001Good evening. That's a reminder. Good evening. Welcome. Glad you're here tonight. I'm going to call this meeting to order in accordance with the Texas Open Means Act. I now call the meeting to order of the Mesquite Independent School District Board of Trustees on this Monday, April the 14th, 2025 at 6:01 p.m.. I also confirmed that there's a quorum of board members present, and this meeting was posted in compliance with the Texas Open Meetings Act. Board members. Miss Carr was out of town on business, so she will not be here with us this evening. One item noted. If. Please ensure that you've signed up in advance. If you wish to address the board during the public comment section regarding items on the agenda, see miss, Sabrina Smith for that. The board will now meet in closed
002session under Texas Government Code sections 551.071. Consultation with attorney section 551.07 for personnel and section 551076 deliberations regarding security devices or security orders. We are now adjourn to Executive session. Board of trustees. Mesquite ISD. Reconvening from closed session to an open meeting at 6:23 p.m.. For action relative to items considered during closed session. Tonight, we'll begin with the invocation by the Reverend Reginald Jefferson, pastor of new Hope Baptist Church. Following him, we will have the Pledge of Allegiance, led by the student from Galloway Elementary School and the sponsors, Courtney Cross, principal there. You're welcome and invited to join us if you wish. Would you bow with me? Gracious father, we come once again boldly to the throne of grace, seeking mercy and your grace to help in this our time of need. Lord, we realize
003we need you and every aspect of our lives. And we can do nothing without you and because of that, we invite you right now in this place afresh. God, we thank you for your I'm not presence, realizing that you're everywhere at the same time and we thank you, God, for your many blessings bestowed upon all of us today. We thank you for the level of peace and prosperity that we have been able to enjoy in this season. God, we are praying that, you would continue to bless us and strengthen us, that we are able to bond and love and unity as you have forgiven and called us to, walk in. And, father, we pray as we, look at this agenda and each item on the agenda, God, that you would, grace us that, godly decisions.
004Every decision that's made here today will have your thumbprint on it and that you'll get the glory. I pray for the spirit of excellence to continue amongst the school board, and that it would permeate into, every, teacher, every principal, every administrative god. I pray that, you would just continue the good success that you have afforded us, thus far. And, father, we thank you that since you've begun this good work in all of us, that you would bring it to perfection as only you can. And we ask these blessings in the name of Jesus to Christ. And everyone said Amen. To. The flag of United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I know that I pledge allegiance to the flag
005one day, under God, one indivisible. Go ahead and introduce yourselves. You can take it off of there. I don't think she can reach it. There you go. My name is Sanchez. And and, you and, pre-K. My name is Nyla. Danielle. I'm in pre-K. My name is Evelyn Grace Ford. I am in third grade. My name is Elizabeth, and I'm in kindergarten. My name is Victoria Floyd, and I'm in first grade. My name is Santiago, and I'm second rate. My name is Melanie and I'm in fifth grade. My name is Jedidiah and I'm in fifth grade. My name is Shiva and I'm in fifth grade. My name is Victoria and I'm in fourth grade. My name is Airline Moss and I'm in fifth grade. I will thank the board for having us here today, and all
006the great things you've done for our school. Thank you for your thank you students. Great job. Reverend Jackson, thank you very much for the invocation. We will now move on to our team of eight moment. Before I started, I was going to ask Doctor Rivera. I think you had a few things you wanted to talk about. Yes, sir. I would like to ask, Darcy, Mary and, Kimberly to go up to the front. They represent our business department and finance department. Come up to the front. And so these ladies, along with the rest of the department, I want I want to recognize them, their three significant awards that they have received. And I'll start with the first one is aspo, the Association of School Business Officials International, and they received the Meritorious Budget Award. And Mesquita
007has he has been recognized by the Association of School Business Officials for excellence in budget presentation with him. Meritorious Budget Award for the Fiscal Year 2024. But it doesn't stop there. Then they received the textbook award to Texas Association of School Business Officials, an award of excellence. Mesquite ideas, one of 32 recipients to receive the 2024 Tangible Award of Excellence in Financial Management. But it doesn't stop there. Then Tad will recognize them for Award of Merit for purchasing operations. Miss key is one of 80 districts that receive the Award of Merit for Purchasing Operations. The award was established in 2009 and recognizes Texas public school districts, open enrollment, charters, and educational services. They're committed to following professional standards and the acquisition of goods and services. So I wanted to take this time and recognize them
008for their work. Please join me in recognizing them. Stay there for a photo. Wait. For each other. Thank you very much. And then my my my other. So last week, I was privileged to, attend two events. One of them was the ATP, convention that was held here. And we will represent it within the convention. We received many, many awards. One of them was recognized was, Doctor Leslie Glass got administrator of the year. So congratulations, Leslie. And then the other event was I was also attending the Holthaus center with one of our very own doctor Jane Fields. Our deputy superintendent graduated with the from the aspiring superintendent leadership program. And I I'm telling you, she made mosquita ISD proud because she was one of the best presentations that I saw that day. And I was not
009biased. So congratulations, Doctor Fields. Sabrina, do you know if, Doctor Blackwell and his students are here for the mock trial and some. Sorry. They're supposed to be in here for a minute. Are they coming? They're going to wait until student recognition for what they were doing. We've got to get them. Okay. Board members. Anything else you want to talk about before they, Yes, there is. Hold up, hold up just a second. You go ahead. I wanted to bring Doctor Jeffrey Blackwell up here because, he handles, he coaches and works with students for our mock trial teams. And I got, the privilege of attending back in February. One of their trials that they did that George Allen courthouse. I was very inspired. Very excited and enthused by our students who did a wonderful job. Outstanding job.
