Manor ISD Regular Board Meeting 02/23/26

001All right. Good evening everyone. We will begin in compliance with the open meetings act Texas government code chapter 551. I call this meeting of the Mayor Independent School District to order on >> February 23rd 5 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 the open meetings act. >> Close session. The board will now adjourn into executive session at >> 50:01 p.m. >> Pursuant to the following sections of the Texas Open Meetings Act, uh 551.071, 551.072, 551.074, 551.076, and 551.129. Right. 1 2 Good evening everyone. We will now reconvene into open session at >> 6:18 p.m. >> Let the record show a quorum is present. Before we continue, um I would like to take a moment

002of silence as our team of eight has lost a team member, Dr. Mary Thomas and she recently passed on February 14th. She was a great asset to our community and a member that build this strong team of eight. If you would join us please in a moment of silence. Thank you. The board um will be having uh a resolution that we will be signing. Uh we didn't get to make it on time for the agenda, but we will be um signing that tonight and um sharing that in public at her funeral on Saturday. We will we will continue with the pledge of allegiance. Tonight we're proud to welcome students from Logos Elementary School who represent the discipline, pride, and tradition of their campus colors guard. These students play an important role in upholding ceremonial traditions

003and ensuring that all flag guidelines are honored with respect and care. Please join me in welcoming Lizzie Hardy, Aiden Lockett, Liliana Mora, and Alvaro Duke de Estrada as they lead us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. >> Thank you very much. Great job. Thank you. Okay. Dave, I would have one of our board members um volunteer for the vision statement. >> Madam President, >> Trusty Rodriguez, >> Bayer ISD is the best district in Texas where we provide an equitable education for all scholars and graduate them ready to

004become leaders in our community. >> Thank you. Trustee Rodri Barnett, do I have a volunteer for the mission statement? I have a volunteer. >> Yep. >> Trusty Patterson. >> Collectively, as a community, Mayor RSD provides equitable resources, a safe learning environment, and high quality educational services for all students to successfully achieve and reach their full potential. >> Thank you, Trusty Patterson. We'll move on to number six, recognition. January 6.1 January and February scholar recognition. So hello trustees and Dr. Smani. Me and our communications intern are happy to present tonight's scholar and staff recognitions. So to kick things off, we're just going to explain how this will happen. So once your name is called, if you could stand it to the left and then once you'll walk over here, shake the hands of our trustees. And

005once that's done, if you could uh Cynthia, can you wave your hand for me? If you could just wait right there until uh your achieve your achievement is recognized and then we'll go ahead and take an individual photo or a group photo and then we'll head outside and take some individual photos as well. So, let's get started. We'll kick things off with Mayor New Techch High School student Joshua Ria. Joshua has been selected to the Texas All State Choir, one of the highest honors a student musician can earn in our state. Joshua is only the second student in Mayor ISD history and the second from Mayor New Techch High School to receive this distinction. Selection to the Allstate Choir requires students to advance through a highly competitive and audition process that evaluates vocal performances, site

006reading, and musical interpretation with only the top musicians in Texas earning a place. over Joshua. >> You're the solo a little bit, boys. Looks great on three. One, two, and three. One more time. One, two, and three. >> Congratulations, Joshua. >> Next, we are proud to recognize Mayor Excel Academy student Paulino Paulina Sto for earning statewide recognition for artistic talent. Paulina's artwork, Kinetic, has been selected for the Texas Art Education Association Youth Art Month Spring Exhibition, a jury showcase featuring exceptional student artwork from across Texas. Her piece will be displayed at the Bullock Texas State History Museum throughout the month month of March with an awards ceremony scheduled for later this month. We have one more celebration, a special celebration here tonight. Is is Gabby Seda here? >> For those of you who didn't catch

007the KV story, we want to acknowledge and show our appreciation for Gabby's dedication to our students. In October 2023, Gabby noticed some concerning stu uh symptoms when a fifth grader named Amelia Zuniga visited her nur the nurse's office several times and she encouraged his mother to seek medical care. That guidance led to an early cancer diagnosis and treatment that provided critical care. After nearly three years of recovery, we are happy to share that Almelio rang the celebrational bell in January surrounded by his classmate, staff, and family to celebrate that he was cancer-free. Come on up, GABBY. OKAY. On three. Thank you. >> And so now we head to our staff of the month. We are doing January and February. So we'll have quite a bit of staff. Um so again, for those of you who

008are here, once your name is called, please come to the front, shake the hands of our trustees, and just wait by Cynthia. And then once everyone's done, we'll go ahead and take a big group photo. So let's get started. uh from Blake Maynor Elementary School. For January, Jenny Luong, GT coordinator, and Magdalena Fajardo, uh custodian. For February, it's Israel Meto, uh special ed teacher, and Yana Moran, kindergarten long-term sub. From Blue Bonnet Trail Elementary School for January, we have Joseph Mitchell, third grade teacher, and Maria Diaz, preK. for February Andres Loi, fourth grade math teacher, and Yanayiah McKini, TA. From the Child Development Center, we have Shakira Ekib, daycare associate. And for February, we have Samira Butler, daycare associate. For Decker Elementary School, we have Muna Hassan, uh, kindergarten teacher, Nancy Gonzalez, registar. And for

009February, we have Artensia Mendes, resource and inclusion teacher, and Gracela Reyes, associate, ECC associate. From Logos Elementary School, we have Demetria Mlan, third grade teacher and LS Garcia registar. And for February, we have Meliss Melissa Eskel and Lauren Lorenna Wanderia, uh, SLE, teacher assistant. For Oak Meadows Elementary School for January, Abigail Morales, first grade teacher, and Dennis Rodriguez, police officer. And for February, we have Yinia Vlegas, fifth grade bilingual teacher, and Tiffany Barry, instructional coach. For Pioneer Crossing Elementary School, we have Alvaro Campo, fourth grade teacher, Maria Martinez, custodian. And for February, we have Gracella Munoz, kindergarten teacher, and Wendy Boatright, G GT, K through 5th. For Presidential Meadows Elementary School for January, we have Maria Pagan, fourth prek teacher, PreK4 teacher, and Carmen Gonzalez, head custodian. And for February of Danica Dim Manul Kulen,

010fifth grade teacher and Alandro Romero, preK4 bilingual for Shadow Shadow Glenn Elementary School for January of Mar uh Marita Betta third grade teacher and Chelsea Area uh senior administrative associate. For February, we have Queet Terrell, PEK K through 5th and Annette Compost, custodial services. For Mayor Rise Academy for January, we have Chelsea Kanu, third grade math teacher, and Lauren Hoffnneider, special ed assistant. For February, we have Claire Hodgekin Haj Hodgejin, a seventh through 8th grade science teacher, and Robert Rios, custodial services. For Decker Middle School, we have Rodney Fage Fagan's PA uh co pe coach. Sherry Da Da Noki, uh attendance associate. For February, we have Jeffrey Arsenal, sixth through 8th grade science inclusion teacher, and Otilia Estrada, lead custodian. For Mayor New Techch Middle School, we have Donald Goard, band director, and Netti Gueredo,

011instructional aid. For February, we have Trisha Meredith, speech education teacher, and Danielle Pauly, registered nurse. For Mayor Excel Academy, we have Dejan Koshin, a science teacher, and Christina Stiger's nurse assistant. And for February, we have Kathleen Harris, a secondary ELA, and Dion Mays, truency specialist. From Mayor High School for January, we have Sarah Wilson, a teacher, and Celeste Gonzalez support staff. And for February, we have Hersel Johnson, SLA, and Tara Johnson, SLE aid. And for our final campus, Mayor New Techch High School, January, Wendy Delair, English teacher, Olga Moskeila, uh, food service department. And for February, Joseph Mong Morgan Roth, 9th through 12th grade P athletics, and Dara Garcia, police officer. So, if you didn't get to hear Cynthia, if you're a little shorter, let's have you in the front. If you're a little taller,

012we'll have you in the back. Oh, >> the closer the the closer you guys can get, the better. And again, if you're a little in the front, If we can squish in just a little bit more. So, uh, at the these corners at the end, I'm not quite getting you. So, the closer you can get on three. One, two, three. One more time. One, two, and three. Right. Thank you guys. Congratulations. All right. So, now we're going to move on to seven public forum. Um, Mr. Martinez, do we have anyone signed up for the to speak? We do. Currently I have three. >> Miss Cynthia, do we only have three? Is that correct? Okay. >> For each person present in the boardroom who wishes to address the board, you will have three minutes to speak.

