October 6, 2025 School Board Meeting

001At this time, I would like to open the meeting and an audience portion. For anyone wishing to speak on any items on the agenda. Okay. Being there. None. At this point, the board will go into executive session in a closed session under Texas Government Code section 551.074 to perform a grievance hearing for Dr. Jennifer Hammett and another for Mr. Gary Hanley. And then under section 551.071 to consult briefly with our attorney. No action will be taken in closed session. So the Board of Trustees is going to reconvene from closed session. And at this time, we're going to take action relative to items considered during the executive session. Does anyone have a motion? For which, which grievance are we? The first one is the one with Dr. Hammett. I move to uphold the decision at the

002level three. At the level two hearing. Okay, second. Who? Second. So there's a motion by Mr. Everett and a second by Miss Collier to uphold the administration's decision on a grievance for Dr. Hammett. I would like for you to show, your vote with the show of hands. So with that, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. All right. Opposed? Same sign. Ayes have it. That carries seven zero. Item number two was the grievance of Mr. Henley. Mr. President, I make a motion that we upheld. Uphold the level two grievance for administration. Second. So there's a motion by Mr. Rose, the second by Mr. Everett, to uphold the administration's decision on grievance two for Mr. Henley. Same as the last one. Show my hands. All those in favor, please indicate by our hands, sir.

003Yeah. Abstain. Yes. Okay. Copy. Opposed? Same sign. There's one abstention. The vote is six zero. Okay. This is. I've been taken. Thank you very much. Board. With that will continue to our meeting. The invocation today will be by Reverend Chad Flowers. He is a pastor at Emmanuel Pentecostal Church. If you would be so kind. After that, we're going to have the Pledge of Allegiance. They're going to be led by our students from McKenzie Elementary. Pastor. Thank you. Let's bow our heads and pray. Lord, we come to you tonight with grateful hearts. Especially I myself, because I am a product of MISD and for the privilege of serving our students, our families and this community. We thank you, God, for the gift of education for every teacher and student and staff member that is a part

004of this school district. As this board gathers tonight to conduct the business decisions that will impact this school district. We ask for wisdom, wisdom and guidance. Grant, Dr. Angel Rivera and each of these board members. Clarity of mind. Unity of purpose and compassion in every choice made. Help them to listen with understanding, to speak with respect, and to act with integrity. Bless our schools with safety, creativity and a spirit of cooperation. And may every student who walks through the doors of our schools find encouragement, purpose, and the opportunity to grow into their fullest potential. We ask all of this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Now. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty

005and justice for all. And then the Texas flag I pledge allegiance to the Texas one state under God, one and indivisible. I'm Savannah, and I'm in fifth grade. I am Gabby, and I'm fifth grade, and I'm a fifth grade. I'm Kelly Castaneda, and I'm in fifth grade. So next, at this time, we are going to go to the team of eight moment to the board moment. And I believe Mr. Keheley is ... there he is. He is our city manager, Mr. Cliff Keheley. And some words that he's going to share with us. Members of the board. Dr. Rivera, thank you for the opportunity to, share a little bit about something that's going on with the city of Mesquite. We value our partnership and, the support that you give us each and every day and to

006our staff. And so I appreciate the time today. I will this is a presentation that we are giving to the public. So I may jump through a few things because I'm assuming that you all know, a few of the things that are going on with the city. But, it's no doubt Thank you. So it's no doubt that our community is growing. We are at a population of 157,000 people. Our, we have a 39,000 single family homes and 15,000 multi-family homes. Our total certified value has now grown to over 15.9 billion. Our city is roughly 49.3mi². And our city organization currently has 1250 employees. Sorry, I'm new with, clicker. So, so over the past few years, we've regularly surveyed our residents. And, when it comes to city, services, public safety and roads, continue to rank as

007the highest priorities for the community. And the cost of these services, just like about everything else, continue to increase. And in order to keep up with the response times and the level of service our citizens want, the City Council has to adopt a budget to allocate the necessary funding to supply those services. So why do we need a tax election in 2019? The state legislature, as you know, implemented Senate Bill two, which, among other things, limited the amount of revenue a municipality could collect to just 3.5% from the previous year. This does not include the revenue of new growth in the community for that tax year. As a growing city, we need to expand services and which often requires more revenue than the legislation will allow. So this year, as has been done previously, the

008council has adopted a tax rate that will require approval from citizens in order to generate the revenue needed to fund all of the community's priorities. City Council has voted on a tax rate of 0.7 $0.03 per $100 value. This is an increase of $0.04 over the last tax year. The legislative intent is for citizens to have more input on how their community grows and develops with this tax rate and tax rate. Election. The City Council has effectively placed the budget decisions into the hands of citizens. Thus, an election is required to vote for or against the new tax rate. The proposed budget was prepared based on input from citizens gathered over the past year. We start off with a citizen survey. The gather gathers input on citizens feelings for the highest priorities in the community.

009The council holds policy and goal retreats to discuss priorities. We have regular town hall meetings and council district meetings, which several of you have attended to meet with citizens and share their concerns. And the summer we prepare the budget. We hold a workshop and conduct three public hearings to gain input from the citizens on how best to use the revenues. We we receive. Our annual budget has to take into account the services we are currently providing, the maintenance of our existing infrastructure, and compensating the employees who provide these services each and every day. This year's budget also includes strategic needs to account for future growth, so our services can keep up with the needs of the community. As the Council has laid out, this year's budget. The focus is on the highest priorities of the

010community streets, fire and police. This year's budget includes the addition of three public police officers in addition to. In order to add patrols to the future, the needs of the community, the city will need to increase officers each and every year. The city's charter requires 1.63 excuse me, 1.6 officers per 100 residents. This is 240 officers to 48. Excuse me. City council has a goal of staying 5% above this required number. This allows for us to steadily increase the number and not play catch up year to year. It also allows the police chief to look ahead and put programs in place, knowing that he will have the resources necessary to address the concerns in the community. We currently have 263 officers on staff, which is 15 over the charter requirement. And this proposed budget would

011bring this number to 266. The 2026 budget also includes the addition of two firefighters. While the department is fully staffed. Thanks to the last election that approved 15 additional firefighters, and for station number eight, our current rate of growth will require additional staffing to ensure that we have effective coverage and response times throughout the city. The additional staffing strategically budgeted over the next few years will allow staffing of a new ladder truck for station number eight down in South Mesquite, and ensure that we have effective coverage for structure fires and medical calls throughout the community. The condition of our roads and alleys continue to present a challenge for our residents and our staff. Undoubtedly, many of us drove through potholes to get to the meeting tonight. While we have made significant progress in repairing and

012replacing roadways the past few years, the cost of concrete and labor continues to increase in order to repair and replace the more streets and alleys. This budget will include additional funding for repairs throughout the city. The city currently budgets, budgets about $5 million for street and alley maintenance. In addition to the street now reconstruction projects that we have going on throughout the community, I'm proud to announce that Liberata Drive is going to begin reconstruction in 2026, and we are in the process of the final designs for Lawson Road for 2027. Oates drive will also be receive a new overlay this coming year. The city has been aggressive in replacement of aging and under designed roadways. With the reconstruction of Lucas Boulevard, Tony Boulevard and the overlays of Motley and Oates recent repairs to town East

013Military Parkway, Northwest Drive, trip, and many other streets are showing considerable progress, but definitely more is needed to continue to stay aggressive. This budget includes funding for repairs. One of the biggest challenges in serving in the community is to effectively compensate employees. The city routinely surveys area cities to determine market averages and maintain pay at for the average positions. One of the biggest challenges is competing with area cities and police and fire pay. For the last several years, due to challenges in hiring police and fire personnel, area cities have steadily increased pay for these positions. And as we have some of the best police and fire departments in the state. The council has maintained that funds be allocated to keep pay competitive. The council is utilized a seven city comparison for public safety, starting pay

