001Let the record show that a quorum of the board members is present. That this meeting has been duly called, and that notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code 551. At this point, the board will go into a closed meeting under that Texas code 551.74 regarding the General Council's evaluation and contract. Board? Executive session. We have a treat today. Which is, we have the teacher of the year recognition, which is going to take place in the room across the hall in the vision room. So at this time, we will go to do that recognition, and then we will come back and reconvene in the meeting. Thank you. We will reconvene. From that wonderful celebration we had of our teacher of the year. I always love
002it when we celebrate our teachers. With that, our next part, we're going straight to invocation. We're going to have our Reverend Harry Lee Sewell do the invocation. And, pledge. You know who's doing our pledge? We don't have the pledge. And we have some of the things that are coming in the background. Oh, there in the back there. Okay. I don't have a sheet with the pledge. That's right. And I'm saying thank you very. But this was Henrie Elementary. Henrie Elementary. Okay. So our pledge will be done by Henrie Elementary. First off, we have, Pastor Sewell. Let's pray. Heavenly father, thank you for another day of life and breath. Health and strength. It's a privilege. It's an opportunity to worship you. Thank you for this great city of the leadership of Mayor Dan Aleman, City Manager
003Cliff Keheley. We also want to thank you this evening for this amazing school district, under the excellent leadership of Dr. Rivera and this wonderful school board. They're obviously highly rated in every area of education. I pray going forward. Oh God. You will continue to lead, guide and direct each and every decision they will make will be making for the benefit of each of us. This very room in the days ahead. Heavenly father, the word says, if any man lack wisdom, that it may ask of God, and he will give it to us. As for not only man's words for this school board, but also the wisdom that comes from above. Please continue, Heavenly Father, to bless them if you can spend them. Make your face shine upon them and give them your peace. This is
004a peace Jesus said in the New Testament. The world cannot give and therefore the world cannot take away. We ask all these things in Jesus name and everybody said Amen. Thank you so much. The United States of America and the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I The Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the, Texas, one state under God. Okay. Let's hear from our Henrie Elementary kids. Hi. My name is Daniel, and I'm in second grade. Nice. Hi. My name is Anna, and I'm in kindergarten. My name is Liam and I'm in kinder. My name is Rey and I'm in second grade. My name is Julia and I'm from second grade. My name is Madeline and I'm from first grade. My name is Ximena and
005I'm from fifth grade. My name is Elizabeth, and I'm in fifth grade. My name. My name is Julian, and I'm in kindergarten. My name is Natalie, and I'm from. I mean, I'm in fifth grade. Thank you very much, kids. Great job. With that, we do have the team of eight moment board members. We have anything. I have three quick comments. You just saw pastor Harry Sewell there. We we were part of the annual prayer breakfast on Saturday, where we had the honor of board member Gary Bingham represent the district. It's an activity that happens every, every year. And and we're glad to be a part of it. With that, also, we had, last Saturday, the Heart Board Association gala, which we were a part of, and, it's a very good cause, try to educate citizens
006of how to prevent heart attacks and and do the best we can, provide ads to different associations. And the third thing I have is we have the state of community coming up February 12th at the Art center. And I would encourage everyone, if you can, to be there and participate. I believe we're represented by our superintendent, Angel Rivera. So I appreciate you very much for that. Okay. With that, we're going to students and guest. Miss Smith. All right. Board thank you. Each month, we are honored to present two new inductees into the district's prestigious Apple Corps program. The Apple Corps award is made possible by a partnership between the Mesquite Education Foundation and Clay Cooley of Mesquite. We'd like to thank both of them for supporting our amazing educators. Our 1st February honoree is Emily
007Guest Turner from McDonald Middle School. Miss Turner is a sixth and seventh grade math teacher with 12 years of teaching experience here in Mesquite ISD. You take a look and see what makes her an Apple Corps teacher. I just want to congratulate Miss Turner for being the McDonald Middle School Apple Corps winner for the month of January. Miss Turner is highly deserving of the Apple Corps Award for her consistent dedication, positive spirit, and unwavering commitment to students and staff. She goes above and beyond her role each day, approaching her work with professionalism, kindness, and a true servant's heart. Teaching for me is really about the moments. It's my favorite part of being in the classroom. I like to see children light up when they actually understand the concept and really master it. That's my favorite
008part. I hope students leave my classroom with a love of learning and understand that failure is not as just a stepping stone and not a wall. I hope that they leave my classroom at the end of the year, knowing that they have a joy of learning and that they keep discovering. Whereas the Mesquite Independent School District Board of the Board of Trustees seeks to honor outstanding classroom teachers who demonstrate leadership, innovation, and dedication to the students of Mesquite ISD And Whereas, the Mesquite Apple Corps consist of exceptional teachers nominated by their peers to receive the school district's highest recognition. Therefore, be it resolved that the board officially welcomes Emily Gas Turner into the Mosquito Corps on this ninth day of February 2026. Congratulations. We're very proud. I'm not crying. You guys are crying. I just
009want to thank you guys so much. I'm truly honored and grateful to the school board and the superintendent for this recognition and for the constant, constant support you give to teachers and students. It means more than I can say to feel seen and valued in this work. I also want to thank my family and friends. Your encouragement, patience and belief in me, especially on the long dates, makes everything I do possible. Teaching is never a solo effort and I'm so lucky to have such an incredible support system behind me. Finally, I'm thankful every day for my students and colleagues who challenged me, inspire me, and remind me why this work matters. Thank you again for this honor and truly means the world to me. Our second Apple Corps honoree this evening is Miss Destiney Diaz
010of Gray Elementary School. Miss Diaz is a first grade teacher with five years of teaching experience here in Mesquite ISD. If you will turn your attention to the screens, we're going to learn more about Miss Diaz. Miss Diaz has been with us for five years. She initially started out at gray in fifth grade. She had the desire a few years ago to move down to first grade, and that, honestly, is one of the most impressive things about her is her willingness to grow. There's always something fun and exciting going on in her classroom, and it's really her ability to receive feedback and take that and turn it up, which is the most impressive thing about her. The value that she adds to our campus is remarkable. Congratulations, Miss Diaz. I feel that teaching is important
011because you were able to build relationships with your students and also challenge them in different areas that they might think that they have trouble in when it comes to learning, but also building lifelong learners. And to students who are ready to go into the real world and everything that comes along with it. You can do those. I'll read this proclamation for you. Whereas the Mesquite Independent School District Board of Trustees seeks to honor outstanding classroom teachers who are demonstrating leadership, innovation and dedication to the students of Mesquite ISD And Whereas, Mesquite, the Apple Corps consists of exceptional teachers nominated by their peers to receive the school district's highest recognition. Therefore, be it resolved that the board officially welcomes Destiney Diaz into the Mesquite ISD Apple Corp this 9th day of February 2026. Thank you so
012much for what we do. Appreciate you. Good evening. Board members, district leaders, administrators, colleagues, family and community members. I'm incredibly honored and deeply grateful to receive both Mesquite ISD Apple Corp Award and Teacher of the year to be recognized in this way by the district. That means so much to me. It's truly humbling. Mesquite ISD is not just where I work. It is where I grew up. I'm a proud product of this district. I walked these halls as a student and learn from incredible educators, and was shaped by the values of this community. To now stand before you as an educator, being recognized by the same district that helped, that helped shape who I am feels incredibly honored. Honorable. I would not be here today without the teachers who first inspired me to believe in
013the power of education. I want to specifically acknowledge two high school teachers, Miss Arts and Mr. Courtney. They saw potential in me before. I fully saw in myself their passion, high expectations, and genuine care for their students planted a seed that led me to become a teacher. The way I show it for my students today is a direct reflection of the example they set for me years ago. I would like to recognize my former assistant principal, Miss Baxter, who pushed me, challenged me, and truly poured into my growth as an educator. She never allowed me to become comfortable with the good in us. Instead, she encouraged me to reflect, take risk, and continuously grow. Even when it was uncomfortable. Because of her belief in me, I became a strong, more intentional teacher and I carry
014those lessons with me every single day in the classroom. Teaching for me has always been about more than academics. It is about relationships, growth, and believing in students even when they are still learning to believe in themselves. Every day I strive to be the teacher. My own teachers were for me. Someone who sees potential and sets high expectations and never gives up on children. Thank you, Mesquite ISD for investing in educators, supporting innovation, and creating a culture where both students and teachers can thrive. Thank you to my administrators and leadership for always setting high expectations for me and providing me with opportunities, missed calls and very, to become in leadership positions. And to my friends at work. Thank you for encouragement, collaboration, laughter, and consistent support. Teaching is better because of the people I get
015to do it along with every day. Thank you as well to my family for always believing in me. I'm incredibly proud to serve Mesquite ISD, the district that raised me and continues to inspire me. Thank you. As well. At this time, I would like to pause real quick and ask Miss Emily Guest Turner, if you would introduce your family members, immediate family, and your school family members. Along with your and my little, my uncle has a kidney and my principal here, and teacher, Mr. Tony. And would be asked if he would do the same. My family is here. My mom and dad. My boyfriend. My colleagues are here also. And my principal, my own assistant principal here as well. Yes. Miss Martin is here. As well. Thank you. You're very proud of both of you.
