March Board Meeting

001Turn and she's like judge. >> Yeah. >> Why do you say judge? I feel like No, >> I feel like an episode. >> Yeah, cuz there's more than one judge. >> Oh, yeah. Don't look at my foot. >> It's okay. I need our board meeting, our regular scheduled board meeting at Midway Independent School District to order at 7 p.m. On behalf of the board, I extend a warm welcome to those present and to our online viewers. We appreciate the time you've taken to join us if you're interested in speak. Please silence your cell phones if you've not done so already. Please remember that the board's role is to set goals, listen to reports of the superintendent and staff, approve budgets, set tax rates, approve contracts, approve personnel recommendations, and make policy in the district. We

002are not here to make management decisions. Management is responsibility of the superintendent and his staff. For those of you here for the recognitions, we will pause following the recognition to allow anyone who does not want to the meeting to exit. Out of courtesy and respect for all of those who are being recognized tonight, we finally ask you to please wait until that time before you leave. We start each board meeting with one of our board members reading our mission statement and giving us an insight into what it means to them at this time and is going to do that for us. Thank you. Guaranteed to delight and inspire. Midway ISD will maximize individual potential within a larger centered and supportive environment to prepare students to excel in a global society. That kind of environment doesn't

003just exist. It is built carefully and consistently by people who continue to show up and do the work. And these days it seems that work just keeps getting harder and heavier. Expectations and demands are not shifting. They are accelerating. and they are so often met by those who go too often unnoticed. As we will see later in tonight's meeting, some of the most important work for this district happens behind the scenes long before it ever touches a classroom. It's in the careful attention to each student. It's in the systems that support them. It's in countless daily decisions to do things the right way. And it's in the firm resolve to keep moving forward. Even when the path ahead is increasingly apart, our students come prepared to excel because our staff is continually faithfully committed to

004providing excellence. Very good. Thank you, Miss Watts. Next is the moment of silence. So, we will take a moment of silence to reflect. Thank you. Next is a pledge of allegiance and tonight it's Chapel Park Elementary School students with their principal Kim Hawkins. >> Good evening, President >> Vic. Dr. Allen Midway ISD board of trustees. I am the proud principal to welcome our Chapel Park archery team from 2026. I know that Mr. Wit, you know them very well. Um he he came out and he shot with our team and um we were pretty impressed, I will say. But I am not the person that I want to say stand up here tonight because I want to hand the mic over to Coach Yodar who is right behind me who led this team this year to

005number 12th in the state of Texas. So we are so excited for this and so I'm going to let him introduce um the student members and then say the pledge. Thank you all so much. members of the board and general public, thank you for having us here for the pledge. Um, this is our team, part of our team. We took 24 students down to San Antonio last Friday. It was a long day. Uh, out of 28 schools of elementary that participated, we finished 12th. Last year, we finished 17th. So, we're moving on up like they say. Uh, we have Lenny, Jacqueline, we have Kora, Kaden, Bess, we have Elena, Elijah, sorry, um, Aiden, um, Oliver, Max, Jackson, Ma, uh, Mason, uh, Zachary, uh, Colt. I have a lot of students. Sorry. >> Hard pressure. We

006have Bryley, Fiona, Maggie, Naomi, uh Kenley, Grayson, uh Clara, Rudy, Chaden, and Clay. And my co uh teacher here was um um Coach Cece. She helped me out with a team as well. We scored 5,629 points for this year. So, congratulations You had great parent support. And now I'd invite all of us to please stand, face the flag behind us, and join us in saying the pledge of 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 and justice for all. >> Good job, guys. >> Excellent. Let's give them another round of applause. 12th in the state. Amazing. Well done, kids. That's great. >> Do you have on your team now? >> Uh 24. We started with 72 tried out,

00740 who made the preliminary cut, and then we had uh qualifying tournament and now Woodway Elementary is also joining and they'll hopefully be with us next year as well. >> It's fantastic when Midway started the archery in the schools program at South. I'm so impressed to see how much it's grown. Congratulations >> college. Thank you for your leadership. Recognitions and tonight our trustee Pam Watts will help hand those out. And we're going to start first with um Dr. Allen giving us our recognition days for March. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you, President Vic. We have quite a few. It is Texas History Month, >> Women's History Month, Music in Our Schools Month, theater in our schools month, National Youth Art Month. This is big fine arts month, y'all. Theater in our schools month. Texas Girls and

008STEM Day was March 1st. Red Cross, I'm sorry, ReadAcross America Day was March 2nd. Ironic that I misread read on read across America. Texas Independence Day was March 2nd. National School Social Work Week was March 1 through 7. Celebrate Texas Public Schools Week March 1- 7. Educational Diagnosticians Week March 1- 7. National School Breakfast Week March 2. And then maintenance worker appreciation day, March 6. A number of these days recognize folks who work in schools. And to Miss Watt's point earlier, the people who work behind the scenes and so I hope that as you run across these folks throughout the course of this month, you tell them you appreciate how much they do to make our schools great. >> Thank you, Dr. Allen. Emily Parks, if you please come up to the podium. We are

009going to do the PTA state reflections, which Midway always does very well. in the competition. >> Good evening board and community. Thank you so much for joining us. Uh yes, um President Vic, we have not always done very very well with reflections and this year we've done even better. We have two campuses that this was their first year uh to be taking part in the PTA reflections program and both had students that not only advanced state but then placed while they were there. So, we're very very proud of uh the the groups and the students that are here tonight. So, uh we would like to recognize Midway students who earned honors in the Texas PTA Reflections Program. It's a statewide arts competition that encourages students to express their creativity through visual arts, literature, photography, music

010composition, dance choreography, and more. Before we recognize these students, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the role that PTA plays in supporting our schools. Midway is fortunate to have active PTAs at every campus, and many of you that are in here right now are part of those PTAs. Their volunteers support students and staff in countless ways through campus programs, classroom resources, events, and advocacy for public education. and we are incredibly grateful for their partnership and everything the foundation that they build at all of our schools for all of our students and staff. The reflections program is one of the many ways that PTA encourages student creativity and artistic expression and students from several campuses receive state level recognition this year. Starting off uh uh our awards from Chapel Park Elementary, I'd like to

011ask PTA Representative Jessica Smith to join us. And then we have Sophia Smith, Caroline Talbert, Cali Ellis, Maggie Helm, Finley Dunaway. Each of these earned awards in literature, dance choreography, visual arts, literature, and dance choreography. Got a lot of readers and dancers here at Chapel Park. South, we're gonna keep everybody up here. We're going to take one large group picture of everyone together so that we can show the just the number that that really participated this year. From South Bossy Elementary like our PTA representative, Vice President Tracy Marlin, and she'll come up. Our students are Stella Kendrick, award of merit for visual arts, and James Lani, a partic participation award for music composition. Park Hill Elementary. Our PTA representative Jennifer Weaver is here with Khloe Wong who earned an award of merit for photography. I

012don't believe our middle school and high school are here, but we had students from River Valley Middle School. Uh Sophia Lovado who earned participation in music composition and the high school, Corey McCormack, Ivy Heinen, and Bo Fan, their representative is Laura Hathway. So, please join us in congratulating these talented students and thanking our Midway PTA organizations and volunteers for making opportunities like this possible. >> I was in that picture. It's a big gap. >> Congratulations students on being recognized for your hard work. Jess Wheeler will come up to the podium next and we are going to do the TAFFB state competition and national qualifiers. >> Good evening to everyone. So, Midway High School students recently competed in the Texas Association of Future Educator State Competition where they demonstrated their skills and passion for the teaching

013profession through events focused on instructional design, educational research, and classroom communication. Under under the leadership of Vanessa Doolock, these Midway students delivered an outstanding performance. Miss Doolock, will you please come forward? There are a lot of these, so if we could hold our applause, uh, we we'll applaud all of them at the end. We have Victoria de la Perez, Children's Lit, K3 Spanish. We have Mariah Rogers and Katherine Rogers, research learning challenges. We have Zoe Martinez and Victoria Dea Perez, elementary interactive bulletin board. We have Ava Weatherly for elementary interactive bullet bulletin board. We have Kira Tinker uh teacher created materials. Michaela Stucky, teacher created materials. Bianca Phillips and Julysa Denny project visualization service. So, a total of eight students qualified to advance to the national competition. Let's go ahead and give these ladies quickly

014a round of applause. But a total of eight students uh qualified to advance to the national competition which I believe is in Portland, Oregon. Right, Miss Doolock? Uh which is an impressive achievement. We have Bianca Phillips and Julysa Denny and their teacher created materials. We have Morgan Rachel's in job interview. We have Samantha Dodd and Children's Lit K through three. We have uh Selene Cruz and Jordan Clever PSA teacher recruitment. And we have Caleb Baron and Oliver Bias, Elementary Interactive Bulletin board. Please give these students a round of applause. Thank you again students for all of your hard work. Thank you Miss Doolock for everything that you do for our students. Halfway. Well done students. That's excellent work. Mr. Wheeler, stay at the podium. And now you will do the cyber patriot state competition, please.

