001I don't know. See, I just saw everybody looking. >> You're a rebel. [laughter] >> Alrighty, it's five o'clock. So, in compliance, good afternoon, good evening. In compliance with the open meetings Texas Government Code, chapter 551, I call this meeting of the Mayor Independent School District to order on >> December 15th 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 the open meetings act. Now we'll go into close session. The board will now adjourn into exe executive session act >> 501 p.m. >> Pursuant to the following sections of the Texas Open Meetings Act 551.071 551.072 551.074 and 551.129. We'll go into There's Armani's misbehaving. [laughter] Good evening everyone and welcome to the last board meeting
002of the year. >> All right. [laughter] All right. The board now will reconvene in open session at 6:19 p.m. >> Amazing. We're going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance. Leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance tonight are fifth graders Yarretti Ernnandez and Yan Martinez from Decker Elementary. [cheering and applause] I pledge algiance to the United States of America and to republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible. >> Thank you. Way to go. >> All right. Now I will have one of our trustees read the vision statement. >> I'll read the vision. >> ISD is the best district in Texas where we provide an equitable education for all scholars and
003graduate them ready to become leaders in our community. >> Oh my god, she memorized my memory. Memorized. Way to go. Thank you. LSG. LSG. Okay. Uh mission. Who would like to do the mission statement? The mission collectively as a community, Mayor ISD provides equitable resources, a safe learning environment, and highquality educational services for all scholars to su successfully achieve successfully achieve and reach their full potential. >> Thank you very much. [laughter] >> We'll move on to 6.1 December Scholar Recognition. It is not October, but it is December and this is our last scholar recognition [laughter] for the year. Um, so team of eight, I'm proud to come and bring our latest scholar recognition up. But first, our district goal three, which is by 2028, 90% of Mayor IC scholars will graduate prepared for college, career,
004trade, and/or military services based upon their individual goals. And tonight, we are proud to recognize Mayor High School senior Michelle Garcia, who earned first place in the Houston Tilson University writing competition for her piece titled Seclusion. She beat out hundreds of other submissions from across the street, and she receives $1,000 for her win. [cheering] [applause] Closing out our scholar recognition, we go to just as amazing staff recognitions which are submitted by their campuses each and every month for just being amazing. So, let's get started. So, staff of the month, if you're here, uh when your name is called, if you'll just walk up to the left and you'll shake the hands of our trustees, but don't go anywhere. Just stand by here. Uh once we wrap up, you'll take a group photo and then you'll
005head out there for your individual photos. from Blake Mayor Elementary School. Edith Nava, first grade teacher, and Annabelle Zuniga, food and nutrition [applause] from Blue Bonnet Trail Elementary, Florian Flores, special education teacher and Bridget Balden, registar [applause] from the Child Development Center. Joselyn Cesar, a preK teacher [applause] from Decker Elementary School. Myra Dema's third grade dual language teacher and Claudia Escalante S uh E S E C S E. Thank you so much. Aid. >> Yeah. [applause] From Oak Meadows Elementary School, Billy Mercer, coach. And Joanna Ariano, teacher aid [applause] from Pioneer Crossing Elementary School. Casey Alvarado, life skills teacher. And Belinda Singleton, interventionist. >> [applause] >> from Logos Elementary School. Christy Hardy, fifth grade ELA and Ernesa Steel, parent leaison [applause] from Presidential Meadows Elementary School. Hayen Lee, third grade teacher and Marlo Ma, uh,
006preK8 [applause] from Shadow Glenn Elementary School. Marcus Romero, fifth grade dual language teacher at Anna Pia registar [applause] from Mayor Rise Academy. Lee Jackson coach and Jalisa Clark instructional coach [applause] from Decker Decker Middle School. Ryan Casease, librarian and Ian Singleton, administrative assistant. [applause] from Mayor New Techch Middle School, Alexis Keane, sixth grade. Uh, and Diana Gonzalez, ATT associate. [applause] And from Mayor New Tech High School, Rodulo Diaz, PAR professional, and Britney Mickelson, social studies teacher. [applause] And that concludes our recognitions, but let's get you guys in the middle for for a photo. >> [applause] >> All right. Now, we're going to go to the public forum uh of the meeting. Mr. Martinez, do we have anyone signed up to speak? >> We do not. >> Thank you. All right, we're going to move on
007to close session action items. 8.1, consideration and approval of educator chapter 21 contract abandonment. Desine Clark. Do I have a motion for 8.1? Madame President, I move that the board make a finding that there is not good cause to support Destiny Clark's resignation from their position of Mayor ISD. >> I have a motion by Trusty Patterson. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> I have a second by Mr. Martinez and Trustee Rodriguez Barnett. All those If there's no discussion, all those in favor? Motion passes. 70. We'll move on to uh item 8.2 consideration approval for hire director on special assignment target school improvement. Do I have a motion? >> Madam President. >> Yes. Trusty Rodriguez Barnett. >> I move that the board approve the hire of Jolen Embara as the director of special assignment
008target school improvement. >> I have a motion by uh trustee Rodriguez Barnett. Do I have a second? >> I'll second that. >> I have a second by trustee Lowry. All those in favor? Motion passes. 70. We'll move on to eight item 8.3. >> Madam President, if I may. >> Oh my god, it's a special hire. So sorry. >> I She I I did notice she is in the crowd and I Oh, she doesn't want to miss a chance to wave to all her adoring fans. >> Welcome to Mayor ISD. >> Thank you. All right. Sorry. We'll move on to 8.3 consideration and approval for hire director of multilingual services. Do I have a motion? >> Madam President, I move that the board approve the hire of Dinora Deator as director of multilingual services. >> I
009have a motion by trustee Howard. Do I have a second? I have a second by trustee Rodriguez Barnett. No. If there's no discussion, I will uh entertain a motion. All those in favor? >> Do you Are you in favor? >> Yes. >> Okay. Yay. It uh motion passes 70. And welcome. Is she here? >> Yes. I believe she is out there in the back. She's already making fans with me. There she is. >> Benas. Gracias. All right. We're going we're moving on to superintendent update 9.1 student safety update. >> As trustees just uh our monthly update and as I was updating boards the next generation weap detection system is due to be in the district and we will begin installing those in January at the high school level. Uh mostly the students will notice just
010something looks different. Um, and we will begin if worked as advertised, we will change our procedures, but of course we won't talk about that out loud. Uh, so it just know if you're out there, it's new and improved and we'll catch more stuff. Uh, we all I also want to let people know that long ago we we promised we will begin to look now that we have the new generation um whether to place them at the middle school and we'll be working with middle school principles on that. Uh we do have some points of pride that I want to bring up and this first one actually is in line with our goals. You heard we had the first place winner, but that's not all we had. Uh we had uh quite a few students um
01183% of all the statewide submissions for the Houston Titson um writing competition actually came from Mayor ISD. So um I think that's itself. [applause] And of course, you can see some of our we had not just the first place winner, but a number of students who were honorable mentions with their pieces. And so, um, really nice that they're working on their writing skills while getting, um, some recognition at the same time. Uh, we also have some, uh, Mayor High School choir persons. Um, this is actually the third straight year Isaiah has been on on our display here. Uh, he is moving on to area auditions and will be, um, going for the All State Choir. And of course, we also had Zion, who is the first alternate. And so, claps to our choir at Mayor