016And thank you, family. Because without support, it's very tough job to do. So thank you. So we shall. All right. It's next time for us to recognize our outstanding paraprofessional for the month of February with our Star Power Award. Mesquite ISD is excited to partner with First Financial Group of America to provide this star power recipient with a gift card. We're grateful to have a representative from FGA here tonight. If you would, please join our principal from Vroonland Vanguard High School, Mr. Clint Elsasser, along with our February star para Kathy Hernandez, at the podium. Principal Elsasser is going to share a little bit about what makes Mr. Hernandez so special. All right. Lord, thank you for allowing us to be here. I would like to introduce you to Miss Kathy Hernandez. She is one of
017our paras and she does our. Well, she does everything, to be honest with you. She does our finances. She works with our subs. And you guys have heard about our subs covering classes. She does all of that. I think the thing that I love most about her, she does everything with such a grateful heart and grateful spirit. She always has a smile on her face when I come in. And she's there before almost everybody else. And she's organizing the subs and getting them, located and covering and working in front line and doing all the things and anything we any time we ever ask her to do anything, she says yes with a smile and, and, you know, you just can't have enough servants on your campus. And if I could duplicate you 100 fold, I
018would. And so we just appreciate everything that you do for us. Most importantly, your smile and how you treat others. And so we just thank you very much for blessing our campus with you. All right. We're now going to proceed with just a few student recognitions that we have this evening on behalf of the Mesquite ISD, advanced academics Department. We're going to honor, the, winner of our district spelling bee that they recently hosted. It was a very exciting competition. And I am pleased to introduce to you Matthew Gibson from Rugel Elementary. He is our first place winner. For. The district spelling bee. He's here with his sponsor, Carly Frazier, again from Regal Elementary School. Our second place winner could not be here tonight, but we want to go ahead and honor them from Wilkinson Middle
019School gym. Maddie, she was our second place winner. And sponsor is Melinda Fonseca. And finally, tonight, we're proud to recognize some of these, some students from the 2026 TDA. That's the Texas Dance Educators Association. These are all star dancers, ladies and gentlemen, from North Mesquite High School. We have Crystal Araiza, and the sponsor, Mary Garcia. All right. From Poteet High School, we have Lylah Yow and sponsor Nichole Moisan, another All-State dancer. All right. And from John Horn High School, Morgan Sterling, All-State dancer with sponsor Brynn Scott and Melissa Cotner. Congratulations to everyone we honored here this evening, including our 52 Campus Teachers of the year. This concludes our recognitions for this evening. Thank you, Miss Smith. With that next, we go to our consent agenda. Are there any items that the board, any board member
020wants to pull? President. Mr. president, I move to approve. Second. There's a motion by Mr. Rivera and a second by Miss Hornsby to approve the consent agenda. Any questions or corrections? I mean, there are none. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Opposed? Same sign. Ayes have it. Motion carries. Next, we're going into items of personnel. First item being approving administrative contracts. Executive director, facilities management. Dr. Rivera? Yes, Mr. president, this is an action item in accordance with the information provided by administration. This is an action item. I will turn. So there's a motion by Mr. Bingham, second by Mr. Rose to approve the administrative contract. Executive director for the facilities management. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Opposed? Same sign. I have it. Motion carries. Dr. Rivera? Yes. Board
021members, Mr. president Carbo, you. What you just approved was a new executive director for facilities. And that is none other than Mr. Daniel Contreras. So congratulations, Danny. Okay, Mr. Prado, Mr. Prado will move to the lectern and, and read, his bio and introduce us to Mr. Contreras. Well, good evening. Board superintendent. Dr. Rivera, it's with great pleasure that, I introduce, or reintroduce, Daniel Contreras as the new executive director of facilities. And if you would just allow me to say a few words. But, Neil, has proudly served Mesquite ISD for more than 32 years. Dedicating his career to supporting the district and community. Throughout his tenure, he has held a variety of roles, gaining extensive experience and deep understanding of all of our district operations. Mr. Contreras has been leading the department as an interim, as
022you approved. While ago, as an executive director facility since July of 2025. A proud product of Mesquite ISD. Mr. Contreras attended Mesquite schools throughout his scholastic career and is a graduate of West Mesquite High School. His lifelong connection to Mesquite ISD reflects his commitment to the district's mission and to creating a safe, well maintained learning environment for all our students and staff. Daniel, congratulations. Thank you. I wrote a few things down. So I wouldn't forget. Because sometimes you get nervous up here in front of y'all. I would like to thank the school board for this incredible opportunity to lead the facilities management team. Thank you, Dr. Rivera, Dr. Fields, and Mr. Prado for your leadership. Thank you to Scott Owens for hiring me. 32 years ago and having my back from day one. Thank you
023to the incredible staff in facilities. Exceptional, exceptional people. I would like to acknowledge, my wife, Sara, who has to deal with me getting up at 4:15 in the morning, even though I think I'm being quiet. I still wake up at least an hour or more before she needs to be up. So, thank you for not moving me into the garage. And, thank you for my family that came, to support me tonight. My brother John, my sister Nancy, my oldest daughter, Elizabeth, my youngest daughter, Adalyn. And my wildman Thomas. And then my mother named Rodriguez. I would like to thank my mom because I would not have, the work ethic that I have because of what she's done. She's, always worked two jobs, and a lot of times three jobs to give us what we needed
024growing up. She gave me the discipline I needed, and sometimes I might have needed quite a bit. She had high expectations for me. And it is paid off. I will continue to do my best for MISD And thank you. Thank you very much and welcome. Next, item number two is, an action item as well. Evaluation of the General Counsel. Mr. President, do we combine that valuation with the contract? We can as well. Then I would like to make a motion that we approve both the evaluation that was discussed with the General Counsel during executive session and approve the contract renewal, with the terms as discussed in executive session. Second. Okay. With that, items two and three and the personnel are being combined to approve the evaluation and the contract renewal of the General Counsel. Motion
025made by Mr. Seward. Second by Mr. Everett. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Opposed, Same sign Ayes carry. A motion carries. Ayes have it. Congratulations. Next we're going to skip to item number six, which is contract. Contract renewal of the Deputy Superintendent and the assistant superintendent. And she's out including chief officers also internal auditor, executive directors, principals and head football coaches and athletic coordinators. Can we talk about this? I'm just kidding. Yes, we can all night long. Mr. President, I move to approve all aforementioned. Okay. There's a motion by Mr. Everett taken by Miss Hornsby to approve all the aforementioned, deputy superintendent and assistant superintendents, chief officers, internal auditor, executive directors, principals and head football coaches and athletic directors, coordinators. I leather coordinators, thank you very much. Reading too fast for my
026own good. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Opposed, same sign. Ayes have it. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Y'all got contracts? All right. Yeah. You can clap for yourselves. Yeah. Congratulations, guys. We're going to be good one more year. So with that we are going to item B construction. First item is to approve GMP for North Mesquite High School. Additions and additions and renovations at the river. Yes, sir. Mr. Pool is going to work his way. He's going to sashay up to the to the lecture and cover this item. What did you do this time? What did I do this time? Now it's back issues. So you're a tree? I broke it ten years ago and didn't know so it's a problem. So. So tonight, we're going to we have some
