001Good evening, everyone. Happy Monday. We are going to begin our meeting in compliance with the Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551. I call this meeting of the Manor Independent School District to order on March 30th at 5:00 p.m. >> [laughter] >> Okay, at 5:00 p.m. Let the record show that a quorum is present. This meeting has been duly called, and notices of this meeting have been posted in accordance with Open Meetings Act. Uh close session. The board will now adjourn into executive session at 5:01 p.m. Awesome. Pursuant to the following sections of the Texas Open Meetings Act, 551.071, 551.072, 551.074, 551.076, and 551.129. Thank [snorts] you. >> Mhm. >> Good evening, everyone. Happy Monday. We will now um open up and reconvene in open session at 6:09 p.m. And we'll start with the
002Pledge of Allegiance. We have students. All right, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee Texas one state under God one and indivisible. >> [cough] [clears throat] >> All right, we're going to I'm going to um have one of our trustees uh read the vision and mis- mission statement from 5 years ago that might be changing soon. So I I'll take the vision. Uh Manor ISD is the best district in Texas where we provide an equitable education for all scholars and graduate them ready to become leaders in our community. I have. Thank you very much. [snorts] >> Collectively as a community, Manor ISD
003provides equitable resources, safe learning environment, and high quality educational service for all students to successfully achieve and reach their full potential. My trustees are on it. Way to go. Thank you. Okay, we're going to go to recognition 6. 1 March scholar recognition. Trustees Dr. Sermani, tonight I have the privilege of celebrating the latest and greatest things happening in March 2026 in Manor ISD. Before we get started to give everyone or our recognize a breakdown of what tonight will look like, when your name is said, if you could please walk up to the left right over here uh you'll walk across and shake um each of our trustees' hands and then you'll just walk right over here where if Ms. Cynthia could raise her hand Thank you, Cynthia. Um if you just wait right there until
004everyone's called and then at the end we're going to get here, take a group photo, and then everyone will head outside for their individual photos. So we'll get started with our first recognition. Uh Manor New Tech High School students made history as their digital animation team earned first place in the Division 4A filmmaking at the UIL State Championship for their film Daisy and Matilda. Their team competed against top filmmakers across the state with their work recognized for its creativity and technical excellent excellence. And I believe this is the first state honor for the campus, so it's double history. And so these history uh history-making students are Yuridia uh Reagan, Madiana Escareno, Roselany Marmolejo, and Haley Samadipa. >> [applause] >> All right, students for the title for robotics. >> [laughter] >> Moving on to our next
005one um which is state solo and ensemble. So we had students from both Manor High School and Manor New Tech earn UIL state state qualification in solo and ensemble for band and choir. This is the highest honor for this level of competition and only students receiving top ratings at the regional advanced to state. Mar- uh making this a significant achievement that reflects months of dedication and hard work. So we'll we'll start with the Manor High School band uh Kayla Garcia and Jaden Reyes. >> [applause] >> All right, good job. And I know we have some choir students, so for our choir soloists we have uh Mary Okpara, Tracy Tontianaco, Zion Callahan, and Isaiah Malik, and Jonathan Lopez. Just for the solos, we have more. Uh for ensemble Zochi Garcia, Valeria Castros, Zyamada Mills, Zion Callahan,
006Isaiah Malik, and Angel Daniels with director Dr. Dr. Tyler Henry. >> [applause] >> While y'all are shaking hands, we'll highlight our Manor New Tech High School. For band solo we have I- um Ariel Luwa Adesanya, Ellen Melendez, Ariana Iwuabuchi, Yartis Yartiza uh Rostro, Liam Salinas, Isaac Sosa, and for ensemble Ashley De Cruz, Kylie LeAnn, Munera Shah Shariar, um Ariel Luwa Ad- Adesanya, Brennan uh McNeely, Dario Gomez, Eli Rodriguez, Hayden Sheared, Daniel Vega with director Ricardo Rodriguez. And for choir we have Joshua Ria and Lauren Latta. With director >> [applause] >> Miller. Awesome. We want to have you guys We can have our recognize head to the middle for a photo. Smile, Damian. Ready, 1 2 3. >> [applause] >> Moving on from our students to staff. Um same breakdown and when a staff when your
007name is called if you could please come to the left, shake the hands of our trustees, and then you'll wait right here until we are done for our group photo. Kicking off with Blake Manor Elementary School, uh Harold Cavallon, ECE teacher, and Alma Medrano, dyslexia interventionist. >> [applause] >> From Bluebonnet Trail Elementary School, Ha Young Lee, music teacher, and Michelle Gomez, IST. >> [applause] >> From the CDC, Lori Torres, daycare associate. From Decker Elementary School, Eric Hug, instructional coach, and Taiwana Bell, senior administrative associate. >> [applause] >> From Lagos Elementary School, Nayela Garcia, second grade math and science teacher, and Janet Ward, counselor. >> [applause] >> From Oak Meadows Elementary School, May- uh Maydolly Camacho, fifth grade bilingual teacher, and Patricia Maldonado, nurse. >> [applause] >> From Pioneer Crossing Elementary School, Ruby Dano, inclusion teacher,
008and Lorena Zambrano, pre-K educational assistant. >> [applause] >> From Presidential Meadows Elementary School, Mariel Maria Lovenos, teacher ECE, and Amida Johnson, pre-K educational associate. >> [applause] >> From Shadow Glen Elementary School, Angelique Davis, music teacher, and Debra Vasquez, computer lab aid. >> [applause] >> From Manor Rise Academy, Melissa Melissa Christensen, third grade reading teacher, and Lindsey Clark, registrar. >> [applause] >> From Decker Middle School, Savanna Layo, eighth grade math teacher, and Angela Arugla, SLE paraprofessional. >> [applause] >> From Manor New Tech Middle School, Mark Rosell, sixth grade science teacher, and Jorge Velasco, inclusion staff. >> [applause] >> From Manor High School, Dr. Tyler Hughes, choir teacher, and Twymoiya Twymoiya Ganning, SECURITY OFFICER. >> [applause] >> AND FROM MANOR NEW TECH HIGH SCHOOL, ANNIE CHEN, science teacher, and Courtney Thomas, athletics trainer. >> [applause] >> Back
