001Good evening. We'll go ahead and get started. I call this Medina Valley ISD regular board meeting to order at 6 PM on October 27th, 2025. We have a quorum of board members present. Absent board member is Mr. Nash. We'll begin with the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence. First up, we have a student staff recognition. We'll begin with Median Valley High School and Miss McCracken. >> Good evening, uh, MVISD board members. It's an honor tonight uh to introduce two of our outstanding students who have been recognized um by our national merit program. Um first I'm going to have Melvin come on up. Um it's my pleasure to introduce Melvin Oliver. He is a National Merit Program commended student. Commended status recognizes high achieving students who based on their PSAT scores place among
002the top two to three% of test takers. He has received a letter of commendation from us but actually from uh the National Merit Program and this designation highlights Melvin's outstanding academic promise and strengths uh strengthens his college applications. Uh please join me in congratulating Melvin for this notable achievement. [applause] All right, a second. Alex, you want to join me up here? It is my honor to introduce Alexander Adams. He is a National Merit Program semi finalist. Semi- finalists represent uh roughly the top 1% of PSAT test takers in each state about 16,000 students nationwide. And this recognition marks the first step in the National Merit Scholarship Program. Alex achieved an extraordinary accomplishment last year by earning a perfect score on the PSAT, a feat attained by fewer than 1% of test takers, and that places
003him among the highest performing students in the nation. So, please join me in congratulating Alex for his outstanding. [applause] He has completed the application. So, we are looking forward to what uh is next. So, he is still in that competition. >> And then Melvin, you want to Good. [applause] [applause] >> Thank you, M. Uh, Mr. >> Right here. >> Okay. Good evening, members of the board. Um, today I have the honor to introduce you and highlight two of our thriving programs this year. Okay. We're going to start with our star students. So, I'll let Miss Bowman uh talk a little bit about her kiddos and introduce them. >> Hi, my name is Jenny Bowman. I am the fine arts teacher at Silos. I'm so excited to be at this place where like we are allowed
004to just grow and bloom in anything that we're good at. And I have what is called music club not choir because we play instruments, we dance, we sing, we try to incorporate as many things as possible in the short amount of time that I get them. I have give or take 40 students in my club. We meet once a week after school. Uh we performed at the trunk or treat on Friday and they did an excellent job even with some blowup costumes. We were able to swing our partners. Um then we will perform again for the Veterans Day ceremony at the oldfashioned Christmas in Castroville and another Christmas performance. Um and then it'll be over and we'll celebrate like a family that we have created together with the students and us. And so what we're
005going to do is I'm going to have my three instrument players starting with the soloist Jeremiah Murray. Come here, Jeremiah. Jeremiah is going to be playing a solo on what instrument? >> A metallophone. So, he's going to go grab his metallophone and place it right there in the center. All right. Up next, we have Estella Aquino. Aino. I always say her name wrong. She's going to be playing what? >> Xylophone. >> A xylophone. All right. And she's going to go get hers and place it on the other side. Spin it around there, Jeremiah. And then Mia Ray, she is also playing a xylophone. All right. And they are going to be playing the beat for us. Go ahead and grab your other instrument. And you guys, we're going to spin it and face this way.
006Okay. Est. So turn it around. >> And you play your back further. >> Yeah. >> They will. >> Okay. Now you three friends, go ahead and get behind your instruments. They want us to scoot back just a little bit. So come back like a whole square without knocking it over and making loud noises. Good job you guys. All right. And so y'all just stand up. Our other friends that we have are Adam Martinez. He'll be singing and dancing for us. Richard I lies and Emma Rubio. And so we're going to do two songs for you guys. Uh the first one is just song and movement called Skin and Bone. So you guys get in your first song position. down here. And they're extremely nervous and scared. Okay. Where are my shorty shorties? Jeremiah, come on
007forward. He has to scoot over. Remember, make those windows. It's not that far. Y'all scoot over this way now a little bit. That's okay. I try to tell the kids we're just here to have fun. We're not We're not trying to impress anybody. All right, Richard. Scoot over. There you go. Say, can we can you see our faces? Moms and dads. Yeah. All right. I like how they're already our position ready to go. All right. Are you all ready? Now, those of you who have pacemakers, just beware. It gets scary. All right. You ready, friends? Loud voices. Here we go. All skin down by the old graveyard. One night she thought she'd take a walk. She walked down by the old graveyard. [singing] She saw the bones all lying [singing] around. She went to the
008broom. She opened the door and I can see someone fainted in [applause] the back. [applause] Beautiful. All right. Are you ready? >> [music] [music] >> Pick a pumpkin pow and [music] then we'll be ready for [music] Halloween. Then we'll be ready for [bell] [music] [bell] >> [music] [music] [music and bell] [music] >> came from the weak [music] smile. Pick a pumpkin [singing] round and clean. Then we'll be ready for Halloween. [music] Then we'll be ready for Halloween. Hall. [applause] >> All right, here's our music club for you. Ready? >> [applause] >> And then we have certific Jordan's in front. >> Jeremiah, Adam. >> [clears throat] >> Great job. >> Everyone smile. Look at the big camera. And then you're going to stay smiling for parents. Okay. >> All right. Stay there smiling. >> [applause] [applause]
009>> And I was mentioning to Dr. that this is just a small scale because she does it with 40 other students. So it's amazing. Quite the site. >> Best. >> Yes. Okay. Now, I'm super excited to introduce uh the other um you know, highlight which is um our third grade uh PLC. Um you know, obviously we know that PLC is an initiative of our district. Um but to see a group of people that just in their second year, they have taken every student growth to heart. They're very invested, very determined. I've never seen a PLC so focused uh you know, as they are, you know, when they come to their agenda. And I'll tell you, they get through their meetings and nobody will get in their way. Even me when I try to chime in,
010they go with the little stop sign. Not your turn. So, um, this is my third grade. [applause] >> We have we have a little video for everybody to watch real quick. >> My favorite thing about coming to school is learning new things every day. when you're reading and you're stuck on a word, um he we sound it out slowly. >> We work on multiplication, division, pretty sure that's what it's called. I love school. >> So, it's a chance to collaborate and we get to like dive deeper into arts into what our students are actually showing and you get a lot of good information from it. You know, you get to see the data. You get to see, oh, my kids also scored this way or we also have the same struggles. We're coming up with