013There are timers on each of the screens and one in front of you. I, the board secretary, will let you know when you have one minute remaining. Because of the topic posting requirements of open meetings act, board members are not permitted to answer any questions posed to the board by the patron and no action can be taken on any issue presented during this time. Due to this being a regular board meeting, you will be allowed to speak on any topic whether it is on the agenda or not that is relevant to district business or affairs. If you wish to ask questions of the board, you may submit them in writing addressed to the superintendent's office and the board may consider them at a subsequent meeting. If you are an employee or employees representative, please be

014advised that the grievance policy deadlines are not waved. If you have any documents to pass out to the board, please identify those documents and provide them to the board secretary. Finally, please be aware that the rules of decorum will be enforced during the public comment period as noted in policy BED regulations. Each participant is legally responsible for the content and consequences of their statements. Uh, first I hope I'm saying the last name correct. Uh, Alejandra Monteango. Hello board members and Dr. Smani. My name is Alejandra Montalongo and I have been working as a prek bilingual teacher for 14 years. Eight of those have been here for Mayor ISD. Today I come to you as a fierce advocate for all our students and most importantly as a mother of hopefully a future Mustang. Um, since the

015decimation of milk, my students haven't had books in their hands. That was two years ago. I understand that our district is currently in crisis. I understand that a priority is to get our test scores up to prevent something that hopefully we can prevent. But this goal will never happen if our students can't even have basic access to a librarian and books. The data speaks for itself. It's evident that there is a direct correlation between lack of access to a librarian and books and our literacy scores going down. Having a librarian in all our libraries is not a luxury. It's a basic need. It's a basic need just like having a custodian, a principal, an instructional specialist. I love this community that I serve and that I live in. But I cannot in good faith send

016my only child to a school district that doesn't prioritize a basic need of reading. The entire point of prek is early intervention. How can I help my campus raise their literacy scores if we don't even have a literature to read? If staffing all our libraries with the librarian is an impossible task for our upcoming school year, then at least consider providing our principles with the budget that will allow them to temporarily hire a pair of professional to help run the libraries. This will at least allow students to have access to books in the meantime until a librarian can be hired for each campus. Reading is the gateway to knowledge and knowledge is the gateway to freedom. Reading gave me the opportunity that generations in my family before did not have and every student in this

017school district including my son deserve the same opportunity. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Next up is Texas Coalition for Change. >> Good evening, Mayor ISD School Board. My name is Candace Cooper and I am here with Texas Coalition for Change. Also with me is Pam Wade and Lisha Small. We are here to read a resolution into the record in regards to the passing of Dr. Mary L. Thomas in loving memory of Dr. Mary L. Thomas, Mayor ISTD school board district board of trustee. Well done, good and faithful servant. Matthew 25:23. Whereas in the divine providence of Almighty God, we saw fit to call from labor to eternal rest his faithful servant, Dr. Mary L. Thomas, a devoted trustee of Mayor ISD, whose life was marked by dignity, conviction, and unwavering commitment to

018public education. And whereas Dr. Thomas dedicated her service to the children and families of Mayor ISD, standing firmly for educational excellence, equity, and opportunity, believing that every child deserves access to a quality education and a future filled with promise. And whereas she led with courage and grace, and I'm going to say that again, courage and grace, guided by principle rather than popularity, and committed herself to thoughtfulness, governance, transparency, and commitment and community engagement. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Texas Coalition for Change pauses in solemn remembrance and profound gratitude for the life and legacy of Dr. Mary Thomas and extends its heartfelt condolences to her family, the Mayor ISD community, and all who were blessed to know and serve alongside her. And be it therefore further resolved that we commit ourselves to carrying forth

019the mantle of advocacy, integrity, and servant leadership that she so faithfully demonstrated honoring her memory through continued service to our community. Respectfully adopted this 28th day of February, 2026. Texas Coalition for Change Board of Directors Pamela Wade, Candace Wade Cooper, Elma Fischer Jr., Marlon Thomas and Lisha Small. We have provided a copy for the board secretary for records. Also, we will provide the family a copy at the funeral services. Thank you. >> Thank you. We're going to move on. >> I have one more. >> Oh, >> next up is Rachel Petite. Is that correct? Hello everyone. You probably know my face. Uh I've been in this community for 29 years serving and um bringing my child here. Uh hello community, those of you out in YouTube land. I am here speaking on behalf of all

020the readers and all the students of Mayor ISD that deserve access to books. Uh my calls to action are access to books on every campus for everyone and have the library open with a key to let people in. uh fully staffed libraries on every campus as would match our vision and mission to have equitable education. And um I've uh included a research article that was published two months ago in the ed week based on the American Association of School Librarians research. Schools are desperate right now to boost our reading scores and digital fluency, but we are dismantling the one environment in our schools that can cultivate both of those. The library is designed to do that. Librarians are not gatekeepers of books or materials. We collaborate and we coach. We are teachers. We have teaching

021degrees. We have to have teaching experience. Um, when the policy conversations are going on, I feel that librarians are left out of that conversation. Um, when you're debating about learning loss, please try not to turn to just tutoring programs and digital interventions, turn to the library. Use our skills. Use our resources. A wellstaffed, modern library directly supports academic recovery. My call to action again, our call to action is for access to books on every campus for everyone, parents, family, staff, students, >> all libraries on every campus open and fully staffed with a highly qualified staff member. Just as we partner with many of our universities to bring in bilingual teachers, we can be partnering with Texas State to bring in librarians. University of Texas, University of North Texas, Texas A&M, Sam Houston State University, Texas

022Women's University, and University of Houston all have librarian programs. We should be reaching out to them for student teaching, librarian, student teachers, and for staffing our libraries to make them know that Mayor ISD wants librarians and reading and to improve literacy in our community. Think about our lowperforming campuses. If more people and students were able to have access to just read, what would that do? Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, thank you. And so now uh we're going to move on to 8 8 7 8 close session action items. Point one, consideration approval of educator chapter 21 contract abandonment. Madame President, >> yes. >> I move that the board approve there's not good cause to support Shakira's Parish's resignation from her position at Mayor ISD. >> I have a motion by Trusty Patterson. Do I

023have a second? >> Second. >> I have a second by Trustee uh Dr. Lowry. All those in favor? Motion passes. 6 Um, Newton nine, superintendent update. Dr. Sarmani >> 9.1 safety >> student safety update. >> Thank you, President Cortez. I know it's uh it just feels a little different because we have an empty seat up here. At the same time, um I also know that uh my partner right here um she wanted us to go forward and do the work. So, as you articulated earlier, so that's what we're going to do. We'll start off with something near and dear to our heart. Let's talk about safety. Um I wanted to let everybody know in the community know for over a year now we have been talking about recommendations that were made um after the tragic

024Mayor High School and I'm proud to say that um we have done every single one of those recommendations has been completed except for those needing bond money. So those are completed. I want to thank um the maintenance team and the construction team and uh the police for enacting all those uh recommendations to the best of their ability. Second, if you didn't know, uh next time you go to Mayor High School, you may see a very different weapons detection system there. Uh the ne the new generation is already deployed there and at New Techch High School. Uh the kids and the staff report that it works better and that's exactly what we wanted. So you will also uh recall from way back when we had been waiting for the new generation so that we can start

025exploring uh the middle school level and we are moving on to that phase now. there is still bond money that you allocated that can um pay for those. And so now we are going to now that we've worked out the kinks at the high school level, we'll begin to start um looking at deploying it at the middle school level as well. Uh and then uh oh that's that's the end of that. Oh um district vulnerability assessment. Um as you recall, we did do a district vulnerability assessment. It was completed by the Texas Education Agency in December. Um also I I think a point of pride for us. they have several thousand different things that they can find that's um could be wrong and they told us 81 of them out of thousands and I think

026the team did a wonderful job. It just shows about all the work they've been doing to get at that point. And then just so the public knows, uh, the school board was briefed in close session on these items and so they're aware of it. And trustees, um, we are due to have almost everything completed by March 13th. And so, just to give you an update on that, it's Points of Pride. Um, that's a little video there. It's a little dated, but just wanted to see what it was like on the ice days for some of us. That would be uh Mr. Shed swinging a sledgehammer trying to get the ice so that we could run buses. So if anyone wanted to know why we had to take an extra day off, that's it right there.