015>> So next we recognize Midway High School students who competed in Cyber Patriot, the national youth cyber defense competition. Cyber Patriot places teams of students in the roles of newly hired IT professionals responsible for managing the network of a small company through a series of online uh competition rounds. Students work through their virtual operating systems to identify and fix cyber security vulnerabilities while maintaining critical services. This year, Midway had 11 teams competing from cyber security networking and ROC classes. Two teams qualified in the platinum tier, five within the gold and five more within the silver. The teams being recognized tonight advanced to the national semifinals with team 18 and 10 finishing fifth nationally and the MCJOTC gold tier and team 18-109 finishing just four points behind under the leadership of Mrs. Jones, Susan Jones and

016Mr. Jeremy Macccarver. uh which you if you could please come forward. We will then represent uh those students. Again, there's quite a few students here, so please hold your applause till the end. We have Elias Celibbe, Clark Wash, Callum McGregor, Yousef Altun, Gabriel Lozano, Zakai Tien, Grayson Cochran, Cameron Kirkpatre, Mason Ledner, Chris Reed, uh- Chris Reed, excuse me, Arise Dwani, Braden Singleton, Drake Dodie, Wyatt Tuch, Jonathan Broaddin, Harrison Parker, and Katie Sonnenberg. Please join me in congratulating these students and thanking their coaches. >> Let's do one with two rows in the back. Excellent. >> Thank you students. another job well done which just you know every every month we're always reminded how well our students perform in anything they try and how many students participate and that's just always um a good sign of engagement

017at the schools. >> Dr. Allen, if you'll give us the TSP state star awards. >> Yes, ma'am. We would like to recognize members of the Midway ISD Communications Department for their achievements at the 2025 Texas School Public Relations Association's State Star Awards. One of the highest honors for school communications and marketing in Texas. Communications Director Emily Parks and Communication Systems Coordinator Robert Prior were recognized across multiple categories including marketing, publications, video production, and advocacy communications. Their work earned one Crystal Certificate of Merit, the program's highest level recognition, along with three gold awards, three silver awards, and one bronze award. These honors reflect the strength of Midwayd strategic communications and marketing efforts and the team's commitment to sharing the stories, achievements, and impact of Midway students, staff, and schools with our community. Please join us in

018congratulating Emily Parks and Robert Prior for representing Midway ISD with excellence at the state level. Bravo. Bravo. >> I was kind of curious how we were going to get their photo. Thanks, Tracy. >> That's right. She paved the way. Thank you, Tracy. >> Well done. That's talented staff. Helps when you have people handle that. >> Thank you, Dr. Allen. Um, next on the agenda is public comments, and there are none this evening. So, we will move on to information items. Do any board members have any questions or need to discuss the information item since there's only one? >> Oh, I forgot. Thank you. Hang on, Pam. I forgot. Yes, please. This is your pause. I forgot to pause. Thank you. >> I forget something at every meetings. >> Miller wants to stay. >> We sneak.

019We We're going to sneak make it sneaky and sneak keep you there. Oh yeah, it says pause for break. >> I was doing good. Let's get that. >> Pause for effect. >> Check. Okay. >> Wouldn't be a schoolboard meeting if I didn't mess something up, would it? Okay. >> Keeping on your toes is what it is. I'm making sure you're awake. >> Okay, let's try that again. I think Miss Watts wants to talk about our information item. >> Um, yes. First of all, just say I'm thrilled that our students want to start a hiking club. My husband and I are big hikers and I'm I'm delighted that we're hitting this. If you will pardon my ruthless editorial, uh a number of positions require members to be uh members in good standing, but I'm not seeing

020where in your constitution a clear definition of good what good standing is. It's it's implied, but I don't see it stated. I'll follow up with the high school and get you some information. >> Tiny little wordsmith tweak, but I wouldn't be a writer if I didn't jump on it. So, >> okay. All right. Is that it, Miss Watts? Thank you. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Presentation discussion items. A schematic designs for MHS gym edition. I think Aubrey Moses is here with Huckabe. You'll come forward. Thank you, Aubrey. Right. Good evening. Uh thanks for the opportunity to come present an update. This is the uh first major bond program project uh from the 2025 bond and u so just want to update you on where we are in the design process. All of this front-end stuff

021is just here for record if you decide to reference it in the past or in in the future. Um it gives project team narrative all the things that I'll talk through tonight. Um, we did have multiple meetings uh with uh Brad Shelton, uh Ken, Jesse, Dr. Allen, and uh some others along the way as we uh developed this uh design. So, a high level summary where we are um we are adding a total of 23,881 square feet to the existing high school and renovating 8,700. Um, so we're touching about 32,000 square feet of the high school. Uh, the bond budget was a little over 20,000 square feet. So, this does include a little bit of additional square footage. We'll go over where that is and why that is uh in this presentation. And hopefully you

022see the added value in that uh overall site plan. Just to give you context, Mars Road is across the top of the uh screen. The circle represents the existing main entrance. Uh you'll see on the southwest corner is where the athletics addition is going to go. Um it's just to the left of the arena entrances. Uh staying within the existing fire lane and parking lot just taking up all of the remaining green space that's there. Uh also on that west side you'll see that a detention pond is likely. Um our civil engineer still evaluating that and we'll be coordinating that with the city of Waco. Um but we are anticipating that at this time. Again, just overall floor plan for context for you to see where the addition is on the uh southwest part of

023the campus. This is an enlargement of the athletics area. So, you can see for context uh the red line delineates the uh addition to the south and everything in blue both in the addition and renovation, that's the areas that are being touched. So, focusing in on the addition, um, again for context, the arena entrance is just to the right of the screen. The existing auxiliary gym is just to the north of the screen. Um, we are adding a practice gym that will seat close to 200 uh with some telescoping bleachers. Uh, it is striped for both basketball and volleyball. When those bleachers are folded up, we'll have two cross volleyball courts for practice. Clearances are a little tight, but it's okay for practice. uh only one competition court. Um and then above that you'll see

024uh some girls locker rooms for volleyball and for wrestling. Uh those will be accessed directly from the practice gym and the auxiliary gym to the north. Uh also in that area you will see a coach's suite and their own dressing and uh locker rooms and restrooms. that is additional coaches space just as the district programs have grown um to give them additional space there. There are also two conference rooms there and meeting spaces that will be for coaches throughout the day. Uh that is being displaced from the expansion of the training area that we'll look at in a minute. Uh the area of additional square footage that I mentioned um you'll see there there's two sets of stairs and an elevator. Uh the added scope is above those locker rooms and it's a mezzanine for

025cheer. That was not originally part of the program, but when we realized the roof the roof volume continuing from the auxiliary gym all the way over to the practice gym, there was just a lot of unutilized space and how can we maximize that? >> You're already paying for the foundation, for the walls, for the roof. Um, so a little additional cost to, you know, add in that second floor slab and stairs and elevator and such, but we think that that was uh well worth it for the additional value that you'll get out of the project. Uh, the original bond program had called for a mat room for wrestling. Um, that is now going to be located at the MAC. there's a space there already suited for that that if we can just relocate one office

026over there that they can repurpose that space to be as originally intended as the mat room. C >> can I ask a question on that? >> Yes. >> Is it okay if we interrupt? Should we wait till the end? >> Go for it. >> On the on the cheer space, it's a great idea. Is there is there locker space for them as well that's connected to this or is that elsewhere in the building? >> Is it elsewhere in the building is my understanding? I don't think Brad is here. So the chairs, we're taking existing space that we have lockers and we're taking an area and we're renovating that for chairs specifically. It's not attached because it's connecting, but it's in that same area. >> Okay. Yes, sir. >> Um the other part of the addition

027on the left side of the hallway includes a new varsity football locker room. The new hallway to the north of that will be the shared hallway with the other football locker rooms. So all football locker rooms and the football coaches will share that uh hallway running left to right. You'll see the new coaches suite there uh and their own dressing and and uh restroom area. Uh again, those coaches are being displaced for the expansion of the training area. So, this is not 16 additional coaches offices, but rather relocating them, keeping all of the football program together. Uh and then finally on the south, you'll see a team room that will seat a little over a hundred um that can be used for watching film and team meetings. Uh but you'll see that there is access

028not just from the boys football locker room but also the main hallway. So it is available for use throughout the day however the campus decides to use that that space. >> Any questions on the addition other I'm going to jump into the existing campus. >> So the mezzanine will just be one big open room. >> Correct. >> Will the floor be padded? How is the floor going to be to absorb? Yeah, we're still we're still working through all of the finishes with the district, but there will be the sufficient padding that they need. Um, they asked for a 42x 54 mat, which is what that rectangular area is showing. Not much clearance beyond that, but we do get that mat in there. >> Okay. >> The chair currently owns three mats specifically designed for cheer

029practice. And so, they put them on the gym floor when they're in the gym. They'll have at least one of those sets of mats in that space that they can roll out. They'll probably leave it out most of the time. And then the other two will leave downstairs so that when they're doing performances, for example, at a pep rally, it's just convenient for them to roll that over and do that. >> Okay. >> The team meeting room, is that tiered seating? It looks like it is, but I couldn't tell for sure. >> Yes, it's on fixed risers and fixed seats. >> Cool. Yeah. >> And is there the plan to put screens, projection, televisions on that wall, something as well? >> Yes, that we've got a series of meetings planned next week to really start