011solutions. Like if we don't feel good about our data, what are we going to do about it? Or if we do feel good about our data, we can share ideas of how we got there. And it's a lot more collaborative that way because [music] if we're not just sitting and getting, it's actually like working out ideas and making sure that we're doing what's best for the kids. For example, we had to pick an essential TE for math and so we [music] focused on addition and subtraction. And we felt like that's just a foundational skill that you start with at any grade level and build up. And last year we kind of knew that, but going into PLC this year, [music] we were able now to figure out why. So talking to each other helped us
012really realize [music] they're missing these steps. They have these gaps in these numbers. >> Maybe they're not so so great in math, but it's a reading problem. So we can turn that around and focus more on reading to help them better succeed and vice versa. >> It's important to [music] just go in with an open mind and be able to hear. You know, even veteran teachers, like I've been doing this eight years. I know I don't know everything. Someone with less [music] experience might have a better idea than I do. So, it's just going in with that mindset and being able to listen to it and respect it. We have learned to trust ourselves, but we've also learned to trust each other that there's never a moment where we're like, haha, you know, mine's better
013or I did better, whatever. It's how are we all going to move forward with all of [music] our kids. And that that's been a game changer because it doesn't feel like you're on like little islands. It really helps you to motivate you to be a better person, [music] to be a better teacher, and to learn from each other. [applause] Start with the great chair, Megan Simpson. >> Megan Simpson. Okay. [applause] Um, Brenda Infante, [applause] Lesie Reyes, [applause] John Lopez, [applause] Miss Anto, Marisel Anu, [applause] and Lauren Cole. [applause] >> [applause] >> So, we're going to take a quick fivem minute break. Um, you guys are welcome. We're going to get down to the business side of the meeting. So, you're welcome to stay if you want. If not, y'all are welcome to go. Thank you
014very much. Okay, next on the agenda is public comment and we have no one signed up to speak. So, we'll move on to announcements, communication, and presentations. And we'll start with the board committee reports with the finance committee and Miss Lee. >> Now, you can hear me. Okay. Um the finance discussed the following items. Financial advisor updates. August issuance bond 2024 scenarios. Refinance of variable rate bonds. Budget amendment for rolled POS from last year's budget. Creek View High School purchases, office furniture, band instruments, and CTE equipment. athletic advertising into the compensation plan and construction committee updates to be shared in the construction committee report. >> Any questions? >> Not we'll move on to the construction committee with Mr. Becker. >> All right. Good evening. Uh the construction committee meeting met uh on October 8th, 2025.
015Uh members consisted of myself, Matt Castalone, and Ben Huarez. And we discussed the following items. uh status of Creek View High School, uh status of at Medina Valley High School, the A and JOTC building, and also talk specifics around the CPS easement for that uh building. Uh next item was the Medina Valley Middle School number three uh status in construction. Next item was the Medina Valley High School batting cages uh that we discussed in the last board special board meeting. Uh next item was the status of uh elementary school number seven. Next item uh Casterville Elementary playground which is on the agenda this evening. And then next item was around Bippert property and different uh easement requests that are going on uh with that property. Uh, next item was Medina Valley High School uh, HVAC
016and where we stand with getting um, all that set up u, as far as our uh, MEP contractor. And last but not least, uh, the finance updates. Uh, we also discussed the finance updates that were discussed uh, before this by Mrs. Lee. That's it. >> Any questions? >> If not, we'll move on to safety and security with Mr. waters. >> Uh good evening. Uh the safety and security uh committee meeting met on October 9th to 2025. Uh the members consisted of myself, Nathan Fillinger, and Blaine Nash. Uh some of the items discussed were the police department update, safety project updates consisting of the district security cameras and district access controls, uh the campus safety walks and the audits, uh Sentinel and TEA required updates, and lastly, drill management district overview. >> Now we'll go move
017to the curriculum committee with Miss Lee. >> Okay. Uh the curriculum committee met on October October 9th, 2025 in attendance with Suzanne Lee, Joe Biddiger, and Matt Castani. On the agenda, uh the beginning of the year MAP test data, we continue to review achievement and growth data for all campuses. Discussions continue on how to improve student growth. Store writing scores reviewed scores of all grade levels that were tested. format of test was changed in the spring of 2025 to include more extended construction constructive responses. The third, what is happening in our classroom? Since August 26, there have been 1,127 CLA classroom visits and all campuses have been visited. Uh visits will continue and we will continue to discuss on how to improve instruction in the classrooms. Teacher incentive aotment discussion on implementation teachers who would
018be eligible and the selection process were would be continue to be discussed. Bilingual exception ESL waiver reviewed status of 31 educators and professional development support offered by the district to assist with certification testing. Library books Texas House Bill 13 requires all likes to be reviewed. A list of books was sent out and reviewed and now in compliance. The school board must officially approve the books. Safety staffing reviewed requests for assistant police chief. Any questions? Okay. And we'll move on to the construction briefing with Mr. Baras. >> Good evening, Mr. President, Dr. Ka loss. Members of the board, I have RT and Mark here to assist on um our three projects. So, we'll start with Creek View High School. Currently, [snorts] we're at 83% complete on this project. Um 23% of that being on the stadium
019improvement projects. Again, uh we're tracking on schedule and on budget on this project. So, what it looks like, if you see the overall, it really looks like a complete building overall. um a lot of the improvements or since the last board meeting we had um sod u hydro seed has been placed irrigation so you see a lot of uh really the landscape taking taking shape uh throughout the site u in terms of exterior you'll see the academic courtyard all of the concrete and flat work has now been poured uh we're pending the installation of the canopy some of the synthetic turf that will go in place as well as guardrails and handrails in this area. Uh moving moving on to the next courtyard. This is the courtyard in between the auxiliary gym and the cafeteria.
