like it's a big decision and an important one and we owe our due diligence to review with even our attorney this new policy with our legal counsel but i don't know that's a board decision so i'm going to let the board make a decision on this that makes sense
124i mean um okay well the vitamins the item is up for vote so are there more comments or discussions on whether we'll approve or not approve this change to to local policy um i'd like to weigh in a little bit um the one thing just to be clear to the public that doesn't see this the one change that is on the agenda for tonight um it is simply one sentence uh the agenda or the the item as it is uh the online policy is item ef local uh and it's the very last page four or four it is under for the guiding principles it's a three step it's a three-step process on why the board or why the district may potentially remove a dish or move a book from a moving book from circulation um
125i'm just going to read the three steps the three guiding principles here real quick one a complaint may raise an objection to an instructional resource used in the school's educational program despite the fact that professional staff selecting the resources were qualified to make the selection follow the proper procedure and adhere to the objectives and criteria for instructure resources set out in this policy two a parent's ability to exercise control over reading listening or viewing uh viewing matter extends only to his or her child three access to a challenge or resource a challenge resource may not be restricted during the re-consideration process except the district may deny access to a child if requested by the child's parent this is the addition this may not apply to library books at administrator's discretion that is the one change
126to the entire policy is that sentence this may not apply to our library books and administration discretion the reason for that is as mr gallagher stated the review process requires all three members of the review committee to actually sit down and read the book um the review process will not go forward unless those three committee members have all read the book and reviewed it if we have one copy of the book and it is constantly in circulation instead of checking it out the review process will never happen because those three committee members cannot read the book so the only change in the existing policy would be for administration to temporarily remove that book from circulation while the committee reviews it nowhere in the existing policy does it state even if a committee decides a book
127doesn't need to be in circulation if a committee finds it even if the committee finds it may be sexually explicit or obscene nowhere do we ever have is there a statement that a book would be removed from circulation or removed from the library it would be put basically on a select list that if parents wanted to allow their students to still access that book they could now there is an all likelihood that this entire process is potentially semantics because there is a better than zero likelihood that next year with the next year's legislation the texas legislation will come out with a school district rating system for books if that happened that's um i've heard that from multiple multiple legislators if that happens it would basically be like mr geller's talked about in the future us
128having a rating system that would allow essentially uh parents to be able to go in and look at any book in any library that their child may access and basically check yes no yes no yes no and mr blackwood one of the things we're doing as a district because this is a an issue that we're seeing pop up across the state um really across country is for full more transparency parents next year will have the ability to be notified when their child or or kids check out library books and access they'll have access to what books they check out and it will start a running history at that point so it's just more more transparency for parents so the the legislature most likely will come up with that rating system if they do it'll basically
129be probably very similar to uh to the movie rating system or um i doubt it'll be as simple as labels on a on music um the who knows what the legislature it could be three different types of ratings it could be 47 different kinds of ratings you know politicians you know hey who can figure them out and i've actually reached out to our current representative jared patterson to have discussion about this to see if we can work up a long-term solution including some sort of rating system at the state level what we don't want is for this to turn into an unfunded mandate for um you know for local districts and local taxpayers to basically foot the bill to develop a system we need some support and help with the state level on this and
130i would i would highly suggest every parent that is listen that has this much passion to come before your local school board please get in touch with your legislators because ultimately i hate to say it it's not going to be long before they're the ones deciding this issue for you it's going to be taken out of our hands before long i'll be honest with you it's heading that way right now so my concern is as a board practice follows the policy our existing policy so my question mr gallagher is have you done anything under the assumption that this new policy would happen has there been a book removed from circulation although that's not the current policy has anything been done that was not already voted on tonight no are you saying books removed from circulation
131um a book removed so that um tell me what's what's happening are you saying here in little elm isd yes yeah we've had several um concerns about books and um we do have a informal review process um but to make that happen that informal review process this needs to happen so we've been doing and then you said before that there how many challenges have been made we've had zero official challenges informal actions have been taken starting two years ago i think it was we had and i don't remember the day but we've had at least two community members come to the school board meeting to talk about concerns about library books has there been any in the last this year anyone who has approached the district about a book and that and there was any
132action taken about the person's complaint yes there there was a community member that reached out about a concern with some books that contain what this community member described as obscene sexually explicit material and what was the action taken by the district we're starting to review these books so where are the books as they're being reviewed where are the books now i i don't know where the books are right now i would imagine they're in the library um but they're in the process of of being reviewed but again we can't really do anything who are they being reviewed by because if there hasn't been a formal process and there's books that are being reviewed that that's what this informal which i emailed you about you asked about it so i sent you an email about the