010And I know that you and the volunteers and other coaches and mentors do a great job and spend a lot of hours with these students who are great debaters. And they were, I wanted to be I wanted them to defend me after I heard them talking. But, they did a fantastic job and, very mature in it. And I don't know, I want to let you go ahead and share some additional information on the mock trial team. Yes, I apologize for my delay. I was trying to get all of our kiddos together because we're here for for multiple purposes tonight. And that's kind of the the calling card of the students that I get to teach through. Very involved and successful in all kinds of different activities. So the mock trial team, for my knowledge, is
011the only mock trial team still in existence in Mesquite ISD. We've been around for about 11 years or so, and six years ago we just completed a round. And it is in one of the most competitive, districts to compete in for mock trial, not only in the state of Texas, but in the nation. We go up against schools that are private schools all the way up to, six, eight schools. It's anyone in the area from Dallas to Fort Worth at once to compete in mock trial. We can go up against them. And so we had been in several rounds, and I noticed there was a, judge in, in multiple events, multiple, competition that we participated in that just had this rapport with our kids that was very, very special. Because this is when you're in
012a mock trial, tournament, you're going up against super smart kids inside a courtroom, surrounded by real attorneys and real judges. And it can be a very intimidating, moment. But how she would just interact with our students was just really commendable. And it was heartwarming. And so at the end of one of our rounds, I had one of my students go up and just ask her her name. And her name was Megan David. And as a part of that, I took her name and a few months later called her up and said, listen, would you ever consider being our mock trial co-sponsor as our attorney sponsor? And without hesitation, she said yes. She has no connection to Mesquite ISD. She didn't attend high school here, doesn't have any children here. Her focus was, how can I
013give back to my community and considered Mesquite a part of her greater community? And so today she's here. But I wanted to give the kids a little opportunity to talk about, how they have been impacted by her as well. So, Megan, could you please stand up? And to kind of give you perspective, from October 1st through the end of January. 2 to 3 times a week, she will, drive the hour drive from her her office to spend time practicing with her kids and then spend the hour drive back. And that is, you know, she's a busy litigator and that finds that time because she's passionate about her kids and has contributed over the years financially as well. But here are two of our outstanding students that y'all are probably very familiar with that can kind
014of give their story as well. Thank you. Miss Megan, David is the best mock trial coach in the world. I haven't met any other mock trial coaches, but I know she's the best. Okay. Because she does so much more for us than just what she's signed up for. She helps us through all of those late night practices, learning and memorizing hundreds of lines and speeches and objections. And she taught us other things, too. She taught us confidence, mentorship, and she taught us how to have pride not only in our work, but in ourselves. She's helped us achieve so much more than we thought we could accomplish. And she believed in us when almost no one else did. Thank you, Megan, for always being there for us, and for being one of the best mentors I've
015ever known. Sorry. I'm Alexis. Hello. My name is Day Honor. I was an attorney, or I've been an attorney on the mock trial team, for both sides since my freshman year. And I just want to say that Megan is one of the most splendid women that I've ever met. She's so confident in herself and her joy and just vibrant being just blend into all of us. And it adds so much to our team. And I mean, you know, I'm so grateful for all of the resources that students of Mesquite I-s-d have. But like Mr. Blackwell said, Megan has no connection to Mesquite ISD, and her passion and her devotion to us is solely because of who she is. So she deserves the biggest round of applause ever. So let's go ahead and give that to
016her. Megan, can you come on down? We're going to get a picture with the students that Blackwell and yourself forever. Okay. I tried. To break. Okay. What do we got? Yeah. Focus this section here that we have here. I don't. Know. I mean, like. Oh. Okay. Here you. Thank you again. So that's here. Okay. Thank you again, Megan. Appreciate all you're doing for us. We will now move on to, student Stafford. Guest. Sabrina. Apple Corps honorees, please. And we, your honor, to present to the. Davenport in the walk up that is made possible by a partnership between the Sikh Education Foundation and Clay, who will receive our first, April apple Corps honoree is Jeanette Fano of Cross Elementary. Jeanette is a fifth grade fifth grade bilingual teacher with six years of teaching experience here in
017Mosquita. If you'll turn your attention to the screens, we'll learn more about Jeanette. I am so proud to present, Miss Jeanette Banal as Cross Elementary's first Apple Corps teacher. Miss banal has been an extra recent addition to our staff. Not only does she teach students academic skills, she teaches them soft skills that will carry them far as they develop into young adults and future employees. She leads our campus, as a PLC facilitator and also in various capacities across our campus. We are so delighted and excited to have Miss Vernal across Elementary and as our court teacher. Teaching is important because we are responsible for shaping and nurturing the minds of a new generation of kids. I truly love being a teacher because I can empower my students to be successful in life, to never give
018up, even when things get very difficult. And I encourage my kids to be critical thinkers so they can thrive in every aspect of their daily lives. All of these will be building positive and amazing relationships in the classroom. I truly believe that teaching is essential for both students and society in general. Because of the lasting impact it has. I have a proclamation to read for you. Whereas the Mosquita Independent School District Board of Trustees seeks to honor outstanding classroom teachers who demonstrate leadership and innovation, dedication to the students of Mesquite ISD. And Whereas Mosquita Mesquite 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 Jeanette Finnell into Mesquite I-s-d on the 14th day of April, 2025. Thank you so
019much to the people. Good evening everyone. First of all, I want to thank, Doctor Rivera and all the members for the amazing opportunity to stand here today and be recognized. I am truly humbled and honored to join the Apple Corp's community tonight. To be recognized for something that I'm so passionate about. Is both deeply touching and motivating. It is a reminder of why I chose this path in the first place, to make a difference in the lives of little kids. I believe that teaching isn't just about spreading knowledge. It's about building relationships, fostering curiosity, and helping students reach their fullest potential. And that's exactly what I am in my classroom every day. I truly believe that this recognition is not just a reflection of my work, but all the incredible leaders, colleagues and mentors who