020Uh as you can see, a lot of the pavers on the second uh level are being placed and installed. Uh on this one also, the canopies are ready to receive the the fabric on top of it. Um but this one this one's short to being of being completed on the playball fields. This is on baseball se so the grandstands are on site. Um they started installation and all of the turf is now on site as well um for all of the playfields including baseball, softball and uh the main stadium fields. Uh on this image what you see this is our parent sorry our bus drop off um on the back of the school all of the canopies have been most of the canopies have been installed as you can see the asphalt has been placed
021on the track itself the ticketing booth it's also um been erected on this image you can see on the far or top leftand corner the concession building for the visitor side. The uh multi-purpose uh visitor building has also uh been placed. And on the home side, the peers have been drilled and casted. And the multiflex building uh has the water barrier uh or vapor barrier with the beams in preparation for uh reinforce reinforcement and and uh pour of the concrete slab. Uh besides that, that's really um the update on the exterior. I'll give it up to RT to give us the interior update. >> Evening everyone. Uh Dr. Kaos, members of the board. Good seeing y'all. The uh update on the interior side. The roller shades within the classrooms have been placed. We actually started
022architectural punch last week. um level C1 in the classroom wings. So, we're we're starting the final touch-ups in those areas and and getting those architecturally punched. This is one of those classrooms you could see some blue tape on. Um some of the science labs here in the second floor. So, the the polish of the concrete's done. All the case work is complete. The finish of these areas is really just smoke detectors and fire alarm devices, getting those operational now that we have CPS power and testing those systems. But that's the complete build out of the science lab areas. We have ceilings going in um in C or I'm sorry in uh D area, level one and level two. So this is just a typical classroom within level 1D area. This is the interior of the
023auxiliary gyms. The tectum panels have been placed. The interior uh separating dividing curtains been placed. Deck has been sprayed. Um all the all the air conditioning duct that you can see has been sprayed. It's going to it's pretty close uh to turning on air in that area. Uh within this week, we'll have air going uh within the gymnasium area. And then the gym flooring is coming actually here in a couple weeks. So, the washer and dryers have both been placed in the laundry room. You can see the the buildout of those. um and uh starting to slowly procure uh with the help of the facil or Medina Valley's construction team on the procurement of the owner furnished items which is this is this is obviously a big one. So >> any questions on >> did
024we go with LED lighting on all the exterior sports fields? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay, good. must go athletic landing on. >> Yeah, that's save a lot of electricity. I think >> uh one other milestone is milestone is the fiber um zo completed that last Friday. So um pending the mini split systems being turned on. We should be on on um permanent uh fiber. >> Chillers have all been commissioned and >> chillers have been commissioned. Um ran into a little issue with the boiler with the manufacturer. He's shipping a part down next week that we can get. So, yeah, just one little thing. It it we're going to have that part next week and the boilers will be up and running. So, >> boilers are like cooling towers. >> Always broken. >> Always breaking. Exactly.
025Luckily, it's it's not a cool cool time of year where the boiler is absolutely needed. So, that's a that's a benefit. So, >> All right. Thank you, sir. Moving on to our next project, our Medina Valley High School AGOTC project. Uh this one we're reached a 30 uh% completion on it and our target date is September 30th. Uh just a month away from opening Creek View. So these will be handon. Since the last board meeting, uh all of the structural slab has been poured on this um on this project. Uh it was three different pores uh and they got them all done uh as of the last two weeks. Uh the other item that's missing uh to be poured is the future greenhouse that will go uh where that location on the image as you
026can see they're um digging in for perimeter beams and then uh formwork and rebar will be placed. Uh the other item big uh milestone is we got approval for the slab. Now the ballards are in place. We need to paint those and then I believe the inspection is called for this week. Um so pending that phase two of CPS um once we get this final approval they'll release the transformer and we won't be waiting on them uh to tie our permanent power for the act building. Any questions on a jar? One thing I did miss is we're scheduled to receive structural steel this week. So, uh we're going to start seeing structure here in the next week or so uh being placed on site >> and we're looking to pour that greenhouse uh to they're
027going to get framed middle of this week. Looking to pour it beginning of next week. >> What was our expected completion date on this project? >> September 30th. >> All right. Uh moving on to our middle school number three project. Uh this one we're at 11% complete based on the last pay application of this month. Uh as you can see this is the overall image from the main drive, Falcon Drive. Uh on the left hand side of the screen, you'll see the grading for the future track and field. Uh north of that, they have already placed the base for the future tennis courts. And then as we move towards our right, uh you'll see the footprint of the building on area A, they have drilled all peers. Um elevated slab form work has begun. Mud
028slab has been poured. Uh so they're going to be working through A, B, E, C, and D. Uh moving along on the back side of the building. uh you'll see kind of the staggering uh sequence that they're doing. As of Friday, they have drilled 162 peers. We've hit water on all of them, but again, that's they've um we have the mitigation. They uh drilled an extra 3 to four feet um beyond each pier, and we're keeping track of all of that. Uh besides that um that is the project update on middle school number three utilities storm drain is also being uh ran as we as we speak. Um but that's pretty much it. Any questions on any questions? Okay. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next we have the financial briefing with
029Miss Hermish. Good evening. So, I know your favorite topic, finance. So, we're going to dig in here. So, this is our first monthly financial statement for September of 25. So, first month of the budget year. Um, and so, so we are right at 8% of our expenses this month. And that is pretty much what it has been the last four years. And if you divide one out of 12, you get about 8% is what you would expect. So we are very consistent at least on the expenditure side. So the revenue piece of it kind of fluctuates a tiny bit. And some of that is just that your your state it's almost all state aid. And our payment is what TEA thinks we're going to get for the year. And so it's not it's based on
030a lot of estimates at this point. So it'll get cleaned up with snapshot and enrollment data and some other pieces. So, we'll see it um to come in play, but right now we probably received a little more revenue than what we would have um normally and so that's, you know, it's cash in the bank, so we'll take it. Um child nutrition also one month of the year and so pretty consistent. Usually we have a lot of kids putting money in as they come back to school. Um so we expect revenue to be a little higher than than our expenses. And then debt service, we have very minimal activity this time of year is most of the revenue is from property taxes and we make payments in August and February. So, so we'll see u more
031activity in there as we um move into the December time frame and start collecting taxes and no budget amendments so far. Um so the next couple of pages just show just show kind of where we are again. we're we're pretty much on track as far as where we would expect to be with expenses for this time of year um across all three of those funds. And then if we keep scrolling, we'll get to the bond 23 um report. And there's just a couple of couple of items on here that that we've updated that I was going to draw some attention to. So in September, we have uh an attorney calculate our arbitrage liability from the prior year. And so we did update that number. It was in the 6 million and now we're at 8.3.