027gaps that we're going to be asking you to approve tonight. But we were also going to kind of give you a lesson on what the difference between GMP, which is really what TEA requires us to get approved and then total cost. It doesn't require us to do it, but it sure helps Gilbert to put all the money in the right spot when we do that. So every time that we do GMP's, we approve both. Differentiating, the, guaranteed max price from total cost. We want to clarify the financial structure of the building project. Specifically, we need to distinguish between the check we write to the builder, the GMP, and the total amount of the money required to open the school doors, which is the total project cost. Kind of like the little bucket is, is the
028structure itself bricks and sticks and everything. And then once you put furniture, consultants, architects, everything from there, that's the total cost. That plus the GMP is where we get the total cost number. So it's always higher on that one. What the GMP covers is basically all the hard cost bricks, mortar, steel, concrete, labor site, work contractors fee and overhead construction contingencies, which is basically a safety net for the builder. Errors of material price spikes. The key concept is it the contractor promises that the cost won't exceed the number for the defined scope, which is the guaranteed maximum price. Then the soft cost go on top of that. The builder doesn't pay these. The district pays them directly. The professional services architect, engineer and legal fees. The epiphany, which is furniture, fixtures and equipment, desks, Smartboard,
029cafeteria tables, computers, library books. And then it's also pays for the testing and inspections. So testing and code inspections third party mainly for storm shelters and stuff like that. Utility fees. Basically, to sum that up, the builder builds the walls, but they don't buy the computers to put inside them. They don't pay. The architect who designed them, and they don't pay the city for the building permits. Those are called soft costs, and they're substantial, often 20 to 25% of the total budget. So the key summary is GNP equals construction cost only for the building. Total cost is GMP plus all the soft costs. The risk transfer. The GMP protects the district from construction price hikes. That's what's guaranteed. And the budgeting we must fund the total project costs, not just the GMP. In summary, the
030GMP is a price cap for construction. The total project cost is an all in investment to deliver a functioning school to our students. And by keeping these two buckets distinct, we enable transparency and fiscal responsibility. And with that, do we have any questions on this? Test? That's at the end of the year. I'm it's a final. So now we'll go on to the for the GMP. The first one up is for North Mesquite High School. For architects. And Mesquite Construction Services recommend the approval of the North Skate High School. Additions and renovation GMP to the guaranteed maximum price number to in the total amount of $50,533,515 as submitted GMP one, which was $1,670,000 and 100 for the that which was for the tennis courts, which brings the total GMP to $52,203,515, and then the total
031construction cost is 59,411,000 and $594.42, which is actually a little over 900,000 less than what we had initially, estimated at. So the administration recommends that the board of trustees approve the GMP two for the North Mesquite High School additions and renovations and requests from Mr. Bam. Don, along with the guaranteed maximum price, there's also based on whether there's a timeline regarding completion as well. Right. We don't count whether so it's it's they put weather days in the in there but seldom do we use them. You allocate for it. We allocate for it. But you know we're not going to let the schedule get behind regardless of what the weather is. Yeah. Let me ask when are they going to start the main construction? I know they're finishing up the tennis courts. I'm not sure when
032that will be finished, but they're going to start right after that. So they should have installed the nets and and screening today. The lights are up. Not working right now, but we don't really need those to be able to use the tennis courts. So as of right now we've got the grass going down, which will be this week. And at the end of the week, we'll be able to hopefully open them up, which then allows us to start construction on North Mesquite, because the first thing we do is tear down the old tennis courts. We've already taken the lights down. And because we've reused them over at the new place. Okay. Well, Mr. President, being this is the North Mesquite High School, I move I move to approve. No. Well, actually, we have a motion
033by Mr. Bingham and a second by Mr. Rose. We wanted to lock you out. With that said, any more questions or corrections? All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Opposed same sign. Ayes have it, motion carries. Thank you very much. And with us tonight is aura and their team. And Graham will introduce all of them later. And then with Lee Lewis Construction we got Mason Nelson and Ty Parks here. Oh great. Thank you. Well now we go to action item number two which is GMP to for Beasley Elementary School renovations. Okay. For architects and Mesquite Construction Services recommend the approval of the Beasley Elementary GMP two in the total amount of $2,970,207. GMP one was 174,309 for the switchgear, which brings the total GMP to $3,144,516. The total construction costs will be $3,742,588.02
034for the entire Beasley Elementary renovation. The administration recommends that the Board of Trustees approve GMP two for the Beasley Elementary renovation. Okay, so second. There's a motion by Miss Hornsby. Second, by Mr. Sewer.oh Mr. Everett. He got in. My apologies. There's a motion by Miss Hornsby a second by Mr. Everett to approve GMP number two for Beasley Elementary School renovations. Any more questions? Yeah. What's the timeline on this one? We'll probably be, you know, the GMP approves. We'll probably be starting, next month. And finish up this summer. Okay. Good. Okay. Thank you. Okay. And then none. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. I go ahead opposed? Same sign. Ayes have it. Motion carries. And so with us tonight once again is a in their team. And from Buford Thompson Joel Martin and
035Mike Trammell are here working. Thank you Mr. Pool Next we're going to action item number three. Approved GMP number two for Gray Elementary School renovations. Mr. Pool okay. Architects and Mr. Construction services recommend the approval of the gray elementary GMP two in the total amount of $4,119,202 GMP one was 763,159 for the chiller and the switchgear, which brings the total GMP to $4,882,361, and with the total construction cost $5,911,917.86 for the entire gray elementary renovation, and the administration recommends that the Board of Trustees approve GMP two four for the Gray Elementary renovation. And once again, with us here is A and B for Thompson moved to approve questions including the $0.86 and A. Motion picture to do from the. There's a motion by Mr.. Seward second by Mr.. Bring them to approve the GMP for
036Gray Elementary school renovations. Any more questions? I was going to ask on the last one on this one, where are we on the budget? I know was more for on the review. We're going to be on all three of them together. We're about, you know, probably 200,000 over at the at the moment there. But, you know, by the time we're finished with the entire projects and everything with contingencies and allowances all squared up will be right at or below budget by that point. Okay. Yeah. Good. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. oppose same sign. Ayes have it. Motion carries. Next we go to item action item number four approved GMP to for mass elementary school renovations. All right. The last one in MSD Construction Services recommend the approval of the mass elementary
037GMP two in the total amount of 3,922,829 GMP one was 202,000 and $670, which was for the switchgear, which brings the total GMP to $4,125,508, that the total construction cost will be $4,884,306.85. The administration recommends to the Board of Trustees to approve GMP two for the mass elementary renovation. And on this job also is WRA architects and Bufford Thompson. Excellent. Mr. Rose. Great. Thank. I evolutionary history. Okay. Great board. Any questions. Corrections being there. None. There's a motion by Mr. Rose a second by Mr. Everett to approve the GMP for number two for mass elementary school renovations. All those in favor please indicate by saying aye. Opposed same sign. Ayes have it, motion carries. All right. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. You, Mr. Pool. Next we have action item number five, which is to approve
038the schematic design for the new elementary campus, replacing mostly elementary and Lawrence elementary schools at the moment. Mr. Baumann. And, yeah, Don was going to introduce me, Graham Baumann with the architects. I've got with me a few of my team members here today. President Campbell, board members, thank you for your service. This Hornsby. Me? It's been an honor presenting to you for the last 11 years. It is our pleasure to present to you tonight the schematic design for the replacement elementary school at Motley and Lawrence. I've got, Kenny Gilbert, the project manager of the project, James Burnett, the senior design lead on the project. And I'm going to give a shout out to my team if you guys would stand up. We brought the whole crew tonight just to show you, the people that we