027That's our transportation center. Um so we were literally iced in over there and trying to figure out how we can get the buses out and it just wasn't going to happen. So uh but I do want to thank because you don't get to see it. We had a lot of people working even when um other people were off. And so thank you to the transpo the maintenance staff that was up at 4 am deicing. >> Wow. >> Um and of course Mr. Mendes met me out at transportation when he told me we can't roll the buses so I had to go see for myself. And >> yeah, pretty much. >> So >> um also want to thank a shout out to our Lady Titans. Um I think Mr. Garcia has already left. They were by

028district champs. I believe that they went further in the playoffs than any new tech athletic team has gone. They got to the area championships. Uh they lost to uh Mr. Mendes's hometown of Ciso Springs. We're giving them a hard time about that. Um but the girls did a great job. Um they are also almost entirely um not seniors, meaning most of the team is coming back, so you get a chance to see them again next year. So keep an eye out for them. >> Uh next up is the next item, Madam President. Um 9.3 future bond election >> and um this is mine too. Sorry I got myself confused. >> I know it's >> it's just off today. So um and trustees this is posted online and I'm sure a lot of people can see

029it. So I'm not going to read through everything. I'm just going to give quick highlights. Uh >> I think the most important thing to to speak to is where we were. We obviously had a bond fail November 2025. Um there was some uh a lot of work done by the communications team to get some data back on why it failed. Uh we talked to some other um vendors out there who gave us some free services to give us some insight. It was all very consistent and uh this gives you a little bit of an idea of what the issues were and I think the most important thing here is most people did not have issues with what was in the bond. the issues were more centered around whether this was good economic decision or not.

030Now, I'm I'm saying that regardless of the fact that we know up here that it wasn't going to raise taxes, but there was a lot of confusion on what was on the ballot that said it was going to raise taxes. And so, there was a lot of um uh focus on that. So, I this is just a reminder. This is actually the same slide that's been popping up here for a while. I just want to remind everybody that just because a bond fails doesn't mean all the needs went away. And in fact, they get more expensive and there's more of them. And so nothing has changed. Uh you can see that right now inflation is running at about a 4% in construction cost. So the 300 million bond now costs more. That that is how

031it is. And so we need to be prepared for that. Um there's also a number of safety projects that we don't have funding for. for Bluebond Elementary School is uh obviously a concern and uh student staff technology devices are beginning to fail at a faster and faster rate and we are going to have to do some things about this long term. Um and that's why long going right now I feel like November 2026 is the best time um for us to potentially call an election. Uh now trustees, you won't need to formally um talk about that and vote on it till August. Uh that's the deadline for calling for election. Uh but right now my standing recommendations November 2026. Obviously some things can change. Um but there are some things driving that way. Uh one

032of the big ones is our student needs haven't gone away. They're still there and they're just getting worse. We need the bond election to help us. And these same bond projects just cost more and more the longer we wait. Uh, and the sooner we can do this, the sooner I can shift money away from maintenance and operations and shift it into classrooms or to books. Uh, but I need a bond. And one thing I'll point out there, um, we got some data. Uh, it it appears that only 10% of our staff that was eligible to vote actually voted in the bond election. And I need help with that, um, from my staff. And we need to understand that just because your building isn't affected, it does affect our bottom line and what I can do

033when it comes to staffing. It really does. And so we need to begin to get that message out there as much as possible. And so, um, I think I'm ending with that. Um, there are still a focus bond focus group that's going to be meeting. Um, we are looking for bond communication support. Uh we are currently re we actually had our first uh u meeting to review the bond projects so we can start figuring out how much more they're going to cost this time around um and if we need to make any adjustments. Um and I and I just want to prepare people because we may need to raise taxes a little bit this time. So this last time we didn't raise taxes uh but this time we might because of inflation. Uh I don't

034know that yet. We have not engaged our financial adviserss. Uh but that is something that I will be doing in the future. But I just want to prepare for people that the longer we wait to do these bonds, the more it's going to cost to get them done. And I'm going to give one last example about it. Right now, fixing Blue Bonnet Elementary School is a 20 $25 million fix. At some point, it becomes a $60 million replacement. That's almost triple the cost. And I can't tell you when that is. It's just when the systems begin to go into total failure. I'm not saying it's going to happen tomorrow. I'm not saying it's happening next year. It will happen someday. But that's just a stark example of how we need to go ahead and begin

035talking about the need for this bond now. So, uh, trustees, if you have any questions about that, I know you've all reviewed it, um, previously, but I'm open to any questions you might have. >> Uh, Trusty Patterson. Well, the fact of the matter is replacing Blue Bonnet Elementary will be $60 million today. >> In the future, it's going to be more than $60 million. Um, I was uh um I was highly disappointed that the bonds failed. There was no fluff in that bond, even though it was 328 million or so. Uh, every high school deserves a theater. One of our high schools doesn't have a theater. The the all of our students and all of our staff deserve uh technology that's up to date that can be updated. Um, that was another proposition of the

036bond. Then the the vast majority of the bond was actually uh infrastructure and we were very transparent and and telling people we were not raising the tax rate. Uh that's what we have authority over. Uh we did the very best we could uh for your children. Uh it was highly disappointing that all of the propositions failed. Um and so again, if if we have to uh unfortunately raise taxes again, we won't be shy in conveying that message. We will try to do it again without raising taxes for sure, but um no promises. >> Thank you, Trusty Patterson. I would like to add it is very important, imminent. I would say imminent because let's I mean public education is under attack period. We don't get funded. We're getting a lot of unfunded mandates legislations next year.

037I think this could be our last opportunity. I don't know if you keep up with um the legislature, but during this whole time, even years, how long, how many years did it take to pass vouchers? Several legislative sessions. Now, people in this past legislation were trying to pass where legislation where it almost is impossible for school districts to pass bonds. Like literally they were trying to pass legislation where you have to pass it by what 65% or something like that. So I I think this could be if we don't have the right people advocating for us at legislator. This could literally be our last opportunity to really do something for our district in passing a bond. So, I think it's very imminent that we really educate ourselves and um our neighbors, our colleagues, everyone to

038be able to really advocate for our district and to make sure our educators and our students are safe in the facilities that we have for them. They'll learn better. like I mean there's just so much uh positive incentive in doing that, but this is really imminent and important. We don't know what next year is going to bring. We don't know if we're ever going to be able to pass a bond again. So, please share that message. Please support us. And um I think that's all I have to say on that part. >> I I have one small thing. >> Yes. >> So, I also agree with with sentiment. It's it's imperative that we that we uh get this next bond. Um although I I will say that the the 10% uh number of employees kind

039of is kind of surprising and I think that um it would it would behooves us not to find out why was it misinformation? Was it uh we didn't get the information outright? Why why did only temp because if you realize that if the the amount of votes needed to pass that bond we we should have almost been able to do it just with the people that work here if you so why didn't they support it >> good good question go ahead Dr. And I'll tell you, we can explore it more. We have a focus group coming up um with employees on it. Um so we can get some more understanding from what that is. I don't want to try to speak off the top of my head, but I'll wait for that focus group to

040get back to you. >> Thank you. >> If there's no further discussion, I'll move on to 10 information item. Um before we continue, I know I' I've asked people that come to speak to the board to refer us as team of eight for now. I know we we don't have our complete team. just refer us as mighty team or mayor team you know that would that would be okay if that's okay but we don't have our team of eight so.1 third future schools progress report >> uh good morning mighty mayor leadership team or good afternoon. You got me shook up now, too. It is It is actually the evening. Um, as you know, we've entered into an 1882 partnership with Third Future Schools with Mayor Middle School, and we have Zack Kretic here tonight, um,

041the superintendent of schools, and he he'll be presenting a progress update for Mayor Middle School. And I'd like to invite him and his team up right now. >> And Mr. Kratic, I just want to thank you for your patience. we have actually had to cancel him two straight meetings and so he actually does not live locally and so I appreciate you coming down for this meeting. It shows um your seriousness. Thank you. >> No problem sir. Thank you very much. Madame President, trustees, Dr. Smani, thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight. Um I'd like to introduce Well, first I'm standing in for Mr. Jeremiah Willis. So he's at a conference in Houston right now. So I'm he would usually be here joining me, but standing in for him, but I do have his

042assistant principles, Miss Adeline Kratic and Miss Christina Perll. Um so I will be brief and short to make sure you have plenty of time for questions. First we always talk and start off with this visual to your left hand side. This is our action plan. We have seven key actions that drive our our behaviors and actions across the network. To the top right you have our vision and mission and then on the bottom are six core beliefs that drive our daily behaviors as well across all 12 campuses which you'll see on this slide. We currently operate two campuses in third in in Colorado, four in Louisiana, and six 1882 partnerships here in Texas. Our first partnership being Sam Houston in 2020 with the Midland ISD. Next up, you will see our MOI or NWA MAP

043growth data. So, you'll see all 12 campuses currently represented on this slide. The average was 1.1 years of growth in four and a half months. And you'll see it broken down by content area there on the far right in the black box. And then the orange box there is our four new campuses that we've opened up for the 2526 academic year. And I'm proud to say that Maynor Middle School was the big winner at 1.9 years of growth in four and a half months. Um you'll see it broken down in science was overall at 1.4 two and then I'm sorry uh ELA was um am I reading that right? Yeah. Two two years of growth. Math was 1.4. science was two years of growth. What I'm really happy about is if you look at the