030to work out those details. Okay. Yep. >> Um, transitioning kids from there to the max's always kind of been awkward. I don't know. Did y'all think through any solution or anything that we could do better here architecturally to help with security and transitioning students? Did that come up at all or have any ideas? >> We haven't talked specifically about that. It's going to be about the same as it is because it's really just an extension of the existing hallways. >> They're closer to the Mac. >> They are closer. Yeah. I don't I I don't have any ideas. I'm just >> It would be a >> something good to solve a tunnel. We could do an underground tunnel >> or over or a walk over. >> That would really excite the architects and construction folks. >>

031Bond funds for that. That'd be fun. >> Yeah, >> we're going to build a >> But I know what you mean. That is an issue. >> Walking bridge. >> Okay. >> Other question too on that. It might help with that. outside of that team meeting and and football locker room area. Is there still a sidewalk around there or so? What what's between that and the street? >> Just a sidewalk grass, just sidewalk. Okay. >> Yes, we we maximized every bit of green space. That's >> I'm just trying to get to someone comes out that door. What is between them and a car? So, if it's is it a sixoot sidewalk and that's it? >> Pretty much. Um it is possible that we end up having ramps out of out of there uh just with the

032grade changes. So, if that's the case, a railing will be there to also separate. Okay. >> The ramp would be good for all the moving equipment back and forth. >> So, uh, on on the addition, it looks like adding three exterior doors. Are those just emergency exits? Those aren't correct. Intended to be >> you know, typical typically. >> Yeah, correct. Just based on the occupancy of both the locker room and the team meeting room, we had to have those second exits. Um, we haven't talked door hardware or anything to that level, but we can always there's always the option not to put any hardware on the exterior of those doors. Um, so that they're truly exit only. >> That might be good. >> Okay. All right. Moving into the existing campus. So, the addition uh

033is again is just to the bottom of the screen. So, that is the shared hallway between the new football and existing football locker rooms. Um, you'll see boys JV football is moving into what is currently the varsity football locker room. And then the two locker rooms in blue on the right um are currently boys JV and freshman football because the JV will move over. Uh, one of those will be continue to be boys freshman football. The other one will be repurposed to be boys wrestling. Um, we are adding some additional lockers in the freshman football just to maximize the space available and we're reconfiguring the wrestling just a little bit in order to give some additional storage space off of the main hallway for athletics use. The biggest piece of reconfiguration is the training room

034suite. Um this is where I mentioned the football coaches and their two conference spaces are both um being relocated and so we're expanding into those areas. So this at least doubles maybe two and a half times what the existing training room is. Uh it allows them to put double the amount of treatment tables and additional taping tables as well. Uh and then you'll see a good amount of open floor area for rehab activities. Uh, additionally on the right side, you'll see a new wet area for whirlpools and an ice machine. Um, we've got similar amount of cabinetry, sinks, refrigerator, all of the things that they need in that space as well. And then on the left, uh, you will see an office that the two trainers will share. It is larger than what they have

035now. They're crammed, uh, into what they have pretty tightly. Um, above that, uh, you'll see a storage room. Uh there's dashed in lines there representing what could be a future restroom. >> Um and that is because next to it, the existing football coaches locker room and restroom is being converted to a female trainers, student trainers uh locker room and restroom. The vast majority of trainers are female and so that uh meets their needs. For now, if there are any male trainers in the future, they will use the boys wrestling room just across the hall. Uh but there we are going to extend plumbing lines beneath the slab to that storage area to convert part of it into a restroom and dressing room if you all choose in the future for a male trainer dressing area.

036Um, and then the there's some existing coaches offices that will stay there. And then the laundry room, uh, we are adding a third dryer at the request of athletics there. >> Are we addressing the plumbing issues that we were seeing in the old varsity football locker room? Because I know Mr. Green and myself, you know, got a tour of it and there was lots of water just coming out of showerheads. So, I just want to make sure we're addressing that stuff as that at Well, >> yeah, we will do that. Um, Brad has mentioned that as well. We need to dive into it a little bit more to understand it better, but but we will address that. Um, additionally, if you remember during that uh period, they also pointed out how tight the lockers were

037in those locker rooms. You got four people standing in the same two square feet of space. Um, so we all we are also opening up those corners, which is part of the reason why we're adding that center island of lockers to help um just move keep maintain the locker count if not improve it, but move it to give a little bit more wiggle room in some of those areas. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> All right. All right. And then the last area that we are touching is just to the north of the arena are two existing locker rooms for for volleyball. Since those are moving into the addition, these are going to be repurposed for boys varsity basketball and girls varsity basketball, which then again expands their existing locker room space to be for um

038other growing sports. These will have new lockers um to be of equal size to other varsity locker rooms. And the only and and some new finishes as well. The only updates to the restroom is uh removing two toilets and putting in urinal to suit the use of that uh boys locker room. >> Any questions on the renovation scope? >> We So we've seen in the new space boys wrestling where I know we don't have a lot of girl wrestlers yet. Where do the girls wrestlers will have locker room space? Do we know? >> They will be in the addition. Uh I just they're at the very top of this screen. >> They'll share a restroom with the volleyball locker room. >> Oh, okay. Very good. Thank you. >> The cheer the screen with the cheer

039block to the right. Yeah, it's just written up there. Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. I >> think I cropped that out when I was looking. >> Right. >> All right. And this is the look at the uh exterior. Just to the right where it says gymnasium is one of your existing arena entrances. Uh and we're planning to just continue the same materiality that's already on the building. Uh we do we are showing some clear story windows in the gym to get some daylight in there. That's northeast facing so it should be uh pretty soft light for the most part um and not a lot of direct light in there. And then um looking at options on how to kind of brand this addition and kind of uh draw more attention to this being the athletics portion

040of the campus with a possible logo of some sort on that south elevation. >> Good. >> Um >> yeah, from a signage standpoint we do have a lot of gyms in one place. Are you thinking about that when someone walks into the main entrance, how we're directing them and all that? We'll need to get into wayfinding as we start to look at other components of the program. But um yes, sir, we got a lot of gyms in one space. So, we'll have to make sure that >> worst when you go to one of your kids events at another school and you're like, "Oh, no, it's the gym on the other side of the school." And you Anyway, >> yes, just make it easy. >> The main I failed to mention this when we were looking

041at the floor plan, the main entrance into this practice gym will be through that same arena lobby. >> Mhm. um where you see the brick just to the to the left of the gymnasium entrance. But I I agree with you adding some signage will be helpful. Right. From a schedule standpoint, we are at the end of schematic design, which is our first major design milestone. Uh we will jump straight into design development. Have another update for you at the May board meeting. And then the plan is to complete construction documents in early July and issue those to Masonic for bid and also to the city for permitting. Uh with the goal of bringing you a GMP guaranteed maximum price at the August board meeting. Uh construction will start uh soon after that and then go

042through the summer of 2027. Um Masonic has already started looking at site logistics and phasing and and all of that. So, we'll bring more of that information to you at the Mayboard meeting. And then finally, from a cost standpoint, uh Neil Davis is here with Misana to help answer any questions that you might have over this. Um but their estimate at the end of schematic design is 16.4 million in construction. uh with the additional soft costs such as design fees, inspections, you know, all of the other things involved in the process, plus your furniture and equipment budget, we're looking at a total of 19.2 million, which puts us about 600,000 under budget at the moment. Uh and that includes the additional 3,000 square feet that's being added by that uh chair space that wasn't originally

043programmed. >> Wow, that's great. >> Very good. >> Any other questions? Are we all LED lighting on this as well in the gym and the chair space and those things? >> Yeah. Yeah. We'll match the same standards that we did for the CTE edition. >> Great. >> I'm thrilled we're finally getting here. >> Brad's not even here to to enjoy it. >> And Brad is not here because >> we have a girls soccer playoff game tonight. So, he's with them in Corsana >> playing WY. >> Yeah. Has the school started thinking about how they're going to move shuffle kids around during the school year? While this is being >> So, one of the things we talked about in the last call and this will be part of an ongoing discussion is how to manage student

044movement during the time of the construction process because it's in addition like it won't be the lift that was the CTE hall for example, but not just the movement of the students, but maintaining all of our safety and security protocols while the project's taking place. And so that's part of an ongoing discussion that we've been talking about not just with Misanic but with high school administration and then also expectations for subcontractors as they come on site and how we work through all of that. >> Yeah, we're going to need to put a premium on safety around layown area as well. So all of that is being discussed as we go through the logistics of the work. Mhm. Okay. >> I'm assuming I mean it's it's not exactly the same renovation but the same protocol when

045we add in the CTE addition and the fine arts edition. I mean we we've expanded the high school before. >> Yeah. Similar. >> We've got a model to follow. >> Does anybody have any more questions? >> Obviously part of that is rolling out. >> You know volleyball's in season. Don't work on theirs till they're finished kind of thing. >> Yes sir. as much as you can. >> We're having to work around all those >> scheduling, logistics. And in fact, one of the things we talked about in the last meeting was although the summer is a good time to work, we'll have a thousand kids up there in the summer. Like we never really stop. So all of that's being taken into account as we make these scheduling decisions. >> Do we expect that during the

046construction there to be impact on the the roadway >> into around by the fine arts area and all of that? Not so much the fine arts area, but the >> I mean around towards like the band hall area. >> Just the one that's 5t away from the building, that part of the fire lane will likely be cut off. >> Yeah. >> Okay. But but re restored when you're finished, right? Yes. Okay. We're keeping it. >> Yes. >> If they did have to do a detention pond, would that impact the driveway that's right there currently? >> No. It's all staying within the existing green space inside of the driveway. Is this the plan right now? >> Yeah. Yeah, I just I saw it right on the road so I was like >> it's approximate at the