039have working on the project. I'm going to move over, out of your way and let, kind of get to work. Thank you. Graham. Thank you. Board. So back in October, with the help of MSD, we held a community design charrette. During that stretch, we had students and staff from both Motley and Lawrence campuses, parents and community members of MSD at this design charrette. During that we divided up into eight teams. And we asked the question, what do you envision, this new elementary school to look like and function? We then took these findings and we began our internal design process. That process helped us come out with these five guiding principles. These are common items we heard from each group. Once we broke out into groups and held the exercise. The first one is the heart
040of the school is a community hub. The second is upper and lower grades are distinct learning communities. The third being collaborative spaces are designed for growth and flexibility for outdoor spaces, and natural light are accessible to all. And five circulation is safe and secure in and around the building. These guiding principles are what we constantly refer back to during our design process. We then study two sites, the current Motley Elementary School site and the current Lawrence Elementary School site. It was decided that the new elementary school would be designed and built on the on the site. Understanding that both schools would remain open and functional during construction. We're working with the city to do a land swap at the moment to where at the end of this, Mesquite ISD opens up all of the site
041and the city would then turn the Lawrence site into a city park and develop that. Various are going through the floor plan. I'll start at the right side of the screen off of Hyde Park Drive. We'll come in off of the two existing curb cuts that are currently at the Motley Elementary School. And this will be our, secondary drop off line as you move around the south side of the building on the moon drive, heading towards Motley. We'll have our primary drop off lane two drop off lanes off of that, entrance. One way in, one way out, off of Moon Drive. As we move around, and to the north side of the school, that's our dedicated books, bus Drop-Off lane. And then also access into the site. For Fire Lane and, For the. Yeah, sorry
042for the fire lane and for the traffic. Inside of the school site, you can see building are number five and six are both secure inside of a gate. Five being the playground for the elementary school students, and then six being a distinct playing field for soccer. As we move into the floor plan, I'll start at the bottom left, screen, towards the admin portion of the building, with the bigger arrow on the left side being our main entrance into the school. And here you'll come to the admin, which is all your various offices, your reception and then your clinic. As you move further into the building, you'll land at your pre-K classroom wing. And then as we move north, we will see the connection between the cafeteria and the library. Once you pass by both of
043those going up, you can see the kitchen and then your storm shelter at the top left. And then off to the right side. At the top of the screen, we'll have our special education and our first grade classroom bar as we move up to level two. The north side of the screen, we have our second and third grade, classroom bar. And as we move south, moving towards the middle of the building, you experience the classroom or library. I'm sorry. As you're moving back and forth between the two classroom bars, you'll notice the couple of special education that are at the top of the level two breaking those, sprinkled out throughout the building. And then also at the very south, our last, two grades, the fourth and fifth grade classroom, we go from there. I'll hand
044it off to James to talk exteriors with you. Thank you, Kenny, and thank you. Board. I get the privilege of looking at great, great images instead of going through floor plan. So I appreciate that. Here, we're at the corner of Moon and Motley. And so I just want to focus your attention on the, the drive as you go through, to the right side of the screen is the entrance onto moon. And that's going to be a one way Drop-Off lane. All the way as you exit, to the left side of the screen on Motley, as well, I want to, point your attention to, the, the intention that we took towards, creating two facades of the building, one, on the right side, which which addresses that entrance, and then also on the left side, which is
045really the main facade of the building that faces Dallas Eastfield. And also knowing that this, this school is going to be the face of not only this new elementary school, but also, Mesquite ISD, as you come into the district, the materials on this project, should feel familiar, warm, to and, also, slightly residential because we want to feel connected to the environment that we're building in. But we are applying these materials in, in a really modern way. And so, you'll see the woods, you'll see the stone and the brick and the metal panel. And one of the other things we're doing with these materials is, attempting to be budget conscious and affordable, wherever we're doing that. And so here at the front admin building, we've, we've added windows into all the offices to allow for maximum
046security and visibility, as well as, swinging around to the front entry, really opening up that reception, to allow for maximum visibility there as well. I wanted to point your attention also to the cafeteria here, which is going to be that large glass section. It'll have its own entrance for after hours events so that, you know, the community won't necessarily get access to the entire school during, nor after hours, functions. And we have that, ability to see the signage there as well, which you're going to be able to see from Mötley, even all the way on the far western side of Motley here on the backside of the school. As Kenny explained, while we were walking through the site plan, we have two distinct playgrounds, one for littles and one for bigs. And that's part of
047the the desire to have two distinct learning communities, distributed by ages as well as spaces for teachers to supervise, under cover, which is very important for them as well. And we're highlighting those collaboration spaces that you saw in the plan with these indentations in the classroom wing, as well. Here you can see the backside, where the library is located. And the library really looks very similar to the front, but just scaled down to be a little bit more appropriate for those students as they're outside. And you can see that we're trying to make the most of, of the landscape here, which is a pretty flat site, but we're trying to, create some environments for these students that play an outdoor learning, is really, highlighted here in this space here in the wing, right outside of
048the art room. We're going to have, outdoor learning. And then connected to that is a library. So the library will have direct access to the exterior. And of course, all of this play space is, secure with, with a fence all the way around the play space. So, nobody outside of the communities outside of the school is going to have access to any of the play spaces. Just within the, yeah. And, Oh, yeah. And you can, go ahead and play the video. And in the video, I hope that you, you'll see a lot of these same spaces, highlighted here as well. Again, we're very thankful for the opportunity, to bring to you a new design tonight. I'm very proud of this team. What they've been able to accomplish. We've been working with, BTC on some very
049early square footage costs on this, campus. And we're looking at, we're looking at a $61.4 million GMP, 68 million total project costs. We're planning to issue this project in September of this year. Start construction around the end of the year. And, be complete with a new facility, at the end of summer 2028 to be able to start the demolition of the existing elementary school, existing warrants, and then the redevelopment of those two properties. Any questions for us at this time? I do have a couple real quick. Have you been working with the city on the flooding issue on Mötley? We we've been in discussions. We we've had a couple of meetings directly talking with them on that. Not that specifically, but our pre-application meeting noting the issue and also, detention pond that we'll have on
050site on the southeast corner of the property. All right. I guess the other one, it may not be you, but for staff, parents trying to pick up their kids by stopping on Monday instead of going around. How do we keep that from happening? Because the kids will have to cross that path that you just had where the one way traffic, because we got that issue at hand be right now because of the traffic issues. Well, we've got to do a traffic study when we start building it in, but they're going to go off at the moon about correct that we just have to direct them. It's a matter of training as as you come in and when you're talking about elementary kids bringing them off, bringing them off, Mötley is going to be paramount for