044bottom right hand side is that average percentile point increase was eight points. If we can get that that growth again and that achievement that'll be 16 percentile points that is exceptional not only growth but actually status there when you look at this assessment the NWA map. Any questions on that before I briefly go over subop data that was requested? Moving up, I'm sorry. Moving on to subpar. We break it down. You'll see our ethnicity breakdown there. Then we're going into schoolwide growth. We break that down. Hispanic, non-Hispanic, whole school in the United States average. Moving then to the percent of students who grew at least.7 years. So that's really our target is we want.7 years of growth by Christmas by our winter break. We test the third week, second week of December this year because

045third week we're makeups and you'll see how this breaks down amongst the sub populations there doing well at the higher grade levels. So the higher we go up in seventh and eighth, we are seeing better growth amongst all of our subops. Um and that is to be expected because those students are usually further behind as they metriculate through the K12 system. Then we go to yeah that this is our subopul data. Again this is grade level percent of students who are already at grade level. So you can see moving next we have gender. This is just male versus female. It's going to be the same uh demographic data. You'll see the schoolwide growth again trending upwards as you move metrically from sixth seventh to eth. The percent of students who grew at least.7 years. And

046then lastly, the students who are already at grade level based on gender. Next, we have our emerging bilingual. So 50% emergent bilingual for 50% are native English speakers. Again, you'll see their growth and that trend continues. It's a little bit higher in eighth grade ELA than it is in eighth grade math. But you'll see our schoolwide growth for emergent bilingual versus non. And again, the percent of students who grew at least.7 years and four Finishing up with the percent of students who are already at grade level or above. Two more populations to break down is our special education. We have 19% of our student population at Mayor is has an IEP. So there are students with disabilities. Um, and as we look at this here, we we have some really really good areas such as

047our eighth grade ELA, such as our eighth grade math, eighth grade science, seventh grade science, seventh grade ELA, sixth grade science, where our special education populations are achieving or growing at or they're beating their non-disabled peers. We've got to look and do some research on sixth grade and sixth grade math. Um, there look at those IEPs. Are we really targeting in that that area in ELA? more going to be on the fluency and comprehension piece. On the math, it's going to be on math fluency and automaticity. And so, we're working on that every day in our warm-ups with Web Math Minute where we're really focusing on that math fluency and automaticity so that students, you can't do slope of a line if you're still doing multiplication on your fingers. Now, slope of a line is

048a concept, but you have to have that math automaticity and fluency in order to get that concept right. you can understand rise over run, but if you can't compute it, you're not going to get it correct. So, we're working on that daily. Next slide is the percent of students again special populations um or special education who grew at least.7 years and the percent who are already at grade level that should not be high because they are qualified for an IEP. If students on an IEP or were already at grade level, then we have a over identification. This is what it should look like. also >> no. So 504s would not qualify under special education. We could pull that data for you. Um that number is usually going to be dramatically lower than um a traditional

049IEP. So a student that actually has a disability, a categorized disability, 504s would be separate. >> Can we get that data? >> Yes, we can pull that for you. Yes, ma'am. >> Lastly, we have our ecois. So you'll see we have 80 83% ecois, 17% are not. And again broken down into the growth, you can see those students in the vast majority of areas are growing at or beating their peers. The percent of students who grew at least.7 years. Again, statistically almost there. We're a little bit behind in eighth grade math. We're a little bit behind in eighth grade science. And then finishing up with the percentage of our ECOIS students who are already accurate. Any questions on any of that data? I know you've had this information for some time, so I didn't want

050to go too deep. >> Trusty Lowry. >> Yeah. Uh, I mean, first of all, congratulations and thank you for the great work that you've done as a data person. This definitely excites me as far as the trajectory of Mayor Middle School. Um, I noticed that 8th grade science was significantly lower for special education students. could you speak to uh why that might be and what your plan is for that specific area and subject? >> Yeah. So, when we get into eighth grade science, um you're getting into more Newton's laws of motion, balancing equations, and it it's going to come back to that computation piece. You do have a little conceptual piece there on how to do that. you're you're looking at at that eighth grade science piece a lot more of concepts and the math,

051not so much as in like a biology or an earth science there. You're going to have some academic vocabulary. So, that's where we're bringing back in with our warm-up, spiraling that back in so we can fix that gap. We're also focusing in on that in our reading math success classes as well. So, we're tying in each students, we've tied their NWA MAP score, their RIT score into EXL, which creates their personalized pathway so that if they're struggling in those TESS, then it's going to address it during reading mass success. >> Right. I'll let this team take it over for school specific updates. >> Good evening, Mayor Board. Happy to be here. I'm going to continue with some of our first semester highlights. So, as of January when this PowerPoint was submitted, we were sitting at

052456 students. As of today, we are sitting at 466. So, our enrollment has gone up slightly. In terms of athletics, we have successfully completed football and volleyball and basketball season as well. We are just now um starting into track season as well as soccer triyouts and we have tennis up and coming. Um for part three, we have our habits of success. So that is going to be our incentive for students or positive reinforcement. Some of that might include for their rewards is snacks on Fridays. We also do lunch on a principal where we go to our local butter, McDonald's, Chick-fil-A, everything the kids love and we buy them lunch um on us. We also have our free dress passes for students. That way they get out of the dress code, those colors as long as

053it's school appropriate, of course. And then free seating during lunchtime. So students are able to sit with their friends and this is something they can earn throughout the day from their teachers, from their admin um staff on campus. That's just a positive incentive to get them involved. >> Good evening. We continue on with some highlights from the first semester. Uh we've hosted a variety of parent and community engagement events. Um, as you can see up there, more recently, we've been able to add um sixth grade night for the up andcoming rising fifth graders um from all of Mayor to attend to meet the their teachers to see how we run classrooms. Um, so we hosted that about two weeks ago. And additionally, we have a lot of diet opportunities. So, these are classes that are

054actually run by u members within the community that really hone in on student interest. So, right now, we are holding MMA, cosmetology, photography, and art. And we've actually been able to expand this opportunity based on student interest um by adding extra art members to lead more personalized instruction as well as a fitness class led by coaches within the community. >> I have a question. >> Yes, ma'am. >> I'm just curious um what is the what what is the attendance on the uh event like say for parent night and then the attendance on the opportunities you have? I'm just curious. >> Absolutely. It varies. Um, more recently, we've noticed a slight decline in attendance. Um, for our parent night and the science fair, we we did have a lot of active members. Uh, I'm not sure

055of the exact number. Um, but they're they're open to anyone. We just haven't noticed a huge increase of people attending. >> Trunk or treat. Yes, trunk or treat. We had a large turnout. Lots of families came. A lot of students and um members throughout the entire community came. We opened it up to everyone. Um, that was probably our most successful one. Thank you. Absolutely. >> And that's something we're constantly trying to do better is is message with not just our parents but community members and stakeholders. When we talk about our DIAD opportunities, that's where local professionals within. So a professional photographer would come in. We buy all the equipment, all the materials, SIM cards, cameras, and then they're teaching that that that skill, that art to the students. We need to do a better job

056of communicating with our our DIAD so that they can go out and when they participate in church and their community events, they can bring those people in as well. So that's a byproduct of the DIAD concept that we've seen since we've started that. So before I open just for G. Yes, sir. >> What is MMA? >> Mixed martial arts. >> That's what I thought. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Don't worry. We're not sparring. Okay. >> We're not sparring. We're not doing that. We have all the the dummies and the bags and the gloves and all that. So, we try what we've we've we've really built this out since 2021. >> We used to do taekwond do a lot of karate. The kids like MMA. Our two most popular from fifth to 8th grade is MMA

057and cosmetology by far in all of our campuses. Now, I I like to see a martial arts there because I think there's other, you know, it teaches discipline and structure, character. Um, and so those are all part of our habits of success that Miss Prell talked about, part of our seven habits of success that we're constantly rewarding kids. That's our positive behavior support system. We try and not just wrap that around instruction. We wrap that around athletics. We wrap that around diet. Everything we do across the camp. Before I open questions, I just want to, you know, publicly thank not just this team, but the entire faculty and staff of Mayor Middle. The growth that you've saw, 1.9 years of growth, just under 1.9, that's almost tracking for four years of growth. That is really

058good. That's very, very impressive. And to do that, you're one coming in, building a strong culture, getting the instruction right. I monitor it every Friday. They get their data, every school, everybody sees each other's data every Saturday morning. And we've got a great leadership team there that is really on top of monitoring instruction. So, the quality of feedback, the leadership, and culture. But we also have a staff that shows up where I track a teacher attendance. they're in the top three of teacher attendance across all 12 campuses that we operate and that's what's making a difference for the students is 184 not 184 school days 184 effective school days so I just thank the staff faculty and staff they're doing a tremendous job and I know they're going to keep it up so questions >>