009again? Ready everyone? You can go ahead and get y'all to come over here next to the dais and we'll take our group picture. Smile. Yeah. Can you two maybe come on this side? Cuz yeah, we can't see anything past this. So yeah, y'all three if y'all could come this way. Yeah. Yeah, come this side. There's a little more room here. Okay, perfect. Nobody move. All right, ready? 1 2 3 Keep smiling. One more. 2 3 >> [applause] [applause] >> All right, we're going to move on to There is no public forum, so we're going to move on to close session session action items. 8.1 consideration approval of educator chapter contract, chapter 21 contract abandonment. Madam President Yes. Uh I move that the board approve there is not good cause to support Courtney Jackson's resignation from
010her position at Manor ISD. I have a motion by uh Trustee Patterson. Do I have a second? >> I second. I'll second it. All those in favor? I. Okay, passes 6-0. Okay, we'll move on to We're going to not take action on 8.12 and we're going to move on to um consideration and approval for the hire of the director of human resources. Madam President, I move that the board accept the recommendation of administration to hire Rochelle Bond as director of HR. I have a motion by Trustee Howard. Do I have a second? >> I second. I have a second by Trustee Rodriguez Barnett. All those in favor? Passes 6-0. Uh Madam President, uh Ms. Bond is actually in the audience if you'd like her to say hi to everybody. >> Yes. Ms. Bond, would you
011mind standing up and waving? Ooh, welcome. >> [applause] >> All right, so um L- What other um Okay. 8.2 Okay. Okay, now we're going to move on to 8. 3 consideration and possible action on appointment for a vacant Board of Trustees. Madam President Yes, Trustee Rodriguez Barnett. Uh I move that the Board of Trustees appoint Lakeisha Small to the fill the vacancy for place two of the Manor ISD Board of Trustees to serve until the next trustee election in accordance with Texas law. Madam President, I second. I have a motion by Stephanie Barnett Rodriguez Barnett to appoint Lakeisha Small for the uh board vacancy and I have a second by Trustee Patterson. If there's no discussion I'll entertain uh the vote. All those in favor? All those We Oh, I count five in favor. All
012those against? All those ab- Against? Okay, I have It passes 5 1-0. Right? Okay. And 5-1-0. 5-1-0, I'm sorry. So um Ms. Lakeisha Small, can you please stand up? You have been appointed to our board vacancy. Um congratulations. We will Thank you. >> [applause] >> Would you like So since the passing of uh Dr. Thomas, we've uh this board has been very diligent in um making sure that we have a full governing board during these very difficult times in public education where we're constantly under attack. And um it was very important to our board that we have a complete governing board. And uh we had uh several meetings and we decided on the process. And um we welcome Ms. Lakeisha Small. Do you like to say a few words? Okay, thank you. So uh if
013you can get with Ms. Cynthia Thomas and she >> [laughter] >> Ms. Cynthia Kelly Thomas Yes. get some information from you and we'll get in touch with you. Okay, welcome aboard. Thank you so much. Now, consideration and possible action, okay, we've done that. Nine, superintendent update, Dr. Sarmany. Let's see. All right, uh team got the superintendent update and um if I'm feeling a little off, it's because I just got back from Denton. was um had her fashion collection was on the runway last night and so I am discombobulated from driving way too much over the last two days, so and I still hear in my ears do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do But here we go. All right, student safety
014update. Just a reminder, um we are still working on the TA district vulnerability assessment. We are up to 62% completed. Almost everything that is left are updated maps of schools and some updated coloring of some entrances to buildings. And as always, if you ever have any questions along those, you can ask me individually or we'll talk about it in closed session. Points of pride, we had some some other history being made recently. So, the Newtech High School men's basketball team were area champs. They went the furthest ever in playoff school history. So, claps to them. >> [applause] >> And then the Newtech High School soccer team decided they wanted to go that far, too. So, they immediately tied as the furthest gone in and playoff history. >> [applause] >> So, we want to just definitely
015call them out. Strategic planning update, as part of this process as we begin to go through our strategic planning, I want to make sure that I give the community and the board updates about what's been going on and where we've been at. March 10th and 11th, we had 72 students, staff, and parents that came together to discuss the future of Manor ISD. And we're what we're really doing is looking into the future 5 years. What do we want the school district to all be about? You can see we have five key areas that we are working on, that we're creating objectives for. Those were gleaned both from trustees and from some conversation pieces we had internally. So, now we have teams that are now working on all five of those and will report back to
016the 72 students who set them on that path. And ultimately, we'll report back to the trustees and the community. As promised, we did do some work on mission and vision statements. And so, tonight we bring forward to you just our first draft. And right now, this is our mission statement. And we really spent some time talking about what are the things that we got from the community in the surveys and the board trustees, what were the values that we needed to capture? We were trying to capture them in a small, succinct way. And this is the mission statement we started off with. We debated whether we we needed to add some stuff to it, but I said, "You know what? Let's just bring it like this, and we will see what trustees have to say
017with it." So, right now, the current mission is empower each student to excel and lead every day. And think about it this way, we were looking for something that every single person, employee in the district can know, "This is what I'm supposed to do today. I'm supposed to empower our students to excel and lead every single day." I'm going to stop there for any feedback, and my staff will be listening diligently for any thoughts you have on that. It's simple. Yeah, yeah, go ahead. >> [laughter] >> Well, if we're talking simple, empower each student to excel every day. And lead. Well, if you're excelling, you're leading. Yeah. And we want something that everybody in the whole community could repeat, know, and internalize. Everyone can >> each student to excel every day. That's just my thought.