047moment. >> Okay. >> And the and the current budget doesn't include the detention. >> Yes, that is included. >> It is allowance. >> Okay. >> And is that has that come up because we're changing the high school because we didn't have to build that when we built the high school. So it's is it a >> Right. Anytime we add more impervious area with like roof or pavement, we have to take into account the additional runoff that that creates. That's what I thought. >> And I I think Walker Partners remembered when we did the CTE edition, we were pretty much at our limit on that one. So, >> yeah. >> Very good. >> Excellent. >> Well, I really appreciate that we're maximizing our space, getting that additional square footage usable. It's a great idea. So, I

048really appreciate applaud you all for doing that. >> That's a great idea. >> Yeah. >> And for being under budget already. Yay. >> No pressure. >> Better things to come. I know. >> Don't be too happy. I'm still putting pressure on. I'm like, get get the numbers better. >> Better things to come. Better things to come. But thank you. >> The invoices aren't in yet. >> That's true. But it was promising. >> I saw the geotech today. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you, Aubrey. >> I'll be working with you. You guys, we'll see you again. >> Okay. Next on our agenda is discussion of real estate. Dr. Allen. >> Yes, ma'am. Normally, we do close session at the end. I'm recommending that we go and go into close session for a little bit now.

049So that Thank you, Aubrey. Thank you all of y'all. Tracing >> um so that we can visit with Miss Tail, be sensitive to her schedule as well as Mr. Bees and go into close session and real estate and if it's the board's pleasure, we can handle all of our close session while we're in there. Um because we have some things to talk about, but my list is not extensive. >> Is everyone good if we talk about real estate and personnel while we're in there at the same time? >> Sure. >> Okay. Um, the board will go into close session pursuant to Texas Government Code section 551.072 regarding real estate and 551.071 consult consultation with board's attorney and 551.074 regarding personnel at 744. No, we still have a whole meeting to do. >> An actual meeting

050remind session Midway TV >> just in case. All right. So long the computers went to sleep. >> Oh my. presentation. >> All right. We are reconvening the public meeting at 9:09 and no action was taken in close session. So that is real estate. >> Next up, monthly finance report. Wesley Brooks. >> We haven't done that yet. >> Changing things up. Good evening members of the board. Uh client support uh starts on page 29 of your board packet up. Um on page uh three is the um enrollment numbers. Um and you can see um our snapshot data there is available. Our snapshot was 8 8,715. Um and uh that is uh last year was 8824 so a little over 100 less than the previous year. Uh if you look on the right side you see our

051Wada uh our budget water was 11,98 we're now projecting 11,71. Uh so previously our enrollment had been down but our W is hold steady maybe a little budgeted. Uh, one number that did change, we look down there, um, kind of toward the bottom, compensatory ed, uh, we budgeted 32.88, we're projecting 3052. So, TA updated our snapshot numbers for our compensatory ed. Those are students that qualify for free introduced lunch. And so, that number dropped quite a bit, more than we anticipated, which lowers our projected WADA. Um, part of the reason for that, we think, we're kind of doing some research, is there was a change in um, uh, qualifying for SNAP benefits. um at the federal level. Um and so you used to if you qualify for those and you were automatically directly certified for

052free and reduced lunch, but that changed and so now a lot of those uh families are having to um to go through the application process. We notice we actually have an increase in applications. We have more that applied this year than last year, but more that more that were denied. Um so that's kind of our guess is that they were qualifying under different circumstances and now are not able to. So that brought our water down um a little bit. Um our attendance percentage for the four to six weeks was good. 95% higher than a lot of times uh was that that flu season, but we kind of avoided a major hit in that regard. Um our budget projection, the last page there of the financial report, uh we have our current year adopted budget. We,

053you know, adopted a deficit of 3.4 million. We're currently projecting a deficit of 2.2 2 million that includes all the um approved budget amendments and those updated water accounts for the year. Um I also included um a third column there kind of our initial um attempts here for projecting the 20 fiscal year 27 budget. Um you can see there it's a um deficit of 230,000. Um and this includes all of the um uh expenditures um salary savings that that we've already been approved from uh program changes um AVID um ESL facilitators 7th period David Middle School and the closure of Spiegelville that yields about 1.8 million in salary savings. Um our project we're going to just stay the same. We're going to use the same numbers that were projected for this year for next year's

054budget. Um at this point it does also include additional CTE funding from some of those program changes 300,000 some of the classes that are going to be receive the CT funding uh next year that don't receive it this year. Um also one note there is a line local revenue for tuition fees of 295,000. Um that actually will be dropping because that includes our um tuition tuition for transfers transfer fees. Um, so we're actually going to remove that in future projections and that's about 165,000. Uh, prek fees are also in that. There'll be a corresponding offset to the salaries that we'll save uh for discontinued PK3 program. Uh, so really then, you know, the deficit if you add back 165,000 for uh transfer tuition, you're looking about a $400,000 deficit. Um and on the middle school

055savings, sorry kind of backtracking there, but there's a potential for 10 positions to be saved from the going to the seventh period. Uh this projection um is only assuming we get five of those this first year. So there could be some more available. Any questions? Does does this 230 not include salary increases? >> Thank you. Yes, that includes no compensation increases. Um, I'm just looking at the uh the data there again on uh page 34 with the snapshot enrollment data kind of highlighting what we we talked about last meeting. Look at the number of first graders we have. 577 that's the smallest amount in the previous six years before that. >> Mhm. >> We're graduating 680. Got 577 coming in. And if you go over back to 2019, 2020, you had 597 coming in and

056580 going out. You had more coming in than going out. And and based on the um birth rates, you know, since then, because what there's already been five other generations of or five other years of kids being born, that number is not going to get better. I know. It's good. >> Yeah. And that certainly explains the the bans on page 38, the district enrollment bands, how they were going up and up and up and now they're going back down. >> Yeah. You can't even all those other wild cards yet. >> Yeah. But that's that's not even in it yet. >> And it's statewide and nationwide. >> Nationwide. >> Hey, so so my question related to water and all the rest of this and and this may be a Dr. Ojima question as well since I

057know this is her her thing now. Um virtual school students that we enroll hybrid all virtual all cart how do they affect our enrollment or what who does who doesn't do and and I know we don't know what the numbers are going to be but what which students would count and which wouldn't >> so fully virtual is a full-time enrolled midway student wide they wouldn't have any of the multiplier type thing in a weighted CTE course or something along those lines. Probably not special ed weighted course. So it be like flat water like 6150 water probably. Um fulltime student pay through the Pearson connect system cost me 28.89. >> Okay. Hybrid student costs $4.97 per course. So if they take four to five courses online, you can kind of work that out. Um but they're

058full-time enrolled students. So they would get what they would get the additional multiplier waiting piece if they're enrolled in any CTE courses or other things that we would get additional waiting for if they come to electives in person on campus. But they're they're fully annual students. >> So that >> if they're all a cart and they're outside of our district, we're not getting funding for those. But we're collecting tuition. >> They're paying for those classes. >> Okay. So So really hybrid or full-time virtual is going to potentially help our numbers, >> increase our overall >> increase. Yes, sir. >> Increase the refined ADA, but not necessarily the water multipliers. Maybe, but maybe not. It would depend on what they're taking. >> Okay, cool. >> Somehow bring some cash in. Well, just just as we as

059we go down that road and see sort of where are the numbers to have a sense of how is that going to fold into the rest of this. So that's good. >> Any other questions? >> Okay, thank you very much for that report. >> Next is Lisa Cochran for the special populations update. And as to everyone, thank you for waiting after close session. Hello. >> Sorry. Sorry. Test in one, two, three. >> We got you. >> Are we awake this evening? >> Sorry, I have to entertain myself to keep myself awake. >> I wanted to start out this evening with letting you guys where know where we are with our program growth. that special education has been growing pretty fast the last couple of years and it looks like we are finally leveling out. And

060so I wanted you to see that data so you kind of know where we are right now. And so we were growing quickly and um we also completed 300 initial evaluations last school year. We still feel like we're going to hit that target. And so, just kind of wanted you to to let you know where we are, program size, and we're holding right now. All of our metrics in regards to special education, our state performance plan indicators, we at 100% compliance in all areas. This encompasses timelines, art meetings, transition services, early childhood services. Um, this is not an easy task to accomplish because we tested 300 kids last year. Um, findings from the 2025 resultsdriven account accountability report, Midway ISD continues to have a determination level one. That's that's where we want to be. We're

061again, we're hitting our metrics. That's looking at our students in disciplinary settings. That's looking at students on progress on STAR. It's looking at students least restrictive environment. And we are doing a good job in all three of those areas as well. The taper, which is a compilation of district data, rated Midway special educa education department as meets requirements. That's all we can do. You either meet or you don't. And so we're we're happy with our findings. We're happy with our metrics. We're happy with the data that we're getting back. Um so we're proud of those accomplishments. The team is working hard to make sure that we're hitting and taking care of kids in a timely manner. So I wanted to talk to you a little bit tonight about what's impacting special education um legislation. We've