059I don't have any more questions but I just want to convey my gratitude as well to the staff for the hard work that you're doing and the results that we're seeing. Um, and also to just let you know that I community members have reached out to me and they specifically uh say their kids really like the DIADs. So, it's been awesome to hear uh their perspectives and the things their kids are really enjoying about Mayor Middle School. >> That's good to hear. Thank you, ma'am. >> Thank you very much. We really appreciate you and thank you for adjusting your schedule. >> My pleasure. Well, we're not used to snow down here, and I know you are. So, >> I'm in Hey, I'm I'm I'm trying to convince my wife to move to Texas. Um I

060still got one I still have a daughter living up in Colorado, so she's not quite ready to leave yet, but I'm tired of the snow. >> I'm tired of the snow, too. >> Wonderful. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to 10.2 taper report public hearing. Dr. Williams Hill. >> Good evening, team. >> Good evening. >> We had a short board meeting on in January, so we did not get to publicly say happy board appreciation month to you all. So, happy board appreciation month. Thank you. >> So this evening we do have an update for you for the 2425 school year taper report. And as usual it has eight sections. And on our first section, one of the first areas of note is our special education determination status. It improved

061over the year from 2023 to 2024. What that means is our special programs department did a lot of good work from between 2023 and 2024. And in the areas of science, we went from one level to the next. I believe from a four to a three. For our EOC biology, we went from a two to a one designation. And for our special education annual dropout rate, we went from a level two to zero on a scale from zero to four. So that contributed to us going from need substantial intervention to needs intervention. The next slide very quickly, participation remained steady. In the green highlights, you will see areas of improvement over the year 2023 to 2024. Where you see light yellow, that means the area stayed consistent with the previous year. For our star performance,

062all grade levels, all subjects combined, the same color coding. We have pockets of growth from one year over the next. Light yellow. The data remained the same from 2023 2024 school year 2024 2025. Same thing for all grades. Reading language arts for math had quite a few areas of growth year-over-year and the meats are above and masters saw some big improvements in science the meets or above categories. Some of them we had doubledigit gains year-over-year. For social studies, we had some pockets of growth as well. For our graduation rates, we're steadily seeing our numbers increase. For our graduation rates, they are rated from four years from a child from the time a student enters 9th grade through 12th grade. And we have the option to keep updating our graduation rates as student earn those credits

063or CCMR data. I'll pause here. Take a look at the chart. We did some updates to the numbers. One of the areas of notes that we talked about uh during the 2023 2024 report was that our IBC numbers were in the 30 percentage. We also talked about PA sunsetting some of the programs that year and Mayor ISD did not adjust to those. And so that's why we're seeing that change in number from 31 from 33% I believe it was to 11 and a half%. And so that has since been corrected. Even though this is a 2024 2025 school year report, the financial report goes back a year from 2023 2024. And so what you will see in the financial report is part of the reason that we made all of the adjustments that we made

064financially the 2024 2025 school year. So you see uh some of the notes are the general fund revenues per student we earned were about $10,000. We actually spent a little over $11,000 which is about 800 more than what we took in. Our general fund balance decreased by 10.5 million and our recapture payments and credits were zero. But for the 2425 school year, we were still able to pre present you with a balanced budget that also came along with some cuts that we had to make. And you'll see some more data as to what contri what tri attributed to that $800 more per student expenditure. We did receive still I think the 2023 2024 school year we had a score of 90 for 20 I'm sorry for 2022 2023 had a score of 90 for 2324

065had a score of 92 still maintaining a superior achievement rating of A on the first report. Our accreditation status remains accredited and each of our campuses have their campus improvement plans on their websites as well as on the district website we have the district improvement plan. We do have section five, our report on violent or criminal incidents. We did notice that in the first column under Mayor High School, Mayor Senior High School, we did have one miscoding with the illegal knife and we also had another miscoding on Lake Mor Elementary and these are required by law to be recorded federal law. Here's a summary of the different types of services that we provide for students as resources or interventions. And then in section six, we have our postsecondary report that's based upon the 2022 2023

066school year. This data is collected by the Texas or reported by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. And what this data does, it tells us by school which of our students at which of our high schools are at what type of college or university and what their GPA is. You will notice for Mayor Excel Academy for that first row, we do not have numbers because when the data is five students or fewer, it's not reported. For section seven, a required postings page has been updated with the 2024 2025 taper information. And in section 8, for anyone who wants to know what all the acronyms mean, those are posted. take any questions that you have. Do we have any questions or comments from the audience community? Any questions from our board? Thank you very much. Thank

067you. We'll move on to 10 point 3 CPM number three board monitoring report. Dr. B. All right. Good evening again trustees and superintendent. So, I'm here tonight to update you on constraint progress measure three, which constrains us from having allowing any school that is rated an F as of spring of 2025 uh for more than one year without making progress on their numeric overall score. So, our goal today is to talk about whether or not we think progress is made on the campuses that received an F last year. Want to start out with a cautionary note. There is no single assessment on the market that will give us that information with certainty. Um for that reason we are going to look at multiple data sets um in our presentation including um the star interims I

068station a mira excel our blue bonnet mathematics um module assessments and kind of look at all of that data to potentially get insights on whether we are making progress or not. We think we are making progress but I also to a certain extent any one of these data sets taken by itself or compared to each other needs to be taken with a grain of salt and I just want to say that upfront um before we commence to to cheering or celebrating um as we continue to do the work. So here we have our six campuses that received an F last year. You just re received a report from uh third and future schools a very some very promising data um relative to what's going on at Mayor Middle School. I'll be updating you on the

069other five schools. So, let's start with Decker Elementary. So, here we have Decker. Um, again, just want to say, I know it's a lot a lot of different data sets in front of you, but no single assessment or data set is going to tell us um, hey, we're going to we're going to be fine on STAR. And especially, uh, since the pandemic and then STAR 2.0 came out and no product on the market, no organization putting out assessments even purports to have a level of reliability um, as a predictor of STAR. So that's why we're going to look at a bunch of stuff and I'm going to say, hey, this provides, you know, we're looking for patterns. We're looking for patterns um to get a hint about how we're doing and where we're going. So

070we're going to look at reading first. And if we go back to to the top left and compare spring star from the end of last year to the fall star interim, pretty soon we'll be bringing you the the spring star interr. But if we look at the fallstar interim for Decker, um you see some pretty good looking data for an increase in meats and masters. So matter of fact, 20 percentage points um added on to that mast's category. So looking there, looking at that second data set, we've got the Amira reading at the beginning of your data and the middle of your data. That also indicates a slight increase in the percentage of students that are on track. If you look at that um about four percentage points um moved from off track just just

071off track in tier four. And whether it's a bunch of students moving over a little bit or a group of students jumping um significantly, we do have an increase in uh of that 4% showing up in tier 2, which is smack dab in the middle of that that three tiered area where students are considered to be on track. Looking at our Spanish um Amira data for the students who tested in Spanish, um that does not correlate with that trend. um and there there's additional supports needed there and that also um looks similar across the other two elementary campuses. I'm going to tell you that upfront and we'll talk a little bit more about that. When we look at math um my team has definitely told me this over and over. It's a stretch to compare

072our blue bonnet module assessment data uh to the spring star or tol. Um but it looks like our students are making progress um in terms of moving up into those um ontrack areas in the meats and masters area above 70% above 85%. And then if we jump down into the excel math beginning of year data and compare that to the midyear data we do see um growth in the percent of students that are on track. And so a little bit of growth in that tier two. And then kind of the most exciting is looking at that tier one, which is the top the top tier um on this assessment with a um with a 10 percentage uh points of growth. Now I would caution that I talked to you about this last year when we

073had I ready when the the scores I want to look at the growth not the overall scores because the overall scores I'm not going to sit up here and tell you hey look 70% of the students 73% of the students are on track because like last year with I Ready didn't seem to correlate we had rosy sunshine beautiful data last year and it didn't correlate that well to what happened on star so I don't want I'm not going to do that with either. Actually, it was when it came out very high, I was a little disappointed. I'm like, okay. Because I'm not gonna I I don't I hope and I want, but I don't expect to necessarily see 73% of our students approaching just yet. I think we're moving in that direction, but I don't

074think we're there yet. But in terms of putting more students into a tier that is considered on track, uh Decker is making some moves and so we are hopeful about that. Let's move on. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Question. >> Yes. Um we did not take the fall math interim. We were, if you'll recall, and now I'm kind of wishing we would have, but I also stick by our decision that we all talked about in looking at how do we moderate the amount of assessments that we are having. Now, I'm of two minds. Um, at this moment, I I wish we had math interim data, but I also feel like we're still over testing at this moment in time over the next month and a half. It's just like testing season and I still have concerns about