020have supported me along the way. And I want to take a moment to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who has been part of this amazing journey. To my colleagues and administrators, especially Miss Bryson, Miss Lister, who are here tonight, and thank you for your support and collaboration. I am fortunate to work with such talented and dedicated leaders who constantly challenge me. Thank you to my cross family for nominating Embodying Me. Voting for me to receive this award. I would also like to thank my family. My husband and my mom are here tonight. Thank you for being my number one fan and for all the love and support you give me every single day. This path will be very difficult without you in my life. To my brother. Thank you for being a great example
021of work ethic. I look up to you every day. My brother, my sister in law, my nieces cannot be here. But I know they're at home cheering and clapping for me. I love you all so much. Thank you to the amazing coworkers. I have miss a year this year as family. I miss Rae and the ones that I have been blessed to work with in previous years and are also here tonight to share this moment with me. You are a true blessing and I'm so lucky to call you my friends. I have learned so much from each and every one of you, and I couldn't be here without your guidance and support. Thank you all once again for this amazing honor and I am incredibly thankful, and I look forward to continuing this journey of
022impacting the lives of so many students. Thank you. Our next Apple Corps honoree this evening is Rodrigo Ramirez Fernandez of Shot Elementary. Rodrigo is a third grade bilingual teacher with six years of experience here in Mesquite ISD. Let's take a look and see what makes Rodrigo an Apple Corps teacher. I would tell you, Rodrigo is is a great candidate to be the Apple Corps recipient. The moment that you step into his classroom is realizing that you can be in a welcoming environment, that you're going to have your friends, you're going to be able to grow in this classroom because you have a teacher who listens to you, who will have the patience and who knows a little bit about your story, because that was the story that he kind of went through. I want to
023congratulate Rodrigo for being an amazing, outstanding teacher and for being the Apple recipient for this year. Congratulations. I think teaching is important because we're not only getting students ready for the next school year or for a test, or we're getting them ready for life. In life, you always face things that you're not expecting, and you got to be prepared and know how to deal with those things that come to life. So I focus and not only teaching them, academics, but teaching them how to navigate life and the issues that come with it. Yes. I need this part back, though. I'll read a proclamation also. Where is 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 history. And Whereas, the
024Mesquite 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 Rodrigo Ramirez Fernandez into the mesquite ized Apple Corps on the 14th day of April 2025. Thank you very much for. Hello and good evening. First of all, I wanted to, thank the board, for having me here. This recognition means a lot to me. I really didn't expect it, and I was very surprised. But I want to thank the people that are here for me. My wife, my friends, my colleagues and peers. Who are also my friends. My administration. I've been so lucky to have them. And I think I am the teacher that I am because of them, too. Because they helped me become who I am. And,
025I want to thank everyone that's here for me. Because because of them, I am the person that I am today, too. So it's for them to thank you. We didn't get a chance to recognize your families and your, school family here. So, Miss Valdez, all your family is. Are they here? If they would stand, let us tell them how much we appreciate them if they're here. Yes. My mom and my husband are here. And your cross family? Are they here? They're here. Okay. Thank you guys for what you do. Mr. Fernandez, your family here? Yes. My wife's here. And my work. Right. All right. Thank you. Congratulations on behalf of the board. We appreciate what you do. Great job. Sabrina. All right. It's time for us to recognize our outstanding paraprofessional of the month with
026the star Power Award. We are excited to have First Financial Group of America partner with us to provide the star pair recipient a $50 gift card. Tonight, I'd like to ask our FGA representative to join our April Star parent, Tabitha Butler, along with, principal from Wilkinson Elementary, DeMarco Grant. They are at the podium up front. The, She's been at Wilkerson for nine years, and the word that pops out is resiliency, even today. She came in looking kind of kind of sick. Nothing too good. And, myself, my AP, my counselor, we tried to get it to just go home. Just take it. Just go home. We even sent the to our nurse, and she says no, we got a pare down. I got to be here to support these kids. So that's a telltale sign of
027just who she truly is. She is truly resilient. She truly does love Wilkinson Middle School and the student staff at Wilkerson Middle School. So thank you, Miss Butler. And. All right. Next up, we are pleased to recognize a very special community partner that is supported, Mesquite ISD and the Mesquite community. The Mesquite Promise League has made outstanding contributions to our school community this year. Let's watch a video to learn more about this group and how they support our schools and students. This month we are happy to present our Community Partner Award to the Mesquite ISD Promise League. The Promise League is composed of lots of parents who are joined together for the purpose of making sure that all families have a sense of belonging in their school. The parents meet monthly, and they work together
028on ways that they can best support the students and parents at each of their schools. Thank you so much to the Mesquite as Promise Lee. We are excited to have you as a community partner, making sure that all parents and families feel welcomed at their campuses. They kind of. So you can, after your summer, you can just sponsor, check back. Okay. He's with both groups. Yeah, because he's academic decathlon. Okay. Everybody except for her is on. This team great. Some kind of fumble that and told she should just get them right up front anyway, because. Never was like, I know everything. I was like, in that room. And they were like, no. And sure enough, it was. Yeah. No. I. All right. Now we are going to recognize a few students for some excellence in