018What what why Okay, I I am I love your thought process. I just want to know why the lead was Because every What if No, no, no, on the or Dr. Sharmani. I and I got your reasoning, but I want to know I wanted to hear why they >> Sometimes you have to follow in order to lead. Everybody can't lead, you know. Because it comes down to one of the things that we were talking about is why Manor, why not another school district? And what makes us different than other school districts? And partly this is this is really something for me. And and obviously, this is a community decision. But I oftentimes think about telling people is our kids don't just learn academics, they have to learn to lead, they have to learn to be
019persistent, they have to learn to overcome things, they have to learn to take the lead, no matter what. And that's their competitive advantage once they leave Manor ISD. Somebody else may teach the kids to be great engineers. I want to teach them to be our kids to be their bosses. And that's kind of how I see that, and that's why that word's there. Um But again, I am open to any and all feedback. I will say I really love the word empower. Oh, yeah. >> I think this speaks to the importance of setting our students up to become the incredible people that they are going to be. And it really allows them to take ownership of their learning and their growth in the school district and beyond. I think the use of empowerment not being
020in the room, but being the the guidance, right, where we were headed and what we wanted. I think the team did a really good job of the equity that we were really looking for. >> Yes. And that's that's an ownership piece from wherever you sit in the district to be able to empower each student in any role that you sit in within the district, you have the ability to empower students success and for them to excel and lead every day. So, I appreciate the thoughtfulness in that particular word. It was not lost on me. I I really see that. It's actionable. Yeah, and I also really love the fact that we speak to each student. That we're not doing a blanket overall all students can learn, but we are truly saying it is it is
021our onus to ensure that we are really empowering each and every student in our district every day. And I was going to say I'm glad that they didn't use all. I really like the each. You're You're right on. Guys, Thank you, trustees. But I also have a vision statement for you. You didn't think it could get shorter. >> [laughter] >> Okay, we're going to ace our board monitoring. Well, we did hear you when you said you wanted short and you wanted people to be able to remember it and take it to heart. So, we were thinking, what could we put along with our logo, which is a shield, that can go together on the same logo that people can remember? And you when you're talking to everybody to empower each student to excel every day,
022we want our kids leading the way. And so, part of this was thinking, you know, a vision is something you put on to for the athletics metaphor on the locker room wall when you walk out. It's why we have a band, it's why we have why we exist, all these different organizations. What do we want them walking out to do? To lead the way. So, that that was kind of a little bit of the thinking on it. Again, we're open to your feedback, of course. I Madam President, do you see why they use the word lead? Yes, I was going to say that. Yep. Well, and I like and it may have been intentional. I know there was the there was a financial team in there that we saw a second ago, but I like
023the idea of using the shield, the fiscal responsibility of using what we already have and not rebranding everything. That is a huge piece from a financial component. >> Uh-huh. I love it. You We're taking out the lead in the other one, but it goes here and it's perfect. Well, vision mission, vision's tied to mission. There you go. And and they're they're um succinct enough, simple enough again, for everybody in the community to have a nice around this. And and we're using the word student. Which I love. Um I think to be a scholar, something to be earned. But everyone's a student. And if you want to be a scholar, then you work hard enough to hit that standard of what a scholar is. Now, it does give us an opportunity to to identify, to put
024a standard to what a scholar is. Um But again, we're going Every Everybody's a student. And it's a word that everybody understands. These are simple statements that everybody could internalize. And I love it. And trustees, we can continue to to gather feedback if you think of some in the future in our one-on-ones. This won't become final until we bring forward the entire strategic plan to you to adopt later on this school year. Okay. But thank you very >> when we will have that at a regular I think we're targeting June regular board meeting to have that. >> Okay. All right, Madam President, back to you. Information items. Okay, I'm back. I'm sorry, guys. Um information item, uh monitoring report, teacher retention, Dr. Tammy Williams Hill. Oh, she can't Good evening, trustees. I am standing in
025for Dr. Williams Hill and will share a brief update. Can everybody hear me? I feel like it's going in and out. Is this better? Is this work? All right. Just going to share a brief update on our SCPM target 1.1. So, as far as teacher over goes, As I had shared earlier in September of at the start of the school year, we have made significant progress to really improve our over retention. If we see the retention rate for teachers from the 2022-23 school year to the 2024-25 school year, we have gone from a 15.9% retention rate to 78.1, which is really high. And something that I wanted us to consider is for the upcoming school year, we know we are anticipating that due to two specific variables, we may not be able to meet our
026CPM target rate. The first variable is we have about 26 visiting international teachers who are leaving and they are required to return home as a part of their visa program requirements. Regardless of how much we want them to stay, they're not able to. The other factor is House Bill 2. In House Bill 2, as you all know, it continues a district's innovation's ability to hire uncertified teachers through their local certification program. For remainder at present, that is about 40 teachers who are enrolled in that program that need to obtain their certification at the at the end of the school year. Pause and see if there are any questions. Do we know if any of those four are on their way to achieving The 40? Yes. So, I would estimate based on the the progress I've
027seen so far, I am hopeful that hopefully half of them are able to stay with us for the upcoming school year. I will also say the amount of emails that have been sent to them, their supervisors to ask them for updates have been happening from September until now. It's been We've really tried to be as supportive as we can to ensure that we set the timeline to ensure that they do get their certification in time. All right. Moving along, I did want to also share an update regarding retention. Excuse me. There we go. About the efforts that we have in place to ensure that we retain our current employees. HB2 and the VIT program are factors that we don't control, but there are a few things that we do control that we do want to