014and based on surveys done in June, police are 4.9% below the seven city average and fire is 1.3% below the average. As part of the budgets proposal, a 5% increase is proposed to keep police and fire pay competitive. The challenge with this is that other cities are also increasing their budgets, and we never know what cities will do and funding for these areas, but we also have employees in other positions that are also in demand, and the city has to address those needs as well. In a recent compensation study, many general government employees and those are the inspectors, the clerical staff, the field personnel, they were from anywhere between 10 and 20% behind the market. This budget includes funding to help address those needs, as well as the fire and police starting pay. In addition

015to the additional public safety step theme and additional funding for roadway maintenance. This budget also includes additional staffing to support public safety through equipment maintenance and property and records maintenance. So ultimately, the tax rate election puts the decision on how the city grows, the speed at which it grows, and the level of services to provide at the hands of the citizens. As this is an important decision, we want to make sure that the citizens who are here tonight watching understand what it comes to the tax rate. The tax rate for 2025 was 0.6 $0.09 per $100 value. The proposed rate is 0.7 $0.03. Like I said earlier, this is a four cent increase. However, state law allows the city to set a budget at what's called the voter approved rate, which generates the revenue at

0163.5% above the previous year's revenue. This rate would be 0.7046 $0.09. The impact on the average home in Mesquite, which is $238,000 according to DCAD, would be approximately $60 above the voter approved rate, or about $5 per month. Residents who are eligible or have applied for the 65 tax freeze, or the other tax exemptions would not be impacted by this tax rate. I'm not going to read the proposition eight, a, ballot language, but we want to make sure the citizens know that, this is, state approved language. And, that's why it, make sure everybody knows that it is a tax rate increase and reminds them of the tax rates. But essentially, council will need to approve this new budget, based on the revenues obtained through the through the lower tax rate means that there. And if

017the proposition does not pass, it will mean that there will be potentially longer implementation time on the added fire and police staffing limits to the amount of road maintenance projects finished in the coming year, and potentially a reduction in some service levels from existing programs or initiatives. But one thing is for sure, we will continue to provide the highest quality services to the city of Mesquite. Based on the budget funds that are allowed. Just as a reminder, Election Day is November 4th with early voting starting on, October 20th. We also have some town hall meetings in which we love to answer questions from citizens. Those will be on October 15th at Rutherford Recreation Center and October 22nd. At this building right here. So we thank you for the use of your building. We thank you

018for your time tonight. And if there's time, Dr. Rivera, Mr. Carbo. Are there any. I'm happy to answer any questions. But I do want to make a comment. I was, able to make some of the budget public hearings and heard some of these concerns, especially the street. So I'm very glad that you're addressing it. Same with the fire station in the southern part of Mesquite, which would be Fire Station eight. And I know we don't have one down there right now, and it's sometimes difficult to get there, but this is going to be a great benefit for South Mesquite. So I thank you for that. You and the council. The new station will open in March and we're excited about that. Great. With that, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Keheley. Next

019thing, the, board moment. Eddie, that. Will you just real quick, I had the opportunity to go to the Kline band night the other night. And I'm telling you guys, the fine arts program has stepped it up. When you think they can't do any better. We have some amazing, amazing marching bands, and I can guarantee you that we're going to be going a state somewhere in this. We've just got some really good bands out there. If y'all haven't seen them, I encourage you to come to a football game and watch the marching bands because I was literally blown away last week. As a band that I agree. Okay, with that, we will go, board any other for the board moment. Any other comments with that will go to student and staff guests. Miss Smith. Good evening.

020We begin tonight. Special recognition portion of the meeting with our 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 their support of our amazing educators. Our 1st October Apple Corps honoree is Brooke Padachy of Hodges Elementary School. Miss Padachy is a kindergarten teacher with 21 years of teaching experience. All right here in Mesquite ISD. Let's take a look at see what makes her an Apple Corps teacher. Miss piggy goes above and beyond every day to provide engaging lessons for her students. Her students are always excited to come to school every day and excited to get into class. She creates joyful lessons that her kindergarten students love, but also serves as a mentor,

021liaison, and guides a student teachers with professionalism and care. She is admired by her students, respected by her colleagues, and exemplifies what it means to be both a role model and a leader. Her ability to balance classroom excellence with mentorship makes her truly deserving of this award. Congratulations Miss Padachy on being Apple Corps teacher. Teaching is important to me because every day I have the opportunity to build confidence in my students, to discover their potential and to develop a love for learning. I love when my students learn something new and I get to see how excited their face gets. But it's much more than just the academics and the lessons. It's about building relationships with my students and helping them build relationships with each other, and to create a classroom with a kindness and creating

022a safe space for my students to feel valued and loved. Congratulations, Miss Padachy. There's a whole bunch of stuff I know. Yeah. It is my honor to read this to Brooke. I hired Brooke, and, and, so it is truly an honor to say this to you. She is a very special lady. Whereas the Mesquite Independent School District Board of Trustees seeks to honor outstanding classroom teachers, I knew that, who demonstrate leadership, innovation, and dedication to the students of Mesquite ISD. And whereas the Mesquite ISD 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 Brooke Padachy into the Mesquite ISD Apple Corps on this sixth day of October 2025. Love it! All right. Good evening. I'm truly humbled and

023deeply honored to stand here tonight. I want to say thank you to Dr. Rivera, Dr. Fields and the school board for this special recognition. I want to say a special thank you to Elaine Hornsby for taking a chance and hiring me 22 years ago for my first teaching job. Thank you. I want to take a moment to thank my family, whose love and support have been the foundation of my journey as a teacher. Your encouragement, patience, and understanding have allowed me to dedicate myself to my students. You've been there to lift me up, to remind me of my purpose and to cheer me on. I'm truly grateful to have you by my side, because none of this would have been possible without your support. I also want to thank my students, past and present. Their

024curiosity, resilience, laughter, and even their challenges pushed me to be the best teacher I can be. They remind me why I choose this profession, and they inspire me to be better for them every single day. I am. I would also like to thank my principal, Ms. Bastidas, and all my colleagues at Hodges Elementary. It is truly an honor that they would choose me. The support, encouragement and wisdom of my colleagues lift me up every day, whether it's sharing ideas or celebrating small victories or simply offering a kind word on a tough day. You make this work not only possible, but joyful to be recognized by you. The people I admire most feels like the highest honor I could ever receive. Thank you for believing in me, for walking beside me and for making this work

025so meaningful. I will treasure this recognition always. Our second Apple Corps honoree this month is Anamaria Avila, of Tisinger Elementary school. This is a fifth grade bilingual teacher with ten years of teaching experience here in Mesquite ISD. If you'll turn your attention to the screens, we're going to learn more about this Ms. Avila. Tisinger is so excited to announce that Mrs. Avila is our Apple Corps recipient. Mrs. Avila is a perfect combination of kindness and humility. She's a homegrown mesquite girl who went through the bilingual program and can totally understand what her students are feeling as they are learning a new language outside of the classroom. Mrs. Avila is a mentor and is always ready to uplift others. Congratulations Mrs. Avila. You are very deserving of this honor. So teaching is important because we are

026shaping young learners minds. I'm not only academically, but as well in building their interpersonal skills. These skills are shaping our students as they get older and become successful. We help our students grow and conquer new things, which is why I think teaching is important. Congratulations, Mrs. Avila. Apologize for your name. Where the Mesquite Independent School District Board of trustees seeks to honor outstanding classroom teachers who demonstrate leadership, innovation, and dedication to the students of Mesquite ISD. And Whereas Mesquite ISD Apple Corps consists of exceptional teachers nominated by their peers to receive the school district's highest recognition. Anamaria Avila. Therefore, be resolved that the board officially welcomes Anamaria Avila into the Mesquite ISD Apple Corps. On the sixth day of October 2025. Yeah. All right. Good evening. I want to start off by thanking, Dr. Rivera