029academics. First we have Diana Rangel. She won the Mesquite Rotary Club speech competition from a petite high school. And her sponsor is Jeffrey Blackwell. And and. Also from Poteet High School. Matthew Oliver won gold in social studies at the state academic decathlon competition. He. And the. Sponsor, Jeffrey Blackwell. All right, next up, we have Silver Coup, a gold in speech at state academic decathlon competition. Also from Poteet High School. I love. All right, next up, we have Miss Alexis Ben Willis silver in speech at state academic decathlon competition. Petite pirate. Sponsor Jeffrey Blackburn. Okay. And they're going to are they're going to come back. Okay. And we're going to welcome back. The other folks, this is our Academic decathlon team from Poteet High School advancing to state this year, Jeff Blackwell, Chris Barthel and Elizabeth
030Rose, our sponsors. It's your Poteet High School Academic Decathlon team. And this concludes our student staff recognitions for this evening. On. Come on. We will now move to Personnel and Action item to approve administrative contracts. Principal for elementary director. Communications assistant director for food services. Support. Mr. president, those three items. If you may, before we introduce the people, these are action items you received the the bios. You received the resumes. Your choice one at a time. Or you can do all three. I think we'll do all three. I got a motion by Mr. Bingham and second by Mr. Cabell. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please indicate by saying I, Those opposed. Motion passes six oh. Thank you, thank you. Board. Now that they've been approved. Now, if Doctor Fields would please approach the
031lectern, she will introduce you to the first candidate, which it happens to be the principal of Paris Elementary. Good evening, President Seward. Doctor Revere, trustees, it is my pleasure to tonight to introduce you to Gabriel Luna, the new principal of Pryce Elementary School. Here. Gabriel has completed 22 years in the field of education. He started his career as an instructional assistant and then as executive assistant, Richardson ISD. In 2011, he came to Mesquite ISD as a fourth grade teacher at Floyd Elementary. In 2015, he became the assistant principal at Shaw Elementary, and in 2023, Mr. Luma Luna became the assistant principal at Pryce Elementary. Mr. Luna holds a master of Educational Administration degree from Texas A&M Commerce, and a Bachelor of Science and Interdisciplinary Studies degree from the University of North Texas. Again, Mr. Luna,
032principal price Elementary School. Good evening everyone. I'm truly honored and humble to stand before you today as a newly appointed principal of Elementary. I would like to begin by expressing my deepest gratitude to the Mesquite as the Board of Trustees and to our superintendent, Doctor Ribera, for placing your trust and confidence in my leadership. This is another year, a position for me. It is a calling. I'm inspired by the strong legacy of excellence that exceeds that price, and I am committed to continuing that tradition with integrity, vision and heart to the board and the superintendent. Thank you for your unwavering commitment to student success and for your belief in transformative power of education. Your support makes it possible for leaders like myself to pursue innovation. While same grounded in the values that define our district.
033To the staff, teachers, students, family and community members. I am excited to walk along you as we work together to nurture a school culture rooted in equity, academic excellence, and social emotional well-being of every student. Together, we will continue to build upon the incredible work already happening here and push forward to even greater growth. Thank you again for this extraordinary opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Luna. The second item that you approved, or the second position you approved. The position has been vacant for quite a while. Probably two and a half years. We finally filled it. So, chief of communications Sabrina Smith will introduce the director of communications you just voted on. Thank you. Good evening, President Sawyer. Doctor Rivera and trustees. I'm very honored to introduce you tonight. Brenda Gonzalez, she's a communication professional with. Come
034on out. Nine years of experience in the field. Brenda has been a valuable member of the Mosquito City communication team since 2021, when she was hired as the district's first bilingual communications coordinator. She brings a diverse media and public relations background, having, just began her career as a news reporter and producer for local Spanish language television stations in Abilene, Corpus Christi and McAllen, Texas. Brenda holds a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism journalism with a minor in Spanish from the University of Texas at Arlington and a master's in strategic communications and public relations from Sacred Heart University. Brenda Gonzalez. I'm a little bit nervous, but I am truly honored and humbled to accept the role of Director of Communications. When I first joined the district in 2021, I immediately knew that this was where I belonged.
035I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Superintendent Doctor Angel Rivera, the Board of Trustees, and my vast Chief Communications Officer, Sabrina Smith. I do not take this for granted, and I am excited to continue working alongside such a talented and dedicated team. Also, thank you to my mom and dad for teaching me the value of hard work and always reminding me to support. I look forward to continuing to serve. I see and accomplish great things here. Thank you. In the last position that you approve, trustees is the, Food Nutrition Assistant director for Food Nutrition Support Services. My apologies. I'd. Rush. I apologize for let's have that one. Prepared to introduce, but our assistant director of finance support services, Miss Tamika Holman. And if you stand. Tamika has over 18 years of experience in
036child nutrition program administration. She has served as the lead consultant for child nutrition programs at Education Service Center Region ten supporting districts and meeting Texas Department of Agriculture regulations. Previously, she was the lead area supervisor for downsized food and child nutrition services. Miss Homan holds a master's of Business Administration from American University and a Bachelor of Science in Food and Nutrition business industry from Texas Women's University. I present to you Miss Tamika Homan, assistant director of Food and Nutrition Services. Michael. I to the board and the superintendent. I just want to thank you all for this, privilege to serve Mesquite ISD. I have worked with several districts and helping them be in compliance and be there for, Texas Department of Agriculture. So I am more than grateful to serve Mesquite ISD and make sure that
037they will continue on. Excellent in serving the students here in Mesquite. Thank you for this opportunity. We now move to the next action item under personnel, and that's to approve for probationary and term contract renewals for teachers, facilitators. Nurses and librarians. So. Every. One motion by Miss Hornsby and. And second, by Mister Everett to approve the contracts. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed. Motion passes six zero. Now break. We will now take a ten minute recess. We will now reconvene from break. We will now move to our audience portion on those wishing to speak on items on the agenda. Miss Smith, do we have any? Nope. There being none. Then we'll move on to the consent agenda. Board members, are there any items on the consent