028make sure that we we stay steady on so we're able to retain our current staff. The first is our strategy, which is in the dip, of course, to make sure that our compensation plan is is competitive at the end of the school year, which as you can see in this graphic, our current salary schedule for teachers is actually above the the average in the area as well, which is a huge talking point for our team as we make offers for for all of our existing teachers and new teachers. The other component is growth pathways, which is also strategies for for our department in the dip. So, for classroom teachers, our goal is to really create Excuse me, to create pathways to help them grow without them having to leave the classroom. So, in terms of
029that, there are opportunities where they're able to grow as a lead teacher, as a department chair. They can also become a instructional coach or a special ed teacher. The The other The other pathway that is new that I personally am really excited about is a program called Opportunity Culture. And OC, as I as I say it just to make it easier to abbreviate it, is currently is currently happening at a single school at DES. And we are hoping to expand to four other campuses for next school year. And OC as a model, even before strategic staffing, it's really meant to be a co-teaching coaching approach to expand the reach of highly skilled teachers to reach a lot more students and to ensure that they are they are they are also still compensated for their time
030and their efforts. So, the positions within that model is the lead teacher who's responsible for the entire team to coach and to ensure student student outcomes really grow over the course of the year. And then the other option is a master team reach teacher. So, a teacher that teaches their own class and still is able to support a another teacher as well. A highlight of this model is not only is it a pathway for current highly skilled teachers, it builds the capacity for new teachers as well to be able to be supported by a seasoned experienced educator as well. And with that being said, as we do this work to to really ensure that we increase compensation for our teachers and we do ensure that there are pathways to grow, we also want to make
031sure that our stakeholder experience is constantly improving. So, as you can see on the on this the side we're currently on, the employee opinion survey from TASB is showing either maintenance or a increase in really overall employee satisfaction in their current roles. That's really exciting because in addition to the employee opinion survey, the HR department rolls out something called the MISD People Experience. And the goal of that is really to make sure that our stakeholders, our parents, students, and staff have a really positive and inviting experience across all of our campuses and departments. And as you can see, the survey results align with the the items that we we also saw rated through TASB. And overwhelmingly, about 70% of all stakeholders have a really positive experience at our campuses and with our department. And lastly,
032as far as stay interviews and intent data goes, we started to implement stay interviews to see not only how do we retain our current employees, how can we appreciate them, right? It's great to ensure that we know how they feel in their in in in their roles as it stands. So, of the employees who were able to complete a stay interview, about 93% are planning to to stay with us for the upcoming school year. Of the 974 employees who completed the intent form for this school year, 92% are planning to return. With that being said, we do have about 6% of those employees who are planning to return to resign or retire as well. And we're excited to make sure that we're able to appreciate them at our end of year event in May. So,
033I'll stop here and see if there are any questions. I thought it was it. I can hear you, but Well, I think I don't know. TV land >> [laughter] >> I thought it was pretty interesting that about um Maybe you can go back a couple slides. Another Yeah. Yeah, where staff uh feels good on most days, over 90%. But at the same time, they wouldn't recommend their place to a friend. All three three out of every four. That was That's interesting to me. >> And I'd like to to to comment on that cuz that's been a persistent issue since I've been here. So, basically, let me encapsulate it like this. Everybody likes who they work with and they like where they work in the department they work in, but they're saying the district is not
034a good place to come. So, if every single group, almost 90%, think their department is good and their school is good, then how is the district not a good place to be? And you I think that that says a lot about our our mentality and our need to come together as a team, as a community and support each other. And so, that's something definitely we've talked with leadership and I know Dr. Williams Hill has brought it up including in the strategic planning and the district advisory team. We have got to address that issue. And it's very glad you pointed that one out. Wow. >> [laughter] >> Okay, TV land didn't hear that. He said with maybe now with a simpler mission and vision, we will Thank you. All right, we'll move on to uh 10.2
035DPM 1 and 2 board monitor report, math, reading, and student achievement, Dr. Benz. Good evening, team. At this point, I would like to bring up to the podium Dr. Kendra Doyle, our director of academics, who is going to facilitate the presentation. Thank you, Dr. Benz. Uh good evening, President Cortez, Superintendent Sermeno, and you Board of Trustees. I want to I'm Dr. Kendra Doyle, uh director of academics and multilingual services, and I want to acknowledge my team. Some of them are here, some of them are online, but we've grown since the October presentation. And so, I just want to make sure you know who's on the academics team. So, in the room, we have Ethan Varela, who is our uh K-12 math coordinator. We have Adela Perry, who is our K-12 English language arts coordinator. We
036have Ms. Mary Pennington, who is working on grant implementation for curriculum at the secondary level. We have Ms. Brooke Walsh, who is our professional development coordinator and supporting with compliance on the multilingual team. And online, we have Ms. Lada Lopez, our uh ESL coordinator. We have Aries Lepridge, who is our MTSS and science coordinator. We have Julio Hernandez, who is our dual language elementary coordinator. And we have Beth Chapeton, who is our testing and accountability. Thank you all for being here. >> [applause] >> Okay, tonight I am presenting um goal progress measures one and two. Our goal progress measure one measures our uh increased um our uh reading performance as measured by Amira. So, last time I spoke to you, I told you that Amira was transitioning platforms, and they have since postponed the the