027and the Board of Trustees for this recognition. I feel honored to be here today. Being recognized as an Apple Corps member. Before I go into my thank yous, I want to share a little bit about myself. I moved here from Mexico when I was five years old, and I was lucky to come to a district that had the bilingual program. This program helped me learn the new language. And as I got older, I wanted to become a bilingual teacher. So being able to give back to my community, truly brings me a lot of joy. I also want to take a moment to say thank you to my family, for always being there and supporting me through my teaching journey. A special thank you to my Tisinger family, who have always, pushed me to grow as

028an educator. And lastly, I want to thank my students, for giving me the opportunity to learn from them and creating those meaningful memories in my classroom. So thank you. Thank you very much. Miss Padachy I was going to ask you that you have your family here with you, you know, would you introduce them or have them stand so we could recognize them? My husband and my son see them. And then I have my brother and his family and my sister in law. My. Anybody from your Hodges family? They recognize. Good. Same from Ms. Avila You have your family here? Yes, ma'am. There he is. Oh, great. Was with my siblings. My mom. My daughter's in there. Yeah. Oh, my. And I believe you have some of your your family. Yeah. That helped you to be

029one of my all time. Excellent. Thank you very much. We really appreciate everything you do. I mean, you're role models, and that's why you are here today. And I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Miss Smith. All right. Each month, we also recognize one of our outstanding paraprofessionals with the Star Para Award. Oh, MISD is excited to partner with First Financial Group of America, FFGA, to provide the star parent recipient with a gift card. We're grateful to have a representative from FGA here tonight. If you would, please join Frasier Middle School principal Tracy Curtis. They're going to introduce our star para, Rachel Savage, if you'll join them at the podium, Principal Curtis is going to share about what makes Miss Savage so special. Good evening everyone. Board of trustees, Dr. Rivera, and friends. Whenever I

030was filling out this application for Miss Savage, for Star Para it was just a no brainer. Like, okay, I'm going to nominate a parent. Well, hello. It's going to be Rachel Savage, because every time we do any kind of affirmation shout outs, anything, everyone goes straight to Miss Savage. And I'm like, okay guys, we can't always give them Miss Savage the affirmations. Let's, let's let's have others. But she's just one of those that we cannot not not praise her because she's always doing something wonderful for the group. So I wrote something that's a little more eloquent than that. Rachel Savage exemplifies the qualities of a star para her positivity, flexibility, and willingness to take on any task with a smile. Set her apart. She approaches every responsibility with grace, making even the most challenging work

031look effortless. As a trusted teammate and a respected member of our school community. Rachel truly embodies excellence in service and collaboration. Congratulations, Rachel on being selected as a star para. You are a star. Up next, we are very pleased to recognize our October community partner for their support of our school, schools and our students. The Mesquite Police Department recently partnered with Mesquite ISD during Camp Excel and led a junior police Academy course. Officers provided hands on, engaging instruction for students in areas such as fingerprinting, traffic stops, and forensics. We have a very special video to share. You, tell you more about this partnership. This month, we are recognizing the Mesquite Police Department as our featured Mesquite ISD community partner. We were actually meeting with Mesquite PD and they were wanting, to find ways to get

032involved with the school district, to promote their own program within the community. And basically they said, whatever you want, we'll get it done. And they went just above and beyond to do that. So this summer at Camp Excel, we did, a range of different things to try to show the students different avenues they can take in the police department. We had patrol, we had traffic, we had drones. K9 on Friday at the. And when they graduated, they got to have their badge in biology field. And next year we want to showcase a couple more things up. We were invited back and there's a lot more we can offer. And so the kids, we had first graders there and then for them to be able to get to them at such an early age, they just

033had the best time. And it was just a joy watching them learn what the state PD does for our community. Thank you, Mesquite Police for your support of our students and for your participation at Camp Excelled this summer. Thank you so much. Now we're going to proceed with a few student recognitions. This evening we will recognize several students for academic achievements. First up, we have a student who was recently selected as a national math star. This prestigious program is designed to support gifted young mathematicians through various forms of support throughout their educational career. The long term package of support is valued at over $100,000 and includes Stem enrichment opportunities, weekly, one on one math mentoring, and much more. Introduce you to from. Can I have that from Gentry Elementary, our national math star is Lucas

034Garcia. Come on up, Lucas. Congratulations. Lucas. Next up, we have, two students who scored in the top 2 to 3% nationally on the PSAT and or in NMSQT, and have been recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation with a letter of commendation. We have one of those students here today, Peyton Hardin. She's from Mesquite High School. Our National Merit Commended And we want to recognize a second student from Poteet High School. Matthew Alumbaugh was not able to be here, because he's on the stage tonight, performing in, theater and fine arts. So we want to recognize him as well. But congratulations to Matthew and Peyton. And then lastly, we have another student who could not be here this evening, but we want to, honor them as well. As one student, excuse me, who scored in the

035top 1% of the PSAT and has an opportunity to advance in the National Merit Scholarship Program to become a scholarship recipient and finalist. So our National Merit semifinalist is from the Mesquite High School. That's Jessica Agbadiba. I'm sorry Jessica. She was she couldn't be here this evening either. She's, the city youth council. Busy lady. So but let's give a hand for Jessica. And that concludes our recognitions portion of the program. Thank you very much, Ms. Smith. I believe I have a board member has a comment. Mr. President, I want to tell you how impressed I am with the McKenzie students. Stand up. They're still here, aren't you? Stand up. By the way, they did an excellent job on the pledges. We appreciate it, but I'm more impressed that they stayed for the rest of this

036part of the meeting. I really am. They were really engaged in it. I think eventually we're going to see them being recognized for successes in their own right. So thank you again for being here. And. With that, we will take a five minute break and reconvene then. Thank you. We reconvene our meeting. Next item on the agenda is, consent agenda. Board members, re there any items on the consent agenda that you wish to pull or discuss or vote separately? If there are none, I'll entertain a motion. Mr. President, I move that we approve the consent agenda. Second. There's a motion by Mr. Seward. Second, by Miss Collier. Accept the consent agenda as written. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Oh, that is no one for the consent agenda. Come. Okay, next

037we're going to report to the superintendent. Yes, Mr. President. All right. I was going to call your item, but you go ahead. All right, so tonight we have one action items, and it comes to the personnel section of the agenda. And that includes a coordinator for special education, which our chief communications officer will take from here. What I'd like to introduce you to, Andretti Camper. Is special education coordinator. He'd be joining Mesquite ISD with six years of experience in public education. Camper most recently served Dallas ISD as a special education coordinator and instructional specialist for instructional support and compliance. He began his career as a special education teacher in Dallas ISD, where he earned specialized programs model teacher, and Model classroom honors and was named Campus Teacher of the Year and District of the year

038finalist. Camper earned a Bachelor's of Science in biology and English from William Carey University, and a master of Education and Special Education from Texas Tech University. Mr. Andretti Camper. We have to take a vote. This is an action item. Hold your applause until he's actually hired. Yeah. Right now he was just introduced. Welcome. But we have to vote on this. So, board. I'll entertain a motion to approve for a second. As you said at this time, I second have a second. And as you believe, there's a motion by Mr. Bingham and second by Miss Collins to approve the administrative contract of the coordinator of special Ed. Any comments or questions? Been there none. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye, opposed sign. Being there none, motion carries. Now you go to. Welcome, welcome.