032So just wanted to kind of draw your attention. I think we deposited around 11 million in interest last year and and added about 2 million in arbitrage. So netted out about 9 million. Um so looking good there. the other number on there that 11.5 is then what is our interest balance um that's not being reserved for arbitrage or salaries and so that is um that is kind of what we have to work with as we start talking about um potential HVAC projects and otherwise so just wanted to kind of point out where we were so far um with that the interest is going to slow down as we're making those payments on Creek View High School and just have less money in the bank but um But we're we're still bringing in some interest every
033month. And then the second one is bond 24. And so this is we started this one last month where we've allocated funds out to middle school 3 and elementary 7. Um on this one we did also mark in the arbitrage liability that we would have attributed to Prop B from last year. So, so that fairly minimal um amount just because it was a such a small bond amount. Um and the interest that we borrowed is similar to the interest we were earning. Um where you really have the arbitrage is when you borrow at a low rate and you're earning higher. And so now that the interest rates are fairly similar, we shouldn't see as much arbitrage um come into play. But that is what I have for the finances. If you all have any questions,
034happy to get those questions. Good. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Next, we have the superintendent briefing with Dr. Kaos. >> All right. Our first slide there, we are recognizing Miss Angela Bowen. She's a outstanding middle school teacher um at Medina Valley Middle School. She was awarded the Excel award by Kins 5 and Credit human. And so congratulations to her. You can see there she received a nice little check for $2,000 for this award. And we're awfully proud of her being part of our district and all that she does for our kids. Uh this past month, we celebrated our our custodians, right? We appreciate all the hard work that they do for our for our campuses and our departments. They're they're an important part of our school district. We need to have, you know,
035we need to have clean buildings, clean classrooms for our for our teachers to be able to teach and for our kids to be able to learn. So, we appreciate all their hard work and all they do for our kids and staff. Next slide. We had one of our football players, Connor Crisp, who was highlighted in the San Antonio Express News for his outstanding performance against Laredo LBJ. Just a side note for our football team. They are 5-0 in district right now. Their final district game is this Friday against Del Rio. So hoping to bring home the district championship for our football team. >> They already did. >> Well, yes. Yes and no. They could still be technically according to our district rules they could be co- champamps right if they lose but they will be
036at least a well according to the district rules it would be they would be we would be the first place team going into the playoffs but it would be co- champamps all right yeah so we just need to go win the game right not have to worry about >> okay so this month also was human resource day we had a human resource day so again we want to um um recognize our HR team and all the hard work that they do for our district and and all that they do for our employees. So, we're very thankful for their work as well. Uh elementary schools this month had their open houses, so we had great attendance at our elementary campuses and and teachers got to meet a lot of parents and show the show the parents
037what their kids are doing in their classroom. Our theater department is hard at work. They they just had their their uh fall performance um the legend of Sleepy Hollow and so um they continue to work. I know they're going to do a lot of great things as we go through the school year as well. Our cross country team, we had all four of our teams, our varsity boys and girls and JV boys and girls win the district championship in cross country. So very proud of all those student athletes and all that they accomplished this year. our Panther uh band. They competed at the district UIL and advanced to area and place 16th at the area contest. So, um very thankful to those u band directors as well as all of those uh band students. That's
038a lot of hard work that they have to they they put in a lot of hours, a lot of practice, and so uh very thankful for all that they do as well. uh employees of the month. So we have listed out our employees of the month for the month of September. So you can see um a pair of professional and professional from each campus and then as well as some employees from each department that are recognized. So again very appreciative of these employees all that they do all their hard work and uh dedication to the school district. Then next we have our go-kart recipients. So, you can see we had some um some of our employees that were um recognized through our go-kard system. And so, um again, thankful for all that they do and
039also thankful for those employees that are writing these go-kards and recognizing these other employees. And then lastly, our district enrollment. So, you can see we've stayed pretty steady over the last few weeks uh few weeks right around that 10,450 students. And so, um, breaking it down by campus, you can see their high school is hovering right around that 2900. You know, some of our elementarymentaries, um, silos and Lucky Ranch in particular have stayed pretty level uh, throughout the school year, whereas um, Lacost and Lera and Petro a little bit have increased in enrollment. Any questions for me? Sure. >> Don't think so. >> All right. Next, we have Matt presentation with Miss P. Thank you. This evening, we're going to review our NWA MAP scores for the beginning of the school year. And this will
040show us where our students stand. NWA MAP is a nationally uh normed adaptive assessment that we do administer three times per year and it helps our teachers to differentiate instruction and to track learning. Here we'll see our math K to2 achievement. This shows how our students performed in the fall of 2024 as compared to this school year. You will notice we did have a rise in our enrollment and one of the things that we did investigate was to determine whether the students who were new to us how they affected our overall achievement in comparison to our students who had been with us in the 2425 school year. We did find that our new students did did perform in alignment with our our returning students. Digging a little bit deeper, you'll see our overall math achievement
041increased and uh slightly increased. You will also notice in the 24 school year, we had more students in the green. We want our students to be performing above the 50th percentile. Um when we see we see trends. So we know at the start of our 24th school year, our first grade students showed some some significant uh needs of area of needs and going into second grade with that summer slide, they did decrease just a bit. When we look at our eighth grade scores for 2025, please keep in mind that these scores do not reflect our highest eighth graders because they are currently enrolled in algebra 1. This is a big picture look of our K to2 students uh looking from kinder all the way to 8th grade. You'll notice that it it captures every single