062talked a little bit about funding this school year. So, what I know and what we think is kind of what I'm telling you a little bit about tonight. 2627 will be a transition year. We will start 2627 with numbers from 2425 2526 sorry. Um, so the data from this year is what they are funding us with for next year. 2627 funds will come if there's any adjustments at the end or the start of 2728 and kind of wanted you to know that piece. There is an additional $250 million that was set aside for special education that's not been disseminated yet. So, this is the year that TEA will collect data. This is the year where they're going to look at our students and what programs they're in and what settings they're in. We do a

063lot of that already. We we calculate PES. We calculate placement. So, that we're already doing and we already report PES. We already report a lot of this data to the state, but it is going to change. So, special ed funding right now, we have a 40, we have a 41, we have a 42, a 43, a 44, and we know what that means. We're going to eight tiers in 26,27. And we don't know what that means. And we're going up to five service groups, and we don't know what that means either. And so we do know that there's a tier for residential placement and those are kiddos who are not in our school system. They may be at a different facility. And we know that there's a tier for speech only. Speech only would be

064our ones. They would be our kiddos who with the minimal amount of services whereas residential, they're in a they're in a the most restrictive environment. And then everything else in between has not been set. We do want to make sure that students are assigned to the highest tier that they qualify for. So if we have a speechonly kiddo, but they may also have occupational therapy or they may also have a reading disability or they may also have something else, we're going to try to code so that it's the highest tier that they qualify for. And again, TEA has not set the tiers nor the service groups that will be implemented next school year. Um, we know that the service groups will be flat dollar add-ons, but we don't know the amounts and we don't know

065what that looks like. They are looking at the type of services, certifications, lensure, qualifications of personnel, provider to student ratios, technology. So, we know those things are being considered right now. They did talk about transportation, specialized vehicle bus, um the aids required on the bus, um different types of routes because of the needs of the student, students who require adult um proximity, have an adult with you so that safety, kids who are in crisis, things of that nature, any student that could require an emergency response, those are things being considered. specialized personnel. So a vision teacher, deaf and heart of hearing teacher, communication specialist, BCBA would manage behavior, cults manage dyslexia, and of course an RN. We have all of that in Midway ISD. We have all of those services that they speak about in

066that sentence. We currently um have students from speech only, dyslexia only to highly specialized needs. We do have nursing staff that we do keep for specific kiddos, whether they need a tra cleaned out or they need suction in. So we do have that range of of need in our district. We have that continuum of service in our district. So this will impact us like we will need to know what services what service group will be applicable to our kiddos because we could apply every one of those um things that TEA when they did the pilot they looked at academic behavior independent functioning and personal care supports after they started digging into it they started drilling down a a little bit more. They realize there's more to it. Um, curriculum and content supports. What are those

067behavioral supports, communication supports, it's not just speech therapy, it's also assisted technology devices. It's also um software. It's also it's more in depth than just a surface look. independent functioning supports, giving kids access, personal care, health supports, specific consideration for related services, and parent family training. That's one thing we've seen an uptick is parent family training. Um, families with students who have autism, families whose students have significant behavioral needs. We're trying to provide support because parents need that level of support. So these are things that will impact us down the road. What we know is what is what TEA has said. Eight tiers, four to five service groups, data will be collected 2627. At the end of 2627, there could be an adjustment payment. We've been told there's an almost guarantee our funding won't be

068less than what it is now. So that's what we know about funding for 26 27 going into 2728. So we're kind of building it and doing it as we go. That's coming. What's impacting us now is the TIFA, the vouchers, Senate Bill 2, and that's probably hitting us the hardest right now. As you know, the application o window opened in February. It's been extended to March 31st. This is where parents whose students are in private school can request from the local district that they reside in to perform uh or to complete a full and individual evaluation assessment to draft an IEP to upload the documentation to the state and to track that data. We in Midway ISD have had um several applications come through One of the reasons we're seeing such an uptick, usually we

069get five or six private homeschool referrals in a school year. We're at 70 right now. Um, if you have a disability, you can collect up to $30,000 in your Antifa, your savings account. That money gets paid to the family, so it doesn't go directly to the school. It can be used for any type of educational related expense. And so homeschool kiddos can get up to $2,000. The actual for students without a disability, I think that a lotment is 10,474 somewhere in there. It's a billion dollar program and they are getting applications to access these funds. Um, we're getting applications for these funds daily. But what you guys need to know is that these aren't current Midway students who are trying to leave Midway. These are kiddos who are already enrolled in private schools that are

070asking for assessments so that they have access to funding because if you get if you get identified with a disability, not only do you get access potentially access to more funding, but you also priority list as well. >> So those are things that families are considering. Um, we haven't had any midway families as of today that have asked to leave to go to private school and asked us and have asked for us to update their documentation. But this this program, this law, this request is probably what's impacting us the most right now because we did not anticipate such a big push in March. Right now our current students, our current programs, our current campuses, this is se this is testing season for us right now. kiddos have been in RTI, they've been in NTS, they

071can get a report. These are the kiddos that we now realize it's time to do something different. It's time to go to the next step. So, we have district kiddos that also need to be tested as well. So, we are doing the best we can. We're working all the assessments into the schedules and we are taking care of families the best we can. Like I said, our compliance indicators are at 100%. We strive to keep them at 100%. So we are working hard to make sure we take care of our families both industry and out of district. >> Lisa, I have a question for you and you may have told we may have read this in the past and I don't recall. Do we get reimburseed for these assessments or we >> So we only

072get reimbursed for an initial evaluation, right? >> But all these people that are not in the district from the private schools, we will get that's considered an initial assessment. That's what I thought. I wanted to make sure that they've ever had an assessment in Midway and some have then we do not get that just the initial >> and it's the same thing in our district. We get funds for an initial evaluation but remember we're we're evaluating a third of our population every year because we have to re-evaluate every year >> see where they are. So if we have 300 initials, we have at least that in reevaluations. So just kind of giving you an idea of how much testing is occurring in the district. >> And I'm not I'm not trying to pick on semantics.

073If we don't get reimbursed, we get $1,000. >> Correct. >> And some assessments we can do for a,000. Some cost quite a bit more. Well, I think you will see in the private sector there are wait list for psychologicals for autism evolves for um assessments for behavior. There are waiting list for um IQ and achievement there is a shortage of of assessment staff that's not just >> I'm assuming that we have the ability to create our own weight list so that we can prioritize services to our own students. We do prioritize the service for our students. >> I should know if the state was going to say no, you have to. >> We are going to do the best we can to take care of all the kiddos every day. That's what we strive for.

074But kiddos in Midway ISD, >> we have dedicated staff to our kiddos in Midway ISD. Every campus has an evaluation specialist, a diagnostician. We have LSSPs on staff, school psychologist. So we know we know those are coming. It's the additional that we don't have dedicated staff. >> Right. Sure. >> We're falling in. >> So Alisa, I'm going to ask the question Mr. Wood asked maybe in a slightly different way. I know that when someone asked for evaluation that puts us on the clock. There's a timeline by which we have to complete that evaluation. >> And what is that clock? >> Does does that timeline any different >> for these 70 students than it is for our own kids? >> Yeah. >> So when Mr. went asked, "Can we wait them?" Not really. The the law,

075we're going to lose that 100% compliance that you're talking about if we don't hit those timelines. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> So, we have 45 school days to answer your question to do the evaluation. We have 30 days to get to the table to do the IEP. So, it usually we do need that time. So parents when they're looking at a cut off, they're very concerned that we're not expediting their evaluations, but we are we're as we receive them, we are processing them, we're working them, we're assigning staff to complete evaluations, and we're doing the best we can to make sure we maintain compliance and also try to do it as fast as we can, but we're also trying to do a good job. Um, there's a quality to the to the data we put

076out for because there's there's a a level of expectation of what we do. You know, we want to take pride in the work that we do. So, we're not just going to slap something together and say, "Here you go." >> No, I I appreciate that. I really was trying to get at what what Dr. Allen has said and it if it's 45 school days, we're almost coming up on the point where the 45th school day will be in August, right? I mean, pretty soon. >> Yes. >> Okay. Well, >> we don't test in the summer. >> Well, there you go. Yeah. Okay. So, so you might get a call or two from some parents who might not be happy with this, but we really are trying to do the best we can. We're all shocked.