037transition of the Spanish language arts side of it. So, we are still split with Amira being tested uh on the English test, and then Lectura being used for the Spanish assessments. And they anticipate that that will not merge into one platform until the fall of next year. So, we got confirmation of that. Okay, I wanted to clarify this chart right here, which I know you've seen before in the October presentation. For the EOY baseline score that you see there, that is those are actual performance data points that were captured in the year of 23-24. And in the year 24-25, we used the BOY to set targets for the rest of the years. So, EOY 23-24, those that column is actual scores. Every column after that, 24-25, 25-26, and on, those are targets that we're trying
038to hit. And so, it may be helpful in the future when we when I come back for the EOY that we add in actual alongside the targets. I'll talk through it on these next slides, but we want to make sure that you're seeing not only what are the targets, but how close are we to hitting them to stay on track for our third graders to be measured appropriately um on STAR by the goal. I do want to point out that for the Spanish targets, you'll notice that they are a lot higher than the English targets, and we have had some conversations, Dr. Benz and I and the multilingual team, around how those targets were set after BOY, the trends that we're seeing in Spanish, and the possible need for adjusting those targets so that it
039more accurately reflects how growth looks over time over the school year for our Spanish students' uh performance. So, the first graph that you see is the one that I brought to you in October that includes the not just the BOY, but also the middle of year performance that we took after the break. This graph that you see, and also you saw in October, includes all students who took the English Amira test. And so, what's included in this data set are students who tested uh in English that are sitting in monolingual classes, and also our bilingual students who are in dual language classrooms testing on their English. And so, our dual language students test in both languages. And so, I just want you to be aware this is combined data. So, what you're seeing here uh
040where it's the trends, you'll notice that and I I have a small correction here. I apologize for that. It's not the number of students that I'm calling out, but it's actually the percentage of students. The percent of students who are uh performing in each quintile. So, our data is broken into quintiles, and that was the best and closest that Amira could do for us to be um comparing it to what on grade level or above looks like on STAR. So, when you look at the quintiles, quintile one is the students that had the lowest performance, and quintile five is the highest performance. And if you're looking for on grade level performance, you're looking at quintiles four and five. For that first graph, I know that is the MOY, it's a little bit hard to see
041on the kindergarten, but that top group is 2%, and on the BOY on the first grade group, that is 5%. Just so you know what those numbers are cuz I know they're tiny. Okay. So, you see a little bit of analysis here. We've got some growth, and when I look at the colors to measure growth, I'm looking for a reduction in the red and yellow, and increase in the greens, uh all levels of those greens. That middle group, the lightest green, is an interesting group. That's where we're looking for having targeted interventions because that group really could go either way is what Amira is telling us based on this data. So, they said with targeted intervention on this middle group of students, they're at approaches, they could tip on the other side of approaches to
042meet. So, we've been focusing on those um those that group of students for our targeted interventions. Okay, this next graph is a new one that you hadn't seen before. And what I did is just to make sure we have an a more accurate picture of how monolingual students in the English classes are performing, I took out the bilingual uh testers. So, you're looking now at monolingual classrooms with English um students, or students who are not participating in dual language, and their performance. And so, you'll see there is an increase in performance, meaning there's more students that are falling in quintiles three through five uh than in one and two on this one. And so, I think this is important to look at because we know that our most of our dual language programs are one-way
043dual language. And so, we have emergent bilingual students in those classes, and we have an 80/20 model. So, when they come in, pre-K, kinder, first, second, they are prime they are already, in most cases, Spanish-speaking students, and they are receiving the majority of their instruction in Spanish. And so, I think that's helps us better measure the students not participating in dual language and how they're doing um on their English performance. For uh the English performance, one thing that stood out whenever we looked at the breakdown by skills uh by strands in the science of teaching reading, we saw some of the same trends that we saw in the BOY, which were our students are doing a little bit better in phonological awareness. They are not doing as well in decoding, and we know that that
044impacts comprehension. And so, we have worked um diligently this year to make sure that we're looking at our foundational skills uh instruction, and making sure we're adjusting that to meet the needs of the students. And so, we are working hard to do that. Now, one thing I want you to keep in mind is that chart at the beginning with the targets. And so, when you look at this graph for MOY, you'll see that, for example, in kindergarten, our target on the chart was 47% on the original graph, it looked like we had a long way to go, like 31% we needed to grow. On this graph, it shows you that for our English our students that are testing in English in a monolingual class, we have 22% to go to meet the target. And these
045are end of year targets, so we still have time to intervene. And so, we are working very hard to do that. One of the things that we most recently did is we started a uh March Madness competition for our students to get in on Amira and do the lessons and the stories. And that has really kicked up our uh participation in it. They're the kids are competing. We are Today tomorrow's the end of the competition, and so we will be awarding the top students, the top campus, um and uh in their uses of the platform. So, we've got a goal of at least five uh either lessons um or stories per week, and the kids are striving towards that goal. Okay. This, since I broke out the monolingual students uh who took the English test,
046I also wanted to show you these are the bilingual students who took the English test since we're tracking by literacy. And so, you'll see there is a lot of room for growth. However, those students are on a trajectory to not only strengthen their Spanish language arts, but acquire English language arts in the process. So, what I'd like you to look at is how our our bilingual students did on the Spanish Amira. And so there's several graphs here. Um we still have lots of room for growth and when I looked at the data again broken down, one of the things that was clear is that when our Spanish students are testing on the lectora side, since it's a more transparent language, we see that they get to comprehension faster than the English kids. So we do