038agenda you wish to pull and discuss and vote on separately? Or would you have a motion to approve all those that are under the consent agenda at the moment? So move three moved. Second. I have a motion by Miss Hornsby and second by Mr. Campbell. Any further discussion? There being none, all those in favor of the motion to approve the consent agenda, please indicate by saying I. Those those opposed. Nay. The motion passes six zero. We will now move back to, Well, you have report on resignations and replacements if you have any questions on that. If not, we will move on. Next we will move to effectiveness report on family and community engagement. Miss Parris. Yes, Miss Patino. Yay! All right. I know you practiced. So, did you get it? Under an hour and a
039half. It is under an hour and a half. Great. Yes, sir. No problem. Good evening, President Seward and IAC trustees, doctor Rivera. I'm Lindsay Paris, and this is Cynthia Patino. We are the coordinators of family and community engagement for the district. And this evening, we are just grateful for the opportunity to share with you some of the work that we're doing in our department to reach families in our community. I'll start by sharing these goals that were established during our district strategic planning process last year, and I want to point out that our department exists so that students have the opportunity to be successful. Everything that we do is with the student in mind. We want our students to succeed, and we're striving for that goal in several ways. One, by providing learning opportunities for
040families who have a child at every stage of development. We're also providing district support to campuses as they implement programing and support to families on their campus. We're connecting families to community resources as well as to each other, and also we're establishing and maintaining community partnerships with local businesses in our community. And we believe that when we do all of these things, our students will have an incredible opportunity to be successful. Even though Cynthia and I share the same title. Our work, our day to day jobs look very different. And so I'm going to start because my work focuses mainly on families with the younger kids, 0 to 5 and really up to those early elementary years. I wanted to start by sharing this image, and this was something that we created when we were
041developing a partnership with Dallas Regional Medical Center, which I'll share a little bit about in the next slide. But this is really our ideal pathway for families, who have a child between the ages of zero and three. You can see that there are different developmental milestones that we want. The child to reach, and ways that the family can help the child reach those milestones. But then you'll also see there are call outs to different programs that we offer within the district, like Leanna, Start and Little Readers. We also want families to know that at three years old, it's time to register their child for pre-K. And so we're doing what we can, to show the importance of pre-K for all children. The Read Play Talk initiative was established during the 2016 2017 school year under
042the leadership of Doctor David Berglund, and I hope that you'll see. And this slide in the following slides, how we're staying true to that mission. When it was established that we're encouraging parents and caregivers to read, play and talk with their children every day starting at birth, while we're also growing this program and expanding our outreach in the community. This school year, Read Play Talk offered ten community events that included the read Play, Talk Festival and Community Expo, which is our large fall event, the Read Play Talk Fair, which we just had a couple of weeks ago, and then read play talk pop ups. In previous years, these have been offered only in the summer. This year we actually added pop ups that took place on professional learning days. And that was a lot of
043fun. We got to interact with families year round at those pop ups. New this year to the read Play Talk Festival. You'll notice we've had a name change for the read play, Talk Festival and community Expo this year. We partnered with the Mesquite Chamber of Commerce at this event. This was a huge success for us. It was a great partnership. It's the largest attendance we've seen at this event yet. It gave us exposure to several new businesses in our community that we weren't already connected with. And so that's definitely something that we're excited to continue with. This event. And that partnership also got us nominated for collaboration of the year for the Mesquite Chamber of Commerce. We did not win that event, which I feel like we should have, and that is another discussion that
044we can have another day. But we we're estimating we saw over 5000 people at the Replay Talk festival, the read play talk Fair that we just had a couple of weeks ago. We're estimating over 1000 people attended that event. And at our pop ups we see about 50 families per pop up. And at every event, we're very intentional about being sure that we're handing out free resources and books to every family in attendance. I also wanted to point out a partnership that we established this year with Dallas Regional Medical Center. This was a huge partnership. Took months to develop. But we have developed a baby book bag program where every family who delivers a baby at Dallas Regional Medical Center will receive a baby book bag, and you can see some of the items that
045are included in that picture. But we want families to have the resources and the knowledge of the importance of reading, playing and talking with their child every day starting at birth. That's a big push for that program. But we also want families to know that Mesquite ISD supports the family, and we want to work alongside them as their child is developing. We know that the brain develops most rapidly between the ages of zero and three, and so we want to do what we can to excuse me, to support those families. Lena start. That's our free parent education program for families with a child under the age of three. Since we launched this program in the spring of 2021, we've had 438 families who have participated in Lena start. Families are reading an average of 16
046more minutes per day, which if you'll look at that graph that's on the slide, families are reading more than twice the amount that they were reading before they started the program. So that's something we're really proud of. We're seeing high increases in adult words and in the child's language development. Currently, Lena Start is offered on 12 elementary campuses across Mesquite ISD. And that is something that we plan to maintain going into next school year. We are also looking into, gathering some longitudinal data on the students who've participated in Lena Start. So we're working closely with the district's assessment and accountability team. We're just waiting for that number to get a little bit larger of students who have participated in the program that are currently enrolled in our school and our schools currently, we have four