051this particular school. And we've we've knowing that traffic is going to be an issue, congestion. We've tried to provide as many opportunities. Those two drop offs, the bus, the separated bus and service area and even space for walkers, parents can come pick up their walkers just trying to provide as many onsite opportunities to encourage. Yeah, I agree, I'm worried about traffic. Number one is backup. Second is the kids trying to run across to get on the the end of those cars on Mötley. Yeah, you know, thank you for the this is a special project for us. These two schools are very valuable to us and both of them are outstanding schools. But so there was some apprehension about this. But this is an incredible design. It ought alleviate. They ought to take a lot of
052pride in this new building. We're we're really excited about this. Thank you. Great job. Thank you. Graham, how many students is this design for? We're going to design for 700 and 750 of functional capacity of students. Mr. president, I move to approve second, the second. Coming. Very innovative design, I love it. I love the materials and thank you. Thank you very much. Thing with that, there's a motion by Mr. Everett, second by and second by Mr. Bingham to approve the schematic design for the new elementary campus, replacing Motley Elementary and Lawrence Elementary School. Any more questions in there? None. All those in favor, please indicate by saying I, opposed same sign. Ayes have it, motion carries. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate. That okay. This next item is, effectiveness report. And we have one
053item under that title, and it's a report on communications. We will have Miss Smith. All right. Good evening, President Carbo. Superintendent Rivera and trustees, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight. Before we dive into the highlights of our department effectiveness report, I want to take a moment and spotlight the people who are leading the work and that you'll see reflected in this presentation. Most of my team is here tonight. Several in the booth making this broadcast happen. While not everyone is here tonight, most of them are in. This work is made possible by all of our collective efforts. We are a small but mighty department. Together we are focused on clear, proactive and student centered communication. And tonight, we're proud to share with you how our work supports the district's
054goals and priorities. As a department, we have identified four goals that guide our work and anchor our strategic communication planning. These goals are centered around awareness or keeping our community well informed. Ensuring the MISD brand is always associated with excellence, creating a culture of celebration and lastly, establishing our district as the go to strategic marketing partner for all Misd departments and initiatives. Each year we evaluate these goals, identify tactics and tools to achieve them, review evidence of impact, and realign or refine strategies as needed. I want to take just a moment and share some big wins. As we look back, the communications department played a central role in the strategic planning and execution of our successful $600 million bond campaign, resulting in 63% voter approval in May of 2025. Our work was grounded in data
055driven strategy, beginning with the comprehensive voter analysis and survey that informed messaging, targeting and outreach priorities throughout the campaign. We were also honored to play a role in submitting the nomination for the 2026 HEB Excellence in Education Awards. In December, we learned that our very own board was named one of the top five school board finalists in the state of Texas. And in May, we will learn if you will be named the top school board in the state. And we surely believe that you are worthy of that honor. We are also honored to play a role in submitting the nomination for the. I'm sorry for the successful submission of the National School Public Relations Association, which named Doctor Rivera one of 25 superintendents to watch in 2425. And lastly, in 2025, we established the 18
056under 18, which is a new district wide student recognition initiative designed to do two things that strategically showcase the variety of opportunities available across the six Mesquite ISD, six High School and celebrate student excellence. So let's talk about social media. To be known as a District of Excellence, we must continually define and communicate the unique qualities of mesquite and tell the stories that make up that show what's special about our students, staff, and schools. One of the primary tools we use to do this is our social media. Here you can see how we've grown our audience over the last three years across three platforms that YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. We see steady growth in our audience. For some comparison, here's a look at our neighboring districts of similar size. You can see we are outpacing
057them. There. But not only do we want to attract subscribers and followers, we also want to measure our engagement and reach. This tells us how effective our content is at breaking through to our audience. And you can see here that our average monthly interactions. So that's on Instagram. Ask me to like, share, comment. Let's save ranges anywhere from 41,000 to 58,000. Now you see in 2023 that 58,000. That's really due to two videos, that went viral for a long period of time. We were we had great reach there. But we're very pleased, with any of those numbers, our average monthly interactions. So people interacting with our comment, with our content. And over on Facebook you can see our average monthly reach, which that's how many people and how many accounts our content is actually getting
058to that steadily grown over the past three years. Our director of communications, Brenda Gonzalez, leads our social media content strategy. She does an amazing job. I would put our analytics and performance on social media against any district in the country. Another platform that people don't sometimes think about as, social media is LinkedIn. We've been on that platform for a while, but with the arrival of our marketing coordinator, Mike Sheryl, we kind of charged him with, being intentional about building followers and creating content that focuses on our work environment and professional opportunities. And since he's been here, we've gained 1400 followers. We've also seen search appearances up 41% on LinkedIn. So you talk about digital and traditional marketing. One of the best tools that we have, on the digital, on the traditional marketing side is our
059radio station. It is the largest high school student run radio station in the nation. And it's a great tool for us to share with the community the great things that our students and district are doing. They're constantly in the community at events representing the district. And they were named a runner up for the People's Choice Award from the International Broadcasting Championship this year. They have 29 students in the program this year. And we're very excited for them to become part of the CTE family. We're going to be part of a digital audio technology new program of city. And, we're really looking to increasing student generated content coming from that program in the future. A couple other traditional marketing, tactics that you'll see. We had advertisements in town, small for a couple of different campaigns. Now,
060most recently are open enrollment, based on traffic and a 26 week run there. We had 5 million impressions. For the second year in a row, around Christmas time, we, contracted with mod media, digital billboards and ran our ads in and around the town's shopping mall. And the analytics there are from local impressions, so they are able to tell the cell phones that come within a certain radius of that vehicle, they count that as an impression. But not all cell phones. These are local impressions. So the cell phones that belong in this area, we had 24 over 245,000 impressions over the six days. So we're very pleased with that. And then digital advertising, which is kind of new again. Mike Sherrill joined our team. He's the digital marketing guru. You can see here a couple of
061examples. These are things that ads that pop up, on your phone or on your computer. You feel like you thought something and then it showed up as an ad. There's the science behind that. And, we are populating for ads for people who are moving to the area looking to move to the area, searching for charter schools, searching for school options. And if you'll see here these statistics, we've had 5.73 million impressions in 2025. That resulted in 90,000 clicks. Now that's a very, industry term CPC or costs per click. And what I'm really, really proud of and Mike had to teach me this. The average education sector CPC or cost per click is $2.40. So that means education sectors are on average paying $2.40 to get one person to click. And we're averaging $0.17. So we're