077I don't know if you picked up on this, but the remarks I made around the mission statement were inspired in great part to the work that you're doing that you're hearing about tonight. >> Well, it's good work. It's good work. We're proud of the things that we do. And and I just want you to be aware of what's happening right now. So to switch gears, while we are doing a lot of assessment, we're also trying to build relationships with folks outside of Midway ISD. We really have partnered a lot with Bay University to host their practical students, their interns. We work with the school of education, the school of pediatric, and the school of physical therapy. We're working on establishing a relationship with Dr. Bri men. She's new to Baylor. Um, and she is really

078doing some research in self-contained classrooms. That is an area that that's that's huge for us. We we do have a large self-contained population. Anything and everything we can do to learn more, do more, be better, that's what we want to do. And we're talking long-term relationship with ongoing research. And so we're really excited about that. We've never had a Texas&M practicum, our intern here. Um so we're really excited that they reached out and they're interested in working and partnering with us as well. So that's a positive. Um we have a shortage of occupational therapists. I I struggle every year to hire occupational therapists. We're now going to partner with Texas Women's University to set up a fieldwork system so that they will come here and will realize, hey, Nichl's here. We have all the women's

079come join our team. Um, but we are excited about that. If we can grow our own, if we can build our own, if we can make a connection so people will come to our district, we're very excited about that. And as you guys know, we partnered with China Spring and Robinson ISD. Midway has an 18 plus program empower. These two districts needed some help and support in this area and we were able to work with them and so that partnership worked out real nicely this year. So we were able to um collaborate with those two school districts as well. Really near and dear to my heart is Special Olympics. We do a lot of good stuff with a lot of great kids. Um we we have fun every now and then we have fun and

080so we enjoy um our best buddies, our partners' PE. We enjoy having a parent night. We get to meet folks and they tell us different things about their kiddos. We really want to be available to our community. We want them to know who we are. We are trying to do things um routinely and regularly so they know who we are. Kim Johnson puts on transition nights. She has done an outstanding job and she also goes out to community events with the ark and things of that nature. So, we feel like we're getting out and doing and people are seeing who we are and we're proud of our work. We're excited with when we can work with teachers and principles. It's not just our community, but it's our district community as well that we feel like

081we partner with and that we have good relationships with. Overall, like I have said, we have a continuum of services. We provide a lot of specialized services. We do good work in Midway ISD. We can do more. We can get better. We always strive to to see what's next for us. but incredibly grateful to the leadership that I have. I work with Ashley Kixson and her team in HR close to me. Couldn't do it without them. Becky Ojima, my boss, she's got my back all the time. Couldn't do it without her. Wesley, I come beg borrow and stealing from and Mr. A. We can handle some interesting scenarios together, but have a great team and really feel supported and really feel like our district is committed to supporting kids with disabilities as best as possible.

082So grateful to be here. Thank you. Any questions? >> Thanks, Lisa. >> Are there a quick question with the with the voucher? Are there any private schools that have in-house services? And I know some of them, you know, they'll bring in uh external services. >> What I know is that at least one of the private schools bring in an outside therapist to come and do support, but parents pay for that on top of the tuition. >> And that's something that that's a practice they've had. So, if they receive if the parent receives a voucher, that would offset some of that expense. I don't think the $10,000 is going to be enough to pay their tuition for a year, but it could offset some of their expenses. What >> and the other side of that is

083the private schools don't have I mean they can accept whatever student they want or don't want. >> That is correct. And they don't provide the types of services that we provide. Not even worse. >> Yeah. I think I feel feels like the legislature is promising something they can't really provide. >> Yeah. >> I don't know. Was that ever >> Has that ever happened? I don't know. >> Thank you, Miss Cochran. That was a very thorough and positive report. >> Thank you. >> That was a lot of work and I'm always impressed with what your department does and how you love on all those kids and it's just awesome, >> especially while being so underfunded. >> Yes. Under bund under staff. >> Understand? >> Yes. All right. Ken Wolf, you'll come to the podium. Please talk

084to us about the Senate bill 546 bus seat belts. >> All right. Just like uh the legislation has affected Fed and Creek in a bunch of different ways, they also decided to push down some other unfunded mandates to us in the form of school belt uh school bus seat belts. Um so the legislature enacted Senate Bill 546 uh which essentially just tightens up the restrictions on uh school bus safety and school bus uh seat belt requirements. uh prior to this uh any bus before 2017 wasn't required. It was grandfathered in per se for seat belts and then uh you had the option of ordering buses without seat belts when the school board said, "Hey, we can't afford it or whatever the case may be." We did not take that. Everything that we purchased up until

085past the 2017 point was compliant. So, some things we're going to touch on, what we need to do to become compliant with this new bill, what those costs are going to be, and then we all know we have bonds or buses in the bond. Uh, and will that get us to where we need to be? So, Senate Bill 546 outlines two options for the school board. Uh, you must decide and the admin must submit those decisions to TEA through the Sentinel program through Paulo's office. So, one option is the board can declare that we are in a financial position to afford all new buses and can commit to expending those funds to make us compliant, which I don't think there's a school district in the state of Texas that's doing that. Um, the other option

086is that uh I present to you our current position and what it would cost for us to become compliant uh which is what we will end up doing. Um, so our current position, we have 73 buses in service. Of those 73 buses, 41 are not compliant with Senate Bill 546. Uh 31 jet ed buses, 15 are compliant. Uh 14 sped, seven are compliant. The four special route buses, those are the little micro buses that kind of look like a van. All of those are compliant. Um we have 12 trip buses, six are compliant, and then our spare buses, none of which are compliant. Um so you kind of see the little chart over there on the side. Uh we do have all the sped buses do have twopoint seat belts um but those don't meet

087the the new requirement uh moving forward. >> So the cost to become compliant uh the option to buy all new school buses is almost a $7 million investment um to refit the buses. Uh 22 77 passenger buses at $28,000 a piece. Um eight 77 passenger buses at 70,000 a piece. And that is because um the 2015 models that we have, all of those 77 passenger buses can be refitted. The sped version of those cannot. The the holes do not line up to attach the new seats to the frames. And then we have some older 77 passenger buses uh that are in that same predicament that the the manufacturer will not warranty the bus. if there was any kind of catastrophic accident, um, they won't cover you. You're welcome to put the seats in, they'll sell

088them to you and you can rig it up and make it work, but they will not cover it and you'll have to selfinsure those buses. So, that's not something we're going to recommend we do. Uh, so to make ourselves compliant, uh, we're looking at about a $3.8 million investment. Um, so we have the bond money. What does that look like? We've already ordered 14 buses. Four of those have come in. Uh the others are starting to flow in I think next week. Uh so we spent about $2.3 million on those. Uh we still need 20 77 passenger buses. Uh 7 47 passenger buses. So to get us up to date, that gets us about 6.8 million. So we're about 800,000 change uh short. What we will end up doing most likely is throttle back on

089the purchase of new buses to cover the cost to retrofit six um of the older ones uh to make them compliant unless we can find another, you know, probably million dollars by the time escalation gets there uh to get us all new buses. But the spares don't necessarily need be need to be a brand new bus or a you know two or three year old bus. uh they'll be just fine before they have been retrofitted. Um so that is our target. This the the legislature did not really give a date. Uh they just say that you don't have to be fully compliant before 2029. They did not say you must be compliant or have to be. It it's very loose wording and even uh some of the state uh organizations that we're members of are

090still kind of back and forth on what this really means. Um the 25 26 school year is just what it is right now. It's an information gathering. Uh all that data is going to be submitted to TEA. There's talks of grants to help cover some of those costs. Don't know what the qualifying factors will be for any of that. Um so we just kind of just wait and see. But we're going to do what we can to get us as compliant as we can be uh by 2029. The plan is to have all the new bond buses here by then. Uh and then the remaining ones that we can retrofit retrofited as spares. So with that, I'll answer any questions you might have. >> Any questions? I think >> did I hear you say that

091a potential option was to buy not brand new buses but buses that could be retrofitted or >> so that that could be an option. You know, we did that with the Flugerville buses. We purchased used buses from another district um if another district is going to unload some buses that are compliant already. I mean, that's certainly an option we can explore. Um we keep our ears to the ground for things like that that come across uh various uh connect platforms that we're members of that you know that's how we found the last set. >> Um >> and those were compliant. The flugville buses. >> Yes. Those were all >> under this new legislation. Those are going to be in demand and harder to find and probably cost more to buy. >> Right. >> Yeah. And

092and and right now buses are anywhere from 6 to 12 months on a lead time the last time we checked. So, and it's only going to get worse as more and more districts uh come across. Now, we're and we're not in the worst position, but we're not in the best position. There's some districts that, you know, passed bonds and bought all new buses within the past few years, so they don't have to to do what we're doing. There's some districts, uh, my previous one that was up until this year, uh, going to the board and requesting that, uh, waiver to buy buses that are not seat belt capable. So, um, they're in a lot worse shape than we are. >> Any more questions? >> Thank goodness we had a bond. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah,

093that was time. >> Didn't even know. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Mr. Wolf. Very good report. >> Thank you. >> All right. Dr. Becky Odima, talk about 2024 2025 district annual report. Please, ma'am. I thought we were going back. >> She said, "I thought we were going back." >> Good evening. Tonight, um, we have the district annual report public hearing that covers the 2425 summary data for the district. So, the district annual report has eight sections and we'll cover those sections briefly. You'll notice that the district annual report is not new data and it's for the 2425 school year. The reason we do this is because Texas Education Code requires that we present this to the public. So, the board has an open meeting. And um also uh we're uh required to post this online

094on our website and widely distribute all of our annual report data. So, we'll go through those sections tonight and then following this meeting, we'll post it on our website and make that available. you've had presentations throughout the 2425 school year to present all of this information already. So, it's a quick review of a reminder of those things. So, we'll go through these sections. Section one of the report will have the taper report published there. As a reminder, this is uh a great deal of academic data and you've had many academic data presentations over time and this again is for the 2425 school year. During that time, we were above the state and region in our star tested areas, in our CCMR numbers, and our TSI numbers. So, we did very well in that area. So,

095we'll have all of our taper reports listed in section one in the section two folder of our report. Um, it lists the PE's financial standard report. So, Wesley has presented on this in previous board meetings. Um, the requirement here is was an excellent um a 96 score. So a superior score on our first report there. So that information will be included in section two. In section three is our accreditation status. We also um have an accountability rating of an A. So we are an accredited district and have achieved superior achievement. So that information is in section three. In section four of the report is our campus performance objectives. So we present the district improvement plan and the campus improvement plans every year. and the board votes on those to approve those every year. So the