047students who participated in Lena Start that are in first grade, 17 students that are in kindergarten, 23 students that are in pre-K four. And as you can imagine, that number gets larger and eligible grade levels as we go down. So it will take a few years for us to get a large enough number of students. To gather some accurate data. But I just wanted to assure you that is something that we're being very mindful of and something that we have plans to track. I also want to share good news, Lena Start is fully funded for the 2526 school year, thanks to a grant from the Mosquito City Education Foundation. The Little Readers is a new program that launched this school year. Several of our campuses have done baby Sorry Baby book clubs in the past,
048and this year we launched at district wide renaming at Little Readers. 28 elementary campuses have seen families participate in this program. This school year, they're averaging five families in attendance. When families attend each session, they're obviously getting a quality storytime. They're getting a hands on activity to do with their child. But we're also sharing information about Lena Start, Mesquite ISD, pre-K and First Readers, which is a program that we partner with that delivers free books to children once a month until they turn five. This program is hosted by the campus librarians. The content was created with the Teaching and Learning department, which we're very grateful for. Their support and at the end of every session, families leave with a free book. If you've been to one of our elementary campuses, you've probably seen a little
049free library near the front door. We have 30 free little Free libraries that are sponsored by community members. The reason that number is not 34 is because Henry's Little Free Library is currently being, rebuilt by some students at Vanguard. So next year, we'll be at 34 campuses that are sponsored by community members. The Vanguard students are also reconstructing a little free library that will be placed in downtown Mesquite. So we're excited to offer books there to our community. And I just always want to reiterate it's book donations from families and community members that allow us to keep these libraries stocked year round. There's this year we received a large donation from Half Price Books. That was so helpful and keeping our library stocked for this year. Lastly, I'll touch on Camp Excel. As you'll remember,
050we launched this program last summer and I jokingly say, but it was kind of cheery. I didn't know if seven kids were going to sign up, or 700 kids were going to sign up, but we ended up with 395 students, 51 different classes that were offered, various CTE programs that I've listed. We had classes for each of those, and then other camp topics like Spanish and Legos, creative Writing camp, camp Excel 2025 registration opened on April 1st, and we already have over 150, sign ups. So we're really excited about that. This year in January, we received a $5,000 grant from the Thai Foundation, and then in February, we received a $20,000 grant from the vast foundation. That is so helpful. We really believe in the importance of keeping the cost to families low for Camp
051Excel, and in order to do that, we needed to seek additional funding to help offset some of those costs. So in the spring. Thank you. And as you can see, Lindsey does a wonderful job of providing that support to our families from 0 to 5. So what we do at the Family Engagement Center, we, work with parents who have students who are already in the school system. Because we know that it does not only stop whenever they're at the home, but we also need to make sure that that learning continues at the house as well. With the support of, of, our teachers. So we're very excited that this year is a very first year that we have five facilities at our family engagement center. Thanks to the support of the school district, who knows and
052understands that family engagement is truly making an impact at home as well, as the schools. So we have five feeder, five facilitators, one for each feeder pattern, which allows that all of these, classes that we have at our family engagement center are being more accessible to parents at their home campuses. So what we're mainly known for is our weekly learning workshops that we host at our family engagement center of a pioneer in East Davis. So we currently, see over 150 parents. We provide these classes in both English and Spanish. And what we strive to do there is to make sure that we are also helping the parents, see it in their eyes and through their children's eyes. What is it that they're learning? So we want to make sure that we're giving them that support
053so that they can also continue the learning at home. So it is very, very important that we're making sure that they feel that sense of belonging. We notice that our parents are feeling very comfortable, and we provide surveys to see what is exactly that they need to feel that they are confident in supporting their children at home. So one of those things that we've noticed through our parent surveys is that they wanted to know what are the requirements that are there. Our students are needing to graduate high school. What happens after they graduate high school? And as you know, it is a very difficult, pathway once they get out of high school, how do we make sure that our students or that our children's are prepared for the future? So what we came up is
054with talking with these parents, with our parents, and talking with counselors. We came up with one of our empowerment groups called Empower You, which serves to help parents understand what are all the guidelines required for graduation and what the, what they can help their students so that they can be successful after high school. Because we know that learning doesn't stop there. And as you can see through this graph and the classes that we support there, our parents came in with very little confidence in how they can support their child. And at the end of the six sessions, they were able to feel very confident in talking with their children about what is the hope for their future once they graduate high school. So it's just tremendous to see. And we've hosted these at three of
055our feeder patterns. We've hosted them during the day and during the evening to make sure that we are giving that flexibility for parents who work during the day to be able to come in the evening to, some of those sessions, we even had some of those high school students come with their parents, and it's just amazing to see the conversations that occur after what the parents can ask their student, their children at home. Another great, great project that we've started this year is Our Promise League. And as you can see, there are a huge part of our community. We did have over half of our, Promise League parents come to this meeting today to be recognized as our community partner. Excited to share with you all that. We do have one parent representative for each