012High School. [applause] >> And now we have some new tech kids to join them, too. Uh, region 26 all region choir. You see our students who made it there as well. So, claps to them. [applause] >> Dr. Sermani. Dr. Smani. >> Yes, sir. >> The board was present. I attended the choir concert for Mayor and Mayor New Techch this weekend. They were phenomenal. Um there is coming in January also a play. They performed one song there. So um if Cynthia can connect with Mr. Sigiraa, that'd be great to give us on the calendar to be able to hear them live. It was amazing. >> Congratulations to all of those students. >> Yeah, if you've not heard our choir sing, you are missing out. Uh we also had a a record-breaking results from the New Tech
013Gladiator Regiment all region band, 63 scholars. Um that was by far the most of any school in our entire region who placed students. And so um that band is growing by leaps and bounds and not just in numbers but in quality as well. So big collabs to our our [applause] and I should point out this is the middle school band. So, all these kids are about to roll up, start rolling up to high school, and you'll be looking at some uh marching awards up there, I think, in our future. >> And then, of course, we have our Titan uh regiment high school band. So, to give you some idea of what's already there, you see the region spots and those students that participate in region um and placed in band as well. So, um good
014things in band over across the street from us. >> [applause] >> By the way, the uh region marching competition is usually held in Giddings, so it's not too far for us to drive um and looking for a chance to see them win next year. >> Or is it in two years? I can't remember. I always forget. So, I'll have to ask Mr. Sagor. >> Okay. Um up to the monthly financial >> real quick. Can I add can I add a pride moment? Um this weekend Blake Maynor robotics coach Jenny Long hosted a mini competition with another school and it was a great turnout and they had a great practice and I was in attendance. It was fabulous. >> Great. >> I didn't see you. I was there that morning too. [laughter] >> We we split
015it up on purpose. [laughter] >> Representation everywhere. Uh, as I told my staff that morning, um, Mayor ISD's domination of world robotics has begun. >> So, >> love it. >> All right. Uh, Mr. Santiago >> 10.1 financial m report. >> Good evening, uh, team of eight. This is, uh, want me to present the financials going into details or just a quick summary, but if you all have any questions. >> Does anybody have any questions? Did you want him to highlight anything specific? >> Not on the monthly financial report, but on our next one, 10.2, he would have >> before we move on, is there any questions? No. Okay. >> 10.2, sir. >> Okay. So, uh, this year we had a new firm, uh, conducting our audit financials. Uh, Pillo, Brown, and Hill auditors represented tonight
016by Miss Paula Lo. >> What company was it? Patio Brown and Hill. >> Okay, thank you. >> Um, before I go into the financial side, I want to acknowledge all the work of my staff that were involved in this. Uh, Quinn, Miss Quinn Cleveland, uh, who was not able to be present tonight. She worked long hours with our auditors to try to get this uh, audit completed uh, which was started back in spring and we just finalized it uh, last week. So we were trying to uh rush to get not rush uh but finalizing some of the last uh things just to get this approved tonight. Um the audit is a um received an unmodified opinion which is the highest um credit or um the highest uh rating uh that a school district can receive.
017Uh it is qualified as a lowrisk audit for federal funding purposes. Uh there were no findings uh or material weaknesses um being reported or reported um or identified in our district's internal controls for business operating uh processing. Uh the district's overall net position is 37.9 million which is a decrease of 6 million uh over the previous year. We did expected this and uh uh in the general fund uh the unassigned uh fund balance uh actually ended up at 12.3 uh million which is a little bit more than what I anticipated back in April where I projected more or less like uh half a month of operations but we actually ended up with about uh 1.3 months. bill. Uh the general fund balance is as of June 30th, 2015 uh 12.3 million which is a decrease
018of 17.5 million over the previous year. This calculates a uh CPM of uh 10.4 which is equivalent to about 1.3 months of operations or 38 days uh reserves. In order for us uh to maintain um or to uh have sufficient cash to operate over the summer months, we must have at least a minimum of 3.4 uh months of operating reserves now that the state payments and everything has is now uh becoming more frequent and are uh more on schedule. Any questions on that slide? Here also too if you all have any questions on that. >> Thank you all so much. You're more than welcome to stay for the remainder of the or if you need to >> or if you would like to add anything else that would be great. We don't have any questions
019but we really appreciate the really um you know working with that you have here they were very helpful answered our questions um and we really enjoyed working with them. So as he mentioned as well is a clean opinion and talked about fund balance too but but again thank you for giving us the opportunity. >> Thank you. Thank you Mr. Santel. >> Thank you. continue. So just an update on constraint progress measure two uh which states uh allow the district to be fiscally sound. Uh CPM 2.2 uh states that the unassigned uh general fund balance will not decrease below 16.4 uh or 60 days uh between the periods of 20 year 2023 and 20 June 2026. uh the projected uh CPM by the end of 2026 is anticipated to be of uh 15.8 or 58 uh
020days. Uh our 2-year target is uh 27.9 or 102 uh days. As you can see on the graph right there, um that low point right there in 2425, that's the lowest um that we um will achieve. of 10.4. Um, but we are headed upwards. Uh, we are uh do have a pretty uh good uh plan uh to be able to achieve our goal uh our TUR target uh considering several things that I'm going to go into detail uh further but that's our target um for 2728 uh to be at 27.9. So, so um by next year we're going to be at 58 days, but in two years we should be at that's like double. Yeah. 102 days. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> It's a pretty aggressive, but we're going to have to stick with the
021plan. >> We believe in you. >> Believe in all of us. Well, and you meaning all you. You is. Yes. Thank you. I was just Yeah, I I just I had to ask the questions. >> So, these are the details uh on the graph. Um the projected uh end of year unassigned fund balance is uh projected at 16.5 million. The 2-year unassigned fund balance target is 29.7 million by the end of June 2028. Assuming uh the expense budget remains unchanged uh for the 26 27 full year. One thing you have to keep in mind that when we adopt balance budget we do not affect the unassigned fund balance. We do not increase it or decrease it level. So we have to move forward with adopting surplus budgets or end the year with the surplus. Any
022questions on that? Here's the uh graph that you all have seen previously. I try to keep it uh up to date uh every month. And the thing that's different uh now is that the green line which is your uh fund balance, it's now in line with the actual activity um through every month as we move throughout the the years. So um we have uh we are currently by right by the green arrow um October right at the end of November. So our revenue has started to flow in already. The appraisal district is depositing on a daily basis. And uh so the revenue right there is identified by the blue bars. You can see where are our peak months um December uh January early uh February. The green the red uh bar is the expenses. They