042student at the beginning of the school year. We are um well above the 50th percentile in all areas except for 8th grade, but again that's where our highest students are not reflected in this data. Now, when we move to our algebra achievement, our enrollment stayed about the same. And this helps us evaluate our middle school preparation program, how our students are learning and achieving in middle school. And because it determines how our students will perform on algebra 1 and all of our ELC courses, we use this data to help close our readiness gaps. Now we're moving into the same type of information for reading language arts. In comparing our 24 to 25 data, you see the increase in enrollment and our numbers stay about the same. As we compare reading achievement of all students from
04324 to 25, you'll notice um our percentiles are lower in first and second grade. But this is where we are working on that strong phonics foundation. And so we see as our students progress through our 95 phonics curriculum, their comprehension comes along and those percentiles increase. And this chart shows how every student is performing in first grade through 10th grade. Our kindergarteners take a different uh assessment tool. And so again, that those first and second grade students showing those gaps, but as our students become more fluent readers, you see that their performance increases through English 2. And it's very nice to see at English too that percentile rate of our students in green and in blue at the high school level even for our ninth graders. Next, we're moving into our science achievement. Our students
044in fifth and eighth grade take their science map test. And this is a great reflection of the choice in curriculum that our teachers purchased last year and the fidelity that they are using in implementing their curriculum. And so we see we've moved from to lots of hands-on instruction. Students are really getting some great valuable hands-on learning and it's reflected in their scores. Now moving on to biology. This is one of my favorite slides because three years ago we sat with them and we really started working on data and the teachers have owned their data and it looked like a lot of work at first because they were every time they gave an assessment they would get that data. They would look at where student weak spots were at. They discussed how they were going to
045really dive in and help students understand and those were the origins of our PLC. And so now coming into the third year of them consistently working together take uh dissecting their data dissecting those teaks. You see how well our students are performing. Next we're going to move into the growth section. And something to keep in mind is that any student that is below that 50th percentile in in achievement is not going to maintain their growth. >> Backwards. Oh, I'm sorry. I sure said that backwards. My apologies. Any student who doesn't maintain that 50th percentile in growth is not going to maintain that annual achievement rate. So, we want to make sure that all of our students are growing every single year. One of the things that we always consider, and I like to use that
046that stop sign, the one-way sign, our students should be only going one way. They should be growing. So here we see Medina Valley is are the blue bars. The diamonds are our com are their peers. And so we see in math our students in basic numer numeracy do very well and they are in in right where they should be in compar in comparison to their peers nationally. You see, come second grade when problem solving starts coming in, they're having to use their reading skills to perform. We do have a minor dip and that continues until about fourth grade. Fourth grade they start to get right back on target. So we know u math is an area where we are working to increase performance of and students understanding and that's been one of the focuses of
047our PLC's where teachers are working together to really determine where the gaps come into place and as we're looking in as we're working in PLC's and we're looking at that verb at the verbs and if we're modeling if students need to understand that representation all the way to analyzing and helping our teachers ens ensuring that our teachers are really teaching to the to the rigor of the verb. And again, you'll notice that that larger gap in eighth grade and that again is due to our highest kiddos taking that algebra 1. As we look at our language arts, our language arts is looking much better. again that phonics program that's consistent in our kinder through third grade now and it's it's really improving their comprehension. Now this is the one that this projects how our students
048would perform on the in the on the star test taken during the spring of 2026. It takes into account all of our second to 8th grade students. And so what we see here is our students who are at the meets and masters level um it's about 35.5% are projected to pass that at the approaches cut score. I'm sorry 61.6% of our students are projected to pass the star test but 35.5% are projected to pass at the approaches level. So one of the things we it's we're always remembering and just instilling is it's approaches grade level not on grade level and that's one of the interesting things when we look at our A to F accountability domain one takes into consideration the approaches meets and masters but keeping in mind that that approach's grade level is
049with significant intervention and so we're always pushing that that's why we're pushing during PLC's that level of rigor to ensure our students are reading and performing on grade level and calculating on grade level. Here again, now we're looking at our reading and this shows that 48% 48.8% of our students are reading on grade level in grades 2 through 8th grade. And so again, that phonics program comes into play. Um, we've been very fortunate to have our libraries now staffed by certified teachers. We have our media center teachers that are led by our district librarian and they're helping to promote literacy on their campuses. So again, just in closing, MAP is not just another test. I know when we first introduced it, our teachers felt the pressure of another test that our students were taking, but
050it is something that helps our teachers to respond to where students are at. And it's as a district, it's our our focus of that collective responsibility on ensuring that our students are on grade level in reading, math, and in science. >> Any questions? >> When do they take the midyear one? >> In January. >> January. >> Yes, sir. Okay. Okay, thank you. >> Any other questions? I mean, we've been through this like there's lots of opportunity there. I mean, it's it's glaring in the numbers, especially when I look at math and even the yeartoyear like we have to have to focus there and get it on the change the direction of where we're going. >> Not just math, but the lower level reading scores. >> Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean >> I mean that's become