133informal process that's who's reviewing it so those people on they had they didn't name names but it named what that committee was it was made up of um at least three people librarians that will look at the books and um start making a determination on whether they're appropriate if they're appropriate then i'm just this ignores the current policy so there have technically there haven't been any formal challenges but you're in the middle of reviewing the book because someone from the community challenged it so they i think to the formal process for what reason well and and i think and i can't speak to why they didn't put it through the formal process but i can tell you this if a community member brings a book or material forward that may contain obscenities or obscene material
134um we certainly don't want to ignore it as a district we want to follow the policy practice should follow policy that's what we want to do and what this this does this allows us to review those books so there's three issues here one is that we have a policy that is not being followed because the person could have been directed to follow the policy so that's one the other issue is that tasby has issued a policy alert that none of us has had an opportunity to review the third is that on the one hand is being presented to us that there haven't been any formal challenges meanwhile there is a book being challenged and it's not following the formal process so the transparency there is missing which pulls for a sensitive issue like this our
135integrity has to be tight well i'm concerned about if we what we do for one we have to do for all and anyone who has a challenge has to trust us that we're gonna for every time we're gonna follow the formal process which the overarching concern is me it's protection of our district reliability i mean if we're following the law our policies are following the law then what concern do we have about someone complaining but right now yeah we're not actually following the policy that we actually have adopted we're saying we haven't had any formal challenges but we are testing challenges so what what this allows though is when somebody brings forward a book that they believe contains obscene material it allows us to review that there is a supreme court case specifically about that
136yeah i mean i'm saying it is literally specifically about that and the decision was the it's the politicians it's the board's decision i'm not going to debate that the missile i don't i wasn't here for when the policy was developed but the the thrust of most of our policies has spend and protect our district from liability and to i mean obviously we want the best for our kids so us not following the policy especially on something like we are following the policy dr thompson here's here's how we follow your policy if you're if you're challenged if someone's challenging a book and we don't follow the existing policy we follow an informal policy no it's not informal review that is not um designed to remove a book permanently let me ask you this when if somebody
137brings something to your opinion or to your attention if they have a concern about something and let's say it's obscene material we have we have a responsibility to look at that as a different responsibility we have students who've reported what i mean sexual assault i'm serious so we've had students who've reported sexual assault and you know we've done we've had them follow the procedure yeah we have a policy in place so they can follow the procedure for a student a child and dr thompson so i'm saying that if we're going to learn a procedure on something that seriously let's bring this back what this ef local ball board policy applies what this ef local policy applies to that we're looking at right now is the informal process right so if they're a review that is
138to take place i mean there's just there's certain practicalities right if a book needs to be reviewed then someone needs to read it it cannot be in circulation while it's being reviewed right i mean just that yes or are we then committed to buying enough policy on enough books that are being reviewed to make sure that there's at least one in circulation while there's another one in the review process and that that's something the board would have to decide and so i just wanted because i i mean i imagine that the big concern is that one people are going to say this is just a way to circumvent keeping something off the shelves that we don't want to be on on the shelves and i mean i certainly don't want to run or why have
139any supreme court or again i i also have not been able to review the ta policy that came out today but i do believe there needs to be a practicality of being able to review something if they're if this process is to be followed so i'm wondering can this wording be changed instead of because right now it just says this may not apply to library books at administration's discretion that's a very broad brush so what if it was just this may not apply while the review process is taking place i mean would that fit what the what the district needs so i mean would that fit what the district needs to edit yeah and is there a time frame for that i think that we yeah we certainly can do that is there is there
140another place in here that does speak to the time frame of this informal process um it's on the website i don't know um i'm gonna say i just reviewed that portion that changed not the entire memory was under the the informal when we were communicating i recommended a time frame of 10 to 14 business days so that that would be clear so my other concern to the rest of the board is that i reviewed this in office of suggestions for clarity this was on wednesday thursday friday last week then on today the new tasby alert came out so the communication was already made about needing a tighter time frame about this being very different from what we have because it circumvents the current policy well can we just table this so we make sure we
141include that that wording the one just during the review process and then put a time frame to it i would ask you know the board if they want to do that i mean i can we can add that wording um and as discussed yeah so can you you know we can approve it we'll have two additional board members that can be included into the discussion yeah okay so i make a motion that the item be tabled we've already we've already first and seconded on this one so we just vote for it and if it fails then we can well if we we'll know if we can vote to table it and leave the item open until the later meeting correct right so i think we need to vote on that one okay so all those
142in favor for making the changes as presented okay all those opposed okay now emotion so i'll make the motion then to table this item until a future meeting for future consideration with changes yeah but i just want to say there's got to be some discussion prior to us just having it here right we need to meet as a love 8 to have a discussion and hash it out before we come out here and have this discussion well our next team of eight is until august because those dates are being discussed and does this or do we need to schedule a special meeting can't can this wait till august or should we do that's reports the motion is to hold it over for a future meeting it doesn't have to be the next meeting it's for