023remain level throughout the year. And you can see the activity or the um how the impact of the fund balance by the green uh the green line by the end of this year. Um since the revenue has already uh started to flow in, we still have uh untapped loan proceeds of about 14 million. We are still going to be able to pay this note off uh as we anticipate it um hopefully uh by this spring. And um by the time we adopt the budget for next year, I'm going to have to come back again and ask uh for another no loan, but not as big as the previous one. So right now I'm looking at about uh 7 million. Um if uh by the end of this year uh our CPM uh falls more or
024less at about 15.8. So, when again were you thinking it's going to be in the spring of next year for the loan >> or the summer? >> This coming spring? >> This this coming spring. Okay. Do you anticipate when do we get the new ratings? I'm just trying to think of like the loan amount and the projection of possibly financial ratings changing. So, that's my question. should be should when we go out with for that loan that we need it's a lot less is that going to imp like how will it impact our interest with our financial rating if you do you do you know where I'm trying to >> so uh it depends if you're referring to the first rating or you're talking about the loan the bond >> no no no no the
025loan rating just to get that seven $7 million >> yeah I think she's talking about our from the rating agencies >> the rating agency See, so um the financers look at the the most recent um rating which is the one the S&P that was just um just uh assigned. >> Okay. So that should not impact too much. The rating should be the same. It won't change till later. >> So by hopefully next year or the fall, we won't need any more loans because we'll be getting back on track. >> We stick to the long-term plan. Yes. >> Okay. >> That's our goal. Our target is June 2028. We will have enough cash on hand that we will no longer need to do loans. And so that's that's that target date that that we've mentioned. >>
026In order for us to achieve that, um I made a note right there. Uh we are going to need uh some SSLs. So uh it is critical for this ones to occur between 26 and 28. anytime between this period in order for us to be able to get up there to the 100 plus uh days in uh operating reserves. >> So that's part of the plan. Yes, the assets. >> Any questions on this slide? >> So in order to achieve that uh we do have a long-term uh plan um long-term meaning two years because we know that every two years is legislative uh year. So, uh, anything can happen. Um, our goal again, uh, two-year target 27.9% three months of operating, uh, reserves and, um, with the intention or to with the goal of increasing
027the general fund balance to an estimated uh, 30 million uh, by the end of June 2028. How will uh, we achieve this? Okay. So, we have to be as conservative as possible, but not to the point where it restricts us from um implementing a very tight uh budget. We do want to be conservative, but not as much so that um we are our projections are realistic. >> And Mr. Santiago, I'd like to just stop there and let the trustees read this and see if they have any questions because I want to spend the majority of our time on the next slides which are related to the instructional items. have any questions. >> I I do. Can you um explain publicly on that third bullet point, the onetime payments related to the Travis County Appraisal District
028Austin Executive Airport audit? >> Right. So, there's an action item tonight for you all to approve a um reimbursement agreement uh with the appraisal district. Uh the appraisal district is conducting an audit on the um Austin Executive uh airport on all of their aircraft that are not included in the tax roles that have been avoiding uh paying taxes basically. So um this um payments that we anticipate receiving as a result of this audit are not included in this projections that would be new um brand new stream of revenues when we receive those um those funds. >> Will that will that audit cover multiple years? >> Yes. Yes. Um I think it's 21 23 right now. Um but yes it will cover cover multiple years but the contract it's only until June 2026 from there depends
029how much time they take in litigation appeals so it could be up to two three years that we are not going to see any revenues or any billing. Um bullet number four personnel not being greater than 82%. What typically what has been our personnel percentage >> and then what is it currently right now? >> Yes. >> Okay. So I knew all you were going to ask that question. Last year [laughter] last year when our budget was um almost 124 million um the personnel budget uh was about was more than 85%. currently 79%. So yes, we cut significantly in person. >> I want to mention uh just because I I'm the one who changed his his uh 79% to 82%. So um the reason I did so is because we recognize that we believe that there
030are some areas on campuses where we want to add personnel. And so I didn't want to limit us to 79% and then find out we needed more. Uh, I think most districts are around the low 80s. 82% is is about right. >> And I was going to ask, >> we may adjust that number in the future once we feel like we've balanced the budget in the right way. >> Um, and so what you'll see on the next slides after this one is when we're talking about reallocating money towards that could be personnel. So hence why it's not 79% and it's 82%. And so um just to take along that uh just today I received information from other cohorts school districts that are similar to us uh with good um district ratings and from channel view
031and so their budget is actually 82%. >> channel view ISD um and their budget is actually uh personal budget is 82% of the total so pretty much in line with what we are um are trying to achieve. Any other questions? >> I do other bullets. >> Um I was going to ask uh what are the anticipated benefits of auditing the student data? >> The benefits of that is that we are going to reset our numbers. Um there are areas where we need improvement. Um we have identified some areas that need uh corrections are some of the staff in those areas need development. Um we are trying to find those areas so that we can target and uh put more resources. Um and uh by this we are going to be able to increase and improve
032our uh pimp's numbers and our funding will also increase. So that's the intention uh to reset ourselves um with uh establishing a base here moving forward. I have two questions. Um the next one is what is the reasoning behind our budget being 3% above cohort districts? Is it because of aging facilities or what what what's the what does it what's the reasoning behind that? >> A lot of it is driven by cost. So yes, we do have eg facilities. >> Okay. >> Yes. And uh maybe Mr. Mand is going to speak to that but yes there is a lot of cost >> and I can speak to it because I actually know which cohort of districts uh we generally have more buildings than other districts um per capita. So if you compare our size of
033roughly 10,000 students and you look at other 10,000 student districts, they have less schools and so schools um each building requires more maintenance and operation than you would otherwise. So that is uh my belief is the the large part of that 3% over other people. >> And then the the my last question is what do you mean by reinforce? I mean I I love this like it's tighter systems and everything but um the the procurement procedures for purchasing what have you found and what is the re why is the recommendation or you know to reinforce it how can we get better >> uh the intention behind this is that so that we >> from the campuses department level okay district level I get it >> we uh enforce our own operating >> okay >> I
034think just to give an example Um, one of the things we discovered at the end end of uh May or we got bills from ACC where people were creating classes um that we didn't even know existed um but we got the bill for them. And so um some of these procedures we're talking about real simple who can speak on behalf of the district and ACC is great. I had a long conversation with their vice provos so we're all good. Um so there's only two people who can sign that and that would be him and myself. Mr. Santiago and myself. And I I don't mean to call them out, but I just think it's examples like that that really illustrate where we were and where we are as far as controlling our costs now. >> And