062being very efficient with our dollars and targeted, in our digital ads. We also are on Google paid search. So we're popping up ahead of folks when people are looking for schools in the area. And that's delivered another 5 million impressions and 291 interactions. So let's talk about parents where this is a shift that our department, made. This July we launched Parent Square as our mass notification tool. So that allows the district and campus administration to communicate directly with families. One of the things we're really proud of on this platform, we have 99% contact ability. That means that only 1% of our students have no valid contact in our system, and we're working at making that 100%. 99% of our students have a text contact, which is the preferred delivery method from our parents. When we
063send a notification, as we did with our recent snow days, it goes out in 37 different languages because we have families across our district that have indicated their home language is one of 37 languages other than English. And so we really like that when we send a message, whether it's a text alert that school is closed or one of our emails that goes out each week from three things or our monthly actions and excellence in action highlights, it's being delivered to their phone or their email in their language. Our website, also translates to the same, 37 languages, and it has had 223,000 visits just since July. Now to, pages that are related to job searches are employment and another 125,000 visits related to enrollment. So we're really pleased with our web traffic and presence. Since
064July, their earned media represents third party coverage that Mosquita ISD does not pay for, making it one of the most credible and influential ways to build trust, visibility, and reputation within the community. When news outlets cover district stories, it signals relevance and public interest while extending our message beyond district owned channels. Tracking earned media through this new tool that we're using, called Critical Mention, helps us understand both the reach and impact you can see there. This is positive and neutral mentions in 2025. So no negative, coverage. And we had 744 stories. The estimated audience is how many people likely saw those stories mentioning the district. And the publicity value translates that coverage into an estimated dollar amount, reflecting what it would have cost to achieve the same exposure through paid advertising. We talk about a
065culture of celebration, which is one of our primary goals. Audriana. Tate is our news coordinator, and she's here tonight. She is responsible for coordinating multiple district wide events and recognitions. You can see them listed there. These moments allow the district to intentionally celebrate students, staff, alumni, and partners and reinforce the Pride in Mesquite ISD. These events also create meaningful touch points that humanize our work, strengthen trust, and consistently elevate the Misd brand throughout the year. Just, Wednesday later this week, we'll be hosting right here in this room and realtor luncheon. That Adriana has brought on board. We have over 60 realtors RSVP to come here and gather in this room. They're going to be provided lunch from our petite culinary students, and they're gonna learn more about the districts, our schools, and the value we
066offer to families considering our community. So a couple of challenges and opportunities that our other department is facing. One is just capacity development and efficiency. We lost the internal print shop last year and we're still adjusting to that. We have a small team, so any time we have staffing changes, it's a challenge. But we have an incredibly talented team and all of us have challenged this year, all of us, to keep up with industry trends. We're looking at how we can utilize AI to be more efficient. And stay up to date with things happening in our field. And secondly, as you all are aware, increasing competition with a growing school, choice options, increased competition for student enrollment. Our department must expand marketing impact and visibility while operating within our existing staffing and budget constraints. And
067that's an opportunity we're very much looking forward to. And speaking of looking forward, I want to highlight three things that I want you to be on the lookout for. March 12th will launch our 125th anniversary here in the district, and we're going to be alongside a special event, launching a new campaign, creating opportunities since 1901. You'll see death panels, digital ads, we're going to look at Spotify marketing, etc. so you can be looking at, the district, highlighting the many, many opportunities that we offer here in Mesquite ISD. We are also working closely with Student Services admin services to really target those we've always marketed to pre-K. This year, we're intentionally marketing to kindergarten families, trying to find those folks and get them engaged with the district even before they can register in April. So we're
068doing a pre-registration or what we're calling Score Your Seat campaign that we've just recently launched. That is a World Cup themed, soccer inspired concept to heightened community interest tied to the World Cup, and we have put together a swag bag to motivate the first 500 kindergartners to get pre-registered, and then show up on registration night and complete that registration. And lastly, looking forward to, working with the committee in association with the Community Engagement Department. And after buying glass. So we're going to look at refreshing core values to align with the Mesquite Promise believe statements, for 2627 and then launch new district wide recognition programs for students, staff and community members. So in closing, I'd just like to thank you for the opportunity to share these highlights. We want you to know that we are ready
069to meet the challenge of an increasingly competitive public education landscape. Our team is very talented and committed to doing everything we can to support enrollment stability through thoughtful marketing, data informed decision making, and authentic storytelling that highlights Mesquite ISD strengths and opportunities. We appreciate your ongoing and continuous support and trust. I'm happy to answer any questions if you have them. Thank you so much. very good thinking. Here. Thank you very much, Mr. Smith. Great report from our award winning communications department. We love it. Okay. With that we will go to section D which is administration. Item number one is an action item. Adopt a adopt all orders relating to the May 2nd, 2026 trustee election. Back to Rivera. For that, yes. Yeah. Oh good move to approve. We have to. There's a motion. It's an
070action item. We have moved. Yeah. Second. All right. Mr. Seward. So there's a motion by Mr. Everett and a second by Mr. Seward to adopt all orders relating to the May 2nd, 2026 trustee election. Any questions? All those in favor presented by saying aye. Opposed same sign. A have it, motion carries. Item number two is a report. Middle school schedule change. Dr. Rivera. Yes, Mr. president? Dr. Morris will come up to the lectern and, take this item. The event. Good evening, everybody. I appreciate the opportunity to visit with you about some work that we've been doing with our middle school principals, as well as some other, folks in the district to look at opportunities that we have, within the middle school schedule. And we wanted to make sure to keep everybody informed, as to what
071these changes are going to be. So here we go. So as we were looking at our sort of concurrent questions, that were all seeming to come up, at a similar time, regarding is our, current double blocking of RLA, the most effective? And is it also, as effective to be double blocking our math? We've also been looking at how can we expose more and more of our students to programs of study? For CTE coursework earlier. And so really looking at high school at, looking ahead at high school a bit more strategically, we've been wanting to offer more CTE principals classes in the eighth grade. We're also implementing use of I-ready this year. So we wanted to be intentional and make sure that we include all of those implications. And structurally, as we go forward with that.
072And then of course, in our work in elementary, middle school and high school, we constantly want to be thinking about what are the options for our students post-high school and what are the ways that we can work strategically to really have that more college readiness and career readiness focus throughout? Each of our organizations throughout. And so, the thing about it is you don't get to make any of these decisions, in a vacuum, they all affect one another. And so we've been working, with our middle school principals as well as their registrars, to, to consider, some possible changes and understanding how they would each affect one another. So, as we know, we have a lot of changes coming in our district in the coming year. And so the question becomes, why would we do this now?