039Okay. And then. Next we're going to, construction items. Item number one, the approval of the general contractor for package two, AC New. McDonald Middle School, Horn High school, the fieldhouse, and, of multiple renovation packet. The superintendent, Dr. Rivera. Yes. Mr. President, we, going to talk about this dump. Pool's going to take it and take us through these projects? All right. Thank you, President Carbo. Doctor Rivera and school board. Thanks for hearing from that. We're going to be naming the general contractors for y'all to approve for package two and package three, and I'll go through those Oh. It's not me. This, Inside job. Sorry. So we got packages two and three. At the September board meeting, you'll recall that the schematic designs were approved. Then at the August board meeting, we determined construction manager at risk

040was the method Then we took the request for proposals. August 12th. Mesquite. The construction services received them September 2nd. And construction manager recommendation to be approved tonight. Okay, so the first package two is AC new middle school, which was the administration renovation security vestibule with single point entry building system upgrades and board approval for the GMP will be in April of 26. McDonald Middle School administration security vestibules, clinic improvement, cafeteria renovation, expansion building systems upgrade and hopefully the GMP approval would be April of 26 and the Horn High School Field House. In addition, with the weight room, meeting room, and restrooms, and the renovation includes locker rooms and training rooms. And we'll go for board approval for GMP in May of 26. For this package, the administration recommends that the Board of Trustees approve the

041recommendation of Crossland Construction as a CMAR general contractor for package two, which is AC New Middle School, McDonald Middle School and Horn High School Fieldhouse. Out of the multiple renovation packet. And with us tonight from Crossland Construction is Bailey McDonald and with that we'll vote on the package two. Second. There's a motion by Mr. Bingham, second by Ms. Hornsby to approve action item number one, the general contract for package two. There any questions? We've we've never worked with Crossland. I know that all of our GCS, there had to be at least one starting point. Do we feel comfortable with Bailey McDonnell. We we do with, with all due respect, we vetted it out really well. Crossand has been bidding for our projects for quite some time. And then this time, they were able to get

042it. And so we're welcome aboard. So that should be a good one. Okay. Well, with that said, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye, opposed same sign. Ayes just have it. Motion carries, regard the to item number two. Which package? Three which is Beasley, Moss and Gray. Beasley Elementary. It's basically from the 22 facility assessment. Some kitchen equipment replacement, ceiling tile replacement, MP upgrades, HVAC, electrical, plumbing. Last safety upgrades include fire alarm, the fire sprinklers, and then the we'll go to for board approval for GMP and February 26th Moss Elementary will have some kitchen equipment replacement MP, but upgrades includes AC piping and controls, electrical and plumbing. Last safety upgrades include fire alarm and we'll go for board approval for GMP. February at 26 and Gray Elementary with some kitchen equipment. Replacement amp

043for upgrades for Hvac piping and controls, electrical and plumbing. Last safety upgrades include fire alarms, and we'll go for board approval for the GMP and February 26th. And with that being said, the administration recommends that the Board of Trustees approve the recommendation of Buford Thompson Company as the CMAR general contractor for package three, Beasley, Moss, Gray of the multiple renovation package. And with us today for Buford Thompson is Mike Trammell and Theresa Shurtleff. And with that, hello, Mr. president, I move that we approve the, contract for package three, which includes Beasley, Moss and Gray Elementary. For the CMAR recommendation. And second, there's a motion by Mister Seward, second by Miss Hornby to approve the general contractor package. Three. Any comments or questions or a question? Yeah, I think it's a for non, but these elementary

044school projects that we're doing, are those going to include the playground upgrades or is that a different project. That's a different project where we've got the playgrounds all together. No, ma'am, that won't be. These are pretty much it's replacing all the mechanical stuff above ceilings. Fire sprinklers and stuff like that. So it's really not the real pretty stuff, but it's necessary stuff. Yeah. You go, Mr. Pool. I've got the same question. To my knowledge, we've never used Buford Thompson before. To we. We feel good about them. We feel good about for Thompson, too. They they surprisingly, this is a general contractor that we have not been able to find anything bad on. And that's something that I WRA to do very well. And we haven't been able to do it. So we're going to try

045them and and you just bust him. I don't know okay. So I think he. Okay. Any more questions being there. None. All those in favor please indicate by saying aye, opposed same sign. Ayes have it, motion carries. Thank you. Mr.. Thank you. Okay. At this time, I will go back to the audience portion, those, that wish to speak on items on the agenda. I do have, Miss Woods, present here. There you go. I know you weren't here. You came here in time to get into the audience portion. Today was different. We had it before the this meeting started. So if you would come now and come speak, I would be glad to listen to what you have to say. Good evening, board members, and thank you for, taking me today. My name is Veronica Woods,

046and I'm the parent of a fifth grader at Beasley Elementary. I'm here tonight because I care deeply about the quality of education our children receive and the partnership that should exist between schools and families. This year, my child's school got rated a D from the TEA. Over the past year, I've seen consistent challenges that I believe have led to this and that need attention, specifically poor communication, weak instruction, and lack of accountability for improving academic outcomes. Parents are often left uninformed about instructional gaps or classroom issues until it's too late to intervene effectively. In my experience, communication with parents should be proactive, not reactive. We want to know what is being done to strengthen instruction, how student progress is being measured, and who is responsible for ensuring those improvements happen. I'm respectfully requesting that Beasley

047Elementary develop and share an official written improvement plan that includes specific goals for academic progress. Clear steps for improving teacher communication and instructional quality. Defined timelines and accountability measures for review. This is not about criticism, it's about collaboration. Parents and teachers both want to see students thrive, and transparency is a key to building that trust. Thank you for listening and for your commitment to helping Beasley reach its full potential. Our children deserve nothing less. Thank you, Miss Wood. You're welcome. I also have a request for a written improvement plan as well. If that could be taken. A look at her that this was implemented over there. All right. Thank you, Miss Woods board. And if you forgive me, I took the liberty of allowing her to speak. Because even though we already had the audience

048portion, she wasn't here when we had that in portion. Because we did it before time. So it's. I think it's proper thing to do to give Miss Wood some time. Thank you very much for being respectful. With that said, it's let's continue with the agenda. We're going now to the business portion. The first item is an action item to conduct a public hearing on the 2025 Financial Management Report. And with that, we open the public hearing. Is there anyone that wants to speak to that? No one. Okay. Being there? None. We're going to close the public hearing. Next we're going to go to, item number two, which was a report for the the 2025 Annual Financial Management Report. Here comes Mr. Prado. Good evening. President Carbo. Board members, Dr. Rivera. Tonight, I have, Miss Kimberly

049Chappelle will be presenting the financial integrity rating system. First report for you. And, she would be more than happy to, entertain any questions afterwards. Good evening, President Carbo. Dr. Rivera and members of the board. Tonight, I will be presenting the 2024-25 school first report for. Based on data for the fiscal year 23. Sorry. 23-24. Financial data. I'm sorry. The school first system was created to hold districts accountable for the quality of their financial management practices. It promotes transparency, encourages sound financial decisions, and ensures, taxpayers in I'm sorry and assures taxpayers that public funds are managed responsibly under the Texas Administrative Code section 1 or 9.1005. Each district must publicly present is writing, providing notice of the meeting at least ten days in advance. Post a report on this website within 14 days after the hearing

050and allow for public comment. This presentation and the public hearing fulfill those requirements for Mesquite ISD. The school first rating system consists of 21 indicators that measure financial stability, solvency, transparency, and governance. Ratings are based on a 100 point scale. The first four indicators are considered critical, meaning failure of any one of the results and the automatic if seven other seven others serve as ceiling indicators, which would cap the district's rating and prevent a perfect score of 100 if not met. All remaining measures are point based and score to either a 5 or 10 points each. Now I will briefly go through the 21 indicators. The first four indicators are critical and our district pass all of them. Number one, the district filed its annual report financial report by the required November 27th deadline. Number

051two, our independent auditors issued the unmodified or clean opinion, confirming that the financial statements present fairly in all material respects. Number three, the district remained in full compliance with all their agreements ensuring responsible management, abandon and lease obligations. And number four, our payroll related liabilities were paid timely to the as the Teacher Retirement System, the Texas Workforce Commission and the IRS. Indicators five and six are ceiling indicators, and both were successfully met at the end of fiscal year 2024. The district had a positive net position of $603,000,603.5 million, demonstrating long term financial solvency. Number six, the fund balance remained stable, reflecting a 4.8% increase over three years, and as of June 30th, 2024, was sufficient to cover 110 days of operations. Now, indicators seven through 15 or scored measures which, with each carrying the possible