051an overwhelming theme that our kids >> are struggling with reading comprehension at the fourth grade level. So we've got to fix that. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. [snorts] >> Okay. We'll move on to discussion and possible action items. We'll start with consider approval of a consent agenda items. Dr. Kaos. >> Yes. So the consent items are listed in the agenda. All items have been reviewed at board committee meetings or through the board updates. So at this time we can pull and discuss any items items. Um if any board members wishes to do so we go ahead. You going to say >> I'd like to pull the Castroville Elementary playground discussion out of the consent agenda. I can I can make a motion to approve the rest of the stuff and or however
052we need to do that. >> Do we need pull and discuss and if after discussion you >> just leave it in the consent? Okay. >> Yeah. So, I'd like to discuss that a little bit. >> Okay. >> Um, one question I do have before we get to that one. The district library book purchase, can you go through the review process? >> How we're reviewing Miss Py, you want to take them through the review process? >> I love that Medina Valley is ahead of the curve. When I saw about a week ago that we had a neighboring school district, >> did it again. No, thank you. I I'm glad Medina Valley is ahead of the curve. When I saw a couple of weeks ago on the news that one of our neighboring school districts was shutting
053down all of their libraries because they needed to go book by book to ensure that they were appropriate for their students. And I here, you know, I was thinking, okay, are are we on track? And we know what's on our shelves. We ensure what's on our shelves. And not only do we ensure that it's good for kids, that it's good for our communities. and keep keeping in at at the forefront that all of our students come from very different families from very different expectations. So we have um what we look at we follow our state approved reading lists and we look at pro uh sorry continuing popular series. So if there's something that students are interested in we check those next books that are coming out. We ensure that they are appropriate. We check to
054make sure that they uh pass all of our professional reviews. We check our professional reviews, our the awards that they're given. We look at we verify our fallout fallout tags and our grade ranges. Um we also look at the list. We review feedback with our teachers and with our media center teachers. And one of the things that we also do is we ensure that now even our scholastic book fairs, those books that come in on the carts meet our requirements. We've been training our instructional coaches and at the secondary level all of our teachers to ensure that when they are choosing readalouds that they follow our standards because again we may have a book that a teacher feels very strongly about that it has great literature value but as a readaloud it may not be
055appropriate for all students in the classroom. And so ensuring that everybody's on the same page, but again looking at just a variety of resources and and if and if any of those resources there is a question. So there was one book that actually went through um was being proposed for the Medina Valley Education Foundation and for the grant and what we saw we double checked it and went through the three different areas and in one of the areas there was a consideration for violence and so we nixed it. Even though the other three areas were very strong areas they had great reviews, great literature connections. The one area on violence and language it was a no. So, it was a no across the board. So, we are very um we take everything into consideration and
056we're we just we know what's on our shelves. And so, again, when I heard that other district was closing libraries, my heart stopped because we need to get h books in the hands of kids. >> Thank you. >> All right. You want to discuss playground? Okay. Yeah. So, I saw this week we got an update on some additional costs on the playground um particularly for uh concrete surface beneath the uh the synthetic turf. Um just trying to understand what was in the original bid and how we determined that that was that was missing. So, the original bid uh had the base and the fabric that goes beneath it. Um, as we know, our soils aren't that great in this area. Part of the issue is there will be movement once water percolates. So, there's a
057higher risk of the turf fluctuating between wet and dry seasons. Uh, what the concrete will do will it will encapsulate that, right? So, there it'll catch it. will will create we holes around it to release the water. Um it's just a longer uh >> Yeah, I mean I'm I I agree. It's it's necessary. I just curious why we missed it the first time. Was it something that the >> the vendor didn't I mean >> it wasn't noted as an alternate. U the proposals it was listed on uh and if you see it, it says alternate not included in uh I think it's the next page. Uh >> yeah, optional not included in in total. >> Okay. >> So they had that dollar value um but it wasn't included in the total overall. >> I gotcha
058for this, right? [clears throat] >> Sorry. >> Go ahead. Sorry. >> One of the things that we are discussing is potentially uh reducing the cost of the overall 70,000 since there's not going to be base included. Uh it may not be a true $69,000 ad. It may it it'll be less than that. They just haven't captured that um reduction on material for it. >> So with the addition of that slab, we still need the perimeter the perimeter curve and all that. >> Yeah. >> And Crystal, we have a budget amendment for this or did you did we go ahead and allocate? We we don't have a budget amendment. In fact, I brought kind of a a copy just kind of a reminder. If you all remember, I'll pat let you pass those around, Suzanne. Thank
059you. Um [snorts] it when we adopted the budget, we had a certain amount of money that we set aside for capital projects and part of that we put into kind of a contingency line item and it was whether it ended up being Hback work or a number of the other projects, we still had some money in there to to work with. And so in the first column, this is what you saw in the budget book for what was proposed um potential projects and plans for those funds and currently then we're tracking that in the allocated and it and including the the playground um that's how we get to that total. So that's kind of where we're sitting right now. So I wouldn't need to do a budget amendment for this one um to be able
060to go through. I would just use that contingency capital projects funds. >> Yeah. I think one thing from my perspective, I don't know the board members perspective, but from from mine, when we allocate a bucket of money and then we're going to make decisions on like, hey, we're going to allocate that to this, let's for sure not put it in consent and have it as an actual item on the agenda that we discuss. That way, it's we're clear on, hey, we're making the conscious decision in the meeting to send that there. >> Yeah. >> Agreed. >> Okay. >> I'm good with it staying and proving it's his. And >> again, this was two this was two uh playground locations, right? So con that that add add-on was for both locations, correct? >> Yes, that is