073And we are also, consider having so many other changes happening. And so, really what that comes down to is now is the time right, to, to plant the tree that you need, years later. Right. And so something that we know that's coming up is that our current sixth graders are going to be held to a different standard, in their accountability measures for CMR. So we really need to be planning ahead and thinking about that high school journey as really more of a six year model. And being, way more intentional and strategic for those kiddos. Additionally, as we know, we're navigating, staffing reductions, at all of our campuses and so when we're talking about which, positions need to be looked at and how and how that affects scheduling for the next several years, we knew that
074this was a change, that if we were going to consider changes to the middle school schedule, we really needed to do it now because it had major implications for our staffing models. As I said before, you plant the tree now that you need later. And so we really wanted to be intentional about making sure that we understand how middle school affects our options for high school. So we're putting those systems in place now. So that sets our students up for success in their future. Like I said, we did not, make decisions without, collective membership of, and insights. And so we studied a number of comparison districts, also looked internally at our own data. We met with a focus group and also collaborated with, all of our middle school principals, as well as their registrar counselors,
075when considering possible changes. And so those changes that, we have coming are we're going to move forward with a plan to single blocks our sixth grade and seventh grade rye and math. What we have found is that an hour and a half of, our coursework all together, is really difficult for for our kiddos. And so we want to look for a more, strategic approach to that in conversations about what that right fit would be. Where we also landed is that in order to do that, we need to move to a seven period day. And the reason for that is that if you looked at an hour and a half, it seemed too long and 46 minutes seemed a bit too short. And so that Goldilocks fit. Really, in order to make that happen, we needed
076to extend those class periods and to do so without extending the school day. We needed to go to seven periods rather than eight. What we've also wanted to do, like I said, is to be more strategic about our approach to, CTE programing. And so we're wanting to introduce a more focused approach for, and showing those opportunities to our students earlier. So what we've proposed to our principals is, as they're able to do so within their schedules, both for staffing and as as well as what works best for students. But to get as many students as possible into the Investigating Careers class in sixth grade, the Career and College exploration class in seventh grade, as well as the opportunity to take, really, specific and strategic level one CTE courses in the eighth grade that align really
077well to our programs of study at the high schools. We're making revisions to that career and college exploration course, so that it really does a great job of showing our students, the options that they have in our programs of study, at the high schools, as well as introducing them to quite a bit of the benefits of the avid coursework, that not all students have access to at this time. And then, of course, elementary school, middle school and high school. We don't get tired of talking about that. We want more and more students in advanced level courses. Our students are capable and we want them to self-identify as advanced learners. And so a lot of the work that we've been doing with middle school is to build that pathway for there as well, something that I,
078I wanted to show you are just some models because we wanted to, to to show that we've thought out, how this would affect each grade level and showing that you do have room for a number of electives. And so what this could look like for sixth graders, moving away from that double block array and double block math would allow you to get, quite a few students into fine arts, P.E., as well as investigating careers. And so and then that you'll hear me say a whole lot, is that we know that not every student is going to have this schedule. Their individual student needs. There are also, there is a major, emphasis on student interest. So when we have kiddos who are very passionate about fine arts and they want to make room for multiple fine
079arts within their schedule, it's important to us that we build that build in those opportunities building, schedules for students is a nuanced thing. And so we want to make sure that we're really intentional and prioritizing student interest with that seventh grade looks like this. Again, you've got your core classes. You also have an opportunity to take fine arts, P.E. or athletics starting in seventh grade and then that career and college exploration class as well, as or avid for those students to which that applies. And then in eighth grade, similarly, you've got all those core classes. You can continue with the fine arts. If you would like to continue with PE or athletics, you have that opportunity. It is not required, in the eighth grade to do so. And then you also have an opportunity to
080for many students to take those principles, of CTE courses as well. So again, the idea is not for every single student to be in this model, but to make this model, available and intentional for more students than we've done. So in the past. And so the next steps are to finalize our schedule. We were working with a focus group of principals just today, to, work on that and make sure that we have a schedule that meets everybody's needs. And we are not changing the start or end time of the day. We are currently revising our curriculum to meet the needs of that new schedule. And, Mr. Al Sasser, the head of CTE programing, just met with all of our middle schools, to talk about opportunities that they have within their own staffing, in their own,
081master schedules, to strategically place, CTE courses that would align with our high school programs of study. And at this time, if you have any questions, I'm happy to take them. Members. And this will be the start of next school year. Yes, sir. I know we went over there in the work session. We had some questions, but this is very good programing. I think it's really putting us where we have to be because of planning for the future. So thank you very, very much. Looking forward to it. Thanks for the opportunity. Thank you. Okay. Let's go. Next we're going to item number three, which is an action item to approve the 2026 2027 school calendar. Miss Smith, I again board, thank you for this opportunity to share with you an overview of the 2627 calendar development,
082process, as well as our proposed calendar for your approval this evening. First, I just want to review the established priorities. Since I've been leading the work around calendar development. We start off before we do any, work on looking at these priorities. And that's the first plan for quality instructional days that meet our students needs and meet state requirements. Second, we want to look at the quality professional learning that our district, provides and protect time for teachers that aligns with instruction. We also want to try to provide at least two dedicated classroom work days for our teachers, along with maintaining traditional holidays and the newer breaks. I know where I mean, fall break, that previous surveys have told us are very important to families and staff. And then to the extent possible, we try to maintain
083a consistent calendar so families and staff aren't shifting from year to year with very different, expectations. So the process we start with, looking at previous survey data, current calendar feedback. Every year when we publish the calendar, there's no shortage of feedback and, opinions. So we always take that into, into consideration. We also talk to cabinet about district priorities and initiatives that need to be considered. We spent some time consulting with teaching and learning, as well as professional learning and then personnel services to make sure all of those needs are met. We this year, particularly, convened a principal committee to solicit feedback. And then we present DLT. And I asked both for input and we have a, standing meeting with the May, board to review and gather their feedback. So, like I said, first we plan
084for instruction. Our school day is 450 minutes and we were required minimum is 75,600 minutes. Any minutes above that are banked for bad weather days. We have to place the holidays and breaks. Had the professional learning days. Those two dedicated work days. And then we start checking to make sure the calendar has 187 work days for most of our teachers and paraprofessionals, and then additionally identified 236 work days for those 226 employees. Because ten of those days are our non-paid, non duty days. So this is what the draft looks like. We place to basically place for holidays. And look at those 187 days for teachers. That gives us the teacher report date, and first day of school that you see there on August 11th. Then you see the traditional holidays, Labor Day, fall break, Thanksgiving
085break for week, two weeks at Christmas. Then we have the Presidents Day holiday in February. Spring break is the third week in March, which aligns with the published Dallas college calendar. Then we added a, what we're calling a bad weather day in April just to keep from having nine weeks of uninterrupted, instructional time without a longer weekend. So that's that April 16th date. March 26th is actually, Good Friday. So that's where our spring holiday lands a little early this year. And then if you look at professional learning days again, that, July 30th will be the report date for 187 day staff. Nobody likes it in July, but you can't get away from it. If we want to get out before the end of May this year, Memorial Day cooperated and is, on the 31st. So
086teachers will report on the 30th, the 22nd, 23rd, 27th and 28th is the, cadence of days for new hire camp. And then you can see before school starts on the 11th, we have a mixture of professional learning time as well as two dedicated teacher work days. Additionally, this year on the 10th, we are going to the communications department is going to work with some other, departments that admin services and launch a pre-K and kinder preview, time on the 10th to allow our pre-K again with the initiative I spoke of earlier being really intentional about courting and, creating experiences for those families that are just entering our system. So we're going to create some time there for pre-K and kinder families to bring their student into the building, take the pictures, see the classroom, learn a
087little bit about routines. So that will happen on the 10th. And then the 11th is our first day of school. Additionally, on this calendar, you'll see a slight, different shade there the 21st of September, January 4th and March 1st. Those are instructional alignment days, a little bit. Something new this year. Instead of professional learning days, these days are going to be structured just a little bit different so that, campuses and staff have the opportunity to really work together and align that instruction. And the, professional learning, along with teaching and learning, in the adult days will be working on that structure. So the same amount of days for professional learning or non-school days, they're just going to be structured a little bit different. And you see there the two November pair days, the third, Tuesday the
088third is an election day. So we have two days of professional learning then, and an additional two days in February. That gives us 171 instructional days, which is three more than we need. So we will have three bank days in the event we have snow and ice next year. And we have all the 226 work day personnel. There's three days in October, two days in November, and the one day in April. That will be duty days, unless they elect to use one of their non duty days. So with that being said, this is our ready to publish version of the calendar. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them. Do we know what this is going to fall? We do Taylor. It's at the bottom of the printed version. Friday to Friday.