056of our campuses. We meet with them in a monthly basis to make sure that they feel supported, in any way that they can to help promote volunteer hours at their campuses. And these parents have organized they've come together to organize events such as copies and coffee. They've done, colored runs. They've, you know, just helped out kids in any way possible. And it's just amazing to see how they collaborate with within their feeder pattern and throughout the entire city of Mesquite. And it's it's just amazing how they say, oh, well, have you tried this and have you tried that? So it's not only, hey, this is my campus and I'm keeping all the good stuff for myself. They're actually sharing and collaborating with with each other, which is what we want our kids to do. And,
057as you can see, we have this is our first year, so we're still, trying to figure out what the baseline is. But we have seen that over the last semester. We have seen over 3000 volunteer hours. And we expect that that will continue to grow because our parents are there, you know, making sure that other parents see them and they're inviting them in as well. But we also want to make sure that we're making everybody feel comfortable. And one of our goals is to increase the male participation in all of our schools. And so this year, the end of last semester, we started our program called Dads in Difference Makers. It is currently at the horn feeder pattern, but we also have three more schools that are in the initial stages. It is great to
058see the dads coming in, and saying, hey, what is it that I can do? What can I do to make sure that the students feel comfortable and motivated to come to school? And we know that the male presence just then standing there and shaking the kid's hands or saying, hey, what's up? How are you this morning makes a huge difference. They know that they have submitted. They can come and talk to, We do have monthly meetings with the dads and they schedule monthly fun events such as, hey, we're going to come one day to open the doors for the, the kids, or we're going to meet up after school and we're going to shoot some hoops, or I'm going to teach you how to, tie a tie. And all of this is just to make
059sure that the kids are feeling safe, secure, and that they have somebody to come, to talk to if they ever have any type of questions. We also another one of our, empowerment groups that we created is in partnership with the city of Mesquite, and we, have provided project lead. This is our second round, which we have already had some of those participants serve on our Mesquite ISD committees, such as a site based decision making committee, eye and dress codes. And this just allows them to make sure that they are knowing that their voice is valued. They come in and they talk about what is the needs that they see in the community, as well as what can be done in the school district. So we're making sure that we're building that school to home connection
060as well as with the community. We've also talked with our parents, through through our classes, through events, but as well as through surveys. And we noticed that parents also want to make sure, yes, they want to be able to support their children, but they also want to grow themselves. They want to be that role model for their child and let them know that they can. If they can do it, it's most certainly that they that they have the opportunity can do it themselves too. And here are some of the topics that our parents have. Let us know that they would like to know more about. So this year we have created these classes because we saw the need from our parents. And we know that not only the parents and the kids get to have
061all the fun, but we want to make sure everybody in the family gets to have some of the fun. And so here you can see a few pictures and some things that we've done to make sure that we are supporting all of our families across with fam, with other different families. We've created a moms club at Grandparents Club, we have family cooking classes, but studies for the entire family and they even got free pro annual memberships so that they can go and have fun while they're reading, playing and talking as well. So you can see there's lots of avenues that parents can feel that support from each other. And within our two rows, we have been able to have a lot of fun, a lot of celebrations. We've hosted over 100 workshops at the campuses
062for families. We've also created the Promise League, which is helping, run that program for volunteers at the campuses, making sure that parents feel that they are welcome, that they do have a voice in our campuses. We do have a new volunteer system that allows us to track how many, parents are coming in, how many hours they're volunteering. We are excited that also, Lancaster has been funded 100% for the upcoming school year, and overall we have received over $350,000 in donations for our families. But overall, we are extremely excited and happy that, our school district shows that there's support in our family engagement and what we're trying to do with our families and making sure that they have a sense of belonging. But along the way, as you know, nothing can be so pretty in pink
063and all great. We we have had some challenges. We are still working on securing more partnerships so that we can provide more resources to our families. We're also trying to work hard on getting those children who do not have siblings or are not of school age, atmosphere, AC so they don't really know what what we are all about. And as always, time has been a big challenge for us, just trying to find the right time that parents can come to, these events and classes. But overall, the majority of our classes are this is our first year, so we're still in that first year learning, trying to collect data that will allow us to continue to improve, what we do. And so thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to talk and share a
064little bit about what we do. And we hope that you can come by and visit us one day at the Family Engagement Center and at some of the pop ups and fun activities that the replay department has. Well, thank you now and see if there's any questions or comments or questions. Board members or comments. No limitation. The excitement Lindsay and Cynthia Joel demonstrate is contagious. Thank you very much for all you do. Thank you, thank you. Great report. Thank you very much. Thank you. Lindsay, you still have an hour and ten minutes left. Next is a report under instruction, the Student Health Advisory Council. Miss Daniella and Cody, one at a time, So that. All right. Good evening, miss guitarist. School board members and Doctor Rivera. My name is Daniella Rodarte, and I'm the Penn
065Hills coordinator here for our district. I'm here to give you a brief update on our school health advisory council for the school year of 2425. I am, I had the pleasure of leading my first, school health advisory council this school year alongside am I parent Joe Paris. So thank you, Lindsay Paris, for allowing him to be a part of this. This was Mr. Paris's first year as my co-chair. So he will remain in this position next school year. I appreciate his dedication and willingness to serve alongside me this school year, and all the help and experience he brings this year. The shock was composed of nine parents that represented all six of our high schools two community members, four students and four district representatives. They are all listed on the slide in front of you.