0962425 improvement plans will be posted in that section. In section five, we have our report on violent or criminal incidents on campuses. So Mr. Offfield presented on this earlier in the year. And you'll remember that in the 2425 school year, we had three occurrences of a violent or criminal incident that placed a student in um an expulsion setting. Um, two of those three accounts were something that was a rollover. So, it actually happened in the previous school year, but because of the timeline and the assignment of this discipline placement, they were still in there um in that discipline setting in that school year. So, that was presented previously as well. In section six is the student performance in post-secondary institutions. Mr. Wheeler presented on this a bit when he talked about his CTE and CCMR

097report just last month. Um you'll note here this is uh where we track the midway graduates. If you remember from past reports um we can track the data on some of our graduates. But this data that we can track is only for graduates who attend a two or four-year institution that is a public institution that is in the state of Texas. And we know that many of our Midway students go to institutions that are not necessarily public, not necessarily inside the state of Texas. In section seven is the data about our progress toward our House Bill 3 goals. Um, our CCMR target is always outstanding. So, that is definitely a celebration in that area. We are making gains in our literacy and math and other CCMR areas. We're not quite at the target for our

098grade three literacy and math goals. We're we're making gains and heading in those directions. The last section of the um annual report is a glossery so that you understand all the acronyms that are in those places and what all those reports are. So we'll um place that report on our website following the open meeting that we hold tonight. Are there any questions? No. No one has any questions for Dr. G. >> All right. Thank you for that report. We appreciate it. >> Dr. Allen, social media addiction litigation. >> Yes, ma'am. And I will tell you right now, this presentation is one that we were I'm not allowed to modify in any way. It was provided to us by attorneys. And so, um, we're going to go through some slides fairly quickly because I didn't develop

099these. Um, I'm not going to touch on all, but I'm going to sort of click them. So, I just beg your patience in advance. Next slide, Carol. So, there's social media litigation that's going on in the country right now where school districts and other institutions are suing social media companies for harm done to students and those that serve them. Uh, if you would look down at number two on that, it says school districts and local governments. In essence, what this litigation does is uh it's a class action lawsuit against social media companies for harm done to public school districts because the amount of money that we've had to spend supporting students because the adverse effect of social media on their mental and emotional health. Okay, next slide. MDL stands for multi-dist litigation. It consolidates multiple

100cases with common issues of fact to a single federal court and this streamlines the process. It creates faster resolutions and it allows for the class action lawsuit to sort of come up with their findings and then deliver justice in a way that um goes quicker than if everybody were to sue individually. Okay. So, the cause of action has to do with either a public nuisance or negligence. Um this falls under um this this involves both this class action lawsuit because it interfses with the health of young people and then also operating platforms that led to compulsive use of addiction and harming students. And I'll show you a slide in a minute, but we have reason to believe the lawyers represent this case reason to believe the social media platforms knew that they were hurting kids

101and did nothing to stop it. Okay, so damages state by districts. I know that's almost impossible to read, but y'all can imagine the number of people that we've had to hire to provide supports for our young people for their mental and emotional health. So, this has everything to do with counseling services, discipline created by kids who uh don't self-regulate. This has to do with uh work assistant principles do to work with families to help kiddos who need to um regain uh levels of stability and mental health. This would even include costs associated with things like behavioral threat assessments because sometimes uh what's going to be argued in these court case is that the mental health is so bad that a student may make an act of self harm or harm to others. And so all

102of these things have created additional administrative cost for school districts which lead to a a a cause for action against social media companies. Okay, Caroline, just a this is at a glance. I was asked earlier like who else is in this litigation in Texas? I'm going to send you this presentation, but keep going, Carolyn. These these so go back one. I'm sorry. Those are school districts just in Texas and then those national school districts joining the litigation. Keep going. So, it's bunches and bunches. >> Wow. >> Who are involved in this litigation. I'm not going to spend a ton of time on these slides, but there was a whistleblower, and if you look at the very bottom quote, it is clear it is clear that Facebook prioritizes profit over the well-being of children and all

103users. She basically testified that um Facebook's handling of misinformation, the spread of harmful content, and its impact on mental health, especially among teenagers. They were doing it and they knew they were doing it. Okay, you keep going. That's a video that was not going to play for us. Same there. Um so there's actually been some leg some federal legislative action to raise awareness about these challenges in schools. I think it's part of what led the state of Texas to banning cell phones is some of this because you'll notice the timeline that's January 1 of 24 and all this has to do with this concern about social media uh exploiting children and the way that they operate their platforms. You can go at least two slides. Yeah, one more. Um keep going please. And so these

104folks amongst others, this is them trying to sell their law firm are bringing action against the individuals for or the uh social media firms. Go with Carolyn if you will. So cost and requirements, there are no upfront charges for people who join this location. The attorney's fees are all contingent on winning. So there's no cost to the district financially. There is a time commitment of somewhere between 30 to 50 hours. And that's mostly responding to discovery and plaintiff fact sheets. We discussed that a little bit. Um we feel like some of that will be easy to get our hands on. I do not want to sugarcoat it. If we join this class action lawsuit, there will be some work that the district needs to do to provide information. Um keep going Carolyn, but we think

105uh well, let me back to that minute. One of the risk that go ahead Carolyn that there's no settlement or award. We could do all this for nothing. It could take too long to approve or join the lawsuit. um that's not going to happen because it's on the agenda for the board to take action tonight should they choose to. Um you know we could get an award that's not as much as others or if the settlements not offered and accepted by the parties each individual case may be sent from the consolidated education back to the home judicial districts in which case we would just drop out. And so there's the option for the board to join this class action lawsuit um and then if at some point it's no longer advantageous for the district to

106be part of it we can always drop out. And so there's really minimal risk to the district in scenarios such as this. Okay, Carolyn, this is why we should choose them. I'm not going to advertise them. Um, here's what I want to tell you. As recent as today, $375 million awarded in court in New Mexico. And if you do some back of the napkin math, if you took $375 million and you divided that by 5 million kids in the state of Texas, now New Mexico's not as big as us, so this is really kind of an apples to oranges, but just play the game with me for a minute. And then if you take 75 kids times 8,600 kids in Midway ISD, if we were a part of that class action lawsuit before attorney's fees,

107okay, and they're going to get paid, that's $645,000 to the district. And I think that if Texas attorneys prevail on this that you can expect a much larger payout. We're a much bigger state and so the harm that we'll be able to argue is significant. Um, it was shared with me that there was a belief that what New Mexico was going for was 2 billion and they didn't get it. Um, but we're a much larger state and the harm that we'll be able to argue as as the state of Texas I think will be more significant. So, this is on for action later, but we we actually think there's a way of trying to hold social media companies accountable. Um, there is concern about technology platforms and young people and what we have argued in

108Midway for a long time is that we do everything we can to take care of our students. We keep this stuff educationally focused. We put guard rails and safeguards around our kids by the way we do things. I think also one of the ways that we provide guard rails is by holding the people who are bad actors in this accountable. The fact of the matter is most of what we use are platform or platforms we pay for for the most part which means when they don't behave we quit doing business with them. These social media companies are free. So how are they making money? They make money by taking advantage of people. When you're an adult, you're supposed to have sense enough to know how to regulate yourself, but when you're doing it to young

109people, you're taking advantage of the innocent for profit. And I think that we have a role in protecting the innocent. And so I obviously thought this is something that we should do. Um if it becomes overbearing, if the administrative burden becomes excessive, we'll drop out of a lawsuit. Um but that's the that's what's going on. It would be taken on by a number of different lawyers, which I can delineate a little bit later, but one of them is David Thompson. He is one of the pre-minent attorneys in the state of Texas. If that name means anything to you, he's the one who sued the state back during the Edgewood cases that found that the way that they were funding schools was fundamentally inequitable and got us down the road toward trying to come up with

110ways to fund public schools way back in the 80s when they weren't doing any of it. So, it's got a long track record with this kind of work. I'll take any questions you might have. bored. >> Yeah. I would just say, you know, in terms of social media and and it being free, you know, if if if you're not paying for it, you're the product. >> Yeah. >> And I think that's like you said, it's easy for adults to kind of take that with a grain of salt and move on, but maybe not as much a 13 or 14 year old kid. So, >> Yes, sir. >> Yeah. Really, it's a it's a burden to our taxpayers. I mean, that's who we're getting we would be getting the money for is for the taxpayers. Yes,

111sir. >> Well, there's no cost to us >> except for the manh hours that it will take to put the data together. >> So, that's good. And as you said, if it's too overwhelming or too much, we can just back out. >> Yes, ma'am. >> We're not tied to it. So, there's no fee to get out. There's no anything from stopping us from dropping the lawsuit. >> Yeah. >> But we can gain some money and we of course it would help cover all the expenses. We have addit counselors. We have add it um other means to assist students that are struggling from the addiction and depression from social media and all the causes. >> And if you look at the uh New Mexico settlement based upon the number of students in New Mexico, it's about