075the amount of uh teaching time and minutes of instruction that are lost with all the assessments. So, we did not include a writing component, but as we go into our additional supports for Decker, one of the things I did want to talk to you about is our focus in third, fourth, and fifth grade um on instructed responses and and working. We have our new director on special assignment um not new to the business, but new to us, uh Joleni Barra, who is in the audience. Um I think she was earlier and um without looking back there she is. Um she is working um her job is two two campuses third fourth and fifth grade teachers at Shadow Glenn and Decker Elementary working on reading and writing and her focus is on um constructive response extended

076constructive response the writing pieces and um how to win in that arena. And she's actually got some videos of some of our teachers that we could share with you. We've been thinking about different ways to share with across the system um our own teachers and the progress that they're making there. Um I do want to talk a little bit more about some of the additional supports to accelerate that we are work we've been working on at Decker because we haven't been waiting around. Um, I know you're privy to most of them, so I might be sharing more for the public, but um, we've done a few we've done a bunch of stuff to just continue to be fluid and agile in how we're supporting that campus and, um, ensuring that we do everything we can

077to see the growth. Uh, number one, as you know, we we made a leadership change um at that campus mid year. Um, number two, um, we made some personnel moves and, um, we brought in district personnel, uh, to support math instruction in fourth and fifth grade. They're teaching sections of math. Um, our math coordinator is, um, teaming up with the instructional coach at Decker, who was a master math teacher, still, it turns out, they're teaching fourth grade math on our campus, and the mother of my district coordinators are teaming up to support and teach second fifth grade math as well. Uh we brought in one of our top literacy instructional coaches from another campus to teach our fourth grade uh to teach reading and writing to to our fourth grade bilingual class um at Decker

078Elementary. And um we also added two bilingual teaching assistants um to support our emerging bilingual as they continue to work on on their proficiency and their learning as well at Decker Elementary. So lots of moves. Papaya tutoring got them that up. We'll talk a little bit more. I know you've had some questions about Papaya tutoring. So I at the last slide I'll share some more about what's going on with them and progress and some of the hiccups that we've had as well. But um yeah, a lot of stuff going on. Decker. So Shadow Glenn next. We look at the the data for Shadowland. Um first of all again you look at the fall interim and compare that to the the spring star and we see um we see a really interesting pattern and we've seen

079this across our district where our approaches is actually a little bit lower but our meats and our masters um has made a jump and that kind of played itself out in our tea visits last week as we watched and um looked at 39 out of 42 classrooms that we observed were um on were using 42 out of 42 were using the district curriculum which was great. 39 out of 42 were on pace. One of the things that we did see that's still a challenge for us. How do we support the students that are not on the teachers on pace? some of the students are falling behind and how do we continue to refine our interventions so that um we can catch them up. Um also when we look at our um our Amira reading you

080kind of see that it's kind of flat. It's not showing the growth um the accelerated growth that we need. It it's kind of flat. Our Spanish um is really kind of looking like the Spanish testers we need some additional support. I'll talk to you about we've done what we've done there. Um, looking at the math, we do see some consistency. Students are continuing. If when we see the scores that are exactly the same on the LL from BOI to MOI, that indicates that the percentage of students um growing or continuing to grow about a year's growth is the same. what I'd like to see growth in that tier three and tier two. We do see um eight percentage points of growth in that tier one, that highest level of exL, but we are providing some

081supports to math as well. I'm going to chat a little bit about those and it speeds up after the first two campuses. I promise. I just want to provide you kind of a pretty comprehensive snapshot of what's going on on our two um two campuses with the highest urgency. So, Apaya Pay tutoring. We got over a hundred students doing that. We're heading into our third wave of students there. Um we brought in two of our top instructional coaches from other campuses. Again, that has an impact on our other campuses, but we do have we did have two IC's that were master mathematics teachers. So, we brought them in. One's teaching fourth grade, one's teaching fifth grade. We want to make sure now we still have the other teachers, the original teachers of record in place

082in a teaming situation so that not only can we continue to grow them and they're getting coaching every day, but they are also there to assist with small groups. So once we for instance then we have a 90-minute math block 60 minute lesson or blue bonnet and then 30 minutes or small group retach intervention Il practice and so during that 30 minute um retach we have those we have the original teacher of record in there we have our our uh our IC our new teacher our master teacher in there um we're pushing in some additional people we invested and a bilingual interventionist, an additional bilingual interventionist to come in and support over there. Again, we've got Joe Lynn over there working with our language arts teachers and um and we are hoping well. So, all

083of those all these additional acceleration sports I'm talking about are since January. And so, a lot of that's not going to show up in the you know, when we took the MOI, it's well, they've been here a week and a half. And so as we continue to assess, I'll bring you more information um as as it becomes accessible. So moving on to Blue Bonnet, give you a chance to look at the Blue Bonnet data data there. Uh Blue Bonnet trail see some significant increases right off the bat in the interimm fall. 12 percentage points higher on the meats and 21 percentage points higher in the masters in the reading area. Um, jumping down into the Amira, we do see modest growth in that tier 2 and tier one, the the top two tiers, right? Um,

084so we are Blue Bonnet Trail. their team is moving um students into higher tiers of of ontrack um on grade level work. They're doing a little bit better with the Spanish speakers at their campus. They do have um one of our only two-way dual language programs. Um we need to do some work to strengthen that in the upcoming year. As we look at mathematics, we do see um in the EXL data in particular, we see across those t three tiers of ontrack that um we have a higher percentage of students that are that are falling into those areas and that are on track with our Blue Bonnet supports again tutoring of course and then Blue Bonnet Trail has initiated um afterchool tutoring with their teachers as well and use some of their title one money

085to support their teachers to give additional tutoring and um that's working out really well over there. Um I haven't really hit on it on the last two campuses but all of our campuses across the district are receiving additional region 13 supports as well. Um they came together with us I think it was right before Christmas and were very um engaged. they they initiated the meeting and and talked about what supports, you know, could they give us what additional supports? And so there's been some additional trainings, additional coaching opportunities. So here's the slide with the Decker Middle School data and the the light green, you know, shows there's some pretty good evidence here. Again, I want to say strong, but again, I have to follow my own rule of taking it with a grain of salt,

086but I think there's some promising evidence of accelerated growth across the board in reading and math at Decker Middle School. And um you can see their additional supports this year. I think we're we're a little aggressive um up highay and our partnering. We're trying to get up to touch 250 plus students by the end of the year. Wave three is just getting underway. Um we've had some tech difficulties um on Papaya's end, but um but we're working through it and um you know, all the data seems to be pointing in the same direction with Decker Middle School, Mayor High School. So you see green with Maynor High School in almost every data set. Be it with the spring star to the star interim and then you see it in the English one, both English one

087and English two. And then with we use their BOI and their MOI um in our reading and our math or our English and our math and we are seeing uh steady increases in the percentage of students that are on track. Um when you couple that with the projected increase in college and career military readiness, we believe that there is a we we have a strong case to make that there is going to be um a nice increase in the overall accountability score uh for Mayor for Mayor High School as we head into the spring star. And I don't know if I should stop there for questions. Maybe I'll just slide on through to the last slide and then hit any more additional questions. So, um I was asked to bring a little bit of information

088just to highlight a couple things with Papaya tutoring. As of this, as of last week, we have logged over 5,600 hours of tutoring um districtwide. And um you can see that um along with those 5,6 hours, 5,600 hours, what we found is when we're able to get students on and connect them with their tutor consistently, we are seeing growth. We're seeing um decent growth using the exi and MOI parameters. We're seeing about an average of 40 plus um points of growth. We I do want to say we have experienced challenges um with Papaya's platform and with scheduling tutors. I'm still not convinced they have enough tutors. Just going to say that out loud for the record. We've been having I've been in conversations with them pretty much every day the last couple of weeks and

089it's all hands on deck to get the final kinks worked out because we are in the we're in the end game and we need kids to be getting their tutoring. Um I have shared here a table that just kind of gives you a few students as a case study of what from few from Shadowland and a few from Decker Elementary that you can see the kind of growth we are getting when students are connecting with their tutors on a consistent basis um on a daily basis. So that is my presentation and um hope I was as concise as the two people before me but I think I might have gone a little bit longer. >> What what percentage of those students would you say are getting consistent tutorials off the top of your head? >>

090So if I look at the number of students we were hoping to tutor um one of the things to consider is that they are going in waves. So wave one, wave two, wave three. um it's not all of the you know 600 students or if you looked at um Mayor High for instance we're hoping to get over 400 kids in by the end of the year and that's almost every ninth grader and a lot of tth graders that has not happened yet scaling up on that level has never done anything that big um not even close it's been difficult and tricky I think I know we're getting value out of it in terms of a percentage of students that have been on regular Clearly, I'm going to have to calculate that for you and bring