035that makes sense. And it goes and I guess it goes in line to what I've asked in the past like uh no multi-year contracts. So I'm assuming yeah all the other >> unless one is >> yes >> because we were I believe when we started like really looking at every software or every renewal that we had we just kept on I guess it was just kept on being renewed and we didn't even know >> right >> if it was being effective if it was being fully utilized. So um thank you. I that's great. And that's where the reinforcement of the procurement process. >> Perfect. >> And I I'll take over uh for this part. Um and you and staff can answer questions as needed. But uh one of the things uh we want to do
036as I've mentioned before we have may have balanced the budget but we may not have balanced it in the way we want to that is both supportive of our district goals and so we're constantly adjusting the budget. So the reason the difference is Mr. Santiago laid out the plan to put money back in the fund balance. The next things you're going to see is about shifting money towards compensation and classroom instruction. But this isn't about putting money back in the fund balance. This is about reallocating funds in different ways. Uh, and right now um we're looking at uh four um different things. Uh as you can see there the um and I'll talk about a couple of these a little bit more in depth um in some future slides but let me just start um
037well all of them are there. I think the only one that I don't have future slides on now is actually the last one which of course if we pass a future bond election we can save a lot of money on maintenance costs which we can shift towards uh personnel and compensation. So can't get away from that. That's a real thing. But I want to take each of these that I've listed out here separately and talk just briefly about each one um so that people know um what we're we're we're speaking with here. Um, I have talked openly about potentially um collapsing um dual language programs to um both increase instructional um efficacy by eliminating some of the vacancies. But one of the things that my staff pointed out to me is actually we can actually
038by focusing on the emergent bilingual we have and maximizing more of those students in the dual language program. the way the funding system works at the education agency, we could actually increase revenue by not collapsing um any of our bilingual programs. And so I've got some numbers up there that give you some idea, but but here here's the basic idea. Uh we have some 476 emergent bilingual who are currently not in a dual language program. Now, not all of them speak Spanish. Our dual language programs are Spanish-based. Um but many of those students do speak Spanish, it turns out, and are not an emergent bilingual. And so we lose funding for that and the dual language program is a superior model to what those students are getting as far as language acquisitions. So one of
039the lowhanging fruits that we identified is rather than closing programs, we could be moving more kids into those programs. >> Um another lowhanging fruit is um last year we had um it was it was more than 55 students but only 55 nonnative Spanish speakers in dual language programs. um you know, dual language programs should be a highlight of the elementary school campus and it is an opportunity to build bilingual students. Every single one of those um English native speakers who goes into a dual language program once again um creates weighted funding for those students to increase the revenue. So again, it kind of speaks to instead of collapsing bilingual programs, we should be highlighting them and really working with parents and families. Um, so what I really like about this plan is we're really talking
040about increasing the instructional efficacy and helping student achievement and it's going to get us more revenue. Uh, and um, here and I'm just going to throw out one more more even crazier idea out there and I know Kendra's going to start going what's he talking about? I saw you talk taking pictures going like what did you just put up there? But you know I we really began to think about okay we have a lot of languages in Mayor ISD. Um, I put Pashto up there as just an example. That's that's a language spoken in Afghanistan for example and we do have some of our students from Afghanistan who speak fairly good English. I was talking to a student the other day who was trying to teach me some patchu. It didn't work very well because
041don't ask me to say a word I can't remember. But the we do have a number of students who um don't speak any English and they speak passive. But one of the ideas becomes now that we've engaged with a company like papaya, we're realizing well what if we created pu dual language one section on a campus where virtually they have a pH teacher but in person they have the English teacher. All those students who are sitting in there who are not getting weighted funding from the state could potentially now bring in new revenue that pays for the past two instructor online. So we have a whole new revenue stream just by maximizing our instructional practices. >> I have a question. >> So it's passed to uh recognized language by the state to get weighted funding
042>> if they are in a dual language program. any any language, any dual language. >> We set up a dual language. Um, of course, I'll double check that to make sure, but I believe any dual language program gets it to you. Uh, one other thing that we talked about doing, but even and this is not for all languages, and I'm not an expert in this realm, but there are some students who do not speak Spanish or English who could benefit from being in a dual language, Spanish, English, because of the way the brain works and acquires language. Now, that's not true of every language out there. um the romance languages are probably the example that's best for them. Um but there are some other opportunities for getting weighted funding through this. Now I want to
043be clear that we we still make uh may make a recommendation [snorts] to close one or two very small dual language programs um that may not be viable moving forward as far as the efficiency of the district. Um, but this is our first our first instinct is going to be to improve the instruction of our dual language learners we currently have and that may end up paying for itself. I just want to make sure that we uh we uh not only focus on instruction but outcomes uh academic outcomes. So to make sure that whatever we're doing that uh we're making sure the kids can um um utilize academic language in order to pass standardized instruments, >> that sort of thing. And >> trustees did a took a big step tonight by naming a new multilingual
044um director who is going to help us uh Miss Dr. Doyle revamp our dual language and revitalize it. Um this is I can't get away from revenue but this isn't just about revenue. This is about having a program that is best practice and researchbased um for students to learn not just in a foreign language but also English. It is the best practice for students who are not native English speakers to learn English as well. >> Do we also have a plan to get more dual language teachers into our classrooms? I know that's an area that um we have some vacancies and or we have teachers that aren't fully >> that's correct >> certified in those areas. >> We have currently eight uh teachers last I checked uh that were either not fully certified or we
045have a vacancy in the dual language program. So it is always going to be a challenge in this area to get bilingual teachers. Uh one of the things that um Dr. Williams Hill engages in is our partnership with Texas State and residence programs and we always trying to grab the bilingual teachers um when we can. Um we also um need to talk about transportation. Another place where we can get almost a quarter million dollars a year is in redoing the transportation system. Um this is one that will be a little bit more painful um for the community. Um but um in a moment you're going to see what Mr. Mendes and his team are going to do to make sure the air conditionings are still running and to make sure we have the technology devices.