112it's about $1,200. Yes, sir. >> Per student payout. >> Yeah. >> And so if you did that, if you go 1,200 times, I mean it's >> Yeah. triple just about. >> Yeah. >> Yes, sir. Okay. Well, there's an opportunity to take action on this letter. We need you. >> We do. All right. Thank you, Dr. Allen. Okay. Public hearing for the district annual report. TEC 39.306 requires that each district's board of trustees hold a public hearing to discuss the district's annual report within 90 days receiving the PDF TAPR. Within two weeks following the public meeting, each district must widely publish its annual report, including posting it on the district website and other public places. I'm going to close this public meeting at 10:02. I'm going to open the public hearing at 10:02 p.m. Do we

113have anyone that would like to come forward and speak at the open hearing? Seeing no one that wants to come forward and speak at the open hearing, I'm going to close open hearing at 10:03. I'm going to reconvene the public meeting at 10:03. All right. Thank you. Consideration items. Tonight we have on the consent agenda minutes of the February 17th, 2026 regularly scheduled board meeting, minutes of the March 3rd, 2026 schedule called board meeting. Early graduation request. List of recommended library books. Acceptance of certification of unopposed candidates for the May 2nd, 2026 Midway Independent School District Trustee election. Consideration of order of cancellation to declare candidates for trustee place one and place two and opposed candidates for the May 2nd, 2026 trustee election and duly elected trustees of the Midway Independent School District. Approve the

114contract with McKenzie Mason Masonic construction for MHS gym and locker room addition addition and delegate authority to the superintendent to execute the contract on behalf of the board. Eight, approve procurement delivery, no just deliver method and authorize the superintendent to negotiate and execute contract for summer roofing projects on behalf of the board. Nine, approve procure delivery method and authorize the superintendent to negotiate and execute contract for South Bossy's digital marquee on behalf of the board. And 10, approve procurement delivery method and authorize superintendent to negotiate and execute a contract for Spring Valley flooring replacement on behalf of the board. Does any board me to remove any item from the consent agenda? Hearing none, I need a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> So moved by Miss Watts. Do I have a second?

115>> Second by Mr. Barry. Any discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. Any oppose? Same sign. Okay, the motion passes unanimously and we accept the consent agenda. Okay, hang on. I've got so many options on here. Okay, we're going from 10 to 10B. Okay, correct. Resolution. That's where I am. >> Resolution. Yes, ma'am. >> 10B. Resolution authorizing employee pay. >> Do you'all remember? >> Dr. Alan, would you like to present? >> Yeah, we lost three days due to ICE in January. And because of the rules around gifts of public funds, the board need would need to approve the resolution as presented. That would say that it's in the interest of the district to pay our folks who weren't here even though we had three ice days. This is standard. We've done this

116in the past. We waited until now to do it to make sure we didn't have any other high days, but this would basically allow us to compensate our employees who didn't come to work for those three days because we asked them to stay home because of dangerous conditions. And we want this to continue to be placed that's able to recruit and retain professionals and this is one of the ways that we're able to say stay home and stay safe and we'll take care of the rest of it. >> So, it's the administrative recommendation that you would uh approve the resolution authorizing employment pay as presented. >> Okay. Do I have a motion? >> Can I ask a question? Oh, yes. Um, obviously no additional cost to us because it's already budgeted. Correct. We're going to

117pay the staff is what? Okay. That's what I thought. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. All right. Do we have a motion to accept the recommendation? >> So moved by Mr. Wait, do we have a second? >> Second by Mr. Telus. Any discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Same sign. Okay, the motion passes. 10 C. Consideration adoption of resolution approving contingent fee legal services contract including findings needed for submission of contingent fee legal services agreement and request for expedited review by the Texas Attorney General. >> The administration recommends approving the resolution as presented. >> Do I have any discussion before we do that? Real quick, >> the C and D are both connected to the class action. >> Class action lawsuit. >> Okay. Do I have a motion to

118move I mean to to move to accept his Okay. Do I'm sorry I'm tired. Make your mot your recommendation motion again please. >> The administration recommends adoption of the resolution as presented. >> Do I have a motion to accept that? >> So move. >> All right. So moved by Mr. Green. Do I have a second? >> Second by Miss Watts. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Same sign. Okay. That motion passes. All right, the next one. 10D consider consideration adoption of contingent fee legal services agreement with Thompson and Horton LLP, Island and Bonan PC and Oan Hanland Hanland. >> Mhm. >> Dearath and Castillo PC and this is also about the social media >> administration recommends approval of the agreement as presented. >> Do I have a motion

119to accept the recommendation of the >> so moved >> administration? Moved by Mr. Telus. Do I have a second? >> Second by Mr. Wit. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Same sign. That motion passes. 10E. Consideration of personnel. Um, we want to deliberate the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public officer employee. I have the expected but always a little bittersweet sad news to announce that I accepted Rick Telles's resignation from the board today. So, we are going to be sorry to see you go, but you're going on to greater things and the county. >> So, we're happy. >> We're not going to lose your number. Thank you. >> No, we won't. >> Judge, >> I can for the record what Mr. tell us

120is moving on to do >> uh I I am the uh lone candidate left to become the next Mlennon County judge. So >> you're here. >> So yes, I have a beautiful opportunity the next whatever it is 9 10 months to prepare for that job and spend time getting to know all the people and processes and all the stuff. I mean what a gift to be able to have that much time to really get ready for it. So, um, and I know I'll have a chance to say things later with you guys, but I won't miss this. I won't miss being here. >> You will have daytime meetings in the future. Here's >> the morning. >> Commissioner's courts in the morning. So, >> I was actually thinking about a little bit ago that he's not

121going to have these night meetings. >> We do expect you in April. So, you're submitting your resation. We'll we'll see you in April. >> Yes, sir. So, I Well, thank you. So, I need a motion to accept Rick Tulsa's resignation. >> I move to reluctantly accept Rick's resignation. >> Reluctantly. >> Moved by Mr. Green. Do I have a second? >> Reluctantly seconded by Mr. Wit. >> Any discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. >> All right, the motion passes. >> Miss Win, let the minutes reflect that Mr. Talls abstained. >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Um, with that in mind, the board would ask Dr. Allen to go forward and put public notice out that we want applications to fill his seat. Similar to

122the way we did it last time, >> we will uh if it's the board's pleasure, we'll run a sub a process very very similar to what we did when Mr. Russ um became a judge. Judges, >> anybody else? >> Okay. It's the only way out. Yeah, you have to be a judge once you're here. >> You got to go. >> We'll do some work to make it clear that if you previously applied, >> you can obviously reanswer questions and refile resumes if you want. But if you would choose to just reuse the stuff you've already submitted, uh send an email expressing interest to myself or communications department. And so we'll do that in a way that's sensitive to the fact that we just went through this process with some folks, but we'll get that up

123and running and we'll we'll run a playbook very very similar to what we did on the last one. It garnered us, Mr. Barry. So, hey, It worked. So, >> it was also, shall we add, we just canceled an election because no one >> that's exactly right. So, yeah. So, we'll do that. Yes, ma'am. M. >> Thank you. Do we have any other personnel issues and public meetings? >> Okay. Then, last thing on our list is superintendent communication. >> The hour is late. >> I shall simply say this. Uh, very it is it is not super common that people literally earn their keep. Um, Jesse, how much money did you save us, man, by telling us to move on that technology equipment purchase? I know the number. I just want you to brag on yourself instead

124of me doing it. >> It wasn't me, but we got a lot of good information from our vendors that said you should do it as early as you can, like every week. We had our rep reach out. She said, "We requ,000 Can you restate that? >> I'm going to. Okay. >> So, basically, if you'll recall, we expedited the purchase of the data center equipment. If we did that exact same thing today, $650,000 more than what we spent. Yeah. And the reason I'm doing the reason I'm kind of wanting this one is um you talked about people in the background and Jesse's people kind of know who Jesse is because he's the fix it everything guy, not just computers. It's amazing when you can fix. Regardless, um $650,000 worth of savings is is a big deal

125when you're trying to take make bond dollars stretched. >> The second reason I want to highlight that is we can't do those things if the board don't let us do them. >> If when we go to the board and say, "Look, we know this is fast, but it's going to save us a bunch of money. Trust our judgment and please let us go do this." Y'all y'all y'all have to agree to that and you have to trust our judgment. You have to believe that we that we're trying to do what's best. And these yes votes, they happen so fast, you know, but they they authorize us to go get the work done. And so it's appreciation to the board for the trust you put in us. We take it seriously and we know it's a

126an honor to have your trust. And then to have people like Jesse walking around every day just saving us money every chance he gets. It's a big deal. And he'll never take credit for it. He's so stubborn. But I know what's happening. Ken saving us money buying these buses here and there. Everybody works hard for all the criticism of the way we manage money. the amount of time people spend working really hard to be intelligent with the resources with which you've been entrusted. I just want to kind of highlight that before we get out of here. >> Okay. If if we weren't fiscally conservative and have that wisdom, we wouldn't have the fund balance to go do what you asked us to do, too. So >> that's true. Yes, sir. >> There are a lot

127of people in the background that I was thinking of when I made those remarks tonight about people behind the scenes making sure our kids can excel. >> Yep. Good. >> Thank you, Dr. Allen. And I want to thank the staff and the board for sticking with us tonight for such a late meeting and the bittersweetness of accepting Rick's resignation >> is felt. So at 10:13 we will join the meeting >> seems so much paid. That's right. They're probably going to