143a future meeting so yeah so i want to have a discussion out here well we can we can without really all the details yeah we can agree that the exact timing of it offline yeah yeah okay so is there a moment so is there a second second all right all those in favor of the motion as discussed okay motion carries we have time on the june first um it's as much time as you want we can we'll make it happen that works for me yeah let's try and get that in there it is a workshop correct the june 1st where he answers the workshop so that's before the june board meeting yeah so it's it'll be an open meeting yeah it'll be an open meeting so mary you you can join in on the conversation
144somebody sits over the workshop yeah okay that's what helps give it's that that's what i want to make sure yeah all right perfect okay so any other concentration items are all those in favor of approving the consent agenda with item a removed [Laughter] so is there a motion to prove that without me okay is there a second second second all those in favor thank you very much all right um i want to take time i mean i i love the meetings where we start whether it's a full room because that usually means me a lot of kids involved and recognitions and everything and that is that is some of my funnest parts too they're one of the top 10 lunches my funnest thing friday night football games are great and having all the kids here
145at board meetings are so probably on my on my top list of things to do then i also want to thank you know our new our new administration members for being here with us tonight um i look forward to working with you going forward um having lively discussions and i'm just i'm sure those things that you'll you'll be thrown into pretty pretty quickly here uh but thank you for coming out tonight it was a pleasure meeting you and uh thank you to everybody else and uh especially for everyone i think there's most people we've had stick around till the end in a very long time so um i want to thank everybody for that i'll start my left yeah you know it's it's been a tough three years right it seems like we keep hoping
146for the school year to end and hoping that the next year will get better and i just want to thank all the teachers and all the administration through this year was a tough year with teacher shortages substitute shortages and everybody chimed in this is the last week of school and then we were off to a well-deserved vacation so again thank you all uh the other item is we had seen some articles recently about four day work weeks for teachers and i believe there's about 15 school districts in the state of texas that are maybe doing that already and and it's helping from a retention perspective uh there's a lot of teachers applying for those positions and there's a lot of interest in that so i'd like to see maybe for a future meeting mr gallagher
147if we can maybe you know y'all can look at what that's possible obviously we'd have to go to the uh constituents and find out if there's even an interest from a parent perspective obviously daycare and those kinds of things would be a concern for them but again you could look at that yeah absolutely and um you know it's definitely something our team can start looking at studying because there's multiple different levels that we'd want to look at the interest the financial impact i mean there might be a financial benefit maybe a small one but the academic impact on academics so yeah we'll put together um probably won't be the next few meetings but it's going to take a while to put together a study on that and come back to the board and present what
148the outlook would be for that perfect thank you and just one last time i want to congratulate mary watkins on her win i look forward to having you take a seat up here yeah go apologize on i can't write and talk at the same time so um thanks staff for staying late uh much appreciated uh welcome to our new associates and everyone here uh very glad to have a chance to meet you guys um also like to consent uh or give a congratulations to miss watkins i would also like to thank uh mr levingston uh for any campaign i'll never say if anyone whether wins an election to lose an election uh unfortunately one was a little bit more successful than the other one um because i think all of us uh all of us
149basically win uh when we do have people that are interested in joining these positions up here so thank both of you very very much for putting yourself out there um other than that that's me um well i wanna it's summertime for the parents who are watching hopefully um you will use this time during the summer to practice your math math math math math math math um i just encourage all students to think about that the father is coming and parents to think about that the fall is coming and keeping those math skills brushed up is um very very very very important and i see our new director of curriculum smiling the math is is a big deal to me um the other thing i want to say is um tonight i think is our last
150no no no no i'll be here in june you'll be here in june beginning of it the beginning that's right the beginning i gave hot wings sedan for celebrating his many um years of service and there was a few for him to share but i don't know what happened to them there's something right there okay i'm sharing them with my family and i wanted to acknowledge officer hollyfield two years ago we did the first ever and probably never again um curbside car parade because of the class of 2020 in the middle of covet having so much you know lost in their graduation celebration it was exhausting but um he helped us make sure that happened this was before i was actually on the board um and my facebook reminder came up today but that is
151not why he got the cake the cake was because he's just been a place of solace for me i don't know if you guys been watching the different school board meetings across the nation that sometimes things get out of hand and he is definitely kept things in our school board meetings very very much in line and i appreciate that i have a family of law enforcement officials um my sister is a homicide detective in dallas and i appreciate what you guys do so i went to he got a cake now you and he also had enough to share i'm just saying people got treats tonight with enough to share i don't think any sharing has happened but they had enough to share so i want to congratulate miss mary watkins girl scout gold award winner
152coming up here to serve with us and also acknowledge dr livingston for um a grand campaign um it's definitely not for the week at heart and i'm very excited to have you join us um can't wait to get you on campus wednesday we do the canvassing wednesday and then now i'm in june get you up here so congratulations welcome all right board members thank you all very much um what a great night celebrating our students and um you know our staff that that were here so thank you all um but on the library books i do i look forward to that conversation and of course the direction of the board we're going to follow that is something that's happening across the state and if you've seen board meetings where people are coming and reading excerpts
153from some of these books that are very graphic uh very obscene fortunately we haven't had that here in little mystery and you know board members and in other communities are telling them to stop you know not to continue reading it but yet those books are on the shelf for kids to read and i think that's something that this board is going to have to discuss in detail and figure out a solution for that all right is there a motion to adjourn is there a second all those in favor all right motion carries at 9 40.