052maximum of 5 or 10 points depending on the indicators, weight and criteria of number seven, evaluates the general fund's ability to operate without new revenue at year end. So as of June 30th, 2024, the district's cash and cash and current investments covered 82.5 days of operations, compared to the 90 days required to earn the full ten points. While this resulted in a score of eight, it's important to note that the calculation does not include the 29.5 million investment in long term investments that could be liquidated if needed. So these funds were these funds were strategically placed in longer term instruments to secure high yields during a period of declining interest rates. Number eight measures the current assets to liability ratio for all governmental funds, which reflect short term liquidity. The district achieved a ratio of

0532.87%, slightly below the 3.3% threshold for maximum points, earning another score of eight. Again, this ratio doesn't exclude does not include the 39.3 million in long term investments, which, if included, would have strengthened the district's liquidity position. Indicator number nine evaluates the general fund's revenue, whether the general Fund's revenue exceeded expenditures, or if not, whether sufficient cash reserves were maintained. As of the end of fiscal year 2024, revenues exceeded expenditures by 6.6 million and cash on hand cover 82.5 days of operations, resulting in this score of ten points. Indicator ten was not evaluated, so the district would see ten points. Number 11 evaluates whether the district's long term liabilities are proportionate to total assets. In fiscal year end. The district's liability, the asset ratio was 52.7%, well below the 60% threshold, demonstrating strong long term

054solvency. The district earned ten point number 12. Reviews whether the district's future debt obligations are reasonable compared to the taxable property values, which determines if the district's the district capacity to take on new debt. This ratio was 5.2%, compared to the 4% required to receive the maximum points, resulting in the score of eight points. Number 13 evaluates the administrative cost ratio, whether the administrative cost ratio remains within the state's threshold, ensuring that the majority of the funds support instruction rather than central administration. The district's ratio was 7.4%, which is below the 8.5% limit, earning the maximum score of ten points. Number 14 in the exam is whether the district experienced a significant decline in the student to staff ratio over a three year period. Enrollment decreased by 5.6%, which is below the 15% threshold, resulting

055in the automatic pass in the score ten. Indicator 15 evaluates the accuracy of the average daily attended project. Average daily attendance projections submitted to the TDA, which are used to calculate state funding for the biennium reviewed. Actual Ada was 6% below projections, which is within the allowable 7% variance for credit. As a result, the district earned the score five point. Now, indicators 16 to 17 or ceiling indicators and were both successfully met. Number 16 evaluates the accuracy of the financial data reported to TDA by comparing data to the annual financial report. The variance was less than 3%. Number 17 examines whether the external audit identified any material weaknesses in internal controls or concerns regarding the district's ability to continue as a going concern. The audit identified no such findings, reaffirming the district's financial stability. Number

05618 determines whether the annual financial report was free of material noncompliance related to grants, contracts or other state and federal funds. The independent auditor reported no such findings, and the district earned ten points. Number 19 assesses whether the district posted all required financial information on its website, in accordance with state laws and regulations. Our require policies were completed as required, and the district earned five points. Indicator 20 and 21 or ceiling indicators and both were successfully met. Number 20 evaluates whether the administration and board discuss changes in local, state, and federal funding within 120 days before adopting the budget. This discussion took place as part of the district's annual budget process, ensuring that leadership had the opportunity to consider the financial impact of any funding changes prior to adoption. And number 21 examines the districts

057whether the district received an adjusted repayment schedule for an over allocation of foundation School Program funds. Due to financial hardship, the district did not receive or require such a schedule. So for the 23rd consecutive year, Whiskey I-s-d has received and a superior achievement. Only 94 of the possible 100 points under the school's first rating system. And our last slide or is are the required disclosures. We have a link to the superintendent's employment contract, along with a link to the school's first rating system on the TR website, and a screenshot of actually the financial management report for the board and the superintendent. Any questions? Board I have one question on number eight. Indicator number eight. There's a one on liquidity. And you mentioned that you have well, we have $38 million in long term investments that

058were not used in the calculation of that equation. Yes, sir. Is it because they don't count or is there a reason for that? It's just not part of their formula. They look at the current assets. So anything, to be considered a long term investment, it has to mature over a year at the end of fiscal year end. And so those actual items matured actually fiscal year 2026. So they're looking at short term liquidity. Yes, yes. But that doesn't mean that if we needed the cash it would not be available to us. It would be available to us if we needed it. But we did not. We did. Okay. Yes, sir. Thank you. Great job. Okay. Thank you. Great report. Okay. Next we go to, section E administration. The first one is a report on student

059performance. Doctor Rivera. Actually, Mr. President, we have, or, effectiveness report first on, assessment and accountability. And I'm sorry I jumped that one. It's okay. We we can always come back. Mr.. Let's do the report and assessment and accountability. Okay. John. So in the back, the president is asking for the accountability one. That when we're doing under administration, you talk about student performance or. No, I'm talking about assessment and accountability. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I jumped it by mistake. Okay. So staying with the agenda, John. John's awake back there. Me? You did it. I got to keep everybody under that. Not that one. Yes. There we go. All right. Good evening, everyone. So I'm here to do the. Effectiveness report for my department. That is the Accountability, Research and Evaluation Department. And y'all have never heard

060me give a presentation like this, because up to now, you've always heard just assessment data, but not really what my department is all about. So this think of this as we're setting a baseline for what happens in my department. And we'll be able to report more findings this time next year. First things first, you need to know that we are all together in the same building. For the last at least 20 years, we've been in two different buildings. My department was split some over at the service center, some in the admin building, and in January we all moved into the same suite and we thought at first it would be weird. Everyone being all together, but it's been really great and efficient and very quick. We can react when others have meetings and things we

061can jump on. So I only see good things to come from us all being together in the same suite. One of my big focuses this year was a retooling of our departmental focus, away from so much compliance driven to being more goal oriented, and our job is naturally about compliance. We can't avoid that. But what we can also do is help set goals to continue to achieve. And one of the things that we started this year is working with every campus instructional specialist and test coordinator, which is really just the campus test coordinator at the elementary. We're working with them and help them set goals in their chosen area of support. So we gave them six areas where they could determine where they wanted to help grow their campus. And you can see the six

062options they chose there. And what we've done is work with them to help establish that first goal, and then we will meet with them, just like you know you would with a teacher on a campus at mid-year to check in on their goal progress and then ultimately see how they move forward. The thing that was important to me was that every goal was tied to student achievement in some way. It was about how what are outcomes for students, whether it be measured by star or pass or some car measure. So I'm looking forward to seeing how that plays out throughout the course of the year. Supporting those campus test coordinators is a big part of what we do. And so there is some compliance piece that you just can't avoid making sure that they're ready

063for all the trainings of the different assessments that they give on their campus. We also, besides supporting them with knowing how to give the different assessments that there are, there are platforms and tools that they use to do their jobs better. And I won't even go through all of them. That's just a three that are that you see listed there. But they have to be trained on how to use these platforms so that they can then make sure that the assessments run smoothly for students. We also train all of the new people in these roles. We have eight new elementary test coordinators and two middle schools. So we have ten new people in these roles this year that we're checking in on regularly to make sure that they are keeping pace. And the good thing

064about that is many of those moved into administrative roles. So we look at this position as kind of a training ground for someone who wants to step into administration, which is why we're helping them set goals so that they learn to be a better leader across their campus. But what we want to get away from is their role feeling like my job is to run all these reports and give data to people so they can analyze it. We want them to take a role in analyzing that data as well, and helping support their campus moving forward. Speaking of assessments, I wanted to give you just a quick overview of these are all the different assessments that our campus test coordinator are supporting and not every student takes every one of these, but every campus test

065coordinator is responsible for making sure these go smoothly. And that's from the initial training that they receive on how do I give this test to setting it up, to making sure students take it? And then ultimately, what do I do with this data? So you can see that some run across all levels, others are specific, like circle is just for pre-K evaluation. But you've got tests at all levels across all subjects that our test coordinators are responsible for making sure they run smoothly. Another part of our area of responsibility is state and federal accountability. So it's important that we have a real deep understanding of that accountability system so that we can speak with authority about it. And we don't expect campus administrators and teachers to walk around with that knowledge front and center in