061for uh both locations on the upper house and then >> Okay. >> the smaller playground. >> And did I see that right? This was a byboard bid. >> It is a byboard. >> Okay. Thanks. I think when we were originally budgeting, sorry to add it, like we were looking at around 850,000 if you was kind of our placeholder and so this even with the addition has come in underneath of that. So >> yeah, I don't that wasn't the issue at all is just to make sure since like like Nathan said since this was a budgeted capital item to make sure we covered >> everything. >> I agree. I think these need to always be outside of the consent agenda. Any other questions? Not I'll look for a motion. >> I Matt K, excuse me. I
062Matt Castleion move to approve the consent agenda items as presented. >> I have a motion. Do I have a second? >> I want to second the motion. >> I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor raise your hand. All board members vote it for and the motion carries. Next, we have consider approval of budget amendment. So we do have one but just not for that. [laughter] >> This will be reflected on the October financials. No. Um so this is is the typical budget amendment that we bring in October that encompasses projects that were allocated in the 2425 budget but just weren't quite complete at that August 31st deadline. And so really what you see in here in function 51 is for some fire alarm repairs that we
063did we were working on over fall break. Um with the power outage as we were working through the A ROTC project with CPS this summer. We didn't have an opportunity to work on that project um until fall break. Um, we also are finishing our our final payments with AT&T for phone services as we have now moved into Zo and that final amount was not completed by August 31st. And then we also had some police department and safety items that were not received by by the 31st. And some of this was was I think the flasher equipment um and Apple products for iPads for for the raptor stations in the campus. So I am happy to take any questions. >> This just >> yeah just something for us to keep in mind as we go through
064the capital projects that this is against the budget and as you allocate there we just have that holistic view for us to remember as we're going through it. But but by moving these from last year's budget to this year, we in theory added to our general fund balance. >> Correct. >> Last year. Okay. Which we won't know until >> we'll bring you an update at committee. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Right. I mean, it's in that >> Right. It just puts more in out of last year's budget, but still from a from a budgeting standpoint, we need to track it. >> Can I look for a motion? I Joe Beiger move to approve the budget amendment as presented. >> I have a motion. Do I have a second? >> I Jason Bonnie second the motion. >>
065I have a motion and second. Any further discussion? Not. All those in favor raise your hand. All board members vote it four and the motion carries. Next we have consider approval of revision to the 2526 compensation plan. >> Good evening Dr. Kos, board president, members of the board. It is my pleasure to present to you um our agenda item to consider amending the 2025 2026 compensation plan. Um so in accordance with board policy DEA and DEAA legal and local district administration is recommending the following amendments to the compensation plan for the 2526 school year. We have two new positions. Um first is the assistant chief of police. that would be on an admin professional paygrade 2 scale. A community relations coordinator on a professional admin paygrade one. We have um Ellis and Selenia here I
066believe are going to talk also about these positions uh in detail. And we have a new pay category. Uh this is for our intensive behavior classroom paraprofessional to move it up from a paygrade four to a paygrade five in the par profofessional paygrade. We also have uh new stipens too. one for an adaptive PE stipen, which would be $500 per campus per year for the adaptive PE coach, and then also a reassignment stipen for teachers and aids, um, which are instructional staff that are reassigned during the school year, uh, based on district needs. So, for teachers, that would be $1,000, and for aids, that would be $500. So, our recommendation is uh to the board that we would approve the amendments to the compensation plan. And I'll let Selena talk about the assistant chief of
067police. >> I'm sorry. >> Just wanted to um add add some more information for you on the community relations coordinator answer any questions if you may have with our district's continued growth and new initiatives. Right. This position would be helping us to keep up with the growing communication needs of our school district. um those needs that fall in line with our district scorecard, really focusing on that 3.1 section, improving our communitywide relationships. And so um working on all of those projects and key strategic goals that fall under that piece of our scorecard. Do you guys have any questions? >> Yeah, we uh so we I [clears throat] mean one of the concerns I have I mean any district has concerned about adding positions at top level administration. I mean, are we this position uh primarily
068when we talked about this in committee was to support some of the marketing for the uh >> that's one of the pieces, correct? So, under 3.1 of our district scorecard communitywide relationships, that's our alumni group. It's our community ambassador group. It also includes we added this year on the scorecard our marketing um athletic advertising for our stadium. So, that is a piece under there as well. Um, but this position would also be helping with coordinating committees, right? Our um different district-wide committees that meet throughout the year, our resoning committee, helping with communicate. It's kind of it would be a big multifacet. You also said um as far as the pay grade goes, pay grade one is our like base starting pay on on the admin scale for clarification of any of those questions. Anything else?
069Yeah, I mean we guys I mean we have to we have to trust you guys on what you know whether whether we need the extra capacity for supporting that activity. I mean, one of the thoughts we had is originally we had talked about the athletic director doing some of the marketing stuff for the um this was years ago for for the new scoreboards and stuff like that. And I realize we we haven't hired that position yet, but just want to make sure that u you know we're not getting too hop topheavy with some of this stuff. >> Yeah. No. So, so um a couple of things. Yeah. There there are districts do this in different ways when it comes to the advertising. You know, some have their their athletic department do it, some have boosters
070do it, some have their communications department do it. I we felt like with us starting it out, right, this is this is brand new to us. We felt like uh the best option to start out with would be with the communications department. Like Selena said, this is this is not solely the reason why we'd want to have this position. We take take one area. Selena, talk a little about Selena's uh department does public information requests. Talk about how that demand has increased over the last few years. >> Yeah, you know, um that's one of the areas that our department oversees, but we do wear a lot of hats, right? And when I say department, we're a team of three, including myself. So, it is a small team. Um but yes, just that's just one example.