089It's after they're going to be in early June this year. It's the fourth and fifth, right. So Friday, June 4th and Saturday, June 5th in the three three schools on each day. Those are listed at the bottom of this cut off graphic here. But the one we published tonight will have which schools are which day Taylor unless you have them June 5th and June 6th, fourth and fifth Friday and Saturday also in the. Okay. People work. All right. I'll bring it up later. All right. Thank you. Mr. president, I move to approve the 2026 2027 school calendar. Second. There's a motion by Mr. Seward. Second by Miss Hornsby, to approve the 2026 2027 school calendar. Are there any questions or corrections? Okay. Being there? None. All those in favor, please indicate by saying I, opposed
090same sign. So motion carries. Next item is item number four is an action item to approve a resolution regarding adopting a daily prayer. Period. Mr. Thomas. Yep. Mr.. Thomas, it's all yours. Thank you. President Caba. Trustees. Doctor Rivera, I believe the agenda item regarding a daily prayer period, could potentially be a little confusing or somewhat misleading. So I think it may be beneficial to just briefly talk with you all about what Senate bill does and does not do. And I say briefly, I'll try to be brief, but remember, only an attorney calls a 20 page paper a brief. So last year, the 89th Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 11, which added Texas Education Code Section 25.0823. The statute requires the board to vote by March 1st, 2026, on a resolution whether to adopt a daily
091prayer period or a policy requiring every campus to provide students and employees a daily prayer period and reading of the Bible or other religious text. Now, prior to the passage of Senate Bill 11, students and district employees already had the right to pray and read and read religious texts at school, either before school, after school, or during their free time. They still do the free exercise clause of the First Amendment of the US Constitution grants students and employees the right to freely exercise their religious beliefs, which may include prayer and reading, religious text at school. In addition, Texas Education Code Section 25.154 allows students to organize prayer groups, religious clubs and see you at the poll gatherings again before, during, or after school. In fact, for years we've had several faith based groups in our
092schools. Similarly, the administration has historically accommodated employees free exercise of their religion at school. Senate Bill 11 does not change their. As long as students have to take tests at school, there are probably going to be students that pray at school. And as long as there are students testing the patience of teachers, there's probably going to be teachers praying at school. So if the board does not adopt a daily prayer period under Senate Bill 11, it does not mean that the district is against prayer or reading or reading of religious texts in school. Students and employees will still be allowed to exercise their religious rights at school, just as they have been doing. On the other hand, if the board does adopt a daily prayer period, the policy must include several things. First, the policy
093must prohibit a student or employee from participating in a daily prayer period unless the student's parent or the employee has signed a consent form, and that consent form must include a waiver of the person's right to bring a claim under state or federal law, the administration would have to make parents or the employees waive their rights. Second, the policy must prohibit prayer or reading of religious texts over a public address system or PA. My opinion, that's already been the law. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2000, in the case of Santa Fe Independent School District versus Doe, struck down the Texas school District's policy of permitting a prayer over the PA during football games. Third, the policy must also ensure prayer or the reading of religious text is not done in the physical presence of within
094the hearing of, or in another manner that could harm a person who did not consent. This would require schools to segregate students into separate areas, and to ensure only students with signed consent forms or employees are present or able to hear the participating students or employees. Employees would have to monitor and enforce this, and last, the daily prayer period may not be during instructional time. So as you can see, if the board adopts a daily prayer period under Senate Bill 11, it could actually be more restrictive and place more limitations on students, and require additional work on, part of faculty. So the administration has provided two sample resolutions for your consideration tonight to comply with Senate Bill 11, option one, the board may move to adopt a policy requiring a daily prayer period or option
095two the board may move to decline to adopt a daily prayer period. I'll be happy to answer any questions. If you have any clear. If we up to the more important is this. This is not during instructional time. When would it be? Three years for our two? We have a moment of silence. I'm speaking. Mike. Oh, yeah. Oh, sorry. For several years, we've had a moment of silence in our schools. And so you can pray or do whatever, but everyone in the school is quiet for a moment, and then we resume. So it's in the beginning of the school day, where the pledge is all about what it actually could be before school, after school, or during the school day at a set time, which you all could decide. But during that time there could
096be no instruction. It would be limited to just prayer or reading of religious texts. So we already have that policy. So, yeah, we've had already had established policy. This morning, Mr. President, I okay. Are you done with discussion? Are you done? Any more comments? One more questions. I would like to make a motion to decline. Decline to adopt the current resident. The resolutions before us, to keep our current practices in place and avoid adding operational burden. And maintains the district's neutral posture towards religion, which is an important part of our legal responsibility. Second. So there's a motion and a second motion by Mr. Seward. Second, by Miss Hornsby to not approve the resolution regarding adopting a daily prayer period and any other questions on the resolution rate decline. The and Mr.. Obviously, if this is
097voted on by the board, nothing will change. Our students and our staff will still be allowed to pray on our campuses. That is correct. Good. Others I favor please of the court by saying I opposed same sign I that motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Thomas. Yeah, okay. Got it. Same. Okay. Next we're going to section in business. Approve budget amendment. Mr. Prado. This is an action item. Good. Good evening, President Cabell. Board of trustees. Tucker Rivera, before you, you have a, budget amendment for consideration to approve budget amendment number two. It has two portions to it. One is the general operating fund, and the second one is the debt service fund. The general operating fund. We are capturing an expense, to pay out, the last payment of state pay, which is an expense of about
098$3.1 million. So that's why you would be considering approving for the general operating for the debt service fund. We are recognizing recording the district August 20th, 2025 bond refunding, which was, the parameter order was approved in June. We executed the deal in July, and then we, close the deal in August. Now we're recognizing that action to refund our, 2014, in 2015, a bond series. So that's why you have in front of you Mr. Prado. Yes. Thank you. And I talked a little bit, total savings for that refunding. Is that about $3 million? That is correct. Yes, sir. Second. A motion by Mr. Bingham. Second by Mr. Seward. It's an action item to approve the budget amendment as presented. Any other questions being there? None. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Opposed? Same
099sign. Eyes have it. Motion carries. Okay, okay. At this time we are going to reconvene back into executive session for actions. The board will go into closed meeting on the Texas Government Code, section 551.074 regarding the superintendents evaluation and contract. We're going to combine them into one. Mr. President. Okay. From executive session. We have two items. Two action items, items four and five under personnel, which we can combine into one. Mr. Seward. Mr. president, I would like to make a motion that we approve the evaluation of the superintendent, as discussed in executive session, and that we also approve the contract with, adjustments as discussed in in in executive session. Okay. Other things revert. There's a motion by Mr. Seward, a second by Miss Everett. Mr. Everett. Wow. So sorry. To approve the evaluation and the
100contract renewal of the Superintendent of Schools. Any comments? Questions? Being there? None. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. I oppose same sign. Ayes have it. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Board. And, we'll see you next month.