047see that there's a slightly more rigorous assessment happening here, but we still are looking to improve performance. And so this, I believe we've already talked to you a couple of times. I know I've met um with a couple of the trustees about this, but this is one of the reasons why we're looking to um you know, talk to our campuses, talk to our families and revamp our dual language program. And we want to move from most of our one-way campuses to a two-way program so that we see the benefits of dual language at the maximum um level possible. We believe not only will that support the dual language learners in the bilingual classrooms, but also our monolingual students who participate in that program. So action steps, some of them are the same that I presented
048in uh October. We continued doing a lot of the things we mentioned before and we do have some new uh actions that we are implementing. So that first bullet is quality tier one instruction in every classroom and that may not read quite like an action step, so let me talk to you about what we are doing with that. We are making sure that our teachers have tools um and resources to support lesson internalization. On the English side, that's also some creation. Um we are bringing in professional development for those areas that we see. So again, decoding was a problem, right? And so we are working with staff and instructional coaches and administrators. We provided a guide for how they can adjust their delivery of instruction during the foundational skills portion of their lesson to improve
049um the decoding. Yes, ma'am. So I have a question on the two-way dual language. I know you said that you want to fully deploy, you know, how does that look like? What's the time frame? And when we do we expect to see any results? I know, but I'm just curious to see how that looks like. Yes. So um probably we'll have a future presentation where we roll this all out, but um just to answer your question very quickly, we are talking with campuses right now. We've been meeting with prin- principals over the course of the year. Um we've done a couple of walks and what we want to do is not just flip our programs. That's not going to set our students up for success, but instead look at gradually um you know, phasing in
050our two-way program. And so for next year, we're looking specifically at pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes to recruit uh monolingual, whether they're um English-speaking households or any other non-Spanish-speaking households to participate in our dual language program and make sure that we are working with instructional leaders to implement the model as expected. Okay, and my follow-up question, sorry, um is how far do we anticipate or what is the projection, what's the vision of what we see dual language look like? Is it just going to be elementary, Mhm. middle, or you know, Mhm. all the way through? So well, if I could have it my way, it would be all the way through. >> there's funding issues, but >> Yes. But actually dual language two-way programs bring in more funding than our current one-way programs. So >> to
051make sure we code direct >> Right, yes. So we do have a funding advantage as we transition to two-way programs. There are um and and it's because the state supports it. The two-way programs, they know that it is the premier, you know, model to run in as far as dual language, and so they're going to fund it at a higher rate than others. Um when it comes to secondary dual language, it does not quite look like elementary dual language. It's a slightly different implementation model. Um and so that is our in our long-range plan discussion. We would love for the opportunity for students who are interested to continue their uh bilingual education into secondary and even pursue the seal of biliteracy upon graduation. We would love to support that. So right now we're looking at
052how do we get this going and phase it in in a way that helps our students be successful in the program and then transition to long-range plans. I have a question. What what body of research supports the way that we're trying to go? For specifically for dual language? So I would say the most prevalent and um like consistent body of research comes from researchers named Thomas and Collier and they have done longitudinal studies on all dual language programs. And so they've looked at transitional dual language, which we have this year and the last year we're phasing it out, it's only in fourth grade right now. They look at one-way dual language. They look at ESL. They look at two-way dual language. And I'm happy to follow up and share this information with you as the
053specifically the research that they've done, but in their research, they show that students who start at the at pre-K K in dual language and persist with the program beyond uh 5 to 6 years, they end up outperforming their monolingual peers. And so we do see benefits of dual language right away, but the long-term benefits and in their study, the kids stopped at sixth grade. They stopped participating in dual language and still through 12th grade, they outperform their monolingual peers. >> Well, middle school you can have language for high school credit and Yeah. You have AP in high school, so Right. So when we move dual language students into a secondary program, that's absolutely what they do is they continue and they take some of our rigorous um language courses. They challenge the AP lit and
054lang tests for Spanish. All right. No, I was just commenting. Um Fabian's been but I remembered your chart. That's that [laughter] one. That's beautiful. I'M TRYING TO DESCRIBE THIS. I was like, I got it. It's right here. I REMEMBER THAT. YES. YEAH, I remember it. I want to I wanted the community to hear Uh okay, got it. that we are uh we're we're operating on research and not >> [laughter] >> Yes, sir. Thank you. In reviewing the supplemental curriculum portion of this slide, I I recognize that constructed response lessons in start 2.0 practice can benefit our third graders and up, but for our K through two, I know that we really have to focus on those foundational skills. When it comes to Amira learning, I know that it will automatically adapt based on a student's
055assessment results. Yes, ma'am. At the same time, we also know that our teachers are truly the experts of where our students are. Are they able to assign targeted lessons as well within the program? Absolutely. So the diagnostic is the um it it meets the students where they are and they measure how far they can go. It is um you know, adaptive. However, um there's multiple places within the platform that the student can practice. So the student can work in an area that responds to that diagnostic. And typically if a student has performed below grade level, it's going to have them practice those skills that will get them to grade level. Teachers can purposefully assign pathways that are in two-year and instruct that help the students with what they need them to know in this moment.