071Our public information requests, I mean, we we are seeing a large increase in those and those are timely, right? We have to respond within a certain amount of time. Um, and so they're very urgent matters that we're getting to and we have to get to quickly. So, we're definitely seeing a workload increase across the board as our district grows and we have more constituents, more stakeholders that we're keeping up with. Campuses, right? This role would also be helping with all of those events and different pieces as we're opening campuses and new schools and and we're providing updates to our community on all of that. They'd be helping in coordination with that. So there's definitely a lot of pieces um that our department uh oversees that is seeing an increase in workload as our district continues
072to grow. I will tell you um staffing comparison, we have done that for other districts. Um communication teams for school districts our size with our enrollment and adding this position would be in line with what you're seeing in other school districts. Um so we definitely would not be here asking you for this position if it was not a need. We understand there's a lot of needs in our school district. Um, if we did not feel it was something that was needed to help meet all of those expectations and meet the communication goals of the district, we wouldn't be here asking you for it. >> I'm good. I just wanted to hear more of what the expect and we talked about it briefly in committee. Our committee meetings get kind of tight sometimes, but want to
073make sure that we're in agreement that we have the workload, you know, to keep this person busy and and that it's a worthwhile endeavor. So, >> I'll keep them busy. Don't you worry, Matt. [laughter] We'll be very busy. You don't We do have a copy of the job description as well if you guys would like to see it or have any more questions. But I'll hand it over to Chief if you guys are ready. Did you don't have any [laughter] like I think I'm description. >> Oh, I think they're good. I think they're good. All good. >> Good evening, board. Mr. President, Dr. Kaos, um I know we talked a little bit about this in committee, so I'll try not to be too redundant, but maybe you'll have some questions. This position would be the
074functional job description does have some overlap with the chief's job. Kind of expands the bandwidth that position. Um it's going to allow better uh accountability of our employees when we do um the evaluation process throughout the year uh help with compliance with all the things that we have to remain compliance in whether that's um DPS or TCO compliance and all the trainings that we have to coordinate setting up. So it's uh again it's a lot of overlap with the with the chief's functional job description. And so basically the chief's right hand um [clears throat] and allow the chief to kind of to get out there and do what the chief what y'all are paying the chief to do uh which is get out there and and make sure we are holding our employees to the
075level of professionalism that we want. Make sure we're getting growth and development with these employees. Um, so without going through the functional job description again, which I'll be glad to do if y'all have any questions. You all have any questions I can answer for you. Again, I know we talked about this in committee, so >> no, >> we see the work of it coming through. >> Yeah, I mean, we knew this was going to be necessary at some point to expand the department and >> you know, we're glad you you're on top of it and identifying what we need there. So, >> we've gotten a lot of support from everybody from all the work groups behind us. It's just this this is >> Yeah, absolutely. Things are going very well there. So, >> Yeah, this
076is definitely definitely a role that you kind of need a second man with with [clears throat] the ever growing population of what we've got going on now. >> As as the department grows. Yes, sir. You're right. As the department grows, you know, we know we're going to have to hire more officers going into this next year and the year after and so forth. So, this is just a foundation to help facilitate that growth. It can't be a a oneperson show for the next two or three years. Any other questions? >> I'll look for a motion. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, thank you. >> I Matt Castle move to approve the revision to the 2025 2026 compensation plan as presented. >> I have a motion. Do I have a second? >> I Ben Wat second the
077motion. >> I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Not. All those in favor raise your hand. All board members voted for and the motion carries. Next we have consider approval of the 2526 district improvement plan. >> Good evening board president, Dr. Kaos, members of the board. For your consideration is this year's district improvement plan and campus improvement plans. It is an 85page document. Uh you'll see at the beginning the problem statements and then the heart of it is our four goals with the performance objectives and the strategies. You should be very familiar with the the meat of that because it is our scorecard. Any questions? If not, I'll look for a motion. >> I Jason Bonnie move to approve the 2025 2026 district improvement plan as presented. >> I have a motion
078to have a second. I >> Joe Beiger second the motion. >> I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? None. All those in favor raise your hand. All board members voted for and the motion carries. The time is 7:15 p.m. and the board of trustees will now convene in close session as authorized by section 551071, 551074, 551076, 551089, and 551072 of the Texas Open Meetings Act to discuss agenda items 6 A through C. No action will be taken in close session. The board is now in close session. Okay. The board is reconvening into open session at 8:16 p.m. For the record, no action was taken in close se in close session. Next, we have consider approval of the superintendent's recommendation to hire the Castville Elementary principal, Dr. Kaos. administration recommends Sandy Burmea to
079be the principal for Casterville Elementary. >> Any questions? Not. I'll look for a motion. >> I, Matt Castle, move to approve the superintendent's recommendation to hire Sandy Burmea as a as the principal for Castroville Elementary. >> I have a motion. Do I have a second? >> I want to second the motion. >> I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor raise your hand. All board members voted for and the motion carries. Next, we have consideration of future meeting dates dates. The next regular board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 20th, 25 at 6 p.m. Last item is adjournment, and I'll look for a motion. >> I, Joe Beiger, move to adjourn the regular board meeting at 8:17 p.m. on October 27th, 2025. >> I have a motion.
080Do I have a second? >> I Jason Bonnie second the motion. >> I have a motion and a second. All those in favor raise your hand. All board members voted for and we are adjourned. Thank you.