046And so we we we don't have bond money to do that. So we are going to have to free up money on other ways to be able to provide compensation and increase personnel. So this is another way that we are exploring. Um the the the short of this is mainrise academy is a district-wide um draws students districtwide but it runs on what you call a a hub system. The buses don't drive through everything single street in every single neighborhood. They pick up at certain points and then they go to MRA. Uh we have been running a full system for New Tech Middle School and New Techch High School, meaning they're traveling down every single street um almost in the entire district and that is an very expensive model to run. So we we essentially have
047if you drive down a street sometimes I can see a Mayor High School bus and a Mayor Newekch high school bus trailing each other because they're literally going across the entire district. So one simple way is to create a hub system um which you can see can reduce up to 22 routes by creating a hub system. And if you can imagine and I'm just going to give this isn't the plan but I'm just going to give you a simple example. A simple hub system is we run a bus from every single elementary school or new tech. But that is the simplest form of a hub system. So parents would need their students to get to the elementary school to be able to catch the bus. Um and uh I I should point out that Bobby
048Garcia I didn't know this, but apparently there was a hub system in place in in Mayor for New Tech um as late as 2021. It predates Mr. Mendes and I, but this is not a new thing for Mayor ISD for the new tech system. I'm not sure what the logic was or the reasoning for changing to a non-hub system, but I think a quarter million dollars a year is worth us considering. Um I also uh a couple of things I pointed out there just because I want to make sure that people are aware. If we created an attendance zone for the new tech system, that would save us the most money uh for transportation systems. I'm not recommending this at this point, but I think that is something on the horizon that we need to
049start looking at. Uh we've got a lot of kids that are already signed up for new tech and I don't want to in any way push them out, but I think in the future if we're really looking at efficiencies down the road, we can give people a heads up that boundaries are coming and so they can be prepared for that. But that is your your your most efficient way that your transportation system could work. So that's something just for the future. And then I left one idea that was brought to me actually just hours ago um about changing um the high school bus stops. So we moved this year to um 0.5 miles between bus stops for the high school level. The actual state standard is one mile. Um, now I don't know that that's
050necessarily what we want to go to, but even if we go to a 75 miles between stops at the high school routes, um, that could save uh, significant money as well. So, I'm going to I'm going to stop there for a moment. Um, but I did want to let you all know that we're doing this. Our next step is really going to be drafting out what this might look like to get some feedback um, from community members. just we can touch more on our one-on-one, but I think that some of the changes that Fernanda and team have made even in the past year, speaking as a parent with kiddos at the Mayor New Tech Middle and High School, some of those changes, I mean, it seems pretty simple to kind of make those alignments because
051knowing the kiddos, like even in our district or our area of the district specifically, like the elementary school is right there like we're talking just a couple blocks and we had already made a quarter mile adjustment. So I think that anything that the team can do to bring that forward for discussion um I think the community definitely would be open to hearing that. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. And I just want to make sure that as we are planning for these changes that there are multiple opportunities throughout the district for the different communities to >> get provide feedback and input and get the information because what I don't want is for people to say where did this come from? So and we're going to always get a few of that but >> from our end
052let's control what we can and have as many uh outreach information sessions as possible as we plan planning this stuff. Yeah, I I do agree because these decisions are going to be really tough to and it's we're you know our community will need a lot of upfront you know education and um and we need to hear well they need to hear why we're doing what we we need to do and understand what's what's going on but upfront and um as much time ahead that we can give the information that would be great and um make sure that they're that they understand and that we that we hear them as well because yeah I I could see the the challenges but yeah this is needed. Thank you. >> Then finally uh we are going to be
053moving on just in a moment to the um funding for the hrack and technology devices but one that's embedded in here that is actually for um instruction as well. Uh we are going to be talking about changes to how we want to do property insurance. And so for those of you out there, if you own a home and you looked at your property rates, it's hitting us too. And so we're looking for some unique ways that we can uh free up money in property insurance. Uh I think we're spending $2.8 million a year just on property insurance. And so we are going to be potentially looking for um a company to work with us, whether it's our current company or another company. Um but we have some ideas and we're going to want to ask
054companies um can you help us figure out how to self-insure in a way that is responsible and ensures that our facilities are going to be safe and which facilities do we not need to be insuring because we're not going to get much back from you even if it something happened. And we do have some aging facilities that we may not want to. We're also uh I think Mr. Mendes may talk a little bit about this, but we're also talking about setting aside certain amounts of funds that will be part of our insurance um self-insured we'll call it. Um and so for the community and for everybody, I always describe it like this is when you have a a 20-y old car that's a little bit beat up, not a little bit beat up, it's quite
055a bit beat up, >> you usually don't pay for collision insurance on it anymore. full coverage, >> but you do put a little bit money away in the bank to make sure you can buy a brand new car or another used car if it totally goes put on you. We're talking about doing the same thing with um roofs or some of our older portable buildings, setting aside some money from the old 2019 bond money uh to be able to replace it if something happens to it we need to replace. Now, it's not going to cover everything, but it's going to cover some things. But what's more important is that will allow us to reduce our insurance payment costs and that money goes to instruction and classrooms compensation. That's the important piece. Uh so I'm going
056to turn it over m it's okay with you turn it over to Mr. Mendes and his team is ready to answer questions. I know Armando and David are excited and ready to go. That was my cue to wake you all up. [sighs and gasps] Thank you. Good evening, team of eight. So, I'd like to provide you an update on the progress of our 2019 bond fund optimization uh plan that we had back in February. As you may recall, back in February, we shared a list of property uh or priority uh projects that could be funded through earned interest on the 2019 bond fund. Since then, we've continued advancing bunt projects, but we've also encountered some pressing facility and technology needs, including uh facility um including like uh weathered facilities that we have. Uh tonight, I
057want to outline some refined approaches uh and how we plan to allocate some 2019 bond interest earnings to address the mission critical priorities that we have. So, uh first of all, I'd like to introduce David Gonzalez. He's our director of technology for for the public out there and also uh Mr. Teniko, which is also our director of facilities, Armando Teniko, which is our director of facilities out there. And also, um, third of all, it's going to be Moises Santiago, our CFO. Uh, he'll be talking a little bit about, uh, if you'all have questions on on the insurance side of things. Uh, to so to start off with, um, we've identified, uh, $4.1 million in earned interest from 2019 bonds that, uh, is available available funding as of now. Uh so as back to back to
058February when we were looking at uh how to optimize some of the funding that we had with interest money that we had we came up with some projects and we prioritized them. We've already gone through some of them and uh on some of them we've paused and so that I I want to bring uh some attention on how we got that 4.1 million a dollar. So >> excuse. >> So is the 4.1 million is that the last of the bond dollars utilized? Yes, sir. That's that's well that's some of the money. There's a little bit more than that there, but we already have some projects that are outgoing that we still need to put aside. So, for example, weapon detection systems, we haven't paid anything yet because we haven't gotten the new models yet, but