091it back. And I say anything, it's just going to be made up. I don't want to do that. >> Yes. So this is the first year that we've actually had um a platform in place where we are assessing them boi and it's been you know it's been EOCC's or nothing and this is the first year we're like hey we got another assessment too and it's been a learning curve um at at the middle school as well getting more getting people on and getting the testing finished and extending the the deadlines and the windows and finally saying you know what we're done for now. If you'll notice, um it's less prevalent also less prevalent at the elementary level, but um you add up the percentages, they don't add up to 100%. Because there is kind of

092there's a it's a loose, but there is an ultimate like time. It's like time to how much before you're just like you're incomplete, didn't finish the test. So, it's supposed to be six 45 to 60 minute test. And we ended up in the math test giving 90 minutes total. and students weren't always coming back and it there was some attendance pieces where students started and then were out during the makeups but also if after 90 minutes you're not done you would get an incomplete and then it it shows up as an incomplete and does and I could have shared the incomplete data it doesn't seem as as fun on the slides or you know as useful but um I was worried you'd be asking me a question about you in particular why it doesn't add

093up to a hundred so I'm a little disappointed I was ready for you Dr. over here to make sure I knew. >> Anyway, but thank you for asking that question. We do need to just work on the routines and the behavior of Yeah, you have this diagnostic assessment as well and we're all taking it and we're getting there. Um but the first couple the first in particular um was not as high as we would have liked. I appreciate that question, Stacy, because if we are looking at these percentages as far as those who were actually present and able to complete the assessment, then that would slightly skew the data as well given the demographics that are more likely to be present consistently or complete an assessment. So, uh, just things to consider. Um, Dr. Ben,

094as far as looking at some of that Amira data with English versus Spanish at our elementary campuses, um, and I don't expect you to have this answer right this second. >> I may, who knows? But um I'm curious what uh the systematic process for LCAP meetings prior to STAR is going to be to determine what language they test in because it looks like that may be um a pretty big factor in in how well they do what language they're most comfortable in academics wise with STAR. >> Yes. And I think I do have an answer for that. So first of all even just looking at the data that's Um, again, grain of salt because there are in the Spanish testing data, there's English speakers in there. Any of our English speakers who are in two-way

095dual language, they are in there. And we were having a lot of trouble. You may have noticed, but we actually did change the um I'm not no I'm not going to go back to the other slides, but I we ch I just recently as in this morning updated the Amira data for for the Spanish testers and then we went ahead and updated the um English testing data as well. um because Amamira has just been continuing to update actually how they how they um assess and then um how they communicate the data out and how they display it with the Spanish. But I've been having all that to say is it's very difficult to tease out Spanish speakers taking the Spanish test versus the English speakers taking the Spanish test. And then vice versa in the

096English test um who are the heritage English speakers versus who are the um second language learners that are taking the English test. And we've been really work Dr. Dr. Doyle and her team have been working super hard already on working with campuses to figure out so that we do get the right students um testing in the language that's going to re lead to the best results for them. And so, um, the whole thing around, um, categorizing students and figuring out where they are in terms of the ALPAC process has been a a tremendous, uh, lift and and resulting in a lot of improvement with with with the data across the district this year with the level of training for our campus folks to ensure um that they are coded correctly in teams. And they've worked

097super hard on it, and it's been kind of hard on them, too. But um, But we're getting there. We spent a lot of time on it. And so I think exactly what you're saying and we're h already having those conversations that ensuring that students test in figuring out the best language for them to test in is going to be key and could result um in multiple points of increase for each of the campuses, but more importantly success. That was a long answer. And the same thing at the high school level, making sure kids are testing in the appropriate level. >> I think it's even more of a it has been more of an issue in the past at high school as you get in the upper grades more so um than at elementary. So, it'll

098be absolutely essential and the team is working on that too. And um I'll give you if possible. Well, I'm not sure what an update would look like, but I'll um look at what we can put together for a um for a trusty folder for Friday. >> I just have a quick question. Um did I is it about a thousand students or a little over a thousand students using or you're trying to get papaya tutoring there? >> Yeah, >> I was looking I was tallering tally. >> It's a lot. And that's just those we have other campuses getting it too. >> Okay. And so the way we've been talking about it is it's a tremendous endeavor and while we would love it to occur with 100% fidelity and um we're only intending on paying for what

099we what we actually how much we tutor and we're looking at look whoever gets tutored that will they are bringing value that onetoone I talked to you about um that is happening in different in students native language um to the extent that it is happening. We are seeing growth, but again like your question earlier about the percentage of students that are on regularly. Um I I don't it has not been over a thousand to date for sure. So I'll bring I'll bring some of that information. >> And just a reminder that um by law we're required to offer tutoring and so we were going to have to offer tutoring no matter what. And so this is uh the process they're doing into logging those hours. Although we're we're giving tutoring for students also who don't

100necessarily have to have the tutoring based on the law that keeps changing and I can never remember what number it is. It used to be HB4545 but something else now >> 1460 >> when we are sticking to the one to one model um so we've been pretty adamant about that. I think that's where we'll get the most bang for our buck um per student. Are we able to hit every single one of the students that we identified in partnership with Papaya? If we do, that would be pretty amazing. We can even get like 65 70% of the way there, I think we'll be very happy with the I know we'll be very happy with the result. That's just me being honest. >> Okay, good. Thank you. What what do we have next? Thank you so

101much. >> All right. So, now we're on to 10.4 CPM number 2.1 progress monitoring report. If uh I know we all had our presentations given to us with beforehand. If there's no questions from our trustees, I can move on to 10.4. 10.5. Okay. No questions on So, we'll move on to 10.5 bond 2019. Do we have any questions for uh Mr. Mendes? We also have the presentation. All right, we are move. >> Yeah. And >> and we've all had this for since January since all this was updated in board book. Um we'll move on to 10.6 the required annual racial profiling report. Um we also had the presentation given it to given to us beforehand. We have any questions from Chief Yarro from any of our trustees. Hearing none, we'll move on to 10.7 monthly

102financial report January and February. >> And uh trustees, if you have any questions for Mr. Santiago on the two reports, um if not, I do have just a teaser for March 2nd since >> Jesus. >> Um oh no, where'd it go? There it is. >> Sorry, it sounded bad. >> It's okay. So yes, uh you know, anybody who wants to join us on March 2nd, we're going to be talking money and budget. It's going to be our first look at the 2627 budget. Um and so I wanted to start us off by just a quick reminder of where we came from. Um and I think some of this these uh things I put up there, they were hard decisions that these trustees and the former board had to make and we all had to do.

103Um but they resulted in some positives for the districts and I think it's important to know how we got to where we are. uh because we're in a new territory. And I guess what really started me off this, I continually get stopped in the hallway and asked, "Okay, so what are we going to do to balance the budget?" I says, "Well, we're going to balance the budget." That's like the norm now. There is no not balancing the budget. Now, that doesn't mean we're going to have all the money in the world. We're going to have to shift things around if we want things, but balancing the budget is just normal now. There's no other thing about that. And so, um, I did want to point out just some of these the these items up here

104that, um, people may not be aware of, um, because they date back some time ago. Um, while closing milk was not not a fun thing to do and certainly not thing we'd like to do, there were the savings in our PK enrollment has increased significantly uh, since that time. Uh, that second thing right there where we repurposed Wild Horse Elementary School, while we didn't actually save the money, we didn't spend the money that cost to open it. opening a an elementary school just for the staffing um year-over-year is about $1.2 million we would have had to add to the budget. Instead, we um are using it for a number of purposes. And one of the interesting things that doesn't come out of that is you'll see the recidivism rate of students in the DAP has

105been cut in half. There's a whole list of positive metrics on that. I didn't want to fill this up, but everything from attendance is up to discipline referrals is down. And I think a lot of that has to do, speaking of bond, I can't get away from it. When you give kids good facilities that they're proud of, they live up to it and um those kids I think are living up to that facilities um for the most part. >> Dr. Sermani. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Um while I definitely understand recetivism, could you uh provide a little description in in normal? >> The kids aren't coming back after they go there once. So we count how many times they come back during the school year. So if you go there once and then you come back

106a set second time, you're counted as in that percentage. And so it used to be 15% of the students who went there came back again. And so now that's down to 8% a turnaround rate. And so that that rate is very good that we've reduced it that much. And and hats off to the staff over there as well. And Miss Morelis. >> Yeah, that's a fantastic data point. Thank you for that question. That >> I also want to point out um while we did we never like to uh cut positions, we did have a lot of uncertified teachers that we we went ahead and let go in order to balance the budget. And remember these are teachers that were not making progress towards their certification. But one of the things that I want to point

107out is an offshoot of that um and I don't think people realize this, our uncertified teacher rate is now 7.5%. uh most of those are CTE teachers who um get certified through because of their industry experience. But you'll notice statewide um the uncertified rate is 12% and urban charter schools, which is the charter schools around us, run at 80% uncertified. Um I don't know that people know that. Um obviously they don't have to follow the state law that says you can't have uncertified teachers, but I think the I would put the quality of our staff up against them any day. Uh then finally um the administrative expenditures. Uh we are currently running 6% below the average of similar districts. While I know it was a struggle for a lot of people to pick up new

108work and new jobs, it was a necessary thing and we are um have the benefit of being able to say that our administrative costs are lower than most districts. U now um I don't know why that says number one, number one, number one. Maybe that's because they're all important. Um >> those are just um how we guide ourselves with our budgetary goals which you'll see this again on Monday. And from that we have guiding principles. Uh these have not changed much. I did get some feedback from some staff um at the district advisory team um that want to make sure that we invest not just in the skills but the support of our staff and so we added that on there as well. Um but these are principles that guide us in making budget decisions.