066their head. But we give them the pieces we want them to know, and then we help support them with the details. So you all know this is my third year in this role. In the last three years I've done, I call it the Accountability Tour. And the tour ended September 24th, and I have started my residency up in my office. So I'm back in the building, visiting all 50 of our schools that have accountability and meeting with them and looking at all of their reports so that they understand why their campus performed the way they did. And that's part of it. But what's more important to me is that we determine what areas can they grow and help them set goals for achievement. And so I've done that now at all of our campuses elementary,

067middle and high school. And now the tour kind of we circle back around to those that have other areas for improvement. I will say that some of the goals that we've set, I've got eight, maybe ten campuses that I've identified that I feel like can be in a campus this year. And so with some tweaks and them understanding what their data means and what that would take, then we're working on that next. So they've seen their data. And now the second leg of the tour is okay, let's see where we are that we can maximize where you're just a few students away from crossing it at that next threshold. Another part of the work that we do that's tied to state and federal accountability is the schools that are on the school improvement list, and

068some are targeted support, additional targeted support or comfort of support. So we work with them to help them create their local improvement plans or their targeted improvement plans, depending on what's required. And we partner with region ten on that work, so that region ten comes out and we'll do a diagnostic on a campus. We were at a campus today. We spent all day there. We look at arrival, we go to classrooms and do walks. We do focus groups with teachers and administrators will go in the cafeteria and see how those procedures go. Sit in the PLC. And then we watch kids go home to get a full picture of how the school runs. And the thing that region ten will do now is write up the report with making recommendations for improvement. And while some

069schools have to have a diagnostic, it is my goal that every school gets one because it's good information to know where you can improve your at your your school in all the different areas. So we also have a meeting on Thursday of this week with the schools who must create a local improvement plan or a targeted improvement plan. And I'll be working with those schools and their EDI to work through that process. And once those plans are complete, they'll be posted on each school's website. That partnership with region ten has been crucial because we work with them, not just with the ESF, the Effective Schools framework, but also through training. So we've got a really great partnership with them. And then the last piece that's part of that federal accountability is every campus has to

070have their campus improvement plan. And district improvement plans also run through my office. So there's a lot that happens behind the scenes. And I definitely I'm not going to go through this bullet by bullet. Just know that things like when a student is bilingual and has to take a test in Spanish, if someone doesn't go in and change that when they open the Chromebook, the test won't be in Spanish. Special ed students need accommodations. Someone has to go in there and click all the buttons so that the test is accommodated appropriately. What I can say about all the things that we do is nobody knows that they're done unless we don't do them, and then everybody knows. So we're really good at making sure that students get the accommodations that they need. Tests are available,

071whether it's a PSAT test or an IVC, that they're all available when the students need them. And as long as we stay on top of our cards, then all of that work runs smoothly and no one's ever the wiser. And that's the way I like it. The last thing the bullet I will talk a bit more about is that part of what we started doing in the last few years is just doing a lot more data requests. People want to look at different sets of data in different ways, so we pull that out. But we've also contracted out for an assessment on it. And I know you've heard a bit about that, but I'm going to give you a few more details about it. So we worked with an outside agency called Gibson, and they

072did an assessment audit of all of those assessments. So all of those that you saw listed back here, they looked at every single assessment that we give to determine is there any overlap. Are we spending more instructional time. Are we spending more dollars than we need to. So they looked at it from a variety of standpoints. Was what was the financial cost? What was the time cost in terms of lost instruction. Because you're taking an assessment. So they gathered information all through last semester. In the spring, they interviewed district personnel. They did focus groups with campus admin and support staff. They interviewed answer teachers. And then they also took our DSPs, and they analyzed those to see if they were aligned with teachers and also with star, ultimately. And so once results came out in

073May, they took that data over the summer, and then they came back to us August, September to give us their findings. And just some of the findings that came out or that we needed to establish an assessment system, procedural controls, meaning we can't have different departments deciding a group of students needs to take an assessment without checking in with someone so that we're not overlapping. So appointing a district assessment lead to unify that decision was that was one of the recommendations. And so that would be me. We also wanted to define the and communicate vision and purpose for the assessments. What we found from the audit was we give some assessments that are really valuable. But if teachers don't know why they're giving it, they don't know what they're supposed to do with the data.

074So we will work through that throughout the rest of the school year, making sure that we have an assessment committee that is determining both for a classroom teacher, for campus leaders and district people. What's the purpose of this assessment? What do we hope to gain from giving this so that we can make that message clear so people understand why we're spending valuable class time on it? Another big recommendation that they made was that we discontinued the DCP. So those are our district checkpoints that we give periodically throughout the year. And they recommended that we get rid of those where we have I-ready. And I-ready is what we have now in place for reading and math to determine beginning of year, middle of year, and end of year, growth for our students. So we've taken that

075recommendation and kind of move forward with that. Where teachers really found value was in the cfas, which are the common formative assessments, the short checks for understanding that they create in a when they're meeting with their fellow teachers to see if the kids understand what we've just taught. So teachers found a lot of value in that. So we're leaning in on making sure we're helping teachers write really robust good questions at a high level to really assess what our students know. And then because I-ready is new for us, you can imagine if you have something new and big like this that you roll out with not a lot of great support, it's not going to go as well as it could. So they highly recommended that we have really strong training and over the next

076two years really, so that we can get full benefit from having i-ready. So our next task really was convening an assessment committee. We established a purpose for benchmarks. That meeting happened just this past Friday, and every other assessment that you saw listed there. We will go through them one by one to make sure that we understand why this assessment was given. Some of them were given because we're required to give them. But there is data that we can learn from each of them. So we're working through that process now. And with that, I will say that hopefully this time next year when I come back, I'll have some more things to report that will be beneficial. And, come see us up in suite 207, because that's where we are now. Very good report as parents.

077Thank you. To listen to this is the interview. It's coming up okay. You're welcome. Thank you, Miss Austin. Yeah. Sit back and then you can. Yeah. There you go. Too far because you have to come back. But, sorry for the confusion, but now we will go to a board. Do you have any questions? Anything else for me? It's awesome. I mean, there none. We'll go to administration now. Report on student performance up. Well hello everyone. I so ordered this data I know that you've already seen, but, hopefully if their questions have come out since we last looked through it, please let me know and I'll be happy to try and answer. So we will jump right in. So first things first, we're looking at our star data. We're starting with domain one student achievement. And

078we're looking at a five year comparison starting back in 2021. I will remind you that that far left far represents that first year out of Covid when we were doing virtual learning or hybrid learning and asynchronous and all of the things and so we definitely saw a dip in that second bar represents that second year out. We were back from fully back engaged. But it's also the last year before the star tests were all redesigned. And so we definitely saw a dip that came after that. So really looking at the last three years, 23, four and five, that's more of a fair comparison to one another. Just keep in mind that sometimes the passing standards can change from year to year. So when you're seeing a fluctuation of a point or two, it might not

079be. We had students who performed lower. It's just that the standard may have moved up and we didn't move with it. So what you're looking at first on the screen is our results at the meets level from third grade through English to. Since we give that star test every year, you see a lot of data on this screen. And this was STAAR RLA meets the next screen shows you our master's level. And you'll see here that definitely we saw the difference from 22 to 23 four and five. And that's primarily because of the inclusion of that extended constructed response, the ACR. That was a new portion of the reading test. And it's taken us a few years to really figure out what that test or what that question requires. You might remember English one and

080two, though, look low compared to the other grade levels, but that's primarily because their passing standard is so much higher. English one. It's 84% to get to Masters and English to it's 88. The others are between 71 and 75%. The other thing about the ECR, when a student gets a zero on that, if you're an elementary student, that's worth 19% of your overall score at the high school level, it's closer to 16. So mathematically, you can't get to Masters if you don't get any points on that ECR. But we have a plan for that, so stay tuned. So what you're looking at here, we generally pull out Hispanic and Eckerd. This is our two largest populations just to compare across state. And obviously this is not where we want to be in terms of our