059when we >> incorporate one of available >> of available for right now, not encumbered or anything. >> Uh so, with that, um there was an opportunity uh back then, as you might recall, we had a roofing project that we needed uh at Blake Mayor. And so we had set aside $3.6 million to replace that roof. That roof material that's out there, the original roof materials, uh, I think that's the way you say it, uh, material, well, that last about 50 to 60 years, or our building might not last 50 or 60 years. So, it doesn't make sense to put a 50 or 60 year roof on there and spend $3.6 million doing it. So Armono actually went out there with his team and we found another material that we actually got 20 plus years insurance
060on it for about 750,000. So that means that just because of that we were able to save $2.8 million right off the bat just because Way to go Arando. Thank you so much. >> Way to go. Well done. >> Yeah. >> So So uh we were able to do that. At the same time we also have some other projects that that we were uh cleaning up. We're going to have an amphitheater for the new tech uh high school as well as a shopput and some uh discus uh space out there. So, what we but as you might recall, we really need a master plan. We can't just plan it out there because once we start building or bringing in other buildings, we might have to move those. So, that's money that's not well spent. So,
061we pause that until we can go further with that. So, that's going to relieve about another million.2 1.2 2 million. So when you add up all those two uh savings that we have, we have a pocket of 4.1 million with that. And so my job now is to um let you know what we plan to do with that 1.1 mill or $4.1 million as far as leveraging some of our needs that we have for the district. So u so we have identified $3.8 $8 million on uh HVAC needs. And these are these are units that are end of life. That means that they have anywhere from 20 to 25 years of life. We've already had them 20 or 25 years or maybe even a little bit longer than that. So we now they're still working,
062but they were already in line to be replaced with the next bond. Um fortunately, we don't have that. And so we have to take care of those needs and we have to have a plan for that. So, um, we we've put some, uh, numbers together and we have a little bit over 200 units that need replacing right now throughout the district. Now, we've replaced a lot of them with the 2019 original bond, but remember, this was uh, this was interest money that we could go a little bit further be and beyond. So, because of that, we still need $3.8 million of HVAC needs. And then our next need is going to be on the technology side. We have devices both staff and student but more on the student side that are really critical. Uh these
063we have to have devices that can be hooked up to our network that are standard and they uh there they can be updated to the newest operating system and and so forth. And so we've identified $2.5 million worth of technology needs that we have for the student side. also with the teachers a little bit over or 753 $750,000 worth of devices that we need for both uh putting it together we have uh needs of $3.2 million for devices that we need. So uh next slide that we have is really I'm trying to bring everything together. If if you do the math here if we need $3.8 million worth of HVAC and we need $3.2 $2 million worth of technology. Well, I need $7 million. I don't have $7 million. I have $4.1 million. Uh and
064so going back, we've talked to or David has talked to some of the vendors that that we have out here. Um and and I I'll start with technology and then move to Hback and then bring in insurance here. But, uh, talking with technology, we have, uh, we've called a couple of our vendors and asked them if they had leasing options or purchasing options that are out there. We were able to find one that was purchasing and we found one that has no interest at all because we've been working with our vendors. So, with that said, we could split it up into four payments. So, 3.2 million, $800,000 a year. that that means that I would need to bring $800,000 from our current 4 4.1 uh bond allocation that we have right now and I could
065pay for the first year for that. But now all of our teachers have devices, all of our students have devices with them. Um, as far as the HVAC go, the HVAC, we're going to let them run until they die. That that's that's really our choice that we have right now. Uh, I don't anticipate a lot of money that we'll need, but what if we do need that? Well, we we have it in our in our pocket of money there and and so I'll let Armando talk a little bit about that here in a little bit if y'all have questions for that. But we might anticipate maybe 800,000 1.2 million is probably what we're looking at for this coming year with that. Uh so that 800,000 uh and then plus that 1 million. So that gives
066about 1.8 million uh that that we might use up. So that's still under the 4.1. The the difference between that 1.8 8 and 4.1 million that we have on there. We're going to use that as leverage for some of our premiums, insurance premiums that we have. As you know that we have a lot of portables throughout the district and we have some facilities right now that we're using for storage. Um and so uh Mr. Santiago is is working with our insurance company as well to see the square footage. We have about 4 2.8 million square feet. Is that correct? 2.6 6 million square feet of space throughout the district. So, if we can reduce some of our uh uh square footage, that means our premiums would be lower. As you know, uh our deductibles way
067up there. So, even if a portable was to get hit with hail, >> the the deductible is not going to cover that at all. And so, why insurance? Some some of our portables that we have throughout the district. Uh and so now if we are using and and these are usually uh what we're planning right now is the facilities that we're planning to leverage uh or or lower our insurance premium is is where children are not there right now. Our students are not utilizing that. But if something was to happen, like if a tornado came in and blew the roof off of something, uh, one of the buildings that we we were taking or or were pausing on our insurance premium, we still have money in here to come back and put that roof if
068we need it and if we want it. Um, >> Mr. Benz, if I could just uh to bring it back to instruction. So this is INS money that we're talking about that cannot be used on instruction, but we can use it to ensure some of our properties, which frees up money from the maintenance and operation side, which can be used for compensation and for um staffing, which is another way of saying if we have bond money, we can free up money for maintenance and operation in the future. >> Questions? >> I I do have a quick question about the technology. Is this going to give all new devices to every single staff and student in the district? >> We already have greetings. We already have u a few campuses that have already been renewed. So
069these are the devices that or the campuses that we know are >> happen the ones with the red. >> Absolutely. The ones that we have already identified that these guys are crucial. They were end of life in the cell last year. So we got to get these off the network by July. So, you will be seeing me probably next month with a proposal move forward and get these because the sooner I can get these ordered, the sooner I can get these turned around, >> but it wouldn't be every single device. That way, >> we're going to roll this out in phases so that >> we're not going to have four years from now everything's crashing. >> That's what I Yeah. >> Buy everything all over again. Yes. >> We're doing it in phases. So that's
070all we have as far as presenting our our uh plan leveraging uh some bond 2019 funds that are available. >> Thank you. >> We have any questions? Thank you so much. >> Great presentation. Okay. has salary steady equity adjustment. >> This is just requires our notification unless trustees have any questions. I think you've seen this already. >> No questions. Thank you. Um then we go to the 2026 10.5 2026 through 2031 strategic planning process. Dr. Tammy Williams. Good evening team of eight. >> Evening. >> So that should say 20 27 to 2032. That current plan goes through 2026. So a couple of years ago, I was really excited. I stepped into this room and there were secondary students all over the room just chatting amongst themselves. And so we did a little activity to get
071to know each other a little bit better. And so as we dove into the meeting, my first question to them was, "How is school currently working for you?" And so they talked with their partners. They jotted down what was currently working. And so we share it whole group. Like it's great our teachers have a reward system for us. It's great when our teachers ask us how we're doing. It's nice that we feel like our teachers care about us. The next question was, "What needs help in your schools? What needs improvement?" And so they gave me some things that um needed some help and some of those things we've addressed here. And before we closed out the meeting, my third question was, "What would you like Mayor ISD to be?" And the room became silent. They
072said, "What do you mean, miss?" I said, "What would you like for Mayor ISD to be?" They said, "Well, no one has ever asked us that before. Our trustees, what would you like for Mayor ISD to be? >> East Lake at West Lake. They have excellent academics, athletics, reputation nationally. They have their lake over there. We have our lake over here. I want the same reputation ID has. >> All right. I would like for us to be a passing district. >> What else would you like for Mayor ISD to be? I would like for us to be a district that is known for utilizing our diversity culturally, linguistically as a strength that is seen as a reason why we succeed. >> I love that. Yeah. What else? >> Part of Go ahead. part of our