056So there's multiple ways to engage with the platform. And we when we look at the data, we try to pull it from all the areas that the kids could be working. Awesome, thank you. Yes, ma'am. Awesome. Okay. Um I wanted to give a little bit of a shout-out to uh Ms. Gelina Barra. She is our director for school improvement and she has uh while we are working on foundational skills and Adela's leading the charge with that, she has done a great job in also making sure that teachers have um professional development around the writing component um that is the expectation starting in third grade at least on the STAR assessment, right? So she's done extended constructed response and short constructed response trainings with all teachers except for the math teachers. Those are the ones who
057will have some sort of a writing piece on their exam. Um she's worked with all teachers on our PD days. She's doing specific coaching at our two um targeted campuses and she's offered herself. She's doing one-on-one trainings with anybody else in the district. So she's been a huge asset to our team. Her other strength is that she does a really good job with coaching. And so an action step that is kind of embedded and hidden in here is um that she works with our principal leaders on now you've seen things in the classroom from an observation, what are you going to do to like talk to the teacher and coach them on improvement for whatever that is you observed. So she's been a huge asset to the team to the team. Um Finally, I want
058to, since you mentioned supplemental curriculum, I want to mention that we did provide additional resources as we got closer to STAR. So the 40 Ferrier that you see was provided to elementary teachers to support with reading and writing in the format of STAR to make sure we're ready for that. Okay, I'm going to move on unless there's questions. Go ahead. All right, let's go to math. So, CPM 2 uh measures our math performance and as you know, we are using for the measuring of that performance, we're using IXL, which is new to us this year. And just like in a mirror, there are multiple places where students can work. The data you're seeing here is on the diagnostic and in response to that, teachers can assign students to work in the arena, which fills in
059um skills that are missing that need they need to uh perform on grade level. Um they can work on practice that is aligned to the lesson they taught that day. They can do um specific TEKS assigned to the student and one thing that we've recently encouraged is there's a star prep uh program in IXL. So, lately they've been doing this the practice for the star in IXL. This chart is different than the Amira chart because we are at a baseline year. So, we are tracking our current performance. Those are the columns in red, the BOY MOY. And at this point, we don't have targets yet. We're going to set them uh next year so that we can be on track to get to our June 2028 goal. And so, we're watching how students are performing.
060What we know about the test is that with each administration of the diagnostic, they are expected to perform at higher and higher cut scores. So, that's what you're seeing there is that they need to increase uh their performance to be able to stay at the where they are or increase, right? So, um let's look at We've got the district data here, kindergarten and first grade. Again, correction to this, we've got the percent of students who are below grade level um and how that either decreased or increased. And so, what you're seeing here on this one is um we're looking at quartiles, so it's broken into four groups and the greens are on or above grade level. The gray is showing students that either did not complete the test or you know, we're not present at
061that time. Um there might be some gray area where you see like something happened and those tests were not completed, okay? So, greens are on and above grade level. And I think I said this last time. I think Dr. Benz has said this. There's a lot of green happening, but we are cautiously optimistic. We have had great implementation of um Blue Bonnet math as far as teachers using it, teachers um doing their best, making sure it is their primary tier one instruction. Um in fact, in our walk-throughs, we've seen over 85% of teachers um 86% of teachers on the Blue Bonnet curriculum are within the five days on the pacing calendar. So, they're keeping up with it, which was a challenge at the beginning of the year. We're falling behind a little bit and 89%
062are using it solely as their tier one instruction. And so, we have seen um high levels of implementation when it comes to that. So, we like I said, are cautiously optimistic that these are going to um hold steady for our EOY and show up as uh in the results for our students on that third grade math assessment. And here is second and third grade. Again, this is the percent of students. And if we're looking for on grade level performance, we would like to see the green increase and the red decrease, red and yellow decrease. Remember, for each one of these administrations, those cut scores get higher and higher. Okay. For action steps here, I already mentioned our implementation of Blue Bonnet. We continue to do our frequent walks um our teams as often as we
063can get out, but definitely Dr. Benz and the Region 13 team, they come regularly and they're collecting feedback um on what they're observing and they're doing a really great job of bringing that feedback to the district level team, to the principals meeting and acting on it for as far as like what we need to do better. So, for example, and I think I talked to a couple of people earlier about this. For example, you know, at the beginning of the year, we really struggled with um uh implementing the application problem portion of the lesson. It's an introductory piece and then we move on and it gets reinforced throughout the lesson. Yet, we found in our observations, people were stuck there and they wanted to teach that thoroughly and completely and they were not getting to