081performance. We had some more green last year. But we really consistently for this past year came up short in terms of comparing across the state. And we attribute that primarily to how X's have been going for us. This slide is a little more positive. What you see here is the decrease in the number of students. Scoring is zero. So you can see all the numbers in green for those grade levels. At fourth grade and English too, we saw a decrease in the number of students who got no points for their ACR. On the other end, you can see those who scored a between a six and a ten, and ten is the highest score. You have two scoring engines giving five points each. That would be a maximum score. So here we had some that

082that went up but some that went down. So think about we've got fewer zeros but we may have some fewer sixes. Intense. We've got more kids that are getting between a two and a five. But we're moving moving that forward as well. So once we saw our zeros for this past school year, one of the things we did was submit re scoring. We submitted X's for re scoring. And I will tell you that to E. It gives us a very short window. It's about ten days. And what you do is we gathered people and every 0 to 4 acr we put eyes on from third grade through eighth and all the English one and two, and that was hundreds and hundreds of them. Some were clearly a zero because they didn't write anything, others wrote

083some text. And so everyone we sat and read and we ended up submitting 104 for responding. And you can see 41% came back with a higher score, and some as much as from a two to a seven, three to a nine. There wasn't just a 1 or 2 point increase. There was. It was definitely an effort that we felt was beneficial. Part of the benefit, too, was we learned a lot more about what our students were writing and how we can help them score even higher. We ended up with nine students who actually got a performance level change. Some went from meets to masters, one came up from did not meet those two approaches. So we have a plan in place moving forward for this year that will be even more strategic. Looking at students

084who are within a point or two from the next performance level, even if they got a five, we should probably take a look at it and see if that 1 or 2 more points can make a difference. From the student standpoint, what we learned was they need to know who they're writing for. When they're writing the CCR, and they're writing for a computer. So it's very formulaic. It's not the kind of writing that we might have thought or trained them to do, but knowing that there's there are two scoring engines, program to read their response. We need to make sure we're hitting the marks that are expected there. So the biggest one is just what was the question? We read lots and lots where kids wrote several sentences and they got no points because they

085never addressed the prompt. The question asked them something and they summarize the story. So no matter how well that was written, they weren't going to get any credit if they don't address the prompt. So that's where we started for this school year. Another thing that we looked at was what would it have meant if we had just one more point on an on an ECL or anywhere on the test, but on the ACR in particular, since we had so many that had a zero. So the numbers that you're seeing there represent the number of students that had they gotten one more point on that early test, they would have moved up to a performance level. We had 84. That would have gotten to approaches in the third grade, 71 who would have gotten to meets

086and 82 to master's just in third grade. That's over 1700 kids that were just a point away from moving up a level. So that's why we will be looking at that as we get closer this year. Students that are on the bubble, what can we do to help them get to that next performance level? So some strategies we put in place to improve an RLA. As I've already stated, we have already that we're using as a Boa. Eoa beginning of year, middle year, end of year. And once students have taken the beginning of year, now they have adaptive lessons that they practice on every week that helps them improve their reading comprehension. And it also helps with grammar, spelling, their different levels depending on where they tested it starts them where they were and helps

087move them forward. We're also using their ACR from last school year that they wrote in April to determine where did they start in August? Because I don't know that many students went home over the summer and did a lot of practice on their writing. So how they wrote in April is probably how they'd write in August with almost all of our campuses have already done one echo practice, and so now they're working through that data to see how we can help students perform. We're also focusing on our K through two students because those teachers play a part in it. Those are the grade levels where kids are learning spelling rules and grammar and punctuation, and so that that can help enhance their writing. And then we've also developed I say we primarily teaching and learning

088has developed a framework for ECI writing that's third grade through English too. So no matter what grade you're in, when you go into an English class, this is the strategy that we'll use to address this ACR until we find out that they've changed it in a couple of years. But for now, this is what we're doing because that's what we know it to be. And then just making sure that we're focused on our reading and writing in all subjects, helping kids think on paper. I can remember telling a teacher that when they say, I don't teach writing, I don't have to try to. Can you teach a kid to think on paper? Because that's what I need them to do, but their thoughts on paper and we'll worry about the technical part in the English

089class. So that's what we're focusing on to improve our Ela. We've made some gains in terms of ECI. We feel like we have a better plan and feel like we just understand the test better. As it stands today. And as you know, for these next two years, the star test is still in place for this school year. In the next, there'll be a change that comes after that. Moving on to math. So now we're looking at math at the meets level again from third grade through algebra one. Those are all the levels where we test math. And you'll remember that seventh grade looks lower. I'll explain that when we get to the next slide though. What you'll see here is a primarily an elementary. We saw about the same, maybe a few gains. We know

090that we start to split students in fifth grade. How they test on the fifth grade test determines if they go into advanced sixth grade or on level sixth grade. And so that's why when we end up with seventh grade, depending on what they did in six, they'll either go into the eighth grade content. And the only students that stay in seventh grade are those who are not. It's accelerated enough to move into eighth grade content a year early, so you tend to see that those are students that are scoring lower because they're weaker in math, and they need some different interventions. When you're looking at masters, that shows up even more. The thought being, if you're able to score a master's level in seventh grade, you might have should have been advanced. We may have

091missed it moving you forward anyway, but these numbers don't surprise me. You can see that we had some more gains at the master's level in math, really across the board than we did at the meets. So we are moving more kids that direction. This was a slide that I got from teaching and learning because we wanted to look at how does our model stack out between the rest of the state? Not every district does what we do. By that I mean track as many as students as we can in advanced math. And when you look at across the state, numbers for approaches meets in master's versus ours we are lower. But when you look at three districts who follow our model, we are not lower. We're very similar scoring to how other campuses and districts

092do in terms of approaches, meets and master's. For students who go to seventh or eighth based on their ability. And this slide shows you that we've moved a lot more students to advanced than most districts similar to us. We're giving them that opportunity. You may remember the whole reason for that is students that take algebra one in eighth grade have the opportunity to take calculus as a senior. If they don't do it in eighth grade, they have to go to summer school or double up, which is really difficult to do. So we're setting them up to ultimately get to the calculus level when they get to senior year. So here you can see, am I still versus the state in math? And now the seventh grade numbers. Are they really look pretty low comparatively. Not

093every district does what we do. So it's not really a fair comparison to say that this is across the state. It is true, but I don't think it's not supported knowing that the model we use is different, but primarily we're continuing to outpace the state in math, which we have done for many years. So for math improvement, what are we looking at? We also have i-ready for math. And it's helping students understand conceptually what they're doing. So they're not just practicing working problems and plugging in numbers or using a calculator, but really understanding the concepts of math. And so I-ready is helping with that, along with filling gaps and even though we understand why our seventh grade numbers are what they are, they are still seventh grade students taking on level seventh grade. So we

094want more of them to be on level. So we have to look at how are we going to fill those specific gaps and holes for those students. We also just this last week had training from region ten that research based instructional strategies. And it was a full day of training with about 120 people attending. And I've already gotten some really great feedback. Campuses. We've reached out to region ten and say, can you come here and share this with the rest of my teachers? Because we could only send a chosen few, but it really helps them understand how students learn math from kindergarten all the way through algebra one. And if there's a common thread that runs through all of them, and once they see that, it all makes so much more sense when they're trying

095to teach it. We also have someone in my department who we sort of deploy her out, and until she's like the spinning plates, she goes over here and gets this one going and gets this campus going, and then once they're up and running, then we've got her deployed somewhere else. So, that's how I think of the role that she does. But she's out helping with data driven instruction, meetings and planning PLCs so that campuses are running more efficiently. Looking at science, we only have three grade levels that are tested. And while I say three grade levels, just know that the grade five and grade eight tests are actually covering three years of content each. That fifth grade science test is now called the Elementary Science because it covers third, fourth and fifth grade tweaks. Eighth