073like our vision and mission like we did that to be the best district in Texas really. I mean that's part of and adding to the rest of my trustees, you know, I'm just going back to our vision and mission. >> Yeah. And so you heard Go ahead. >> No, I was going to say being leaders in our community with our CCMR, right? crushing it in the ability to earn a living wage for themselves and to be able to provide for their families, >> right? and really build those leaders like when I'm old. It's way out there, but I just I just saw being at the hospital a lot taking care of both my parents and everything, just seeing all these young kids saving, you know, my mom's life or my, you know, just really building
074that young generation where I will feel comfortable, you know, that I'm going to be in good hands. It's up to us. It's our I used to say it's our responsibility, but now it's an obligation that we have to make sure we provide that to our future leaders, our young. >> Well, um I think that uh the purpose uh is to graduate uh students that are prepared for the next stage of their life. And I would like our district to be the place where everybody reaches that goal. >> I would also like for Mayor ISD to be a place where people are fighting to come work here. >> Yes. >> I want to be in Mayor. I want to >> also want the highest pay. >> Yeah. I would like to become home of the $100,000
075teacher as well. >> I know. Okay. [laughter] All right. So, what you have uh described, you heard a little bit of it tonight. You heard a little bit from Oasis's financial report and tracking and getting things together. You heard a little bit from Mr. Menddees and his team regarding operations and freeing up some funds for us to focus on instruction to meet the goal that you all set in the last strategic plan. Right. By 2028, 90% of our Mayor ISD scholars will graduate, be prepared for college, career, trade, military, career readiness based upon their individual needs. And when you all talked about that, every single one of you smiled because you imagined the district and where you wanted it to be. And so tonight, you heard some of those steps that will be taken. And
076so in preparation for that, we continue the work that's in our current strategic plan. But as we look into the next five years of becoming East Lake, of graduating students who are ready or teachers clamoring to come to Mayor ISD because we're implementing TIA and can pay them $100,000 a year and have kids who want to stay in Mayor and grow up in Mayor to take care of us when we get older, right? So we can start that work, we can continue that work now and in the next five years we have the unique opportunity to shape what that looks like. And so when we engage in this next phase of strategic planning for the next five years, we're going to start with students and what they envision Mayor ISD to be. And so tonight
077we just want to share with you we have started that process and when we come back in January you all will have some time to spend together to come up with what that dream you want to be and we will engage community and students they will be at the forefront because to me I have a saying nothing without us nothing about us without us and so we do need that student perspective as we draft what the next five years will look like because once we finish with this proc process, they will be able to answer that question. What questions can I answer for you about the strategic planning process? I'm just looking forward to seeing to starting it, seeing the evolving how it all comes about in the outcome. >> Thank you. possible. >> If
078possible, I would like uh community folks who uh have school age children who for whatever reason choose not to bring their children to this district. I would like them to be part of this planning process as well so we can figure out what we can do to bring those kids back. If you notice in some of our surveys that we've been sending out for the past couple of years, we've been collecting data. Do you have children in Mayor ISD? Who are you? Right? So that we can start being very intentional in who we attract and reach out to to become part of our conversations and part of our action plan. I I think also making sure we also there's a lot of families or even people here that just don't have kids and I want
079to hear from them too to know the importance of what we have our community has to offer and the importance of supporting public education. So I think that it's also important to hear from them as well and know that they're being heard. >> Agreed. because it is a community and schools thrive on communities when we all participate and have a voice in it because what we do within the four walls of the school district impacts everyone and so we do want to hear those voices as well. >> What do you envision the process will be for conducting the needs assessment to identify those strengths areas of need? >> Right. we ask those questions, right? So, we do have a variety of people to give their perspectives. We um have small groups, we have larger groups
080and we take that information and we also look at the data that we've have collected over the years, right? Because we know we have actual data that has numbers, our qual qualitative data, quantitative data, and then we also have our qualitative data which is about the perceptions of it. So how we do that is we work in small groups. We work with the different stakeholders, those who want to be involved in the community, those who may not quite be sure because they still have a a perspective to offer. And so we collect that information in a needs assessment to identify what is working well, what areas need improvement, and even the question, how can you contribute to that improvement of Mayor ISD? So, we'll be coming back um with you in the spring, early spring,
081with a more concrete plan that outlines the steps. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. Um if if there's no objection from the board members here while Mr. Martinez is out on a break, can we move on to consent agenda? >> Yeah. >> Is is there any objection to that? Okay. >> Go ahead, Dr. uh Trusty Thomas. Yeah. Do I have a motion? President Cortez. >> Yes. Do Trusty. >> I move that the board approve the consent agenda items 11.1 through 11.7 as presented. >> I have a motion by trustee uh Dr. Thomas to um approve consent agenda item 11.1 through 11.7. Do I have a second? I have a second by uh Trusty Patterson. Uh if there's no discussion, others in favor. We're doing okay. 70 and 30. All right. Now, we're going to
082go back to um information item 10.6. Uh GD local facilities. Dr. Sarmani. >> Yes, madam president and team of eight. uh bring forward to you the GKD local policy facilities and your packet. You would have had three pieces of paper. Uh you have the two um two alternate policies plus a side by side. I've put the side by side. It is very very small up there I know but I tried to put some of the information up there so that people in TV land if they review this uh or download off board book they can see it as well. Um my staff is here um with their pens and papers to to hear your thoughts on our local policy if anyone um has some thoughts that we'd like to offer. >> Dr. Romani, could you
083give us a summary of what the policy is for those in TV land? >> Absolutely. Um try to drink water. >> I know. Me too. I get choked up about facility policies. [laughter] So, GKD policy is the facility that governs um how we use our facilities. Um as boards of course control their local policy and it is based on legal policy. There's a couple of things going on here. Uh one, there has been legislation that has changed the local policy and on the recommendation of our council, we have a number of changes um that we will be doing. Um there's also some ideas about how to um rent our facilities. And what you have is on the very top line there is the major difference between two potential policy um initiatives. One allows for uh
084I would say a looser um opportunity for people to rent our facilities at a lower cost while an alternative policy would tighten it up a little differently. And what you see down there is what the regulations would be based on those two different policies. And that's really where your major difference is. Uh regulations are written in our uh GKD facilities manual. And currently we have three different levels of groups that can rent at different rates. And then you see that the other policy would only have two of those groups. And there there is your major difference between the two. >> You thank you Dr. Shamani. And so you've been superintendent for two and a half years? >> Yes, sir. Um, has the current policy been an issue with our facilities? Is is have things been
085going smoothly or not? Is it taxing to staff or or not? I mean, I just want to say I'm I I uh I want our superintendent to have as much discretion running the district as possible and I'm not interested in u taking choices away like that. So, I I want to know has there been an issue um to the point where we actually need to go through a change? I don't know that there's been issues that the implement um indicate that we need to go ahead and change the policy. We've had our issues. There's no doubt about that and I've expressed that to trustees when we've had issues with our our policy, but I believe we have the tools necessary to address those. Uh I think this is a question whether um board members feel