064the other portion of the the lesson. And so, Region 13, after collecting that data, came and presented it to our principals and also gave them an experience, which was a video seeing an exemplar of the implementation of the application problem and allowing them to reflect on that and what they should be doing to coach their teachers. We did the same thing with concept development. That is a challenging part of the lesson and it's because it's a little bit different than direct teach. And so, we really had to talk to principals about how they're going to uh talk to principals about how they're going to work with teachers to release some of the control and allow students to productively struggle. Um My I guess my question is do the principals have an opportunity to show their
065teachers those um videos of exemplars campus by campus as well? So, that's a great question. I have not turned over those videos to the principals and so, I know that some principals do direct modeling. So, I've seen Ms. Young, I've seen Ms. Cobb, they are in the PLCs, they are modeling with their teachers and they're have helping their teachers do the internalization so they see what they should be implementing. Those videos that happen at the principals meeting, the principals have access to, but I did not directly um we did not directly talk to them about turning that around to their campus. Although, that is a really great recommendation and we will make sure to mention that and send it back out to them so they remember where the videos are. Okay. Um When we did
066the Blue Bonnet walks, the last set of data that we collected showed that our biggest need well, our biggest strength was the checks for understanding and that um while there's always room to improve, I think that's a celebration because Dr. Benz has heavily focused on that in our leadership meetings, which includes our principals and then trickles down to our assistant principals and our instructional coaches. One area that we have um that we want to continue to improve on is giving all students the opportunity to talk, write, practice and productively grapple with the grade level content. And so, we are still working on that. We are doing it with with our strategies such as our turn and talk and trying to increase the frequency in which we let students um discuss problems and their thinking and
067have discourse with each other around that. Any questions on any of the action steps for mathematics? Yeah, go ahead, Dr. Shermani. Uh and trustees, um while we have Dr. Doyle here, I want to preview something for the future since we're talking about uh reading data especially um in April at the regular board meeting, we're going to need to ask trustees to adopt a new curriculum. That is something that is in the purview of the school board. And uh what's going on is our current reading adoption for K through 5 is no longer supported as a high-quality material by the state of Texas and so, we have to choose something different. Uh we were you might have noticed, we were thinking about doing it on on this board meeting, but I felt like we had some
068more work to do and I'm glad we waited um but I do want to bring that up because if you noticed on the kinder and first grade reading data, you can see that's an area of concern. One of the things that our team and our teachers are identifying is some needs in that area that will be addressed in any new curriculum adoption um that we do. Uh but I do just want to bring that forward for everybody on TV land and for trustees cuz this is directly related to what's going to happen on April 20th. And is there anything we want to add, Dr. Doyle? I'm not sure if there's anything else. The only thing I'd like to add to that, sir, is just to let the trustees know that we have had a group
069give us feedback on what their thoughts are about the recommendation that we're bringing to Dr. Benz, to Dr. Shermani and we are continuing to gather feedback uh from teachers and all stakeholders on what are the research-based strategies and instructional practices for literacy. And by literacy, and which resources will help us best meet that need in instructional delivery. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Dr. Doyle. I really loved your presentation and and we look forward to that recommendation, Dr. Shermani. You guys do your due diligence. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. We'll move on to 10.3, monthly financial report. Do our trustees have any questions on that? No, we're good to go. Um 10.4, Bond 2019 update. Um I know we're Do we have any questions on that? Okay. And uh 10.5, discussion of the election
070of a director to the Board of Region 13 Education Service Center. Uh Miss Kelly is going to bring you a ballot. Uh this is a new one for me, but the Region Service Center has a contested election for one of their Board of Directors, and they have a very special way of doing it, which is different than I've ever seen. So, trustees, you are actually voting individually. And Mr. Martinez, uh I didn't even think about I'm going to have to come up with a work-around for you, sir, but we'll figure one out. Um So, Miss Kelly is going to give you a ballot. Um you can vote, you don't have to vote, and then she's going to come around with an envelope, and you are going to either put a piece of paper that you
071voted on or a blank piece of paper in that, and we will send that off to the Region Service Center. And so, all ESC 13 uh school boards are voting. And again, we're not voting as a board, you're voting as an individual person. That's something new. It's never >> It's Yeah. My understanding is they've can't remember when they've had a contested election. It's been a while, so that's why nobody remembers having done this before. Forever, yeah. Never done this one. past many years. Oh. Here. They're going to be coming All right. Well, thank you very much, trustees. We'll move on to consent agenda item 11.1 to 11. 10. Do I have a motion? Madam President, I move that the board approve consent agenda items 11.1 through 11.10 as presented. Thank you, trustee Dr. Lowry. Do
072I have a second? I have a second by trustee Patterson. All those in favor? And Mr. Martinez, we pass it 6-0. All right. And confirmation of the next regular board meeting is scheduled for April 20th, 2026. And do I Do I have a motion to adjourn? Madam President, oh, hold on. Yes. I move to adjourn the meeting. I have I have a motion by trustee Howard to adjourn at 7:16 p.m. Do I have a second? I'll second that. Okay, second from trustee Rodriguez-Barnett. All those in favor? Another record, 6-0. We closed at 7:16 p.m. Woo! Yay. Wow.