096grade covers sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. So that's you can see our results for performance at the meets level. And the standards for biology also went up. So even though I see a dip there I also know that it went up 4%. So we just did not keep pace with the change. There. Here are the numbers at the master's level for the three grade levels. And you can see while science fifth grade is lowest for Masters, it's the first science test they've ever taken in terms of state assessment. Eighth grade has a has a jump that's a bit better. And then biology is usually the next school year. You can see comparatively across the state, even though the scores look low across the state. Science is low. And I say that because it only took

097in some cases 7% at Masters to earn a distinction in science. We had 19 campuses who earned a distinction in science. So even though these numbers aren't all green, we have a lot of good things happening in the science department. Social studies, two tests. All you see, there's eighth grade, which is the first half of U.S. history from the beginning to about the Civil War and then U.S history picks it up. Reconstruction on. And it dawned on me recently that, you know, when I finished in high school with U.S. history, we stopped at Vietnam, and now we're going through 911. So history keeps going. It's not like it ends. It's just there's more and more for them to cover. The students that you see that are the Orange bar in eighth grade at 19% meets

098are the same students that are purple and cis and 58% at MIT. So three years later, maybe they've warmed up to history and the test itself, but we see a lot better improvement there. The standard for U.S. history is a little lower, but not enough to explain that difference. At the master's level, you can see the gap as well between eighth grade and U.S. history. Across the state, we're not where we want to be in terms of just hanging in with similar districts across our area, but we know we have some room to work on there as well. So what are we doing for science, social studies, really for science. It's eyes on all levels, because even though that test happens in the fifth grade, it's covering three years of content for elementary and for

099middle school and giving students lots of hands on opportunity to really do lab work and work with the science so that they see it in action is something that we've seen yields some really good results for social studies. It's just tackling those takes because like I said, it's so much to cover with many takes, some that are never tested, but they're all taught. So focusing on those that are highly tested that we know we're going to see time and time again, making sure kids are familiar with how to read a graph and a chart and a map, because some of the questions are based solely on can you read this and interpret what's here and really just approaching it like a reading test? Because there's a lot on it to read. And how our reading

100scores go tend to be how our social studies scores go. The difference is, the social studies passing standard is a lot higher than it is for reading. Okay. So this slide what you're looking at is just a comparison. So you can see the improvements we did make from 24 to 25 overall our district has crossover into the B threshold. And that's where we're staying. If not moving forward you can see there the what we just covered, which was everything that was just student achievement. You also have school progress, which is all about growth or relative performance that we're looking at our eco test numbers compared to like school districts and how our kids perform that closing the gaps measure. That's all federal accountability hitting targets for individual student groups. So you can see from 24

101to 25 we have made some gains. And I will say that I made a statement last month at the principal meeting that I'm not retiring until we are in a district, but I'm tired, so I need us to get this moving because, you know, we've got some work to do, but it's it's doable with some concerted effort in the right places. So with that, I will take any questions that you may have board. Any questions? Miss Austin, first off, I want to thank you for the amount of time you have put into researching all this and the accountability tour. I know it takes a lot of effort, but the data that you're pulling out, I know that we had a lot of this information. Our team of eight, you know, all of this is pointing

102towards one of our strongest goals that we've laid out for the district, as well as for the superintendent has to do with student achievement. Student performance. Yes. So I think this has given us some things to work on. I know that everybody's got a hand in it. Yes. But is your direction pulling that together? It allows us to see what it is we need to change so we can focus on those students to help them perform better, not just progress, but where's the achievement? And so forth. So I really appreciate the amount of effort time you put into this. Thank you. Does the seventh grade hybrid model that we do, when you talk about comparing us to other districts that do it like we do in the state, how did the other other districts do

103it? Like for a statewide, do they they just leave. They go into seventh grade. They're in seventh grade math. Correct. And so that's why that's why we lag. Because we're we're missing prayers and eighth grade math. Yes. And you're we're supposed to now any students that tests in the top 40% in fifth grade are supposed to take that advanced sixth grade, but we're pushing 67%. We're not pushing just the required minimum 40. We're identifying other students that have the potential to move a little faster, so that they have those other opportunities when they get to high school. Part. We spent, quite a bit of time with you a couple weeks ago on a team of eight. Now on I Echo Roberts. Thank you for your work. I have the team of eight meeting, and they.

104I went home and told my wife, more excited and optimistic, that we are getting everybody moving in the right direction in the a lot of, basis of all that is your analysis and the way to, explain it to people. And so thank you for that. And thank you for everybody's had a hand in all this. It's the team the team effort all the way down the line. So yeah, I like the way you guys all talk to each other teaching and learning and you and everybody else, it is all clustered in that. I think that's going to be progress. I mean, us, I see us really ramping things up because we're collaborating at all levels. So thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. I was just going to add the Jessica Braswell is our math coordinator at

105the secondary level. And she has been doing extensive research. Mr. Rose, to answer your question about what is the seventh grade math model across other districts in the state? And she's uncovered a few different models that have some pros and cons. We feel pretty strongly that our model is a good, solid model, but we are investigating one other alternative possibility. But she wants to make sure if we do launch some sort of pilot model, that it's done well, that we would have the resources to determine whether or not that would be a more effective route for our campuses to go. But she I just want to give her a shout out one, because she's just amazing. And second of all, because she's taken the time to call lots of other school districts, look at their

106data and really inquire about, you know, what is best for kids. How can we make sure that the greatest number of kids are successful in a particular model? And she made some really sound recommendations for us. So over the course of this next year, she's going to continue her planning and make some recommendations for us going into next year. Thank you, thank you. What kind of feedback did you get when you brought because you did your accountability tour before this part? What kind of feedback did you get from bringing the data back, being like, hey, this is where you are. This is what I don't think anyone was surprised. Well, the way we started every meeting was, this is not about your assessment data. I expect you've looked at that. You've had it since May.

107This is about your assessment data. Run to the accountability system and how these scores are generated. So we can see where you're coming up short where we can maximize. So helping them understand how in some in some cases it's a matter of 12 students at one campus that are a make or break for that domain. Three hitting the targets. So helping them just pinpoint where our student gaps. And sometimes it's just students. It's like I said, it's a small number that you don't even have eyes on and aren't even sure that you need to be watching. So, helping them understand that. But the feedback is actually, I'll tell you, the first year I did, it was the first year I was in this role, and I did it more for me than them, just to

108understand it really deeply. And this year, I didn't think they wanted me to come back because I thought, you've done this twice. You know how to read your own data? Oh no, no, that was wrong. They're like, when are you coming? Get on the schedule. And so I accelerated it even more so I could get them all done in a month. And so it was it was a lot. But I didn't want them to wait till October to find out how to understand their accountability. So, but yeah, they were definitely receptive. And when, when they're done with me coming and explaining in this one, I quit going. But it sounds like they're not yet. So I'm going to get her a helicopter. Okay. Maybe. Yeah, well, we're a deficit, sir. No, a Segway to go

109on. We'll get her a driver. So I take that. That would be nice. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you very much, Miss Austin. Well, board that that was the last item we have. Is there again? No, you said it. Table. Yeah. You know. Oh, okay. Well. Yeah. You know, it's all about failure. I've been asking to move this up in the agenda. Nobody wants to take me up on it, so we actually, if I could see the future, I would have taken this off the agenda. But we didn't know if anybody would come visit the first three days of October, last week or today. And they haven't. So we don't have we have not had a single contributor audit since our last board meeting. We're still at seven as a district, six elementary and one

110middle school with no findings. So there's nothing new to report. And, maybe, maybe next month. Thank you. My name. Thank you very much, Mr. Taylor. Thank you. We got it. Yeah. Right. Now that that's the last, we could ask the. Have any questions concerning exhibits or any information? Being there, none. We call this meeting adjourned. Thank you.