066We opened up this roster this year to add a few more students, so we had majority of our high schools as a representative. What is catch? So catch I mean, what is shack? So, our school health advisory Council is in place to assist our district as a valuable source of community input in values reflected in health education instruction. We only provide recommendations and discuss a variety of topics in here. Just a few we have. Our catch was a coordinated approach to child health for grades K through eighth House Bill 1525, which outlines the requirements for shack in House Bill 3908, which is our fentanyl prevention and drug poisoning awareness education. Our Trina assessment is a comprehensive evaluation every three years that assists a district compliance with the local school wellness policy, which we completed last
067year. In past years, our shack has ensured implementation of the catch program and help set policies for physical education. Last year, Shaq was tasked with completing the Trina assessment and Wellness Policy and reviewing CT e materials for adoption. So our meetings for this year, we have the Mi Shack held four meetings, and each meeting was audio recorded and uploaded to this page of our district website, as required by House Bill 1525. During our first meeting of the 2425 school year, we discuss the pros and the cons of an Misd health graduation requirement that was in talks about keeping or removing that requirement. Moving forward, our district has decided that health will not be a graduation requirement. However, it will still be a recommended course for our students. Our second meeting included a presentation from Assistant
068Principal Belinda Lawson and intervention counselor Audrey Eddings from Kimbrell Middle School on the Community Drug Miss Awareness program they created under House Bill 3908. This is something we hope to grow with our other campuses in our district. We also received updates within our health service department from Macy, Milton on the implementation of our new Medical Emergency Response Team. Each campus has a team that is certified in CPR and aid. Lastly, we discuss the updates made with how school 15 to 25 regarding optional parent permission. Mosquita ISD will continue to require opt in for our students with this material. During our third meeting, Director of Safety and Security Jeff Moore presented updates we have made throughout our district regarding student and staff safety. I also presented to our council about the Texas Youth Tobacco Survey at
069North Mesquite High School, which was selected to participate in and will partake in this month. This survey is composed of data to help provide and enhance tobacco prevention prevention education throughout the state of Texas. Our last meeting of the year, we got interactive with our CT Health Science students from Mesquite High School in West Mesquite. They shared their skills and knowledge, learned throughout the year by sharing a health fair filled with the vital sign checks, eac, evaluations and blood sugar checks. We also had Madison MacGregor from Food and Nutrition present updates that they had throughout the school year, such as new food items that have been added to our menu, and a new student chef showdown they have created this school year. All meetings were conducted in the K built Professional Development Center in this
070boardroom. As we move forward into the, next school year, we are keeping a close eye on legislation and changes that can occur in the new school year. Here are just a few that could affect our district Senate Bill 25, which is Make Texas Healthy Again, requires daily physical education for students from kindergarten eighth grade and prohibits the removal of recess, physical education, and sports practice for disciplinary reasons. Additionally, the bill requires nutrition education for students in Texas high schools and institutions for higher learning. Currently, we have physical education every day, which is 250 minutes. It's required right now when 35 House Bill 2849 requires the Board of Trustees to adopt a recess policy based on the model recess policies developed by the Department of State Health Services. Schack specifies a number of minutes of weekly
071UN instructor playtime and whether students recess may, recess time may be held as a form of student discipline. And the last one is House Bill 497, which requires district to obtain written parental consent before providing behavior or mental health services, or treatment to a child, including contraceptive or informal materials related to family planning, human sexuality, or mental health. As you can see, our shack was informed on many updates happening within our district this school year. The council is an amazing team that truly cares about our community, and I enjoyed working with them in my first year. At this time, I will take any questions you may have. Thank you. The next item on the agenda, board members, is under administration. This is where I have to announce the, annual school board training credit. I will
072say that I have to name each one. This will be reflected in the minutes. Mr. Bingham has exceeded his required training in topics one, two and three. Mr. Carbo has exceeded his training requirements in topics one, two and three. Mr.. Your career has exceeded her requirements in topics two and three. And his decision in topic one. Mr. Everett has exceeded his training in topics one, two and three. Elaine Hornsby. Sorry. Topics one and two and three. Yeah. And Miss Hornsby also exceeded her, required training in topics one, two and three, as well as Mr. Rose exceeding his, training requirements and topics one, two and three, as well as myself exceeding required training topics one, two and three. Any questions? Of that you also have good outstanding. It is a lot of there were a lot
073of hours spent. But actually to me announcing that yes thank you that I appreciate next on the agenda is under approved matters pertaining to the regular school trustee election for May 3rd. If you look at your board book, there's a motion to adopt a resolution certifying school trustee candidates and set a date to canvass election returns for that, election. I'm sorry. Oh, the certification of candidates for place one is to your career. She's unopposed. Place two is Mr. Eddie Rose and Miss Kerry Bruce and Mr. Carmel made a motion to approve. Second Mister Bingham, second. I have a motion to approve the matters pertaining to the regular school board trustee election for May 3rd. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying I, those opposed, nay. Motion passes six
074zero. Next item on the agenda is an action to set the date for the canvass to canvass the bond. Election returns first. Was that Mr. Bingham seven. I have a motion by Mr. Bingham, second by Mr. Cabell, to approve the, set the date for the canvass of bond. Election returns will be on May the 12th. That's a Monday at 5:45 p.m.. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed at best. I'm sorry. May 31st. I'm sorry. No, no. The canvass, the date we set. The date is May 12th. Is that correct? Well, just correct. Yes. That's correct. Again, to canvass for the May 3rd election. Yes, sir. Thank you. Canvas. Can't we have to do that for the trustee election as well as we just
075did that we did. That was the previous motion of that was heard from you know were and set the date. Very good. I. It had both of them under their next on the agenda is discussion and report on district wide intrusion detection audit report findings Mr. Morris. Mr.. Mr.. Morris, Mr.. Morris, wait a minute. How many more we got in here? Too many. My monthly update on our intruder detection audits that we get from TDA. We have about a month and a half of school left. We have had 44 of the 52 audits completed, so we have eight remaining. The rest of the school year, they will get 100% of our schools. Touched on before the end of the school school year. We have a safety and Security committee meeting next week that we will
076discuss ideas and the district vulnerability assessments, things that I've mentioned up here each month. A little bit further with that committee. Right now we're running out of time on us being one of the districts that they choose to do. Some of the district vulnerability assessments. So I look for that to start next school year, but our people will be prepared for that. Thank you. Before we move on to questions, reminders and adjournment, I'd like to take a moment to recognize a couple people that are here. We have a council member here with us, Mr. Teddy Burrows, who's been very supportive. The district has joined us down in Austin to advocate on public education. Well, just let you know how much we really appreciate you, partnering with the school district and promoting public education and funding.
077Also with him is a miss 19 board. We want to thank her for her service as chair of the for B Committee. Is that correct? And for all that you've done for the city of Mesquite through that for B, funds allocation. So thank you both for being here tonight and supporting public education with that. Mr.. Board members, you do have in front of you the tentative agenda for next month with some dates and activities. Any further questions? There's no other business and there's no objection to adjourn. We are adjourned. Thank you. So.