086like that there's a um better way to approach that or not. I would now since um Trusty Patterson asked that I I really I mean I'm always uh love to be proactive in reviewing our policies and keeping them up to date. But um now that once uh Trusty Patterson asked that and um your answer to that then my question is um well I you know we we hired you to help make sure that you um you and staff you know follow whatever policies that we have and um make sure that it also is something that works for for you and and staff and and something that you would recommend that is workable to follow. So, and also not limit certain entities, make it, you know, where we're open, but to whoever needs to use our
087facilities, but in a as long as they abide by the policy and it's fair. It doesn't restrict too much on a lot of the nonprofits and whatever that looks like, even if it's for profits. But whatever you recommend and whatever is um doable by staff, I I support. >> Madam President, if I could um so something that I would like to see, just to interject, is that um I think that we need something that is uh consistent. uh some of the issues that that I've disc that you've discussed with us that we've had in the past uh were inconsistencies in uh how these facilities and the usages of them took place. So I think that it's important to to have something that is consistent. Um also something that takes into consideration um the vision and
088mission statement of our school district. Uh the reason that taxpayers uh put their uh trust in us and uh we asked them for money is to take care of our facilities for their children so that we could educate them and uh to take care of our uh employees, respect them and uh hopefully reward them in this in the in the matter of uh of compensation. So, um, I would I would love to see something that works in a way that that sticks to that. Um, so in our mission statement, I understand that that's something that the community wants to do at times, but that's also not really what our focus is and shouldn't be. I think that our focus should be uh on our students, should be on our personnel and any of these other
089things that distract should should not be a distraction. There should be a very consistent centralized and in a manner that uh is effective that doesn't have to be revisited again and again. Uh so I would like to see that u when we come to the to the point of of voting for this. Um So yeah, and obviously we have to take into account, we've just heard um a long discussion of the issues and and some of the things that we've had to accommodate uh for lack of funds uh that that have to do with facility maintenance and usage and uh uh keep upkeep. And I think that uh given the state of our uh and the goals that we're trying to do um with the funds, I think that we should also have something that
090that helps us towards that goal. Um which uh is important, I think. And if we're going to be renting the facilities, then obviously it needs to be in line with uh reaching that goal. It shouldn't we have to take those things into account. Okay. Do I have any other trustees up? Would like to >> Yeah, I I would. Um just as um it was brought up earlier with finance process and policies and things like that. I think it's really just important one of the challenges sometimes we have is just a change in personnel. Making sure that everybody in the district is aware of what those processes are to use our facilities. I think it's also important that we recognize as trustees that we are not the end all and be all of this community. We
091have people that we answer to and that's the community. That's the constituents that elect us to our position and more importantly these are their facilities and the students in which they represent. Um, I do agree that the move that the the um administration has brought as far as the changes, they've been highlighted, and I think that they're aligned with ensuring that our families are able to be supported through community organizations that serve our children. And I think that it's important that we continue to make these um facilities available to the public that aligns with yes, our vision and mission, but also with what the community wants and what they pay for with their tax dollars. >> Um and just to finish, does anybody else like to >> Yeah, I just want to make sure what
092I've heard earlier. Um superintendent, the current policy allows for more discretion on your part. And the new proposed policy would take some of that discretion away and would ultimately um hurt u potentially sensitive issues that come up that you would know about that the public wouldn't know about. Um is that is that what I heard earlier? I'm not sure I quite put it quite like that, but um I would say that um one policy I think you will have less people renting our facilities and you will probably have less people um slipping in who shouldn't be renting our facilities at a lower rate. I'm sorry I said that wrong. Yeah, the the status quo would have less people will slip in and they do and we have to address it on the other side. the
093other policy. I think you'll have less community members being able to access our facilities >> and that's taxpayers community members of what I see in this policy. >> Have we ever had in the past uh an issue with anybody being able to access? There's always an issue. >> I don't know that it well and I struggle to answer that question in that, you know, when we say an issue, you know, anybody who comes to me and says they can't afford the facilities is an issue for them. That doesn't necessarily mean that that's an issue for us because we have we we I I think we all agree we need to rent our facility at a price that's good for our taxpayers, >> right? Um >> we're not required to either, right? No, we're not required
094to. Not by any means, but we should at least recoup our costs for sure. >> Absolutely. And I also in in in that respect, I think that when we do go out uh and ask uh taxpayers to pay for funds, then then maybe they should be uh uh told or or at least informed that uh it's possible that their tax dollars would also go to subsidize in some way these these issues. Okay. So, um >> I have May I speak? >> Yes. Oh, hold on. We're It's because we're going through policy now. >> Oh, please. >> Okay. Go ahead. >> Um I just wanted to say that the one thing that I hope we'll take into consideration in regards to this policy specifically is the community in which we serve, the facilities that are currently
095available to profit or non-profit organizations to be able to put together things that support our students and our families. Um, I know that mayor is growing quite a bit and I know that there are many awesome plans to grow the city's facilities with that, but until those come to fruition, I I just think it's very important to keep equity at center of mind and heart when we consider making a policy that either uh makes for more inclusivity of community involvement for more exclusivity involvement. >> Um, thank you so much for your input. I really um think this is a good discussion too. And I I would like to end by saying I guess we have to have some kind of balance, you know, because at the same time, you know, the city doesn't have the
096facilities that we do. This is our community. We can't close out, you know, our taxpayer too. But at the same time, you know, the caveat to the the taxing and the re revenue. I'm thinking at the same time um we we we're going back to budgets. This is also areas that we can gain revenue to because we're trying to find different avenues of revenue because of the situation that we're in. Why not better than opening it up now? You know, finding that good balance but making sure that our community really takes advantage of it and it's a win-win situation for both. >> Sure. Uh, one last thing. So, I mean, in that respect, I I I do agree that that the communities we we are representatives of of what they want, but have have we
097taken steps to uh figure out what it is that the community wants? are are so when the when when we're raising the question what and what studies have you done or or what questions have you asked >> strategic >> to figure out what it is the community wants us to do >> what >> I was going to say strategic planning is going >> that's part of the strategic planning and everything and this is policy and just to remind everyone we um do policy workshops periodically when there is a big amount amount of policies that we have to work on. And this is just one of those um policies that that we will be discussing more and um in g overall we normally do the policy in our workshops and this is great discussion. The other
098part will be definitely handled in the strategic planning and so this is something that we'll probably vote on in January. >> Yeah. So, I think if there's just um I know we've already kind of finished our two minutes each except uh Dr. Thomas and um if anybody else would like to chime in on their last two minutes. Okay, she's ready. Okay. All right. Dr. Charmani, anything else? Okay, she's moving to adjourn. Okay, but before we do that, okay, >> that's me. >> She wants to adjourn, Dr. Thomas, at 7:46 p.m. But before we adjourn, >> before we adjourn, we're going to go to the confirmation of our next board meeting, which is January 26 of 2025. So, until next year, happy new year, happy holidays. Thank you so much, everyone. Unplug, unwind, and come back
099reenergized. Thank you. Uh, first motion by trustee Thomas. >> I second that. >> By Trusty Powers. All in favor. 7:46 p.m. till next year. >> Dr. Smani may want to note that.