109And um I've left put these up here. Five areas that we want to address in the budget in some way, shape, or form. How we're going to address that and how we can address that. Well, that's the magic question. And so, uh I just put that up there so that everybody knows what we're up against and what we need to accomplish. Uh so that is the budget teaser. If you want to get the numbers, you got to come on Monday or watch, you can watch it online, too. So, um, we will get those numbers to you, um, with estimated revenue and expenditures coming up. Um, I'll end with this. Um, while our attendance rate is up, uh, we do have less students than we did last year. Um, and so that is having an impact

110on our budget. And so, that goes back to saying, uh, there are things we want. That's great, but we're going to have to give up something to get it and as a community. And so, we're going to keep that in mind as we move forward. >> Do we know where our student or do we know how or where our students are at how are we tracking? >> I have been actually been looking at that. I need to refine the data some more. In fact, I was looking at it today looking at a three-year trend to see although still the largest majority of where our students go um who have left us recently, I should say, um is to other public schools districts. Now, there's a lot of evidence to say it's not they're just hopping

111over the boundary. they're they're moving moving like economics. Um for some reason they are picking up and going somewhere. So um that is what I'm seeing right now. Um a lot of people ask me about vouchers and private school vouchers. I don't see that. Um I do hear from charter schools they're getting hammered. Um, and that didn't surprise me because the way I put it, um, I think we saw we have 4,000 school age childrens within the boundary of Mayor ISD that do not attend Mayor ISD. Many of those are in charter schools. Those are people who have already opted out of the public school system. Those are the ones taking the vouchers and which is why it doesn't appear to be impacting us um, like it has maybe in some other places. So, that's

112what I'm seeing now. But again, I'm trying to refine the data and clean up some things that I saw that needed some refinement um going back a couple years so I can have better trend lines. >> Okay, we'll move on to um 10.8 quarterly investment report. Does uh any trustee have questions to Mr. Santiago? All right, we'll move on to 11.1 through 11.14. Consent agenda item. >> Motion. >> Go ahead. >> I move that the board approve consent agenda items 11.1 through 11.14 as presented. >> I have a motion by trustee Rodriguez Barnett to approve consent agenda items. Do I have a second? I have a second by both trustee Dr. Lowry and Patterson. Uh all those in favor. Motion passes. 6. Uh we're going to move on to action item 12.1 consideration approval of

113policy GKD local facilities usage. Do I have a motion for 12.1? >> Madame President, I move that the board approve the GKD local facilities policy as presented. I have a motion by trustee Dr. Lowry. Do I have a second? >> I have a second by >> I have a comment as before we vote. >> Yes. By trustee uh Howard. Uh we have discussion. Um first discussion is um trustee Martinez. >> Um so I'm not going to support it and I'm going to tell you why. Um because I I can't support a policy that essentially asks the taxpayer to put the bill uh for an organization without providing any real uh evidence of need. Um so the way I see it is if they're charging their participants then they should be covering the costs speaking of

114facilities and wear and tear things like that. So that is why I'll be voting no on this. >> Do I have any other further discussion on this agenda item? All right. If there's no other further discussion, I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. Uh we have five in favor. All those against, one against. Motion passes. 5 510 sorry 51 oh getting all right we'll move on to item 12.2 consideration and disapproval of a resolution establishing a school period of prayer in accordance with Senate Bill 11. Dr. Ceremony, do you want to give a brief just uh description or just uh on Senate Bill 11 or are you gonna do that. >> Okay. >> Y >> I I think some trustees wanted to have some discussion on that. >> Okay.

115So, um >> do I make the motion first? >> Yeah, I can take a motion for Senate Bill uh for Senate Bill 11, motion 12.2. >> Madame President, um I move that the board disapprove the resolution establishing a school period for prayer in accordance with SB11. >> I have a motion by Trusty Howard. Second. I have a second by trustee Dr. Lowry. We're going to have discussion. Do we have discussion on this matter? I just want the community to know that if this is adopted and should the district um have litigation, the Texas Attorney General would be the one that would represent the district um and they would be able to take those the financial burden of the district if there was any legal action. That's the only update that I have. >> Okay. Thank

116you, Trusty Rodriguez Barnett. If there's no further discussion on this agenda item, I will take the vote. All those in favor? All those uh all those in favor of five. All those against all those abstain. So motion passes 5 01. Um, now we'll move on to item 12.3, consideration approval of the superintendent's evaluation. Do I have a motion? >> Madame President, I move that the board approve the superintendent's evaluation as agreed upon in executive session. >> Have a motion by Trusty Patterson on uh item 12.3. Do I have a second? >> Second. I have a second by both trustee Rodriguez Barnett and Howard. There's no discussion. I'll take the vote. All those in favor. Motion passes. 6. Okay. Confirmation of the next regular board meeting is scheduled for March 30th, 2026. Anybody would like to

117make a motion to >> Madame President, in honor of Dr. Thomas, who loved to take this one. >> I move to adjourn the meeting. uh make that >> if I could and I I know Mark out there might say we shouldn't but if it's okay with the board can we the record show that Mary Thomas seconded that motion >> yes >> then let the record so show so show show >> that yes all those in favor we adjourn at 8:08m jam-packed agenda for two months This is great timing. Great timing. >> And to we we actually have a resolution that we're going to any trustee wants to voluntarily sign it. Um we're going to read this at uh uh the services for Dr. Thomas on Saturday. Um the mean old open records act um open

118meetings act wouldn't let us put on the agenda. So uh we have to do it this way. So, we're all signing it and can I read it? >> Sure. >> Why don't you bring it over here and we'll read it and then we'll let everyone sign or actually it's two pages. So, >> okay. Okay. This is the resolution in honor of Dr. Mary Thomas uh Mayor Independent School District Board of Trustees celebration a life of educational excellence and service whereas Dr. Mary L. Thomas devoted her life to the noble profession of education, serving students, families, and colleagues with unwavering commitment, integrity, and compassion. And whereas Dr. Thomas exemplified excellence in scholarship, earning advanced degrees, and distinctions that reflected both her intellectual rigor and her steadfast belief in transformative power of education. And whereas throughout her

119more than 40 years in public education, Dr. Ta Thomas championed academic achievement, equity, and opportunity for all students, ensuring that each child, regardless of circumstance, was seen, supported, and challenged to reach their highest potential. And whereas Dr. Thomas's contribution to public education included service as a teacher, principal, central office administrator, and as a mayor ISD trustee since 2022. And whereas Dr. Thomas served as a mentor and role model to educators and leaders, fostering professional growth, innovation, and a culture of collaboration that strengthened the entire educational community. And whereas her leadership was marked by vision, wisdom, and humility, inspiring those around her to pursue excellence not only in their work, but in their character. And whereas Dr. Thomas's contributions extended beyond the classroom and campus, enriching the broader community through advocacy, partnership, and service. And whereas

120her legacy lives on in the countless students whose lives were touched by her encouragement, the educators she mentored, and the institutions she helped to strengthen. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the board of trustees and superintendent honor and celebrate the extra extraordinary life and educational achievements of Dr. Mary L. Thomas and be it further resolved that we express our deepest sympathy to her family, friends, colleagues, and all who were touched by her life. And be it further resolved that we commit ourselves to carrying forward her legacy of excellence, equity, and unwavering dedication to students. and be it finally resolved that this resolution be presented to the family of Dr. Mary L. Thomas as a lasting tribute to her remarkable life and enduring impact signed this 23rd day of February 2026. >> Thank you.